This paper describes a method in oral fluency evaluation for Tourism English according to a corpus-based lexical approach. Our main research focus is placed on measuring oral skill competence among Tourism English (TE) learners by contrasting their word use and linguistic fluency, achieved in two types of oral tasks, with corpus data frequencies. Information Technology (IT) resources and electronic corpora are two integrated tools in the evaluative approach to identify significant performance changes between learners who have managed such electronic resources and learners who have not.
This paper describes the integration of hypermedia adaptive systems for foreign language learners at an
early age Our research project is concerned with exploring the relationship between language learning and
information technology according to six different phases: a preliminary study of the plausible adaptive system;
the development of lessons based on hypermedia and learners’ needs; the
examination of language learners’ profiles; the definition of an adapted interface; the integration of the systems in
schools; and the evaluation of the use of such systems. While the last three stages are still under way, we have already
obtained some significant feedback from preliminary observation and approaches, which chiefly reveal the importance of
accounting for interrelated factors at an early age, such as specific learning strategies, skills, and graphical design.
The use of corpus-informed language in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) / English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teaching has considerably grown over the past two decades, especially due to the proliferation of course book material based on corpora. However, in terms of learning approaches to grammatical items, much less has been published commercially to train teachers in the use of corpora and their exploitation. DDL (Data-Driven Learning) techniques are still something to foster and publicize for ESP scenarios, since DDL tends to work as a productive method among learners whose L2 courses usually present specific (academic or professional) purposes in language use, as previous studies have shown. This paper deals with DDL as approached via hands-on concordancing by university students in the double degree of Business Administration and Tourism (B/T) in our institution. The targeted linguistic items were accessed via form-focused activities (e.g., noticing usage differences with verb tenses and synonymous verbs). Two grammar tests were administered to compare their results with another group that focused on the same grammatical points as delivered by an upper-intermediate, corpus-informed, textbook. The statistical findings reveal that the DDL group performed slightly better in the acquisition of such grammatical points, whereas most students felt that lexico-grammatical knowledge had been gained by relying on DDL to discover and apply usage patterns. Grammatical study may thereby evolve as a different perception in their minds due to corpus data exploitation and teacher-mediated discovery.
Hybrid television refers to the merging of the Internet and traditional television via a multi-user platform. In this scope, we have developed the STVALL project for the past two-three years on a regional scale (Extremadura TV in Spain). This technology aims to provide an educational platform for interactive and adaptive (individual or group) learning of content and language via the smart television. Our research group has focused on the development of specific activities and challenges (so-called customized training pills) to feed content and information into the authoring tool, which stores and distributes it from its knowledge base. As education experts (language and content teachers / educators), we have labelled this content according to five subject areas (Science and Nature, Literature and Art, Geography and History, Entertainment and Sports, and Language) and four language user levels: Adult (over 12 years of age) / Children (0-12): A1/A2/B1/B2. In addition, the content has been assigned other types of tags for user-related feedback in the authoring tool (e.g., monologic vs. dialogic, narrative vs. instructions, etc). Thus, upon interaction with the program, users build a content and language level profile that the system will store and remember for the next interaction (single- or group-based). Because the users’ profiles may differ significantly, this system has been tested with groups of adults and children so that their specific aims and inclinations as regards content and language learning can be registered and compared. By relying on users’ performance and personal surveys, our team will be able to specify more customized types of activities, some of which require experts’ responses and mediation.
This paper presents a method for the assessment of oral fluency in Business English according to a two corpora-based
lexical approach. The original query for our research is the possibility of estimating the level of oral skills among Business English (BE)
learners by contrasting their word use in oral presentations with corpus data frequencies. Use of Information Technology (IT) resources and
electronic BE corpora is thus measured in the evaluative approach to identify significant performance changes between learners who have
used such electronic resources and learners who have not.
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