The interviews in the first five episodes were filmed at George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch in California, with the sixth interview conducted at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, during the final two summers of Campbell’s life. (The series was broadcast on television a year after his death.) In these discussions Campbell presents his ideas about comparative mythology and the ongoing role ofmyth in human society. These talks include excerpts from Campbell’s seminal work The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

The power of myth

This study investigated the effect of direct and indirect comprehensive corrective feedback (CF) on second language (L2) learners’ written accuracy (N = 268). The study set out to explore the value of CF as a revising tool as well as its capacity to support long-term accuracy development. In addition, we tested Truscott’s (e.g., 2001, 2007) claims that (a) correction may have value for nongrammatical errors but not for errors in grammar; (b) students are inclined to avoid more complex constructions due to error correction; and (c) the time spent on CF may be more wisely spent on additional writing practice. Results showed that both direct and indirect comprehensive CF led to improved accuracy, over what is gained from self-editing without CF (control group 1) and from sheer writing practice without CF (control group 2), and this was true not only during revision but also in new pieces of writing (i.e., texts written during posttest and delayed posttest sessions, 1 and 4 weeks after the delivery of CF). Furthermore, a separate analysis of grammatical and nongrammatical error types revealed that only direct CF resulted in grammatical accuracy gains in new writing and that pupils’ nongrammatical accuracy benefited most from indirect CF. Moreover, CF did not result in simplified writing when structural complexity and lexical diversity in students’ new writing were measured. Our findings suggest that comprehensive CF is a useful educational tool that teachers can use to help L2 learners improve their written accuracy over time. Keywords written corrective feedback; error correction; direct and indirect feedback; second language writing; accuracy development; written complexity

Evidence on the Effectiveness of Comprehensive Error Correction in Second Language Writing

LEARNING OBJECT DESIGN AND SEQUENCING THEORY David Wiley Department of Instructional Psychology and Technology Doctor of Philosophy Given the likelihood of the broad deployment of learning objects-based technology, and the dangers of employing it in an instructionally unprincipled manner, the need for an instructional design theory providing explicit support for the instructional design and use of learning objects is clear. “Theory” here follows Reigeluth’s (1999) definition of design theories as “describ[ing] methods of instruction and the situations in which those methods should be used.” This study reviews, synthesizes, and combines four existing instructional design theories, namely Elaboration Theory (Reigeluth, 1999), Work Model Synthesis (Gibbons, et al., 1995), Domain Theory (Bunderson, Newby, & Wiley, 2000), and the Four-Component Instructional Design model (van Merriënboer, 1997) with new work, the result being a new instructional design theory, Learning Object Design and Sequencing Theory (LODAS). LODAS provides guidelines for the analysis and synthesis of an undifferentiated content area (e.g., English), the application of which produces specifications for the scope and sequence of learning objects. The theory also provides a taxonomy of five learning object types and provides design guidance for the different types of learning objects. Currently, any person or organization that wants to employ learning objects in their instructional design is required to create their own taxonomy of learning objects. The author considers this to be a major cause of the current poverty of practical applications of learning objects. However, taking the taxonomy and learning object design guidelines presented in LODAS, an instructional designer may be able to connect these to the instructional design theory of their choice via the creation of “prescriptive linking material,” a considerably simpler exercise than the creation of a new taxonomy. As the theory is tested, this development has the potential to speed the practical adoption of the learning object approach, allow the simplified application of any instructional design theory to the learning object approach, and provide a common ground for future research in the instructional technology called “learning objects.” ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My thanks go first and foremost to my wife, Elaine, and children, David Enoch and Megumi, who have supported and buoyed me up with love, patience, and understanding throughout my tenure as a graduate student. I also extend my gratitude to my committee co-chairs, Laurie Nelson, who introduced me to the field of instructional technology, specifically instructional design theory, and taught me to be passionate about it, and Vic Bunderson, who invited me to participate in the development of Domain Theory and first suggested validity argument as a means to test instructional design theories. My gratitude also goes to the entire committee, who read and reread quickly in order to help me finalize the study in a timely manner. Finally, special thanks go to my external reviewers, Charles Reigeluth and Brandon Muramatsu, for their tireless reading and commenting. This dissertation was partially funded by the Edumetrics Institute.

Learning object design and sequencing theory

Introduction Dwight Atkinson Chapter 1: The Sociocultural Approach to Second Language Acquisition: Sociocultural Theory, Second Language Acquisition, and Artificial L2 Development James P. Lantolf Chapter 2: A Complexity Theory Approach to Second Language Development/ Acquisition Diane Larsen-Freeman Chapter 3: An Identity Approach to Second Language Acquisition Bonny Norton & Carolyn McKinney Chapter 4: Language Socialization Approaches to Second Language Acquisition: Social, Cultural, and Linguistic Development in Additional Languages Patricia A. Duff & Steven Talmy Chapter 5: A Conversation-analytic Approach to Second Language Acquisition Gabriele Kasper & Johannes Wagner Chapter 6: A Sociocognitive Approach to Second Language Acquisition: How Mind, Body, and World Work Together in Learning Additional Languages Dwight Atkinson Chapter 7: Discussion - SLA after the Social Turn: Where Cognitivism and its Alternatives Stand Lourdes Ortega

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Alternative approaches to second language acquisition

Contents: Introduction. Part I: Task Analysis Processes. What Is Task Analysis? Selecting Tasks for Analysis. Classifying Knowledge and Skills From Task Analysis. Part II: Job, Procedural, and Skill Analysis Methods. Task Description. Procedural Analysis. Job Task Analysis. Functional Job Analysis. Part III: Instructional and Guided Learning Analysis Methods. Learning Hierarchy (Prerequisites) Analysis. Information Processing Analysis. Learning Contingency Analysis. Part IV: Cognitive Task Analysis Methods. Goals, Operators, Methods, & Selection (GOMS). Prediction, Actions, Results, Interpretation (PARI). Decompose, Network, and Assess (DNA). Cognitive Simulations. Case-Based Reasoning. Part V: Activity-Based Methods. Activity Theory. Syntactic Analysis. Critical Incident/Critical Decision Methods. Task Knowledge Structures. Part VI: Subject Matter/Content Analysis Methods. Conceptual Graph Analysis. Master Design Chart. Matrix Analysis. Repertory Grid Technique. Fault Tree Analysis. Part VII: Knowledge Elicitation Techniques. Documentation Analysis. Observation. Survey Questionnaires. Interviews. Think-Aloud Protocols. Unstructured Group Interviews: Focus Groups and Brainstorming. Structured Group Interviews: Delphi Technique.

Task Analysis Methods for Instructional Design

Though recent research has shown that written corrective feedback (WCF) may improve aspects of writing accuracy in some English as a second language (ESL) contexts, many teachers continue to be confused about the practical steps they should utilize to help their students improve their writing. Moreover, some have raised concerns as to whether commonly used approaches to ESL writing pedagogy and grammar instruction are effective in helping students improve their linguistic accuracy. This article describes an instructional strategy we developed for improving students' accuracy based on insights gleaned from practice, research, and theory. We refer to this instructional methodology as dynamic WCF. The article also discusses a test of the methodology's efficacy that compared the performance of two groups of students, one using a conventional process approach to writing instruction and the other using the dynamic WCF approach. Test results demonstrated that although rhetorical competence, writing fluency, and writing complexity were largely unaffected by the dynamic WCF pedagogy, significant improvement was observed for writing accuracy.

Effects of Dynamic Corrective Feedback on ESL Writing Accuracy

This research study compares the impact of a computer-based diglot reader with that of a sophisticated, computer-based, drill and practice program on second language acquisition. The affective benefits as well as depth and breadth of vocabulary development were examined. The diglot method, originally conceived by Burling, introduces second language vocabulary within the context of a familiar first language text, thus allowing the reader to acquire the second language incidentally while lowering the affective barrier to language acquisition. This research study reaffirmed the positive affective benefit of the diglot method and showed that the diglot reader was equally as effective as the drill and practice program in facilitating vocabulary acquisition.

Second language vocabulary acquisition using a diglot reader or a computer-based drill and practice program

Hierarchical & information processing task analysis: A comparison

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Task Analysis: An Information Processing Approach.

In this paper we discuss how the Brigham Young University Technology Assisted Language Learning Group (BYU TALL Group) develops video-based dramatic narratives to increase the amount of context we provide to English as a second language (ESL) learners. First, we discuss the problem of decontextualization in education, the contextualism alternative, and how narrative can provide crucial context. Next, using ESL instruction as a case study, we compare non-narrative video-based language models with narrative models and discuss some of the potential benefits of narrative models. We then discuss issues to consider when using narrative models, and outline a narrative-focused design and development process with particular attention to those aspects critical to creating narratives that are simultaneously pedagogically sound, aesthetically credible, and engaging for learners to watch.

Paul F. Merrill

Papers

Effects of Dynamic Corrective Feedback on ESL Writing Accuracy

Second language vocabulary acquisition using a diglot reader or a computer-based drill and practice program

Hierarchical & information processing task analysis: A comparison

Task Analysis: An Information Processing Approach.

Designing Video Narratives to Contextualize Content for ESL Learners: A Design Process Case Study.