MWALLT
 
   Midwest Association for Language Learning & Technology  
      Illinois - Indiana - Iowa - Kansas - Michigan - Minnesota - Missouri      
            Nebraska - North Dakota - Ohio - South Dakota - Wisconsin 

 
Illinois - Indiana - Iowa - Kansas - Michigan - Minnesota - Missouri
    Nebraska - North Dakota - Ohio - South Dakota - Wisconsin
MidWest Association for Language Learning Technology
 
 
 


MWALLT Conference 2016

University of Michigan, Saturday October 8, 2016



Session Descriptions and Presenter Bios

                   

Using SeeSaw to Simplify and Organize Performance Tasks

Video Viewing Room

Tired of students’ work submissions clogging up your email, but not loving Google Classroom? Looking for a solution to interpersonal speaking assessment woes? Meet SeeSaw, a transformative Web 2.0 tool for the K-12 WL classroom. It’s free, simple, and available on all platforms. SeeSaw is an empowering and efficient student-driven portfolio. Students submit links, videos, photos, and more to the class feed, which motivates with an authentic peer audience and provides an optional parent component.    


Jen Shaw is a middle school Spanish teacher with more than a decade's worth of experience. She is particularly interested in proficiency-based teaching methods, educational technology, and how assessment drives instruction. She lives in Dexter with her husband, Tad, and daughter, Brynlyn.               

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Create Engaging and Interactive Videos with H5P

Mac Classroom

In this hands-on session, participants will become acquainted with the open-source application H5P (https://h5p.org/). H5P is a way to create interactive html5 activities that can be embedded natively in WordPress, Drupal, or Moodle, or externally in other websites or course management systems. Participants will learn about the more than 25 activity types that are available (some examples include drag and drop, hotspot, fill in the blanks, mark words, timelines), but the bulk of the workshop will focus on interactive video, which incorporates many of the other activity types and is likely to be one of the most useful to foreign language teachers. Participants will see examples of interactive video exercises, discuss best practices in using interactive activities in authentic videos in online, blended, and face-to-face classes, including best ways to give guidance and feedback, keeping students accountable, personalization, and as a way to incorporate culture as well as language. Participants will also have the chance to try out the technology and create interactive videos of their own. They will learn how to embed them in WordPress or other websites so that their students can use them as self-check exercises or homework. In the session we will also discuss ways that students could create interactive videos or other H5P content types to share with fellow classmates.


Shannon Spasova is Assistant Professor of Russian in the Department of Linguistics and Languages and Technology Specialist in the Center for Language Teaching Advancement. Her interests include technology in language teaching, blended learning, and instructional design.

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Strategies to Enhance Students’ Learning and Engagement in the Classroom

PC Classroom

Do you want to create a stimulating and engaging environment for your students learning Arabic? The presenter will address techniques, projects, and student-centered activities that boost participation and engagement in classroom. The presentation will offer some ideas on how to expose the students to the vocabulary they learned in various, authentic settings. The presentation will also demonstrate how to implement YellowDig and Plickers applications in your course to engage students in a more authentic language and cultural learning experiences. Moreover, it will share some insights on how to empower the students to become self-learners. Finally, the presentation will address how to use multimedia in providing feedback that is personal and tailored to each student’s needs.


Jamil Al-Thawahrih is an Arabic instructor for non-native speakers

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Leadership Challenges of and Opportunities for Today's Language Centers

Video Viewing Room

Language Centers may vary in terms of their mission, size, scope and resources but they all face a common set of existential challenges in today’s academic environment. In this day of cloud computing, smart phone apps and wireless technologies, what role does a physical space play? Should language labs evolve into all-purpose university computer labs? How do language centers retain their uniqueness while at the same time increase their relevance in the larger institutional context? Given the incorporation of multimedia elements into course textbooks, should language centers continue in their efforts to motivate and train faculty to develop their own instructional technology interventions? In light of shrinking budgets, reduced staff and ubiquitous technologies, how do language centers remain relevant while also renewing and advancing their mission? The panelists represent different institutional sizes and control, public and private; the language centers they serve vary in mission, resources and scope. In this panel presentation we will discuss the unique challenges and threats that we each face in our individual context, as well as shared approaches for addressing the most pressing issues that apply across institutional settings. We hope to highlight strategies we have found successful in dealing with various challenges, and will invite session participants to contribute to the conversation with the goal of establishing common ground that helps us all move forward. This session will be of interest to language center directors, faculty, and staff.


Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan is director of the Foreign Language Technology Center at Wayne State University (WSU). Her interests include technology integration in instruction, and online learning. She currently serves as president of the International Association for Language Learning Technology (IALLT).


Carol Goss directs the Language Resource Center at Valparaiso University. She is interested in how technology enhances instruction and how physical setting enriches learning. She is active in her state's teachers association, IFLTA, and regularly presents at its annual conference.


Dan Soneson directs the CLA Language Center at the University of Minnesota. His interests include Languages Across the Curriculum, language program assessment, and internet and mobile technology in language teaching and learning. He is Managing Editor of the IALLT Journal.

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Subtitling and Voiceovers with iMovie

Mac Classroom

iMovie offers considerable flexibility for language learners of all levels. Applications include transcription, translation, and replacement of original audio dialogue, often in collaboration. Students find iMovie to be easy to use and enjoy the process of editing video and sharing the results with their classmates. Approximately 25 minutes of demonstration and the remaining time is hands-on.


Bob Peters is the Language Technology Specialist at Oberlin College's Cooper International Learning Center. Previously he designed hardware for advanced flight simulators and served in the armed forces as a Korean Linguist.

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Transitioning from Traditional Compositions to Digital Narrations

PC Classroom

Reviewing the results of several current studies discussing the utilization of technology in the foreign language classroom Paesani, Allen and Dupuy (2015) conclude that the “findings point not only to a possible digital disconnect between the ways students use the internet in and out of the FL classroom but also to a continued reliance on transmission and teacher centered approaches to FL instruction and a belief that lower-level learners’ limited language abilities preclude the use of digital media in meaningful ways” (233). This project responds to this disconnect and seeks to dispel the belief that novice students are unable to benefit from the incorporation of digital media assignments into the foreign language curriculum. In this presentation I will discuss the transition from a traditional paper-based composition assignment to a multimedia, multimodal, digital assignment using the program Thinglink. The original assignment required novice French students to write interview questions and responses for two Francophone celebrities and to add photos with captions, summarizing the information contained in the responses. The program Thinglink allowed students to transform such simple text and photos from still digital images into interactive, multimedia, digital narratives by adding content such as videos, music, and interactive hypertexts. The samples of students’ work to be presented will also contain reflective paragraphs describing what the material included in their project meant to them personally and what they learned from the assignment. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of the pedagogical and practical pros and cons of transitioning to digital narratives.


Adrion Dula is a Ph.D. Candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant in French at Wayne State University and is currently working on her dissertation. Her minor is in second language acquisition with an emphasis in technology in the foreign language classroom.

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The Role of the E-moderator in the Virtual Learning Environment

Video Viewing Room

The development of the new digital world in the 21st Century has significantly altered the mode through which we communicate, learn, and perform research. The mode of interactions and social relationships that take place through new digital technologies are also shaping the meaning of instruction. Current online activities support face-to-face, distance education, and hybrid courses. Yet despite the more frequent use of technology in the classroom for Arabic as a Foreign Language (FL), there is still little research conducted in the Arabic instructor’s role, understanding, and use of technology as e-moderators in the virtual learning environment. This paper will examine Arabic instructors’ perceptions of their role as e-moderators in the United States. It will also consider the technological tools they implement in their online curriculum and their beliefs about the importance of the integration of technology to enhance Arabic learners’ FL skills in the virtual learning environment at university level. The data presented is derived from a mixed-method approach collected from a sample of Higher Education Arabic instructors using two types of instruments. First was the online non-experimental survey. Second were in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with a small sample of instructors to further obtain an in-depth understanding of Arabic teachers’ attitudes toward the use of technology. Hence, the significance of this paper is to provide contribution and support to the progress of the teaching and learning of Arabic as a FL in the online learning environment in the United States in the 21st Century.


Samir El Omari is an instructor of Arabic and French and curriculum developer in foreign languages education. Masters in Instructional System Development, PhD. in Language Literacy and culture whose research focuses on computer-assisted language learning (CALL)

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Meaningful Integration of Technology in the Classroom with ThingLink and Blackboard

PC Classroom

The challenge for educators across disciplines is to find ways to integrate technology in their classes to facilitate an interactive and meaningful construction of knowledge. Technology allows instructors to differentiate learning content, process and products, and students to collaborate, inquire, and share. In this session we will present two technology tools used in our Italian language classes, the interactive media platform “ThingLink”, used for student collaborative productions and personal e-portfolios, and the course management system, Blackboard, deployed to administer online testing. First, we will demonstrate how the interactive media platform ThingLink, provides creative and practical applications that motivate students, enrich content, and enhance students’ interpretive and communicative abilities. In particular, we will examine the pedagogical uses of this platform in classes that range from introductory Italian language classes to culture and professional courses. Then, we will also share some insights on the use of Blackboard for online testing in basic Italian language courses at our institution and how it allows a more efficient way to assess the four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Started as an experiment it became a valuable tool not only for evaluating students’ performance, but also for monitoring and harvesting important data about instructional effectiveness. We will conclude our session with reflections on how the integration of these technology tools has enhanced basic Italian language instruction and expanded student learning opportunities.


Silvia Giorgini-Althoen is the Coordinator of Italian Courses at Wayne State University. Graduated from the University of Pisa, she develops syllabi for all Italian courses, teaches and organizes cultural events. She regularly presents at major conferences.


Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan is director of the Foreign Language Technology Center at Wayne State University (WSU). Her research interests include technology integration in instruction, and online learning. She teaches Instructional Technology courses, face-to-face and online, at WSU and Purdue University.

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Increasing Student Comfort with Idiomatic Expressions Through Games: Cards Against Formality in the Classroom

Mac Classroom

During this thinktank session presenters will explain the pedagogy, design, and implementation of using a modified version of the popular card game "Cards Against Humanity" in English as a second language classrooms. This session is divided into four sections. During the first section attendees will play a shortened version of the game. The second section will consist of sharing reactions and reflections about the game. During the third section attendees will watch short example vignettes from actual class sessions, and in the final section attendees will discuss their experiences, how they correlate (or don’t) with the shown student experiences, and brainstorm similar activities for their own classrooms.


Brenda Imber is a U-M Lecturer IV in English Language Institute

Phill Cameron is an Instructional Designer at the U-M LRC

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Scaling up self assessment while managing technology overload: The one-touch BOSSA Protocol

PC Classroom

An emerging body of research in language assessment (Dolosic et al, 2016; Ziegler, 2014) shows that self assessment is a tool that can increase learners’ active engagement and agency. At the University of Minnesota delivery of the Basic Outcomes Student Self-Assessment protocol has reached over 6,000 students in ten languages at seven instructional levels in the past two years. Through self assessment, students take charge of their learning as awareness of the language-learning process grows. The 50-minute protocol takes place in a computer classroom and utilizes multiple technologies. While instructors and students attest to the protocol’s benefit, managing the disparate technologies that link the components has become problematic, especially as we expand the protocol to additional language programs. As the protocol has developed and expanded to more language programs, instructors who conduct the session have had to focus both on the pedagogical aspects of the process as well as on managing the technology, which can result in cognitive overload. To meet this challenge, we built an application that regulates the process and timing of articulated components. The application provides a seamless presentation of tasks, automatic recording of student speech, and archival of students’ production. In this presentation, we describe the process for developing the application and the iterative process of revisions, and recount lessons learned from usability tests. Furthermore, we report on how instructors use and perceive the delivery of the protocol in the new system based on pilot implementation in nine courses in multiple languages.


Dan Soneson directs the CLA Language Center at the University of Minnesota. His interests include Languages Across the Curriculum, language program assessment, and internet and mobile technology in language teaching and learning. He is Managing Editor of the IALLT Journal.


Adolfo Carrillo Cabello is a professional development specialist at the CLA Language Center at the UMN. His interests include intercultural communicative competence, materials development, and online learning.


Gabriela Sweet works in test development at the UMN CLA Language Center, and is part of the team that created the BOSSA protocol. Her work in second language acquisition explores connections between self-regulatory learning and student performance.

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Culture in Russian Language Review on Line

Video Viewing Room

The course Russian Language Review aims to maintain, systematize, and improve language skills obtained in the first year of Russia, as well as broaden students’ knowledge of Russian culture.

The specificity of a summer on line course is that students are very pragmatic and many tend to view culture as an addendum. It was gratifying to learn from the students’ review that they were looking forward to cultural material.

Besides the fact that quizzes are based on culturally appropriate material, most quizzes have control questions, which not only check knowledge of cultural realia, but also ensure awareness and eliminate tediousness associated with grammar.

The course is comprised of seven units structured around grammar topics. Each topic is divided into four-five parts, each ending with a cultural segment interrelated with the grammar, presented through authentic sourced: jokes, songs, idioms, ads, videos. In addition, at the end of each unit there is a special section called Culture, accentuating its role alongside with Grammar in this course. The material ranges from fairy tales to short excerpts from classics, which are reinforced by video clips which comprise films and cartoons. Combined with an array of assignments, this segment is aimed at developing reading skills as well as raising awareness of text appreciation.

When students note how Anna Karenina was dressed at the fatal ball, asked to note the differences between the clip and the text, they view prepositional case used in the construction “dressed in” not as an esoteric entity, but part as enjoyable, intellectual, and fun experience.


Zarema Kumakhova was born in Moscow. Education, PhD: Moscow State Linguistic University. Worked at Alma mater for 10 years. Second PhD from MSU. Teaching at MSU elementary to advanced Russian and IAH courses. Interests language pedagogy, translation theory, cultural studies and language technology.

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Media, Performance and Task-Based English Language Learning

Mac Classroom

A course in the performing arts (theatre history, acting theory) as part of a university ESL program, co-taught by professors of theatre and English language, provided opportunities for students to use language and technology in ways their other courses did not. Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is a well documented way to bring authentic language learning opportunities into the classroom (Brown, 2014; Nunan, 2014) and content classes in a language program provide the means to implement TBLT. Students were required to perform scenes and then critique their own and one another's work while watching the filmed scenes. They were also interviewed and audio-taped by students from the theatre program, and the interviews were published on the International Dialects of English Archive online. For a final project, the students were required to create their own short film and present it to all of the other students and instructors in the program. The students wrote the scripts, performed and filmed the scenes and participated in the editing process. Through performing, viewing and working through these projects, students were able to access otherwise unexplored areas of language and culture, and were required to communicate with one another for practical and meaningful purposes. Observations by the instructors and feedback from students confirmed that participation in performing arts class was both meaningful and productive.


Brown, H. D. (2014). Principles of language learning and teaching: a course in second language acquisition. Pearson Education.

Nunan, D. (2014). Task-based teaching and learning. Teaching English as a second or foreign language, 455-470.


Deric McNish is an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre at Michigan State University. He earned his PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his MFA at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Play House.


Carmela Romano Gillette is a Lecturer III in the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan. She holds a PhD in literacy education from Oakland University and a master's degree in applied linguistics from Arizona State University.

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French Comics: How to Engage Students and Develop Language Skills Using Comics

Mac Classroom

In this day and age when students are constantly uploading information about themselves on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, how can we, language teachers, keep them motivated and interested in the classroom? How can we encourage them to take risks in the foreign language in front of others instead of behind a screen? Using comics in my French fourth semester class has enabled me to break barriers, make students feel important as individuals in the classroom and create a need for communicating. Consequently, language learning becomes a necessity, driven by the desire to express opinions, personal reactions and points of view in an engaging environment.


Sabine Gabaron has been teaching French at the University of Michigan since 1996. After teaching at all levels, she decided to create topics courses. She uses comics, songs and now politics to teach the 4th semester of the language requirement.

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Digital Authentic Resources and Experiential Learning

PC Classroom

The experiential learning process involves reflecting on and revisiting experiences in order to make meaning. Many instructors already associate experiential learning with culture learning, field trips, service learning, and other real-world or simulation activities. However, even with fully online digital resources, the experiential learning cycle can be employed to increase learners’ critical reflection, meaning-making, and retention. The presenter will present a model for employing experiential learning principles with digital authentic resources.


Stacey M Johnson is the Copy Editor for IALLT. Her research explores classroom practices, hybrid/blended instruction, adult language learning and development. Her books "Hybrid Language Teaching in Practice: Perceptions, Reactions, and Results", co-authored with Berta Carrasco, and "Adult Learning in the Language Classroom", came in 2015.

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Touchdown: Cultural and Linguistic Survival Skills Abroad

Video Viewing Room

LSA Global Opportunities hosted two sessions in April 2016 to prepare students to intern abroad in India and China. The goal of the short sessions was to provide students with a brief overview of survival linguistic and cultural skills for their destination country. Professors in each language department led classroom sessions to help students practice basic phrases and gain more knowledge of the culture.The LSA Global Opportunities team would like to share their experiences and learning outcomes from these sessions and hope to provide a useful example for other institutions.


Kelly Day Program Assistant, LSA Internship Program LSA Opportunity Hub. Kelly manages communications and drives student outreach efforts in the LSA Opportunity Hub. She has worked with Global Opportunities to advise students interested in internships abroad and to prepare them for their experience. Her focus is particularly related to the nonprofit sector, both in advising students interested in working with nonprofits and engaging with nonprofit employers and alumni.


Julie Evershed is Director of the U-M Language Resource Center.

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Chinese Language Teachers’ Pedagogical Beliefs and Technology Integration

PC Classroom

Previous scholarship has attempted to identify reasons for low technology integration among educators by applying technology adoption models (e.g. Teo, 2014). Yet those models (such as technology acceptance model, TAM) did not take pedagogical beliefs (PB) into consideration and few studies has verified TAM among language teachers. PB was argued to be the more important factor related to teachers’ attitude toward technology (e.g. Ertmer, 2005; 2010), and the more constructive their pedagogical beliefs, the more constructive use of technology (Becker, 1994). This study aimed to develop a new model based on TAM by adding PB as a factor and tested such model on language teachers. Survey data was collected among 202 university language teachers in China and was analyzed using SEM analysis. The adapted model showed good model fit and significant relationship between constructive pedagogical beliefs and constructive technology use was verified. Other than that, teachers’ perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, subjective norm were also found to be a significant factor of language teachers’ attitude toward technology, which significantly affect their constructive technology use as well.


Haixia Liu received her MA degree from Sun Yat-sen University in China in 2005. She has worked in the School of Foreign Language, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai since her graduation. She is currently a PhD student in the Department of Counseling, Education Psychology and Special Education at the College of Education, Michigan State University. Her research interests include second language acquisition, teacher adoption of technology, computer-assisted language learning, language teachers' educational technology professional development, and comparative education.


Chin-Hsi Lin Assistant Professor of Technology and Second Language Education, Michigan State University. His primary research interest is emerging technologies in language education, especially new forms of social media. He investigates the process and outcome of social learning and authentic communications on a social network site developed for language learning. His secondary research interest is psychology of reading, particularly the reading development of Chinese language learners. He examines how first language and orthographic co-occurrence in second language affects the reading development of Chinese learners.

 

MWALLT is a regional affiliate of IALLT (International Association for Language Learning Technology), established in 1965, a professional organization dedicated to promoting effective uses of media centers for language teaching, learning, and research.

 
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