Tag: CALL

Learning processes in interactive CALL systems: Linking automatic feedback, system logs, and learning outcomes

Hui, B., Rudzewitz, B., & Meurers, D. (2023). Learning processes in interactive CALL systems: Linking automatic feedback, system logs, and learning outcomes. Language Learning &Technology, 27(1), 1–23.

The overall purpose of this research project was to demonstrate how the system logs that are available through online learning platforms can be used to better understand language learning processes and the association of those processes with learning conditions and outcomes. While instructors in settlement language classes in Ontario may not have access to a tutoring system like the one described in this research report, system logs are widely available to users with admin access and can provide information about users’ learning processes.

The authors contend that system logs are currently underused in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research and that such research should include both learning products and learning processes to better understand what they describe as “… the complex relationship between learning conditions, processes, and outcomes.”

The authors make a distinction between learning products which focus on the results of a task, and the learning process which focuses on what happens during learning and teaching and how the learner achieves their goals over time.

The research project examined and analysed the detailed system logs of student interaction, including number of attempts by a student for each activity, the answers submitted and the systems feedback and other responses based on the following research questions:

  RQ1: To what extent can learning process variables, as extracted from system logs, directly account for learning outcomes?

  RQ2: Can we meaningfully distinguish clusters of learners based on the learning process variables?

  RQ3: To what extent does specific feedback relate to the learning process clusters?

The authors recommend further that SLA research focused on the analysis of system logs be used to identify and understand what happens in the learning process to support more productive interventions and improved system design.

Retrievable from: https://www.lltjournal.org/item/10125-73527/

Teachers’ technology-related self-images and roles: Exploring CALL teachers’ professional identity

Shafiee, Z., Marandi, S. S., & Mirzaeian, V. R. Teachers’ technology-related self images and roles: Exploring CALL teachers’ professional identity. Language Learning & Technology, 26(1), 1–20.

This article describes a small, preliminary study examining the professional identity of language instructors who actively integrate technology with language instruction. and are described as CALL teachers. The goal of the study is to extend understanding of what the authors describe as CALLTPI, (CALL teachers’ professional identity).

The study is based on an extensive review of literature exploring teacher identity, defined as “teachers’ self images and perceptions that “determine the way teachers teach, the way they develop as teachers, and their attitudes towards educational changes”(p.3)and the use of  a semi-structured interview methodology in which 24 CALL teacher educators, academics who taught CALL courses and used technology to teach language-related subjects, and classroom language instructors who used digital technology in virtual, blended or technology enhanced learning environments. The interview questions were designed to explore CALL teachers’ “perceived teaching roles, self-image, confidence, sense of self-efficacy, skills, and knowledge that contribute to enacting their teaching roles, solving pedagogical and technical problems, dealing with ethical challenges, and making decisions in technology-enhanced teaching environments.”

Based on these interviews the authors identify three major themes related to teacher identity. These are individual identity, classroom-based identity, and agentive identity. Individual identity is understood as their roles as professionals who use technology, classroom-based identity as their roles as teachers who integrate technology in their classrooms and agentive identity as playing an active role in the integration and use of technology, in supporting and influencing students in the effective use of technology for learning and serving as role models for students and colleagues.

The authors note the need for further research on teacher professional identity related to computer-assisted language learning (CALL), and to help inform the work of curriculum designers and material developers in the area language instruction.

Retrievable from: https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/95924c83-7fea-4d5b-bf28-a37c7be3fbda/content