APPENDIX VIII-4

 

4.    Corporate Training with English as a Second Language (ESL) Program

Globalization is an inevitable trend of our society nowadays everywhere. English is the lingua franca of global society in the 21st century. After very successful teaching of more than 20 million students in 5 years with Everyday English program via terrestrial radio in the Mainland China, the Center for Continuing Education (CCE) Department of McGill University in Montreal, Canada is now initiating the ESL for businessmen to improve speaking capability of would-be decision makers in global business community. This program may well be converted to university students and general public.

This project is to use following cutting-edge technologies;

The expected benefits of this program are;

This is a new approach of delivering e-learning as combining the most advanced technologies on broadband wireless Internet and laptop/notebook with the North American's web-based platform and content development.

The content will further be enhanced with globally collaborative business gaming/simulation based on management case study methods.  This is to provide e-learners with self-pacing, interactive, and customized courses that are perfect fit to learner motivation and target language environment.

Proposal for a Corporate Training with
English as a Second Language (ESL) Program
(Draft #10)

January 18, 2002



David Levy, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Centre for Continuing Education (CCE)
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada


Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D.
Co-Principal Investigator
V.P. for Technology and Coordination of Global University System (GUS)
43-23 Colden Street
Flushing, NY 11355-3998

 

I.     Outline

This is to propose the creation of a global e-learning, corporate training program.  It will be based on case study methods used in business administration programs combined with the simulation techniques of computer games and recent developments in the field of programmed instruction.  The program will offer the added benefit of upgrading English language skills in the context of high-level management problem-solving exercises.

This program combines cutting-edge laptop/notebook technologies and broadband wireless Internet with the advanced web-based education platform and the well proven contents.

Given the innovative character of the scheme, we propose as a startup measure the creation and testing of a prototype with the following four stages:

  1. Preliminary research to determine potential cases to be adopted for use, current global management practices, and applicable computer game methods.
  2. A comprehensive review of current global corporate communication practices requiring English language proficiency, with special attention to conceptual differences in the business routines of target country.
  3. The development of a case-based prototype with language training program to teach mastery of the language skills to handle difficult management situations. The material will be offered on-line and will include the use of all basic language structures, common lexical items as for example: "eye contact," "upwardly mobile," "first impression," "go public," "start up costs," the different global meanings of terms such as "office worker" in various countries, and the language of hierarchical relations, meetings, negotiations, presentation of proposals both to one's corporate colleagues and associates, and to individuals outside one's organization, particularly those in overseas countries, etc.
  4. Testing of the prototype to gauge effectiveness, eliminate bugs and possibly permit predictions of time required for navigation through a case.

This web-based e-learning method will be applicable to a range of other subjects, thus realizing "Education for All" (UNESCO's motto) anywhere, anytime, and at any pace.

II.     Rationale

In light of globalization and the Information Technology (IT) Revolution, global organizations anywhere now face the urgent need to overcome the difficulties of professionals unable to acquire adequate competence in English, particularly conversational skills. With English as the recognized global lingua franca, it is necessary to give this matter top priority.

III.    Proposed Research

The initial research will require roughly six months and involve some work in corporation offices in the target country.  Course development and testing of the prototype will require an additional six months.

IV.   Course Content

Content will give special attention to organizational-linguistic skills necessary to facilitate real creative collaborative communication for corporate decision-making. The materials will include activities such as the management of difficult business conversations, the topic of a seminar series developed at Harvard Law School <http://www.execseminar.com/>.

V.    E-Learning Methodology

The advantages of this approach is that it provides a focused, self pacing, interactive, and customized learning experience with the enhanced simulation values of digital interactivity, as providing a perfect fit of learner motivation and target language environment at anytime and anywhere with immersed environment of the language and the language's culture.

Traditional distance education involved three components: (i) broadcast, (ii) text, (iii) face-to-face tutorial. All three can be offered within the framework of an on-line scheme that will provide immediate feedback, monitor students as they work through the materials, and respond to questions. Moreover, the scheme will build in one-on-one and small group practice sessions, all within the learning model we propose.

The pedagogical model will be an approximation of the one used with such success in the Everyday English series that aired via terrestrial radio in Mainland China from 1987 1992 for 20 million students, given that the goal is largely the same: to improve practical aural oral skills. Method will employ visual skills with videoconferencing via Internet to augment aural-oral proficiency, an approach validated by Everyday English success. Activities will include pronunciation drills, comprehension checks, repetition drills, dictation exercises, role plays, etc. -- see also ANNEX I.

VI.   Formal Features

  1. The web learning platform accessed by learners via broadband wireless Internet for 24 hours and 7 days will have the capabilities of multimedia e-textbook with DVD, whiteboard, PowerPoint slides, chat, computer conferencing, synchronous audio and video conferencing, etc. The DVD which will contain cultural background of language and be hyperlinked with web, will promote learners' motivation.
  2. The format will involve situational dramatizations featuring characters who will re-appear from unit to unit.

  3. Translations of English language utterances into the language of the targeted country will always be available.
  4. There will be an introductory practice lesson for the series, in the language of the targeted country, to explain how to use the material during the face-to-face meeting at the start of course semester at appropriate settings either in the country or in North America for one to two weeks.

  5. In addition to upgrading corporate communication, the project would provide the selected universities and corporations with the basis for developing on-line language training software for which there is a world market.

This scheme will feature translations into Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), Korean, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

VII.   Schedule

   Starting date:    September, 2002
   Completion of stage 1:    March, 2003
   Completion of stages 2 & 3:    March 2004

VIII.  Research Team

The proposed research team is a distinguished one. The members of the team have enjoyed considerable success in implementing global on-line distance education projects in general and the teaching of English by distance education methods in particular -- see their biographical sketch in ANNEX II.

IX.    Budget

<<Under review.>>

ANNEX I

I. Online Pronunciation Classroom
(Prepared by Steven Donahue)
II. Speaking of Software...ESL Students Are Responding to a Web-Based Pronunciation Program
(University Business, Vol. 4, No. 1, February 2001, Page 57)
III. Public Test Web Site
http://www.glearner.com/
Username: stevengus
Password: stevengus
(Prepared by Steven Donahue)
IV. gLearning: The New e-Learning Frontier
(Prepared by Steven Donahue)
http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/Global_University/Guideline/Steven_Donahue's_Paper/gLearning.html

I. Online Pronunciation Classroom

1.         The Global University System online pronunciation classroom is one of the most sophisticated in the world for informing the second language learner of the real "nuts and bolts" of the English sound system.

2.         The system consists of a test bank of over 1000 items with full multimedia remedial file for those areas of English pronunciation that a learner needs practice and reinforcement in. Students listen to words, sentences, and phrases and attempt to "discriminate" the correct prompt. Listening discrimination skills are closely connected to producing the correct sounds. For example, if a student makes a listening mistake such as "Bollyball" and "Volleyball" they probably make the same speaking error with "V" and "B".

3.         The system, called the "G-Learner" gets around the limitations posed by narrow bandwidth by employing a "store and forward" system. With this system, a student first downloads assessment software which determines which area of the English sound system are in need of remedial attention. The student can interact with the Assessment unit offline and re-connect when finished.

4.         Based upon results of the Assessment download, the G-Learner software automatically fetches the appropriate remedial files from a Web-base repository the next time the student connects to the Internet. These remedial files are downloaded one at a time until mastered.

5.         The remedial files give the student feedback for similar questions that were on the Assessment software, but this time with additional audio and video feedback. The feedback continues to loop until the student makes a correct choice. Upon making the correct selection, an additional graphic "reward" is displayed along with a "forma" explanation of the aspect of pronunciation which the student has now succeeded in.

6.         The users results are automatically posted to a secure Web site every time they take the assessment.

7.         The modules of the Pronunciation Class consist of :

a.         Intonation.

b.         Stress

c.         Adjustments

d.         Consonants

e.         Vowels

f.          Irregular Verbs

g.         Body Language

h.         Nursery Rhymes

i.          Tongue Twisters

8.         Preliminary results in large scale tests with ESL students suggest that improvement can approach two standard deviations. In other words, students taking an initial test of only 50% can achieve an exit score of 98%.

II. Speaking of Software...ESL Students Are Responding to a Web-Based Pronunciation Program

FOR STEVEN DONAHUE, TEACHING PRONUNCIATION doesn't necessitate face-to-face encounters. The ESL professor at Broward Community College in Fort Lauderdale recently released a homegrown, Web-based application dubbed Glearner that is helping ESL students lose their accents from a distance.

Through a video-based Internet interface, the program blends real-time practice with one-on-one feedback, enabling students to learn at home and educators to instruct through e-mail. "I've taken ESL, linguistics, computers, and online education and thrown them all together," Donahue says. For years, he conducted ESL classes in a Language Lab, using audiotapes to teach 30 students at a time. But students complained that the tapes were boring and difficult to follow. So Donahue wrote his own program using AuthorWare, a Language similar to JAVA, and spent more than 20 months honing the code. A $3,000 grant from Broward administrators allowed him to launch the software last September.

To operate the program, students use a password to download a 1.7 megabyte application from Donahue's personal Web site. Then, with the file running on a browser, they can practice pronunciation or watch as video-generated lips mouth a series of words and phrases that present common problems, from "very" and "berry" to "This is my son." Students practice speaking until they feel comfortable, at which point they can record words or sentences on their computers in the "wav" audio format, and e-mail the files to Donahue. Using analytical software from Kay Elemetrics, Donahue matches the utterances against a series of criteria linked to pitch and diction. He addresses errors, records individual feedback, and e-mails his reply. He says that he evaluates about 100 files from 30 students every night.

Hendrick Artiste, BCC's foreign Language Lab coordinator, says that students' pronunciation has improved tenfold. Donahue expects more than 500 BCC students to use the software this year alone.

ANNEX II

Biographical Sketches
of Research Team


    David Levy, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
 1.   Address

Dr. David Levy
Centre for Continuing Education (CCE)
McGill University
680 Sherbrooke Street West, Suite 1184
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H3A 3R1
514-398-7374
Fax: 514-398-2650
mailto:AXEL@conted.lan.mcgill.ca

 2.   Bio

David Levy is Program Director, English as a Second Language Programs at McGill University. Born and educated in Montreal, he developed the University&Mac226;s Special Intensive English Program, a program with a twenty&Mac246;year history of success, one that continues to attract students from every corner of the globe. As well, he created the enormously successful distance education ESL radio series for broadcast in China, Everyday English. He has presented papers on the series at a number academic conferences. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from McGill University, an M.A. from the Universite de Montreal and a B.A. from McGill University. As well, he has done work in the areas of programmed instruction and motion picture aesthetics.

    Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator
 1.   Address

Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E.
Chairman, GLOSAS/USA
President Emeritus and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of Global University System (GUS)
43-23 Colden Street
Flushing, NY 11355-3998
Tel: 718-939-0928
Fax: 718-939-0656 (day time only--prefer email)
mailto:utsumi@columbia.edu
http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS

 2.   Bio

Takeshi Utsumi Ph.D., P.E., is Chairman of GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the USA (GLOSAS/USA) and Vice President for Technology and Coordination of Global University System (GUS) <http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS>. He is the 1994 Laureate of Lord Perry Award for the Excellence in Distance Education.

The GLOSAS/USA is a publicly supported, non-profit, educational service organization and is a consortium of organizations dedicated to the use of evolving telecommunications and information technologies to further advance world peace through global communications. GLOSAS fosters science and technology based economic development to improve the quality of life.

Over the past two decades GLOSAS/USA played a major pioneering role in extending U.S. data communication networks to other countries, particularly to Japan, and deregulating Japanese telecommunication policies for the use of e-mail through ARPANET, Telenet and Internet (thanks to help from the Late Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldridge). This triggered the de-monopolization and privatization of Japanese telecommunications industries. This movement has later been emulated in many other countries -- now over 180 countries with Internet access and more than 377 million people using e-mail around the world. This effort helped in extending American and other countries' university courses to under-served developing countries and the conduct of innovative distance teaching trials with "Global Lecture Hall (GLH)" (TM) multipoint-to multipoint multimedia interactive videoconferences using hybrid delivery technologies.

He also made numerous lectures, consultation, and research in process control, management science, systems science and engineering at the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, M.I.T. and many universities, governmental agencies (e.g., Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry, etc.) and large firms in Japan (Mitsui, C. Ito, Nisho Iwai, etc.) and other countries.

Among more than 150 related scientific papers and books are presentations to the Summer Computer Simulation Conferences (which he created and named) and the Society for Computer Simulation International. He is a member of various scientific and professional groups, including the Chemists Club (New York, NY); Columbia University Seminar on Computer, Man and Society (New York, NY); Fulbright Association (Washington, D.C.); International Center for Integrative Studies (ICIS) (New York, NY); and Society of Satellite Professionals International (Washington, D.C.).

Dr. Utsumi received his Ph.D. Ch.E. from Polytechnic University in New York, M.S.Ch.E. from Montana State University, after study at the University of Nebraska on a Fulbright scholarship. His professional experiences in simulation and optimization of petrochemical and refinery processes were at Mitsubishi Research Institute, Tokyo; Stone & Webster Engineering Corp., Boston; Mobil Oil Corporation and Shell Chemical Company, New York; Asahi Chemical Industry, Inc., Tokyo.

    Roger Lee Boston
 1.   Address

Roger Lee Boston

Rockwell Chair/Instructor

Distance Education/Technology Center

Houston Community College System

4310 Dunlavy Street

P.O.Box 7849

Houston, Texas 77006

USA

Tel: +1-713-718 5224

Fax: +1-713-664 0367

mailto:rboston@tenet.edu

mailto:boston_r@hccs.cc.tx.us(secondary)

http://www.rboston.com/

http://www.teched.org/

http://tc1.hccs.cc.tx.us/

http://www.teched.org/hist/iia.htm

http://tc1.hccs.cc.tx.us/hist/yr99/finland/-- Tampere event

http://tc1.hccs.cc.tx.us/hist/yr00/brazil/-- Manaus event

 2.   Bio

Roger Boston is currently with the faculty of the Houston Community College System and holds the joint titles of "Rockwell Chair" and "Consultant for Creativity", an innovation supported by the Rockwell Foundation since 1985.

A transplant from private industry a decade and a half ago where he was involved as an information systems manager, he has built an international reputation in distance learning since helping his organization to go "online" with their credit courses in the late 1980's.

He is a member of the PBS Going the Distance Advisory Group, the State of Texas Distance Learning Master planning group, a teacher with the Virtual College of Texas, and is instrumental in the restructuring efforts now ongoing within the Houston Community College System to deliver distance courses more effectively.

He has worked with more than four dozen organizations coast to coast to help them in their efforts to implement electronic and multimedia instructional delivery systems and is a frequent presenter at gatherings of the ITC and other groups interested in Distance Learning. He is pioneering in the use of low-bandwidth collaborative tools for instruction delivery across the internet and often teaches his classes from remote areas to test the technology.

Frequently on-camera and behind the scenes for the Texas STARLINK group, hosting and moderating satellite teleconferences and internet webcasts, he is also active in the CAADE Consortium (Consortium for the Advancement of Affordable Distance Education -- the predecessor to and now the Global University System) and assists that group in its efforts to deliver instruction worldwide via internet and via lower-bandwidth POTS connections.

Since 1997 he has been an active participant in the "Global LEARN Day" movement, working behind the scenes and on camera in numerous global events to help usher in the age of truly world wide delivery of instruction.

He was the 1995 recipient of the ACCT Western Region Faculty Award, and his former students have built up a scholarship fund in his name of more than sixty thousand dollars, going to deserving students electing a career in computers and information technology.

Roger Boston will conduct a tutorial on the use of laptop with broadband wireless Internet during the initial face-to-face seminar, along with his vast experiences on the videoconferencings with narrow- and broadband internet spanning the world for his extensive e-learning program at his college.

   

Steven Donahue
 1.   Address

Steven Donahue

Broward Community College

1128 N. 16Th Avenue

Hollywood, FL 33020

954-927-8807

cell: 954-701-1561

mailto:sdonah01@bellsouth.net

mailto:sdonahue@broward.cc.fl.us

http://www.10tongues.com/

http://www.glearner.com/

 2.   Bio

Steven Donahue is an English as a Second Language instructor at Broward Community College and contributor to the American Language Review, Distance Education Report and other publications on issues involving Language Learning, Distance Education, and Immigrant Rights. He is involved with Sister Cities International in Washington, D.C., the Colombian-American Service Association, the Broward Latin Chamber of Commerce, and the Advanced Distributed Learning initiative's SCORM committee for developing online content standards.

Professor Donahue has been married for 25 years to, JoHanna ; has a 19 year-old son, Ian, was in the Navy at Tulane University ; and has a Russian Blue cat named "Smokae". His hobby and passion is reading the New Testament in the original Greek and putting passages into calligraphic form.

   

Paul Kawachi
 1.   Address

Paul Kawachi

1927-1-206 Higashi Kushiwara

Kurume City, Fukuoka 830-0003

Japan

tel: 0942 40 2080

fax: 0942 40 2080

mobile 090 4 999 7820

mailto:paul@paulkawachi.com

http://www.paulkawachi.com/

 2.   Bio

Paul has been a university lecturer in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Japan for 18 years; teaching about 400 courses to date at all levels. He has published (about 40 papers) sporadically in chemistry, physics, medicine, English, faculty development, education, and distance education; internationally in between teaching and his studies - winning most recently the Gold Medal at the Asian Association of Open Universities meeting last year for research in educational psychology on how Japanese learn.

In his youth, he was President of Cambridge University's Graduate Society / Union and served on the Cambridge University Vice-Chancellor's Governing Council of Senate. He has three master degrees (M Phil, MA TEFL and MA ODE) and various other postgraduate qualifications in teaching and education. This summary is being updated - with appointments pending as a Fellow of the British Institute of English Language Teachers, and as a full Professor and (probably) Course Director in Business English at a two-year Junior College, in Japan. In his free time, when he is not on the Kabuki stage, he is off scuba diving somewhere.

   

Steve McCarty
 1.   Address

Steve McCarty

Professor, Kagawa Junior College

President, World Association for Online Education: http://waoe.org/

Residence: 3717-33 Nii, Kokubunji, Kagawa 769-0101 JAPAN

Tel: +81-877-49-8041 (office, direct); Fax: +81-877-49-5252

E-mail: mailto:steve@kagawa-jc.ac.jp, mailto:mccarty@mail.goo.ne.jp

Website Map: http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve/

In Japanese: http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/

 2.   Bio

Steve McCarty is a full Professor of English as a Second Language at Kagawa Junior College, teaching in Mac, Windows and Language Labs.

Since 1983 he has been nationally active in the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT), including the highest appointed office representing all research groups. Currently he edits the JALT Bilingualism SIG Website in English and Japanese, which includes the Japan Journal of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism: <http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/jaltbsig/In 1996 he organized a colloquium on cross-cultural communication at the University of Hong Kong Knowledge and Discourse Conference. In 1997 and 2001 his multilingual online library of publications < http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/epublist.html> was rated "very useful for research" (4 stars) by the Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library. In 1998 his Keynote Address opened the Teaching in the Community Colleges Online Conference based at the University of Hawaii. He also presented in Japanese on distance education at Kyushu Institute of Technology, broadcast by two-way satellite to 15 universities. He was elected President of the World Association for Online Education (WAOE), an NPO registered in California, from 1998-2001: < http://waoe.org/>. Since 1998 he has also increasingly assisted the Global University System (GUS) in the Asia-Pacific region and overall. See, e.g.:

< http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/asia-pacific/>.

 3.  

Contributions to the GUS ESL Project

Steve has been representing GUS in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region, including traveling to Tokyo to assist Dr. Takeshi Utsumi. Steve is making an appointment next with the Child Research Net of Benesse Corporation, and can introduce the ESL project to such people in Japanese. He can find information of assistance to the project and do legwork on occasion in Tokyo. In 2001, as WAOE President, Steve has been invited to Kuala Lumpur in early September by the University of Malaysia to conduct teacher training in a computer lab with broadband Internet. At their Symposium on Online Education, Steve is willing to also introduce GUS and its Global Broadband Initiative (GBI). Thus Steve can seek groups for ESL pilot projects and promote further GUS initiatives elsewhere in Asia as well as in Japan.