Download ppt - Guest Lecture: Computer-Assisted Language Learning

This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0326582.

Guest Lecture: Computer-Assisted Language Learning

Matthew KamDepartment of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, and

Berkeley Institute of DesignUniversity of California at Berkeley, USA

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Relevance of ESL to Third WorldEnglish is a global language: 1.2 to 1.5 billion people in >170 countries (Crystal 1997)

ESL is sought after by fair proportion of low-income populations in Third World regions (e.g. Clegg, Ogange & Rodseth 2003, Faust & Nagar 2001, Kapadia 2005)

Education: medium of instruction in further education

Economic opportunities: rural BPO, government, MNCs

Computer literacy: ~80% of Internet content

Social status: membership in upper classes

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Case for Out-of-School Learning

Schools in developing countries have limited impact

Shortage of qualified ESL teachers, communicated with us through interpreters

In India, non-attendees comprise 43% to 61% of school-going age children (Azim Premji Foundation 2004, NFHS II and Tilak 2000).

15% to 43% cite lack of interest in studies

13% to 31% cite need to work in fields or home

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Case for IT and Educational Games

Student motivation and learning (Jenkins 2005)

Videogames can incorporate good learning principles (Gee 2003)

Longitudinal randomized experiment: 2 years, >10,000 urban slums students in India (Banerjee et al. 2005)

Collaboration b/w MIT and the NGO Pratham

Played math computer games twice per week

Significant gains in math test scores

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Krashen’s Influential Theory of L2 Acquisition

Acquisition-learning hypothesis

Natural order hypothesis

Monitor hypothesis

Comprehensible input hypothesis

Affective filter hypothesis

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PanchatantraIndian equivalent of Aesop’s Fables

Can be digitized into video clips

Demo (vocabulary teaching phase)

Demo (digital story phase)

Q: is this acquisition or learning?

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Ladybird’s Key Word Reading Scheme

Peter and Jane series of books

Words are introduced and then repeated

12 words make up ¼ of all English words that we read and write

100 words make up ½ of all English words that we use in a normal day

300 words make up ¾ of our verbal output

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Krashen’s Influential Theory of L2 Acquisition

Acquisition-learning hypothesis

Natural order hypothesis

Monitor hypothesis

Comprehensible input hypothesis

Affective filter hypothesis

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DiscussionQ: What are some feasible sources of comprehensible input?

More experienced learners, i.e. Krashen’s idea of the handcrafted book

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Special EnglishDemo

Reactions?

URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/

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Special EnglishUsed in Voice of America radio broadcasts

Radio transmissions over low-frequency channels, or downloadable MP3 file accompanied by text transcript

2/3 the speed of normal speech

Core vocabulary of 1,500 words

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DiscussionQ: Limitations with Voice of America broadcasts?

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Paraphrasing Through RepetitionsRecall the Panchatantra digital stories?

SMIL - Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language

Benefits of vector-based graphics over static video clip for mobile devices

Storage efficiency

Randomization promotes replay value

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Electronic DictionaryExplanation using pictures, native language and/or target language

Audio pronunciation

Paper printout feature

Affordances of paper

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Cameraphone DictionarySp’06 CS160 class project by Anand Raghavan et al.

Words are explained using photos from local contexts that student can relate to

Consistent with personalized dictionary approach by Project Pygmalion and others

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Cameraphone DictionarySeed with high-frequency words

Voice of America’s Special English

TV and movie scripts

Project Gutenberg

Populate with definitions, etc. from Wiktionary

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Vocabulary Teaching and TestingTalk Now! Spanish from Topics Entertainment

Demo

Reactions?

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Teaching for Transfer

RABBIT

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Initiation-Reply SequencesTell Me More from Auralog

Demo

Any reactions?

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DiscussionQ: What are the limitations with this approach of language teaching?

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Pimsleur Audio CDsDemo (00:00 to 07:20)

Any reactions?

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Paul PimsleurFour principles:

Organic learning

Core vocabulary

Anticipation

Graduated interval recall

Implemented in the old days (1960’s) using cassette tape technology

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Pimsleur Generator

MP3file

Pimsleur GeneratorFemale: Hello.

Male: Hello Ma’amFemale: Are you from India.Male: Yes I’m from India.Male: Do you understand Hindi?Female: No, I don’t understand.

Oh you understand English.Male: Yes I understand English.Female: You understand very well.

Textfiles

Audiofiles

Metadata

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Reading Acquisition

Oral Language Written Language

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Phonics InstructionClifford: The Big Red Dog from Scholastic

Demo

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Phonics InstructionReader Rabbit

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More Phonics InstructionReader Rabbit

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BookBoxCommercial spin-off from Same Language Subtitling

Demo (~ 7 minutes)

Q: What are its strengths and limitations?

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Simulated WorldWho is Oscar Lake? from Language Publications Interactive

Demo

Others in this category include DARPA’s Tactical Language Training System

Prohibitively expensive to develop

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SummaryPeople learn a language through acquiring comprehensible input

Contextual inferencing

Extralinguistic context

Paraphrasing and repetitions

Challenge: how can we create comprehensible input without incurring prohibitive content development costs?