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Barcelona IN 3

To potential writers of letters of recommendation.

It can be short, especially at this late time I can't expect too much from you. You should briefly establish your credentials (don't be shy about tooting your own horn). Talk about what you know about me professionally, only the good stuff. Also, please add some flourishes about what a kind, generous, social, affable guy that I am (as your conscience allows). Put it in a word file and send it to me. They ask me to send the stuff by e-mail. If I can send it by the morning of Jan. 7 (JST) it will get there before they start waking up in Barcelona. Many thanks for considering my request.

I consider that my abilities in Spanish and Catalan will work in my benefit, the rest is the luck of the draw, depending on who will be applying. I am hopeful though. I have been looking for a chance to get to Europe, and I'll give this one my best.

Along with writing up my prospectus for the fellowship, I'm putting together my up-to-date c.v. Unfortunately I haven't been too diligent about that. However, you can see some of my more recent presentations and papers here.

Application for the IN3 Fellows program at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Interdisciplinary Internet Institute (IN3).

Conditions for Application to the Senior Research Fellowships Program of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), 2009.

distinguished record of research and innovation in e-learning. They must currently hold a position in a University or Research Center. They must be fluent in English (spoken and written). Knowledge of Catalan or Spanish languages is not necessary but it is a valued skill.

maximum of one year. Reappointments are excluded. Applicants should supply their complete CV, 3 letters of recommendation from experts in the field of e-learning, and a brief research project (maximum of 5 pages) describing their intended activity in Barcelona. If selected they should be ready to be in full time residence at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute in Barcelona and participate in the seminars and research meetings at the Institute, while pursuing their own research project. A letter of intention motivating the application should be included in the file.

Personal Strengths:

• Interdisciplinary by nature: Bachelors degree in Religion, graduate studies in English, Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Linguistics, Linguistics and Computer Science. Personal interests include photography, bicycling and music.

• Developed and served as chief researcher for the innovative and widely acclaimed Hiroshima University's Virtual University English program (can be seen now at loondon.com).

• Currently developing the MASLE (Machine Aided Spoken Language Evaulation) program for the purpose of testing foreign language ability over the internet. Evaluation using automatic speech recognition (ASR) and human judges is being explored and enhanced on the MASLE system.

• Active in JALT (Japan Association of Language Teachers) CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) for 12 years. Have been working in CALL since 1982 when I started my Master's thesis "Overlearning Underlearned Language Paradigms" which was a teaching project that involved writing a computer program for practicing Spanish verb paradigms for learners of Spanish as a second language on Apple I Ie? computers.

• Presents yearly at JALT, JALT CALL and other conferences worldwide.

• Active participant of Design Matters in Osaka, Japan.

• Currently preparing the MASLE system for Osaka Women's College. The 2008-2009 school year will use speaking test data from the MASLE system for placement of all students in English classes. Currently there is no oral ability input into the placement of learners there. This is exactly the situation that MASLE was created for.

• I speak Spanish and Catalan. Looking forward to begin speaking these languages again and give me a rest from Japanese. I currently listen to and watch the Vilaweb podcast from Catalonia. Starting this application has renewed my excitement about dusting off my rusty Catalan and Spanish. A stay in Catalonia will give me a chance to forget about Japanese long enough to gain a fresh perspective on that language too.

• Recipient of research grants given on a competitive basis from the President of Hiroshima University and the Japan Ministry of Education (Kaken grant)

Areas of research: CALL, Spoken Language Teaching and Evaluation (but especially the intersection of the two), Phonetic and prosodic aspects of speaking a foreign language.

Brief synopsis of my Intended projects at IN 3?:

Update the MASLE program I will plan to spend one month each focussing on the following three projects. Each should allow me to produce one publishable paper based on my experiments, reading and collaboration.

1. Deal with the dialect issue. The current recognition algorithm is for American English. Perhaps this is good enough and the small differences between General American (GA) and other Englishes is small enough that any intelligible speaker will be good enough regardless of which accent. If it is not good enough, what needs to be added to the model to account for intelligible differences?

2. Enrich the measures for grading. Current grading only accounts for segmental recognition. Need to add a model of speech rate and fluency to the grading. This can be done by measuring distributions of sound:silence ratios and number of silences: utterance length. By calculating these two ratios you can

3. Explore different methods of testing speaking and using modern technology. The current formats only allow for reading or answering questions. I need to develop different kinds of tests which allow for a richer set of spoken skills. In addition to enhancements of the MASLE program I would like to explore this question in general at the IN 3?, making use of the collaborative environment.

Meta, all the above can be so dry and boring. Research needs to fun, alive, human and environmental.

4. Thinking about interface design issues for communication, learning and usability as taught by Joel Spolsky (interface design), Robin Williams (web design) and Garr Reynolds (presentation design and delivery). In Barcelona with Gaudi around almost every corner and the beautiful (in many respects, yes but not all) functionality of the 'Eixample' I will be constantly reminded of the integration of art and function that is built into Barcelona, which to me is the one and only design city (except for the lack of bicycles which I hope has been somewhat corrected).

5. Learn! As a member of a collaborative environment like IN 3? I hope that being back in a research environment like the IRCS at Upenn where I did my PhD. Studies will allow me to learn new things from other people. Some of the best innovations come about through interdisciplinary interactions and just being around smart people with original ideas can be envigorating to my research and hopefully to other members there. Furthermore being in Barcelona where Catalan and Spanish are everywhere and many other languages just around the corner, there will be many chances for me to re-invigorate my language skills in languages other than Japanese and my own native English. It will also give me new chances to consider how my experience in a foreign language can be applied to enhancing the synchronous and asynchronous experiences of language learners over the Internet.

6. Enjoy! I will be excited about rediscovering restaurants and bars that are still there and mourning those that are gone after 20 years from my departure from Barcelona. I felt constantly surrounded by creativity and can't think of a better place to think about innovation and beauty while enjoying Foix de Sarria (in my old neighborhood), Cava at faculty meetings (like we did in Tarragona) and just walking through town visiting galleries and enjoying tapes down at the end of the Las Ramblas.