西垣 知佳子

情報通信技術の教育・学習への応用としては、CALL(Computer Assisted Language Learning)・WBT(Web-based Training)・CBT (Computer-Based Testing)・CSCL(Computer Support for Collaborative Learning)など、一般的なe-learning手法をいかに外国語教育・外国語学習へと応用するかが関心を集めてきました。しかし、電子的な環境下における言語教育・言語学習を高度化する上で、コンテンツの開発・自動採点・学習履歴の分析などに音声合成・音声認識・機械翻訳・文献検索・文献要約などの知的情報処理研究の成果とそれを支えるためのコーパスの構築やタグの標準化などの研究資源をどのように活用するか、あらためて問い直すべき時期に来ています。本パネル討論では、内山将夫・佐野洋・菅谷史昭・宮田高志の4名のパネリストによる話題提供を出発点とし、中條清美・西垣知佳子の2名の指定討論者による質問とコメントを手がかりに、知的情報処理の言語教育・言語学習への応用の可能性とその課題について検討します。

The purpose of this study was to examine English composition writing to identify the gap between students' initial writing level and their target level. Data about this gap for a specific group of students, or 'needs analysis', provides teachers with the necessary information to create the appropriate course instruction to meet the needs of the students. 17 students, who took part in this study, were enrolled in English Composition I in the English Department of the Faculty of Education at Chiba University. The target level of this student composition class was to produce essays (write compositions) which meet the expectations of a Western academic writing context. Students' compositions were examined in terms of four categories of writing knowledge: content knowledge, language system knowledge, context knowledge, and writing process knowledge. Reviewing the students' compositions, it was learned that few students had even a rudimentary understanding of the expectations, codes and writing process of Western academic writing. They seemed unfamiliar with basic elements of writing involved in the four categories of writing knowledge. Finally, on the basis of the results obtained, course objectives for this specific group of students were suggested.

The purpose of the present study was to develop a CAI system for improving Japanese learners' English listening skills and to measure the system's efficiency. A specific feature of the system is the mixture of graded tasks and the learning resources that the students go through while they are being presented with various types of naturally spoken discourse. Ten independent subject groups totaling 88 learners participated in the experimental use of the system for approximately nine hours per person. The average dictation score of naturally spoken utterances improved 10 per cent and the average comprehension score of news and drama improved by 29 per cent, while the improvement in the comprehension of slightly easier dialogues such as at airports and hotels was 38 per cent. The amount of improvement observed in this study was approximately three times as large as that obtained by other instructional methods conducted in Japan. In a learners' self-evaluation questionnaire, the subjects expressed the strong desire to make further use of the system. In comparison with previously used materials, they reported that the sytem in the experiment was by far the best of the teaching methods they had used thus far.