Concordle - Not so pretty cousin of Wordle

Help with Concordle Clear the input Clear the output Clear concordances

BACKGROUND
  
  It has often been pointed out that the advent of technology 
  enhanced learning materials requires a re-thinking of the 
  methodological framework of language learning. Furthermore, it is 
  now widely recognized that computer tools can facilitate the 
  implementation of a methodology for language learning that focuses 
  more than in the past on authenticity in contents, context, and 
  task. New technologies may solve a large number of practical 
  problems, particularly in the area of exploiting authentic 
  resources. After all, authenticity in content, task, and classroom 
  interaction is a crucial issue in language learning methodology. 
  
  The ideas underlying data-driven language learning are, in fact, 
  firmly rooted in some of the current guiding paradigms. Most 
  obviously, concepts described as task-based learning (TBL) form a 
  relevant backbone of aspects explored and exemplified in the DDL-
  section. Let us briefly discuss task-based learning and see how it 
  fits into our concept.
  
  TASK BASED LEARNING
  
  Task-based language learning is an approach which was developed in 
  the 1980s by the Indian language teaching specialist N.S. Prabhu. 
  Although TBL was mainly used in learning environments in which 
  second and not foreign languages are learned (e.g. India), the 
  most important concepts of this approach have been discussed 
  recently within the language teaching profession. Jane Willis, for 
  example, has made the task-based cycle an important part of 
  foreign language classes. There can be no doubt that TBL has some 
  relevance when discussing the exploitation of new technologies for 
  language teaching purposes in general as well as DDL in 
  particular. 
  
  TBL is based on the idea that the acquisition of language and 
  linguistic competence as well as language and language learning 
  awareness can best be realised through tasks which encourage the 
  learner not to focus explicitly on the structure and the rules of 
  the new language. Learners will acquire the form of the foreign 
  language because they are engaged in exploring aspects of the 
  target language on the basis of authentic content. Concordances 
  are perfect examples of this approach. 
  
  AIM OF DATA DRIVEN LEARNING
  
  The principal aim of all teaching activities must, therefore, be 
  the creation of a learning environment in which learners are asked 
  to carry out authentic tasks. To be able to do so they are 
  equipped with materials which are interesting for them and which 
  motivate them to communicate with each other. TBL methodologists 
  define the learning aims of their approach in a way similar to the 
  communicative approach. But for them competence is developed 
  entirely through meaningful interaction. Although they do not deny 
  the necessity for the learner to acquire grammatical knowledge, 
  they would rather have this knowledge develop subconsciously. 
  
  There can be no doubt that TBL, while clearly learner-centred, is 
  seen by its earlier advocates such as Prabhu as strongly teacher-
  directed. Teachers put the materials together, they prepare the 
  activities, they organise the learning environment. Group work as 
  a student-oriented form of learning is not seen very positively. 
  
  Consequently, we should make as much use as possible of genuine 
  materials in the language classroom and enable learners to do as 
  many authentic things with such materials as feasible. Genuine 
  materials are, as Widdowson pointed out in in 1979, language 
  samples not constructed for the purpose of language learning. (cf. 
  Widdowson, 1979:80)

PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE
  
  In order to enhance the language learner role as an experimentor 
  and researcher in the classroom, authoring software for the 
  creation of tutorial and exploratory exercises as well as 
  cognitive tools, such as concordancers, are very important. With 
  such materials, teachers can prepare tailor-made exercises for 
  their classes and put together worksheets and create tasks which 
  permit the learners to actively and often consciously explore the 
  target language. Such tasks and learning projects will help to 
  develop learner language awareness and understanding of the 
  structure and functionality of the target language. Providing the 
  appropriate data, organized into suitable units of information and 
  supported by relevant processes must be the foremost task of 
  educational design of any kind of language learning and teaching 
  resource in order to contribute to the success of any learning 
  situation. 
  
  It must be taken into consideration, though, that a number of 
  language teachers consider the use of authoring tools either too 
  time-consuming or potentially difficult. However, innovative tools 
  for text and data-processing and for the creation of multimedia 
  hypertexts have now reached a level of sophistication and user-
  friendliness that the didactic manipulation (as Edelhoff, 1989) 
  puts it, and adaptation of authentic materials for classroom use 
  should soon become daily routine of grassroots teaching, 
  comparable to the use of the use of the blackboard or the 
  photocopier today. In addition, a vast amount of learner relevant 
  materials is now becoming available in digital format, either in 
  the format of local resources or globally accessible data on the 
  worldwide web. In the following we present a few examples of  
  tools and multimedia authoring facilities which we consider as 
  useful to assist teachers in drawing on such resources. 
  
  SUMMARY
  
  The ultimate aim of teaching and learning in this knowledge 
  society is to assist learners in their need to develop strategies 
  of knowledge processing. Therefore, the traditional transmission 
  model of learning must be replaced by models which emphasise 
  information processing and knowledge construction as acts of 
  learning most suited to the acquisition of the kind of skills 
  needed for the knowledge society. Education and teaching in the 
  knowledge society can no longer be reduced to the act, process, or 
  art of imparting knowledge and skill as Rogets Thesaurus proposes, 
  but learning must be recognised as an act in which a learner plays 
  the role of an active constructor of knowledge. Criteria based on 
  such principles need to be considered when evaluating the 
  effectiveness and value of technology enhanced materials for 
  language learning. The question remains, however, as to how the 
  principle of learning without being taught as proposed by Piaget 
  (cf. Papert, 1980: 7) can be put into practice and integrated into 
  a technology enhanced learning environment of the future.
  
  This is where data-driven learning, resource-assisted learning as 
  well as the use of the internet as an extension of the classroom 
  and the acquisition of web literacy come together. All this is 
  taking place in a context, where, over the past decade, language 
  learning theory has seen a shift from a highly guided to a more 
  open learning environment, with constructivism as a new and very 
  much learner-centred paradigm for learning. Learning is now 
  perceived as a self-structured and self-motivated process of 
  knowledge construction and the learner is regarded as a self-
  governed creator of knowledge. 
  
  In addition to the undeniable need to achieve instructional goals, 
  the development of cognitive and strategic abilities suitable for 
  the knowledge society is defined as one of the principle aims of a 
  learning process based on knowledge construction and discovery 
  learning. As far as new technologies and their use in language 
  learning are concerned, the ICT in VOLL project and its section 
  dealing with data-driven learning has shown that technology 
  enhanced materials do have a lot of potential to assist the 
  process of innovation which is needed in this fields as much as in 
  any other area of education.

Omitted words:
the and is are

(Baby) Concordle-Cloud Ordered-Cloud Concordle-Ordered Concordle-Foggy cloud


					javascript
				has	very	many
			general	useful	analysis	whole	more
		from	use	words	makes	have	why	open
	free	types	used	concordancer	concordle	text	program	wikipedia	people
fonts	thus	that	concordance	not	wordle	for	beautiful	who	written	play
	colors	thousands	source	clouds	you	with	word	available	possibly	would
		cloud	texts	real	can	but	even	pretty	years
			books	teaching	only	little	research	your
				based	some	several	all
					author	also

Re-draw Other Cloud (Baby) Clear concordances All words ordered Foggy All words

your text contains 10 times the word	"concordance",	you might like to see why. So
why. So you click on the big	CONCORDANCE	and all 10 the snippets of text
of text arround the ten occurrences of	concordance	in the text. A real concordancer program
A real concordancer program makes the whole	concordance	available at once, possibly on texts of
who introduced me to his use of	concordance	in philosophical analysis some 20 years ago.

pretty. But it is much more clever:	All	the words in the cloud are clickable,
you click on the big CONCORDANCE and	all	10 the snippets of text arround the

became very popular. Wordle is a Java

application

(available as an applet) who makes beautiful

of large program. Many people asked the	author	of Wordle for the source code. Wordle
little link and a mention of the	author	would be greatly appreciated. Become friends with

In this area appear snippets arround words
clicked on in the cloud in the above area. This is the concordance area.

Concordle is written entirely in simple JavaScript
and the whole code is inside of this document.
In addition to this final code, there are also
versions of various steps in the development.
These are available at the other Concordle home page.
The story of Concordle is told (with detailed help) at Concordle's Google blogspot The author is no expert in JavaScript. Suggestions for
understandable improvements are very welcome.
At this stage, the example text explains some aspects of Concordle.

Ladislav Kocbach
Institutt for fysikk og Teknologi )
( Department of Physics and Technology )
University of Bergen,
Bergen, Norway