Development of Remedial CALL Materials for Improving English Listening Skills of Japanese College Freshmen

本研究有以下三个目的：1)开发一个写作系统，使英语教师和研究人员能够更高效、更经济地开发CALL软件；2)开发适合日本大学新生兴趣的中级前水平CALL英语材料；3)评估开发材料和写作系统的性能。通过对大学生进行问卷调查，我们以“美国的日常生活”为主题来开发新的CALL材料。影片在美国纽约州、新泽西州和阿拉巴马州拍摄，共拍摄了8小时的自然对话和采访，并拍摄了6000张照片。在课件的开发过程中，采用了“三步听理解法”作为基础理论。制作系统的主要规范是：1)课件用Excel文件描述；2)一个转换程序将Excel文件转换为XML文件，并链接到特定的音频、视频和静态图像文件夹；3)一系列JavaScript程序利用MS Internet Explorer的功能将XML转换后的课件和链接信息呈现给学习者。大学生对开发的CALL材料的评价表明：1)该材料比先前开发的初级材料难度大，比先前开发的中级材料容易；3)该材料与先前开发的高评价材料一样吸引学生的兴趣；4)使用四个月后，大学生的托业成绩提高了56.2分。通过使用该系统开发其他CALL材料，对编写系统的可用性进行了评估，表明它使我们能够减少创建CALL软件的时间和费用的90%。

The present study served the following three purposes : 1) to develop an authoring system which enabled EFL instructors and researchers to create CALL software more efficiently and cost-effectively, 2) to develop pre-intermediate level CALL English material appealing to the interests of Japanese college freshmen, 3) to evaluate the performance of the developed material and the authoring system.As a result of a questionnaire survey given to college students, "daily life in the US" was adopted as the main theme for developing new CALL material. Filming was done in the US in the states of New York, New Jersey, and Alabama where a total of eight hours of natural conversation and interviews were videotaped and 6000 photographs were taken. The Three-Step Auditory Comprehension Approach was adopted as the basic theory in the development of the courseware.The principal specifications of the authoring system are : 1) the courseware is described in Excel files, 2) a converter program converts the Excels files to XML files which are linked to particular audio, video, and still image folders, 3) a series of JavaScript programs present the XML-converted courseware and linked information to the learners using the functions of MS Internet Explorer.The evaluation of the developed CALL material by college students revealed that : 1) the material was rated more difficult than previously developed elementary-level material and easier than pre-developed intermediate-level material, 3) the material appeals to the students' interests as much as the highly-evaluated material previously developed, 4) English skills of the college students measured by TOEIC score improved 56.2 points by the use of the material for four months. The usability of the authoring system was evaluated by developing other CALL material using the system which showed that it enables us to reduce 90% of the time and expense for creating CALL software.