Catering for linguistic domain specialisations through computer-assisted language learning

XXIIIe Congrès RANACLES :
Centres de langues et spécialité(s)
Toulouse,27novembre2015
Catering for linguistic domain specializations
through computer-assisted language learning
Ana Gimeno Sanz (agimeno@upvnet.upv.es)
Department of Applied Linguistics
Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain

• 3 different ways of enhancing language learning in an LSP
(Languages for Specific Purposes) context
• InGenio First Certificate in English Online Course &
Tester
• Digital Storytelling project
• Clilstore
2

ingenio fce online course & tester
• Context
• Lack of online materials to support learners of English for
Specific Purposes (ESP)
• National requirement in Spain that students must achieve
a higher intermediate level in a foreign language in order
to graduate from university
• InGenio authoring tool and content manager
• Aiming to prepare students to take the Cambridge First
Certificate in English Examination (FCE)
• B2 (higher intermediate) level of proficiency CEFRL
3

ingenio
• InGenio system  4 modules:
1. an online authoring tool to publish multimedia
language learning courseware
2. a courseware delivery platform
3. a translation tool to adapt the courseware created with
InGenio to any number of source languages
4. an online tutoring platform allowing tutors to supervise
and monitor student performance
4

module 1
• 8 “course” units  activities comprising the course units typically
include theory and practice geared toward practicing the language
• 8 “tester” units  to help learners assess whether their
performance complies with the level of English that will be required
of them when taking the FCE exam (The tester simulates the
exercises contained in the FCE exam so that students may self-assess
their performance)
• organised and structured in accordance with the papers included in
the official language examination, i.e. Reading, Writing, Use of
Language, Listening and Speaking
• total of 50 activities with a varying number of items each
• overall study time allocated to the module is approximately 45 hours
• entire course  approximately 90 practice hours
• upon completion and achieving a minimum average of 5 marks out
of 10, students taking the subject are awarded 4.5 ECTS
5

Learner autonomy
• Enhancing features:
• Specialised content
• Features to help learners become autonomous learners
• Personalised corrective feedback
• (Race, 2005) “when students learn from open learning
materials, they are essentially learning at their own pace
and in their own ways from materials specially prepared to
activate their want to learn, giving them the chance to learn
by doing, and providing them with feedback on their
efforts.”
7

Learner autonomy
• Self-explanatory reference materials
• Grammar notes
• Glossary
• Hints to aid exercise completion
• Feedback
• Automatically generated random immediate feedback
• Exercise-specific feedback
• Performance/progress reports
• Help files
• Audio enhancement of written text
• Self-assessment exercises with limitation in number of attempts
and time control 8

a) self-explanatory reference
materials: grammar notes
9

a) self-explanatory reference
materials: glossaries
10

b) Hints to aid exercise completion
Segment of the InGenio gap-filling exercise template:
•A studio site is usually #located||placed# in an accessible area.
•This link #relays||delivers# information signals to a transmitter site.
•The information signals are #prepared||arranged# for broadcast.
•The transducers are #reproducing||recreating# the sound and picture
information.
•Nowadays more than one picture can be #displayed||shown# on the
screen.
Script taken from gap-filling exercise:
11

Sample gap-filling exercise with
Hint in blank space
12

Sample Hint and Help text in a gap-
filling exercise
13• Help text: “The verb you are looking for means “to say no to
something”
• Hint: “To refuse”  learner has to conjugate the verb appropriately.

d) Performance/progress reports
16

Additional features
e) Help files  provide a clear overview of the system’s
functionalities, as well as including a brief description of
the exercise typologies and reference materials
f) Audio enhancement of written text  audio files either
as part of the exercise, to reinforce contact with the
target language and to provide positive feedback
g) Self-assessment exercises with restriction of number of
attempts and time control
As well as simulation exercises emulating the FCE exam.
17

pre- & post surveys
• During 3 academic years (2011-14)
• Surveys to analyse learner responses and attitudes
towards practising English using InGenio
• Students enrolled on English B2 level subject
• 146 Aerospace Engineering  66 pre- & post (45.2%)
• Initial survey  to gather relevant information on
learner profile and expectations
• Final survey after completing the course  to gather
information regarding their satisfaction in using the
courseware 18

pre-quest. results (1)
• Pre-course questionnaire  useful info on learner profile:
• 61% saw themselves as being good at learning English although
67% confessed worrying about making mistakes and 75% of them
said they felt embarrassed when speaking in English even after
practising
• high degree of insecurity among our students when confronted with
the foreign language in real communicative situations
• 84% were convinced that a good command of English is crucial
for their future professional careers, which is one of their main
motivations for learning the language,
• 95% thought that being a fluent speaker would improve their
future job prospects
• other motivating factors included the will to travel (84%) and an
interest in getting to know and understand other cultures (86%)
19

• Daily use of ICT + internet in target language to help with studies (looking
up terminology, finding relevant information, etc.)  never used language
learning online self-access course
• This novelty + perception that ICT-based materials provided greater variety,
freedom of access and entertainment
 favourable attitude to using InGenio to prepare for the FCE exam
increased their expectations
• One learner, however, pointed out the importance of using an appropriate
methodology:
• [N44] In my opinion, it's all about the way you present the educational materials
and the methods you are applying to learn. The strong point of using technology is
the multimedia capabilities that it implies, like integrating text, image, video and
sound. But it won't work if the method is boring and the display is not appealing.
• They emphasised that an advantage when using technology was the
possibility of receiving immediate positive or negative feedback instead of
having to wait for an exercise to be corrected by a teacher and then
feedback given
20

• An astounding 45% agreed that an online environment was less
threatening than face-to-face classes  due to shyness, specially to speak
English publicly, and embarrassed of making mistakes.
• 83% of them reported that speaking was definitely their weakest skill,
followed by listening (13%), writing (4%) and reading (0%).
• 88% of the students stated that the medium of instruction influences their
motivation to learn whilst all of them reported they find learning languages
online appealing, which means that their initial attitude toward using the
InGenio FCE Course & Tester was at the outset very positive.
• When asked whether they preferred working individually or collaboratively
in a group, opinions were split both ways with 60% preferring to work in
teams and 40% individually, which could imply that the latter would be
better suited to the proposed learning environment.
• Regarding how they prefer to approach language learning:
• 41% stated that they preferred a face-to-face course with a teacher in a classroom
• 36% reported preferring a face-to-face course using technology in a classroom
• 19% an online course being assisted by a teacher
• 3% preferred an online self-access course working by themselves.
• This links to the fact that 56% stated that, given a choice, they would choose
a blended-learning scenario, probably influenced by a wish to get the best
of both worlds.
21

post-quest. Results (1)
Post-course questionnaire  overall satisfaction
22
General aesthetics
User-friendly graphical user interface 75%
Intuitive navigation 79%
Ease for someone with minor computer
skills to benefit from the courseware
77%
Clear graphics and symbols 71%
Appealing layout (colours, fonts, icons,…) 65%

23
Courseware contents
Meaningful & interesting language input 80%
Audio input “loud & clear” 72%
Useful & relevant in-house made video
recordings
68%
Useful & relevant contents of Course units 88%
Useful & relevant contents of Tester units 86%
Adequate balance of theoretical content 86%
Contents matched target level (B2 of the CEFRL) 90%

• Generally, the time devoted to a subject at UPV is calculated by adding an
extra 50% of the mandatory hours allocated to a subject as work that the
student has to carry out in addition to “classroom contact hours”.
• i.e. 4.5 ECTS subject (equivalent to 45 teaching hours), the student is
expected to devote an additional 50%, making a total of 67.5 hours, which
adds up to a sum of 112.5 study hours.
• Therefore the 21% of the students who reported insufficient time were
probably not aware of this norm.
24
Student interaction with the online course
Appropriate timeframe (45h/60h depending on
student’s prior knowledge)
66%
Inappropriate timeframe (strain to keep to schedule) 21%

Student interaction with the online course
Accessing theory sections prior to exercise completion 69%
Watching explanatory videos prior to undertaking exercises 58%
InGenio encourages autonomous & independent learning* 93%
Appreciated accessing progress reports on demand 81%
Useful & relevant automatic feedback 74%
Considered self-paced learning appropriate 77%
25
*contents have been appropriately designed and implemented in
order to make the learners feel confident that they are making
adequate progress.

26
Courseware contents
Speaking activities* 58%
*The remaining skills were awarded a percentage ranging between 70%
and 86%.
10% advised reformulating the speaking exercises in order to include real,
live interaction with a tutor, which would necessarily imply integrating
the system into a blended-learning context.
Finding  consistent with other surveys conducted by the CAMILLE
research group and other researchers who found evidence to confirm that
learners benefit less from “automated” speaking activities where they
are prompted to record themselves and upload the files for subsequent
assessment by a tutor than from receiving teacher input which helps
students develop listening and speaking skills more effectively than
when just working alone.

• Students prefer immediate corrective feedback. However  due to
current technological constraints, it is easier to programme online
activities leading to practising receptive skills (listening and reading)
rather than productive skills (writing and speaking).
• The items that proved satisfactory covered aspects such as
• clarity and precision of the instructions
• usefulness of the exercises devoted to practicing grammar, listening
comprehension, reading and writing skills
• usefulness of the theoretical explanations on how to write various types of
texts
• appropriateness of the technical content
• usefulness of the exercises to aid in vocabulary acquisition
• interest and relevance of the linguistic input and the topics covered
• originality, variety and relevance of the task typologies
• usefulness of including a “Test your English” section allowing students to
have an idea at the outset of their language level
• usefulness of the tips and information provided about the FCE exam
27

• Students’ personal perception regarding whether their
linguistic skills in English had improved
• 84% favourable (highly satisfied, 17%; very satisfied, 32%; and
satisfied, 35%),
• 14% had no opinion
• 3% were slightly unsatisfied.
• Regarding their level of confidence to take and succeed in a B2
level exam such as the FCE exam
• 86% satisfaction
• However, they were of the opinion that completing the
courseware did not necessarily help them to reduce the level of
anxiety that taking such an exam would pose. Only 56% were
satisfied with this aspect. 28

problems
• Premise  to redesign & reconsider any variable that
achieved a score below “slightly-higher-than-average” (<60%)
in order to get as reasonably close as possible to maximum
user satisfaction
• 3 variables that had to be reconsidered and improved
a) the in-house recorded explanatory videos
b) the speaking activities
c) the designers’ attempt to aid the users in decreasing their levels
of anxiety when facing an official language exam such as the
Cambridge FCE exam
29

solutions
• Solutions
a) to highlight the need to watch the explanatory videos before
undertaking the exercises by creating pointers (reminders at
given points of the materials)
b) to schedule specially designed face-to-face group activities to
engage learners in live interactions and communication
processes (12 hours’ tuition in total)
c) stressing the fact that by successfully passing the exercises
and activities included in the Tester units (which simulate the
FCE exam papers with limitation of attempts and timed
activities), students should feel confident in succeeding in
the exam when confronted with the real situation
• A follow-up study will shortly be conducted to this effect in order
to analyse how well the learners who prepared the exam with the
InGenio FCE Online Course & Tester did and correlate their marks
to their achievements in the official exam 30

conclusion
• The validation process carried out by means of a pre- and
post-questionnaire completed by all the students who
satisfactorily concluded all the activities in the InGenio FCE
Course & Tester during 3 consecutive academic years was
successful and allowed us to determine the areas which had
to be improved or modified in some way or other in order to
increase learner satisfaction.
• Data from both questionnaires clearly supports the idea that
students are intuitively attracted to technology and firmly
believe in its affordances to help them improve their language
proficiency efficiently autonomously.
31

Digital Storytelling project
• Digital Storytelling (DS)
• educational tool that plays an important role in stimulating
students’ creativity  combining the art of telling a story and
multimedia technology
• helps them to “learn by doing”
• Definition: short form of digital film-making that allows
students to create a story relating to their field of study.
• 4-year Aerospace Engineering degree
• Technical English (1st year, 6 ECTS)
32

introduction
• Advantages:
• stories help build connections with the students’ prior
knowledge and
• improve memory,
• resulting in an easier and more enjoyable way to recall
information and to comprehend the content and the message
being transmitted by the story
• Teacher
• facilitator, providing students with the information they need in
order to reflect and develop their own ideas and perceptions
about what creating a digital story involves
33

stages
1. completing a pre- and a post-project survey
2. learning about digital storytelling by completing a
WebQuest specifically designed to this end
3. making decisions about the digital stories (topic, plot,
software and media)
4. scriptwriting
5. sharing the resulting stories with fellow classmates
through the University’s LMS
6. watching fellow classmates' digital stories
7. using the forum to initiate discussions and write
comments about their own digital stories and those
created by their classmates
8. keeping a log and preparing and delivering a “making-of”
presentation to the whole class
9. assessing both the digital stories and the oral
presentations
34

process
• Technology-Enhanced Activities for Aerospace Engineering
 open access
•  https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/31615
• Practice units  3 ECTS – 1 semester, 1st year
• 12 units  4 units online tasks / 8 units DS
• Unit 1 WebQuest (group activity)
• Acquainting students with DS project
• Acquainting students with fellow project partners
• Includes 2 home-made videos
• Overview of what a DS is
• Overview of project
35

improving linguistic skills
• Improving the learners’ linguistic skills  central to all the stages of the project
 reading, writing, listening, speaking, vocabulary and grammar.
• Reading and writing are mainly practiced through
• the WebQuest,
• script writing
• voice-over recording and synchronization of captions,
• writing the log,
• preparing the “making-of” presentation,
• using the forum to post comments about the resulting digital stories,
• and completing the assessment forms.
• Listening and speaking skills are developed in activities such as
• working collaboratively in groups using English as the means of communication,
• recording the digital story,
• watching the video recordings about the project,
• watching fellow classmates’ digital stories,
• watching other examples of digital stories
• and delivering the making-of presentations
36

task design
• Tasks in each stage designed to be
• authentic
• meaningful and enjoyable
• challenging
• The high level of complexity of the different tasks of the project
derives from the fact that they require a multiple focus on input
processing, content selection, organisation and production,
together with mastery in the usage of ICT and competence to
convey messages in a multimodal format.
• These include researching, scriptwriting, self-correction, selecting
and assembling audio-visual resources, recording of voice-over
narrations, drawing on collaborative skills, critical analysis and
peer assessment, and the rhetoric of oral presentations, etc.
37

methodology (1)
Participants & context
• 2014-15
• N = 48
• 1st year Aerospace Engineering students
• Technical English (6 ECTS)
• Between 18 – 25 years old
• B2 level of proficiency in English (CEFRL)
• Groups of 4
• 12 digital stories
38

methodology (2)
• Questionnaire upon completion of project. Queries referred to:
• whether they found the project motivating
• whether it was effective in terms of
• improving their oral skills
• demonstrating their knowledge
• learning about different topics dealing with Aerospace Engineering
• developing their digital skills
• improving their pronunciation, speaking, listening, reading and writing
skills
• their creativity, critical-thinking skills, research skills, team-working skills,
organisation skills, problem-solving skills, decision-making skills
• whether they had been anxious about the project
• whether they found the workload adequate for the preparation time
they were given
• whether all of the team members had worked equally
• whether their overall expectations about the project had been fulfilled
39

methodology (3)
• Additionally, students voted for best stories in different
categories:
1. best digital story
2. best script
3. best voice actors and actresses
4. best audio-visual resources
5. best oral presentations
6. best original sound track or audio effects
7. most original digital story
8. most inspiring or touching digital story
40

methodology (4)
• In the structured open-ended questions, students were asked to complete
statements about:
• what they had liked and disliked about the project
• how teamwork had helped them
• their overall opinion about the project
• something they had learnt by doing the project
• a difficulty they had encountered
• how they would describe the project in terms of learning English
• whether they thought the project had helped them develop their critical
thinking and reflective skills
• and what they thought about the forum, the process of creating their
digital stories and the presentation.
• Additionally, the last part of the survey was designed to seek the learners’
suggestions for improvement in terms of task design and activities within
the project. Questions were both closed-ended and open-ended.
41

Self- and peer-assessment
• Crucial part of project  to make students think critically and encourage them to
both self-assess their own work and peer-assess that of fellow classmates.
• Precise instructions are given and 2 rubrics provided, one to assess the actual DS and
the other to assess the “making-of” the DS, i.e. its rationale, intention and process,
etc.
• Peer assessment  students taking responsibility for assessing the work of their
peers against set assessment criteria. The assessment criteria is provided by the
instructor in the form of a scoring rubric based on a set of criteria and standards
linked to the project learning objectives.
• Students  provide feedback to their peers and summative grades
• After watching each other’s digital stories  students post comments in the Forum
expressing opinions, making suggestions for improvement and asking for
clarifications about at least 4 DS.
• Also respond to the comments others have posted about their own DS and, lastly,
complete and upload their assessment sheets onto the LMS.
• The rubric provided covers the various factors that are explained in the project that
students should bear in mind when designing and developing their own stories, e.g.
language appropriateness, fluency and clarity, originality, adequate use of resources,
and emotional interest.
42

DS peer-assessment rubric
Title of DS: Score (1-10)
Interest of the topic
Depth of research
Originality
Communicative skills
Pace (not too fast, not too slow)
Use of resources
Variety of resources
Linguistic skills and level of English
Pronunciation
Structure
Emotional interest
Synchronisation of narration and resources
TOTAL SCORE (OUT OF TEN)
44

DS “making-of” assessment rubric
• To complete the process, students also have to deliver an oral
presentation to the class explaining
• the motivation and rationale that led them to choose a particular
topic
• the tools they used
• the filming techniques applied
• and describe any problems they may have encountered and how
these were overcome.
• This is also subject to peer-assessment and the following rubric
provided: 45

DS “making-of” assessment rubric
Assessment sheet for the making-of presentations (Practice Unit No. 11)
EVALUATING YOUR CLASSMATES:
9-10= Outstanding / 6-8=
Satisfactory / 4-5= Needs
improvement / 1-3= Very poor
SCORES
1 2 3 4
Structure / Organisation
Use of presentation time
Originality
Clarity
Pronunciation
Linguistic skills and level of English
Communicative and presentation
skills
Resources used
Log
Creative process
46

assessing “making-of”
The aspects to be taken into account upon assessing the
making-of presentations include the following:
47
PRESENTATION • Volume
• Visual contact with the audience
• Pace / rhythm
• Structure / Organisation
• Gestures and movements
• Originality
• Creative process
CONTENT • Resources
• Reflective journal
• Clarity of the main idea(s)
• Development of the idea(s): details, facts, examples
ORGANISATION • Introduction
• Transitions
• Main points clearly underlined
• Logic development of ideas
• Conclusion
• Use of presentation time
• Cohesion
LANGUAGE • Vocabulary
• Pronunciation
• Intonation
• Communicative and linguistic skills, level of English

results & discussion
Learner satisfaction responses  clear evidence that students
perceived the experience as being beneficial toward improving their
knowledge of English as a foreign language. 7-point Likert scale.
48

results & discussion
These results provided sound evidence regarding our students’ overall
satisfaction in terms of non-linguistic skills. Balanced perception of
improvement and a high degree of satisfaction. 7-point Likert scale.
49

Sample DS 2015 – “Voyager”
http://politube.upv.es/play.php?vid=65592
50

concluding remarks
Evidence that our students’ expectations regarding the project have
been fulfilled to a large extent, having achieved an average mark of
5.2 out of 7. 51

concluding remarks
This graph shows the extent to which students enjoyed creating the
digital stories compared to more traditional classroom activities. This
variable obtained an average of 5.77 out of 7.
52

concluding remarks
• The results obtained were favourable with respect to
applying this approach to language learning in an ESP
context and encouraging in terms of the perceived
improvement of the students’ communication skills.
• There is clear evidence from the final survey that the DS
project has proven to be successful among learners of
English in Aerospace Engineering, both in terms of
developing non-linguistic skills, as well as improving
language acquisition.
53

tools for CLIL teachers
• LLL KA2 3-year project: 2012-14
• Free online service to author and share content-rich,
multimedia learning units featuring the creator’s own choice of
audio, video (e.g. from YouTube), text (e.g. a transcript) and
images/graphics
• No installation or setup of software is required
• Unique ability to automatically link every word in a text to
online dictionaries in over 100 languages
• Repository of activities
• Authoring of learning units from mobile devices
• Compatibility with any operating system
• Userfriendly features
54

tools for CLIL teachers project
55

clilstore
• “CopyLeft” rights  units and activities created within
Clilstore become part of a growing repository freely
available for learners and teachers.
• Currently  1100 units, covering all 6 levels (A1 to C2) in
47 different languages.
• 2 complementary tools  MULTIDICT & WORDLINK
• Multidict  dictionary interface allowing quick
monolingual or bilingual searches in over 100 language
combinations.
• Wordlink  interface that can link most webpages
word-by-word to free online dictionaries 56

clilstore
1) the source language
2) the target language for our translation
3) selected dictionary 57

links
• Gimeno, A.; Ó Dónaill, C. and Zygmantaite, R. (2013). Clilstore
Guidebook for Teachers. Available from
http://www.languages.dk/archive/tools/guides/ClilstoreGuide
book.pdf
• http://www.languages.dk/tools
• Guidebooks in the project languages
• DIY videos for teachers/authors and independent learners
• Materials for running training courses
• Repository of ready-made units in a wide range of languages
• Kahn Academy https://www.khanacademy.org
• TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) http://www.ted.com
58

ANA GIMENO
agimeno@upvnet.upv.es
THANK YOU
FOR YOUR ATTENTION!!
59

Catering for linguistic domain specialisations through computer-assisted language learning

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