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Imagining Iraq: CALL frontiers, game engines and pedagogical implications for TAFL
Abstract
This paper and multi-media presentation draw from the ongoing work of an original year-long project to teach Arabic through spoken Iraqi dialect by utilizing Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) techniques developed for this purpose, based on 3-D computer graphic imaging (CGI), with levels of interactivity and including game engines.  It presents samples of materials developed and applied as well as lessons learned and implications derived for both learning- and Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL). This work falls in the context of a rapidly evolving market where learner centered- and user controlled environments predominate in a sphere characterized by the rise of e-books, learning ‘apps’ and what appears--on the basis of indicators and publishing trends--to be an impending obsolescence of printed textbooks.  As will be elucidated, CGI can be employed in order to radically expand the horizons of ‘the possible’ and to ‘inform’ approaches with pedagogically sound techniques that stimulate learners through engaging sight and sound, thereby reinforcing a rich variety of visual-, aural- and semantic-/cognitive correlations.  Educational needs from abstract- and explicit instruction, to modeling and entrainment, to narratives and virtual scenarios designed for elicitation and prompting role play can be produced--with limited resources--in order to facilitate and promote communicative language-learning and functional usage. Technical discussion includes: use of free- and low-cost animation software; accurate animation of Arabic phonemes; the relative utility of motion-tracking and Biovision Hierarchical data (BVH); limiting factors; and commentary and observations on more- and less-productive avenues/applications of CGI in Arabic- and foreign language instruction arising from the design and implementation of this project.     Additionally, the paper explores the correlation and degree to which pedagogical considerations for approach and order-of-instruction in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are transferable and applicable to Iraqi spoken dialect, with discernible implications for parallel Arabic dialect instruction in core MSA programs.  The specific approaches adopted in this project and their rationale will be detailed along with strategies for both acquiring samples of authentic spoken Arabic language and structures and how to utilize these as a means to organize pedagogical content into an instructor- and user-friendly modular format. This approach--applicable to MSA--is argued to be ideally suited to facilitating self-study and maximizing valuable in-class time for student-centered speaking activities, interaction and role play.  
Discipline
Language
Geographic Area
Iraq
Sub Area
None