CALL and the Learner
An AILA Research Network
You have found the AILA Research Network for CALL and the Language Learner. On this website you can read about our activities, conferences, and publications and contribute to research. Join us as as free member to be able to submit papers and contribute to our AILA symposium in Beijing.
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The Electronic Village Online Sessions
For six weeks, participants in EVO can engage with ESOL experts in collaborative, online discussion sessions or in hands-on virtual workshops of professional and scholarly benefit. These sessions will bring together participants for a longer period of time than is permitted by the land-based TESOL convention and will allow a fuller development of ideas and themes of the convention or of professional interest in general.
The sessions are free and open to all interested parties.
You do not need to be a TESOL member to participate.
Sessions are organized by TESOL's CALL Interest Section and run wholly by volunteers who have donated their time to serve the profession.
During December, you will have time to explore the session syllabi.
In January, you can join a session and work begins. These sessions require several hours/day of time on line, so do not sign up for more than two sessions.
In February, at the end of your sessions, you will be asked to participate in an evaluation, so that we can make EVO better. (See the Timeline below.)
EVO is not a part of TESOL's Online Teaching Certificate Program
Contact TESOL for further information about the OTCP and other educational programs at edprograms@tesol.org
Registration starts on January 4th
http://evosessions.pbworks.com/Call_for_Participation2010
Please post your comments, suggestions and feedback on the Wall below. Or just drop us a note to say you visited!
Background of the ReN
Through the emergence of communication technologies, the past few years have produced a new body of research where the learner is given a more central role in a range of different ways, including having the learner express their opinions through blogging (e.g., Pinkman, 2005) or computer-mediated communication such as chat (e.g., Darhower, 2007), tailoring software that adapts to learners’ needs (e.g., Huang & Liou 2007), training learners to use existing software more effectively to facilitate the social-affective aspect of learning (e.g., Hubbard, 2004), or the development of learner autonomy (e.g. Reinders, 2007; White, 2007). Social networking sites such as Active Worlds and Second Life have also empowered learners to make decisions about who they wish to converse with, by what mode (i.e., text chat or oral communication), and freely engage in discussion with a real audience who shares similar interests (e.g., Dudeney, 2008). This is a growth area, where researchers examine the way technology facilitates interaction between teachers and learners, between native speakers and learners, and between learners themselves and the unique characteristics of this type of communication.
Convenors Hayo Reinders and Glenn Stockwell have combined to create an AILA Research Network which aims to bring together people working in the different areas related to the role of the language learner in CALL. Committee members are established researchers in the field of CALL, and
include Jozef Colpaert (University of Antwerp, Belgium)
Phil Hubbard (Stanford University, USA)
Hsien-Chin Liou (National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan)
Kazunori Nozawa (Ritsumeikan University, Japan)
and Cynthia White (Massey University, New Zealand).