Introductions

[Adrian Fish]

Hi,

My name's Adrian Fish and I'm the lead developer of the DIALANG testing software. I've started this group to try and get an exchange of ideas started about the future of the software. DIALANG development effectively stopped in 2003 when the EU funding period ceased and the system has been running on vapour ever since, despite its continuing popularity. We're currently in the process of bidding for EU funding to modernise the software and hopefully add some new features, so any suggestions given in this group will be well received !

Kind regards,

Adrian.

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/researchenterprise/dialang/about

[Gé STOKS]

Thanks, I'm glad DIALANG will be reativated. I also hope it will be updated. Some items were out of date (no Euros but Mark etc.

[Adrian Fish]

There are quite a few test items of 'historical' interest in the system :)

[Art Mosher]

I teach at the University of Dayton in Ohio, where we have used the Dialang tests in reading and listening in French, German, Italian, and Spanish for a number of years to provide our graduating senior majors (four-year undergraduate degree) with a diagnosis of their current levels of reading and listening proficiency in an unofficial way.    I have considerable data that shows that students, particularly in Spanish, demonstrate a significantly lower level of proficiency in reading and writing on the Dialang (A1 or A2) than they demonstrate in speaking and writing on the ACTFL proficiency tests (around IH).   Even though there is no necessary correlation between the levels of proficiency in different modalities, I do think that an IH speaker on the ACTFL scale has, in most cases, a listening comprehension ability that is higher than A1.    Part of the problem for American students may be the Castilian Spanish used on the Dialang listening, but that doesn't explain the A1 ratings in reading that we have obtained, in my opinion.   Part of the problem may lie in the fact that a misplaced or omitted accent in the response results in a wrong answer on the listening and reading portions, where the answer is, in principle, correct.   I have noticed this phenomenon also in French and German, but to a lesser degree than in Spanish.

[Eugenia González Betancor]

Hello,

I'm Eugenia from the Canary Isles. I teach EFL at an Official School of Languages (Escuela Oficial de Idiomas). It's great news to hear that DIALANG is getting refreshed!

Regards,

Eugenia

[Marta García Alamán]

Hello! My name's Marta. I teach English at the Official Language School in Logroño (La Rioja, Spain) Some of us use the Dialang with our students and have its link in our blog. Hope this forum helps to improve it somehow. Thanks so much for allowing me to be part of it.

Best wishes

[Adrian Fish]

Hi Art,

Welcome to the group.

I'm not a testing expert, I just worked on the software, but the absence or misplacement of stress accents in various locations has been noted. An audit of the data as it currently stands is  on the cards and, down the line, we'd obviously like to increase the size of the question banks but, as I'm sure you know, calibration is a costly business.

Somebody better versed in the pedagogical impact of your observations may hopefully chip in at this point ...

Cheers,

Adrian.

[Adrian Fish]

Hi Eugenia,

Welcome to the group. Are you using DIALANG currently?

Cheers,

Adrian.

[Adrian Fish]

Hi Marta,

Welcome to the group. All suggestions are welcome!

Cheers,

Adrian.

[vijaya]

Dear Adrian
I am from India. I had used DIALANG with my learners (Indian ESL learners) to help them identify areas where they needed help and improvement. I refer to CEFR in all my courses. I was shocked to hear that there's a paucity of funds for something like DIALANG.
Currently, a student of mine is using DIALANG with Bachelors of Technology students.
Thanks for creating this interactive forum.
Look for ward to the postings.
Vijaya
Assistant Professor
English and Foreign Languages University
Hyderabad
India
http://www.efluniversity.ac.in/

[Marte]

I agree with the others that it is shocking that the EU won't support updates to this great program.  I used it with students until it started having problems (2009?). I'm so pleased that it's back.  Let us know if letters of support would help with your request for funding from the EU.

[Adrian Fish]

Hi Marte,

The system is in a more stable state than it has been for many years. The software is hosted at Lancaster University on our virtual infrastructure and is running smoothly. Considering we wrote it between 1998 and 2003 and it has had little maintenance since, it's been remarkably reliable.

Thanks for your kind offer of a letter of support. I'd imagine that letters of support for an EU bid would be extremely helpful. When we are at the stage of outlining a bid, we'll definitely get in touch. In fact,  testimonials or criticisms from any users of DIALANG posted on this group will significantly strengthen an EU bid.

Cheers,

Adrian.

[Filip Vandevelde]

Hello

Forgot to tell you guys/girls, I am Filip fom Belgium. It's indeed strange that the EU doesn't want to spend more money  on the project. I thought the project was basically set up to evaluate language levels in professional settings across the EU. I guess it would be wonderful if the question bank for the different levels is expanded. Looking forward to using Dialang again more often! If any support is needed (eg. in the form of letters of recommendation or other forms), count me in.
Yours

Filip

ESL/EFL, pupils ages 16-18 (year olds)

PS. also looking for language cooperation/projects (skype or other) with colleagues from other countries (esl)

[e.sanche...@gmail.com]

Hello,

I think it is a great idea to update Dialang. I work for a student exchange company in Spain and we have been missing a language tool that would enable us to assess the students' language level. It would be ideal if we could save and print the results. We also have international students from the US, UK, Ireland and France and we would like to have a test like SLEP or TOEFL in order to evaluate these students' level of Spanish.

Another line of action could be trying to get from the EU some kind of official recognition of the DIALANG Test as an adequate indicator of a student's level of a language.

Thanks for starting this group and best regards,

Elena Sánchez del Valle

[Jesús Ángel González]

HI, my name is Jesús A. González and I teach at the University of ¨Cantabria, in northern Spain. For a number of years now I've been encouraging my students to use Dialang and to compare the results of the test with their actual certificates or their self-assessment through the European Language Portfolio. Generally they enjoy using Dialang and always have interesting comments about its pros and cons. I have advised them to join this group and give you some feedback. 

http://jesusangelswebsite.blogspot.com.es/

http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/content/63/4/373.full?keytype=ref&ijkey=SfjNDth9TCMynzq

[Adrian Fish]

Hola Elena y Jésus,

¡Bienvenido al grupo y gracias para sus commentarios!

Saludos,

Adrian.

PS: If my Spanish is bad, it is because I have not done enough DIALANG tests :)

[Carmen]

¡Hola Adrian!

First of all, we would like to thank you for the great job you are doing. DIALANG -even if it is not perfect- is one of the most reliable assesment tests we have worked with. However in the past  we had some trouble with DIALANG exactly when we needed it (beginning of the semester). Because of this we were wondering if it is possible to buy the programm/ a license in order to intall it in our server.
 
Thank you.

Carmen

[Jose Alberto Gonzalez]

My name is Jose Alberto Gonzalez. I currently work as a TEFL Curriculum & Resource Developer at the Escuela Americana Extension in San Salvador, El Salvador. We have developed and implemented a new CEFR-based curriculum for our three TEFL programs, children, teens and adults. We would like to know if we can use Dialang as an assessment tool to evaluate our students at the end of the semester. Thanks for your response.

[Simon Templer]

Adrian

Is the system working now (Feb 17) and does it run on Windows 8?  I downloaded but couldn't get it to work

Simon

[Adrian Fish]

Hi Theresa,

I have DIALANG working on Windows 7 although I don't know if it works on Windows 8. What I can say is that I, as employed by Lancaster University, am currently working on a fully web based version which we are aiming to have running by the 1st May. This will run on any platform as long as your web browser is reasonably current. We're also looking at implementing more admin/instructional languages over the rest of the year.

So, DIALANG doesn't work too well on the latest Windows versions but the web version is on its way :)

Cheers,

Adrian.

On Wednesday, 6 March 2013 21:20:21 UTC, Theresa Schenker wrote:

I am trying to use DIALANG for the first time and I installed it but can't get it to run for me. Can anyone help? I installed it on a laptop (not mac), windows 7.

[james...@gmail.com]

Hi Adrian,

my students are Political Refugees from Europe and Africa. They learn French.

It will be quite useful for them  to have Dialang running fully on the 1st of May as many of them often refer to and interact with other European languages. I volunteer to  pedagogically  test those interactions  and send you feedback.

For your backing,  I propose to talk about it at the next General Assembly  of an R&D Innovation platform involved the Future of Internet and Horizon 2020 programmes in September in Nantes (France)

Thanks to Lancaster University and to your personal efforts.

Best Regards

Jacques BESLOT
james...@gmail.com

[james...@gmail.com]

[Betio Gonzalez]

Thank you for the information, which is very useful. I look forward to getting the Internet-based version. regards,

 

=========================
José Alberto González
Tel: (503) 2229-4556
Cell: (503) 7860-3147
Email: Betio.G...@gmail.com
San Salvador, El Salvador

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[Johnny Grinter]

The dialand software wont work for me under win 8.

[Fritsvds]

Hello everyone!

My name is Frits, and I'm new here :) I hope to get my TEFL license this year and I am currently studying German as well. So language software is something I am very interested in. The computer is a great aid to language learning. If you have any questions, feel free to message me.

Kind regards,

Frits