Category: writing

CFP Automated Writing Evaluation in Language Teaching: Theory, Development, and Application

Call for Papers

Special Issue: CALICO Journal 33.1, 2016
Guest editors: Volker Hegelheimer, Ahmet Dursun, Zhi Li, Iowa State University

Automated Writing Evaluation in Language Teaching: Theory, Development, and Application

The first automated writing evaluation (AWE) software for assessment purposes dates back to the 1960s (Project Essay Grade, Page Ellis). Rapid advances in the fields of artificial intelligence and natural language processing in the last few decades have led to the development of more powerful scoring engines, such as e-rater developed by ETS and IntelliMetric by Vantage Learning. Recent years have seen the application of scoring engines expand to language learning and teaching purposes. Likewise, much open-source and commercial AWE software has been released for use in the language learning (L2) classroom.

Opinions on the utility of AWE tools and their potential effects on educational practices vary, as shown by two frequently-cited books on AWE: Ericsson and Haswell (2006) and Shermis and Burstein (2013).  While many AWE tools are impressive in terms of scoring reliability, the use of AWE for assessment purposes in writing classrooms has seen fierce discussion and opposition, as articulated in the 2004 position statement of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). More studies are needed to evaluate AWE tools in classrooms. This special issue will bring together a variety of studies related to AWE in the context of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). The issue will cover conceptual and empirical research on AWE tool development, AWE tool classroom implementation, and resulting pedagogical implications.  It will thus be of interest to AWE designers and developers, applied-linguistics researchers, and language teachers and practitioners. With an emphasis on AWE development for classroom use and its implementation, this issue will be a good complement to existing books on AWE, such as Ericsson & Haswell (2006) and Shermis & Burstein (2013).

Research articles that include a theoretical discussion and/or empirical research on the promise, challenges, and issues related to the development, implementation, or evaluation of AWE tools are invited.  These articles may investigate how AWE tools provide L2 learners, language teachers, and computational linguists with opportunities and challenges to:

* promote writing proficiency development
* encourage learner autonomy
* support pedagogical practices
* incorporate theories of Second Language Acquisition
* integrate L2 writing curricula
* develop theory-based AWE tools

By bringing together a variety of researchers and practitioners who have employed qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-method methodologies in researching different AWE tools across different contexts and genres, this Special Issue will raise the awareness of researchers and practitioners regarding the use of AWE tools as part of classroom instruction. This issue is timely as new commercial and academic AWE tools are being used or introduced. The papers in this issue can generate both valuable guidance for implementation and also offer suggestions for needed research on the use of AWE tools as potential language learning technologies.

It is our hope that this Special Issue will stimulate lively discussion about (1)  how to approach the theory-based design and use of different AWE tools in order to best address the needs of L2 learners in different contexts, (2) whether or not to integrate AWE tools into the L2 writing curriculum and use these tools as part of classroom instruction, and (3) how to effectively coordinate a variety of existing technologies in light of learner variables, such as self-regulated
learning, motivation, and learner autonomy.

In a wider sense, this Special Issue will illustrate how developers design and create AWE tools, how instructors implement these tools in their classes, and how learners use them to improve their L2 writing skills. We will thus de-mystify the development of AWE tools for pedagogical purposes and shed light on best practices for teaching L2 writing with AWE tools.

Please send inquiries and abstracts to Volker Hegelheimer (volkerh@iastate.edu) before 1st August 2014. Please list CALICO Journal Special Issue in the subject line of your email. For the submission of the manuscript, follow the online submission process and refer to the Author Guidelines of CJ. http://journals.sfu.ca/CALICO/index.php/calico/about/submissions. During the submission process, select ‘Special Issue AWE’ as the section.

Timeline:

First Call for Papers                                                 1 June  2014
Deadline for submission of abstracts                1 August 2014
Notification of contributors                                   1 September 2014
First draft of papers to be submitted                  1 January 2015
Returned to authors for changes                          15 March 2015
Second draft of papers to be submitted             15 June 2015
Returned to authors for final changes                1 September 2015
Special Issue to be published                              February 2016

Thanks to Mathias Schulze

Curso práctico sobre redacción científica 16 – 18 julio 2014

Escribir ciencia en inglés: curso práctico sobre redacción científica
Universidad Internacional del Mar, Universidad de Murcia
Curso de verano

Fechas: 16-18 de julio 2014

25 horas, 2,5 ECTS

Precio UMU: 60€  Precio no UMU: 80€

Programa y detalles

Inscripción

Teaching staff / Profesorado


Dr. Pilar Aguado joined the English Department at the University of Murcia in 1990. She took her PhD in 1997 (Shakespeare’s Stage Directions: F1 and Editorial Intervention in the 18th Century) and got her permanent position as a Senior lecturer in 2004. Her main teaching and research interests are Teaching English as a Foreign Language, ICTs, Materials Design and ESP. She has been a Language Advisor for CAGE Panel, Cambridge University Press (2003/05), has been involved in several research projects on Learner Corpora and Orality, and collaborates as a referee in some international journals in the field of English Studies. She is now involved in a National Project onLegal Language based on corpora.


Dr. Mª Luisa Carrió Pastor is a senior lecturer of English Language at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. Her research areas are contrastive linguistics, error analysis and the study of academic and professional discourse for second language acquisition. Her publications include Contrastive analysis of scientific-technical discourse: Common writing errors and variations in the use of English as a non-native language (UMI, 2005); “Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in a technical higher education environment” (Peter Lang, 2007), “Internet as a tool to learn a second language in a technical environment” (European Journal of Engineering Education, 2007),  “English Complex Noun Phrase Interpretation by Spanish Learners” (RESLA, 2008), “Learner-Instructor collaborative design of content and language integrated writing activities” (ITL-International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2008), “Contrasting Specific English Corpora: Language Variation” (IJES, 2009) and “Lexical variations in  business e-mails written by  non-native speakers of English” (LSP and Professional Communication, 2012). She has also been editor of several books as Aprendizaje colaborativo asistido por ordenador (2006), Innovaciones docentes en la Lingüística y las Lenguas Aplicadas (2008) and Content and Language Integrated Learning: Cultural diversity (2009).

Dr. Rosa M. Manchón is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Murcia, Spain, where she teaches undergraduate courses in applied linguistics and second language acquisition (SLA) as well as postgraduate courses in research methodology, language teaching methodology and SLA.  Her research interests and publications focus on cognitive aspects of SLA, and SLA-oriented L2 writing. She has published articles in journals such as Communication and Cognition, Learning and Instruction, International Journal of English Studies, Journal of Second Language Writing, Language Learning, and The Modern Language Journal. She has edited 4 guest edited issues in IRAL (2008, with Jasone Cenoz), International Journal of English Studies (2001, 2007), and Journal of Second Language Writing (2008, with Pieter de Haan) as well as several books: Writing in Foreign Language Contexts: Learning, Teaching and Research (Multilingual Matters, 2009), Learning-to-Write and Writing-to-Learn in an Additional Language (John Benjamins, in press/2011), Task-based L2 Language Learning: Insights from and for L2 Writing (with H. Byrnes. John Benjamins, In preparation, 2012),L2 Writing Development: Multiple Perspectives (De Gruyter Mouton, 2012), and The handbook of Second and Foreign Language Writing (with Paul Patsuda, in preparation).  She has served on the Editorial Board of the AILA Applied Linguistics Series (2005-2011) and in 2011 she was elected AILA Publications Coordinator, hence becoming Editor of AILA Review and the AILA Applied Linguistics Series, both published by John Benjamins. She serves on several journal editorial boards and has been Co-Editor of the Journal of Second Language Writing since January 2009 (first with Ilona Leki and currently with Christine Tardy). In the last ten years she has been the head researcher of 6 long-term, publicly financed research projects.


Dr. Pascual Pérez-Paredes is a qualified Official Translator  (Traductor Jurado) appointed by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a senior lecturer with the Department of English at the University of Murcia . His main interests are quantitative research of register variation, the compilation and use of language corpora and the implementation of Information and Communication Technologies in Foreign Language Teaching/Learning. He has been project coordinator of a MINERVA initiative funded by the European Commission SACODEYL; coordinator in Spain of Corpora for Content & Language Integrated Learning, a LLP K2 Transversal programme, responsable for the Spanish EFL component of the Louvain International Database of Spoken English Interlanguage (UCL) and research member of the The International Corpus of Crosslinguistic Interlanguage  (TUFS, Japan). Some of his most recent publications include Researching Specilized Languages, co-edited with V. Bhatia and P. Sánchez, John Benjamins;  Developing annotation solutions for online Data Driven Learning, ReCALL Journal; the co-edition of Software-aided analysis of language, with Mike Scott and P. Sánchez;  or research papers on JCR-indexed  journals such as International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, System, Language, Learning and Technology or CALL, all of them dealing with the interplay of language corpora, language analysis and language education.  In 2009 and 2010, he was a Research Fellow with the English Department in Northern Arizona University, developing research with Douglas Biber and Randi Reppen. Pascual Pérez-paredes is the Principal Investigator (PI) for Languages for specific purposes, language corpora, and English linguistics applied to knowledgeengineering at UM.  He has co-edited a special issue for ReCALL journal (Cambridge University Press) entitled “Researching new uses of corpora for language teaching and learning”. Pascual Pérez-Paredes is an undergradute computer scientist and passionate for digital culture and computers. 

Dr. Purificación Sánchez Hernández is a senior lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Murcia where she teaches undergraduate and master courses on English for Specific Purposes: Science and Technology and Applied Linguistics.  Her major research interests comprise scientific discourse, analysis of the language of Biology and the compilation and use of language corpora. Some of his most recent publications include Researching Specilized Languages, co-edited with V. Bhatia and P. Pérez-Paredes, John Benjamins and  the co-edition of Software-aided analysis of language, with Mike Scott and P. Pérez-Paredes In the last 3 years she has been the head researcher in an European funded project. She has been a professional translator in the field of science and has taught several courses on Writing research papers for novice teachers in the University of Murcia

María Sánchez-Tornel graduated in English Studies from the University of Murcia (Spain). She obtained an MA in Applied Linguistics with an MA thesis is entitled “Metacognitive Strategies in Computer-assisted Language Learning Environments”. Following this she was awarded a research grant under the EU-funded research project Corpora for Content and Language Integrated Learning: BACKBONE and, afterwards, she earned a PhD scholarship from the University of Murcia. Now she is fully devoted to her doctoral thesis on the use of linguistic corpora in the foreign language classroom and she is also a member of the team in charge of the project LADEX, which studies the representation of immigrants in legal-administrative language.



Dr. Carmen Sancho Guinda is a senior lecturer in the Department of Applied Linguistics at thePolytechnic University of Madrid, where she teaches English for Academic Purposes and Professional Communication and coordinates in-service training seminars for teachers undertaking English-medium instruction within EHEA programmes. Her major research interests comprise the interdisciplinary study of discourse, genre analysis and innovation in the teaching and learning of academic literacies. She has recently co-edited Stance and Voice in Written Academic Genres with Ken Hyland (Palgrave, 2012) and is currently engaged in the co-edition of Narrative in Academic and Professional Genres (Peter Lang, 2013) with Maurizio Gotti.

Dr. Debra Westall has been a member of the teaching and research staff at the Department of Applied Linguistics (Universitat Politècnica de València) (UPV) since 1996 and is Associate Professor of English for Specific Purposes. Her current research interests are language contact between American English and Peninsular Spanish, Spanish nutritional discourse and health reporting on childhood obesity. She is co-author of three books for learners of English for academic purposes. Her decade of experience as a linguistic consultant and scientific editor has also allowed her to explore how UPV researchers write for publication in high-impact journals.

Curso práctico sobre redacción científica 16 – 18 julio 2014

Escribir ciencia en inglés: curso práctico sobre redacción científica
Universidad Internacional del Mar, Universidad de Murcia
Curso de verano

Fechas: 16-18 de julio 2014

25 horas, 2,5 ECTS

Precio UMU: 60€  Precio no UMU: 80€

Programa y detalles

Inscripción

Teaching staff / Profesorado


Dr. Pilar Aguado joined the English Department at the University of Murcia in 1990. She took her PhD in 1997 (Shakespeare’s Stage Directions: F1 and Editorial Intervention in the 18th Century) and got her permanent position as a Senior lecturer in 2004. Her main teaching and research interests are Teaching English as a Foreign Language, ICTs, Materials Design and ESP. She has been a Language Advisor for CAGE Panel, Cambridge University Press (2003/05), has been involved in several research projects on Learner Corpora and Orality, and collaborates as a referee in some international journals in the field of English Studies. She is now involved in a National Project onLegal Language based on corpora.


Dr. Mª Luisa Carrió Pastor is a senior lecturer of English Language at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. Her research areas are contrastive linguistics, error analysis and the study of academic and professional discourse for second language acquisition. Her publications include Contrastive analysis of scientific-technical discourse: Common writing errors and variations in the use of English as a non-native language (UMI, 2005); “Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in a technical higher education environment” (Peter Lang, 2007), “Internet as a tool to learn a second language in a technical environment” (European Journal of Engineering Education, 2007),  “English Complex Noun Phrase Interpretation by Spanish Learners” (RESLA, 2008), “Learner-Instructor collaborative design of content and language integrated writing activities” (ITL-International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2008), “Contrasting Specific English Corpora: Language Variation” (IJES, 2009) and “Lexical variations in  business e-mails written by  non-native speakers of English” (LSP and Professional Communication, 2012). She has also been editor of several books as Aprendizaje colaborativo asistido por ordenador (2006), Innovaciones docentes en la Lingüística y las Lenguas Aplicadas (2008) and Content and Language Integrated Learning: Cultural diversity (2009).

Dr. Rosa M. Manchón is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Murcia, Spain, where she teaches undergraduate courses in applied linguistics and second language acquisition (SLA) as well as postgraduate courses in research methodology, language teaching methodology and SLA.  Her research interests and publications focus on cognitive aspects of SLA, and SLA-oriented L2 writing. She has published articles in journals such as Communication and Cognition, Learning and Instruction, International Journal of English Studies, Journal of Second Language Writing, Language Learning, and The Modern Language Journal. She has edited 4 guest edited issues in IRAL (2008, with Jasone Cenoz), International Journal of English Studies (2001, 2007), and Journal of Second Language Writing (2008, with Pieter de Haan) as well as several books: Writing in Foreign Language Contexts: Learning, Teaching and Research (Multilingual Matters, 2009), Learning-to-Write and Writing-to-Learn in an Additional Language (John Benjamins, in press/2011), Task-based L2 Language Learning: Insights from and for L2 Writing (with H. Byrnes. John Benjamins, In preparation, 2012),L2 Writing Development: Multiple Perspectives (De Gruyter Mouton, 2012), and The handbook of Second and Foreign Language Writing (with Paul Patsuda, in preparation).  She has served on the Editorial Board of the AILA Applied Linguistics Series (2005-2011) and in 2011 she was elected AILA Publications Coordinator, hence bec
oming Editor of AILA Review and the AILA Applied Linguistics Series, both published by John Benjamins. She serves on several journal editorial boards and has been Co-Editor of the Journal of Second Language Writing since January 2009 (first with Ilona Leki and currently with Christine Tardy). In the last ten years she has been the head researcher of 6 long-term, publicly financed research projects.


Dr. Pascual Pérez-Paredes is a qualified Official Translator  (Traductor Jurado) appointed by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a senior lecturer with the Department of English at the University of Murcia . His main interests are quantitative research of register variation, the compilation and use of language corpora and the implementation of Information and Communication Technologies in Foreign Language Teaching/Learning. He has been project coordinator of a MINERVA initiative funded by the European Commission SACODEYL; coordinator in Spain of Corpora for Content & Language Integrated Learning, a LLP K2 Transversal programme, responsable for the Spanish EFL component of the Louvain International Database of Spoken English Interlanguage (UCL) and research member of the The International Corpus of Crosslinguistic Interlanguage  (TUFS, Japan). Some of his most recent publications include Researching Specilized Languages, co-edited with V. Bhatia and P. Sánchez, John Benjamins;  Developing annotation solutions for online Data Driven Learning, ReCALL Journal; the co-edition of Software-aided analysis of language, with Mike Scott and P. Sánchez;  or research papers on JCR-indexed  journals such as International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, System, Language, Learning and Technology or CALL, all of them dealing with the interplay of language corpora, language analysis and language education.  In 2009 and 2010, he was a Research Fellow with the English Department in Northern Arizona University, developing research with Douglas Biber and Randi Reppen. Pascual Pérez-paredes is the Principal Investigator (PI) for Languages for specific purposes, language corpora, and English linguistics applied to knowledgeengineering at UM.  He has co-edited a special issue for ReCALL journal (Cambridge University Press) entitled “Researching new uses of corpora for language teaching and learning”. Pascual Pérez-Paredes is an undergradute computer scientist and passionate for digital culture and computers. 

Dr. Purificación Sánchez Hernández is a senior lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Murcia where she teaches undergraduate and master courses on English for Specific Purposes: Science and Technology and Applied Linguistics.  Her major research interests comprise scientific discourse, analysis of the language of Biology and the compilation and use of language corpora. Some of his most recent publications include Researching Specilized Languages, co-edited with V. Bhatia and P. Pérez-Paredes, John Benjamins and  the co-edition of Software-aided analysis of language, with Mike Scott and P. Pérez-Paredes In the last 3 years she has been the head researcher in an European funded project. She has been a professional translator in the field of science and has taught several courses on Writing research papers for novice teachers in the University of Murcia

María Sánchez-Tornel graduated in English Studies from the University of Murcia (Spain). She obtained an MA in Applied Linguistics with an MA thesis is entitled “Metacognitive Strategies in Computer-assisted Language Learning Environments”. Following this she was awarded a research grant under the EU-funded research project Corpora for Content and Language Integrated Learning: BACKBONE and, afterwards, she earned a PhD scholarship from the University of Murcia. Now she is fully devoted to her doctoral thesis on the use of linguistic corpora in the foreign language classroom and she is also a member of the team in charge of the project LADEX, which studies the representation of immigrants in legal-administrative language.



Dr. Carmen Sancho Guinda is a senior lecturer in the Department of Applied Linguistics at thePolytechnic University of Madrid, where she teaches English for Academic Purposes and Professional Communication and coordinates in-service training seminars for teachers undertaking English-medium instruction within EHEA programmes. Her major research interests comprise the interdisciplinary study of discourse, genre analysis and innovation in the teaching and learning of academic literacies. She has recently co-edited Stance and Voice in Written Academic Genres with Ken Hyland (Palgrave, 2012) and is currently engaged in the co-edition of Narrative in Academic and Professional Genres (Peter Lang, 2013) with Maurizio Gotti.

Dr. Debra Westall has been a member of the teaching and research staff at the Department of Applied Lin
guistics (Universitat Politècnica de València) (UPV) since 1996 and is Associate Professor of English for Specific Purposes. Her current research interests are language contact between American English and Peninsular Spanish, Spanish nutritional discourse and health reporting on childhood obesity. She is co-author of three books for learners of English for academic purposes. Her decade of experience as a linguistic consultant and scientific editor has also allowed her to explore how UPV researchers write for publication in high-impact journals.