bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Response to James
Authors: Sanders Elizabeth
Published: December 2008

Scott James is gutsy to attempt a refutation of the power of district-level constituency interests on regulatory policy voting in an arena like railroad policy. I believe that his case is weak, but I want to emphasize that party and district political economy interests are intimately interrelated. Party is, as the author argues, a powerful (the most powerful) coalitional mechanism. Representatives often support positions that represent the preferences of party colleagues and not their own, in order to win or maintain political control and support for critical policies, so long as those “vote trading” issues do not represent central concerns at home. Thus southern agrarians included important labor provisions in the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act in order to get the support of Northern Democrats who had already loyally backed the (agrarian) Democratic position on the tariff bill of 1913. On such a vote, representing an intraparty, biregional coalition bargain, party will naturally “predict” voting positions better than region. But the legislative history leaves little doubt from whence each policy (labor, tariff, and antitrust) originated.
Reply to Sanders
Authors: James Scott C.
Published: December 2008

Professor Sanders raises several issues, not all of which can be addressed adequately in this brief response. Therefore, I will confine my remarks to those issues which I consider most important, in particular, those that bear on the key theoretical differences between us. I also take issue with her interpretation of the Hiscock vote.
Historians, Community, and the Pursuit of Jefferson: Comment on Professor Tomlins
Authors: Appleby Joyce
Published: December 2008

The “tions” came to the United States in the closing decades of the nineteenth century: industrialization, urbanization, immigration, centralization, and bureaucratization. As befits such an impersonal suffix, these developments have been analyzed as parts of a systematic reorganization of society. Processes, not persons, have figured as the sources of motivation in the story of America's transformation from a rural society of loosely connected communities to an industrial nation integrated by corporations, communications, and the regulations of a government trying to catch up with the pace of change.
Individualism, Civic Virtue, and Gender in America
Authors: Kann Mark E.
Published: December 2008

Individualism is a powerful symbol of American life. We treasure individual rights to speak our minds, choose our values, seek our goals, and achieve self-fulfillment. We believe individual self-interest is the foundation of economic growth and prosperity. We treat individual suffrage as the definitive characteristic of democratic government. In a sense, individualism is the lifeblood of an American dream that flows to our children, circulates among immigrants, and courses through the rhetoric of public policy. American historians record its genealogy and sociologists diagnose its effects while business leaders prescribe more of it and politicians praise it. Even critics are obsessed with it. They tell us that individualism has infected the habits of our hearts and forced the closing of our minds.
Reconstituting the Study of American Political Thought in a Regime-Change Perspective
Authors: Eisenach Eldon J.
Published: December 2008

The story of American political thought has been told in many different ways. Three genres stand out. The first is written within the larger framework of intellectual history and takes the form of anthology and narrative summary. Among its most prominent features are an eclecticism of sources (from Roger Williams to Walt Whitman to Erich Fromm) and a heavy emphasis on the period from the first New England settlements through the victory of Jeffersonian democracy. A second form is constitutionalist. Charting the major struggles over legal and institutional relationships through time, this perspective gives prominence to landmark court decisions and articulations of major constitutional issues by party and political leaders. As articulated in the late nineteenth century, it examines the major forms of constitutionalist thinking that lie behind these constitutional and institutional struggles. The third genre, I label populist-progressive. Here, the story of American political thought is Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Southwestern Political Science Association annual meeting, March 23–26, 1988, Houston, Texas, and at the American Politics Group meeting in Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, January 4–6, 1988.
Disposition Is Not Action: The Rise and Demise of the Knights of Labor
Authors: Voss Kim
Published: December 2008

Recent theoretical and historical studies of working-class formation have raised important doubts about standard interpretations of the American working class. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the renewed debate over “American exceptionalism,” that unexpected combination of political conservatism and weak working-class institutions in the nation that underwent the modern world's first democratic revolution. Once it was popular to argue that American workers felt no need for collective action, either because of a classlessness that was firmly rooted in the psyche of the first new nation or because of an innate job consciousness that was able to attain full flowering only in the United States, that most bourgeois of countries. But two decades of social history have documented such a rich diversity of militant working-class activity that such explanations are now rarely invoked.
The “Welfare Rights State” and the “Civil Rights State”: Policy Paradox and State Building in the Progressive Era
Authors: McDonagh Eileen L.
Published: December 2008

An enduring contribution of the new institutionalism is its affirmation of the significance of the Progressive era. As a result, we have learned not only how the “big bang” explosion of welfare legislation in the New Deal rests upon structures and precedents set in the early twentieth-century decades, but also how this early reform period continues to influence contemporary policies and politics. Alan Dawley, Bruce Ackerman, and Morton Keller, for example, point to an activist state established in the Progressive era to check a laissez-faire governing system as the foundation of subsequent New Deal accomplishments upon which reformers built “where progressives had left off.” Theda Skocpol adds a cross-national perspective, showing how the American welfare state instituted in the early twentieth century evidenced a distinctive “maternalist” dynamic oriented toward addressing women's economic needs, in contrast to “paternalistic” norms in Western European nations assisting male workers.
The Machine and Social Policies: Tammany Hall and the Politics of Public Outdoor Relief, New York City, 1874–1898
Authors: Lui Adonica Y.
Published: December 2008

In the late nineteenth century, public outdoor relief came under severe and sustained attack from reformers. Municipal reformers attacked it as a source of machine patronage and corruption, and charity reformers saw it as the cause of pauperism and moral turpitude among the poor. But in New York City, the critical decision to cut the municipal program came not from the reformers, but from the city's Democratic machine, Tammany Hall itself. In December 1876, the machine administration of Tammany Mayor William Wickham and Boss John Kelly terminated municipal outdoor relief funding for 1877, except for the distribution of coal. The previous “reform” administration had, by contrast, kept the program intact.
The Popular Sources of American Capitalism
Authors: Appleby Joyce
Published: December 2008

Long ago, Louis Hacker noted the anticapitalist bias in American historiography. The tendency of capitalism, particularly marked after the advent of industrialization, to concentrate wealth and to turn that wealth into political power suggests the problem. The Declaration of Independence with its twinned affirmation of equality and liberty provided the ideological underpinnings for national unity. Both seemed threatened during the long transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy as the rich got richer and more and more of America's free citizens were exposed to the unfreedom of the workplace. Progressive historians who systematically analyzed the impact of industrial capitalism in the United States wrote out of sympathy with labor in its struggle for recognition, and no doubt Hacker was thinking of this tendency when he made his remark. This anticapitalist bias in the writing of American history has continued, only now historians decry the steady incursion of commerce and industry out of deference to a traditional way of life.
Partisan Advantage and Constitutional Change: The Case of the Seventeenth Amendment
Authors: King Ronald F. , Ellis Susan
Published: December 2008

A constitution is a set of rules written by current political actors designed to bind future political actors. As fundamental law, it stipulates basic rights and duties, defines collective goals, establishes institutions and procedures, and makes claims regarding both identity and allegiance. In their effort to control the future, constitutional founders usually include special provisions regarding change. Alterations to the fundamental law are more difficult to accomplish than alterations to more ordinary laws. Founders often require super-majorities, even special, repetitive, or con-current super-majorities, as a condition for amendment. In this sense, even democratic constitutions impose conscious constraints on the exercise of democratic will. The intention is to limit the pace of adaptation and also to bias the pattern of outcomes.
Party Reform as Failed Democratic Renewal in the United States, 1968–1972
Authors: Plotke David
Published: December 2008

Between 1968 and 1972, with political conflict in America unusually high, major changes were made in rules for consituting Democratic national conventions and selecting Democratic candidates. Basic issues about the practical meaning of democratic commitments were sharply contested, and debates about party organization proved vigorous and substantial. The reforms enacted aimed partly to enhance participation and restore public respect for political life. They did not escape criticism. In fact, critics of reform became the dominant voice in subsequent discussion of what happened to the Democratic party and to party politics in the United States more generally.
Policy Leadership in the Progressive Presidency: The Case of Theodore Roosevelt's Naval Policy and His Search for Strategic Resources
Authors: Arnold Peri E.
Published: December 2008

Theodore Roosevelt established a new, and puzzling, form of public policy leadership during his presidency. In this respect, Roosevelt's presidency breaks with past presidential practice. So marked is this change that it is commonly identified as a foreshadowing of the “modern presidency,” implying a path of development from Roosevelt's leadership practice to the institutionalized presidency at midcentury.
The Ambiguity of Reform in the New Deal
Authors: Brown Michael K.
Published: December 2008

By the end of the 1940s, it was clear that New Deal liberalism had changed. Cabell Phillips, a journalist, wrote that the Fair Deal had abandoned a liberalism preoccupied with poverty and inequality and “focused on the creation and equitable distribution of abundance, which now loomed as an attainable reality.” Economic growth had become the talisman of liberal policies, both foreign and domestic. Fair Deal conservation policy, for example, abandoned the New Deal's emphasis on resource planning and redistribution of economic power and reshaped federal land, water, and grazing programs into tools of economic expansion. Similarly, postwar America put production and efficiency at the center of international debates over foreign exchange and foreign aid to war-torn Europe. The place of economic growth in postwar liberalism is often understood to reflect the conservative turn in American politics that followed the war with Harry Truman's presidency and the cold war's onset.
The Political Economy of American Populism from Jackson to the New Deal
Authors: Goebel Thomas
Published: December 2008

Over the past few decades, historians engaged in the study of American Populism have advanced a number of conflicting interpretations of the last great protest movement of the nineteenth century. Among the most influential representations of Populism have been the following: Populists as reactionary and vaguely anti-Semitic predecessors of American fascism, as agrarian romantics nostalgically clinging to the Jeffersonian ideal of the independent yeoman, as modern reformers embracing an American version of social democracy, as agrarian republicans aiming to build a cooperative commonwealth on the basis of mutuality, and as true radicals offering the final challenge to the rise of corporate capitalism in America. Although no final agreement on the true nature of Populism has been achieved, despite the impressive scholarly output that has made the study of Populism into a minor cottage industry among historians, there has been a powerful trend toward a renewed appreciation of the radical character of Populist protest. In challenging the dominance of the two major parties and in advocating a comprehensive program of economic and social reform, American Populists are widely regarded as reflecting a ground swell of opposition to corporate America. With the demise of Populism after the disastrous election of 1896, the hopes for building a radically different America faded.
Choosing Sides: The Creation of an Agricultural Policy Network in Congress, 1919–1932
Authors: Hansen John Mark
Published: December 2008

In 1930, Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the last of the major tariff bills that redistributed millions of dollars from consumers to domestic manufacturers. The Smoot-Hawley bill, E. E. Schattschneider observed, arose not from a process that was open and attentive to all but from “a free private enterprise in pressure politics which administered itself”, a process accessible only to protected industrialists and their congressional and bureaucratic allies. The outlines of public policy, he concluded, mirrored the membership of this “private enterprise”: “The nature of public policy is the result of ‘effective demands’ upon the government”.
“Choosing Sides”: Comment
Authors: Galambos Louis
Published: December 2008

In the past century the American political system has changed in dramatic ways. A new national state has been created, and a substantial part of the nation's goods and services has been entrusted to its care. New administrative agencies allocate most of those resources, working in tandem with a multitude of private and other public organizations. Complex webs of fiscal interaction tie state and local governments—themselves greatly enlarged—to the nation state. All these public bodies are surrounded by and closely allied with formidable interest groups, with political action committees, with business corporations and foundations, and with various professional organizations. Swirling about this great governmental mass in recent years are the consultants, lawyers, and technicians who slip in and out of the public sector as administrations change or their careers dictate; these policy professionals, wherever they land, make use of their special knowledge and contacts in particular areas of public activity.
Right, Rage, and Remedy: Forms of Law in Political Discourse
Authors: Brigham John
Published: December 2008

When political activists talk about strategy and when they address each other, legal forms are an integral part of their language. Some movements, like alternative dispute resolution, build on a general critique of the legal process. Others, like gay rights, seek to fulfill legal promises or, as in the feminist antipornography campaign, they present broadsides against the law's oppression. These ideas about law are not bound in standard law books; but they give meaning to social relations, and they must be understood as significant parts of the legal order. To attend to them is to illuminate a part of law's social reality and, more specifically, to see how law informs social action. Such ideas and the relations they create are lawinsociety.
The International Symposium “From Anatomic Collections to Objects of Worship: Conservation and Exhibition of Human Remains in Museums,” Paris (France), February 22–23, 2008
Authors: Frigo Manlio
Published: December 2008

The Musée du Quay Branly held an international symposium, “From Anatomic Collections to Objects of Worship: Conservation and Exhibition of Human Remains in Museums,” in Paris on February 22–23, 2008, at the museum's Théatre Claude Levy Strauss. The main purpose of the 2-day conference—opened by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication's Christine Albanel—was to stimulate an international debate on a multidisciplinary basis concerning the roles and responsibilities of museums in the exhibition and repatriation of human remains. The subject turned out to be topical, originating from the case of thetoi moko, the Maori tattooed head belonging to the collection of the Natural History Museum in Rouen, France, since 1875. The restitution of thetoi mokoto the Papa Museum in Wellington, New Zealand, deliberated by the city of Rouen, was recently banned by the Administrative Tribunal of Rouen, on request of the Ministry of Culture at the end of 2007. The head actually belonged to a municipal museum, which was in fact part of the Musées de France, and therefore it was considered part of a public collection. Accordingly, the 2002 French statute providing for the inalienability of state properties was applicable.
Rogues, Robbers and Researchers: Robbery of Antiquities and Archaeology under the Present Legal Situation (Frankfurt am Main, Germany, May 5, 2007)
Authors: Siehr Kurt
Published: December 2008

The Institute for Archaeological Studies of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, organized a conference on legal issues concerning archaeology and theft of antiquities. This meeting was stimulated by the German statute (Kulturgüterrückgabegesetz version of May 18, 2007) implementing the UNESCO convention of November 14, 1970, the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. Archaeologists are afraid that the new legal regime might encourage thieves and art dealers to localize their activities in Germany. Michael Müller-Karpe of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz, Germany, articulated these fears. Five reports on tomb robbery in Africa (Peter Breunig), Europe (Rüdiger Krause), Mediterranean countries (Hans-Markus von Kaenel, Wulf Raeck), and the Near East (Jan-Waalke Meyer) gave a bleak picture of contemporary dangers to archaeological sites and archaeological objects. Kurt Siehr gave the paper, “Legal Aspects of the Protection of Cultural Property,” stressing that the ratification and implementation of the 1970 UNESCO convention will improve the protection of cultural property in Germany. However, he also emphasized that the implementing statute could have provided stronger measures: Germany should ratify the UNIDROIT Convention of June 24, 1995, on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects as already urged by most German archaeologists and museums.
9th International Seminar “Art & Law” for Doctorate Candidates (Basel, Switzerland, July 6–9, 2007)
Authors: Obergfell Eva Inés
Published: December 2008

Under the auspices of Kurt Siehr (Hamburg, Zürich) the 9th International Seminar on “Art & Law” took place from July 6–9, 2007, in Basel, Switzerland. Originally conceived as a platform for doctorate candidates in Europe and over the last years enlarged to a platform for comprehensive discussions between lawyers as well as art historians, academics as well as practitioners, this year's seminar in Basel focused on three main issues: protection of cultural property, problems of stolen works of art (both including their international and European legal frame), and copyright protection.
Evolution of lactation: nutritionv.protection with special reference to five mammalian species
Authors: McClellan Holly L. , Miller Susan J. , Hartmann Peter E.
Published: December 2008

The evolutionary origin of the mammary gland has been difficult to establish because little knowledge can be gained on the origin of soft tissue organs from fossil evidence. One approach to resolve the origin of lactation has compared the anatomy of existing primitive mammals to skin glands, whilst another has examined the metabolic and molecular synergy between mammary gland development and the innate immune system. We have reviewed the physiology of lactation in five mammalian species with special reference to these theories. In all species, milk fulfils dual functions of providing protection and nutrition to the young and, furthermore, within species the quality and quantity of milk are highly conserved despite maternal malnutrition or illness. There are vast differences in birth weight, milk production, feeding frequency, macronutrient concentration, growth rate and length of lactation between rabbits, quokkas (Setonix brachyurus), pigs, cattle and humans. The components that protect the neonate against infection do so without causing inflammation. Many protective components are not unique to the mammary gland and are shared with the innate immune system. In contrast, many of the macronutrients in milk are unique to the mammary gland, have evolved from components of the innate immune system, and have either retained or developed multiple functions including the provision of nourishment and protection of the hatchling/neonate. Thus, there is a strong argument to suggest that the mammary gland evolved from the inflammatory response; however, the extensive protection that has developed in milk to actively avoid triggering inflammation seems to be a contradiction.
Sugar-sweetened soft drinks and obesity: a systematic review of the evidence from observational studies and interventions
Authors: Gibson Sigrid
Published: December 2008

Sugar-sweetened soft drinks (SSD) are a special target of many obesity-prevention strategies, yet critical reviews tend to be more cautious regarding the aetiological role of SSD in promoting excess body weight. Since ongoing evaluation of this issue is important, the present systematic review re-examined the evidence from epidemiological studies and interventions, up to July 2008. Database searches of Medline, Cochrane reviews, Google scholar and a hand search of cross-references identified forty-four original studies (twenty-three cross-sectional, seventeen prospective and four intervention) in adults and children, as well as six reviews. These were critically examined for methodology, results and interpretation. Approximately half the cross-sectional and prospective studies found a statistically significant association between SSD consumption and BMI, weight, adiposity or weight gain in at least one subgroup. The totality of evidence is dominated by American studies where SSD consumption tends to be higher and formulations different. Most studies suggest that the effect of SSD is small except in susceptible individuals or at high levels of intake. Methodological weaknesses mean that many studies cannot detect whether soft drinks or other aspects of diet and lifestyle have contributed to excess body weight. Progress in reaching a definitive conclusion on the role of SSD in obesity is hampered by the paucity of good-quality interventions which reliably monitor diet and lifestyle and adequately report effect sizes. Of the three long-term (>6 months) interventions, one reported a decrease in obesity prevalence but no change in mean BMI and two found a significant impact only among children already overweight at baseline. Of the six reviews, two concluded that the evidence was strong, one that an association was probable, while three described it as inconclusive, equivocal or near zero. Reasons for some discrepancies are presented.
Evaluating concordance with the 1997 World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute of Cancer Research cancer prevention guidelines: challenges for the research community
Authors: Vossenaar Marieke , Solomons Noel W. , Valdés-Ramos Roxana , Anderson Annie S.
Published: December 2008

Diet, nutritional status and lifestyle practices are significant determinants of the risk of certain cancers. In 1997 The World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR) developed a series of evidence-based recommendations to help reduce the population and individual risk of cancer. However, guidance for evaluating concordance or compliance with these recommendations is limited. To illustrate the challenges in evaluation, four publications were reviewed that explored the task of creating operative criteria from which to assess concordance with the tenets of the WCRF/AICR recommendations. Three documents dealt with secondary analysis, whereas one was a prospective inquiry, with procedures and instruments designed to obtain responses to WCRF/AICR cancer-prevention specification. One considered only population-goal criteria, and two dealt implicitly or explicitly with criteria at both population and individual levels. The assessment approaches used by the authors were compared with alternative semantic and conceptual interpretations of the WCRF/AICR population goals and individual guidelines. Attempts to develop operative criteria for assessment of concordance (reflecting either a more superficial or more in-depth parsing of recommendations) have been inconsistent. The results indicate that the language of the WCRF/AICR leaves a certain degree of semantic ambiguity for evaluation purposes. Future design of prospective studies for analyses of behaviours and relevant exposures (including those reported in the 2007 WCRF/AICR report) should carefully consider evaluation criteria and fully document detailed methodology.
Du milieu favorable aux promesses des technologies de l'information et de la communication
Authors: Debrock Mark
Published: December 2008

Dans le tout recent ouvrage New Technologies for learning: contribution of ICT to innovation in education, les auteurs rapprochent les merveilles multimédiatiques du mythe de Sisyphe:

“In the history of education the introduction of any new technological tool was accompanied with high expectations regarding its innovating power for learning and instruction. After a period of sporadic use, and some disappointment about the obtained learning outcomes, the arrival of any new technological tool generated a new set of expectations, limited use and resulting frustration. This is what we call the ‘Myth of Sisyphus’, the king of Corinth condemned for ever to roll his stone up a mountain in Hades only to have it roll down again when he neared the top.” (Dillemans, et al. 1998:41).
Exploiting the Web for language teaching: selected approaches
Authors: Felix Uschi
Published: December 2008

This paper discusses the findings of an extensive survey of approaches to language teaching and learning via the WWW. Its aim was to find exemplars of best practice in stand-alone courses, integrated mixed-model courses (Web/CD-ROM/face-to-face), and interactive exercises for the development of all four language learning skills. The findings suggest that, in some languages, resources are already so plentiful that it would be more economical to integrate the best of them into existing courses and to focus energies on global co-operation in the production of new high quality materials.
Internet-based activities for the ESL classroom
Authors: Gitsaki Christina , Taylor Richard P
Published: December 2008

The Internet offers a wealth of information and unlimited resources that teachers can use in order to expose students to authentic language use. Exposure, however, is not enough to trigger language acquisition. Students need to be involved in tasks that integrate the use of computers and enhance language acquisition. This paper outlines an instructional system designed to guide English as a Second Language (ESL) students through their exploration of the Internet and carry out projects that will ultimately help them improve their reading and writing skills and enrich their vocabulary. Through this instructional system the benefits of using the Internet for ESL purposes with different types of students in different educational environments can be maximised.
Evolutionary epistemology in language learning: possible implications for CALL
Authors: Maingard Christine
Published: December 2008

Whereas improvements in CALL design are dependent on theories of language learning and acquisition, limitations to the former have arisen from widespread disagreements over the latter. This paper attempts to point towards a way forward using an evolutionary epistemological understanding of language learning, and some implications of such an approach for CALL. An evolutionary approach, involving trial and error elimination, requires a multi-dimensional learner-centred model that takes into account advancements in psychology, education and linguistics, areas that have often been ignored by CALL researchers and practitioners.
How to offer real help to grammar learners
Authors: Vanparys Johan , Baten Lut
Published: December 2008

This article discusses strategies for creating a supportive grammar learning environment, which have been implemented in CALL packages for Dutch. They stem from recent advances in cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics, as well as our own experience. The basic metaphor behind our conception of the ideal CALL package is that of a toolbox rather than a set of instructions. Users select a tool from a range of available instruments because they think it is the one that suits their purpose best. Different learners may pick out different tools and use them in different ways, even if their goals are the same.
Call in Spanish the Consumers' View
Authors: Hart Stephen M
Published: December 2008

In any language-teaching institution the teaching staff can legitimately be seen as consumers of the various teaching aids which are commercially available, ranging from the staple diet of books, set texts, secondary reading, to video material, slides, computer software, etc. Another way of interpreting the principle of consumership is that the students are the ultimate beneficiaries of the materials we use in our teaching. The extent to which our students benefit from our teaching is largely dependent on the materials that we have at our disposal. ‘Bad materials = bad teaching’ is a rather simplistic way of looking at this issue, but one which has a lot to commend itself in my view. Would we change our teaching methods if our students made constructive criticism? In a recent temporary teaching post I held as Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky, I was struck by the importance given across the board in the USA to official student surveys carried out by the college administration based on the professors' performance, the results of which can be crucial in the securement of tenure. The attitude in the UK (at least in the universities) is totally at odds with this particular sense of consumership, and one can imagine the degree of resistance that a plan to introduce a similar system of student assessment of lecturers might meet in this country, most obviously because students are not consumers in this country in quite the same sense that they are in the USA. Although the student assessment system itself clearly has its pitfalls there are some positive things to be gained from surveys of this kind, in that they can be very informative about student response to courses, teaching methods, etc., and can lead the way to improved teacher-student relations.
Telecommunications Simulation: Europe 1992
Authors: Klobusicky-Mailänder Elizabeth
Published: December 2008

When Professor Jonathan Wilkenfeld presented ICONS to a group of staff and students from Karlsruhe College in Spring 1989 and subsequently let us in as “observers” of the ongoing simulation, we hardly suspected what a radically new kind of learning experience awaited us in an ordinary language class when we participated “for real” in Autumn 1989.
A New Call Laboratory
Authors: Shaw David
Published: December 2008

After attending the 1989 Exeter CALL Conference, David Shaw and John Partridge, two teachers from the University of Kent, recommended to the School of European and Modem Language Studies that the School should establish its own Computer Assisted Language Learning Laboratory. Several of us had been ‘keeping an eye’ on CALL for quite a few years, from the days when BBC micros were innovative marvels. The Applied Languages Board had acquired a BBC and some software and had gained some experience with it in postgraduate courses. David Shaw had been supervising practical programming projects for MSc students in Computing in the area of CALL and natural language processing. Our recommendation was that, with a new generation of microcomputers supplanting the trusty but limited BBC micro, a point had been reached where it would be realistic for the School to establish a CALL teaching laboratory on a more ambitious scale.
Call Resources: Electronic Retrieval of Information
Authors: McNab Alison
Published: December 2008

The retrieval of information by electronic means can involve several media: remote searching of large commercially-produced databases, utilising CD-ROM and multimedia applications, and electronic mail. Both the information retrieval techniques used in this process and the information retrieved are of relevance to those involved in computer-assisted language learning.
Japanese CALL Systems
Authors: Inman David
Published: December 2008

This paper looks at a variety of CALL systems on offer to the learner of Japanese. Systems developed in America and the UK as well as in Japan are reviewed, with particular focus on systems to help the learner read Japanese. Comparisons are made with conventional leaching methods. From this a summary is produced of how computers are currently used to help the learner read Japanese.
Implementing and authoring tool for software: the HyperReader experience
Authors: Kalaja Marja , Lehtisalo Tuuli , Hult Sven , Lassila Ora
Published: December 2008

This paper is about the development of an authoring tool for computerised reading comprehension exercises. The software tools used and some problems encountered using them are described. Using the authoring tools and running the program are discussed and the first experiences reported.
TELL and CALL in Scandinavian countries
Authors: Kornum Lis
Published: December 2008

The Scandinavian countries are generally considered to have rather high standards in modern language teaching and learning, and at the same time to be reasonably well equipped with computers, videos and other information technology tools. This is true to a certain extent. Moreover, the situation differs a lot, not just from country to country, but within the same country from region to region. The following is not a complete survey, presenting the ‘state-of-the-art’ in the Nordic countries, but more a report of a number of initiatives taking place at the moment in the various countries or in a collaboration among countries.
Powerful, personal: electronic mail and the L2 writing process
Authors: Hoffman Robert
Published: December 2008

This paper reports action research into the use of electronic mail as a channel for giving feedback to English L2 writers in a sequence of writing process oriented technical communication courses. Four teachers used electronic mail feedback (EMF) regularly with 81 students on honours degree courses In information Systems and Computer Science. Electronic mail was used during planning and drafting stages in extended simulations of technical communication situations in concert with class meetings, workshop sessions, one-on-one and small group conference and with audiotaped summative feedback upon completion of major assignments.

Teachers and students reported in response to a questionnaire and in interviews that they found EMF significantly advantageous in that it supports prompt, complete, and instrumental commentary on student work, empowers students to use English for authentic communication, and helps build positive relationships between students and native speaking teachers. All participants agreed that the extra channel of communication contributed to students' motivation to use invention techniques freely, to take risks with language and style in drafting, and to make substantive changes to text in drafting. Students reported that the objectivity of EMF was face saving, allowing them to use critical commentary from their teachers more productively. They also said that they found their teachers' use of EMF was a powerful demonstration of their willingness to make themselves available as mentors to their students.
Face-to-face language learning at a distance? A study of a videoconference try-out
Authors: Goodfellow Robin , Jefferys Ingrid , Milest Terry , Shirra Tim
Published: December 2008

Videoconferencing has been proposed as a technology which has an immediate and beneficial application to language learning, because it enables face-to-face communication at a distance. The costs remain high, however, and course providers need to be sure what additional ‘pedagogical overheads’ are involved, i.e. in the rethinking of teaching approaches and the preparation of material. This paper reports on a study of a videoconference tutorial carried out as part of the distance learning component of a course in Professional English. The study shows that the interaction between teacher, subject expert and students was characterised by the absence, as well as the presence, of important features of face-to-face communication, and that certain kinds of tutorial activity, such as individual correction, and the management of group discussion, were not especially well supported by the technology used. We discuss the implications of this for the pedagogy of language teaching by videoconference, and draw some lessons for the incorporation of the technology into the mainstream of distance language learning.
Improving listening and speaking skills in English through the use of authoring systems
Authors: Hochart Jean-Jacques
Published: December 2008

This paper deals more with what is sent down the pipe than with the pipe itself. In other words our concern is more with the pedagogical quality of software than with hardware or structures. It simply aims at presenting several attempts to resolve problems of understanding and speaking English met by French students. In every one of these attempts we have resorted to information technology. More particularly we have used authoring toolkits in order to ‘feed’ computers with our teaching methods adapted to the students′ needs. We have fried to keep a critical eye on our practice, which has enabled us to find answers with a limited scope even though we hope they might be of interest as a starting point for new reflections. The software we have developed represents those answers.
Habeas Corpus
Authors: McEnery Tony
Published: December 2008

Summer 1998 was certainly an important one for those of us interested in the use of Teaching and Language Corpora. The third TALC conference was held at Keble College, Oxford, under the more than able auspices of Lou Burnard. Lou had carefully prepared a program of talks which challenged the TALC community, and moved on the TALC debate further.
Perspectives on computer assisted language learning
Authors: Kohn Kurt
Published: December 2008

Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) addresses the specific needs of second language learners and tutors in computer-based learning and training environments. While traditional CALL applications were mainly focused on narrowly defined and isolated solutions for vocabulary training, text manipulation, dialogue practice and grammar exercises, recent developments in multimedia telematics, involving the integration of multimedia processing and distance communication, have significantly increased the potential of computer technologies for the purposes of language learning and training.
Communicative CALL: focus on the interaction produced by CALL software
Authors: Seedhouse Paul
Published: December 2008

The concept of communicative CALL has tended to suffer from a lack of definition. This article seeks a redefinition of communicative CALL by focussing on the interaction actually produced by learners through the use of software. A framework is proposed for planning communicative CALL which takes the target interaction as its starting point. Classroom research is presented as an example of how the framework could be used in practice, and the interaction produced by one item of software is evaluated.
Technology and universities: context, cost and culture
Authors: Curran Chris
Published: December 2008

This paper relates to the projected role of the new technologies in university teaching in the light of considerations of cost, context and culture. The author is currently engaged in a study of the successful application of the new technologies in university distance teaching, in North America and countries of the European Union.
The ‘third place’ – virtual reality applications for second language learning
Authors: Schwienhorst Klaus
Published: December 2008

Recently we have seen a shift of focus in using the Internet from often inappropriate human-computer interactivity to human-human interaction, based on collaborative learning concepts like learner autonomy and tandem learning. The renewed discussion of interface design has provoked a reconsideration of me traditional graphical user interface and a shift towards more intuitive interfaces like virtual reality, mainly building on the concept of constructionism. The MOO (multi-user domain, object oriented) system provides a flexible, easy-to-use multiple user virtual reality that allows for the integration of language learning tools and resources in a common environment, a third place.
Computer-based language assessment: a formative approach
Authors: Kane-lturrioz Rosario
Published: December 2008

This paper analyses new research into learner-assisted testing. The results of this research, in addition to advances in computer technology and programming, have opened up the possibility of helping students to learn more effectively by providing immediate feedback or further information in the form of clues or hints. The implications of these developments regarding a formative approach to assessment and autonomous learning are reviewed. Finally, innovative approaches within computer-based assessment of language learning, such as modules entirely taught through the use of computer courseware and CAL methods, and applications of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) to foreign language learning, are discussed.
Email tandem learning and the communicative curriculum
Authors: Woodin Jane
Published: December 2008

This article describes an email project between undergraduate non-specialist learners of Spanish and English in England and Spain. Students took part in a discussion forum and worked with a tandem partner exchanging information, ideas and corrections of each other's language. The project revealed a range of experiences and a case study of one particularly successful participant is presented. The contribution of email tandem learning to CALL within the communicative curriculum is also discussed. It is proposed that such learning plays a different role from classroom language learning, providing a bridge between the classroom and the natural language setting.
Correction
Authors: Borraccino Antonio
Published: December 2008

The savaging review of Italiana Interattivo (CD-ROM for teaching … you've guessed it, Italian), in ReCALL volume 8 number 2, has an incorrect address for my department's home page. Those interested in finding out more about Italiano Interattivo please point your browser to http://www.wmin.ac.uk/LLC/languages/italian.html.
The Web for French grammar: a tool, a resource or a waste of time?
Authors: Lamy Marie-Noëlle
Published: December 2008

The paper reviews selected Web sites for French grammar, from the student' point of view. The investigation looks at the content of sites and potential for learning.The conclusion is that the Web for French is both underused and chaotic but there is evidence that, with imagination, it could become a useful resource.
Second language acquisition through email interaction
Authors: Aitsiselmi Farid
Published: December 2008

This paper deals with the analysis of a communicative activity involving English learners of French, its advantages and drawbacks as well as the outcome that teachers can expect of such an activity. The first part examines some reasons, both theoretical and practical for using communication technology, particularly electronic mail, for promoting language acquisition and developing learner autonomy. The second pan of the paper deals with the theoretical framework within which the activity was carried out, that Is, Stephen Krashen's language acquisition theory which establishes a distinction between language acquisition and language learning. Email interaction offers the possibility of addressing both processes.
Juggling hot potatoes: decisions and compromises in creating authoring tools for the Web
Authors: Arneil Stewart , Holmes Martin
Published: December 2008

This discussion paper outlines some of the decisions and issues involved in creating and using authoring tools for language learning through the World Wide Web. In it, we outline the development of Hot Potatoes, our suite of authoring tools, and attempt to draw conclusions from our experience that will be valuable not only to other developers but also to evaluators and users of authoring software. Areas addressed include exercise design, ability to customise and control the output, support for different browser versions, user-interface design, ancillary technology and technical support.
Real-time audio and email for fluency: promoting distance language learners' aural and oral skills via the Internet
Authors: Kötter Markus , Shield Lesley , Stevens Anne
Published: December 2008

The Open University (OU) is UK's largest modern foreign language learning provider with a current enrolment of approximetely 8000 students, all of whom study individually at home, at a distance from each other and their tutors. However, while most OU students work with trditional course material such as books, video- and audio-cassettes and face-to-face tutorials, research at the centre for Modern Languages (CML) has also investigated alternative methods in order to account for those learners who might be unable to attend face-to-face tutorials. The study described in this paper outlines work in progress that is part of a larger, long-term project seeking to establish a framework for the use of networking technologies in distance language learning with a particular emphasis onl the ldevelopment of scenarios – that is task design and learning environments – which will enable participants to improve their spoken and communication skills in the target language.
Concordancing with students using an ‘off-the-Web’ corpus
Authors: Whistle Jeremy
Published: December 2008

Much has been published on the subject of the role of concordancing in foreign language teaching, most of itin the field of EFL. Of crucial importance is the corpus on which concordances are based. This article describes how a pedagogic corpus can be downloaded from the Web as well as its experimental exploitation with first and second year undergraduates.
Issues in distance teaching in languages
Authors: Stevens Anne
Published: December 2008

The production of any language teaching course involves complex issues which, in the normal commissioning process, would be led by professional linguists and driven by their decisions. In the case of distance teaching materials at the Open University, teams comprising academics from a number of specialisms are involved. The language writers work alongside researchers, specialists in educational technology and other experts in distance education.