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Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have now genetically engineered a strain of mice whose FOXP2 gene has been swapped out for the human version. In a region of the brain called the basal ganglia, known in people to be involved in language, the humanized mice grew nerve cells that had a more complex structure. Baby mice utter ultrasonic whistles when removed from their mothers. The humanized baby mice, when isolated, made whistles that had a slightly lower pitch, among other differences, Dr. Enard says. Dr. Enard argues that putting significant human genes into mice is the only feasible way of exploring the essential differences between people and chimps, our closest living relatives.

TAGARELA is an intelligent computer-assisted language learning (ICALL) system designed to be fully integrated into the Portuguese Individualized Instruction Program at The Ohio State University. It can be viewed as an intelligent automatic workbook that provides students with opportunities to practice their reading, listening, and writing skills. Because it is a web-based system, it can be used anywhere there is a computer with internet access. TAGARELA uses state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology to analyze students' input, and detect spelling, morphological, syntactic and semantic errors. Its NLP components allow the system to handle activities that go beyond the usual multiple choice or fill-in-the-blanks used by regular CALL systems. Its exercise types are similar to the ones typically found in current workbooks, such as: * listening and reading comprehension * picture description * vocabulary practice * phrasing and re-writing TAGARELA has a student model that keeps track of each student's individual performance, and an instructor model that carries information about activity and error types. Together the student and instructor models allow the system to choose the best feedback strategy to use with each individual learner based on the level of the activity, type of task, characteristics of error, and learner profile.

Tool to help with routing audio input on Mac OS X. Good for recording Skype calls, singing karaoke.

Tool to help with routing and recording audio on Mac OS. Good for recording Skype calls, doing karaoke, etc.

"Welcome to the TAFLP computer-mediated activity library database of activities and projects. Scroll down to browse the activities, or click on a header to sort the activities alphabetically by that category."

This Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning (HETL) has been designed as a resource for educators planning to incorporate technologies in their teaching and learning activities.

Syllabus and class materials for a teacher education course on integrating social networking into language/culture classes. Creative Commons license.

Intercultultural Competency Across the Curriculum Infusing Culture and Language Campus Wide October 15-16, 2009 Hosted by Baldwin-Wallace College Berea, Ohio

SynPhony is an open-source project that will assist in teaching literacy skills for alphabetic writing systems. It is a database system designed to systematically present the patterns of a language and track a user's progress as they acquire reading skills. There are four main components to SynPhony: linguistic, pedagogic, user knowledge base, and reports. Although English is the first language being targeted, the structure and methods used will be suitable for many other languages as well.