Piet Desmet

KU Leuven | ku leuven · Department of Linguistics

Dialogue systems allow a user to interact, orally or in writing, with an automated interlocutor, whether it is referred to as a chatbot, a robot, a conversational agent or an intelligent personal assistant. We discuss the different typologies of dialogue-based computer-assisted language learning (CALL), the natural language processing (NLP) technol...

The present study offers a meta-analysis of effectiveness studies on dialogue-based CALL, systems affording a learner practice in a foreign language (L2) by interacting with a conversational agent ("bot"). Through a systematic inclusion and exclusion process, we identified 17 relevant meta-analyzable studies. We made use of Morris and DeShon's (200...

Previous research has suggested that Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) can index form-, meaning-, and use-related aspects of second language (L2) vocabulary knowledge, through, respectively, a lexical decision task (LDT, targeting N400), a semantic relatedness task (SEMREL, targeting N400), and a grammatical judgment task (GJT, targeting P600/AN). Ye...

The present study offers a meta-analysis of effectiveness studies on dialogue-based CALL, i.e., systems allowing a learner to practice a second language (L2) by interacting with a conversational agent ("bot"). Through a systematic inclusion and exclusion process, screening 419 publications, we identified 17 relevant meta-analysable studies. We made...

The present study examined the effects of input, input repetition and individual differences (i.e., prior vocabulary knowledge and working memory) on L2 learners’ incidental lexical mining in an immediate and a repeat oral task. Ninety participants were allocated to three groups: input (n=32), input repetition (n=29), and no input (n=29). The input...

This paper investigates the effects of watching an entire season of a French series with the streaming service Netflix in an out-of-classroom context. University Dutch-speaking low-to high-intermediate learners of French were divided into two groups: a control group who only took the tests (N = 37) and a treatment group (N = 65). Learners in the tr...

This experimental study explores the differential effects of spoken input-based and output-based tasks on vocabulary knowledge. The study also investigates whether such tasks result in more learning gains than exposure to input-only (no subsequent task). The study employed a pretest-posttest design with two groups: an experimental group (n=32) who...

This study combines explicit (pen-and-paper) and sensitive (time-pressured) measures to gauge the impact of three instructional interventions (contextualized input with meaning-focused activities, contextualized input with word-focused activities, and decontextualized input with word-focused exercises) on the learning of 20 L2 French target verbs....

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental study that explored the differential effects of input- and output-based tasks on L2 vocabulary learning. The study adopted a pretest-posttest within-participants design, with sixty Vietnamese EFL university students. Participants in the experimental group participants completed four input and four output t...

This study investigates incidental vocabulary learning through captioned or subtitled videos and examines whether and how different learner- (prior vocabulary knowledge) and word-related factors (i.e., frequency of occurrence, cognateness and imagery) influence learning gains from watching videos. Low-intermediate Dutch-speaking learners of French...

This volume brings together a collection of chapters focused on the learning, testing, and researching of L2 vocabulary by leading international researchers including Paul Nation, Batia Laufer, Frank Boers, Elke Peters, Ana Pellicer-Sánchez, Anna Siyanova-Chanturia, and Stuart Webb. Questions that are examined include: Is it useful to read a book t...

The present study aims to explore French vocabulary use in L1 and low-intermediate L2 speakers’ output in semi-structured dialogic tasks. More specifically, the aim of this study was threefold. First, we focused on the relationship between low-intermediate L2 learners’ receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge and holistic lexical ratings of th...

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) generate learners' performance data that can be used to understand learners' proficiency and to improve their efficiency. However, the approaches currently used, such as assessing the proportion of correct responses in assessments, are oversimplified and may lead to poor conclusions and decisions because they do...

To have insight into cognitive load (CL) during online complex problem solving, this study aimed at measuring CL through physiological data. This study experimentally manipulated intrinsic and extraneous load of exercises in the domain of statistics, resulting in four conditions: high complex with hints, low complex with hints, high complex without...

Formative assessments are an important component of massive open online courses (MOOCs), online courses with open access and unlimited student participation. Accurate conclusions on students’ proficiency via formative, however, face several challenges: (a) students are typically allowed to make several attempts; and (b) student performance might be...

Neurocognitive measures have only scarcely been used in second language (L2) vocabulary research. Traditionally, L2 vocabulary knowledge has been gauged by using off-line measures that allow for conscious thinking and attentional control. Yet, it has been argued that more research is warranted on the role of measures that have the sensitivity to ta...

Indicate your track Academic research: comprehensive evaluations of recent innovations in learning and student analytics approaches. 1 Purpose Increasing numbers of universities provide videos to their students. Analyzing video watching patterns provides an unique opportunity to understand how students learn with multimedia. Prior studies have indi...

Understanding student’s activity is essential for online learning platforms and course developers because the activity is directly related to the students’ performance. Researchers and practitioners typically describe student’s activity through a proportion of videos viewed and skipped, assessments taken and skipped, correct and incorrect responses...

Online courses are becoming ubiquitous and increasingly tend to use authentic learning tasks as the driving force for teaching and learning. Nevertheless, designing online courses that incorporate real– world tasks is more challenging as these problems require more cognitive processes (van Merriënboer Sluijsmans, 2009). This phenomenon can be expla...

Cognitive load theory is one of the most influential theoretical explanations of cognitive processing during learning. Despite its success, attempts to assess cognitive load during learning have proven difficult. Therefore, in the current study, students’ self-reported cognitive load after the problem- solving process has been combined with measure...

This cross‐sectional study investigated the impact of length of instruction, out‐of‐school exposure to foreign language input, and gender on learners’ receptive vocabulary knowledge in two foreign languages: French (first foreign language) and English (second foreign language). The findings suggest that, although length of instruction correlated po...

This exploratory study challenges the current practices in cognitive load measurement by using multichannel data to investigate cognitive load affordances during online complex problem solving. Moreover, it is an attempt to investigate how cognitive load is related to strategy use. Accordingly, in the current study a well- and an ill-structured pro...

It is increasingly relevant that online learning environments reflect the complexity of the real life and deal with authentic, complex tasks. Carrying out complex learning tasks requires students to actively engage in different problem-solving skills. Therefore, it is important that learning environments are designed in a way that complex learning...

This article presents the results of a systematic review of the literature on dialogue-based CALL, resulting in a conceptual framework for research on the matter. Applications allowing a learner to have a conversation in a foreign language with a computer have been studied from various perspectives and under different names (dialogue systems, conve...

Popularity of online courses with open access and unlimited student participation, the so-called massive open online courses (MOOCs), has been growing intensively. Students, professors, and universities have an interest in accurate measures of students' proficiency in MOOCs. However, these measurements face several challenges: (a) assessments are d...

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are increasingly popular among students of various ages and at universities around the world. The main aim of a MOOC is growth in students’ proficiency. That is why students, professors, and universities are interested in the accurate measurement of growth. Traditional psychometric approaches based on item respon...

Given the growing use of online learning environments in higher education, it is important to further unravel how students’ use is influenced by their perceptions towards these learning environments. This study includes the perceived quality of the instructional design based on the First Principles of Instruction of Merrill and students’ acceptance...

Popularity of online courses with open access and unlimited student participation, the so-called massive open online courses (MOOCs), has been growing intensively. Students, professors, and universities have an interest in accurate measures of students’ proficiency in MOOCs. However, these measurements face several challenges: (a) assessments are d...

The present study aims to replicate Stæhr’s (2009) study on the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension. To explore the generalizability of Stæhr’s findings, two experiments were conducted. However, the study changed the population (Flemish learners) and proficiency level of the materials in the first experiment (inter...

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is regularly used to investigate students’ acceptance of virtual learning environments and the impact on students’ intention to use. Past TAM studies barely investigated students’ actual use of virtual learning environments, neither how actual use relates to their performance in an ecological valid educational...

While most studies on L2 vocabulary learning through input have addressed learners’ vocabulary uptake from written text, this study focuses on audio-visual input. In particular, we investigate the effects of enhancing video by (1) adding different types of L2 subtitling (i.e. no captioning, full captioning, keyword captioning, and glossed keyword c...

The impact of form- and meaning-focused instruction on L2 vocabulary knowledge of secondaryschool students Bert Vandenberghe, Maribel Montero Perez, Bert Reynvoet & Piet Desmet. While extensive research has investigated the effectiveness of instructional treatments (Focus-on-Meaning, Focus-on-Form, Focus-on-Forms; henceforth FoM, FoF, FoFS) on s...

Behaviour-tracking technology has been used for decades in SLA research on focused practice with an eye toward elucidating the nature of L2 automatization (e.g. DeKeyser, 1997; Robinson, 1997). This involves longitudinally capturing learners' judgments or linguistic production along with their response times in order to investigate how specific ski...

Impact of form- or meaning-focused instruction on L2 vocabulary acquisition: A behavioural and neurological study Bert Vandenberghe, Maribel Montero Perez, Bert Reynvoet, & Piet Desmet KU Leuven Corresponding author: b.vandenberghe@kuleuven.be A fundamental question in research on instructed second language (L2) acquisition concerns the impact...

In this study we explored the effect of podcasting on the motivation of the students in an online English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course at the university level (N = 179). By using a mixed-method approach, we analyzed the data collected on the learners' impressions about using podcasts as a learning tool. The particular aim of this study was to...

Dialogue-based computer-assisted language learning (CALL) encompasses applications that allow a learner to practice a foreign language by carrying a conversation with a computer through unconstrained input. Such systems, whether speech or text-based, present various challenges to the CALL developer, both with the instructional design (degree of ope...

The research on electronic learning environments has evolved towards creating adaptive learning environments. In this study, the focus is on adaptive curriculum sequencing, in particular, the efficacy of an adaptive curriculum sequencing algorithm based on matching the item difficulty level to the learner’s proficiency level. We therefore explored...

Adhering to Dornyei's Extended Motivational Framework, this study investigates the motivation of a fully representative sample of 1650 Grade 8 students learning French in Flanders. It also considers their teachers' motivational practices, and multilevel regression analyses identify correlations with the students' standardized listening, reading and...

Dialogue-based Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) covers applications and systems allowing a learner to practice the target language in a meaning-focused conversational activity with an automated agent. We first present a common definition for dialogue-based CALL, based on three features: dialogue as the activity unit, computer as the inter...

This study investigates the effect of two attention-enhancing techniques on L2 students’ learning and processing of novel French words (i.e., target words) through video with L2 subtitles or captions. A combination of eye-movement data and vocabulary tests was gathered to study the effect of Type of Captioning (full or keyword captioning), and Test...

In order to develop game-based learning environments (GBLEs) that accommodate to learners’ needs and individual differences, GBLEs can be enriched with learner models that describe learner profiles from which adaptive instruction can be offered during gameplay. Learner models can encompass several parameters or learner characteristics derived from...

The use of educational games is nowadays well-known, although its effectiveness in terms of learning and motivation has not been firmly corroborated yet. In this research, the focus is on the use of adaptive item sequencing in an educational math game (Monkey Tales) as a way to provide learning content that is adapted to the knowledge level of the...

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the potential of a parallel corpus in the context of (computer-assisted) language learning. In order to do so, we propose to answer two main questions (1) what corpus (data) to use and (2) how to use the corpus (data). We provide an answer to the what-question by describing the importance and particularities o...

This study examines how three captioning types (i.e., on-screen text in the same language as the video) can assist L2 learners in the incidental acquisition of target vocabulary words and in the comprehension of L2 video. A sample of 133 Flemish undergraduate students watched three French clips twice. The control group (n = 32) watched the clips wi...

This study examines how three captioning types (i.e., on-screen text in the same language as the video) can assist L2 learners in the incidental acquisition of target vocabulary words and in the comprehension of L2 video. A sample of 133 Flemish undergraduate students watched three French clips twice. The control group (n = 32) watched the clips wi...

This study reports on a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of captioned video (i.e. L2 video with L2 subtitles) for listening comprehension and vocabulary learning in the context of second language acquisition. The random-effects meta-analysis provides a quantitative measure of the overall effect of captions on listening comprehension and vocabular...

This paper explores individual difference factors in relation with usage of optional CF in a written and task-based tutorial CALL environment for English grammar practice that contained gaming features. Previous research in CALL has highlighted the importance of prior knowledge for learners’ usage of CF options (Brandl, 1995; Heift, 2002), but the...

The use of educational games for teaching and training is nowadays well-known, although its effectiveness in terms of learning and motivation has not been firmly corroborated. A first reason for this is that research on instructional design research often does not reach the fields of game development and game design. Consequently, instructional des...

The aim of this study was twofold: we investigated (a) the effect of two types of captioned video (i.e., on-screen text in the same language as the video) on listening comprehension; (b) L2 learners’ perception of the usefulness of captions while watching L2 video. The participants, 226 university-level students from a Flemish university, watched t...

This chapter presents the Dutch Parallel Corpus (DPC)—a 10-millionword,high-quality, sentence-aligned parallel corpus for the language pairs Dutch-English and Dutch-French. The corpus contains five different text types and is balanced with respect to text type and translation direction. Rich metadata information is stored for each text sample. All...

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the use of digital games for purposes other than pure entertainment, including (formal) training and education. This paper examines the cognitive benefits of the genre of digital role-playing games for foreign language learning, with specific attention to the role of focus-on-form approaches and...

L’environnement d’apprentissage des langues Franel (www.franel.eu) a été créé en 2006 sur base d’une longue réflexion pédagogique et bénéficiant d’une technologie web de pointe. Alimenté en permanence par de nouvelles unités d’apprentissage et agrémenté de nouveaux types d’exercices interactifs, le site a aujourd’hui atteint une étape charnière de...

The development of multimedia environments for listening comprehension, together with the use of input enhancement techniques, has brought forth a number of empirical studies investigating optimal ways of presenting video material to learners. In this paper, we propose a general categorization of these empirical studies and define their central res...

The importance of the use of (semi)authentic audio-visual materials in electronic learning environments in general (Mayer, 2001) as well as in CALL environments (Hirschprung, 2005) has been clearly shown. There is at the same time a substantial demand for electronic language learning environments based on authentic video materials and which are ada...

Purpose – Mashups have been studied extensively in the literature; nevertheless, the large body of work in this area focuses on service/data level integration and leaves UI level integration, hence UI mashups, almost unexplored. The latter generates digital environments in which participating sources exist as individual entities; member application...

This paper aims to provide a rationale for the utility of corrective feedback (CF) in digital games designed for language learning, with specific reference to learners’ perceptions. Explicit and elaborate CF has the potential to increase learners’ understanding of language, but might not be found useful in a game-based learning environment where th...

The evolution from static to dynamic electronic learning environments has stimulated the research on adaptive item sequencing. A prerequisite for adaptive item sequencing, in which the difficulty of the item is constantly matched to the ability level of the learner, is to have items with a known difficulty level. The difficulty level can be estimat...

The mashup era has emerged in response to the challenge of integrating existing services, data sources, and tools to generate new applications. Mashups are usually realized either through a seamless integration, in which only the resulting application is known by the end-users, or through integration of original applications, data sources, and tool...

Although there is pedagogical support for using computer adventure and role-playing games in order to learn a second language (L2), commercial games often lack the instructional qualities for making their language comprehensible for learners. In an interdisciplinary approach, this paper proposes a technique for adapting in-game text in order to tea...