Bridging the Language Gap.

English Language Education Projects

  • Language Education Application Evaluations
  • Software Design
  • Language Assessment
  • MA Project

Language Education Application Evaluations

Evaluation of Five Language Education Applications
application_evaluation.pdf
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In preparation for designing a technology-enhanced language learning tool for the master’s project, reviewed web applications, websites, and software designed for language learning purposes.  Used a evaluation guideline, “Questions for judgmental analysis of CALL appropriateness” by Carol Chapelle. (2001, p.59).

The following applications have been selected for review. Each one of them makes a unique use of technology to aid language learning.
  • Lingq.com (multimedia resources, social networking)
  • Lang-8.com (social networking)
  • Hungryforwords.com (online flashcard + email service)
  • BBC Languages: Real Chinese (multimedia resources)
  • Eigozuke (Nintendo DS software for dictation) 

Course:

EDUC 480 Directed Reading (Dr. Guadalupe Valdes, School of Education)

Evaluation of Lang-8.com with reference to Bloom’s Taxonomy
Link to page with SWF file
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Evaluation of Lang-8.com with reference to Bloom’s Taxonomy. Identified the six levels for intellectual behavior on Bloom’s Taxonomy in Lang-8.com. This was an opportunity to observe a possible use of social networking services for educational purposes, in particular for language learning.

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EDUC 391X Web-Based Technologies in Teaching and Learning
1 week
Adobe Flash


Software Design Digital Flashcard for TeacherMate

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TeacherMate
Scheduled to be released in the 2009-2010 school year, this software helps third grade English language learners acquire grade-level vocabulary necessary for academic success. Proposed learning activities and interface designs for TeacherMate. Later in the production stage, produced approximately 1000 illustrations for each word in Marzano’s grade 3 academic vocabulary list.

About TeacherMate
TeacherMate is a handheld device developed by a non-profit organization, Innovations for Learning, for classroom use at primary levels. Its software primarily focus on math and literacy development, but programs that target English Language Learners are also in development. Click here to find out more about TeacherMate and Innovations for Learning.
TeacherMate website
NBC report on TeacherMate


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EDUC 380 Supervised Internship (Winter & Spring academic quarters)
3 months (interface & interaction design), 3 months (illustration)
Innovations for Learning
Design & produce digital flashcard & activities for grade 3 English language learners for mobile platform
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator


Language Assessment Oral Language Acquisition Inventory (OLAI)

Project Overview
To investigate the utility of Oral Language Acquisition Inventory, or OLAI (Gentile, 2004, 2005). The OLAI is a multi-part test that provides the tester with usable information about children's abilities to use key syntactic, grammatical, and prosodic elements of spoken English. This goal of the study was to determine whether and what portions of the OLAI are most useful for efficiently producing information teachers can use to plan and carry out instruction, particularly English language development instruction.

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EDUC 380 Supervised Internship (Summer academic quarter)
3 months
Stanford charter school: East Palo Alto Academy
Administration of OLAI, transcription of student speach, scoring

MA Project WordSift PLUS: Exposes comprehension & Bridges the Language Gap

Link to MA Project WordSift PLUS website is here.
Integrate knowledge of learning theories and of design processes and create an effective language learning tool. Experienced all steps: needs analysis, research, rapid prototyping, user testing, revision of prototype and learning assessment.
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WordSiftPLUS is a web-based formative assessment tool customized to help English Language Learners develop and demonstrate comprehension. The user drags images, adds captions and, sorts them on a visual organizer. The goal of WordSiftPLUS is to expose student comprehension of target reading materials and academic content by providing visual means of organizing information and scaffolding academic writing activity. This tool adds the capability to guide comprehension and the reflection process necessary in academic content learning to WordSift, an existing web-based tool for visualizing content.


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6 months
Learner needs analysis, target learner observation, literature review, ideation, rapid prototyping, user testing, learning assessment scoring