Integration of computer-aided language learning into formal university-level L2 instruction

Abstract

This paper presents our experience from pilot studies оn integration of intelligent learning and tutoring tools into official curricula for foreign/second-language (L2) learning. We report specifically on initial studies with learners of Russian as a second language at major universities in Italy and in Finland. An important challenge in both of these educational situations is the heterogeneous nature of the student contingent, including the presence of a sizable proportion of ‘heritage’ learners. Furthermore, the groups are often very large, which motivates the integration of an ICALL system. We describe the first integration attempt, an analysis of the emerging aspects and problems, and the design of a new experiment, which is on-going and
takes into account the lessons learned. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on large-scale ICALL studies involving substantial numbers of ‘high-stakes’ learners of Russian at the intermediate-to-advanced levels – i.e., learners beyond the elementary level.