Web based learning provides an unprecedented flexibility and convenience to both learners and instructors. However, it also creates a great number of lonely learners. Hence, there is an urgent need for finding an efficient way to help the learners share their learning experiences and exchange their learning materials during the learning process. This paper reports on an attempt to construct a f...

So far, knowledge convergence has been a widely neglected aspect of collaborative knowledge construction. Collaborative learners contribute their individual knowledge resources, discuss the contributions of their learning partners, and eventually synthesize their individual perspectives. In collaborative knowledge construction groups of learners may be characterized by convergence or divergence...

This study investigates topical Theme choices in Chinese and Swedish English learners’ English writing and aims to find out how topical Theme choices in Chinese English learners’ English writings are different from those in Swedish English learners’ English writings with native speakers as the research baseline. The corpus consists of comparable written data of Chinese English learners, Swedish...

Currently, the assessment of learners in conventional e-learning systems is only one dimension in which learners are required to produce answers, for example, by selecting multiple-choice, true/false, or matching answers or by giving short answers. This type of assessment still lacks interactions among the learners, and thus, it might not fully support learning. Many researchers have endeavored...

Different formal learning models address different aspects of human learning. Below we compare Gold-style learning—interpreting learning as a limiting process in which the learner may change its mind arbitrarily often before converging to a correct hypothesis—to learning via queries—interpreting learning as a one-shot process in which the learner is required to identify the target concept with ...

We present a pronunciation error detection method for second language learners of English (L2 learners). The method is a combination of confidence scoring and landmark-based Support Vector Machines (SVMs). Landmark-based SVMs were implemented to specialize the method for the specific phonemes with which L2 learners make frequent errors. The method was trained for the difficult phonemes for Kore...

the study was conducted with the aim of examining the rate of foreign language anxiety in male and female language learners. flcas (foreign language classroom anxiety scale) was administered to two groups of male and female learners. the mean scores of flcas indicated a significant difference with females having considerably higher levels of anxiety than males. from 38 female learners, 22 were ...

BACKGROUND The National School Health Policy guidelines (2002) stipulate that primary school learners should have their vision, speech, hearing, mental health, teeth, nutrition and development screened annually. In reality, especially in under-resourced areas such as the Eastern Cape, many learners with disabilities are not identified, with profound consequences for their ability to learn. ME...