For publications based on data from the Lab School, go here.
The Lab School (2001-2008) was a national
state-of-the-art research center engaged in
classroom-based research and professional development
focusing on English as a Second Language. It was
conceived of and developed by Steve Reder and Kathryn A.
Harris (see Reder, 2005; Reder, Harris, & Setzler,
2003). It was started through funding from the Institute
for Education Sciences and then received support from
the National Science Foundation and the Spencer
Foundation.
The Lab School was designed to strengthen
programs serving adult ESOL learners across the country
through systematic research and experimentation within
the context of an existing ESL program. From 2005-2008,
the Lab School has recorded courses from Portland
State's Intensive English Language Program and Russian
Language Flagship Program.
The Lab School was modeled after the "lab
schools" found in K-12 education, in which an elementary
or secondary school operates in partnership with a
nearby university engaged in teacher preparation and
educational research. Such lab schools serve as settings
where high quality education, teacher preparation,
educational research and program innovation and
development take place.
The Lab School at Portland State University
(PSU) established a setting where university-based
researchers, teacher trainers and service providers
cooperate to conduct applied research.
Goals and Structure of the Lab School.
The Lab School goals:
To conduct high-quality research on second
language acquisition and classroom discourse and carry
out systematic innovation through research-driven
enhancements to existing practice.
To collaborate with researchers at other
institutions, nationally and internationally, to conduct
investigations of the role of language in classroom
learning, particularly, language learning.
To strengthen professional development systems
for adult ESOL teachers by connecting the Lab School
closely to local preservice and inservice training and
by disseminating research and professional development
material.
The Lab School developed (2001-2005) as a
partnership between PSU and Portland Community College
(PCC). PCC is the largest provider of ESOL services in
the Portland metropolitan area offering adult ESOL
services in many locations. One of these was the
dedicated location on the PSU campus.
The Lab
School Physical Layout
The Lab School was a dedicated university site,
close to public transportation, research faculty, and
graduate students.
From 2001-2005, the facility had two dedicated
classrooms separated by an adjoining
observation/technology room. Each classroom was equipped
with four fixed cameras and two remotely controlled
cameras.
Classes that have used the facility were
continuously recorded using the four fixed
ceiling-mounted cameras and two remotely-controlled
ceiling-mounted cameras. Sound is captured by radio
microphones worn by each teacher and two students per
class (on a rotating basis).
Custom software allows researchers and
practitioners to select and stream (across the web)
examples of second language acquisition and classroom
practices.
Students
of English as a Second Language
From 2001-2005, 682 students participated in
classes at the Lab School as regularly registered
students in the ESL program at Portland Community
College. The majority of these students were just
beginning to learn English.
That group of students represented more than 60
different countries and 39 different languages. They
vary widely in their level of education. Some have had
no formal education while others hold college degrees.
They ranged in age from 17 to 77. All signed a
consent form translated into their own language which
informed them that the audio and video data collected at
the Lab School would be used for research and
professional development only.
Software
Developed by and Used at The Lab School
ClassAction Programs
A system of client-server software programs,
called “ClassAction,” was developed at the Lab School to
manage, code and transcribe, and provide web-accessible
searching and playback of selected portions of the
recorded media. Using
these tools, project researchers (as well as a small
group of researchers and teachers elsewhere) are able to
select and view clips of ESOL classrooms for information
about particular points of second language acquisition
or pedagogy. Such
clips can then be more closely analyzed for research
purposes or for use in teacher training and other
professional development materials.
The ClassAction system consists of four major
tools for working with the corpus. The ClassAction
Coder&Transcriber program is used by project staff
to code and transcribe the recorded media into a large
searchable database. Using the ClassAction Toolbox
program, researchers and teacher trainers can view and
mark raw media files into playlists that can be widely
streamed, along with associated coding and transcription
data, to remote users for research and professional
development activities. With the ClassAction Query
program, users can search the database for clips of
media illustrating particular points of second language
acquisition or pedagogy. Query returns a playlist of
matching clips that can be viewed and refined using the
Toolbox program. Playlists made by Query or Toolbox can
be viewed with the ClassAction Viewer program which is
freely downloadable as a web browser plug-in.
Toolbox and Query were used internally at PSU
for project research and in a number of MA thesis
projects and was shared freely to sanctioned external
users who signed a confidentiality agreement, etc.
Viewer is freely downloadable.
Design Features of ClassAction
-Maintains persistent links between
transcribed/coded data and original audio-video
recordings
-Supports the use of multiple projects &
coding frameworks with the same recordings
-Enables sophisticated indexing & searching
of media-linked transcription & coding data
-Offers layered design so that varying levels of
depth and detail can be attached to the media within a
consistent framework
-Allows media to be selected and streamed across
the web for remote viewing of clips together with
corresponding transcript and activity code data
-Supports multiple cameras and microphones
-Applicable to non-classroom originated
materials (e.g., in-home student interviews, teacher
interviews)
-Extensible to projects involving large archives
of oral narratives (e.g., multimedia interviews with
elder speakers of a Native American language; oral
histories of African Americans who moved to Portland
during WW II)
ClassAction: System Components
Recording
System
-Supports up to six simultaneous cameras and 12
microphones
-Lab School classrooms each recorded with 6
cameras: 4 fixed cameras in corners and 2 remotely
controlled cameras for close-ups; 5 microphones: 2
ceiling mounted and 3 wireless worn by students and
teacher
-Recorded in streamable Windows Media format
ClassAction
Toolbox: Media Review and Annotation Tool
-Allows rapid browsing through large, complex
video archives
-Supports switching among multiple cameras &
microphones "on the fly"
-Permits clips of interest to be marked and
annotated into topic playlists
ClassAction
Query: A
search tool
-Searches database of transcribed and coded data
-Searches can be based on speaker, speaker
characteristics, time points, classroom codes, language
items, etc.
-Returns a playlist of media clips and
associated data for use in Toolbox or Viewer
ClassAction
Viewer
-Displays a playlist of media clips and
associated data
-Playlists shown can be manually using
ClassAction Toolbox or queried from the database of
transcribed or coded data
-Works across web connections
-Can be embedded into multimedia publications
External
Use of Classroom Corpus and ClassAction Software
The multimedia corpus has been available to ESOL
scholars and practitioners for research and professional
development through an application process. Users are
required to abide by Lab School confidentiality, image
permission and data sharing policies. Access to the data
comes through the use of ClassAction software which is
distributed to approved users.
Reder,
S.,
Harris, K., & Setzler, K. (2003). A multimedia adult
learner corpus. TESOL Quarterly.
37(3), 65-78.