The Foreign Language Education and Technology Conference (fleat 5)
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| The Foreign Language Education and
Technology Conference (FLEAT 5) S. Kathleen Kitao Doshisha Women’s College Kenji Kitao Doshisha University The Foreign Language Education and Technology Conference (FLEAT 5) was held at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah August 5-10, 2005. It was jointly sponsored by the International Association For Language Learning Technology (IALLT), and the Japan Association for Language Education and Technology (LET), as well as the College of Humanities and the Division of Continuing Education of Brigham Young University. It also incorporated the biennial IALLT conference. Sessions were divided between the Provo Marriot hotel and the university. The conference was attended by more than 300 participants. The majority of the participants were from Japan or the United States, but there were also participants from Canada, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran. The conference started on August 5 and 6, with pre-conference workshops and tours. There were tours of technology-related facilities at Brigham Young University and BYU’s English Language Center; the LDS Conference Center Interpretation Facilities, which has technology to allow simultaneous interpretation into 75 languages; and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Missionary Training Center. Most of the workshops dealt with various programs and their applications to language teaching, including “Using Revolution for Web Apps” by Devin Asay of Brigham Young University; “Sanako Lounge 100” by Gus Leonard and Yoshiko Saito-Abbot of California State University Monterey; “ExTemplate: A Language Learning Management System” by Claire Bartlett, Hajime Kumahata, and Eric Granquist of Rice University; “Introducing Teachers to Moodle” by Mark Stevens of American University of Sharjah (UAE); and “Hacking Hot Potatoes” by Martin Holmes and Stewart Arneil of the University of Victoria. Other forms of technology were dealt with in “Basic Video Techniques for Web” by Clayton Mitchell of Drake University. In addition, there were workshops on design and management, such as IALLT Management Workshop by Ute Lahaie of IALLT and “IALLT LCDK Workshop: Designing the Language Center” by Jack Burston of Rochester Institute of Technology. On August 7, a Sunday, participants could participate in tours or go sightseeing. A Welcome Reception was held in the evening. The conference itself opened on August 8 with the plenary keynote address by Tom Welch of the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. He spoke on “Uniting the World Through Technological Innovation.” He argued that teaching does not necessarily equal learning, and therefore courses should reflect what students have learned rather than just the hours spent as well as for the advantages of open source rather than proprietary software for learning materials. On the morning of August 9, Rachida Primov of the University of Miami gave the Henderson Plenary, which is an honor awarded by the FLEAT program committee to the best presentation proposal submitted. She spoke on “Media Centers as Agents for Community Outreach: The University of Miami Model” and described an outreach program she designed for local teachers to help improve their curricula and to help them incorporate new technologies. Over the three days, “breakout sessions” were held on a variety of topics. Some dealt with the results of research or on research-related issues, including The Effects of Technology on Language Learning Research in Japan” by David Aline and Yuri Hosoda of Kanagawa University, “Learning Styles Effect on CALL by Miho Endo of the University of North Texas, “The Effects of Learning English Outside of Japan--A Case Study” by Yoshimi Funakoshi of Kobe Gakuin Senior High School, and “How to make e- Learning more effective taking individual psychological factors into consideration” by Midori Kimura of Tokyo Women’s Medical University. There were also session on technology other than computers, or on combining technologies, such as “iPods and Wireless and Deans, Oh My! Challenges and Opportunities by Jeffrey D. Samuels of Goucher College, Paul Aoki of the University of Washington, Sharon Scinicariello of the University of Richmond, and Mikle Ledgerwood of the State University of New York at Stony Brook; “A Pilot Study to Search for Possibilities in English Study” by Midori Kimura of Tokyo Women’s Medical University and Hiroyuki Obari of Aoyama Gakuin University; “Mobile Photo Blogs in the Language Classroom” by Paul Daniels of Kochi University of Technology; “Using Mobile Phones for FL Education” by Chris Houser and Patricia Thornton of Kinjo Gakuin University; and “Cost-Effective Video for Language Learning Materials Development” by Michael Bush of Brigham Young University. Several presentations were related to language labs and administration. These included a panel entitled “New Directions in Language Center Direction by Judi Franz of the University of California at Irvine, John Angell of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Stayc DuBravac of Florida Atlantic University, and Margaret Gonglewski of George Washington University; “Integration of Technology in Foreign Language Programs” by Teresa Herrera Johnson of St. Louis University; “Extreme Makeover: The Language Lab in a New Role by Georgia Schlau of the College of Charleston; and “Aligning Service to Mission: Managing Technology in the Language Center” by Monika R. Dressler of the University of Michigan. Another topic was computer mediated communication, including such presentations as “CMC In (and Outside) the L2 Classroom: Tomorrow's Technology” by Peter Lafford of Arizona State University; “E-mail Tandem Language Learning Project: Students Awareness” by Akihiko Sasaki Kwansei Gakuin Junior High School; and “Corrective Feedback among EFL learners in Chat” by Annmarie G. Zoran of the University of South Florida. Other presentations dealt with specific programs and systems, such as “Kanji alive: A next generation online kanji teaching tool” by Arno Bosse of the University of Chicago, Harumi Hibino Lory of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and Keiko Yowhimura of the University of Chicago; “WebCT to Moodle: Technical Issues and Student Performance” by Patrick Blaine of the University of Washington, "Constructing a Tutorial on a Bulletin Board System for Japanese Learners of EFL" by Shota Yoshihara et al, of Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University, and “Development of a Hot Potatoes quiz module for XOOPS” by Yoshimasa Awaji of Chubu University. There were a large number of presentations on one of the four skills. These included “A report of an out of class reading activity” by Sachiko Takahashi of Notre Dame Seishin University; “Utterance improvement among communication skills with voice” by Rumi Tobita of Ashikaga Institute of Technology, Tsutomu Sato of Meiji Gakuin University, Hatsumi Kuniyoshi, and Tomoko Nozawa of Keisen University; “A Multimedia Tool for Enhanced Feedback on Oral Performance” by Michio Tsutsui of the University of Washington; "Improving Oral Skills From A Distance” by Scott Despain of North Carolina State University; “Talking to your web page: speaking practice online” by Dennie Hoopingarner of Michigan State University; “The relationship between Japanese EFL learners' listening ability and vocabulary by Yumiko Imai et al., of Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts; “The Language Lab 2005: Making Online Speech Possible” by Jeff Magoto of the University of Oregon and Jim Duber of duber dot com; and “Computer-displayed Reading among Japanese EFL Learners” by Yuko Matsumura of Kyoto Tachibana University. A number of presentations also dealt with activities. These included “Making Wikis Work” by Doug Worsham of the University of Wisconsin—Madison; “Integrating the Wiki and Blog Authoring into EFL Classes” by Shuji Ozeki of Chubu University; “Blogs, Wikis, and Forums: Improving Learners' Writing Skills” by Hajime Kumahata of Rice University; “Integrating Resources for Task- Based Interactive CALL programs” by C. Ray Graham et al. of Brigham Young University; and “Using Computers to Improve Reading Skills and Speech” by Kenji Kitao of Doshisha Univeristy; and “Development of English Rapid Reading Program by Chunk Method” by Sachiko Tanaka of Kanagawa University. There were also poster sessions each day. Some of the topics included “The Effect of Task Type on EFL Speaking Test Performance” by Huei-Chun Teng of National Yunlin University of Science and Technology; “Assessments in the Language Media Center” by Heather McCullough of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; “Language Classes Come Alive with Animated PowerPoint” by Mimi Yu of the University of Nevada Reno; Keypal Friendships in English Language Courses by S. Kathleen Kitao of Doshisha Women’s College; and “Learning Words and its Relation with Implementing New Models of Reading Comprehension by Rhamatian, Siamian and Hasan Siamian of Mazandaran Medical Sciences University. The conference banquet was held on the evening of August 9. Entertainment was provided by Native American dancers. FLEAT has been held on four previous occasions, in 1981, 1992, 1997, and 2000. Brief reports of these conferences can be found at http://ce.byu.edu/cw/fleat5/2005/previous.dhtm. http://www.cis.doshisha.ac.jp/kkitao/library/report/fleat3.htm http://www1.doshisha.ac.jp/~kkitao/teflnews/v1/n3.htm#FLEAT http://www1.doshisha.ac.jp/~kkitao/teflnews/v1/n3j.htm#FLEAT http://www1.doshisha.ac.jp/~kkitao/japanese/library/report/fleat4.htm |