Learners

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Kinds of Learners

  • adult learner
  • english language learner
  • english learner
  • foreign language learner
  • individual learner
  • l2 learner
  • language learner
  • lifelong learner
  • novice learner
  • second language learner

  • Terms modified by Learners

  • learner ability
  • learner control
  • learner interaction
  • learner perception
  • learner performance
  • learner response
  • learner satisfaction

  • Selected Abstracts


    YOUNG CHILDREN'S INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCES IN MUSEUMS: ENGAGED, EMBODIED, AND EMPOWERED LEARNERS,

    CURATOR THE MUSEUM JOURNAL, Issue 3 2001
    BARBARA PISCITELLI
    First page of article [source]


    6. LEARNERS, TEACHERS AND REFLECTION: Introduction

    JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, Issue 3-4 2008
    Article first published online: 22 JAN 200
    [source]


    EARLY VERB LEARNERS: CREATIVE OR NOT?

    MONOGRAPHS OF THE SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2009
    Jane B. Childers
    First page of article [source]


    LEARNING PRECONDITIONS FOR PLANNING FROM PLAN TRACES AND HTN STRUCTURE

    COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, Issue 4 2005
    Okhtay Ilghami
    A great challenge in developing planning systems for practical applications is the difficulty of acquiring the domain information needed to guide such systems. This paper describes a way to learn some of that knowledge. More specifically, the following points are discussed. (1) We introduce a theoretical basis for formally defining algorithms that learn preconditions for Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) methods. (2) We describe Candidate Elimination Method Learner (CaMeL), a supervised, eager, and incremental learning process for preconditions of HTN methods. We state and prove theorems about CaMeL's soundness, completeness, and convergence properties. (3) We present empirical results about CaMeL's convergence under various conditions. Among other things, CaMeL converges the fastest on the preconditions of the HTN methods that are needed the most often. Thus CaMeL's output can be useful even before it has fully converged. [source]


    Learner, Student, Speaker: Why it matters how we call those we teach

    EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 5-6 2010
    Gert Biesta
    Abstract In this paper I discuss three different ways in which we can refer to those we teach: as learner, as student or as speaker. My interest is not in any aspect of teaching but in the question whether there can be such a thing as emancipatory education. Working with ideas from Jacques Rancière I offer the suggestion that emancipatory education can be characterised as education which starts from the assumption that all students can speak. It starts from the assumption, in other words, that students neither lack a capacity for speech, nor that they are producing noise. The idea of the student as a speaker is not offered as an empirical fact but as a different starting point for emancipatory education, one that positions equality at the beginning of education, not at its end. [source]


    Strategies for Success: Profiling the Effective Learner of German

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 3 2001
    Jennifer Bruen
    The primary objective of this study is to identify the language-learning strategies associated with the achievement of higher levels of oral proficiency in German for 100 Irish students about to complete their second year at Dublin City University. It also investigates the way in which these strategies are used by those with higher and lower levels of proficiency. The methodology combines quantitative assessment (using questionnaires)with in-depth, qualitative interviews. The article begins by explaining key concepts in the field of language learning strategy research and then reviews a selection of relevant studies. An experiment designed to achieve the above objectives is then described. The results indicate that more-proficient students use more language-learning strategies, in particular more cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Furthermore, ten. strategies correlate with higher levels of oral proficiency at a significant level. These provide a tentative strategic profile of the more effective learner of German. Finally, the qualitative findings suggest that more-proficient students use language-learning strategies in a more structured and purposeful manner and apply them to a wider range of situations and tasks. Finally, implications for future research and for the language classroom are discussed. [source]


    Connecting linguistic description and language teaching: native and learner use of existential there1

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, Issue 2 2006
    Ignacio Palacios-Martínez
    construcciones existenciales; corpus de estudiantes; enseñanza de lenguas; lingüística contrastiva; lingüística de corpus This article emerges from the need to connect linguistic theory and language teaching to find concrete solutions to problems Spanish students confront when learning English. This study looks at existential there constructions taken from the following native and non-native written English corpora: the International Corpus of Learner English and the Santiago University Learner of English Cor-pus for the non-native set, and the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays, Biber et al. (1999) and a subcorpus of the BNC for the native English group. This contrastive study reveals important differences in the use of there constructions as regards their frequency, structural complexity, polarity and pragmatic value. Important implications for the presentation and the pedagogical treatment of the there constructions can be derived from the results. El presente artículo surge de la necesidad de conectar la teoría lingüística y la práctica pedagógica, tratando de encontrar soluciones concretas a problemas con los que se enfrentan alumnos españoles de inglés como lengua extranjera. Este trabajo estudia las construcciones existenciales con there (CTs) a partir de los siguientes corpus de textos escritos de hablantes nativos y no nativos: International Corpus of Learner English y Santiago University Learner of English Corpus para los no nativos, y Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays, Biber et al. (1999) y un subcorpus del BNC para los nativos. Este estudio contrastivo constata diferencias importantes en el uso de las CTs relativas a su frecuencia, complejidad estructural, polaridad y valor pragmático. De todos estos resultados se derivan importantes implicaciones para la presentación y tratamiento pedagógico de las CTs. [source]


    Reconceptualizing Language, Language Learning, and the Adolescent Immigrant Language Learner in the Age of Postmodern Globalization

    LINGUISTICS & LANGUAGE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 9 2010
    Peter I. De Costa
    The massive shift in migration patterns brought about by globalization has heavily impacted the language learning experience of adolescent immigrant learners. Given these changes wrought by globalization, this paper argues for a reconceptualization of language, language learning, and the adolescent immigrant language learner. In line with poststructural concerns that have framed recent SLA research on immigrant learners, particular emphasis is given to how a Bourdieusian framework offers constructs to better understand globalized linguistic flows. Such a framework, which views language as a form of capital, allows for a better understanding the consequences of globalization and the commodification of languages. Relatedly, to recognize the linguistic resources available to immigrant learners in the twenty-first century, the paper calls for a reconstitution of language along ideological, semiotic, and performative lines as well as a reframing of language learning through an ideology and identity lens. As a result of this linguistic reconceptualization, globalized adolescent immigrant language learners should be viewed as social actors who possess and are in the process of developing symbolic competence (cf. Kramsch and Whiteside 2007, 2008; Kramsch 2009). [source]


    Learner and information characteristics in the design of powerful learning environments

    APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2006
    Fred Paas
    This themed issue aims to present some current directions in cognitive load research. The contributions to this issue represent a compilation of symposia contributions to the 11th European Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), 2005, in Nicosia, Cyprus. These cognitive load symposia were focused on empirical and theoretical perspectives on designing powerful learning environments by aligning learner characteristics, information characteristics, or both with the knowledge structures underlying the cognitive architecture. This article provides an introduction to cognitive load theory and the instructional design consequences of these characteristics, and a short overview of the contributions to this issue. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


    Virtual reality simulations in Web-based science education

    COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION, Issue 1 2002
    Young-Suk Shin
    Abstract This article presents the educational possibilities of Web-based science education using a desktop virtual reality (VR) system. A Web site devoted to science education for middle school students has been designed and developed in the areas of earth sciences: meteorology, geophysics, geology, oceanography, and astronomy. Learners can establish by themselves the pace of their lessons using learning contents considered learner level and they can experiment in real time with the concepts they have learned, interacting with VR environments that we provide. A VR simulation program developed has been evaluated with a questionnaire from learners after learning freely on the Web. This study shows that Web-based science education using VR can be effectively used as a virtual class. When we consider the rapid development of VR technology and lowering of cost, the study can construct more immersive environments for the education in the near future. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 10: 18,25, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com.); DOI 10.1002/cae.10014 [source]


    "Let's Go to MY Museum": Inspiring Confident Learners and Museum Explorers at Children's Museums

    CURATOR THE MUSEUM JOURNAL, Issue 1 2007
    Carol Enseki
    Recent guests have arrived from as far away as Israel, Ecuador, Japan, and Australia, and as nearby as the Bronx. In the United States, children's museums represent one of the youngest and fastest growing cultural sectors. Our field was founded in 1899 with the opening of the Brooklyn Children's Museum. Anna Billings Gallup, an influential curator and director at the museum from 1902 to 1937, spoke widely about the value of bringing the child into the forefront of museum activities. In the United States, the field grew slowly but steadily to four children's museums in 1925 and to approximately 38 by 1975. In the last three decades, sparked by the groundbreaking work of Michael Spock at the Boston Children's Museum, the field has been energized by an extraordinary boom in new and expanding children's museums. Today there are approximately 350 worldwide. [source]


    The Role of Interest in Fostering Sixth Grade Students' Identities As Competent Learners

    CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 1 2000
    Jean C. Mcphail
    The combined works of John Dewey and Jerome Bruner provide a framework spanning a century of educational thought which can inform curriculum decisions concerning students' educational development, especially for middle school students whose waning of motivation toward school has been well documented by researchers and has long concerned parents and teachers. This framework, combined with recent contributions of motivation and interest researchers, can create broad understandings of how to collaboratively construct effective educational contexts. As early as 1913, Dewey specifically looked at the pivotal role of students' genuine interests in Interest and Effort in Education. Our current research focus on how students' interest can inform curricular contexts marks the recent shift showing an increased use of interest in education research since 1990. In this article, we discuss our study of a team-taught double classroom of sixth grade students whose interests were determined through a series of brainstorming sessions, and individual and focus group interviews. Students' interests fell into six categories centering around subject areas such as Drama, Science, and Animal Studies. Learning contexts were constructed around four of these subject areas. Students participated in their first or second choice of subject area group. We found significantly higher scores on measures of Affect and Activation if students participated in their first choice group. We found intra-group unities of preferred and dispreferred ways of learning which distinguished each group from the class as a whole. Finally, our findings indicated that students reliably described their genuine interests over time. Students' interests were found to be effective tools for informing curriculum decisions in the creation of sixth grade learning contexts. [source]


    Classification System for English Language Learners: Issues and Recommendations

    EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT: ISSUES AND PRACTICE, Issue 3 2008
    Jamal Abedi
    High-stakes decisions for the instruction and assessment of English language learner (ELL) students are made based on the premise that ELL classification is a valid dichotomy that distinguishes between those who are proficient in the use of the English language and those who are not. However, recent research findings draw a vague picture of the term "ELL" and call for a more valid classification system for ELL students. Thus, the purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to reveal issues concerning the validity of the current ELL classification system based on the results of several empirical studies, and (2) to initiate a discussion on ways to improve the validity of the ELL classification system by proposing a system that uses existing multiple criteria in a stepwise manner. While the suggested system has its own limitations and controversies, we hope this discussion stimulates thoughts and brings much needed attention to this very important national issue. [source]


    The Hope of a Critical Ethics: Teachers and Learners

    EDUCATIONAL THEORY, Issue 3 2004
    Donald Blumenfeld-Jones
    The basic question of this essay is what motivates a person to act on behalf of the "ethical good"? Critical theorists (such as Max Horkheimer, Paulo Freire, and Sharon Welch) have proposed the educational development of critical rationality as the answer to this question, with Freire adding the notion of love and Welch adding the notion of "dangerous memory." These positions are both critiqued and used as a starting place for proposing a critical ethics with three bases: (1) Emmanuel Levinas's notion of ethical infinity (that is, a person is more than any category can reveal and categories entrap and harm the person), (2) the notion of creating a community based on "relational authority," and (3) the development of moral imagination. Descriptions of specific classroom situations ground the discussion in education. [source]


    Advanced Heritage Learners of Spanish: A Sociolinguistic Profile for Pedagogical Purposes

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 2 2010
    Irma Alarcón
    Abstract: This article reports on an extensive survey administered to advanced heritage language (HL) learners to examine their language behaviors, attitudes, and backgrounds. To date, there have been no detailed categorizations of advanced HL learners to guide classroom instruction and curriculum design. Thus the present study is a first attempt to fill this gap by providing a sociolinguistic profile of these speakers, including their identifying characteristics, linguistic needs, and similarities and differences with lower-proficiency speakers. Survey responses indicate that advanced HL learners possess both productive and receptive skills in the HL, always use Spanish at home, are fluent speakers of a standard variety, already have basic academic skills in Spanish, and are therefore primarily interested in perfecting their academic writing skills. [source]


    An International Comparison of Socially Constructed Language Learning Motivation and Beliefs

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 2 2009
    Sandra G. Kouritzin
    French; Japanese; relevant to all languages Abstract: In our global economy, it is important to understand all factors influencing successful language learning. A survey of more than 6,000 university students in Canada, Japan, and France revealed differences in language learning beliefs, attitudes, and motivations in the three countries. Learners in Canada and France exhibited primarily instrumental and integrative motivation, respectively, whereas learners from Japan displayed a different form, social capital motivation, in which knowledge of a foreign language carries value in and of itself. Knowledge of these different forms of motivation has pedagogical and political implications for language teachers. [source]


    At-Risk Second Language Learners: Problems, Solutions, and Challenges

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 1 2009
    Richard Sparks Guest Editor
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]


    Working Toward Shared Visions of Successful Language Learners

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 1 2009
    Dolly Jesusita Young Guest Editor
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]


    An Investigation of Reading Strategies Applied by American Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 4 2008
    Li-Chun Lee-Thompson Assistant ProfessorArticle first published online: 19 MAR 200
    Abstract: Minimal research has been conducted in reading Chinese as a second/ foreign language (CSI/CFL). In an effort to further the understanding of the reading process, this study, utilizing think aloud and retelling procedures, focuses on the identification of strategies that American university students applied to read Chinese texts (narrative and argumentative), and the difficulties encountered when processing texts for meaning. Also it examines whether Bernhardt's constructivist model can account for the reading process of the CFL learners at the intermediate proficiency level. The results show that the CFL readers employed bottom-up and top-down processing strategies, that their difficulties were pertinent to vocabulary, orthography, grammar, and background knowledge, and that Bernhardt's reading model could account for the reading process of CFL learners with minor modification. [source]


    The Role of Structural Position in L2 Phonological Acquisition: Evidence from English Learners of Spanish as L2

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 2 2008
    Gabriela Vokic
    Abstract: In this pilot study, the speech of 12 adult native speakers of English with intermediate to intermediate-high proficiency in Spanish as a second language (L2) was analyzed to determine whether L2 learners rely on distributional information in the process of L2 speech learning and if so, if similar or dissimilar distributional patterns of sounds are more easily acquired. The parameter for (dis)similarity was set around the notion of structural position in combination with native language (L1) and L2 phonemic inventories. The results show that the subjects were consistently more successful in producing the phonemes with overlapping distributional patterns in L1 and L2 than phonemes whose distribution differed in L1 and L2 as well as novel L2 contrasts. [source]


    A Comparison of the Attitudes of Learners, Instructors, and Native French Speakers About the Pronunciation of French: An Exploratory Study

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 3 2007
    Isabelle Drewelow
    The stereotype has it that native French Speakers are annoyed by foreign Speakers' errors in pronunciation. The purpose of this pilot study was to assess beliefs about the importance of accurate pronunciation in French held by three afferent groups: (1) 73 second- and third-semester students of French at a large midwestern research university in the United States, (2) 16 nonnative-speaker instructors of French at the same institution, and (3) 24 native Speakers of French living in France. In a fall Semester, each of the three groups received near mirror-image versions of a questionnaire, ranging from 33 items (for the learners) to 29 items (for the instructors) to 26 items (for the native French Speakers) in true/false format. Acknowledging that attitudes toward foreign accents might be language- and nationality-specific, all questions pertained to Americans speaking French. Percentages were calculated, and corresponding questions on all three questionnaires were grouped according to theme, then compared and cross-referenced with participants' backgrounds. Generally, this study revealed a gap between the attitudes of hypothetical native Speakers, promoted in teaching on the one hand, and the attitudes professed by real native Speakers on the other hand. The results of this study discredit the myth that native French Speakers have a low tolerance for an American accent in French. Instructors, and nonnative Speaker instructors specifically, need to project more realistic goals and refrain from misinforming their students that a perfect native-like pronunciation is vital to successful communication with native Speakers. [source]


    Development of the Spanish Subjunctive by Advanced Learners: Study Abroad Followed by At-Home Instruction

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 2 2007
    Article first published online: 31 DEC 200, Casilde A. Isabelli
    This study investigates whether or not abstract-level linguistic features, not successfully acquired abroad, will be acquired once the advanced language learner returns from a study abroad program and is exposed to linguistic instruction. The goal of the study was to measure the development of the Spanish subjunctive in adverbial clauses collected via oral interviews among 24 learners who were exposed to advanced subjunctive instruction upon returning from a study abroad program, and to compare them to 19 learners who were exposed to advanced subjunctive instruction without ever having studied abroad. The results show a positive effect on the development of the Spanish subjunctive with linguistic instruction. However, those who had previous study abroad experience benefited even more from this instruction in that they produced more complex subjunctive-related structures. [source]


    Cultures and Comparisons: Strategies for Learners

    FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 3 2005
    Sandra J. Savignon
    Abstract: This article suggests a set of strategies for developing the sociocultural competence of language learners. These strategies extend the notion of coping strategies, or strategic competence (Savignon, 1972, 1983, 1997), to include the intercultural dimension articulated in current goals for U.S. world language education. Adopting the integrative, communicative perspective of language development reflected in the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (National Standards, 1999), this article offers classroom strategies for teaching and learning with particular reference to the goal areas of "cultures" and "comparisons." This proposal is grounded in a theory of language inseparable from culture,one that views ability in both a first language (L1) and subsequent languages as the result of socialization and the language classroom as a site of exploration in the development of communicative competence. Suggestions for classroom implementation of strategy training are supported by classroom research (Savignon & Sysoyev, 2002). [source]


    Exploring the Challenges of Climate Science Literacy: Lessons from Students, Teachers and Lifelong Learners

    GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 9 2010
    Lesley-Ann L. Dupigny-Giroux
    Today more than ever, being climate literate is a critical skill and knowledge area that influences our interaction with the environment around us, our understanding of scientific news and the daily decisions that we make. Yet, the term climate literacy can be misunderstood, as are the terms weather, climate and climate variability. This article surveys the existing literature and highlights six challenges to achieving a climate literate citizenry in both formal and informal or lifelong learning. The lessons learned from high school and undergraduate students, teachers and lifelong learners, many of whom are retired, serve as the threads which are woven into a tapestry of strategies for embedding climate science principles across entire school curricula as well as society at large. [source]


    Contingency Learning and Reactivity in Preterm and Full-Term Infants at 3 Months

    INFANCY, Issue 6 2008
    David W. Haley
    Learning difficulties in preterm infants are thought to reflect impairment in arousal regulation. We examined relationships among gestational age, learning speed, and behavioral and physiological reactivity in 55 preterm and 49 full-term infants during baseline, contingency, and nonreinforcement phases of a conjugate mobile paradigm at 3 months corrected age. For all infants, negative affect, looking duration, and heart rate levels increased during contingency and nonreinforcement phases, whereas respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA, an index of parasympathetic activity) decreased and Cortisol did not change. Learners showed greater RSA suppression and less negative affect than nonleamers. This pattern was particularly evident in the preterm group. Overall, preterm infants showed less learning, spent less time looking at the mobile, and had lower Cortisol levels than full-term infants. Preterm infants also showed greater heart rate responses to contingency and dampened heart rate responses to nonreinforcement compared to full-term infants. Findings underscore differences in basal and reactivity measures in preterm compared to full-term infants and suggest that the capacity to regulate parasympathetic activity during a challenge enhances learning in preterm infants. [source]


    Autonomy of Artistic Expression for Adult Learners with Disabilities

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ART & DESIGN EDUCATION, Issue 2 2008
    Graham C. Young
    When an art tutor adopts the role of assistant to a disabled artist it is difficult not to move from helping with the physical handling of materials on the one hand into the actual creative process on the other, thus influencing how the artwork looks. Ecas is an Edinburgh-based charity which promotes opportunities for physically disabled people to be self-fulfilled and to participate in all aspects of society. They run, among other things, traditional art classes and computer classes. The use of computer technology (CT) in art seemed to offer the chance for self-fulfilment for disabled artists by increasing control over artistic choices and providing for self expression with only minimal assistance required from others. Ecas decided to fund a research project in the form of a ten-week pilot course and the data collected during the trial confirmed these possibilities and it was clear that adult learners with disabilities could benefit from CT in order to have greater autonomy in the creation of their art than before. In particular the program Corel Painter IX.5 and various graphics tablets proved to be a powerful arsenal for self-expression without having to wait for a tutor to tape paper to a board, replenish paint, change brushes attached to a head pointer or any one of the many and varied problems disabled students had with traditional art materials. [source]


    Learners' evaluation of a navigation support tool in distance education

    JOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 5 2007
    C. Bolman
    Abstract This article investigates the usability of a navigation support tool, which guides learners by generating advice on the next best step to take in a self-study e-learning course. The article draws on log data and responses from online questionnaires to provide insights into learners' evaluation of the tool, their adherence to the advice and their expectations of self-efficacy. The theoretical underpinnings of the work are described together with the experimental set-up. Results show that more than half of the learners in the experimental group adhered to the advice and held the opinion that the advice stimulated them to proceed with the course. Learners expressed a need to know what the advice was based on which can be seen as an essential element in future development of the tool. [source]


    GESTALT: a framework for redesign of educational software

    JOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 1 2006
    M. Puustinen
    Abstract Design of educational multimedia rarely starts from scratch, but rather by attempting to reuse existing software. Although redesign has been an issue in research on evaluation and on learning objects, how it should be carried out in a principled way has remained relatively unexplored. Furthermore, understanding how empirical research on information and communication technologies (ICT) should feed back into redesign remains difficult. The present paper addresses these problems from the viewpoint of carrying out pedagogical expert evaluations, in the absence of empirical studies of target learners, in order to generate recommendations for redesign. Firstly, redesign proposals should be based on a coherent reconstruction of pedagogical foundations of educational ICT (software, documentation). Secondly, redesign proposals should result from dialogue between stakeholders, such as future users, pedagogical experts, software designers, and deciders. To these ends, we propose a framework, called GESTALT (Goals, (E) SiTuations, Actions, Learners, Tools), as a ,boundary object' for dialogical redesign. Within an activity theory approach, GESTALT is based on analysis of available tools, the actions they support, the characteristics of learners who perform actions, and pedagogical goals that could be achieved in specific situations. An illustrative GESTALT analysis of educational software is provided, principally from the viewpoint of pedagogical experts. Finally, the strengths and limits of GESTALT are discussed. [source]


    A multimedia-enhanced collaborative learning environment

    JOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 1 2000
    C-K. Looi
    Abstract The proliferation of the Internet has brought about the notion of online virtual communities. One enabling technology for online communities is multiuser environments such as Multi-User Dimensions (MUDs) and Object-Oriented MUDS (MOOs). These text-based collaborative learning environments have recently have been integrated with the World Wide Web, thus harnessing the graphics and multimedia-rich environments available therein. Learners can directly experience, manipulate, and create objects in their rich multimedia form. MUDs and MOOs are augmented with synchronous collaboration technology that provided simultaneous control and viewing of shared documents and applications. In this paper, we describe a multimedia-enhanced MOO system called SpaceALIVE! and our experiences from a pilot project involving Singapore students who use SpaceALIVE! as a collaborative learning environment are reported. [source]


    Segmental Acquisition in Adult ESL Learners: A Longitudinal Study of Vowel Production

    LANGUAGE LEARNING, Issue 3 2008
    Murray J. Munro
    Research on second language (L2) phonetic learning indicates that, even in adults, segmental acquisition remains possible through L2 experience. However, the findings of previous cross-sectional studies of vowel and consonant learning have proved difficult to interpret. In this longitudinal investigation of 44 recent arrivals in Canada, productions of 10 English vowels in CVC context were elicited at 2-month intervals and evaluated by trained and untrained listeners. Improved intelligibility was observed, even in the absence of focused instruction on vowels. The results support the proposal that L2 phonetic learning is initially rapid but tends to plateau within a few months. However, this finding is complicated by different learning trajectories across vowels, differential L1 influences, and possible effects of word frequency. [source]