"QuickAssist," the program presented in this paper, uses natural language processing (NLP) technologies. It places a range of NLP tools at the disposal of learners, intended to enable them to independently read and comprehend a German text of their choice while they extend their vocabulary, learn about different uses of particular words,…

In this article, the author describes a series of projects that James Pusack and the author engaged in together, a number of them to develop CALL authoring tools. With their shared love of technology and dedication to language teaching and learning, they embarked on a long and immensely enjoyable career in CALL during which each project evolved…

In this paper we outline an approach to learner preparation that provides a framework to effectively structure a collaborative and cooperative student research assignment using a wiki site as a writing platform. While students are familiar with posting pictures and videos online, they may not be aware of how to effectively integrate text and…

The development of both the materials for an intermediate-level hybrid German writing course and the software in a virtual learning environment for the course may be viewed as activity systems. Viewing the individual components of each system as interrelated enables us to conceptualize the complexities of the development process, which goes well…

This article presents the concept development, research programming, and learning design of a lexical processing web application, Virtual Vocabulary, which was developed using theories in both cognitive psychology and second language acquisition (SLA). It is being tested with first-year students of German at the University of Victoria in Canada,…

This study explores the relationship between scrolling, negotiated interaction, and self-initiated self-repair (SISR) in a task-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) foreign language learning environment. Pairs of adult learners of German engaged in four jigsaw tasks over the course of one university semester. Video screen…

We built a natural language processing (NLP) system implementing a "virtual writing conference" for elementary-school children, with German as the target language. Currently, state-of-the-art computer support for writing tasks is restricted to multiple-choice questions or quizzes because automatic parsing of the often ambiguous and fragmentary…

This article examines the use of the Voyager Compact Disk (CD) AudioStack to provide HyperCard stacks designed to promote language learning with the ability to play on common precisely specified portions of off-the-shelf audio compact disks in a CD-ROM drive. Four German and Russian HyperCard stacks are described and their construction outlined.…

A serious drawback in introducing sound into computer programs for teaching foreign language speech has been the lack of an algorithm to turn off the cassette recorder immediately to keep screen text and audio in synchronization. This article describes a program which solves that problem. (SED)

The properties of German as a special language of mechanical engineering are examined on the basis of a newly compiled corpus including samples from all important disciplines and discourse styles. The syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of passive voice are the chief research goal. (Contains five references.) (Author/LB)

The development and use of two programs developed at Loyola College using HyperCard are described. One is a reading comprehension program of a Renaissance Italian text; the other, in German, uses scanned-in maps of the various stages of German political development to illustrate German history. (21 references) (LB)

This paper presents a study in which we examined spelling mistakes made by 34 learners of German in an online CALL exercise. We analyzed a total of 374 spelling errors that occurred in 341 words and subsequently classified them along four dimensions: (a) competence versus performance, (b) linguistic subsystem, (c) language influence, and (d)…

Reports a study that tested the possibility of language instruction in a MOO (Multiple-User Domain, Object-Oriented). The experiment consisted of two groups: adult evening-school participants in Germany learning English-as-a-Second-Language and American college students in their fourth semester of college German. Partnerships were formed with one…