Guest Lecture: Computer-Assisted Language Learning

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Guest Lecture Computer-Assisted Language
Learning

• Matthew Kam
• Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer
  Sciences, and
• Berkeley Institute of Design
• University of California at Berkeley, USA

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Relevance of ESL to Third World

• English is a global language 1.2 to 1.5 billion
  people in gt170 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,
  gt10,000 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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Krashens Influential Theory of L2 Acquisition

• Acquisition-learning hypothesis
• Natural order hypothesis
• Monitor hypothesis
• Comprehensible input hypothesis
• Affective filter hypothesis

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Panchatantra

• Indian equivalent of Aesops 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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Ladybirds 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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Krashens Influential Theory of L2 Acquisition

• Acquisition-learning hypothesis
• Natural order hypothesis
• Monitor hypothesis
• Comprehensible input hypothesis
• Affective filter hypothesis

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Discussion

• Q What are some feasible sources of
  comprehensible input?
• More experienced learners, i.e. Krashens idea of
  the handcrafted book

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Special English

• Demo
• Reactions?
• URL http//www.voanews.com/specialenglish/

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Special English

• Used 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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Discussion

• Q Limitations with Voice of America broadcasts?

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Paraphrasing Through Repetitions

• Recall 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 Dictionary

• Explanation using pictures, native language
  and/or target language
• Audio pronunciation
• Paper printout feature
• Affordances of paper

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Cameraphone Dictionary

• Sp06 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 Dictionary

• Seed with high-frequency words
• Voice of Americas Special English
• TV and movie scripts
• Project Gutenberg
• Populate with definitions, etc. from Wiktionary

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Vocabulary Teaching and Testing

• Talk Now! Spanish from Topics Entertainment
• Demo
• Reactions?

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Teaching for Transfer
RABBIT


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Initiation-Reply Sequences

• Tell Me More from Auralog
• Demo
• Any reactions?

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Discussion

• Q What are the limitations with this approach of
  language teaching?

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Pimsleur Audio CDs

• Demo (0000 to 0720)
• Any reactions?

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Paul Pimsleur

• Four principles
• Organic learning
• Core vocabulary
• Anticipation
• Graduated interval recall
• Implemented in the old days (1960s) using
  cassette tape technology

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Pimsleur Generator
Text files
MP3 file
Pimsleur Generator
Female Hello. Male Hello Maam Female Are you
from India. Male Yes Im from India. Male Do
you understand Hindi? Female No, I dont
understand. Oh you understand English. Male Yes
I understand English. Female You understand very
well.
Audio files
Metadata
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Reading Acquisition
Oral Language
Written Language
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Phonics Instruction

• Clifford The Big Red Dog from Scholastic
• Demo

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Phonics Instruction

• Reader Rabbit

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More Phonics Instruction

• Reader Rabbit

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BookBox

• Commercial spin-off from Same Language Subtitling
• Demo ( 7 minutes)
• Q What are its strengths and limitations?

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Simulated World

• Who is Oscar Lake? from Language Publications
  Interactive
• Demo
• Others in this category include DARPAs Tactical
  Language Training System
• Prohibitively expensive to develop

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Summary

• People 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?