ESL student self-correction of student-recorded speaking activities: Year 2
Prepared for PSLC Advisory Board Visit, December 2006
PSLC Research Cluster: Interactive Communication
PSLC LearnLab Course: ESL
Co-PI
Dawn E. McCormick
Co-PI
M. Christine O’Neill
Claire Bradin Siskin
Department of Linguistics
University of Pittsburgh
mccormic@pitt.edu
412-624-5902
Department of Linguistics
University of Pittsburgh
mco3@pitt.edu
412-624-5913
Department of Linguistics
University of Pittsburgh
cbsiskin@pitt.edu
412-624-5939
Graduate Student Researchers:
Jihyun Kim (4 terms)
Wendy Martelle (2 terms)
Jessica Hogan (1 term)
Mary Lou Vercellotti (1 term)
Project Description
The purposes of the second year of this project are: 1) to continue to examine and
describe the extent of self-correction among English-as-a-second-language (ESL)
students of varying proficiency levels during recorded speaking activities and 2) to
determine if the self-correction process has an immediate impact on spoken production.
Our two primary research questions remain:
1. What errors are students able to identify within given proficiency levels (lowintermediate, high-intermediate, advanced)? across levels?
2. Of the errors identified by students, what errors are they able to self-correct
within given proficiency levels (low-intermediate, high-intermediate,
advanced)? across levels?
3. Can student error self-identification and self-correction lead to increased
accuracy?
Achievements to date
We are using software called Revolution to maintain, update, and run the program for
the RSA. The basic steps of the RSA are as follows:
 Students are given written prompts on familiar topics.
 Students digitally record their response to the prompt.
 Students then listen to their created texts and transcribe them in a text box.
 Students listen again, taking notes on their errors and possible corrections in a
text box.
 For RSA #1 and #2, students digitally record their corrections, first giving the
error and then the correction (e.g., I said X. I should have said y.) For RSA
#3, students rerecord their original sample, trying to improve their accuracy
based on their self-correction process as an assessment component.
This project is currently part of the Interactive Communication cluster because the RSA
process is an example of a learning environment in which the student is interacting with
other agents: self, spoken text, and teacher. In essence, the interactions act as dialogues
that should increase the students’ abilities to transfer what is learned to new language
events.
Because this in-vivo project is still underway, we cannot present complete findings at
this time. However, we would like to mention a few anecdotal observations. First, all
levels have been able to identify and self-correct errors to some degree. Second,
students are able to identify and self-correct errors in the areas of grammar, vocabulary,
and pronunciation, with grammar being the area with the most frequent corrections.
Third, the RSA process has helped us realize that what constitutes “correction” is a
complex process. Data show that students follow these possible path choices:
1. Identify a correct form as correct (considering its orthographic and/or audio forms)
therefore no alternative form provided
2. Identify a correct form as incorrect (considering its orthographic and/or audio
forms)
2.1. provide a correct alternative
2.2. provide a partially correct alternative
2.3. provide an incorrect alternative
2.4. state that the student cannot provide an alternative
3. Identify an incorrect form as incorrect (considering its orthographic and/or audio
forms)
3.1. provide a correct alternative
3.2. provide a partially correct alternative
3.3. provide an incorrect alternative
3.4. state that the student cannot provide an alternative
4. Not identify an incorrect form as incorrect therefore no alternative form provided
These paths represent the learning event space provided by the RSA. The paths taken by
the student produce different path effects, basically: a) exiting the path with learning to
some degree or 2) exiting the path with mislearning to some degree. The student’s path
choice reflects sense-making in that the students error-identification and correction
process is an indication of their trying to engage in higher-level thinking.
The data from the correction component of the project can provide insight into robust
language learning. For example, correcting an already-correct language form (path
choice 2 above) may be an indication that the learner has not robustly learned that form,
even though it was produced correctly. Therefore, what appears as retention may be
deceptive. The assessment component added to RSA #3 may shed light on transfer.
Students who refine their second spoken text by using the self-correction process within
each RSA could be said to transfer language learner to a new case.
Milestones for Year 1 (Fall 2005, Spring 2006, Summer 2006)
 IRB approval for project.
 Workshops were held for speaking teachers in order to train them in how to use
the new software.

Data collected (approximations):
Fall (2061): 5 class sections
# of Student
Spoken
Sample Files
(Audio)
52
RSA 1
62
RSA 2
59
RSA 3
59
RSA 4
Totals
232
Spring (2064): 8 class sections
# of Student
Spoken
Sample Files
(Audio)
RSA 1
94
RSA 2
92
RSA 3
73
RSA 4
Totals
72
331
Total file
size (MB)
192.6
298.1
347.7
452.9
# of Student
Spoken
Correction Files
(Audio)
58
58
62
61
Total file
size (MB)
143.5
159.7
175.1
220.6
1291.3
239
698.9
# of Student
Spoken
Total file Correction Files
size (MB)
(Audio)
488.1
87
507.3
90
390.9
77
Total file
size (MB)
206
256.9
229
439.5
1825.8
76
330
206.7
898.6
Summer (2067): 9 class sections
# of
# of
Student
Student
Spoken
Spoken
Sample
Correction
Rerecording
Files Total file
Files
Total file
Files
Total file
(Audio) size (MB) (Audio) size (MB) (Audio)
size (MB)
RSA 1
106
500.3
119
280.5
RSA 2
112
549.9
112
280.8
RSA 3
104
510.4
Totals
322
1560.6
231
561.3
101
474.2
101
474.2

Student data for the Fall and Spring terms have gone through the first researcher
transcription pass, and the Summer term is in progress.
Milestones for Year 2 (Fall 2006)
 Workshops were held for new speaking teachers in order to train them in how to
use the software.
 Audio files from the first year are being checked for student names, and student
names are being removed using QuickTime Pro.
 Transcription continues
 Data collected (approximations):
Fall (2071): 10 class sections
# of
# of
Student
Student
Spoken
Spoken
Sample
Correction
Rerecording
Files Total file
Files
Total file
Files
Total file
(Audio) size (MB) (Audio) size (MB) (Audio)
size (MB)
RSA 1
113
562
135
333.1
RSA 2
90
449.3
90
179
RSA 3
94
472.5
Totals
297
1483.8
225
512.1
110
531
110
532
Presentations
April, 2007: Conference proposal (Nel de Jong, Dawn McCormick, Christine O'Neill,
Claire Bradin Siskin) accepted as part of a colloquium, "CALL contributions to
SLA", for presentation at the American Association for Applied Linguistics 2007
Conference in Costa Mesa, California
September, 2006: Presentation of the software component at the “Multimedia
Showcase” sponsored by the Robert Henderson Media Center at the University
of Pittsburgh.
May 2006: "Serving three mistresses in CALL: Students, teachers, researchers," Dawn E.
McCormick, M. Christine O'Neill, and Claire Bradin Siskin), CALICO
Symposium, Honolulu.
September, 2005: Presentation of the software component at the “Multimedia
Showcase” sponsored by the Robert Henderson Media Center at the University
of Pittsburgh.
The following presentations by Claire Bradin Siskin are associated with this project
in that her work with the software program Revolution has been a major
impetus for other projects and the presentations listed below:
May 2006: "Revolution Templates for Language Learning" (Courseware Showcase),
CALICO Symposium, Honolulu.
May 2006: "Rapid Creation of Internet-based Multimedia Applications Without Web
Browser Hassles" (paper, with Devin Asay), CALICO Symposium, Honolulu.
April 2006: "Revolution for Non-Programmers, or Yes, There Is Life After HyperCard!"
(paper), NEALLT Conference, Philadelphia.
March 2006: "Comes the Revolution: Templates for Interactive CALL Materials"
(Developer's Showcase), TESOL Conference, Tampa.
Plans
 Fall 2006
o Complete year one transcription and editing of files.
o Continue with Fall 2071 data transcription and editing.
o Plan for passing data to DataShop
 Spring – Summer 2006
o Continue data collection.
o Continue transcription.
o Begin and complete data analysis.