The Prez Says

During the business meeting, we voted on NERALLT's amended bylaws and electoral process.   These documents can be found on NERALLT's website.   Past President Mary Morrisard-Larkin will chair a nominations committee to create the slate of nominees to be elected at IALLT in June. The membership also voted unanimously to create a $7.50 student meeting fee.  

In lieu of a traditional spring meeting this year, NERALLT will host a meeting at Tufts University, at the June 19th-23rd IALLT conference. At this meeting we will vote on the slate of officers, discuss organizational matters, and present other topics. Details regarding date, time, and location for this meeting will be announced in good time.

Ed Dente and NERALLT's Boston logistics committee (Cindy Bravo, Mary Morrisard-Larkin, Mary Simone, Ruth Trometer, and myself) are working on all the details to make IALLT a great success, so we hope you can join us then.

Susan Breeyear and John Graves have begun planning logistics for the October 25th and 26th fall meeting at St. Michael's College in Colchester, VT. This is a beautiful venue. Preliminary lodging information has been posted to the NERALLT website. If you wish to serve as program chair or program committee member, please contact me at your earliest convenience. Some themes that were mentioned at the fall meeting include change management, the language center's role in globalizing your campus, future planning and media software management.

Debra

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Contents

The Prez Says
Fall 2006 Meeting Presentations
Keynote
Friday Presentations
Business Meeting
Meeting Evaluation Survey
And Finally

NERALLT President: Debra Mandel
Guest Newsletter Ed: Dick House

Fall 2006 Meeting Presentations

ncluded in this section are synopses from the fall meeting schedule and links to presentations which are available online. Note: Not all presentations have links to additional info.   The summary for the business meeting follows the presentations.

Thursday October 26, 2006

Language Lab Unleashed!

Barbara Sawhill, Director of the Cooper International Learning Center, Oberlin College, and IALLT President-Elect, presented "Language Lab Unleashed" and her use of podcasting to keep the language technologist plugged in and connected. Check out Barbara's Site "Language Lab Unleashed" at http://www.languagelabunleashed.com/

Humanizing Computer-Assisted Language Learning: The Use of Pedagogical Agents as Language Tutors

Roberto Perez-Galluccio, Ph.D. Candidate, Florida State University, presented an overview of current research on the use of animated pedagogical agents in computer-assisted language learning,

An Introduction to 3D Environments and Gaming

Todd Bryant , Language Program Administrator and Technologist, Library and Information Services, Dickinson College, explained the different types of 3D games and simulations including an explanation of single-user games, network games, and MMORP Gs, along with examples currently on the market- including Sims, Virtual Madrid, and World of Warcraft.

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Friday, October 27, 2006

Keynote: Virtually Anything: Emerging Technologies and Possibilities for Language Learning

Karen Price, Director of Anne Dow Associates, Cambridge, MA, surveyed new communication and information tools developed in fields seemingly unrelated to language learning and language teaching (e.g. medicine, transportation, customer relations, rapid prototyping, home entertainment, toys), and speculated about the desirability and possible transfer of some of these technologies to the more traditional language classroom or distance learning paradigms.

Friday ....

Presentation of "Jules et Jim Interactif"

Dr. Pierre Capretz, Director of the Yale Language Development Studio, presented "Jules et Jim Interactif," a DVD-ROM Program that engages students through an interactive multimedia approach to learning from an authentic linguistic corpus, in this case, François Truffaut's classic film. Dr. Capretz demonstrated how the learner can work with the film as a whole, or in segments, or with individual utterances, as well as from abundant cultural notes and lexical, grammatical, and speaking exercises, all of which are directly hyperlinked to the film.
Further description of "Jules et Jim Interactif"
Demonstration of the program
Contact Information

Using Podcasting for an Online Pronunciation Guide

Creating a Live, Interactive Distance Learning Environment: Spanish for Healthcare Professionals

Nelleke Van Deusen-Scholl , Director of the Penn Language Center and Adjunct Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, presented a distance language course targeted at healthcare providers, which enables them to become more familiar with the basic linguistic and cultural skills necessary to serve an increasingly diverse patient population. General implications for developing a distance model for the teaching of foreign languages, in particular the less commonly taught languages, was also be discussed.
Link to Nelleke's Powerpoint Presentation

.... Continued

Using Games and Other 3D Environments to Create Environments of Virtual Language Immersion and Instances of Task-Based Learning

Todd Bryant discussed how games, such as World of Warcraft, can be used to create a task-based environment that stresses communication and collaboration in the target language with other students or with native speakers not involved in the class.
See Thursday Afternoon for Links

Connecting the Japanese Language Classroom with Japan through Skype and Mixi

Akiko Meguro, Visiting Instructor in Japanese, Dickinson College, discussed the implementation of language exchanges via the Internet utilizing Mixi, a Japanese social networking service, and Skype, a telephony software. Questions were fielded by both Akiko Meguro and Todd Bryant, who helped with technical production.
Link to Dickinson College article about this approach
Skype Website      Mixi Website (in Japanese)

Broadband and a Chicken Bus: Computer-Mediated Language Tutoring in a Flat World

Dr. Kevin Gaugler, Associate Professor of Spanish, Marist College, and Peter Spevacek, President of Interlangua, presented the pedagogical, social, and economic benefits of their model of instruction and demonstrate how Marist integrates real-time video and voice tutoring sessions with native Spanish speakers into its curriculum using Interlangua's distributed computing environment.

Follow this Link to see Kevin Presenting, with a live connection to Guatamala on the screen.

NERALLT Business Meeting, October 27, 2006

•  Financial Report:   NERALLT's 9/30/06 balance was $1288.66. The Spring 2006 meeting expenses were $507.53. Meeting receipts were $555.00, therefore $47.47 was added to the coffers.

•  Membership: The membership database includes 126 members. 15 new members joined as of 10/26/2006. Ruth Trometer created a list of 86 institutions to whom we can we can market NERALLT. We will undertake outreach to these institutions during the winter/spring of 2007.

•  Old Business: NERALLT's ad hoc Governance Committee continued meeting through the summer and went forward with four initiatives: David Kanig was named Interim Newsletter Editor and completed the Fall 2006 newsletter; drafted NERALLT's amended bylaws; wrote descriptions of NERALLT officers; and implemented the new $25 program fee, effective with the fall 2006 meeting.

•  New Business: 2007 NERALLT Election process- Past-President Mary Morrisard Larkin provided background for the new bylaws and officer positions which were distributed to all members.   A vote was taken.   The new bylaws passed as was the new student meeting fee of $7.50.   Mary described the process of nominating a slate of officers whose positions will take effect at IALLT 2007.

NERALLT Fall Meeting Survey Evaluation, October 26-27, 2006

Compiled by Jeremy Bennett

29 responses out of 75 attendees on Friday, or 38%
(Note: percentages rounded to the nearest whole percentage point)

1. About how often do you attend NERALLT meetings?

2. Do you plan to attend NERALLT in the future?

3. How long have you been participating in NERALLT?

4. About today's NERALLD meeting (Likert scale 1-5: 1 = Not at all; 5 = Very much):

What suggestions do you have for improving future NERALLT meetings?

It would be nice to have a snack (a cookie or something) at the end of lunch.

I like visiting different parts of a campus and Harvard was a real treat. Optional tours could be arranged.

Sometimes too much talking and little time left for the demos.