CALL FOR PAPERS
Technology for Second Language Learning (TSLL)
5th Annual Conference
September 21-22, 2007
Towards Adaptive CALL:
Natural Language Processing for Diagnostic Language Assessment
Plenary Speaker
Professor Robert Mislevy
University of Maryland
Many advances in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) require an increase in the technical knowledge about diagnostic assessment, student models, and natural language processing to design adaptive instruction. This conference brings together the researchers and graduate students working to address questions about these areas. The plenary speaker is well-known for his work drawing on statistical methods and cognitive psychology to integrate these strands of research conceptually and in practice.
Proposals are invited for papers in the following areas:
• Diagnostic language assessment
How can useful areas of diagnostic information be selected by materials developers?
How can reliability of diagnostic inferences be achieved and monitored?
How can diagnostic feedback be communicated to language learners?
What evidence suggests that language learners are able to use and benefit from diagnostic feedback?
• Student models and complex record-keeping in language learning
How can learners’ language performance be summarized and stored for subsequent use?
What practical and ethical issues affect construction and use of student models?
• Natural language processing for analysis of learners’ responses
How can NLP techniques be implemented in CALL and assessment to yield diagnostic information?
What types of tasks provide useful samples of learners’ linguistic performance for response analysis?
What evidence suggests that learners benefit from the feedback and adaptivity afforded by NLP?
• Adaptive language learning paths
How can adaptive learning paths be set to individualize learning effectively?
What evidence suggests that adaptive learning paths help second language learners?
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words as email attachments to Yoo Ree Chung at yrchung@iastate.eduby May 21, 2007. Acceptances will be sent by June 1, 2007.