Brian Gill

Department of French, Italian & Spanish
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta, Canada. T2N1N4

Website

Biodata:

Brian Gill studied in England, Canada and France, obtaining a doctorate in Linguistics from the Université de Provence. He has taught and done research at the University of Calgary for the last 30 years, specializing in Surrealism, Narratology, Marguerite Yourcenar and Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). He presents regularly at both literary and CALL conferences, and has organized training sessions in CALL, especially applied to French, in various parts of the world. He was one of the organizers of the WorldCALL conference held in Banff, Alberta, in May 2003.

Short CV:

EMPLOYMENT

1967 to present, Department of French, Italian & Spanish, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

DEGREES

1976 Doctorat 3e cycle (Université de Provence, France) in Linguistics.

1967 M.A. (Manitoba, Canada) in French.

1966 B.A. (Hons.) (London, UK) in French.

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS

2002 President's Circle Award for Achievement in Teaching Excellence.

1999 Pierre and Madeleine Monod Award for Outstanding Service, Intercultural and Second Languages Council of the Alberta Teachers' Association.

1982-1983 Superior Teacher Award for the Faculty of Humanities, U of Calgary.

1978-1979 Canada Council Leave Fellowship.

1969-1972 Canada Council Doctoral Fellowship.

TEACHING ACTIVITIES

Literature

Twentieth Century Literature: Surrealism and the Avant-garde, Modern Novel, Poetry, Marguerite Yourcenar

Narratology

Language

Third-year grammar and composition

A four semester Web-based Reading French course I designed

Technology Assisted Language Learning courses at the graduate level

Professional development of teachers at the K-12 and post-secondary levels

Training of teachers of second languages to assist them in integrating technology, especially the Internet, into their teaching practice.

Designing and delivering some 20 "Web workshops for language teachers

GRANTS

Over one million dollars in grants and contract research, mostly in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Calgary.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (Language and Computer Assisted Language Learning)

BOOKS

Thirty-nine entries in the Dictionnaire de la linguistique edited by Georges Mounin and published in the series Les Grands Dictionnaires (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1975). This work is also published in Italian, Spanish and Japanese editions and has been reissued in the paperback Quadrige collection.

Translation of: Chomsky, by John Lyons, (London: Fontana, 1970), published by Seghers, Paris, in 1971, 188 pp. (In collaboration with Vital Gadbois.)

ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS

"Automating Feedback in the Development of Second Language Writing Skills" in Broady, Elspeth, ed., Second Language Writing in a Computer Environment, London (U.K.), CILT, 2000, pp. 176-191.

"Tanulási stilus, ellenörzés, kurzustervezés [Learning Styles, Locus of control and Courseware Design]", in Kecskés, István & Papp, Tünde, eds., A felsooktatás fejlesztését szolgáló kutatások, Budapest, Felsöoktatási Koordinációs Iroda, 1994, pp. 83-94. English translation available at http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~bgill/LearningStyles.html

"Improving Dictionary Use in Second Language Teaching," in Judith A. Ainsworth, Ed., Second Language Dynamics: Essays for Teachers, Waterloo, Ontario, The University of Waterloo, 1993, pp. 157-165.

"Evaluating Textbook Software", in Peter Liddell, Ed., CALL: Theory and Application. Proceedings of CCALL2/CCELA02, The Second Canadian CALL Conference, The Language Centre, University of Victoria, 1993, pp. 261-74.

PAPERS

"Manipulations théoriques; Reading French sur le web", presented at the 3e Forum Multimédia, Contribution des nouvelles technologies à la francophonie mondiale, University of Ottawa, 16-17 July, 2001

"Reading French at the University of Calgary", presented at the Calico 2001 Annual Symposium, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, March 15, 2001

"Reading French on the Web", paper presented at the "Multimédia, internet et francophonie" conference, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, March 9, 2001

“Internet et Formation des Enseignants” Round table with Jayne Abrate, Vice President, American Association of French Teachers, Thierry Chanier, Editor, ALSIC, and professor at U of Besançon, Brian Gill, Professor at U of Calgary, Didier Oillo, Directeur des campus virtuels de l’AUF et coordonnateur du fonds francophone universitaire de l’information, Anthipi Potolia, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Saint-Cloud, and Thierry Lancien, ENS Saint-Cloud. At 10th International Conference of the Fédération Internationale des Professeurs de français, Paris, 17-21 July, 2000

"The ALLE Project", paper presented at the Calico International Symposium "Advancing Language Learning Technologies into the New Millennium", Miami University, Oxford (Ohio), June 5, 1999.

"Using Automatic Writing Environments", paper presented at the Calico International Symposium "Advancing Language Learning Technologies into the New Millennium", Miami University, Oxford (Ohio), June 5, 1999. In collaboration with François Mangenot (Grenoble).

"L'intégration des NTIC dans l'enseignement des langues - théorie et pratique", presented at the Université Stendhal -Grenoble 3, France, 1998.

“The ALLE project”, presented at the FLEAT3 international conference on Computer Assisted Language Learning, University of Victoria, Canada, August 12-16, 1997.

“Learning Styles and Courseware Design.” Presented at the 1993 CALICO International Conference, Budapest, Hungary, 6 August, 1993.

“Evaluating Textbook Software.” Presented at the University of Victoria (CCALL2 = Second Conference on Canadian Computer Assisted Language Learning), April 30, 1993.

SOFTWARE AND WEB DEVELOPMENT

Reading French 2000. Complete four semester web-based course in Reading French, beginners to advanced. http://fis.ucalgary.ca/RF

Le Dictateur. Windows based dictation authoring system developed with Toolbook. (1997) Web version developed in Macromedia Director by Julian Wood (Advanced Media for Learning, U of C), with collaboration of Dan Maher. Demo available at http://136.159.110.10/alle/219/alle.html

Intercultural and Second Languages Council site: http://fis.ucalgary.ca/ISLC

Toilberta Web site, in collaboration with Lise Sinclair, now relocated to http://www.2learn.ca/toile2. This is a comprehensive introduction (in French) to the use of the Web in French Language Teaching, developed under contract to Alberta Education and subsequently incorporated into the Telus Learning Connection (2Learn) Educational site.

ALLE Web Page for French (http://fis.ucalgary.ca/alle/fr.html). Portal for French as a Second Language.

ANALYSE. Authoring System and set of exercises for teaching Grammatical Analysis of French by Computer Assisted Instruction. (1985 and 1987) Available for free download at http://fis.ucalgary.ca/Brian/Analyse.html