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Dorothy Chun
University of California at Santa Barbara |
What makes students click: Language and culture learning with computers and the Internet |
Abstract
In the field of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), research has been conducted in many of the same sub-areas being studied in applied linguistics. This talk will not cover all of CALL but will be restricted to three sub-fields of my own work: using technology for describing and teaching prosody, developing and evaluating multimedia aids for improving L2 reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition, and intercultural learning in computer-mediated electronic networks.
What ties all three areas together is a focus on discourse-level aspects of SLA. In the first part of the talk, I will discuss Brazil's theory of discourse intonation and its application to the teaching of L2 prosody using technology. In the second part, I will demonstrate that many CALL programs, including my own, have focused on improving vocabulary learning through various types of glossing and through tracking user behavior (what students “click” on). However, since understanding words is only one of the many sub-processes in reading, I will suggest directions for future work with computer-based tools that go beyond word-level glossing and incorporate aids at the sentence- and discourse-levels. Finally, I will present studies of tele-collaborative exchanges between L2 learners and native speakers of another culture. In these on-line exchanges, instructors must help learners pay attention to both sentence- and discourse-level pragmatics in order for learners to develop intercultural competence. |
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Biography
Dorothy M. Chun received a Ph.D. in Germanic Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently Professor of German and Applied Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara and since 2000 has been the editor of the online journal Language Learning and Technology. Her areas of research include several aspects of Second Language Acquisition: L2 phonology and intonation, L2 reading and vocabulary acquisition, cognitive process in L2 learning with multimedia, and technologies for the acquisition of language and culture. Her publications include Discourse Intonation in L2: From Theory and Research to Practice, 2002, John Benjamins, and articles in The Modern Language Journal, Foreign Language Annals, System, CALL, Journal of Educational Psychology, Computers in Human Behavior, and Language Learning and Technology. She has authored two CD-ROMs for the teaching of reading in German (CyberBuch) and Spanish (Ciberteca) and two web-based projects, netLearn German and the current ICE project (InterCultural Exchange) between UCSB and the Universities of Kassel and Bayreuth in Germany. She is a Co-PI on a recent Andrew Mellon Foundation grant to study the effects of instructional technology in the college classroom.
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