The Virtual Linguistics Campus

The Virtual Linguistics Campus, also known as the VLC, is the world's leading e-learning platform for linguistics and is fully integrated into regular university teaching. This book, written by the people behind the VLC, summarizes the journey of building the VLC so far, discusses its design, components and organization, shares experiences of people teaching and studying on the VLC, and provides an outlook on future developments.

Originally published in 1963, The Speech Chain has been regarded as the classic, easy-to-read introduction to the fundamentals and complexities of speech communication. It provides a foundation for understanding the essential aspects of linguistics, acoustics and anatomy, and explores research and development into digital processing of speech and the use of computers for the generation of artificial speech and speech recognition. This interdisciplinary account will prove invaluable to students with little or no previous exposure to the study of language.

Investigates the new world of computer conferencing and details how writers use language when their social interaction is exclusively enacted through text on screens.

Rethinking Who We Are takes a non-conventional approach to understanding human difference in Canada. Contributors to this volume critically re-examine Canadian identity by rethinking who we are and what we are becoming by scrutinizing the “totality” of difference. Included are analyses on the macro differences among Canadians, such as the disparities produced from unequal treatment under Canadian law, human rights legislation and health care. Contributors also explore the diversities that are often treated in a non-traditional manner on the bases of gender, class, sexuality, disAbility and Indigeniety. Finally, the ways in which difference is treated in Canada’s legal system, literature and the media are explored with an aim to challenge existing orthodoxy and push readers to critically examine their beliefs and ideas, particularly in an age where divisive, racist and xenophobic politics and attitudes are resurfacing.

Only two years after its first run, the Inverted Classroom Conference has become a familiar event at Marburg University. Most conference participants not only knew about this digital teaching and learning scenario but were experienced users and developers. While during its predecessors most participants wanted to familiarize themselves with the central components of the Inverted Classroom Model, the focus of the 3rd German Inverted Classroom Conference in 2014, to which this conference volume is dedicated, was not only a discussion of variants of the model but also, for the first time, the inclusion of long-term evaluations and aspects of student behavior. This shift of emphasis is reflected in the contributions to this volume. Even though all central aspects of the ICM - content production and delivery, testing, and the in-class phase - are still addressed, we can now find recommendations concerning digital material acquisition, in-class tuition, the role of student tutors as well as first long-term studies about ICM effects. In general then, the focus was much wider than that of the first two ICM-conferences: from a new and originally non-familiar teaching and learning scenario to more general aspects of digitization of teaching and learning in the 21st century.

When the 1st German Inverted Classroom Conference was staged in 2012, the organizers thought that it may have been the first and last conference of this kind: Too few teachers seemed to be familiar with this model in the first place and only a tiny fragment of them would actually apply this model to their own teaching scenarios. However, in the 2013 conference, we were overwhelmed with a large number of teachers who not only wanted to find out about this teaching and learning concept but had already used it. Consequently, the focus of the 2nd German Inverted Classroom Conference to which this conference volume is dedicated was no longer the “installation” of the Inverted Classroom Model (ICM) but fine adjustments in the actual application of it. This is reflected in the contributions to this volume. Even though all three central aspects of the ICM are addressed, (1) content production and delivery, (2) testing, and (3) the in-class phase, there has been a shift away from mere content production towards an expansion of the model as well as a move towards fine adjustments of the three components.