Muhammad Abdul-Mageed's Blog

BANADOURA: The Shakespeare Language Syrian Dictator Twitter Insulter

2012-02-10T20:51:00.000-08:00

This is a tiny script that uses Shakepeare language* to insult the bloodthirsty Syrian dictator. BANADOURA is geared toward tweet generation, with the two hashtags "#Bashar" and "#Syria". It uses the Python programming language and can be highly and easily customized (for example to generate tweets on other topics, using other language varieties/languages, etc.). Hopefully someone can take it and develop it further into an extractable. (Sorry, I did not have time to work any further on it). If you do develop this further, I'd appreciate it if you let me know so that I point people to your baby. The simple code is below, with a sample run. I typically generate 20 tweets per run. Why did I call it BANADOURA? Well, this is classified info.... Will tell you later, maybe?.

[For updates, follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/mageed]

*[The Shakespeare words are taken from here]
========================= CODE ==============================
#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
######################
__author__="mam"
__date__ ="02/10/2012"
######################
from random import choice
######################
columnA=["artless", "bawdy", "beslubbering", "bootless",\
"churlish", "cockered", "clouted", "craven", \
"currish", "dankish", "dissembling", "droning", "errant",\
"fawning", "fobbing ", "froward", "frothy", "gleeking", "goatish",\
"gorbellied", "impertinent", "infectious", "jarring", "loggerheaded",
"lumpish", "mammering", "mangled", "mewling ", "paunchy", "pribbling",\
"puking", "puny", "qualling", "rank", "reeky", "roguish", "ruttish", "saucy",\
"spleeny", "spongy", "surly", "tottering", "unmuzzled", "vain", "venomed", \
"villainous", "warped", "wayward", "weedy", "yeasty"]
#######################
columnB= ["base-court", "bat-fowling", "beef-witted", "beetle-headed", "boil-brained",\
"clapper-clawed", "clay-brained", "common-kissing", "crook-pated", \
"dismal-dreaming", "dizzy-eyed", "doghearted",\
"dread-bolted", "earth-vexing", "elf-skinned", "fat-kidneyed",\
"fen-sucked", "flap-mouthed", "fly-bitten", "folly-fallen", \
"fool-born", "full-gorged", "guts-griping", "half-faced",\
"hasty-witted", "hedge-born", "hell-hated", "idle-headed",\
"ill-breeding", "ill-nurtured", "knotty-pated", "milk-livered",\
"motley-minded", "onion-eyed", "plume-plucked", "pottle-deep",\
"pox-marked", "reeling-ripe", "rough-hewn", "rude-growing", \
"rump-fed", "shard-borne", "sheep-biting",\
"spur-galled", "swag-bellied", "tardy-gaited", "tickle-brained",\
"toad-spotted", "unchin-snouted",\
"weather-bitten"]
#######################
columnC= ["apple-john", "baggage", "barnacle", "bladder", "boar-pig", "bugbear", "bum-bailey",\
"canker-blossom", "clack-dish", "clotpole", "coxcomb", "codpiece", "death-token", \
"dewberry", "flap-dragon", "flax-wench", "flirt-gill", "foot-licker", "fustilarian", \
"giglet", "gudgeon", "haggard", "harpy", "hedge-pig", "horn-beast", "hugger-mugger",\
"joithead", "lewdster", "lout", "maggot-pie", "malt-worm", "mammet", "measle",\
"minnow", "miscreant", "moldwarp", "mumble-news", "nut-hook", "pigeon-egg", "pignut",\
"puttock", "pumpion", "ratsbane", "scut", "skainsmate", "strumpet", "varlot",\
"vassal", "whey-face", "wagtail"]
#######################
if __name__ == "__main__":
print "Welcome to BANADOURA, The Syrian Dictator Tweet Insulter...", "\n", "*"*59, "\n"
for i in range(1, 20):
print "#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art", choice(columnA)+", "+ choice(columnB)+", "+\ choice(columnC)+ "!! #Syria"

========================= SAMPLE RUN ========================

Welcome to BANADOURA, The Syrian Dictator Tweet Insulter...
***********************************************************

#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art spleeny, fen-sucked, gudgeon!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art roguish, pox-marked, bladder!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art froward, reeling-ripe, skainsmate!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art frothy, ill-breeding, bladder!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art spongy, toad-spotted, haggard!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art infectious, beef-witted, giglet!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art loggerheaded, common-kissing, measle!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art currish, beetle-headed, whey-face!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art warped, half-faced, harpy!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art impertinent, pottle-deep, lout!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art jarring, base-court, puttock!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art mewling , fat-kidneyed, puttock!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art droning, base-court, clack-dish!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art saucy, doghearted, pigeon-egg!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art roguish, doghearted, barnacle!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art cockered, ill-breeding, canker-blossom!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art wayward, hedge-born, barnacle!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art craven, boil-brained, measle!! #Syria
#Bashar, Mr. bloodthirsty, thou art dankish, base-court, baggage!! #Syria

AWATIF: A Multi-Genre Corpus for Modern Standard Arabic Subjectivity and Sentiment Analysis

2012-02-01T05:40:00.000-08:00

Abdul-Mageed, M. & Diab, M. (Forthcoming, 2012). AWATIF: A Multi-Genre Corpus for Modern Standard Arabic Subjectivity and Sentiment Analysis. The 8th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC2012) . Istanbul, Turkey.

[photo credits: Google pics]

Egyptian's Latest Trend of 'Cyperactivism?': #occupyFacebook!

2011-12-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

[Photo credit]

Egyptian activists are flooding Facebook walls of celebrities like Van Diesel and Shakira, as well as political figures like Obama, with satirical posts about the Egyptian revolution. Egyptian Twitter users are reporting the activity under the hashtag #occcupyfacebook. Most of the FB wall comments are funny, with sth like:

ممكن يا عم ديزل تنزل مصر تحللنا مشكله الدخليه و البلطجيه علشان انت ولد خلاصه و حاتجيب من الاخر و اوعدك بسجارتين بانجو من المضوب بتاع ليبيا

English: Hey uncle Diesel, come over to Egypt and solve the problem with the police and thugs. You're such a good guy and will be up to it. I promise you a couple of these Libya-smuggled marijuana cigarettes?

Another comment on Shakiras wall mimics and Egyptian song that is usually dedicated to mothers in the mother's day. It runs as follows:

ست الحبايب يا شاكيرا .. يا أغلى من روبي ونانسي!

English: Oh Shakira, most loved, you're dearer than Rouby and Nancy.

(Rouby and Nancy are two popular Arab singers).

Comments on Obama's FB page are fast growing, with ~100 comments per minute. These include serious comments in English like "Stop Exporting tear Gas to Egypt" and:

يابنى قول للمشير يسلم السلطه علشان احنا عيال غلسه من الاخر و مش حنسيب الصفحه

English: "Tell the Marshall to hand over power, we're really naughty and won't release the page."

Many comments are on the funnier side, including ones describing how to cook many types of Egyptian food:

From Obama's page: Chicken Kibdaky (English: a mock-up for "KFC"):

عااااااجل و حصريا الدجاج المنتظر : طريقه عمل دجاج كبداكى
1كيلو دبابيس فراخ +1كيس بقسماط+2بيضة+شوية دقيق درة+[الطريقة نسلق الفراخ بعد كدة نحطها في الفريزر مدة سعتين وبعدين نطلعهم من الفريزر نحطهم في البيض والبقسماط وبعدين في الدقيق وبعد كدة ارجعي حطيهم في الفريزر تاني لمدة ساعتين واللة بيعملوها كدة في كنتاكي ممكن تعملي كتير وتبقي تطلعيها في اي وقت تحمري في الزيت جميلة وتنشفيها علي ورق مناديل وبالف هنا ويارب تعجبكم :D

From Diesel's page: Good-smelling taqliyah (English: "sauce"):

طريقة عمل التقلية .... الله على ريحتها :

- ضعي ملعقة السمن في طاسة صغيرة وضعي باقي خلطة الثوم عليها
- عندما يتحمر الثوم ويصبح لونه ذهبي .... أوعي تحرقيه ... خليكي شاطرة .. تضيفيه على الملوخية ... وياسلااام على الريحة والطشة ....

- وبعدين تقلبي كله على بعضه وبالهنااااااو الشفاااااا .....

Yet other comments are Egyptian folklorish, proverbs, and popular songs like:

السح ادح امبو
ادي الواد لأبوه
ياعيني الواد بيعيط شيل الواد من الارض

Other comments are more hilarious, imagining Obama as a call boy in a cafe:

انا كنت طالب شاى ونسكافيه
عشان جعان فين هم ياد يا اوباما

English: "I ordered for tea and Nescafe. Where are these Obama?"

Performances include imagining the Wall as a physical space. In the following comment it is likened to a user's house:

حد يعملتا كوبايتين شاى ويشد كرسى ويجى البيت بيتك

English "Make us a couple cups of tea... grab a chair and come on in, it's your house":

The wall is also likened to a playground:

طب احنا عايزن نلعب كوره بقي نلعب علي الول وخلاص يلا

English: "We wanna play soccer, let's play on this wall..."

and a community gathering:

حد معاه سندوتش مربى ؟

English: "Does anyone have a jam sandwich?"

The wall is also likened to a bedroom:

بلاش دوشه عايز انام

English: "Stop this noise; I need to sleep!"

Activists also use Glitchrs, like the below:

‎.... j̡̆ͣͯ̆҉̸͈͖̙͙͍̰̺̥̖̯̠̼̺̳̞ͅj̋̆̀̊ͪ̍̽͒ͫ͢͏̵̱̗͎̬̟̠̟̮̟͉͎͖̙͉͚͚͞j̸̨̜̞͈͙̝̥̣̤͕̹͓͔͌̂͂̾͑ͪ̑ͤ͋̓̽́͊͑̉̄̓́j̵̲̗͇͔̼̜̦̹̜̫̥͇͋̍̑̾̋̅̏̽̍̂̓̽̔͗̈́͑̕ͅj̧̛̘̜̩̼͙̓̋̈͊͐̓ͫͧͬͮͨ̍̽̈̄̏͆͢j̧ͩ̃ͬͬ̓ͮ͏̸̢̳͈͇̰̪̼̞̙͞j́ͬ̀ͨ͊ͭ̚͏̴̳̘͉̺̲j̷̇͒̑̎ͥ͑̽̎ͨ̿͗̐̐̓̎͏͍̮̪̗̮ͅj̶̧̧͈͈̰̜͔̖͖̘̮̦͓͛͑ͫ̎͊ͬ͂͛̆͂̽̈́ͣ̀̚j͗ͭ̒̇ͪj̡̆ͣͯ̆҉̸͈͖̙͙͍̰̺̥̖̯̠̼̺̳̞ͅj̋̆̀̊ͪ̍̽͒ͫ͢͏̵̱̗͎̬̟̠̟̮̟͉͎͖̙͉͚͚͞j̸̨̜̞͈͙̝̥̣̤͕̹͓͔͌̂͂̾͑ͪ̑ͤ͋̓̽́͊͑̉̄̓́j̵̲̗͇͔̼̜̦̹̜̫̥͇͋̍̑̾̋̅̏̽̍̂̓̽̔͗̈́͑̕ͅj̧̛̘̜̩̼͙̓̋̈͊͐̓ͫͧͬͮͨ̍̽̈̄̏͆͢j̧ͩ̃ͬͬ̓ͮ͏̸̢̳͈͇̰̪̼̞̙͞j́ͬ̀ͨ͊ͭ̚͏̴̳̘͉̺̲j̷̇͒̑̎ͥ͑̽̎ͨ̿͗̐̐̓̎͏͍̮̪̗̮ͅj̶̧̧͈͈̰̜͔̖͖̘̮̦͓͛͑ͫ̎͊ͬ͂͛̆͂̽̈́ͣ̀̚j͗ͭ̒̇ͪj̡̆ͣͯ̆҉̸͈͖̙͙͍̰̺̥̖̯̠̼̺̳̞ͅj̋̆̀̊ͪ̍̽͒ͫ͢͏̵̱̗͎̬̟̠̟̮̟͉͎͖̙͉͚͚͞j̸̨̜̞͈͙̝̥̣̤͕̹͓͔͌̂͂̾͑ͪ̑ͤ͋̓̽́͊͑̉̄̓́j̵̲̗͇͔̼̜̦̹̜̫̥͇͋̍̑̾̋̅̏̽̍̂̓̽̔͗̈́͑̕ͅj̧̛̘̜̩̼͙̓̋̈͊͐̓ͫͧͬͮͨ̍̽̈̄̏͆͢j̧ͩ̃ͬͬ̓ͮ͏̸̢̳͈͇̰̪̼̞̙͞j́ͬ̀ͨ͊ͭ̚͏̴̳̘͉̺̲j̷̇͒̑̎ͥ͑̽̎ͨ̿͗̐̐̓̎͏͍̮̪̗̮ͅj̶̧̧͈͈̰̜͔̖͖̘̮̦͓͛͑ͫ̎͊ͬ͂͛̆͂̽̈́ͣ̀̚j͗ͭ̒̇ͪj̡̆ͣͯ̆҉̸͈͖̙͙͍̰̺̥̖̯̠̼̺̳̞ͅj̋̆̀̊ͪ̍̽͒ͫ͢͏̵̱̗͎̬̟̠̟̮̟͉͎͖̙͉͚͚͞j̸̨̜̞͈͙̝̥̣̤͕̹͓͔͌̂͂̾͑ͪ̑ͤ͋̓̽́͊͑̉̄̓́j̵̲̗͇͔̼̜̦̹̜̫̥͇͋̍̑̾̋̅̏̽̍̂̓̽̔͗̈́͑̕ͅj̧̛̘̜̩̼͙̓̋̈͊͐̓ͫͧͬͮͨ̍̽̈̄̏͆͢j̧ͩ̃ͬͬ̓ͮ͏̸̢̳͈͇̰̪̼̞̙͞j́ͬ̀ͨ͊ͭ̚͏̴̳̘͉̺̲j̷̇͒̑̎ͥ͑̽̎ͨ̿͗̐̐̓̎͏͍̮̪̗̮ͅj̶̧̧͈͈̰̜͔̖͖̘̮̦͓͛͑ͫ̎͊ͬ͂͛̆͂̽̈́ͣ̀̚j͗ͭ̒̇ͪj̡̆ͣͯ̆҉̸͈͖̙͙͍̰̺̥̖̯̠̼̺̳̞ͅj̋̆̀̊ͪ̍̽͒ͫ͢͏̵̱̗͎̬̟̠̟̮̟͉͎͖̙͉͚͚͞j͌̂͂̾͑ͪ̑ͤ͋
ᅠᅠ
ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ
▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█▓▒░␥ ... EGYPT ... ␥░▒▓█▇▆▅▄▃▂▁
ᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ

The #hashtag prefix "occupy" is increasingly becoming popular in Egypt. It is perhaps now a universally used one by many protest groups.

Toward Building a Large-Scale Arabic Sentiment Lexicon

2011-10-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

NEW Paper!








Abdul-Mageed, M. & Diab, M. (Forthcoming, 2012).
Toward Building a Large-Scale Arabic Sentiment Lexicon.
In Proceedings of the 6th International Global WordNet
Conference, January, 9-13,  Matsue, Japan. [pdf][bib]

[photo 1 credit]
[photo 2 credit]

ASMA: A Toolkit for Arabic Segmentation and Morpho-Syntactic Disambiguation

2011-10-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

NEW Software!
NEW SOFTWARE!

Over the past few months, I have been trying to find time to work on a tool for processing Arabic. Finally, I have ASMA! While ASMA is an acronym from the phrase "Arabic segmentation and morpho-syntactic disambiguation," it is also an Arabic female name.

ASMA is a Toolkit for Arabic Segmentation and Morpho-Syntactic Disambiguation.

For segmentation, ASMA takes running Arabic text and identifies all segment boundaries in a tradition identical to that in the Penn Arabic Treebank (PATB). The segmenter works with an accuracy of 99.44%.

For morpho-syntactic tagging, ASMA takes segmented text as input and assigns morpho-syntactic tags using the PATB tagset (excluding Case and Mood tags) with an accuracy of 96.78%.

ASMA thus renders state-of-the art accuracies and I plan to use it as an enabling technology in my subjectivity and sentiment analysis system.

ASMA exploits data from the PATB (parts 1, 2, and 3), with a standard 80% TRAIN, 10% DEV, and 10% TEST data split...

(Work on ASMA is not yet published!)...

Linguistically-Motivated Subjectivity and Sentiment Annotation and Tagging of Modern Standard Arabic

2011-09-17T21:26:00.000-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, M & Diab, M. (Forthcoming, 2012). Linguistically-Motivated Subjectivity and Sentiment Annotation and Tagging of Modern Standard Arabic. (Journal Publication!)

Statistical Parsing, Computational Pragmatics, Computational Lexical Semantics, and Semitic Morphology & Syntax

2011-09-17T20:43:00.000-07:00

*[photo credit: http://verbs.colorado.edu/LSA2011/manyfaces/nlp.html]

During part of the 2011 Summer, I attended the Linguistic Society of America's (LSA 2011) Summer Institute. It was held in Colorado University at Boulder. I took four courses, as follows:

Statistical Parsing: (with Rebecca Hwa, Department of Computer Science, University of Pittsburgh). We covered various parsing algorithms. We also built a parser for a dummy language using some code provided by Rebecca. After we wrote a grammar for the language, I developed a simple algorithm that optimized the performance of the parser and could improve about 2% over the performance of the non-optimized parser. Rebecca, Sandra (Kuebler, my wonderful IU advisor) and I had great time dining in Boulder and eating ice cream. Oh, we also had an eventful trip to the Rocky Mountains!
Computational Pragmatics: (with Chris Potts, from the Department of Linguistics, Stanford University). We looked into various ways of computing pragmatic phenomena using corpora. Chris had lots of data and the class was pretty interactive. We turned quick proof-of-concept exercises (and of course I did it all in Python ;)). I turned a proof-of-concept system for gender detection as a final project. Hopefully I will have time to improve and publish!
Computational Lexical Semantics: (with Martha Palmer, Colorado linguistics & Christian Fellbaum, from Princeton Computer Science Dept.). We covered a lot of computational semantics, including (multi-lingual) semantic role labeling. Martha and Christian introduced several resources and we turned exercises where we used such resources in meaningful ways. I turned a Web-mining project that I am excited about!! Christiane was generous with her time and we met once for coffee (my treat :), I could convince Christiane) and another time for lunch.
Semitic Morphology & Syntax: (with Abbas Benmamoun from Univ. of Illinois Linguistics and Adam Ussishkin, from Univ. of Arizona Linguistics) We covered what the course title suggests and I reviewed two articles about the automatic processing of Hebrew and Egyptian Arabic as a final project.

Tweeting in Arabic: What, How and Whither (New!)

2011-09-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, M., Albogmi, H., Gerrio, A., Hamed, E.; Aldibasi, O. (2011, October 10-13). Tweeting in Arabic: What, How and Whither. A paper accepted for presentation at the 12th annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (Internet Research 12.0 – Performance and Participation). Seattle, USA.

Reception of the Obama Healthcare Reform Plan in Professional and User-Generated Web Content

2011-09-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

YoussefAgha, A., Abdul-Mageed, M., Loherman, D., Lieberman, T. (2011, October 10-13). Reception of the Obama Healthcare Reform Plan in Professional and User-Generated Web Content. A paper accepted for presentation at the 12th annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (Internet Research 12.0 – Performance and Participation). Seattle, USA.

Taghreed?: What Arabs say on Twitter and how they say it.

2011-09-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, M., Albogmi, H. (2011). Taghreed?: What Arabs say on Twitter and how they say it. Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics (GURT2011). Language and New Media: Discourse 2.0. (Posetr).

”Yes we can?”: Subjectivity Annotation and Tagging for the Health Domain

2011-06-16T22:13:00.000-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, M., Korayem, M. & YoussefAgha, A. (2011). "Yes we can?": Subjectivity Annotation and Tagging for the Health Domain. The International Conference on Recent Advances in Natural Language Processing (RANLP2011), 12-14 September, Hissar, Bulgaria. [pdf] [bib]

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Subjectivity and Sentiment Annotation of Modern Standard Arabic Newswire

2011-05-10T13:53:00.001-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, M. & Diab, M. (To appear, 2011). Subjectivity and Sentiment Annotation of Modern Standard Arabic Newswire. Proceedings of the the Fourth Linguistic Annotation Workshop. Portland, Oregon, USA, June 23-24, 2011. [pdf] [bib]

SUBJECTIVITY AND SENTIMENT ANALYSIS OF MODERN STANDARD ARABIC

2011-05-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, M., Diab, M. & Korayem, M. (To appear, 2011). SUBJECTIVITY AND SENTIMENT ANALYSIS OF MODERN STANDARD ARABIC. Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting on Association for Computational Linguistics. Portland, Oregon, USA, June 19-24, 2011. [pdf] [bib]

Automatic Detection of Arabic Non-Anaphoric Pronouns for Improving Anaphora Resolution

2011-03-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

NEW PUBLICATION
	Abdul-Mageed, M. (2011). Automatic Detection of Arabic Non-Anaphoric Pronouns for Improving Anaphora Resolution. ACM Transactions on Asian Language Information Processing (TALIP), 10(1), 5. (15% acceptance rate as of 2009)

	doi>10.1145/1929908.1929913
	Full text: PDF
	Anaphora resolution is one of the most difficult tasks in NLP. The ability to identify non-referential pronouns before attempting an anaphora resolution task would be significant, since the system would not have to attempt resolving such pronouns and ... expand

Linguistic features, language variety, and sentiment in Arabic comments on Aljazeera and Alarabiya YouTube Videos

2010-12-24T23:54:00.000-08:00

Abdul-Mageed, M., AlAhmed, A. & Korayem, M. (2011). Linguistic features, language variety, and sentiment in Arabic comments on Aljazeera and Alarabiya YouTube Videos. Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics (GURT2011). Language and New Media: Discourse 2.0.

SLIS story: Arabic Natural Language Processing and Web Content Mining

2010-10-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

[Fall 2010 Teaching]: S543: Computer-Mediated Communication

2010-10-05T05:31:00.000-07:00

This fall (i.e., 2010), I teach Computer-Mediated Communication, the human-to-human interaction that takes place via networked computers as well as via mobile digital media. The goal of the course is to create an interactive learning and research community around the theme of computer-mediated communication. We read, discuss, and critique claims and findings from classic and contemporary research on a variety of CMC 'modes', including email, discussion forums, webboards, chat rooms, instant messaging, video chat, blogs, wikis, and social network sites. Two types of methods of researching CMC (i.e., Web content mining & Web content analysis) are also overviewed. The class attracted a host of students from various IU schools, including School of Library & Info. Science, the School of Informatics and Computing, the School of Journalism, and the School of Communication.

[Summer10 Teaching]: S603: Python Programming

2010-08-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

I am done teaching my Python Programming course. It was such an enjoyable experience for students, many of them have said. We watched a few videos, which made it a lot more interesting. The following is one of them:

[Upcoming Journal Publication]: Automatic Detection of Arabic Non-Anaphoric Pronouns for Improving Anaphora Resolution

2010-08-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

The manuscript with the above title has been accepted for publication in the ACM Transactions on Asian Language Information Processing.

Abstract:

Anaphora resolution is one of the most difficult tasks in NLP. The ability to identify non-referential pronouns before attempting an anaphora resolution task would be significant, since the system would not have to attempt resolving such pronouns and hence end up with fewer errors. In addition, the number of non-referential pronouns has been found to be non-trivial in many domains. The task of detecting non-referential pronouns could also be incorporated into a part-of-speech tagger or a parser, or treated as an initial step in semantic interpretation. In this paper, I describe a machine learning method for identifying non-referential pronouns in an annotated sub-segment of the Penn Arabic Treebank using three different feature settings. I achieve an accuracy of 97.22% with 52 different features extracted from a small window size of -5/+5 tokens surrounding each potentially non-referential pronoun.

Arabic Web Mining/Subjectivty Analysis Publication

2010-07-08T21:31:00.000-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, M. & Korayem, M. (2010). Automatic Identification of Subjectivity in Morphologically Rich Languages: The Case of Arabic. In Proceedings of 1st Workshop on Computational Approaches to Subjectivity and Sentiment Analysis (WASSA 2010). Lisbon, Portugal.

Abstract. As more user-generated content becomes available online, the need for mining that content becomes increasingly critical. One related area that has been witnessing a flurry of research is that of subjectivity and sentiment analysis. We report our efforts to annotate a corpus of 200 documents from the Penn Arabic Treebank, which is composed of news texts, for subjectivity, along with attempts to automatically classify that data at the sentence level. We investigate the performance of three different machine learning methods on the task with various features and vector settings. We achieve a very high accuracy using a support vector machines classifier. We finally briefly discuss issues related to performing text classification on Arabic, a morphologically rich language, and suggest future directions.

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Calligraphy by hassan.massoudy

Natural Language Processor and Analyzer (NLPA)

2010-04-25T08:23:00.000-07:00

Natural Language Processor and Analyzer (NLPA) is a simple site I created when I was taking a Web programming course. Although I usually use Python more, I wrote all the code in Perl (since it was the language of instruction in the class). The site does a few simple things. I might increment it, time allowing. The functions performed currently are:

SLIS's story about my Arabic NLP GT Presentation

2010-04-25T08:10:00.001-07:00

InPhO interactive visualization

2010-04-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

The visualization below is for philosophical concepts in the Indiana Philosophy Ontology (InPhO) project. My colleagues and I worked on InPhO for the final project in the information visualization class I am taking right now with Prof. Katy Borner. I extracted all concepts, sub-classes and instances from the April release of InPhO and visualized the data using ManyEyes.

The following is an interactive version.

NEW ARABIC NLP CONFERENCE PRESENTATION

2010-04-09T22:02:00.001-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, M. M. (2010). Instance sampling for automatic identification of Arabic pleonastic pronouns. A paper presented at The 4th annual Linguistics Department Conference. Indiana University, Bloomington (April 9th).

Arabic NLP Paper Presentation at Georgetown University!

2010-02-01T14:03:00.000-08:00

Automatic Identification of Arabic Non-Referential Pronouns Using Memory-Based Learning. Abdul-Mageed, M. M. Georgetown University Round Table 2010. Arabic Language and Linguistics, March (12-14). See here.

Jasist publications by keyword over the years.

2010-01-31T06:11:00.000-08:00

By Muhammad Abdul-Mageed

"Data still needs some cleaning, tweaking, etc."

Better viewed here.

Convergent Media Computer-Mediated Communication

2009-09-04T14:34:00.000-07:00

Susan Herring, Muhammad Abdul-Mageed, Daniel Kutz, Asta Zelenkauskaite

EPISTEMIC MODALITY IN COMPUTER-MEDIATED DISCOURSE: THE CASE OF AOIR-L

2009-05-31T07:31:00.000-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, M. M. (2009). Epistemic modality in computer-mediated discourse: The case of AoIR-L. Illinois Language and Linguistics Society 1: Language Online (ILLS 1: LOL). Friday, May 29 - Sunday, May 31, 2009 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

MEDIA WAR BLOGS: INSIDE THE ISRAELI AND LEBANESE BLOGOSPHERES

2009-04-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, M. M. & Ringrose, P. (2009, October 7-11). Media Warblogs: Inside the Israeli and Lebanese blogosphere. A paper accepted for presentation at the 10th annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (Internet Research 10.0 - Internet: Critical). Milwaukee, WI, USA.

Blogging is playing an increasingly significant role in media coverage of war. This reflects long-term trends in the Internet use that are profoundly affecting the way news is created and consumed (Ward 2007). Traditional media has evolved from transferring content online to experimenting with ways of embracing the Internet. The 2006 Lebanon war is part of this new phase, with global media outlets profiling prominent Israeli and Lebanese bloggers who were covering the war, featuring stories ran by them, and reporting their communications.

The special significance of war blogging arises from the fact that it answers the exceptional communication demands created by war (e.g., the need to investigate the scope and degree of military action, the impacts and risks on the future, and the safety of family and loved ones (Thewall & Stuart, 2007)). More importantly, war blogging often sets the agenda for mainstream media (Berenger, 2006), due to bloggers’ priviledged access to war zones, the highly localized stories they report, and the observably fast speed with which they digitize war information. Read more...

Online News Sites and Journalism 2.0: Reader Comments on Al Jazeera Arabic

2009-04-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, M. M. (2008). Online News Sites and Journalism 2.0: Reader Comments on Al Jazeera Arabic. TripleC: Cognition, Communication, Co-operation, 6(2), 59-76.

Abstract

The current paper investigates reader commenting on news sites as one facet of journalism 2.0. Specifically, the themes, frequency, and regional coverage of readers’ comments—and in general, their activity levels and distribution—are considered, with a goal to increase knowledge of convergent media and computer-mediated communication (CMC), as well as shed light on the interactivity strategies adopted by influential news producers. The corpus is collected from the Arabic news site of the controversial Middle East-based, bilingual network Al Jazeera. Reader commenting was found to be a regular occurrence on the site but distributed unevenly across stories. The stories focused mostly on themes related to military and political violence, politics, and foreign relations, and covered events related to the Arab world more than other regions. Also, patterns of commenting varied according to day of the week and position of the story on the web page. Overall, these findings suggest that citizen journalism—journalism is performed by lay persons—on Al Jazeera tends to be shaped by the coverage and layout of the news site. Moreover, citizen participation in online news sites such as Al Jazeera is still far from ideal, in that commenters are given neither the access nor the facilitation to use modalities other than written text. These limitations are critiqued in light of contemporary discourses about media convergence and journalism 2.0.

Full Paper: http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/78/70

BBC under fire for refusal to air Gaza appeal

2009-01-25T22:24:00.000-08:00

From Al Jazeera English

In London, around 400 people gathered for a rally outside British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) offices to protest the media giant’s refusal to broadcast a charity appeal to raise emergency funds for people in Gaza.

The crowd was addressed by speakers including Tony Benn, a former Labour cabinet minister, and George Galloway, an MP, who accused the BBC of bias against the Palestinians.

The protesters chanted "BBC, shame on you" and a few threw shoes at the BBC office.

The numbers later swelled to at least 5,000 for a march through central London.

The Stop The War Coalition, which organised the march, estimates that the ban on broadcasting the appeal could cost up to $14 million in donations.

The group had organised big rallies opposed to the violence in Gaza in London over the past few weekends.

Around 5,000 people also took to the streets of Birmingham, Britain's second biggest city, for a pro-Palestinian demonstration, while around 100 Cambridge University students have occupied the law faculty there in protest at Israel's attacks on Gaza.

More --> http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/01/200912505644521678.html

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From the BBC

The BBC's decision not to air a charity appeal for aid to Gaza has come in for fierce criticism.

Director general Mark Thompson has said by airing the appeal the BBC would risk reducing public confidence in its impartial coverage of the conflict.

But politicians have urged a review of the decision, and a crowd of 2,000 protested outside the BBC's London HQ.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7849554.stm

BBC news 'favours Israel' at expense of Palestinian view

2009-01-24T04:49:00.000-08:00

By Dan Sabbagh, Media Editor

THE BBC’S coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict implicitly favours the Israeli side, a study for the BBC Governors has concluded.

Deaths of Israelis received greater coverage than Palestinian fatalities, while Israelis received more airtime on news and current affairs programmes. The references to “identifiable shortcomings” surprised BBC News executives, who are more used to accusations that their coverage is routinely anti-Israel.

Only “a small percentage of Palestinian fatalities were reported by BBC News”, the analysis, published yesterday, noted, while “the killing of more than one Israeli by Palestinians either by gun or bomb was reported on national broadcast programmes”.

At the same time, there was “little reporting of the difficulties faced by the Palestinians in their daily lives” and a “failure to convey adequately the disparity in the Israeli and Palestinian experience, reflecting the fact that one side is in control and the other side lives under occupation”.

More _>> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article712471.ece

Wikipedia Arabic: Linguistic and Community Issues

2008-07-27T15:13:00.001-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, Muhammad. (2008). Wikipedia Arabic: Linguistic and Community Issues. (Talk). The Fourth International Wikimedia Conference (Wikimania'08), Alexandria, Egypt, July 17-19.

Hey, I think perhaps we should: Disciplinary interactions in Wikipedia’s articles and talk pages

2008-07-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, Muhammad. (2008). Hey, I think perhaps we should: Disciplinary interactions in Wikipedia’s articles and talk pages. A paper presented at The Fourth International Wikimedia Conference (Wikimania '08), Alexandria, Egypt, July 17-19.

New Tools, New Schools: Using YouTube to Teach Foreign Languages

2008-05-05T12:05:00.000-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, M. M. (2008, April 24-27). New Tools, New Schools: Using YouTube to Teach Foreign Languages. A paper presented at the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages'11th International Conference. Wisconsin: Madison, USA.

Abstract

The use of authentic video inside as well as outside the language learning classroom can be very rewarding and can help accelerate students’ learning rates and put them face to face with ‘real’ language spoken in ‘real’ speech communities. The number of online videos generally, and YouTube videos specifically, have recently phenomenally grown and their variety has unprecedentedly increased. Thus, it is perhaps no longer acceptable to ignore these videos and not to make use of them in foreign language learning programs. This paper hence focuses on deploying YouTube videos in the teaching as well as the learning of foreign languages generally and less commonly taught languages particularly. Arabic is used as a medium of exemplification in this paper.
There are many reasons why YouTube videos should be considered as a powerful pedagogical tool. First, these videos are readily available online and will cost institutions almost nothing if these were to be integrated in the curricula. Second, a majority of the videos are authentic, and authenticity is to be valued in language learning, if learners are ever to master the target language as it is spoken by its native speakers. Variety of the videos available is a third strand: with the huge number of videos available, instructors can find material on almost any language situation. Fourth, the material increases ceaselessly and phenomenally, which guarantees the continuing improvement of the resources and even more variety of the resources. Fifth, these resources are easy to use and with some simple training both instructors and students can make the best out of them. Sixth, the videos are accessible to anyone with a fairly good Internet connection, which makes them ideal not only within the language learning classroom, but also for resource centers and autonomous learning goals.
One significant issue is how these can be selected, and prepared for use either inside or outside the classroom. Obviously, the phenomenal growth of the YouTube site makes searching for a specific kind of content a bit complicated and a simple search will yield a huge number of videos. Another issue is how to make sure that such videos will be readily accessible for use inside the classroom, or how learners can easily locate certain content for autonomous learning. Deriving insights from various disciplines including linguistics, information science and education, I offer a number of solutions to these problems. Specific ways of using the videos in foreign language instruction are also provided along with the associated pedagogical underpinnings. Finally, I discuss the issue of instructor as well as student literacies.
Most importantly, I suggest specific and practical ways of how to use YouTube for collaborative language learning by the various language programs across the nation. Such suggestions, if applied, are expected to have a notable pedagogical pay off.

ARABIC AND ENGLISH NEWS COVERAGE ON ALJAZEERA.NET

2008-03-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

Abdul-Mageed, M. M., and Herring, S. C. (2008). Arabic and English news coverage on aljazeera.net. In: F. Sudweeks, H. Hrachovec, and C. Ess (Eds.), Proceedings of Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology and Communication 2008 (CATaC'08), Nimes, France, June 24-27. Preprint: http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~herring/catac08.aljazeera.pdf

Abstract.

The controversial Al Jazeera network, with its Arabic and English news websites, is an interesting object for comparative study. This study compares the two language versions in terms of their layouts and the structural features, regional and thematic coverage, and ideological perspective reflected in the headlines of news reports. Content analysis and critical discourse analysis revealed differences between the two versions for all aspects except for thematic coverage, indicating systematic biases in coverage, alongside efforts to present ideological balance.

Link: http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~herring/catac08.aljazeera.pdf

Media Revolution

2007-11-27T23:33:00.000-08:00

Television-mediated conversation

2007-11-26T07:28:00.000-08:00

Zelenkauskaite, A., and Herring, S. C. (2008). Television-mediated conversation: Coherence in Italian iTV SMS chat. Proceedings of the Forty-First Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-41). Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Press. Preprint: http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~herring/hicss08.pdf

“This study investigates the frequency and coherence of viewer-to-viewer textual exchanges on an Italian iTV SMS program, employing methods of interaction analysis and the visualization tool VisualDTA to represent interactional coherence” (p.1). The authors define convergent media by stating that it is media “in which traditional media combine with the Internet, the World Wide Web, and/or mobile technologies” (p. 1) and state that convergent media is the newest trend in CMC. After introducing iTV and the variables that govern communication mediated via it, the authors state the goal of the paper: to investigate “to what extent and in what ways these factors affect viewer-to-viewer interaction via iTV SMS. Do viewer exchanges occur via iTV SMS, and if so, what properties do they exhibit? How does iTV SMS chat compare with other modes of computer-mediated chat?” (p.1). The research questions are formulated later (p. 3) as follows:

RQ1: Do viewer-to-viewer text exchanges occur via Italian iTV SMS, and if so, to what extent?

RQ2: How interactionally coherent are iTV SMS exchanges? How do they compare in this regard with exchanges in Internet chat modes?

To address these ends, the authors analyze a corpus of 6,455 messages archived over a period of six days on the Italian iTV music channel www.allmusic.tv.

To identify interactional patterns Zelenkauskaite and Herring analyzed all participation and response patterns over two consecutive days and classified the content of a sample of SMS. They then analyzed the interactional coherence of some selected exchanges over the six-day period using VisualDTA. It was found that viewer exchanges occur in iTV SMS, “albeit relatively rarely and with considerably more fragmentation and disruption than in Internet-based chat” (pp. 1-2). The authors thus conclude that “despite numerous factors that discourage it, some users adapt the medium for interpersonal exchanges, at the same time that their options and choices are constrained by broad structural elements” (p. 2). Zelenkauskaite and Herring also propose design recommendations for fostering more coherent iTV SMS interaction (p. 10).

Schultz, T. (2000). Mass media and the concept of interactivity: An exploratory study of online forums and reader e-mail. Media, Culture & Society, 22

2007-10-27T13:16:00.000-07:00

Schultz, T. (2000). Mass media and the concept of interactivity: An exploratory study of online forums and reader e-mail. Media, Culture & Society, 22(2), 205-221.

Mass media interactivity

This article is guided by insights from the Frankfurt School propositions to discuss the position of mass media as related to the Internet. Supportive of a multilateral, democratizing communication, the Frankfurt School is said to have generated an ‘open-minded’ approach to new media. While Schultz believes that technology has opened up new vistas for active citizenship, he still maintains that there are some problems that keeps us miles away from any such a time when a new ‘elite’ of ‘netizens’ take over society. However, it is maintained that “criticism of mass media power and centralization does not necessarily deny their immense achievements” (p. 208). Schultz consents that the integrational role of mass media is a benefit of modernism and is significant for a vivid public sphere in complex societies.

New Media Online

The author shows how sites related to well-established media can play a vital role as forums of “valid information and serious debate” (p. 208). He also points out that one problem of professional mass media sites is still that these have an interest to keep a ‘tightest reign’ on the advertising market. He shows how calls for interactive communication between these sites and their audiences amassed and surveys some of the ways these sites can develop to foster interactivity. Rafaeli and Sudweek’s (1997) definition of interactivity in terms of “the degree to which communication transcends reaction” is entertained and Rafaeli’s model of interactivity is said to suggest that a lot of use of the new technologies is far from interactive.

Interactivity via E-mail

Schultz appraises e-mails sent to journalists, such e-mails being a type of interactivity. He tried to explore the state of communication between the readers of the New York Times and its journalists. Only 19 of the 50 journalists that Schultz contacted for insights on this type of communication responded. It was found that most journalists evaluated e-mail communication with readers in positive terms. The average number of e-mails sent to such journalists by readers was found to be manageable and journalists responded to e-mails in various ways.

Interactivity via Online Forums

Online forums hosted by mass media sites are introduced and the results of Schultz’s survey of the online forum of the New York Times are given. Schultz describes the discussions taking place in this forum as vivid. A random sample of 100 participants in these forums was chosen and contacted for some survey of the sort of interactivity going on in the forum. Only 59 participants responded and it was found that participation in the forum postings ranged from 1 to 1500 postings over a period of 10 months, with a misleadingly’ high mean of 89 postings. The mean is said to be misleading since certain participants sometimes dominated the discussions. Forum discussions were also found to be extended to e-mail threads between certain participants.

Limitations and suggestions for increasing interactivity

Finally the author briefly suggests some measures to increase interactivity and spells out some of the study’s limitations

Emigh, W., & Herring, S. C. (2005). Collaborative authoring on the Web: A genre analysis of online encyclopedias. Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Haw

2007-10-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

Summary

The goal of the Emigh and Herring’s (2005) study is to compare entries in the two online user-produced encyclopedias Wikipedia and Everything2. They substantiate their work by referring to an interaction between two forms in communicative situations.
They maintain that “technical specifications predispose users toward certain communicative choices, social dynamics, and normative outcomes, which in turn enable them to realize their situationally-grounded goals” (p. 1). They create their research space by cogently arguing that how this interaction ‘plays out’ is a question of interest and that for their study they are specifically interested in bringing out the type of interaction between user choices and system features as well as the implications of such an interaction for emergent digital genres. The expertise of authors as well as their writing abilities in the case of online encyclopedias are brought to the forefront, along with accompanying concerns related to ‘appropriateness, accuracy and clarity’. After showing that the two encyclopedias employ different systems, the authors spell some of the study goals. Emigh and Herring (p. 3) set out to uncover:

• How similar or different the entries in these two encyclopedias are?
• Which system gives rise to better quality entries?
• What social processes underlie the production of "good" entries, and how do they shape the conventions of the online encyclopedia genre?
• Do sites such as Wikipedia and Everything2, which differ in their authoring and editorial mechanisms, produce communicative content that can be characterized as belonging to a single genre?

After giving some background about the two encyclopedias, the authors cite two interesting studies on Wikipedia.

Methodology:

-Data

The authors describe the collection of the nodes (=entries in traditional encyclopedias) they collected from Wikipedia and Evrything2 as well as the entries from the Columbia Encyclopedia. (I made a quick search and found that the node Puffy AmiYumi is now added to Wikipedia—it was not during the collection of the study nodes). Wikipedia discussions are also collected and compared to other data.

-Analytical Method

Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed. Formality, as an indicator of genre, was measured in the data as some sort of quantitative analysis that pinpoints style variation. Qualitative observations of the entries/nodes were also made.

Findings and Suggestions for Future Research:

The results “reveal a continuum of formality and standardization, with the traditional encyclopedia and the interactive discussion at opposite extremes. Wikipedia and Everything2 differ significantly from one another, with Wikipedia towards the formal, standardized end, and Everything2 towards the informal, variable end of the continuum. Surprisingly, Wikipedia is statistically indistinguishable from the print encyclopedia in terms of the formality features measured in this study. (pp.8-9)

Because of such differences, and others, the authors suggest that Wikipedia and Everything2 are “both members of the 'online knowledge repository' genre, but that they represent different genres (or sub-types) of online collaborative authoring environments” (p. 9). Emigh and Herring also add that each of these systems “has its limits and appropriate uses; an understanding of these can improve the future design and implementation of such systems” (p. 10).

Authors hold that analyzing the evolution of entries in online knowledge repositories over time would be useful. Comparing Wikipedia with open-access wikis that lack ‘explicit guidelines for appropriate content’ is also suggested for future research.

Summary of: Brown, R. (2001). Process of community-building in distance learning

2007-10-06T15:09:00.001-07:00

Accessible at: http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v5n2/v5n2_brown.asp

From Abstract

The purpose of the study “was to develop a theory about the process of theory formation through which community formed in adult computer-mediated asynchronous distance learning classes” (p. 18).

1. Introduction

Here the author stresses the significance of the process of forming a virtual community of learners in distance education.

2. Rationale
The author argues that few efforts have been made to discover how adult distance learners define community, whether they feel part of it or not, and, if so, how it is that the phenomenon takes place. Students may have the desire to continue contacting one another and the institutions may as well need to remain in electronic contact with students for alumni. Thus, the study is thought to provide practical applications for both students and institutions.

3. Method
A number of research questions are raised. The main question is: “How was community formed in computer-mediated distance learning class?” The concept of community and three other related concepts are defined.. Community is defined as “support from people who share joys and trials” ([9], p. 20). The research design is presented, and is said to incorporate a qualitative paradigm—which is said to be concerned with the process of community-building in a distance education class, rather than outcome or products —as well as a grounded-theory approach that is said to have generated the concepts and the relationships among them.

--Data Collection
First, a number of graduate level educational administration courses delivered from a Midwestern university by Lotus Notes through the Internet were selected. Then, some twenty one students, both ‘newbies’ and ‘veterans’, who have taken the distance education classes along with three faculty members who have facilitated such classes were also selected for the study. The data gathered was in the form of interviews, first by telephone and by mail.

--Data Analysis & Verification methods
Coding of the data was performed which resulted in a number of themes. The themes have been considered and relationships between them have been identified. A number of verification methods, e. g., long-term observations and peer review, were used.

4. Results
Two themes emerged from the participants’ descriptions of community. First, that the members of a community had some shared elements, eg., interests, experiences, goals, etc. Second, that interaction that participants involve in is an integral part of community-building. The author came up with a paradigm for community building. This included the context in which the community formed, the conditions needed for community-formation, intervening conditions, and strategies for overcoming negative conditions and utilizing positive conditions. Importantly, a three-stage phenomenon of community-building was identified, as follows:

A. Making online acquaintances
B. Community conferment, or a membership-like process of integration into the community
C. Camaraderie—that was achieved after long-term association with others in personal communication

Additionally, a visual model of community-building was ‘generated (see p. 25).

The concept of absence of community formation for certain participants was introduced and accounted for and the differences between newbies and veterans was explained. The steps involved in community building (I.e., tools, comfort level, self-assessment and judgments, etc.) were also offered. The author then offered twelve theoretical propositions as a result of their study. These, for example, included:

-Community did not happen unless the participants wanted it to happen.
-Online community was present for some participants and absent for others.
-“modeling, encouragement, and participation by the instructor helped community form more readily for more students in computer-mediated classes.” (p. 31)

The results are then discussed and a number of implications are offered.

Software Evaluation

2007-09-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

Software Evaluation:

1. General Information:

The title of the software package is “Arabic School: Interactive Multimedia Arabic Teacher for Beginners” and it is developed by ArabicSP Software (9 Parklands View - Swansea - UK (Tel: +44 (0)1792 519 119)). Information about getting the software is accessible at: http://www.arabicsp.com/ . A demo version of the software is available to download at http://www.shareup.com/Arabic_School-download-35539.html.

2. Goal:

The goal of the software is obviously to teach speakers of English the Arabic alphabet as well as a number of thematically-organized vocabularies and practice listening to such vocabularies. The software also aims at teaching learners some elementary writing skills.

3. Welcome Screen and User Interface:

The welcome screen is a reflection of the prototypical image about the Arab world: this is basically a photo of camels and desert. Some description is given on this screen, mainly to advetise the software.

The user interface of the software is composed of three areas: (1) the material tabs, (2) the control area, and what can be labeled (3) the work area. The material-tabs area is located on top of the software window and consists of 9 tabs for the nine lessons the software offers. It also includes three icons on the left-hand top area: a “help” icon, as well as an “about” and an “exit” two others. Once a lesson is accessed the control area is activated; it gathers all the functions via which the various lessons can be invoked. In this last area there configurations: (a) an icon indicating the current level within a certain lesson and “back” and “next” arrows, (b) a play and stop button, and (c) an animation speed controller. A fourth configuration related to customizing the software (e.g., switching on/off animation voice, human voice, character animation, etc.) is activated when working with certain lessons. The working area is the area in which the various (animated) explanations are provided.

4. Content of Lessons:

Apart from lesson one and lesson nine, all lessons focus on teaching thematically-organized vocabularies. Lesson one introduces the Arabic alphabet where a letters as well as a word beginning by such a letter is pronounced in human voice. This pronunciation is accompanied by a photo representing the word pronounced and an orthographical representation of the letter and the word. Accompanying also is an English rough transliteration of the word. All words used are almost concrete words that are likely to be already learnt by young learners. In lesson nine we are given two simple games and quizzes. However, only one game is accessible in the demo version, and this tests spelling of the words taught in the previous lessons. Regarding the quizzes, we are told that one of them is coming soon; the other is only accessible in the full version, which I do not happen to have currently. Lessons 2-8 provide vocabularies belonging to lexical networks such as “Animals”, “Fruits”, “Numbers and Colors”, “House”, etc.. Such vocabularies are introduced in an interesting and vivid way. Animations as well as the colorful design and presentation really lend the software a high likelihood to appeal to children or learners who are after similar learning fun.

5. Overall Evaluation:

The software seems perfect for the purpose it seeks to fulfill. Perhaps if it is accompanied by some suggestions about how teachers, parents, etc. can use with their children, it would be even much more perfect. Although the software seems to serve young learners, there is nothing about learners’ age mentioned on the website that propagates it. I think it can also be used by adult learners who seek to learn Arabic as a foreign language. Nevertheless, I guess that adults will soon loose interest in this specific program mainly because of both its form as well as content: the form focuses more on a child’s mentality and the content is more related to a child’s world, rather than to an adults’. Perhaps researchers working within the domain of cognitive psychology would agree upon this last remark of mine. In addition, within the field of lexical semanticists (see e.g., Cruise, 1986) would talk about lexical networks that can be more attractive to adults than to children and vice versa. It is perhaps a mistake to think that an adult learning a foreign language would have the same needs a child has.

Cruise, D. A. (1986). Lexical Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Summary of Herring (2001): Computer-mediated Discourse

2007-09-16T22:45:00.000-07:00

Herring begins by defining Computer-mediated discourse (CMD) as a subfield of CMC “distinguished by its focus on language and language use in computer networked environments, and by its use of methods of discourse analysis to address that focus” (p. 1). Then she gives a brief history of CMD research, mentioning work as early as that of Baron (1984) and pinpointing the ‘serious’ interest in CMD that linguists began to take of by the early 1990s . We are shown how CMD was first described as "anonymous", "impersonal", "egalitarian", "fragmented" and "spoken-like", and how the first ‘wave’ of CMD scholarship was a reaction of such misunderstandings.

Classification of CMD

CMD networks, we are told, are often considered a medium of communication that has its own ‘constraints’ and ‘potentialities’ and that is distinct from writing and speaking. The channels, or sources of communication, that comprise the CMD media is briefly contrasted to those of face-to-face communication channels, and we are shown how CMD can be richly expressive as users try to compensate textually for missing auditory and gestural cues (in e.g., cybersex). Some mode variables (e.g., synchronicity and transmission) of CMD are spelt out and exemplified. The emic (culturally recognized) approach to classifying CMD is visited and examples of the various modes (e.g., e-mail, listserv mailing lists, Usenet newsgroups, IRC and MUDs) are introduced.

Properties of CMD

Linguistic Structure

Some of the ‘popular’ perceptions of computer-mediated language (e.g., that it is less correct and less coherent than standard language, etc.) are mentioned and some counter research findings are provided, exemplified and discussed. Herring maintained that the number of strategies used by CMD users reflect their ability to adapt to the computer medium, not that their language production is impoverished or simplified. The language productions are related to medium variables such as synchronicity-asynchronicity.

Interaction management

Here Herring reviews a number of research finding related to interaction management. Two types of interaction management difficulties are identified: (1) disrupted turn adjacency and (2) lack of simultaneous feedback. However, and in spite of some claims that CMD is incoherent and fragmented, Herring seems to maintain that CMD is coherent but in a different way. For instance users can adapt to constraints on e.g., turn-taking in multiparticipant synchronous CMD by adopting what Werry (1996) labels addressivity. Two other strategies used for solving this problem of coherence are linking and quoting. Some further problems of CMD are discussed and attempts made by users to solve such problems are exemplified.

Social Practice

Herring touches on some of the early ‘idealized’ views about the social life on the Internet.

Socially conditioned Variations

Participant demographics and situational context are said to be two significant social factors that influence the linguistic choices of CMD users. The problems that face researches interested in capturing such an influence are said to be caused by e.g., anonymity of users. Age, gender, educational level, social class, race as are among the user demographics discussed. Herring also discusses situational factors such as participation structures, users’ previous experiences, groups’ norms, purpose of communication, etc. Herring maintains that “CMD, despite being mediated by "impersonal" machines, reflects the social realities of its users” (p. 10).

Social Interaction

This is one of the most interesting sub-sections where Herring shows how “CMD constitutes social practice in and of itself” (p. 11). She shows and illustrates how users have developed a number of compensatory strategies [e.g., emoticons] to replace social cues normally conveyed by other channels in face-to-face interaction” (p.11).

Social Criticisms

Here are the seeds of the what I referred to in one earlier post as critical computer-mediated critical discourse analysis (CMCDA), where Herring shows how “[p]re-existing social
arrangements carry over into cyberspace to create an uneven playing field, and computer-mediated communication can be a tool of either oppression or resistance” (p. 13).

Conclusion

Herring concludes by showing how further specialization in CMD is ‘desirable’ and ‘inevitable’. She also refers to a number of related topics and the necessity to develop research in some directions. Indeed, “CMD is not just a trend; it is here to stay” (p. 14).

Summary of:Dennis, A. R., & Valacich, J. S. (1999). Rethinking media richness: Towards a theory of media synchronicity. HICSS-32.

2007-09-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

Summary of:

http://csdl2.computer.org/comp/proceedings/hicss/1999/0001/01/00011017.PDF

Authors begin by introducing media richness theory (MRT). Proponents of MRT, we are told, argue that “task performance will be improved when task needs are matched to a medium's richness” (p. 1), and hence less ‘rich’ media like CMC are best suited to tasks where there is ‘lack’ of information. Thus, Dennis and Valacich criticize MRT on the grounds that it is not convincing for new media such as CMC, and that there is no enough evidence that the use of richer (leaner) media improves the performance of equivocal (uncertain) tasks like those related to CMC situations. It is argued that richness of a medium depends not only on its social factors, but on elements related to information processing as well. In this way, the authors present a set of characteristics that they believe are important for understanding the effects of media use on communicating, and processing information. These factors are:

• Immediacy of feedback
• Symbol variety (e.g., the existence of verbal and nonverbal cues)
• Parallelism (or multiple addressability)
• Rehearsability (or editability)
• Reprocessability

The authors reach three conclusions about Media richness; these are:

1. Since no one medium has the highest values on all dimensions, none could be labeled as ‘richest.’
2. One medium can possess different levels of a communication capability depending upon how it is configured and used.
3. Third, ranking media in absolute terms is not practical.

Building upon these three conclusions, the authors argue that it is ‘inappropriate’ to maintain that face-to-face communication is the richest media. Keen to destabilize the MRT, the authors also try to criticize the perspective that MRT disciples adopt for the concept of ‘task’ by introducing and illustrating the TIP (Time, Interaction, and Performance) theory. The TIP theory argues that groups are embedded in their social and organizational surroundings and that these groups perform various functions (i.e., production—e.g., performing a task—group well-being, and member-support) and can be engaged in various modes (i.e., inception, technical problem solving, conflict resolution,
and execution).

Tasks of equivocality (i.e., where there is ‘confusion’) are said to trigger a mode of inception (i.e., defining goals) and sense-making strategies on the part of a group in an effort to process information. Two steps are identified for information processing: conveyance (i.e., “the dissemination of a diversity of information from many sources” (p. 4)) and convergence (where there is an examination of “ascribed meanings [and where] conclusions drawn from a diverse set of information [are already known” (p. 4)). Thus, MRT is criticized since, according to the authors, it leaves behind the ‘conveyance’ of information. Here is how the authors put it: “Without adequate conveyance of information, individuals will reach incorrect conclusions. Without adequate convergence, the group cannot move forward” (p. 4). Tasks of ‘uncertainty’ are also said to require the two above-mentioned step of information processing, though in a more or less different way.

Theory of Media Synchronicity

The authors define media synchronicity as “Media synchronicity is the extent to which individuals work together on the same activity at the same time” (p. 5). To execute their theory, the authors ‘examine’ the ability of the media ‘capabilities’ and ‘support’ the two communication processes (conveyance and convergence) across the three group functions (production, group well-being, and member support). They maintain that, in general, low media synchronicity is preferred for conveyance and that high synchronicity is preferred for convergence. After an interesting illustration of the five factors that are said to affect processing information, Dennis and Valacich give a summary of their argument and provide five generalizations about information processing. Then they move to relate this with ‘group development.’ Both established and newly-formed groups are covered here. The authors conclude that face-to-face communication is not always the "richest" medium for communication. The "best" medium or set of media depends upon which of … [the] five [mentioned] dimensions are most important for a given situation.

Summary of: Herring, S.C. (2004). Slouching toward the ordinary: Current trends in computer-mediated communication. New Media & Society, 6 (1), 26-36.

2007-09-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Herring, S.C. (2004). Slouching toward the ordinary: Current trends in computer-mediated communication. New Media & Society, 6 (1), 26-36.

Setting the scene:

In this article Herring argues that in spite of the ‘seemingly’ endless technological innovation, CMC on the internet is ‘slouching’ toward the ordinary. She broadly defines CMC to include “both interactive, text-based and human to human communication over the world wide web” (p. 27). Herring begins by raising, and briefly discussing, questions related to the way CMC technology has changed and the types of social practices such a technology can give rise to. Justified are the two assumptions that (1) the ‘new’ CMC technologies are really new and (2) CMC technologies in a way or another shape communication. In order to support her cause, i.e., that CMC is slouching toward the ordinary, Herring draws a comparison between the popular CMC systems’ ‘then’ and ‘now’, with a focus on the evolution and social impact of such systems. Interestingly, after two sections on the ‘then’ and ‘now’, ‘whither CMC’ immediately follows.

The ‘Then’ and the ‘now’:

Both the technologies and the social issues associated with the evolution and use of the past (mainly the late 1990s) and the present are provided. In the late 1990s, Herring maintains, CMC was “in some respects crude and fragmented. It was mostly text-based, and its various modes were accessed by disparate means” (p. 27). This statement is illustrated and examples of CMC technologies (Usenet groups, IRC, ICQ, e-mail, etc.) are given. The development and various commercial and non-commercial uses of the web are also dealt with. Herring also casts light on the issues that most obsessed scholars during that time (e.g., the benefits and challenges of virtual community, anonymity and online romance, pornography, e-commerce, etc.). While “[i]t seemed the ‘Net’ would never stop growing and changing, leaving us forever scrambling to catch up [,] …for some, the novelty of CMC had already worn off” (p. 29).

Herring moves on to talk about the more recent developments, identifying (1) increased bandwidth and (2) a growing tendency for CMC forms to be made available through a web browser interface as the two technological trends that have impacted online communication practices. Although Herring argues that CMC has yet to embrace its full multimedia potential, she also pinpoints some exceptions like peer-to-peer music file transfer protocols and massively multi-player online role playing games (MMORPGs). Some of the effects of the second trend (e.g., the accessibility of various CMC forms through the web, the competition between web-based and older CMC protocols, etc.) are spelt out and emerging modes (e.g., ICQ, blogs, etc.) are introduced and their uses, etc. are discussed. Interestingly, Herring holds that “the message-centered, text-interface paradigm still dominates the available options” (p. 31). Then, Herring identifies a number of significant related social issues such as the gender gap, the ‘traceability’ of online communication, language purism, etc.

Whither CMC?

Herring maintains that CMC has become more of a practical necessity than an object of fascination: for younger generations using the web and communicating with others online is taken for granted; whereas older generations have acquired some familiarity at least with some forms of CMC. Additionally, Herring advances the following prediction: “increasing technological integration, combined with assimilation of day-to-day uses and the corresponding need to ensure the trustworthiness of one’s interlocutors, will continue to make the internet a simpler, safer, and—for better or for worse—less fascinating communication environment” (p. 34; italics mine). Finally, Herring sets an agenda for CMC research, in case the prediction proves true: determinants of people’s use of mediated communication, technological determinism, effects of time, familiarity and mass popularization are all included in this agenda.

Wikispaces Editing

2007-08-02T00:24:00.000-07:00

Wikis in Plain English

2007-08-02T00:21:00.000-07:00

Intro to Class Wiki with Wikispaces 1

2007-08-02T00:15:00.000-07:00

Reading Reflection # 4

2007-07-28T02:31:00.000-07:00

Reading Reflection # 4

William Guariento and John Morley (2001). Text and task authenticity in the EFL classroom. ELT Journal: OUP. Vol. 55 (4). Pp. 337-353.

This Paper treats two main issues: (1) when authentic materials can be introduced into the classroom, and (2) task authenticity. The authors begin by quoting Little et al.’s (1988: 27) definition of an authentic text—a text that is “created to fulfill some social purpose in the language community in which it was produced”. In addition, they show the impact of such a perspective of authenticity on the language classroom: attempts to simulate the world into the classroom to prepare students for real world experiences. Associated are ‘affective’ factors, or motivational elements that keep up students’ interest in learning L2. Authors exemplify via a brief note on listening materials and show that the question now ‘seems’ to be when and how authentic texts should be used.

Authors move on to raise a significant question: whether authentic material can be simplified without losing its authenticity. They seem to consent with a couple of authors they quote that the answer is ‘yes’ if simplification is successful and results in ‘well-executed’ texts. However, due to difficulty to simplify texts ‘seamlessly’, authors support an alternative in which students can partially comprehend authentic, non-simplified texts. Thus, it is what learners are expected to do with texts that is to be controlled. However, the kind of learner frustration that can result from introducing non-simplified texts into the classroom is one significant factor that authors put into account here.

Next, Guariento and Morley argue that authenticity has also to do with how tasks are performed with some focus on form. Four perspectives of task authenticity are briefly presented by the autors. These are:

1. Authenticity through a genuine purpose
2. Authenticity through real world targets
3. Authenticity through classroom interaction
4. Authenticity through engagement

In each case, some related points are discussed and each type is briefly evaluated. We are then given the authors view: while the four perspectives do not form a coherent whole, teachers can use them all in different situations. I do agree on that view presented by the authors, but I would lay more emphasis on the fourth perspective since without engagement no learning can be effective at all. The two authors then touch on how it is that tasks can be tailored for the classroom and some difficulties associated with such tailoring. I think that the authors have managed to break the traditional separation that used to be maintained between text and task. Such a separation does seem to have no rationale, indeed.

Although the paper is short, I guess it has some important advice to provide to teachers. The insights derivable from ‘coalescing’ authenticity of text and task can really be instrumental.

Bibliography:

Little et al. (1988). Authentic Texts in Foreign Language Teaching: Theory and Practice. Dublin: Authentic.

Evaluation/Feedback on Peggy's WebQuest Draft

2007-07-27T22:18:00.000-07:00

Hi Peggy,

Overall, your WebQuest seems nice and pedagogically sound.

Your Introduction:

The introduction is really interesting and I think creates a sense of curiousity. The questions used do involve readers; and involvement is a useful strategy in academic writing. You just have minor spelling mistake in the first line: ‘webquest’ should be ‘WebQuest’, with capital ‘W’ and capital ‘Q’ since this is the way the word have come to be used; and ‘french’ should be ‘French’, with capital ‘F’.

Note:

I would suggest keeping the note about the potential use of the WebQuest—“This webquest [Sic] will allow your students to work in a group to research a french [Sic] historical figure using the internet. They will then write a skit based on that person and perform it for the class”—in a separate place.
Your Task: The task seems clear and simple. Again, there is one grammatical mistake: “Your mission is write and present” should be “Your mission is to write and present”.

Suggestion:

I would suggest adding some pieces of advice on the narrative, acting, etc. techniques to be used. I think adding some resources about such techniques would be useful. You can even include references to some sample script scenes preferably from popular historical French movies.

Your Process:

I would suggest that you use numbering instead of bulleting. Although this might seem as a purely preferential issue, it is NOT. According to communication scholars (e.g., Burnett (2005)) numbering should be used for prioritizable elements, where one element would fit best before or after another and the order would be meaningful. On the other hand, bulleting is used only for a non-prioritizable list, where order is non-significant.

I would also suggest having some roles for students to choose from. You only asked them to ‘get together’, without giving further advice how it is that they can work as a team. Usually WebQuests would incorporate certain roles for students, which makes the activity seem authentic.

You did well by asking students to tag the resources they tackle in deli.cio.us. It is also a good point that you exemplified certain events for students as to what they may choose from a certain figure’s life. Finally, other submission instructions seem fine. Presenting yourself as the ‘head of the studio’ really lends the activity more authenticity and creates some vividness. Finally, your resources are indeed useful—I will use them .

Your Evaluation:

The evaluation is good for a presentation, but, as far as I understand, you are asking for a scene to be acted. If this is the case, I would suggest making the necessary changes.

Your Conclusion:

I really admire the perspective from which you envisage history as a discipline, as embodied in your conclusion.

Teacher-related Section:

Obviously you will need to continue working on this section, and I guess this is what you will do.
------------------------------
Bibliography:
Burnett, Rebecca E. (2005). Technical Communication. Boston: Wadsworth/ITP. 6th edition.

WebQuest Evaluation # 4: Multiple Intelligences WebQuest

2007-07-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

by
Muhammad Abdul-Mageed

WebQuest Title: Multiple Intelligences WebQuest
Website URL: http://www.eslgo.com/classes/mi/

Grade/Age Level: ‘Adult learners of English’

1) Welcome Page: The WebQuest has a nice Welcome Page in which a flash-based movie showing the various types of intelligences is provided. There is some accompanying music, and each type of intelligences is represented by a photo. I think this really makes the WebQuest very attractive to learners as well as teachers.

2) Purpose: In the Introduction part of the WebQuest we are given a short, but sound, piece of information: “Everyone learns differently”. This is followed by two questions, each set in a separate line and in a different color. The two questions are:

• Do you know how you learn best?
• Do your lecturers know how you learn best?

Obviously these two questions involve readers and create a sense of curiosity. This is indeed a good way to begin a WebQuest, because if you manage to involve learners and create curiosity, these learners will be likely to continue exploring and/or using the WebQuest. Then the purpose of the WebQuest is given, as follows: “This WebQuest will help you study the various kinds of intelligence you have and how you can use them to learn more efficiently. You will be dealing with seven or possibly eight types of intelligence, but remember that there may be more than that!”.

3) Expected Output: The WebQuest designers ask for a report in whatever medium students prefer. In such a report students are expected to report what he/she discovered about his preferred ways of learning.

4) Tasks: The WebQuest tasks are claimed to be about ‘self discovery’, and each student is allowed to work either alone or within a group. This ‘tasks’ part of the WebQuest smoothly and clearly introduces students to what they are expected to do: (1) research one type of their preferred intelligences and how such a type can be used to learn more effectively; (2) report such a research in an essay which should be submitted to the teacher; and (3) research one type of intelligences that the student does not seem to be using well and see how this can be redeemed. Students are also given a number of skills they are expected to have after completing the WebQuest; these are:

— Know about different kinds of intelligence
— Know which types of intelligence you like to use best
— Have a plan to use preferred intelligences to learn more effectively
— know which types of intelligence you do not use as much as you could
— Have a plan to develop intelligences that are currently under used

5) Processes: These include taking a number of tests to decide what type(s) of intelligences students excel in and what types they do not. Students are advised to record their scores in the tests and ‘share’ them with the ESLgo English learning forum. However, the word ‘share’ seems a bit vague, since students are not given instruction on how exactly such ‘sharing’ can be: is it via posting reflections on the tests, and results?, etc. Then students are asked to read about the various types of intelligences, and think of the medium they will use for their report. After that, students are advised to consider some type of intelligence they do seem to be good at and try to read more about it, and see how it is that they can be able to learn using such a type. Finally students are asked to write a report telling their lecturer how they learn best. I think it would be better if step two of the tasks be moved to take the place of step one so that students can know about multiple intelligences before they take the tests.

6) Resources: There are a number of links to some really useful resources about multiple intelligences. However, some of the links are outdated, and so do not work. Also, there are no descriptions given for the resources provided. Additionally, I would recommend incorporating some links to some of the stuff written by Gardner himself on multiple intelligences.

7) Evaluation & Conclusion: Evaluation seems ok and conclusion is not bad.

My Overall Evaluation of the WebQuest:

One part of a good WebQuest is the good selection of a topic. Such being the case, this WebQuest seems very interesting, its topic being the MI theory. Although we can move smoothly from one step to another, there is one major problem with the very theoretical basis of the WebQuest: it is supposed that by reading about the MI theory and taking some tests students can precisely pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses as to the various types of intelligences. As far as I can see, MIs should be tested by various means, not only via taking some online tests. Second, there are no enough details on what the report required should incorporate. I would recommend adding some more thematic details on what is expected. Since the only output of the whole activity is the report, we would normally expect such details.

Reading Reflection # 3

2007-07-20T04:15:00.000-07:00

Reading Reflection on Healey (1999)

Healey, D. (1999). Theory and Research: Autonomy in Language Learning. In J. Egbert & E. Hanson-Smith (Eds.). CALL Environments: Research, Practice and Critical Issues. (pp. 391-402). Alexandria VA: Teachers of English to speakers of Other Languages, Inc.

Healey begins the chapter by an attempt to define the term autonomy. After providing of the ‘connotations’ of the term and distinguishing it from other related concepts, Healey follows Dickinson (1987) in usng the term self-direction to refer to learners’ attitudes and autonomy to refer to the instructional framework. Self-direction is then defined as “the degree of independence the learner is given in setting language learning goals, the path to the goal, the pace of learning, and the measurement of success” (p. 391). Healey moves on to review some of the research done with an agenda to pinpoint ways to encourage self-directed learning and the role of such a technique in language teaching. Healey mentions some of the factors that Candy (1991) point out in the ‘recent surge’ in the ‘popularity’ of self-directed learning. Such factors include the democratic ideal, the ideology of individualism, the concept of egalitarianism, subjective or relativistic epistemology, etc.

Interestingly, Healey brings two significant factors into the discussion: learners’ ages, and background culture. It is hinted at that not only adults that need to be encouraged to learn autonomously, but also children. Learners’ background cultures are equally significant, according to Healey, and convincingly enough. Healey points out that ESL/EFL professionals need to keep in mind that autonomous learning and individualism are specially US-based concepts. Healey then discusses the various settings for autonomous learning as well as the various related factors. Interestingly, settings are mapped on a grid based on the source of structure (teacher-learner) and the content (whether thi is fixed or variable).

Next, Healey discusses the various conditions that are thought to ‘enhance’ autonomy and learning. Two main elements are provided in this context: (1) Learner issues (i.e., self-motivation, independent style, knowledge of how one learns, and knowledge of target area) and (2) content issues (i.e., clear path to the goal, clear explanations of the target area, and resources available). In each of these items Healey provides useful suggestions as well as results of previous research.

It is the last section of the chapter that deals with technology and learning autonomy. Here some five ‘preconditions’ for motivation that ‘must’ be set by the teacher-facilitator in classroom learning are spelt out. The discussion provided on such preconditions are useful and interesting.

Healey’s is rich and interesting. The author is able to load the material here with lots of information based on previous research as well as personal experience. After reading the chapter one can grasp a really useful overview of the concept of autonomy and can have quite sufficient resources referred to in the content to go back and check for further readings. Treatment of various issues related to such varied disciplines as educational psychology, philosophy of education, etc. is skillfully weaved into a technical discussion of issues related to instructional technology. Interesting, rich, varied, and comprehensive is Healey’s treatment.
Bibliography

Candy, 1991. Self-direction for Lifelong Learning. California: Jossey-Bass.

Dickinson, L. (1987). Self-instruction in language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Prometeus - The Media Revolution part 2

2007-07-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

Prometeus - The Media Revolution

2007-07-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

Web2.0 Explained

2007-07-18T08:55:00.001-07:00

Future of Web2.0

2007-07-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

Definitions of Learner Autonomy

2007-07-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

Here's how some scholars define learner autonomy: http://cyclops.shu.ac.uk:8080/ramgen/archive/lits/LTI/lias.rm. ("Here are the staff who are in the video; in order of appearance:Serena Bufton, Sue Bamford, Richard Lynch, Anthony Rosie, Chris Hopkins, Mike Bramhall, Mike McManus, Nick Nunnington, Ranald Macdonald, Christine O'Leary and Richard Pountney. Please note you will need Real Media Video(.rm) to view the streaming video on this site.

Use the following link to obtain the appropiate plugins if necessary: Get RealOnePlayer" (material between quotes comes from: http://www.shu.ac.uk/cetl/autonomy/what.html")).

Learner Autonomy

2007-07-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

Autonomy can be defined as learners’ ability to benefit from a learning experience that achieves their (learning) goals, conforms to their views about themselves and the world, and in which the distinctions between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ instruction are blurred.

Here's how some scholars define learner autonomy: http://cyclops.shu.ac.uk:8080/ramgen/archive/lits/LTI/lias.rm. ("Here are the staff who are in the video; in order of appearance:Serena Bufton, Sue Bamford, Richard Lynch, Anthony Rosie, Chris Hopkins, Mike Bramhall, Mike McManus, Nick Nunnington, Ranald Macdonald, Christine O'Leary and Richard Pountney.
Please note you will need Real Media Video(.rm) to view the streaming video on this site.

Use the following link to obtain the appropiate plugins if necessary:
Get RealOnePlayer" (material between quotes comes from: http://www.shu.ac.uk/cetl/autonomy/what.html")).

I do not teach right now, but I can describe the way I intend to encourage learner autonomy in the future. I will be teaching college students and thus will focus on methods that will best suit such learners.

Course Goals will be described and students will be encouraged to discuss them and adaptations of such goals can be made based upon student propositions. Students will be encouraged to relate course goals to their overall learning goals. Ways in which learning goals relate to his/her philosophy, ideology, view about self and others can also be discussed and built upon. Students will learn most when they feel they are in real need of a certain skill/certain skills that the course offers. Attempts to motivate students will be made. 'Showing', not 'telling' will be used to motivate students, just to borrow from literary criticism terminology. what this means is that students will have the chnce to see the advantages of possessing the skills, meet (or watch videos of) pioneers in the target fields, etc.

Course resources and curriculum should be varied and flexible. There should be a number of segments that students can choose from. For a course requiring 8 segments I will introduce at least 12 segments for students to select from. Students will end up working on segments that they like most. In addition, students will be given the chance to propose at least one third of the segments and I will help them, if they ask me, to propose resources that can be used to pursue the segments they propose. The segments offered will be compared to segments of other similar curses in other places and refinements will be continuously made. There will always be a segment in which students are required to relate the knowledge they get from the course to their daily life activities and/or future careers, plans, etc.

Descriptions of ways to accomplish required tasks will be provided, but students will be encouraged to come up with their own views and incorporate new (potentially innovative) ways. At least one third of a certain way to accomplish a certain task will be up to learners. Learners will be encouraged to find unique ways of accomplishing tasks. Students will be encouraged to submit all required work in different forms and formats. Both soft and/or hard submission will be allowed, different programs that students can need for soft submission will be either made available to them, or descriptions of how they can get these will be provided.

Time required for accomplishing tasks will be negotiated and students will be allowed to ask for extensions under certain circumstances. Suggestions for evaluations will be provided and students will be encouraged to suggest evaluation techniques. Students will be required to provide self-evaluations after showing them the importance of such a procedure and how it can be best made. Objectivity will be encouraged.

Post-course activities will be encouraged. Different follow-up activities will be provided and students will be encouraged to suggest more activities or adaptations to the already-suggested ones. These can include regular meetings in which students gather with their classmates and/or teacher, social network activities, etc. Students will be encourages to reflect upon the different ways they have used skills derived from the course and how it is that they plan to build upon such skills.

Teacher-student relationships will be based upon mutual respect. I will downplay power relations and will see students as future peers. Knowledge acquisition will be two-way. My role will be of a guide and facilitator.
--------

--For a very interesting article by Dimitrios Thanasoulason ways to foster learner autonomy access: http://iteslj.org/Articles/Thanasoulas-Autonomy.html. Article author reviews the three approaches, or philosophies, to learning—positivism, constructivism, and critical theory—and relates them to learner autonomy. Also offered in the article are ‘conditions for learner autonomy’. I specially liked the sectons dealing with both cognitive and metacognitive strategies.

--For a bibliography of learner utonomy see: http://www.hayo.nl/autonomybibliography.php.

On the Necessity of Individualizing the Learning Experience

2007-07-12T12:54:00.000-07:00

On the Necessity of Individualizing the Learning Experience

Muhammad Abdul-Mageed

I will first give some background upon which I can substantiate the plea to individualize language learning. Such a background will target to give a rationale for individualizing instruction, or rather the learning experience (LE). I would argue that individualizing the LE is a must because of various reasons. First, learners differ in their cognitive abilities and in the ways they internalize, digest, build upon, adapt, change, and/or add to information chunks. Let us cautiously give an example: a Pentium II PC will perform tasks in an extremely different way than a Core 2 Due MacBook will. Both can do certain tasks, but the speed will differ, let alone the difficulty of accomplishing certain tasks using an old PC (for instance think of a graphics task). While human beings are of course different from computers, I guess that the example can be useful in as much as it embodies information processing requirements.

Second, if we take Gardner’s (1983, 1993) Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) for granted, which I am inclined to do, we would even have much more empirical evidence that rationalizes the individualization of the LE (By the way, the Wikipedia entry adds two more types of intelligence which are not mentioned in Negeow (1999); see http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Gardner,_Howard, and http://www.howardgardner.com/).

Third, if we take for granted van Dijk and Kintch’s (1983) model of comprehension, among other things, (which briefly states that our understanding is intimately related to our cultural backgrounds, among other things; see van Dijk’s Website at: http://www.discourses.org/) we would argue that the mere processing of information differs from one cultural milieu to another because of factors that bias such a processing. Fourth, age of learners is a significant factor as well. In some language learning classes students are not of the same age, and to cater for it we should individualize the LE, ad hoc.

Such being the case technology should be deployed to serve the individualization of the LE. How can this happen will need for us to pinpoint the learning preferences of each learner first of all. Pinpointing differences is not a simple task and should not be reduced to the mere process of getting learners have profiles and externalize the way they learn. Nor should it depend mainly on a teacher’s assessment. Nor should it even depend on computer-generated output as a result of getting learners provide some information about their preferences. While all this can be part of it, I would argue for the development of some empirical validated tests that can yield really dependable data. Ambitious research projects like Gardner’s Project Zero (see http://www.pz.harvard.edu/History/History.htm) are very interesting and can also be helpful. Till such a thing can be available teachers should perhaps collect as much information as possible about their students. The more they know, the better they will be able to individualize the LE. Significantly, we should not be linear about it. In other words, we should know that some learners will simply be categorizable under much more than one type of intelligence.

Once we pinpoint the different learning styles of learners, we should begin thinking of categorizing the available technologies and get students have access to the types of technologies that best suits their needs. Again, more than one technology should be available for each single learner. For younger learners we will nee to be more available to help in selection as well as task performance, among other things. I agree with Negeow about the necessity of group activities since this can help develop the potential but not activated learning preferences that some learners may have.

An Example:

In every class we should have some flexibility and more space for open activities. I mean these activities for which learners can pick from a host of choices what to do and how to do it. Suppose I am teaching a novel to a 16-year-old group of students, but there are some above and some below that age. I would have the class’s project set about any theme that learners find interesting to them so long as it is related in a student’s view to the novel itself and they are able to account for it. Ways of carrying out the project should be flexible. I would approve it if one student turns a YouTube video in which he/she acts some scenes an interpretation of some aspect of the novel. I would also approve another student’s turning of a blog in which he/she posted his/her views. I would approve a PowerPoint presentation that for instance includes real-world images that can be related to one of the nove’s themes. I would approve some student’s turning of an audio of an interview with a critic or even with a number of his/her neighbours in which they talk about the novel. There would always be countless ways of doing it and we will be performing wonderful taks and in each case technologies would be involved whether in the shape of a certain program or a certain way of using the program, or the web, etc. Each type of technology will best suit a certain student and thus technologies and student learning styles are closely related.

· Individualization and L1 vs. L2 Learners:

I do not think that individualization is more important for L2 than it is for L1 speakers. Both will need individualization, but perhaps in different ways. Someone might argue that using Skype for instance will be more significant for L2 since they can have access to real interactions with native speakers. But again, it could argued that L1 learners would also need to use Skype, for different reasons like developing their argumentative skills in spoken English.
-----------------------
Gardner, Howard. (1983) Frames of Mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books. Tenth Anniversary Edition with new introduction, New York: Basic Books, 1993.
Van Dijk, T. A., and W. Kintsch. 1983.Strategies of discourse comprehension. New York: Academic.

Reflection on Negeow (1999), Ch 8

2007-07-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

Reflection on Negeow (1999), Ch 8

Muhammad Abdul-Mageed

Chapter 19 of Negeow’s (1999) is titled “Classroom Practice: Enhancing and Extending Learning Styles Through Computers”. Negeow introduces the chapter by stressing the importance of ‘individualizing’ learning and set out to “explain three complementary principles for addressing learning styles and strategy training in the CALL classroom and discuss ways to apply the principles to the planning and design of learning activities that enhance and extend students’ learning strategy repertoires” (p. 302). The three principles are:

1. “Learners who are more conscious of their learning styles make better use of learning opportunities”
2. “Learners learn better when they are provided with learning opportunities that enhance and extend their learning preferences”.
3. Learners work better with new learning styles when they are given guided opportunities to practice them. (Negeow, 1999: pp. 302-303)

Negeow then states that a teacher’s role in this context would be to help learners understand their ‘preferred’ ways of learning and design activities that ‘cater’ to such preference.

Negeow then moves on to talk about the ways in which the three principles can be put into application inside the CALL class. He states that computers can play various roles but focuses in the activities he presents on the role of computer as one of two tools: (1) the activity too, and (2) the teacher’s tool. Next, Negeow lists some ways in which computers can be used to individualize learning. These will be briefly spelt out below:

1. Creating Learner Profiles: Here she describes, though briefly, what learner profiles are and what are their benefits. She also refers to a couple of ways to create such profiles. Two points here I need to make. First, I guess we need to ask ourselves “to what extent are learner profiles are perfect reflectors of the real ways in which students do learn?” Additionally, are all students able to come up with a detailed description of their own learning styles? Here I would say that we should explain to students what a profile is and how we can be objective about it, how can we notice and record the ways we learn and know consciously about learning preferences. Every learner has some preferences, but not that every learner is able to pinpoint such preferences. After all, we should not, I think, depend wholly on learners’ profiles to cater to learner’s needs. The second point I would like to make here is related to the reliability of computer-generated assessments. I think this is one more aspect we should be cautious about.

2. Using Information Organizers: Here the author exemplifies information organizers and summarizes how can they be used. Briefly, she suggests that a teacher provides the organizers and let students choose what suits them best. The teacher then asks students to ‘explore’ the choices they made while organizing the information. The author illustrates more on this process.

3. Internalizing the Multiple Intelligences Theory: Negeow shows here how Stuart (1997) uses insights derived from Gardner’s (1983, 1993) Multiple Intelligence theory (MI) to individualize learning. Interestingly, Negeow adapts the activity suggested by Stuart to make it suit a CALL class. The gist of it is that we should be deductive in introducing the MI theory: first we make students experience for themselves how they learn best, and then explain the concept of MI

At this juncture, Negeow sets an interesting section under the title “Integrating Software Use for Different Learning Styles”. Here she provides a useful classification of the various types of learners, their likes, and potential kinds of software they can benefit from using. While the classification and the other associated elements are indeed useful, I see that there is some linearity in the classification. In other words, nothing is mentioned about learners who can fall into two or more categories and how their need can be catered to.

Negeow then writes about a number of thematic activities and how it that these can be useful inside the classroom. She gives two examples and discusses some related potentials and benefits. Furthermore, she discusses role playing and suggests ways to apply it. Negeow concludes by asserting that individualizing “calls for flexibility in teaching and learning approaches in the CALL classroom.”

Negeow’s chapter is useful and interesting and she suggests some useful ways of using technologies to individualize learning. However, I have some few criticisms. First, she does not take into account the update that Gardner makes with regard to his MI theory. Second, I did not like the linearity of her propositions with regard to the classification of student cognitive preferences. This resulted in attempts to assign each student a certain task without taking into account the fact that some students can be catetgorizable under more than one are of Gardner’s MI. Third, she does not illustrate how sociocultural differences can be taken into account. Nor did she provide enough treatment of the age factor. The treatment also lacked insights on L1 and L2 learners and whether there are any differences between these two types when it comes to individualization.

Software Evaluation # 3

2007-07-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

Software Evaluation # 3 (for Externat Documents Assignement):

1. General Information:

The title of the software package is “Arabic School: Interactive Multimedia Arabic Teacher for Beginners” and it is developed by ArabicSP Software (9 Parklands View - Swansea - UK (Tel: +44 (0)1792 519 119)). Information about getting the software is accessible at: http://www.arabicsp.com/ . A demo version of the software is available to download at http://www.shareup.com/Arabic_School-download-35539.html.

2. Goal:

The goal of the software is obviously to teach speakers of English the Arabic alphabet as well as a number of thematically-organized vocabularies and practice listening to such vocabularies. The software also aims at teaching learners some elementary writing skills.

3. Welcome Screen and User Interface:

The welcome screen is a reflection of the prototypical image about the Arab world: this is basically a photo of camels and desert. Some description is given on this screen, mainly to advetise the software.

The user interface of the software is composed of three areas: (1) the material tabs, (2) the control area, and what can be labeled (3) the work area. The material-tabs area is located on top of the software window and consists of 9 tabs for the nine lessons the software offers. It also includes three icons on the left-hand top area: a “help” icon, as well as an “about” and an “exit” two others. Once a lesson is accessed the control area is activated; it gathers all the functions via which the various lessons can be invoked. In this last area there configurations: (a) an icon indicating the current level within a certain lesson and “back” and “next” arrows, (b) a play and stop button, and (c) an animation speed controller. A fourth configuration related to customizing the software (e.g., switching on/off animation voice, human voice, character animation, etc.) is activated when working with certain lessons. The working area is the area in which the various (animated) explanations are provided.

4. Content of Lessons:

Apart from lesson one and lesson nine, all lessons focus on teaching thematically-organized vocabularies. Lesson one introduces the Arabic alphabet where a letters as well as a word beginning by such a letter is pronounced in human voice. This pronunciation is accompanied by a photo representing the word pronounced and an orthographical representation of the letter and the word. Accompanying also is an English rough transliteration of the word. All words used are almost concrete words that are likely to be already learnt by young learners. In lesson nine we are given two simple games and quizzes. However, only one game is accessible in the demo version, and this tests spelling of the words taught in the previous lessons. Regarding the quizzes, we are told that one of them is coming soon; the other is only accessible in the full version, which I do not happen to have currently. Lessons 2-8 provide vocabularies belonging to lexical networks such as “Animals”, “Fruits”, “Numbers and Colors”, “House”, etc.. Such vocabularies are introduced in an interesting and vivid way. Animations as well as the colorful design and presentation really lend the software a high likelihood to appeal to children or learners who are after similar learning fun.

5. Overall Evaluation:

The software seems perfect for the purpose it seeks to fulfill. Perhaps if it is accompanied by some suggestions about how teachers, parents, etc. can use with their children, it would be even much more perfect. Although the software seems to serve young learners, there is nothing about learners’ age mentioned on the website that propagates it. I think it can also be used by adult learners who seek to learn Arabic as a foreign language. Nevertheless, I guess that adults will soon loose interest in this specific program mainly because of both its form as well as content: the form focuses more on a child’s mentality and the content is more related to a child’s world, rather than to an adults’. Perhaps researchers working within the domain of cognitive psychology would agree upon this last remark of mine. In addition, within the field of lexical semanticists (see e.g., Cruise, 1986) would talk about lexical networks that can be more attractive to adults than to children and vice versa. It is perhaps a mistake to think that an adult learning a foreign language would have the same needs a child has.

Cruise, D. A. (1986). Lexical Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Net Neutrality

2007-07-09T23:16:00.000-07:00

Save the Internet

2007-07-09T23:14:00.000-07:00

History, Ideology, and Perspective

2007-07-08T22:40:00.000-07:00

See our discussion at Holly's Blog: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4651906771663229759&postID=1229586162655599376

Website Evaluation # 2

2007-07-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

By: Muhammad Abdul-Mageed

Software/Website Title: Madinah Arabic

Website URL: http://www.madinaharabic.com/index.htm

Grade/Age Level: The website aims to cover the needs of learners of all levels, “from complete beginner to advanced level”.

Language & Content:

The website’s declared purpose is to teach reading, speaking, and writing to English-speaking students. The website’s homepage is quite simple. The site being purely HTML-based, only some minor graphics are used by the top part of the page. On the main page there are a number of taps and by the left side we are given a number of links. Two main elements are given in the homepage: a news update, in which information about the future plans of the site owners’ are provided and new lessons released are propagated, as well as a brief introduction via which the purpose of the website is spelt out. In addition, users are encouraged to subscribe to the site’s F orum and provide their feedback. The commercial aspect is typically present via advertising two things: the B ookstore or the Online Bookshop, and the Madinah Book Series.

Using the Website:

By the bottom of the homepage, there is a ‘Where do I Start’ link which takes users to an HTML-based photo showing two pathways for using the website. A user is simply asked “Can you read the Arabic Script?”. If his/her answer is “No”, then he/she is advised to “Start the Arabic Reading Course”, whereas, if the answer is “Yes”, a user is advised to “Start the Arabic Language Course”. Unfortunately, the two pathways in the photo are not hyperlinked, and thus users should access either of these via the taps on top of the page.

The Arabic Reading Course :

The Arabic Reading Course is composed of 18 lessons, and runs the gamut from the very elementary to the more slightly intermediate, or perhaps “advance elementary”, if we can use such a term. The purpose of the course is to expose learners to the pronunciation of the Arabic alphabet as well as separate Arabic words. The course’s main page is very simple and the lessons are given in a table along with a description of the content of each lesson. A third table column, perhaps added for boosting the freeness of the content, is titled “availability” and there learners are just given the description “available”. Titled ‘Arabic Alphabet–Names’, Lesson 1 gives learners a number of Arabic letters along with their pronunciation. While in lesson 1’s page, learners are given hyperlinked icons numbered from 1 to 18 via which these learners can acess the various lessons in the Reading Course. Lesson 18 is an attempt to teach learners how to join letters and read such letters separately and within a word. Recordings of words are accessible.

The Arabic Language Course:

The Arabic Language Course includes 23 lessons (lesson 13 is composed of two parts, A and B). As soon as a learner accesses this course’s page, he/she is given a good and encouraging piece of news: “We aim to release new lessons every week Insha'Allah (God-Willing)”. Again, this boosts the freeness of the material as well as the update frequency of the Website. Some brief instructions on using the course are also offered: “Please click on the lesson number to start the lesson. If you cannot read the Arabic script then please complete the Arabic Reading Course before starting this course”. The layout of this course’ page is typical of that of the Reading Course—a table form with hyperlinks to lessons. The lessons in this part focus more in Arabic structures, but pronunciation of various lexical items, as well as some phrases, and clauses is provided. Many photos of various objects/persons are offered along with their names/functions/professions, etc. Here each lesson has its own different constitutive parts, which are provided as hyperlinked icons, again.

Practice/Assessment/Feedback:

There is some practice and assessment sections only on the Language Course. The Reading Course could have been enriched with some assessment and practice activities by for example enabling learners to record their voices and listen to them. Some advice to do such a type of practice even on learners’ local computers could have been appended to the lessons, perhaps along with some explanation of how it can be done. The assessment on the Language course is very simple. Typically learners are given multiple choice questions, and after clicking on the “Mark Button” they get feedback on their performance in the form of “the percent of correct answers”. Noticeably, 4 questions are provided so that it is easy to come up with a programmed formula to count the percent: feedback is always either 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%, pure and simple. Here is a link to the assessment on Lesson 1. There are also some practice on translating some simple sentences from English into Arabic.

Overall Evaluation and Suggestions of Improvement:

The website is useful and the fact that everything is freely provided will lend it more appeal and widen the scope of its use. Also, the website adopts ‘Classical Arabic’ rather than regional variations and colloquial forms. Sometimes we would tackle some colloquial varieties of Arabic that even some speakers of Arabic who do not belong to the speech community of such a variety find it difficult to grasp and react to easily. Some linguists even sometimes go as far as counting some mutually unintelligible varieties as different, distinctive languages (for n interesting discussion on this point see Fromkin and Rodman, 2003).

There are some disadvantages, however. First, the assessment/practice sections are not that varied. Second, although the Website is enriched with photos, it is still dry since it only depends on HTML. More technical additions and improvements in the site’s layout will make it more appealing. I guess also that the site owner’s were really hindered by some technical site-building aspects. In other words, I am getting the feeling that they had to keep the assessments, for example, simple because they knew they were going to use only simple web development tools. The site indeed needs to be more interactive. Only inclusion of the F orum seems to make some amends for the site’s seeming interactivity.

Moreover, the site does not include any external documents. Nor does the website refer to more helpful resources. I would recommend, for instance, developing a mini-pronouncing dictionary and incorporating links to online monolingual as well as bilingual dictionaries. In addition, the site could incorporate links to some of the already-available-online audio and video materials.
-------------------------
Bibliography

Fromkin, V and R. Rodman (2003 7th ed.) An introduction to language. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace.

Web2.0! Wonderful!

2007-07-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

35 Perspectives on Online Social Networking

2007-07-07T16:08:00.001-07:00

http://www.socialcomputingmagazine.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=432

Are my online friends for real?

2007-07-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

Hey, an interesting aricle in BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6260210.stm

On the Situatedness of Language Learning: A Linguistic Brief Introduction

2007-07-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

On the Situatedness of Language Learning: A Linguistic Brief Introductio

Muhammad Abdul-Mageed

Language learning is more than the mere four language skills which some people used to provide on the order of "Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing". I am wondering whether this order should be there. I guess it should not. This order might be the case with us when we learnt our native tongues, but for additional languages I do not think it should be valid.

Another point is that I believe that nobody can even learn a language without learning about its culture. These just go together, and even if you are trying to avoid assimilating culture--which I see no rational for--you would not succeed in so doing. Language learning should be situated and contextual, after all, if it ever to be fruitful.

I also think that you cannot master a language in the full sense of the word unless you live in a community speaking that language. Some people would oppose that, but I can say , at least from my personal experience, that successful communication with the language is more than language lexicon, structures, etc. per se. Pragmatics has been defined by Jenny Thomas (1997) as "meaning in interaction" so you should have interaction to master a language along with its pragmatics.

Well, linguists would talk about different levels of meaning. To begin at the level of lexicon, you would have dictionary meanings of words, and the dictionary--at least a decent dictionary--gives the different senses of a word, along with its collocationality (i.e. words that tend to hang with it), idiomaticity (i.e. words that form fixed or semi-fixed phrase-like constructions with it), as well as whether a word occurs in a prover, saying, phrasal verb, etc. The dictionary also gives information on the syntactic behavior of a word, gives words in sentences. Some advanced dictionaries, like Oxford English Dictionary (OED), would give authentic examples, from various registers (e.,g., literary, journalistic, etc.). Potentially you can have also knowledge related to lexical relations (e.g., synonymy, homonymy, antinomy, homophony, etc.). Sociolinguistic information on lexical items can also be provided, so that we know where and in which situations a word can be heared/said. Interestingly, dictionaries are also giving cultural notes on some lexical items now. And I belive that advances in the realm of corpus linguistic and concordancing will more and more develop the ways dictionaries are made and hence help language learners grasp more situated and varied language uses. This sort of work is done in different areas like (Lexical) Semantics and Lexicography.

Another level of meaning will be the level of discourse (Well, discourse is differently defined by different people, but I am using it to mean “meaning beyond the clause”). Here you would have longer chunks that should be interpreted taking into account both the linguistics and the non-linguistic (or social context). To complicate things more, you would need to take into account the intention of speakers/writers and this takes you into the realm of pragmatics—situated meaning, meaning in interaction, speaker/writer-hearer/reader trade of the linguistic and sociocultural commodity. So, from this very brief, rough, and quite non-academic note on the various levels of meaning you would see that language learning MUST be situated.

Website Evaluation #1

2007-06-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

IUB (www.iub.edu) L530 - Computer Assisted Language Learning, Summer II 2007

Website Evaluation #1

Muhammad Abdul-Mageed

Software/Website Title: Adodoc – apprendere le français en s’amusant (Learn French while having fun/Enjoy learning French)

Website URL: http://www.adodoc.net/

Grade/Age Level: Intermediate level / 9-14 yrs

Language, Content, Intended Purpose of the Website & Website Description:

The website aims at aiding speakers of French as a second language develop their language skills at the intermediate level in an interesting and enjoyable way. The intermediate level is sub-categorized as Intermediate 1, 2, and 3. Once you access the website, you get to select one character to accompany you. There are three characters—Anatole, Dorothee, and Oscar. Each character is color coded and stands for one sub-category of the intermediate level.

If you select the “enter” button given by the bottom of the website to access further pages, you will be asked whether you are a “new user”, in which case you will be given some information about the system configuration that you will need to set on your computer in order to be able to use the website; or a “user who visited the site before”, in which case you can select one of the three character listed above, and hence a sub-level. New users are lead to the following page (Well, I suggest that you, dear reader, open all links henthforth as new windows):http://www.adodoc.net/intro/visite.html. Then you need to click “continue” to access the following page: http://www.adodoc.net/intro/choix.html.

Once you access one of these three sub-levels, you are given a number of hyper-linked lessons along with the day in which these were added. The following is a link to the first leve/sub-level: http://www.adodoc.net/fiches/1_liste.html.

You can then access the lesson you want to use, or practice. Typically, each lesson’s webpage is composed of two main areas: one area for accessing video or audio, and one area for text—text is either information about the length of audio/video, its topic and title, as well as a brief description of the audio/video. Once you watch the video, or listen to the audio, you can begin answering the questions. On top of the page you have a notification telling you the number of the current question you are attempting, plus the total number of questions related to the current lesson.

There are various types of questions, like multiple choice, choice, filling in spaces, etc. Questions test comprehension of audio/video, first on a general level—for instance asking about the register (or type) of the audio/video—then specific details are required. There is also some focus on testing new vocabulary. After submitting the answer of each question the user is given a feedback deciding the percent of correct responses, and offering a chance to make another attempt to correct your previous answers. After answering the final question you are given a summary of scores and a choice either to access new lesson, or go back and practice the same lesson again. The following is a typical lesson's page: http://www.adodoc.net/fiches/1ASaintValentin/index.html.

Along with the brief description given for each audio/video there are sometimes links to some websites related to the content of the audio/video. These websites work as some wider background of the topic, and I think are usually useful.

Strengths, drawbacks and suggestions for improvements:

One of the strengths of the website is that it provides a host of audio/video files that is really varied and interesting. In addition, the existence of a link to archives enables more advanced users to utilize the website potential in a more individualized way. Moreover, the existence of color-coding is interesting and useful. The three cartoon characters provided add a flavor of socialization, as well.

However, the audios/videos materials are still not long enough. The duration of most of the audios/videos given is about five minutes. I would recommend providing longer audios/videos. Additionally, some few links to external materials/websites do not work, nor does the link to information in Arabic about the website work. Furthermore, it is not really useful which level is level 1, which is level 2 and which is level 3. You have to navigate and use the materials to finally discover yourself that the left-most cartoon character leads you to the easiest level, the medial to the medium level and the right-most to the most advanced level. Finally, there are not enough instruction on the best way to use the website materials and navigate the website itself. The map of the site is perplexing and the links in it do not work. A quick look at the site map may even frustrate you; you can click the right-hand star-like icon on top of the following link to access the sitemap: http://www.adodoc.net/fiches/1ASaintValentin/index.html.

There are some suggestions that I can provide her to improve the website. Apart from updating the links providing, I would also recommend providing longer parts of naturally-occurring conversations, pieces of movies, etc. This would really make the website more and more useful. In addition, it would be of great benefit if the site developers provide some discussion forums for users, providing places for users of different age groups, genders, cultural backgrounds, etc. Depending on research suggestions within the field of CALL, I would quite safely state that such discussion forums would enable users involve in situated truthful language learning experiences. Such forums would also provide an asset regarding the skills of writing and speaking, since users can interact verbally and/or in written form. Recommended also is the provision of a blog and a wiki for all users of the website.

Reading Reflection on Peyton (1999)

2007-06-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

Reading Reflection on Peyton (1999)
By

Muhammad Abdul-Mageed

Peyton (1999) begins by stressing the ‘central’ role that interaction has in (language) learning and in the development of thought as well as the gaining of new knowledge in a specific content area. He shows that “[m]ore proficient language users or more knowledgeable conversation partners facilitate the participation of less proficient participants by modifying their own language” (p. 18). Peyton refers to, and quotes from, the literature on both the interactionsit perspective and the sociocultural perspective to show that interaction and negotiation are ‘crucial’ for learning and language development.

Then he focuses more on how it is that interaction helps develop the skill of writing by first narrating a personal field-work experience about using networked computers in a school, giving some naturally-occurring excerpts from participants’ writing. Interestingly, we are given some references to the various writing theories. Kemp’s (1993) network theory is presented against a background of earlier theories—formalist theory, process theory, and collaborative theory. Kemp is reported to argue that “network writing revolutionizes writing instruction because it textualizes it” (Peyton, 1999: 20).

Peyton moves on to pinpoint some factors that are at play in what we can label Networked Writing (NW). First, resulting texts are storable, printable, and thus easily analyzable. Obviously, compared to ‘off-line’ texts, these texts are already computerized, which saves much of researchers’ time. Second, the resulting text is collaborative, rather than one-person based. Here, multiple authors come to the environment with various backgrounds, modes of thinking, writing styles, linguistic equipment, etc., which makes writing not only cognitively, linguistically, and socioculturally rich, but interesting as well.

Peyton goes on to report some research suggestions about computer-mediated discussions. Though he does not explicitly state it, what Peyton reports would be significant within the area known as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Research within CDA focuses on how power relations are maintained, negotiated, and/or downplayed in discourse. Here participants’ ages, gender, ethnic background, sociocultural background, etc. will be instrumental factors in deciding how power relations function in discourse. (I guess Wikipedia will be a nice place for a brief introduction to the discipline http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_discourse_analysis . Also Norman Fairclough’s influential book Language and Power is useful; Norman Fairclough (2001). You can also have a look at Research in Critical Discourse Analysis. Website of Teun van Dijk).

Next, Peyton lists for challenges in computer-mediated interaction: (1) flaming, (2) graffiti-like interactions, (3) non-coherent interactions, and (4) teacher’s ability to monitor development of students’ writing skills. I would briefly, and unjustifiably—except for the fact that it is more interesting to me as a linguistics student—hit only the first challenge: flaming. Flaming refers to the practice of either using hostile or ‘long’, ‘intensive’ and ‘heated’ interactions. Flaming is said to begin as mini-modding: “the practice of posting authoritatively as though one holds the power of a message board or system” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_(Internet) ) (See also Wired News: The Secret Cause of Flame Wars, Netizen's Guide to Flame Warriors, Etiquette: Why is it important?, trolls, hacking, and Computer Misuse Act 1990) . Indeed, Politeness (see e.g., Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: CUP) researchers have been actively and enthusiastically investigating how computer-mediated communicators interact, in terms of caring for one another’s face’s (a term that roughly, and non-academically, means each person’s care to be respected and decently dealt with by other’s). Since they are closely related, Peyton’s second and third factors can be gathered under the umbrella term ‘poor interactions.

By the end of his chapter, Peyton discusses two models of teacher’s roles and responsibilities in a networked learning environment and concludes that it is the quality of the learning process that should be prioritized and that computers cannot, and should not, replace teachers, but, rather, aid them.

For me, I find this chapter both interesting and helpful, since it really triggers some research ideas, and offer some new ways of looking into ‘networked’ writing. However, the chapter raises more questions than answers already existing question, which is not by any means a defect. Just as networked writing is primarily collaborative, answers related to it should also be collaborative efforts. Thus, researchers as well as practitioners are invited to have their say.

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Bibliography

Kemp, F. (1993). The origins of ENFI, network theory, and computer-based collaborative writing instruction at the University of Texas. In B. Bruce, J.K. Peyton, & T. Batson (Eds.), Network-based classrooms: promises and realities (pp. 161-180). Cambridge: CPU.

Peyton, J. K. (1999). Theory and research: Interaction via computers. In J. Egberg & E. Hanson-Smith (Eds.), Call environments: Research, practice, and critical issues (pp. 17-26). Alexandria, VA: TESOL.

Norman Fairclough (2001). Language and Power (2nd edition). Harlow: Longman.

Wedding Mishaps

2007-06-28T08:48:00.001-07:00

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9j8a1K614NGQuIA0hMJQ4h4/SIG=12s70d780/EXP=1183131962/**http%3A//video.yahoo.com/video/play%3Fvid=320428%26fr=slv7-msgr1%26cache=1

HTML on YouTube

2007-06-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqFOB77jLaE

Mona Lisa

2007-06-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

See how some artis draws the Mona Lisa!

Digital da Vinci
Could da Vinci have created the "Mona Lisa" using MS Paint? One modern-day artist did. » See how
Watch more speed painting
See the real 'Mona Lisa'

http://www.yahoo.com/s/613739

test

2007-06-24T21:28:00.001-07:00

hi, does netvibes work?

Reading Reflection #1

2007-06-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

Reading Reflection #1 - In your student blog, briefly reflect on one or both of your readings. Briefly summarize key concepts in the readings and then give your reaction to the reading(s). Due Sunday

Ok, Here we go: this is a reading reflection on Week one, L53 (http://www.danielcraig.com/call/fall2006/)-- A ComputerAssisted Language Learning class taught online by Dan Craig ( http://www.danielcraig.com/) , Dept. of Language Education (http://www.indiana.edu/~langed/), Indiana University (http://www.indiana.edu/), USA. (http://www.danielcraig.com/call/fall2006/).

The readings:

1. Egbert, J., Chao, C., and Hanson-Smith, E. (1999) Computer-enhanced language learning environments: an overview. In Egbert, J. and Hanson-Smith, E. (eds.) CALL Environments: Research, Practice, and Critical Issues (pp. 1-13). Alexandria, VA: TESOL.

2. Kern, R. & Warschauer, M. (2000). Theory and practice of network-based language teaching. In In M. Warschauer & R. Kern (Eds.), Network-based language teaching: Concepts and practice.New York: Cambridge University Press.

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CALL in a Changing World: A Reading Reflection

Muhammad Abdul-Mageed,

Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Linguistics,

Indiana University, Bloomington

Egbert, Chao and Hanson-Smith (1999) begin by talking about the need for a theory of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). They provide a number of reasons that lie behind that need, and cite a couple of scholars to support their argument. They then argue that a theory of CALL should not be divorced from 'an integrated theory of language acquisition'. Thus, they turn to talking about language learning theory and the learning environment. They cite Spolsky's (1989) variables that are said to 'govern' acquiring additional languages. Spolsky's variables seem to be useful and encompassing. Interestingly, these variables are provided in the form of input-output schema. In addition, the variables situate the learning process in a socioeconomic context, thus going beyond the classroom environment. At this point I can see a relationship between these variable proposed by Spolsky and the Sociocognitive Approach to language learning that Kern and Warschauer (2000) review. To me, situating language learning into a socioeconomic/sociocognitive perspective is interesting and illuminating, let alone being useful. I should be able to return to this point by the end of the current essay.

Egbert, Chao and Hanson-Smith then spell out eight conditions for 'optimal' language learning environments. They derive such conditions from the learning theory literature, including that on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and English as a Second Language (ESL). They point out that their 'conditions' are not meant to be inclusive, or exhaustive. The eight conditions provided seem to be very useful. They not only envisage learning an additional language as an interactive, sociosultural, innvovative effort, but support learner autonomy and care for such learner needs as time, and stress, as well. The teacher's role is more supportive and facilitative than instructive and authoritative. Indeed, again, this can be related to the many benefits of what Kern and Warschauer (2000) term Network-based Language Teaching (NBLT) where computers are regarded as 'toolkits'.

Finally, Egbert, Chao and Hanson-Smith focus more on the research aspect related to the CALL classroom. They introduce six steps for conducting research in the area of CALL. One points of criticism I need to make on the steps they propose: I think research should not have this kind of fixed step by step procedure. In other words, the various steps should not be in a fixed and stagnant order. As we have some research question in mind we can go ahead and review the literature and continue the research process, but we can go back and add other research questions, refine the questions, or we may need to do more literature review. The writers touched upon this kind of possibility, but I think it evaded them to make it clear that conducting research is a heuristic process. Out of my own research experience, I can claim that the steps are not, and should not be, that linear. In all, I believe that Egbert, Chao and Hanson-Smith's chapter is a good introduction to the field, but they 'fail' to relate their claims to the wider theory of linguistics as a field, an attempt that Kern and Warschauer (2000) skillfully and quite deeply make. Thus, I turn to reflect on Kern and Warschauer's introductory chapter now.

From the very beginning Kern and Warschauer seem to be eager to introduce NBLT and relate it not only to CALL, but also to other fields as we will see later. In addition, They manage to 'create a research space' (See e.g., Swales, 1990; 2004) for their book by indicating that little was published on the relationship between the use of computers and language learning. Thus, In their effort to bridge such a gap, they need first to situate NBLT within SLA and CALL approaches. And this they masterly do. The two scholars review the language learning and teaching perspectives and relate them to the wider theory of linguistics as a field. Since SLA was and still is closely related to, and affected (sometimes badly!) by views about language generally, there is a rational for the authors' efforts to present, though briefly, the mainstream approaches to language. Thus, they introduce three such approaches.

First, they introduce the Structural Perspective and point out how it generated the two now-loathful grammar translation and audiolingual methods. They touch on related concepts in behavioral and cognitive psychology, contrastive syntax, and contrastive rhetoric and pinpoint the applications and drawbacks of the two above-mentioned methods. Secondly, they present the Cognitive/Constructivist Approach pointing out the reasons for which it emerged. The effect of applying this approach on specially reading and writing is also talked about. Thirdly, they introduce the Sociocognitive Perspective, talking about the context in which it appeared and the positive effect it had, and still has, on SLA.

One minor negative thing is that the authors focused more on reading and writing than on other language skills (e.g., listening and speaking) while reviewing the three perspective. But I really liked the way the authors reviewed the three approaches and their ability to show us how the focus changes from language per se to learners (and their cognitive processes) to learner's relationship to the various speech communities. You would envisage a wide knowledge of various disciplines behind the scene and will feel compelled to admire the way the authors simultaneously present the theory and theorize! In addition, you would see the domino-effect that the work of some pioneers (e.g., Bloomfield, Chomsky, Halliday, Hymes, etc.) have had (and actually continues to be so) not only on their own fields but on various other (not-necessarily-at-a-certain-time-related) fields. We are watching multidisciplinarity at play here (and now!).

Finally, the authors relate the three perspectives they introduced to the theory and practice of CALL, giving examples to the different ways CALL methodology was affected. They exemplify by giving a bird's eye view about some CALL programs and applications. Here, I began to reflect not on the readings--:)-- but on the myriad ways I myself was using the computer to learn additional languages (well, namely French), and the different programs I used to resort to. I began to classify the programs according to the classification of approaches the writers provided--and it turned out to be useful, since I reached some conclusions and decisions about future plans! I came to be very interested to to NBLT, not only because it situates the learning process into the larger milieu of a speech community, and relates such a process to the different genres. We would for instance asking ourselves questions like why, how, when, and where we learn a foreign language. In addition, NBLT is intimately related to the now-in-vogue field of CMC (see e.g., Herring, 1996) and the phenomena of hyper-text and hyper-media. The writers end up by hinting on the need for more NBLT research, thus intelligently re-attempting to create a research space for themselves and motivate us to read, and perhaps buy their book! Interesting to me is to read more in the future about the field of CALL, NBLT, CMC and Hyper-media.

Interesting to me will be to read more about the fields of CALL, NBLT, CMC and the phenomenon Hyper-media. I think I am performing well till now in the course and hope to continue acquiring the various useful skills the course provides.

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Herring, S. C. (Ed.). (1996). Computer-Mediated Communication: Linguistic, Social and Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Pragmatics and Beyond series. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Swales, J.M. (1990). Genre analysis. English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Swales, J.M. (2004). Research Genres: Explorations and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Useful links:

Journal of CMC: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/

IU School of Library and Information Science: http://www.slis.indiana.edu/

Center for Research on Learning and Technology: http://www.crlt.indiana.edu/

Center for Social Informatics: http://rkcsi.indiana.edu/

IU School of Linguistics: http://www.indiana.edu/~lingdept/

Prof. Susan C. Herring's (my advisor and CMC pioneer) Homepage: http://www.slis.indiana.edu/faculty/herring/

A new interesting CMC/CMDA book:

Brenda Danet and Susan C. Herring. (2007). The Multilingual Internet: Language, Culture, and Communication Online. Oxford: OUP. http://pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il/~msdanet/multilingTOC.html

My Wiki

2007-06-21T18:28:00.001-07:00

2007-06-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

2007-06-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

2007-06-16T10:31:00.001-07:00