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Internet & Language Learning PhD researchers

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October 30, 1999: This message was distributed by Papyrus News, a free e-mail distribution list on the global impact of information technology on language, literacy, and education. Feel free to forward this message to others, but please include this introductory paragraph. For information on subscribing or unsubscribing to Papyrus News see http://www.lll.hawaii.edu/web/faculty/markw/papyrus-news.html.

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Below is a partial list of PhD students conducting research related to uses of the Internet in language learning or in teacher education of language teachers. A few caveats about the list.

(1) The list reflects names that I gathered in a public call. I put the list together on October 1. Others who did not receive the call or who contacted me after October 1 are not included. So this list is not by any means complete.

(2) The order of people in the list is completely arbitrary and just reflects the order that I cut-and-paste the info from my e-mail program into Microsoft Word.

(3) I somewhat arbitrarily divided list into topic areas. This categorization reflects my own quick judgment of the main area of content of the dissertation topic, rather than a decision by those who submitted their names. Do look through all the categories since there is overlap, and I apologize for any miscategorizations.

(4) I apologize for not being able to include others who contacted me after October 1, but I unfortunately do not have time to maintain this on a regular basis. I will, however, try to update this list annually, so sometime next summer or fall I may announce this again on Papyrus News and put together an updated list. (In the meantime, if someone else wants to develop something that will be more frequently updated, feel free to do so).

E-Mail Address: carlsonbeth@email.spjc.cc.fl.us

URL (if applicable): http://www.spjc.edu

University :St. Petersburg Junior College/University of South Florida

Expected year of graduation: 2000 or 2001

PhD dissertation title or topic: Computer Mediated Communication and Second Language Acquisition in Students who are Deaf

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

Using Daedalus and/or WebCT, I'm examining English grammatical development in students who are Deaf (or who have lost their hearing early in life) at the post-secondary level. Using a revised Test of the Ability to Subordinate (Davidson, 1978) as a pre-test/post-test, and several other measures, I'm looking for some kind of evidence to expand on what I'm seeing in the student writing. The overriding concern, naturally, is that for many Deaf students success in college is dependent upon success in English. And, while there are several factors that mitigate whether Deaf students succeed in college, most notable is their academic and communication skills.

E-Mail Address: darhower@pitt.edu

URL (if applicable): N/A

University: University of Pittsburgh

Expected year of graduation: 2000

PhD dissertation title or topic: "Computer-Mediated Communication In The Intermediate Spanish Class: A Sociocultural Case Study"

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactional and linguistic features of communication among intermediate-level Spanish learners and their teacher in a synchronous computer-mediated (chat room) context. The study will evoke some fundamental constructs of Vygotskian sociocultural theory in order to describe and explain how learners and their teacher collaborate with each other to co-construct meaning in the chat room. General patterns of learner- learner and learner-teacher interaction will be analyzed, as well as learner and teacher perceptions of the use of chat as a language learning tool, and finally, any changes in learner output over time.

E-Mail Address: foohs@tempest.coedu.usf.edu

University: PhD in Second Language Acquisition & Instructional Technology - University of South Florida

Expected year of graduation: 2003

Tentative PhD dissertation topic: Acquisition of Tense/Aspect Systems in Computer Mediated Language Courses

Brief description of research topic: (Tentative)

Currently there are many studies about the acquisition of Tense/Aspect systems by Foreign Language Students. Most of them are based on the definitions of Tense and Aspect given by Comrie. Vendler is also cited frequently. Most of the proposed measures, therefore, are consistent with those definitions. However, I argue that Comrie's definition of Aspect and Vendler's Aspectual Classes are not enough to account for Aspect. My interest is to study the acquisition of Tense/Aspect, utilizing suitable definitions and measures, in computer mediated language courses.

E-Mail Address: yiansoph@cytanet.com.cy

URL (if applicable):

University: University of Portsmouth, UK

Expected year of graduation: 2001

PhD dissertation title or topic: Learner Interaction in Second Language Acquisition: A comparison of interactions and learning outcomes in a communicative classroom and a virtual environment

E-Mail Address: jbicknell@null.net (permanent)

URL (if applicable):

University: West Virginia University

Expected year of graduation: May 2000 (Insha'allah!)

PhD dissertation title or topic: Cognitive control and CMC in ESL

Brief description of research topic or plans: Basically it's a reproduction of Dr. Warschauer's research on face-to-face vs. CMC interactions with the additional variable of cognitive control, field-dependence-independence (FD/FI). I'm investigating whether learners with different cognitive controls (sometimes refered to as "style") interact differently in either environment. I'll have students interact face-to-face and via a MOO, then look at the patterns of their interactions blocking them for FD/FI.

E-Mail Address: rlc7107@garnet.acns.fsu.edu

URL (if applicable):

University: Florida State University

Expected year of graduation: December 1999

PhD dissertation title or topic: A Vygotskian Approach to Electronic Message Boards

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

I am particularly interested in the use of the electronic bulletin board and other forms of CMC for the second and foreign language classroom. I am also interested in sociocultural theory and its relationship to computer technologies.

E-Mail Address: bjimmy@migal.co.il

URL (if applicable): http://www.scis.nova.edu/~backerj/index.htm

University: Nova Southeastern University

Expected year of graduation: 2000

PhD dissertation title or topic: Multi-User Domain Object Oriented (MOO) as a High School Procedure for Foreign Language Acquisition

E-Mail Address:kevin.wilkinson@uea.ac.uk

URL (if applicable): http://geocities.com/collegepark/library/5073

University:University of East Anglia (UEA)

Expected year of graduation:2001

PhD dissertation title or topic:Potential of e-mail interaction for developing foreign-language oral skills

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

My research looks at previous work done on synchronous and asynchronous CMC wrt L2 learning, most of which has focused on development of writing skills. I then investigate how SLA theory, particularly discourse perspectives, relate to pedagogic CMC, with a particular emphasis on text-based asynchronous modes and speaking. I explore linguistic and discourse research on the linguistic and pragmatic features of text-based CMC as well as various theoretical orientations regarding the nature of literacy and orality in order to derive support for my hypothesis that learner engagement in e-mail interaction, depending on contextual variables such as setting, task nature, interaction management and frequency, shares many of the beneficial features of synchronous text-based CMC, and perhaps with advantages not available with sync CMC. Inspired by the work of scholars in the field (Warschauer, Beauvois in particular) as well as current practitioners, I am setting up an experiment with a school in Germany in order to test my hypothesis

E-Mail Address:ttseli@yahoo.com

URL (if applicable):

University:Univ.of Brighton (UK)

Expected year of graduation: 2002

PhD dissertation title or topic:The use of synchronous (or asynchronous) communication as a means of enhcancing L2 pragmatic competence

E-Mail Address: malika@falcon.cc.ukans.edu

URL (if applicable): http://www.aec.ukans.edu/staff/mweil

University: University of Kansas

Expected year of graduation: 2003

PhD dissertation title or topic: IEP students' independent study on WWW

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

not sure, something related to students' independent use of extra study materials available on the WWW - what they access, how they found it, why they use it, how much time do they spend, where do they do this, etc.?

E-Mail Address: ssiekman@soleil.acomp.usf.edu

URL (if applicable):

University: University of South Florida

Expected year of graduation:2002

PhD dissertation title or topic: ? (first semester PhD student ;-))

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

I have been using WebCT to develop supplemental information, practice and communication to a traditionally taught German class in the US. I have found this to be pretty successful and students seemed to like it. I am now interested to find out how to develop this kind of information into a distance learning class. I am also currently looking into differences between reading materials on a computer screen vs reading from paper, since that plays into the online learning process. I just started my PhD program, so I really don't know yet what my dissertation topic will be, but online reading and online practice/testing are my main interests.

E-Mail Address: fbell@mailer.fsu.edu

URL (if applicable): http://mailer.fsu.edu/~fbell/

University: Florida State, Tallahassee, Florida

Expected year of graduation: 2000

PhD dissertation title or topic: Working title: "Internet Resources and the Reading of Authentic Materials in a Second Language"

E-Mail Address: eikou@andrew.cmu.edu

URL (if applicable): Not yet. Will come sooner or later.

University: Carnegie Mellon University

Expected year of graduation: 2002

PhD dissertation title or topic: Do not know yet. This is my first year.

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

My research interest was on the evaluation of the effectiveness of the World Wide Web in Japanese as a Foreign Language programme overseas, as a tool to provide the authentic language learning environment. The future plan for further research may extend to the evaluation of the on-line language learning course from the SLA perspectives.

E-Mail Address: mmtohamy@hotmail.com

URL (if applicable):

University:Ain Shams, Egypt

Expected year of graduation:2001

PhD dissertation title or topic: The Influence of Computer-Mediated Communication on Reading and Writing

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

This dissertation is a process of exploring two related points. The first part is an attempt to find out whether the use of CMC will affect the written discourse of those who use email in communication. I will not focus on pedagogical points such as whether the use of CMC encourages students to participate more during the class time. Rather, I am concerned with whether the use of CMC affects the structures they use, vocabulary, etc. The second part will find out reading strategies that are used by the Internet readers.

E-Mail Address: Christep@byuh.edu

University: California Coast

Expected year of graduation: Summer 2000

Ph.D. dissertation title or topic: "A Computer-Aided Analysis of Holistically Scored ESL Writing Placement Exams"

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

I'm looking into the placement of University ESL writing students into various ESL program levels and what discrepancies can be found between the writers at one level as compared to the other levels. I'll be obtaining my numerical data from grammar & spell check programs such as Microsoft Word and WordPerfect. I view that this may have some future significance as ESL writing classes are taught over the Web and all input would already be in a computer readable format as compared to the present system of hand written essay tests.

E-Mail Address: tammelin@hkkk.fi

URL (if applicable): http://www.hkkk.fi/~tammelin/

University: Helsinki University, Media Education Centre (http://www.edu.helsinki.fi/media )

Expected year of graduation (approximate :-)):2000

PhD dissertation title or topic: Introducing ICT into Collaborative Content-based Foreign Language Teaching. A Case Study in Finnish Higher Education.

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

The focus of this ethnographic study is on the integration of modern information and communication technologies (CMC and videoconferencing) into content-based foreign language teaching in Finnish higher education. The research problems of the study center 1) on the aspects emerging in connection with introducing an innovation into the curriculum, and 2) on such aspects of online pedagogy as social presence and teacher/learner roles in a collaborative ICT enhanced learning environment. The research approach is that of the teacher-as-a researcher action research. The study is based on a case involving two participating sites over a period of three years.

e-mail: bjohn@mail.matav.hu

university: Janus Pannonius University, PÈcs

year of graduation: December in the year of 2000

dissertation topic: The Implementation of the Internet in the EFL Classroom

E-Mail Address: epark@tempest.coedu.usf.edu

URL (if applicable):

University: University of South Florida

Expected year of graduation: 2002

PhD dissertation title or topic:

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

Instructional technology (Intenet, Distance learning) in Foreign Language Education (ESOL / Korean / French)

E-Mail Address: edward.shaw@uconn.edu

URL (if applicable):

University: University of Connecticut

Expected year of graduation: 2001

PhD dissertation title or topic: Internet based communicative activities as a gateway into the target community (i.e. the socialization process).

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

This idea is emerging from an independent study paper I wrote last spring, but I'm currently more concerned with preparing for my general early next semester. In a nutshell: it focuses on the Post Modern pedagogical concern with creating a sense of community among learners and with the more practical concern of guiding these learners into the target community. One of the founding tenets of my arguments is that the there is nothing 'virtual' about the communities on the internet and that by teaching learners the skills they will need for internet exchanges in the target language we are most preparing them for future use of that language. In other words, they are far more likely to become lifelong users of the second language if they are lead to a community of users existing within the space where their future career aspirations lie (e.g. internet commerce). As I stated above, this is still in the developmental, pre-prospectus stage. If you can provide me with any information on research currently being done in this area, I would be more than happy to share what I have produced to this point and any future products. Thank you.

E-Mail Address:vcqm@ruralsp.com.br

URL (if applicable): http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/4038/

University:USP (São Paulo, Brazil)

Expected year of graduation: about 3 years

PhD dissertation title or topic: "The pedagogical uses of the Internet as a means to motivate, diffuse and enhance Second Language Acquisition." I joined the program this year, so I'm starting my research project. So far, I don't have much to contribute, but would like to learn from experts in the field. My main interests are to analyze/design web-based materials for EFL and ESL students and to work on cooperative learning projects.

E-Mail Address:fmmedina@coqui.net, M_MEDINA@CUCAC.UPR.CLU.EDU

URL (if applicable):

University:Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP)

Expected year of graduation: May 2000 (Wishful), Dec 2000

(Most probably)

PhD dissertation title or topic: The Interactivity Hypothesis, Multimedia, and Computer Networks: a diary study of EFL students within a computer rich classroom.

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

I am writing up the results of a diary study performed on students learning English as a foreign language within a computer centered approach. Issues such as student perception of their learning, teacher -student interaction within a computer heavy environment, student empowerment, and others are just some of the issues that have emerged within this Naturalistic Study.

E-mail: rg@att.net.hk

University: Leicester University (UK)

Expected year of grad: 2000

PhD DIssertation Topic: Collaborative e-mail projects for teaching ESL to Intermediate-Level ESL Students (A case study)

Brief description of research topic:

(1) To develop and field test an instructional model for a collaborative e-mail exchange intended for ESL secondary students, based on integrating exemplary ESL methodology and pedagogical approaches and

(2) to examine the feelings, attitudes, opinions and beliefs of Chinese secondary school ESL students towards an exemplary, collaborative e-mail exchange project for the purpose of learning English.

E-Mail Address: schultzp@battelle.org or lehrer@iwaynet.net

URL (if applicable): http://www.iwaynet.net/~lehrer/index.html

University: The Ohio State University

Expected year of graduation: June 2000

PhD dissertation title or topic: Technology and Communicative Language Teaching in a high school Foreign Language Department (subject to revision)

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph): I am undertaking a case study (qualitative) of a foreign language department in which the teachers integrate computers and other technologies into their foreign language instruction on a regular basis. The school is a high school in which technology is part of the foreign language curriculum. This study is intended to inform classroom practice on integrating technology with foreign language instruction plus adding new knowledge to the field's conceptualization of communicative language teaching.

E-Mail Address: cchao@indiana.edu

URL (if applicable): http://php.indiana.edu/~cchao/cchao3.htm

University: Indiana University

Expected year of graduation: 2000

PhD dissertation title or topic: Sense of community and meaningfulness in an on-line CALL teacher education course

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

This study looks at the development of a community in a distributed language teacher education courses. The focus is on how participants join the community of the practice and how becoming a member of the community relates to changes in their perceptions of the meaningfulness of the course content and activities.

E-Mail Address: andreas.lund@ils.uio.no

URL (if applicable): http://home.sol.no/~anlun/

University: University of Oslo, Norway

Expected year of graduation: 2003

PhD dissertation title or topic: The Teacher as Interface. Teachers and Learners Between Classroom and Cyberspace.

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

Partly participatory action research in EFL classrooms (new environments, new tasks, new skills), partly an ethnographic study of approx. 600 EFL teachers in Norway currently involved in a one-year in-service training course via the Internet (7 modules combining methodology/technology).

E-Mail Address: lauren.goldenberg@nyu.edu

URL (if applicable): pages.nyu.edu/~lbg2909

University: New York University

Expected year of graduation: best case scenario--Dec. 00 and I don't want to contemplate the alternatives

PhD dissertation title or topic: tentatively, enhancing pre-service teacher education through network-based communication Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph): I started out in ESL and still work some with ESL teachers, but am focusing on the experiences of faculty and students in integrating technology into an undergraduate pre-service teacher education program (case study).

E-Mail Address: kisner@umbc.edu

URL (if applicable):

University: University of Maryland College Park (Culture & Communications

Studies)

Expected year of graduation: Spring 2000

PhD dissertation title or topic: The Role of the Professor in Online Courses

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

Postmodern theorists like Lyotard (1984) have argued that the new technologies "Sound the knell of the Age of the Professor" (Lyotard 1984). Over the past three years, I interviewed nearly 40 professors who were teaching online. My objective was to learn if they felt that technology had rendered them irrelevant or obsolete. My data tells me that professors who are teaching online are far from obsolete. These professors report that technology has revitalized their teaching and allowed them to play a more vigorous role in the teaching-learning process.

E-Mail Address: elaine@macam98.ac.il

URL (if applicable): http://www.macam98.ac.il/~elaine/eti

University: Hebrew University Jerusalem

Expected year of graduation: 2000

PhD dissertation title or topic: A Model for Learning how to Teach Advanced Literacy Skills via Computer Mediated Communication Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

E-Mail Address: alexnyu@aol.com

URL (if applicable):

University: New York University

Expected year of graduation: 2003

PhD dissertation title or topic: has not been narrowed or finalized,but within the field of 'use of computer technology in language teacher education'

E-Mail Address: polyglot@gs.verio.net

University: Louisiana State University

Expected year of graduation: Date: 2002

Topic: Undetermined. Would like to focus on training teachers to successfully use the Internet in L2 classrooms. My present research is limited.

E-Mail Address: CalvoAE@moffitt.usf.edu

URL (if applicable):

University: University of South Florida

Expected year of graduation:

PhD dissertation title or topic:

I am currently enrolled for my Ph.D. in Public Health with concerntration in Health Education at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. I have not started my research yet, but I plan on doing something with interactive multimedia to reach multicultural, multilingual and low literacy populations. I would like to develop something in Spanish for Cancer communications, such as prevention, and early detection. Specifically, I would like to do some work in this area with Hispanic migrant and seasonal farmworkers in rural areas of West Central Florida. Please keep in touch and inform me of anything else,

Arlene

E-Mail Address: myoshii@luna.cas.usf.edu

URL (if applicable):

University: Universtiy of South Florida

Expected year of graduation: August, 2000

PhD dissertation title or topic: Effects of annotations for a multimedia reading program on L2 incidental vocabulary learning for ESL students

Brief description of research topic or plans (optional, one paragraph):

This study is an extension of Chun & Plass's study (1996) and looks at the effects of text only, picture only, and text plus picture annotations on incidental L2 vocabulary learning. For text only annotations, the target words (English) were glossed by L2 definition without the use of L1. The study explores whether pictures will help learners to process the meanings of the target words directly or with a combination of L2 definitions. The study plans to investigate the effects of the annotations across the different proficiency levels and different L1 groups in an English language institute in a major university.

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Last updated: October 31, 1999