Our first Face-to-Face Symposium I meeting was held June 22-23, 1997 prior to the CALICO '97 conference in West Point Academy, NY. Project participants discussed the results of their experimental courses during academic 1996-97. We made plans for the 1997-98 year and beyond. While this project-specific meeting was closed to the public, we did offer two workshops for open enrollment

1. Speech Analysis 101

• Presenter: Eric Keller, University of Lausanne
• Location: Bear Mountain Inn Conference Center, Bear Mountain, NY
• Time: 1-4 pm, Sunday, June 22
• Cost: $75
• videotape of this workshop is available

A complete primer for the newcomer to electronic speech analysis. Of particular interest to teachers wanting to know more about how technology can improve their students' performance in proper articulation of the target language.

Much of our understanding of communicative interactions derives from a detailed analysis of the speech signal. From the examination of spectrograms, pitch extractions and time measures, we infer such things as differences in speech rhythm, the interplay of various intonation patterns, and prosodic question and emphasis markers. But how are spectrograms and pitch extractions created? What are the technical limits of this type of evidence? How can we best interpret the spectrograms and pitch extractions we obtain with a signal analysis program? How can we avoid the pitfalls of speech signal analysis? The workshop will take you through the basics of speech signal analysis and will attempt to fill answers to these questions. There will be many illustrations of the presented concepts, as well as ample hand-out material.

Eric Keller is Professor of Computer Science in the Humanities and Director of the Laboratoire d'analyse informatique de la parole (LAIP), University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He is also the author of the widely used "Signalyze 3.0" speech analysis program and "LAIPTTS", a French speech synthesizer.

2. Integrating the Verbal and the Nonverbal in a Communicative Approach and in Pedagogical Practice

• Presenter: Odile Ledru-Menot, Université de la Sorbonne, Paris III
• Location: Bear Mountain Inn Conference Center, Bear Mountain, NY
• Time: 11am-3pm, Monday, June 23
• Cost: $75
• videotape of this workshop not available

  This workshop was for second language teachers with examples given for French and for German. The emphasis was on ways in which technological, theoretical and methodological innovations enlarge and facilitate a more comprehensive approach to language teaching.

  We examined ...

  1. the audio, visual and kinesthetic dimensions of a more comprehensive communicative approach from both teacher and student points of view.

  2. how various kinds of materials can aid in the learning of oral and written language.

  3. the competences required for effective intercultural and international communication

  Beside considering the benefits of our collective and individual work on materials such as videotape, videodisc, and pitch extraction software, we also discussed two complementary themes:

  1. New techniques for understanding what intonation and conversational movements really add to a communication

  2. How conversational gestures relate to phonetic gestures in the first and second language.

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  Project Meetings

  Agenda:

  Sunday, June 22

  9 am - Breakfast/Opening Meeting "Implementation Summaries"

  1 pm - Workshop: "Speech Analysis 101" (open to public)

  4 pm - "Implementation Summaries" (cont.)

  7 pm - Cookout

  Monday, June 23

  9am - Breakfast/Group Meeting "Integrating FTF into the Curriculum: Component or Textbook?"

  11 am - "Verbal & Nonverbal" Workshop (open to public)

  12 noon - Lunch provided

  1 pm - Workshop: "Verbal & Nonverbal" (cont.)

  4 pm - Group Meeting "Getting the Word Out"

  6 pm - Cruise on the Hudson

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