LING487 CALL Final Project Proposal

LING487 CALL Final Project

A collaborative group effort between Jessina Branyan and Christina Indovina.

1. The CALL tool you'll be using

We will be using the free written American English online corpora for guiding students through concordance searches.

2. The purpose of the instructional activity

The activity would be designed for students to "discover" in groups how to correct their problem areas concerning use of prepositions and articles.

3. The intended audience of the instructional activity

Advanced ESL academic students of reading/writing class. We envision this activity taking place after students' first draft of their paper has been returned.

4. A brief description of the activity/lesson itself

-Receive feedback about their "problem" areas--preposition and article usage being the two areas that we are having the students focus on

-First individually and then in groups, students will use the concordance generator to tease out the subtler uses of their focus area.

-Students work in their groups to peer teach what they have learned to the rest of the class by giving a mini-presentation.

5. A brief explanation of how the CALL tool or interface enhances language acquisition in this activity

In the context that we will be using it, the concordance generator will serve as a conciousness-raising tool. As students use the generator to find patterns, they will also be reading authentic material that will repeatedly expose them to the many different ways that articles and prepositions are used in writing. Because concordance generators are free and readily accessible on the internet, we are also hopeful that this activity will demonstrate to students how they are able to independently use the tool when they have future grammar questions.

6. Links to any online sites you think you'll be using

Free spoken American English online corpora:

http://micase.elicorpora.info/
http://www.collins.co.uk/Corpus/CorpusSearch.aspx
http://www.americancorpus.org/