Volume 27 Number 1, 2023
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ItemCharting Thai university students' group translation on Google Docs through DocuViz(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2023-12-19)This study sets out to investigate Thai university students' group translation of Thai texts into English in a synchronous setting. Four groups, consisting of three or four members, were involved in this study. This study examined two Thai texts translated into English, one containing tourism information and the other a crime news report. Students were given 40 minutes to translate on Google Docs, and their group translation styles were charted out through DocuViz, a visualization tool that uses color coding and number of contributions to illustrate group work. Average contributions, along with the color-coded texts, were analyzed to determine the group work styles. The study found that most groups were cooperative in their real-time translation work, in that group members worked on particular segments, with one dominant writer either editing others' contributions or translating the most. This study suggests that translation instructors consider expanding and redefining the implementation of translation tasks done in groups.
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ItemConceptualizing a mobile-assisted learning environment featuring funds of knowledge for English learners’ narrative writing development(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2023-12-11)The purpose of this exploratory sequential mixed-methods study is to investigate a group of middle-school aged Latinx English learners (ELs) in a rural town in the Midwestern United States and to facilitate their narrative writing development via a mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) environment from a funds of knowledge perspective. In particular, we first explored the existing funds of knowledge sources drawing from the ELs’ lived experience and cultural practice through a multimethodological approach over a span of three months. We conceptualized the explored funds of knowledge sources into ELs’ narrative writing practice through the integration of mobile-based writing tools (MBWTs). Second, we employed a multiple pre-and post- non-experimental design for the ELs to complete two non- funds of knowledge and three funds of knowledge-featured narrative writing activities over ten weeks using Google Docs as an MBWT. Results showed a statistically significant positive learning effect of funds of knowledge as an intervention for developing the ELs’ literacy skills in narrative writing within a collaborative MALL environment.
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ItemModality and task complexity effects on second language production in CMC(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2023-11-13)Two decades of research on computer-mediated communication (CMC) in language learning settings has shown that integrating technology and communication leads to distinct benefits for language learning, including positive impacts on motivation, anxiety, and engagement in second language communication (Sauro, 2011). However, the majority of this research has been conducted among learners communicating via text while real-world language users are increasingly likely to communicate online in audio and video modes (Peterson, 2010). Audio and video CMC has been shown to lead to more participation (Rossell-Águilar, 2013), different uses of communication strategies (Hung & Higgins, 2016), more focus on form (Bueno-Alastuey, 2010), and higher motivation (Gleason & Suvorov, 2012; Wehner et al., 2011) among second language (L2) learners. Little is known, however, about learner language production in different CMC modalities, which influences how CMC can be integrated into teaching. The current study focuses on L2 learners’ production during communicative tasks in text and video CMC. Two versions of the task were created by manipulating the task complexity variable task structure (Robinson, 2011). Production data were analyzed using measures of syntactic and lexical complexity, linguistic accuracy, and quantity of language produced. The results suggest that complexity and modality both impact the lexical complexity of language production, and that modality also affects the quantity of language produced.
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ItemThe application of chatbot as an L2 writing practice tool(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2023-11-06)This study investigates the effect of chatbot-based writing practices on second language learners’ writing performance and perceptions of using the chatbot in L2 writing practices. A total of 75 Korean elementary school students were randomly allocated to two groups. While the control group received traditional teacher-led writing instruction, the experimental group used a chatbot for individual writing practices for 15 weeks. The chatbot was developed using Google’s Dialogflow machine-learning AI platform by encoding expressions from an elementary school English textbook. A pretest was carried out prior to the experiment to examine the initial writing performance, and a posttest was carried out 15 weeks later with a different writing topic. The participants in the experimental group also responded to a short survey to report their perceptions and opinions about the chatbot. The results showed that the two groups generally showed a similar writing proficiency in the pretest scores, but the experimental group performed significantly better in the posttest than the control group, suggesting that the chatbot-based writing practice had a facilitating effect on their test performance. The participants of the experimental group also found the chatbot useful in improving their language skills and made them feel comfortable when learning a foreign language.
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ItemLearning of L2 Japanese through video games(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2023-10-30)In Japanese-as-a-foreign language (JFL) education, the impacts of Japanese entertainment media such as digital games have been noted as a motivator for JFL learners. Although outside-of-class literacy exposure from these digital games has been recognized due to their popularity, the specifics of how digital games affect JFL digital literacies and how they interplay with JFL learners’ motivations have not yet been fully explored. Thus, this study investigated the literacies around game fandoms for JFL learners in a Japanese language program (n = 191) and the self-directed and group-based learning activities of a game focus group (n = 6) with two commercial games. The findings demonstrated JFL learners’ literacy exposure through Japanese games and revealed JFL learners’ unique issues with kanji, furigana, and honorifics. Additionally, digital games in Japanese have roles in supporting JFL learners’ motivations (a) visually as achievement milestones (i.e., progress markers) within game content and (b) as goals that JFL learners set for accessing and playing target game titles both as gamers and as JFL learners. Moreover, the study highlights the importance for higher education to connect in-class and non-formal learning and to support L2 learners with 21st century skills.
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ItemReview of SMART CALL: Personalization, contextualization, & socialization(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2023-10-30)
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ItemReview of Conversation analytic language teacher education in digital spaces(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2023-10-30)
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ItemUsing eye-tracking as a tool to develop lexical knowledge(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2023-10-23)Eye-tracking is primarily used as a tool to capture attentional processes in second language (L2) research. However, it is feasible to design visual displays that can react to and interact with eye-movements in technology-mediated contexts. We explored whether gaze-contingency can foster L2 development by drawing attention to novel words reactively during reading. In particular, we investigated whether the acquisition of lexis can be facilitated by interactive glosses, that is, making glosses visually salient when triggered by fixations on a target word. We found that interactive, gaze-contingent glosses led to more and longer fixations at target words and glosses but did not lead to superior performance in recognition scores. We observed, however, an interaction between interactivity and form recognition, with more gloss fixations being associated with better performance under the interactive, but with worse outcomes in the non-interactive, condition. We attributed this difference to distinct motivations for viewing glosses in the groups.
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ItemVisual saliency in captioned digital videos and learning of English collocations: An eye-tracking study(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2023-10-16)This study explored how visual input enhancement impacts caption-reading behaviors, the acquisition of English collocations, and the recall of onscreen captions. The participants comprised 53 Korean undergraduate students at a high-intermediate level of English proficiency. They were assigned to either a baseline or an enhancement group. The baseline group viewed a digital video with unenhanced captions, whereas the enhancement group watched the same video with enhanced captions (i.e., captions including yellow-colored collocations). The eye movements of the participants were measured using an eye tracker. Thereafter, they completed a collocation test and a caption recall test. The results showed that the baseline and enhancement groups did not vary in their caption-reading behaviors. Conversely, the enhancement group significantly outperformed the baseline group on the collocation test. In the caption recall test, the enhancement group recalled significantly more target collocations than the baseline group, whereas the two groups did not differ in recalling unenhanced captions. Finally, correlational analyses revealed nonsignificant correlations between attention to target collocations and collocation test scores in both groups. This evidence suggests that enhanced video captions may be an effective means of stimulating collocational competence that is not at the expense of second language learners’ ability to learn video content.
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ItemLearning processes in interactive CALL systems: Linking automatic feedback, system logs, and learning outcomes(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2023-09-25)Interactive digital tools increasingly used for language learning can provide detailed system logs (e.g., number of attempts, responses submitted), and thereby a window into the user’s learning processes. To date, SLA researchers have made little use of such data to understand the relationships between learning conditions, processes, and outcomes. To fill this gap, we analyzed and interpreted detailed logs from an ICALL system used in a randomized controlled field study where 205 German learners of English in secondary school received either general or specific corrective feedback on grammar exercises. In addition to explicit pre-/post-test results, we derived 19 learning process variables from the system log. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three latent factors underlying these process variables: effort, accuracy focus, and time on task. Accuracy focus and finish time (a process variable that did not load well on any factors) significantly predicted pre-/post-test gain scores with a medium effect size. We then clustered learners based on their process patterns and found that the specific feedback group tended to demonstrate particular learning processes and that these patterns moderate the advantage of specific feedback. We discuss the implications of analyzing system logs for SLA, CALL, and education researchers and call for more collaboration.