RECALL
(Research at Erindale in Computer-Assisted Language Learning)

REPORT ON ACTIVITIES

(1994-95)

Erindale College

University of Toronto

Annual Report on Activities (1994-95)

RECALL either sponsored, supported or launched a variety of developmental initiatives flowing from its collective mission to incorporate computer technology in the teaching and learning of French as a second language at Erindale. Following in the path of previous projects such as software evaluation, the creation of FRE 225H (Computer Applications in French), research into error frequencies for second language students, the programming of a proto-type French grammar checker (French Kit), and the joint establishment of an e-mail- based writing course (FSL 282H) with Glendon College at York University, RECALL devoted the current academic year to a major internal reorganization, curriculum planning, ongoing teaching and research commitments a nd a new move into multi-media and hypertext technology.

1. Reorganization.
Staffing changes in the Erindale French group in 1994-95 have led to an increase in RECALL membership and a refocussing of its mandate. The appointment to tenure- stream positions of Professors Michel Lord and Emmanuel Nikiema brought fresh strengths to the Erindale team, notably in the areas of writing instruction and speech visualization. Professor Elisabeth Aubé assumed responsibility for the e-mail exchange with Glendon College. Teaching Assistant Pascal Michelucci joined with other RECALL members Charles Elkabas and David Trott (returning from research leave) to undertake a major programming initiative in support of the literary survey part of FRE 180Y (Introduction to French Studies). All members of the Erindale French group participated in implementation discussions revolving around the requirement that its students employ grammar-checking software prior to submitting all their written assignments.

2. Planning.
Within the context of a university-wide, five-year planning exercise to steer the institution through to the year 2000, RECALL members played a central role both as technical advisors and as curriculum planners for the Humanities division. A major element in the divisional plan is to provide 50 computers for the recently-renovated North Building language laboratory. To be done in successive stages, this will for the first time allow sustained language instruction beyond the level of the now overtaxed pilot lab set up in 1985 by RECALL fwith provincial government pilot-project grants. Throughout the year, Charles Elkabas and David Trott participated in several technical meetings with other disciplines (Italian and Anthropology), Micro-electronics and Computing Services staff, and the College administration to select the appropriate equipment for the coming years. As a result, a first batch of 14 Macintosh Power PCs (allowing use of DOS, Windows and Mac-based applications) has been purchased, and awaits installation in the lab which will be ready for limited use in September 1995. Also planned for September, will be the submission for approval of a new joint programme in Teaching and Learning of French and Italian. Negotiated between Marie-Paule Ducretet (both Associate Chair for French and a founding RECALL member) and Michael Lettieri (Associate Chair for Italian), the proposed, shared specialist programme will include core courses on second-language didactics and on the growing importance therein of computer technology.

3. Ongoing Activities.
A number of RECALL's ongoing initiatives were continued this academic year. Following the very successful pilot project launched jointly in 1993-94 by team member Charles Elkabas and two members of the Glendon College faculty, Professors Christine Besnard and Sylvie Rosienski, the use of e-mail in FSL 282H (Language Practice II: Written French) was carried on. It is hoped that the installation of the new Power PCs will go a long way to solving some of the technical problems encountered this year. In a forthcoming article on their teaching experiment, Besnard, Elkabas and Rosienski highlight a substantial increase in the writing output of their letter-writing students who responded enthusiastically to the sustained, structured exchange with their peers in another institution.

To prepare more generally for an increased reliance on computerized aids in all French courses, RECALL has planned a number of organisational meetings this spring. While the problems encountered this year are still fresh in our minds, we hope better to anticipate and co-ordinate use of the new equipment in September. In particular, due to a changeover from the grammar checkers, French Kit and Hugo Plus to Grammatik and Le Correcteur 101, as well as to the move to Power PCs, it will be necessary to significantly revise and expand our previous "Protocol" for the training of students in the use of writing-verification software.

RECALL continued its public relations work on both the St. George and Erindale campuses this year. Pascal Michelucci represented the Erindale group during University of Toronto Day in October 1994. Led by Emmanuel Nikiema, RECALL members Marie-Paule Ducretet, Charles Elkabas and Michel Lord, hosted a large number of interested visitors to Erindale on the occasion of the College's annual Science Fair Plus in February 1995. Nearly one hundred off-campus guests sampled Professor Nikiema's speech visualization demonstration, announced as an opportunity to "Take a picture of your voice".

In accordance with the aim to remain abreast of new developments in language learning software, several RECALL members attended a lecture-demonstration in February 1995 of Christian Vandendorpe's (Université d'Ottawa) Beta version of writing-aid software, Communication écrite. Following discussions between members of the group and Professor Vandendorpe, an evaluation copy was released to Michel Lord to enable him to study the possibility of modifying the software (designed for native French speakers) for non Francophone students. It is hoped that when the completed version of Communication is released, it might be incorporated in the RECALL software collection for use at Erindale.

As language laboratory director for French at Erindale, Charles Elkabas continued to update his annual requests to the college for instructional software. As part of the major upgrading of facilities recommended in the five-year plan, $3,500 were allotted for the purpose of acquiring multiple copies and site licences for use in the new Power PCs. The resulting purchase orders are currently being processed, and will significantly enhance the effectiveness of our refurbished lab.

4. New Initiatives.
In addition to the agreement signed by Marie-Paule Ducretet with Erindale's Italian department to mount a joint specialist programme ("Teaching and Learning of French and Italian"), RECALL members were also instrumental in the placing of a successful request to the College Teaching Development Fund for the group's first Power PC, to assist in the implementation of grammar checking by French students at Erindale.

In December 1994, three members of the team successfully submitted an application for a college-administered Teaching Initiatives Grant for the development of French Kit II, a hypertext adaptation of Pascal Michelucci's anthology of French literary texts and glossaries from the Middle Ages to the present. Charles Elkabas and David Trott are lending their support to Michelucci whose commitment to this major developmental project is among the many contributions to undergraduate teaching responsible for his being singled out for Erindale's annual T.A. Teaching Award. With joint support from the $1,000 Initiatives grant and more than $1,200 in programming software (HyperCard 2.2 and Director 4.0.3) provided by the St. George Department of French, the assembling of the texts, glossaries, images and sound recordings that will make up French Kit II is proceeding rapidly. It is scheduled for at least partial use in FRE 180Y in September of this year.

To deal with the more technical aspects of French Kit II, RECALL has successfully concluded arrangements with the Université de Metz (France) to allow Computing, Communication & Multi-Media student, Thomas Reynier, to complete the co-op part ("stage d'insertion professionnelle") of his programme at Erindale. He will spend three months, between mid-March and mid-June, assisting Pascal Michelucci, planning the screen layouts and carrying out the underlying technical programming needed to make them function smoothly. Should this initial exchange prove successful, further co-op arrangements might be considered.

5. Search for Future Support.
As a final measure to obtain monitoring and technical support for RECALL initiatives in Erindale's developing language laboratory, Marie-Paule Ducretet reperesented Erindale on March 24 in interviews for the government-sponsored Second Language Monitor programme. RECALL members have successfully employed monitors in the past, and it is hoped this type of support will again be available in 1995-96. Professor Ducretet has also applied for technical support through the Canada Manpower temporary employment programme for out-of-work individuals, some of whom may find opportunities to refresh or upgrade computing skills by collaborating with RECALL.

LIST OF RECALL MEMBERS (1994-95)

CURRENT SOFTWARE HOLDINGS & SOFTWARE ON ORDER

LIST OF PAPERS AND PUBLICATIONS SINCE 1985

---------------, ---- & ----, On-site Workshop for Glendon College French Department faculty members, Erindale College Language Laboratory, April 16, 1991.

---------------, ---- & ----, "La Technologie au service de l'enseignement/apprentissage du français langue seconde: Survol du projet RECALL, 1985-91", APFUCC (Association des Professeurs de Français des Universités et Collèges Canadiens), Learned Societies, Queen's University, Kingston, May 29, 1991.

Elkabas, Charles, "Interrogation sur la pédagogie de l'enseignement assisté par ordinateur", GERSELF (Groupe d'Étude et de Recherche sur l'Enseignement de la Langue Française), University of Toronto, October 26, 1987.

--------------- & T.R. Wooldridge, "Le français en contexte, ou l'ALAO (Apprentissage des Langues Assisté par Ordinateur) avec TACT", APFUCC (Association des Professeurs de Français des Université et Collèges Canadiens), Learned Societies, Carleton University, June 1, 1993.

--------------- & ------, "La lecture assistée par ordinateur: un modèle pratique d'application", GRALEF (Groupe de Recherche sur l'Apprentissage et l'Enseignement du Français) / CST (Centre for the Support of Teaching), Glendon College, October 28, 1993.

----------------, C. Besnard & S. Rosienski, "The Acquisition of Writing by e-mail", Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, University of British Columbia, June 1994.

Leslie, Peter, Janet M. Paterson & David Trott, "Possible Uses of Micro-Computers in the Humanities: A Selective Introduction", Victoria College, University of Toronto, November 24, 1986.

-----------------, "PROMPT: la compréhension écrite à l'ordinateur", APFUCC (Association des Professeurs de Français des Universités et Collèges Canadiens), Learned Societies, McMaster University, May 27, 1987.

Paterson, Janet M. & David Trott, "L'Ordinateur littéraire: considérations méthodologiques sur l'utilisation du micro-ordinateur dans une classe de littérature", APFUCC & ACLQ, Learned Societies, University of Manitoba, May 31, 1986.

------------------- & ----, ""The Use of Computers for Textual Analysis in a Literature Class: Practical and Methodological Considerations", McMaster University, March 23, 1987.

Trott, David, "Language in the Graffigny Letters: Some Reflections on a Computerized Approach", Annual Meeting of American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, University of Toronto, April 1985.

2. Publications.
Ducretet, Marie-Paule, Charles Elkabas & David Trott, "La Technologie au service de l'enseignement/apprentissage du français langue seconde: Survol du projet RECALL, 1985-91", The Canadian Modern Language Review / La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, vol. 48, no. 4, (1992) pp. 719-735.

Elkabas, Charles, "L'Enseignement des langues assisté par ordinateur: nouvelle pédagogie?", The Canadian Modern Language Review / La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, vol. 45, no. 2, (1989?) pp. 258-70.
(this article is being re-published by CML/RCLV in a separate volume on language teaching)

----------- & T.R. Wooldridge, "Le français en contexte avec TACT", The Canadian Modern Language Review / La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, (forthcoming).

------------ & ----, "Le français en contexte: Le Chien jaune de G. Simenon. Activités d'apprentissage et base de données", (book in preparation).

Paterson, Janet M. & David Trott, "L'Ordinateur littéraire: considérations méthodologiques sur l'utilisation du micro-ordinateur dans une classe de littérature", Enjeux, no. 12, mai 1987, pp. 133-47.

Siemerling, Winfried, Artificial Intelligence in the Humanities: A Practical Introduction to Déredec, Toronto: Department of French, University of Toronto, 1989, 55 pp.

Trott, David, "French Studies and the Computer: Bridging the Gap between Second Language Learning and Advanced Text Analysis", Computers and the Humanities: Today's Research, Tomorrow's Teaching (Proceedings), Toronto: Centre for Computing in the Humanities, 1986, pp. 72-81.

---------, "La SATOR et l'informatique: expériences, directions et perspectives", Colloque de la SATOR à Fordham (Actes du 3e colloque international de la SATOR, Université Fordham, 25-28 juillet 1989), éd. Jean Macary, Biblio 17, Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature, Paris-Seatle-Tübingen, 1991, pp. 9-14.