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C&IT Centre

No 5, June 95, Pt 1

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'Hands on' for language teachers

If you would like to have a closer look at a wide range of language learning software, including the latest products from the TELL consortium, there is the opportunity to do so at a CALL Awareness Day at the University of Hull on Saturday 14 October (see page 19). Alternatively, you may wish to arrange for a team from CTI Modern Languages to visit your department or language centre, so that as many teachers as possible can attend. A typical campus visit includes:

• a formal presentation addressing issues such as pedagogy, integration and hardware implications;
• demonstrations of software;
• ample opportunity for lecturers to have 'hands on' practice with a wide selection of language learning software, covering all languages taught as a foreign language;
• detailed discussions with CTI Modern Languages staff, relating to specific requirements;
• an opportunity for lecturers to collect detailed printed information relating to the software available.

No fee is charged for a first visit within the UK higher education sector, though travel and subsistence expenses are normally covered by the host institution. To arrange a campus visit, please contact Jenny Parsons at CTI Modern Languages address opposite.

Learning Pronunciation using CALL: some experimental evidence

Abstract

The effectiveness of one aspect of computer assisted language learning (CALL) was examined by focusing on the use of digitised speech for improving foreign language pronunciation. For this purpose an Italian phrase-book was constructed using the authoring tool EasySpeaker. The phrase-book's potential for improving foreign language pronunciation was assessed using participants enrolled on an introductory Italian course at Hull University. The results indicate that all participants, as evaluated by three native speaking Italians, had made improvements in their pronunciations of 20 test Italian sentences. The participants using the computerised Italian phrase-book in conjunction with the taught Italian course were judged to have made greater improvements than the control group in their pronunciations. This study adds empirical support for the application of computer technology in foreign language pronunciation, although some reservations and limitations of the present environment are discussed.

Introduction

Despite the dramatic increase in the level of interest and activity in the use of computer assisted language learning techniques (CALL) in recent years due to the increasing sophistication of the relevant Information Technology tools, there is a shortage of empirical studies on CALL using standard experimental designs. The aim of the present assessment exercise was to gather some objective data on the effectiveness of using a phrase-book style computer-assisted language learning environment on the quality of pronunciation achieved by those attending a beginners' course in Italian.

For the present research the authoring tool EasySpeaker, Rostron and Plant (1992) was used to build a phrase-book style environment which could also be used more generatively. EasySpeaker is a piece of multimedia technology designed to operate in a Windows environment and allows access to a database of scanned in photos, graphics, high quality digitised speech and written text. (EasySpeaker functions in more or less the same manner as the Apple Macintosh Hypercard, but has additional features.) The EasySpeaker environment, like that of Hypercard, is best described in terms of a set of screens stacked like a deck of cards that can be linked together to form a complete application where the user can choose the route and the depth of the investigation through the screens.

Each screen contains eight items. These items, when selected with the left mouse button, either take you to a new screen or appear at the bottom of the screen from where they can be played by a click of the right mouse button. Strings of items can be built up by selecting screen items or items from a tool-bar running down the left-hand side of the screen. Thus the user of the phrase-book is able to

• Choose particular topics for study;
• View some Italian text with its English translation accompanied with a corresponding picture;
• Choose to listen to the Italian text together with its English-Italian translation and corresponding picture;
• Accurately and quickly replay the spoken text as often as required;
• Generate new sentences of written and spoken text by clicking on the tool bar and screen items as required.

Method

Six students enrolled on a beginners "passport" course in Italian at the University of Hull participated in the study and were randomly allocated to the control and experimental groups. The Italian course they were attending comprised two hours of taught instruction by a native Italian speaker each week, together with homework set from a course book for beginners in Italian. The experimental group were allowed practice on the software individually over two sessions for approximately 30 minutes each session and the control group was not exposed to the software. To evaluate pronunciation skills both groups were given the same 20 test Italian sentences to read aloud. These were spoken both before and after access to the software and were recorded for later evaluation by the judges. Half the sentences were taken directly from the phrase-book and the other half were made up of sentences that needed items from both the tool bar and the phrase-book. All the participants' pre- and post-test recordings were evaluated independently by three native speaker Italians who were blind to the experimental condition and the purpose of the study. (One judge was an Italian teacher in the Language Centre at the University of Hull; the others were Italian students studying at the University.) Subjects were judged on a scale of 0-9 for the quality of their Italian pronunciation. Judges all had written guidance on the standards to use and their assessments ranged from:

• 0 = very poor/hard or impossible to understand what was said;
• 4 = possible to understand but knew the speaker was a foreigner;
• 9 = excellent/could be mistaken for a native Italian speaker

To avoid order effects in judging, judges 1 and 3 evaluated pre-test recordings first and then post-test recordings. Judge 2 evaluated post-test recordings first and then pre-test recordings.

After the participants using EasySpeaker had completed both pre-test and post-test recordings, they were given a short questionnaire asking them for their opinions on EasySpeaker's ease of use, their views on the effectiveness of EasySpeaker for improving their vocabulary and pronunciation, and whether or not they now felt more confident when speaking Italian. The participants' responses to the questionnaire are commented on in the discussion.

Results

The main result of interest here is that while both groups were judged as improving their pronunciation skills in the post-test condition, the experimental group was found to have improved to a greater extent than the control group. Indeed this result was consistently found in the ratings of all three judges. In addition there was no difference in the pronunciation improvements when comparing those phrases taken directly from the EasySpeaker screen and the longer utterances which were constructed by the participants themselves. All the evidence above is supported by suitable statistical treatment of the data.

Discussion

The aim of the present study was to obtain some experimentally based evidence on the effectiveness of using a CALL environment for improving one aspect of foreign language learning. The particular questions addressed were whether the opportunity for rapid access to the sound of selected words, phrases and short sentences in digitised speech was appreciated by learners and whether such an environment provided additional benefits to the teaching methods normally used for improving foreign language pronunciation. The experimental evidence obtained indicated that although both forms of teaching produced significant gains, the group experiencing the CALL improved in their pronunciation to a greater extent than the group that had no such opportunity.

The evidence obtained should be treated with caution due to several factors. First, there were only three subject pairs. Although careful experimental design minimised the possibility that the result was a statistical artefact, it would be imprudent to place too much reliance on data from such a small sample. Secondly it could be argued that the pronunciation of an item changes within the context in which it is embedded, so that isolated phrases, devoid of context, have little relationship to the sounds in long strings of connected speech. However it is not suggested that this material is suitable for use in more advanced stages of learning, and the benefits of having good models for some simple phrases instantly available on demand as often as required in the early stages of learning, may serve a useful purpose. In addition the evidence found here suggests that the pronunciation of longer phrases and even short sentences produced by the participants is improved. Despite the previous reservations it is difficult to disregard evidence coming from native speakers, particularly when, as is the case here, the judgements are all consistent.

Bearing in mind the findings of Jones and McCormac (1992), who produced evidence to suggest that users' opinions are not a completely satisfactory way of evaluating computer assisted learning, it is still worthwhile mentioning the subjective reactions of the participants themselves. The opinions of those participants who had used the CALL environment concurred with the positive empirical support this study produced. All of the participants, for example, indicated in their questionnaire responses that they thought EasySpeaker had improved their pronunciation of Italian. Furthermore, they perceived the use of EasySpeaker as having also been of help for improving their Italian vocabulary. They were also unanimous in stating that they were now more confident when engaging in Italian conversation.

A more detailed account of this study, including full references, can be found on the Hull Psychology Department WWW server: http://p026.psy.hull.ac.uk/

Andrew Rostron and Paul Kinsella, Department of Psychology, University of Hull

Modern Languages and Communications Technologies

The National Council for Educational Technology has recently published Highways for Learning both on paper (�7.50 from NCET Sales) and on the Internet (free). It is an introduction to the Internet and describes how it can be used for education; included are sections on access, service providers and curriculum use. NCET's URL is:

http://ncet.csv.warwick.ac.uk/index.html

Highways for Learning is to be found in the R&D section of the server. We would like your comments and suggestions; please mail them to:

[email protected] The following notes are taken from the publication.

Many aspects of modern language learning can be enhanced when students have access to communications technologies. Students are exposed to authentic target language and are engaged in purposeful and authentic activites.

Projects with Campus 2000 have demonstrated how modern language learning can be enhanced by communications technologies, and particularly e-mail. The key factors seem to be increased motivation via contact with real students in other countries and access to authentic language as a medium for achieving a common project task. UK schools regularly contribute foreign language items to Newsdays. The Goethe Institute runs 'Ask an Expert' days; the questions and answers have been edited and are now accessible on a database.

The French Teletel service (running at 1200 baud and already used by UK schools through Campus 2000) has 26 million users and holds vast amounts of information about all aspects of French life. In France you can see the type of on-line services developed when there is large-scale day-to-day home and workplace access. For example, about one in three TV advertisements end with a Teletel number for consumers to find out more and even order products on-line. It is only a matter of time before Teletel will be available over the Internet. Cities such as Paris, Grenoble and Marseilles and bodies like the French Ministry of Culture already have servers on the Internet, as well as on Teletel, with multimedia information relevant to the UK national curriculum, eg the environment, the local area, quality of life, shops and services, travel, culture and leisure.

The Human Languages Page on the Internet pulls together potentially useful language services like tutoring, sound samples of languages, on-line translation, dictionaries, resource banks and expert help. The Usenet news groups have sections on subjects such as the culture of Pakistan, Vietnam, the politics of China and Indian culture. There are also opportunities to communicate with native French, German, Spanish and Russian speakers. Electronic mail and conferencing will certainly be one of the major Internet activities for language students - the feeling of the global village where barriers to communication such as cost and travel are suddenly removed is one of the first aspects of the Internet to strike newcomers.

There are increasing numbers of foreign language servers on the Internet accessible via 'sensitive maps' of sites in each country. They provide useful, relevant and topical information which just happens to be in another language - ie linguistic competence develops as a by-product. By its nature, the Internet will bring people speaking different languages into closer contact. By exchanging information with students in other countries, students will demonstrate increasing independence in language use, vary language according to audience and use language for real purposes.

As the Internet develops, students will take part in conversations and conferences with native speakers over networks, using video- and audio-conferencing as well as text; exchange visits can be reinforced with preparatory and follow-up Internet links and there are predictions of virtual exchanges and 'telepresence' (it is already possible to visit 'digital Amsterdam' on the Internet). Increasingly we shall see automatic on-line translation of messages and other text, and students will need to spot nuances of meaning by referring to both original and translation. Digital radio on the Internet is set to expand beyond the current provision of one French language station, and decompression and file transfer will make receiving programmes a simple matter. In the future, the Internet could provide teachers and learners with ready-to-use banks of multimedia resources: a wealth of video and audio recordings from all over the world, transcripts (where the text matters more than its presentation, and so could quickly be printed off) and activities - all topical, fresh and, one hopes, setting high standards for methodology. We shall no doubt see providers of information and training for language teachers using the Internet to publicise events, courses, materials and services and even to provide a subscription-based remote training, advice and information service. There is a European feasibility project to explore some of these - for details, contact NCET. Sample materials can be found on NCET's R&D server.

The Internet has been academe's best kept secret and, now that the general public - and commercial interests - know about it, it will change out of all recognition in the coming months. However, there is no doubt that the Internet, in some form or another, is here to stay and is going to change the way we live, learn and work. And communicate.

Roger Blamire , NCET

See Internet Resources for Language Teachers on the Home Page for links to some of the above sites.

CAL 95- LEARNING TO SUCCEED

This international conference attracting over 200 delegates took place at Queens' College, Cambridge 10 to 14 April 1995. A wide range of plenary and panel sessions, as well as workshops and posters competed with glorious weather. The conference was opened by Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer, the ex-head of UFC who warned that whatever the government, CAL would only be funded in return for teaching productivity gains.

Throughout the four days there was much discussion on the methods and importance of evaluation of CAL programs, the emphasis on the whole being on formative rather than summative evaluation. Other themes included:

• the need for institutional change if CAL is to succeed and how this can be brought about;
• the role computers can play in primary, secondary and special needs education;
• the role of hypertext, simulations and assessment.

The sessions varied from abstract educational theory through to subject specific case studies.

Graham Chesters, the director of CTI Modern Languages, presented a paper describing the work of the TELL Consortium (Technology Enhanced Language Learning) and Graham Chesters, Doug Thompson and Jenny Parsons ran a three and a half hour workshop which allowed delegates to have hands-on access to the TELL materials. Other workshops included the TLTP physics SToMP material, Microcosm ("a resource based system for developing and delivering learning materials") and SuperCAL, a way of providing interactive courseware for the Internet (one example is WinEcon the TLTP Economics material).

Diverse topics were covered in the plenary sessions ranging from a vision of future learning from the head of management learning at a high street bank, the possibilities offered by future development of huge bandwidth, a description of a primary school in Cumbria which has fully integrated IT into all aspects of its teaching and learning and finally an upbeat closing session by Tim O'Shea of the Open University. The organisation and hospitality were excellent and the planning for the next CAL conference in two years' time to be held in Exeter has already begun.

Kathy Beedham, University of Hull

Active Learning

Active Learning is a refereed journal and publishes traditional papers, case studies and opinion pieces.

Active Learning 2: "Using the Internet for teaching" will be published in June. The theme for issue no 3 will be "Teaching with Multimedia". The deadline for submissions is 15 September 1995. Please request a copy of our 'Notes for Contributors' if you wish to submit an article.

If you wish to receive Active Learning contact the CTI Support Service for subscription details:

CTI Support Service
13 Banbury Road
Oxford OX2 6NN
United Kingdom
Phone:     +44 (0)1865 273273
Fax:       +44 (0)1865 273275
Internet:[email protected]
Web: http://www.cti.ac.uk

Linguistics, Language, Literature and Poetry on the BUBL World Wide Web server

Well worth investigating are the sections on the BUBL WWW Subject tree accessed via the URL http://www.bubl.bath.ac.uk/BUBL/Literature.html

This address takes you to a menu that currently consists of:

• Linguistics
• Language and Literature
• English
• Scottish
• German
• French
• Italian
• Spanish
• Classics

The Linguistics sub-menu includes a link to The Universal Survey of Languages, which is attempting to create a linguistic reference for layman and linguist alike. The USL contains audio files of spoken languages and descriptions of morphology and phonology of the world's languages, as well as a hypertext introduction to linguistics, an introduction and reference to the International Phonetic Alphabet, a linguistic dictionary and information on language families. Other links from the linguistics sub-menu include ones to The Linguistics Association of GB, one to OWL, the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University and one to the linguistic resources on the BUBL gopher.

Languages and Literature has links to CTI Modern Languages, EUROCALL, Eurodicautom, Project Guttenberg, and to a list of foreign language resources on www, as well as to the resources available on the BUBL gopher. The web resources list is provided by the Instructional Technology Program at Berkeley and aims to provide a selection of quality resources rather than a comprehensive listing of all resources.

Individual language menus on the BUBL web server vary according to language, but all provide links to BUBL gopher resources in that language. The English Language and Literature section also has links to ABELL, the Beowulf project and the Tolkien homepage. The French menu includes a list of French web sites and the Spanish section has a link to TECLA, the Spanish LanguageTexts Service. Under Italian, the Italit section has selections of Italian literature in HTML format.

The Web Journal of Modern Language Linguistics

The Web Journal of Modern Language Linguistics (WJMLL) is based in the School of Modern Languages at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and will be published initially twice a year by an in-house editorial panel.

Articles will be refereed externally by an Editorial Board of acknowledged specialists. Research and working papers and reviews of current research projects will be welcome on any topic of interest to linguists working in Departments of Modern Languages. The Web method of publication will allow research results and news of current projects to be distributed more quickly and in more detail than would be possible with a conventional printed journal.

Current issues of WJMLL will be accessible free of charge to readers on the Internet and a 'hard copy' version will be published annually. Further details from

Dr. J. West, Dept of German Studies
University of Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
Tel: 0191 222 7521, Email: [email protected]

WJMLL Home Page and further details can be found at URL http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~njw5/

The TELL Consortium

The TELL consortium is now well into its third year of TLTP-funded activity and developers at the twelve current development sites are working hard to meet production deadlines. The materials (approximately 40 packages in 5 languages) are due to be delivered to the lead site at CTI Modern Languages in Hull by the end of September, and to be distributed via the educational publishers Hodder & Stoughton early in 1996. Higher Education institutions in the UK will be entitled to one copy of each package at a nominal cost of �25. Order forms for the materials will be sent to the named TLTP contact at each institution, and language departments and centres will be kept informed via this Newsletter and the colleagues who distribute it within institutions. In the meantime, the process of formative evaluation of the products continues with, currently, 16 programs being trialled with students at 24 sites. Feedback received from the first evaluation phase is proving most helpful, and thanks are due to all colleagues and students who have provided the detailed schedules and reports.

Full details of the TELL materials are available from CTI Modern Languages office; they are also listed in the TLTP Phase 1 Catalogue (see notice overleaf) and on the TELL home page.

Astcovea

Astcovea, a TLTP Phase 2 project, includes the universities of Aston, Coventry and East Anglia. The aim of the project is to produce computer-based materials to support the learning of French and German grammar. We have adopted the principle of learner-centredness for our software and have sought to develop an overall system design which supports use of the materials in both exploratory and tutorial modes. Our initial analysis of learner requirements was based on a learning survey aimed at identifying the problems students have with grammar learning, and their preferences for computer-based support. We concluded that the main problem we faced was in countering the negative ideology which surrounds grammar learning, and that we need to provide engaging and motivating learning opportunities within the framework of a clear content orientation. A state-of-the-art survey was carried out at CTI Modern Languages at Hull, and at other centres, to identify parameters of good practice in extant CALL software. A series of theoretical papers and reports focused on learning models and issues of pedagogical grammar have also been produced, and a practice evaluation has been conducted, using some of the TELL programs (see page 9), to establish a framework for the piloting and formative evaluation of prototypes.The main effort in software development so far has been in the creation and presentation of a series of short texts which will support learner investigation of embedded grammatical features, and in the development of an interactive procedure for experimenting with sentence functional structure. Both these approaches have been constructed using text mark-up systems which the consortium is developing for the two target languages, and on which practice, explanation and tutorial modules are being based. Piloting and formative evaluation of a set of demonstration prototype programs is being planned at the three consortium sites for the first term of the 1995-96 year. This will attempt to address both qualitative and quantitative aspects of student use of the materials and their integration into on-going coursework. The results of this evaluation will be used to inform the production of a bank of materials during the following 9 months, when they will be made available for evaluation at external sites.

Contact details:

Prof Mike Townson
60 Blenheim Road, Birmingham B13 9TZ
[email protected]

Dr. Robin Goodfellow
Dept. of Languages & European Studies
Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET
[email protected]

TLTP Product Used for Final-year Translation Examination

Finalists in the Department of Italian at the University of Hull recently sat their three-hour translation examination using TransLit-TIGER, one of the range of language learning products from the TELL Consortium (see also page 9). During the year preceding the exam, all 32 students had been using 'ready-made' versions of the program, which come complete with texts from various Italian literary or journalistic sources, with related glossaries, hints, grammar help and sample translations. For the purpose of the exam the program's authoring facility was used, so that a special set of Italian texts was made available on the network for the exam period, together with customised tools to enable the students to use the same translation methodology they had been using for classroom- based or self-access preparation. Examination results have not yet been published, but apparently the operation was extremely successful, with no technical problems and no complaints from students. A detailed account of the term's evaluation of TransLit-TIGER will form part of a TELL publication on evaluation, which will be published after the end of the TLTP project.

NorWord on [email protected]

Join NorWord, an internet mailing list that will teach you a new Norwegian word or phrase every day. With each lesson, delivered to your email box, you will be able to learn the word or phrase, its English equivalent, pronunciation, grammatical information, examples of its use, and related words and phrases. The list is appropriate for beginning students as well as intermediate students who are looking for a novel way to revise.

You may join or leave the list at any time. To join, send the following email message to [email protected]: subscribe NorWord yourfirstname yourlastname For more information, contact the list owner or Louis Janus, LCTL Network Coordinator, tel 612/627-1872, [email protected]

Owner: Nancy Aarsvold [email protected]

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