CFP Mobile technology for foreign language teaching.


Journal of Universal Computer Science (J.UCS)
ISSN 0948-695x
 Online Edition: ISSN 0948-6968

Special Issue on:
  Mobile technology for foreign language teaching.
               Building bridges between non-formal and formal scenarios

To be published in October 2015

Guest Editors:

Jesús García Laborda (Universidad de Alcalá, Spain, jesus.garcialaborda@uah.es)
Elena Bárcena (UNED, Spain, mbarcena@flog.uned.es)
John Traxler, University of Wolverhampton, U.K., John.Traxler@wlv.ac.uk)

Background & Call for Manuscripts

Since the start of the new millennium, Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) has grown to become a significant paradigm that educators cannot ignore. The primary motivation comes from two factors. Firstly, the wide scale adoption of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Secondly, the importance of speaking other languages both in the international professional world, for access and career development, and also in increasingly plurilingual societies. The inherently flexible nature of MALL enables students to be targeted within formal education, lifelong learning, outside formal education and even in situations of professional and social exclusion.

Researchers and developers worldwide have made the connection between mobile devices and foreign languages on the basis that the relevant competences can be trained socially, rather autonomously and, to some extent, developed incidentally. Regional and national boards of education and social affairs are, therefore, designing and implementing programs based upon what is possible to learn when users are mobile and interconnected. Furthermore, context is also taken into consideration in MALL as a significant and versatile element, which can be incorporated as part of the learning process.
This special issue draws together research and experiences that illustrate the recent advances in this field, both from a theoretical and/or a practical perspective to mainstream implementation. The issue intends to provide a multidisciplinary view of MALL, emphasizing the integration of methodological and technological innovation in order to effectively attend the language learning needs of mobile individuals and social groups in the 21st century. To this end, the issue will contain original, pertinent and relevant contributions along topics which include but are not limited to the following:

• Creating interactive and collaborative MALL environments
• Design and development of educational materials for MALL
• Specially significant MALL pilot projects and applications to mainstream implementation
• Mobile technology for language teacher training
• MALL assessment techniques, practices and certification
• From mobile to ubiquitous language learning: future trends in MALL

Important Deadlines

Submission by:                               31 December 2014
Notification of acceptance by:      31 March 2015
Revised submission by:                30 June 2015
Final version by:                             31 August 2015

Submission and Evaluation Procedure

The Journal of Universal Computer Science is a high-quality electronic publication that deals with all aspects of theoretical and applied computing technology. J.UCS has been appearing monthly since 1995 and is one of the oldest electronic journals with uninterrupted publication since its foundation. A number of special issues as well as the printed archive editions of the volumes are also available in print and can be ordered directly from J.UCS office. The impact factor of J.UCS is 0.669, the 5-year impact factor 0.788 (2010). For further information, please refer to  http://www.jucs.org/jucs_info/aims/unique_features.html.

Manuscripts should not exceed 20 double-spaced pages. Papers only prepared according to the JUCS’s guidelines for authors and submitted online (see procedure described below) will be included in the review process. Please refer to  http://www.jucs.org/ujs/jucs/info/special_issues/special_guidelines.html.

The guidelines for authors are available at  http://www.jucs.org/ujs/jucs/info/submissions/style_guide.html. Please submit your original and proof-read papers using the submission system to   https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=malljucs15. Each article will be blind-reviewed by at least 3 reviewers. A selected set of reviewers with the appropriate expertise will be assigned to each article submitted according to its main subject.

Book proposals in the Advances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching series

Advances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching

The ADVANCES IN DIGITAL LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING book series is published by Bloomsbury with Dr Michael Thomas, Dr Mark Peterson and Professor Mark Warschauer as series editors. It has already published books on learner autonomy and CALL, sociocultural approaches to online language learning and teaching, and interactive whiteboards and language education. New proposals are sought from academics working in CALL for sole-author or edited collections. More information can be found below and via the publisher’s series website:
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/advances-in-digital-language-learning-and-teaching/

Today’s language educators need support to understand how their learners are changing and the ways technology can be used to aid their teaching and learning strategies. The movement toward different modes of language learning, from presence-based to autonomous as well as blended and fully online modes, requires different skill sets such as e-moderation and new ways of designing and developing language learning tasks in the digital age.
Theoretical studies that include practical case studies and high quality empirical studies incorporating critical perspectives are necessary to move the field further. This new series is committed to providing such an outlet for high quality work on digital language learning and teaching.

Volumes in the series focus on a number of areas including but not limited to:

task-based learning and teaching approaches utilizing technology
language learner creativity
e-moderation and teaching languages online
blended language learning
designing courses for online and distance language learning
mobile assisted language learning
autonomous language learning, both in and outside of formal educational contexts
the use of web 2.0/social media technologies
immersive and virtual language learning environments
digital game-based language learning
language educator professional development with digital technologies
teaching language skills with technologies

Enquiries about submitting a proposal for the book series can be made by contacting the series editors: Dr Michael Thomas (MThomas4@uclan.ac.uk), Dr Mark Peterson (tufsmp@yahoo.com) and Professor Mark Warschauer (markw@uci.edu).

Full text: Researching uses of corpora for language teaching and learning ReCALL, 26, 2, 121-127.

ReCALL special issue: Researching uses of corpora for language teaching and learning

Editorial: Researching uses of corpora for language teaching and learning

ALEX BOULTON
University of Lorraine and CNRS, France
(email: alex.boulton@univ-lorraine.fr)

PASCUAL PÉREZ-PAREDES
Universidad de Murcia, Spain
(email: pascualf@um.es)

Boulton, A. Pérez-Paredes, P. 2014. Editorial: Researching uses of corpora for language teaching and learning. ReCALL, 26, 2, 121-127.

Full text: Researching uses of corpora for language teaching and learning ReCALL, 26, 2, 121-127.

ReCALL special issue: Researching uses of corpora for language teaching and learning

Editorial: Researching uses of corpora for language teaching and learning

ALEX BOULTON
University of Lorraine and CNRS, France
(email: alex.boulton@univ-lorraine.fr)

PASCUAL PÉREZ-PAREDES
Universidad de Murcia, Spain
(email: pascualf@um.es)

Boulton, A. Pérez-Paredes, P. 2014. Editorial: Researching uses of corpora for language teaching and learning. ReCALL, 26, 2, 121-127.

Reading concordances is not a trivial task

The methodological transfer from the CL research area to the applied ring of language learning and teacher underwent no adaptation, and thus learners were presented with the same tools, corpora and analytical tasks as well-trained and professional linguists.

[…]

Reading concordances is, by no means, a trivial task. Sinclair (1991) recommends a complex procedure which involves five distinct stages. Let us review very briefly what they entail. The first stage is
that of initiation. Learners here will look to the left and to the right of the nodes and determine the dominant pattern. Then, learners are prompted to interpret and hypothesize about what it is that these
words have in common. Thirdly, the consolidation stage, where students are to corroborate their hypothesis by looking more closely at variations of their hypotheses. After this, these findings have to be reported and, finally a new round of observations starts. Although typically reduced in language classrooms, this procedure is common in the possibilities scenario and certainly characterises the so-called bottom-up approach (Mishan, 2004: 223). A recent analysis (Kreyer, 2008) deconstructs the idea of corpus competence in different skills, namely, interpreting corpus data, knowledge about corpus design, knowledge about resources in the Internet, some linguistic background, knowledge about how to use concordances and, finally, some corpus linguistics background. This is a positive effort in the
right direction as the author admits the need to create the conditions for the use of corpora in the language classroom or, in other words, the Kreyer recognizes that pedagogic mediation is necessary if we want to turn the corpus into a learning tool. Notwithstanding, the challenges are significant.

Pérez-Paredes, P. (2010). Corpus Linguistics and Language Education in Perspective: Appropriation and the Possibilities Scenario. In T. Harris & M. Moreno Jaén (Eds.), Corpus Linguistics in Language Teaching (pp. 53-73). Peter Lang.