Computers In The Foreign Language Classroom: No Longer A Question

Abstract:
Anne Arundel County, Maryland, received a grant to develop and field test software programs which would integrate the use of the computer into upper level literature classes. The programs developed there as well as the hardware are described. A small study was undertaken with groups of French and Spanish language students to try and determine whether computers in the foreign language (FL) class made a difference. No significant difference was found between the results in the control and experimental groups, however, there were several uncontrolled variables accounted for.

KEYWORDS: Anne Arundel County, Broadneck Sr. High School, software development, literature, French, Spanish, research, Apple, Moni-Com II, language lab, Corvus, Super Talkers, Hartley Cassette controllers, NEH grant, branching, simulations, vocabulary, learning games, dictionary editor, story editor, utility programs.

Anne Arundel county, Maryland, has moved rapidly into computers in the area of foreign languages, and even boasts a foreign language computer laboratory in each of two schools.

We have focused on software for the Apple II family of computers because that is the machine which offered the most software in foreign languages. Each foreign language teacher has access to at least one Apple computer. Broadneck Senior High School has a complete computer lab. It is a self contained classroom with forty desks and chairs and a moveable tape deck console in front of the room. This Moni-Com II system is a wireless language lab which the students use for listening/speaking activities as in any traditional language lab. Around the perimeter of the room are the 12 Apple computers with Amdek color 1 monitors, 24 disk drives, and four Epson II printers. The 12 computers are connected by a Corvus Network system. Unfortunately the computer monitors cause static through the headsets of the Moni-Com II system so that the computers and the headsets may not be used simultaneously.

To have speaking-listening capabilities with the Apple II computers, the school purchased Super Talkers. However, because of the amount of memory needed to use the Super Talkers they have not been successfully implemented. More economical and more easily used are the Hartley Cassette control devices which activate cassette tape recorders where appropriate in the computer program. Ideally each computer should have such a device connected to a cassette recorder.

Because of limited commercial software available, we have tried to develop grass-roots sources for software. Students were enlisted and they produced drill and practice software that was exactly tailored to our texts. These programs are set up to work from text files so that the grammar and vocabulary can be easily changed to suit any teacher and any class. Another source of programs is an annual county-wide competition open to all foreign language students. Additionally, we have offered workshops for foreign language teachers who want to learn about the capabilities of computers and who are interested in simple programming.

FL CAI Evaluation

Another phase of our involvement in computing was the development of a list of criteria for foreign language CAI. We isolated the aspects which we felt were essential to good foreign language CAI. They include: clear objectives, correct content, creative use of the computer, clear instructions, effective handling of student response, effective computer feedback, sound motivational devices and useable documentation (see Figure 1 for the evaluation form).

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How Does This Program Fit Into or Supplement the County Curriculum?

Our county was fortunate to have submitted a proposal to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and we were awarded a grant to develop and field test software programs which would integrate the use of the computer into the upper level literature classes. We formed a committee to plan and develop these materials. We hired a consultant from the University of Maryland and several student programmers. One of the teachers on the development committee was also a programmer and we were helped by an advisory committee made up of local and national experts. We created a series of programs for each of four literary works—two in French and two in Spanish. We designed a biography program around the life and times of each author. There was one model program, a simulation of an interview with the author, which by changing the text files and graphics could be adapted to each author. We tried to cover biographical facts and the historical and socio-economic background of the literary work in an interesting way. The program is meant to be used with an outline of the life of the author which the student may keep for further reference.

We also developed a program for the French poem Le Pont Mirabeau and the Spanish poem Lo Fatal. In these programs we tried to simulate a class discussion. The programs pose questions and accept many versions of the correct response. The programs contain some branching dependent upon student response. They present an overview of the poems, including a reading of the poem (the cassette tape recorder is interfaced to the computer with a Hartley cassette control device). Then the programs guide the student through an analysis of the structure, tone and stylistic qualities of the text.

The programs developed under this NEH grant in relation to the literary works, provided an introduction to the county curriculum materials, and also provided various presentations which would help students understand the literary work and genre better. In addition, a number of programs were developed which provided drill on vocabulary and literary mood. The most difficult aspect of the programs to develop were the simulations, because a great deal of research had to be done, and then that information had to be incorporated into an interesting simulated interview format with the four authors. The learning games were most popular with the students, especially Tic Tac Toe, which helped to reinforce vocabulary. This last mentioned program was used in our study, during the computer study period for the group using the computers. Finally, we have developed teacher/student utilities for recording grades, as well as a Dictionary Editor and a Story Editor to be used with the other literary works programs.

We also produced a program to present a short story in each language. Again the same model program worked for both languages, only the text files and graphics were changed. The program prints the story to the screen, allows the student to start anywhere in the story and to flip both forward and back. At the bottom of the screen is a prompt which tells the student how to access the program's dictionary. Having a built-in dictionary was very popular with the students. When looking up a word in a book dictionary you often say to yourself "m, n, o" to find the order of the letter you want. What you are really practicing is alphabetical order. We hope that by typing the word out in the foreign language the student will spend more time practicing the word and less time practicing alphabetical order. This ought to help the students learn the words more quickly. The program also keeps track of the words the student requests and periodically gives a review quiz on that student's individual word list. We also wrote a short multiple choice program to test reading comprehension. A program to present new vocabulary, including its pronunciation was developed as well as vocabulary review games for reinforcement. We focused on the advanced level because in many schools the level four and five classes have to be combined and we wanted to help the teachers with these multiple level classes. It should be stressed that the computer programs do not replace the teacher, but provide worthwhile activities for students to work independently (See Figure 2 for a complete list of materials developed).

Testing the Programs

These programs were field-tested in French and Spanish classes in the county and the teachers and students provided us with a number of ideas which were incorporated into the programs. As a result of our county's experience with the foreign language computer laboratories, we have learned a great deal about what we require in a program, and we have learned important ideas to help us design teacher-made and student-made programs. While some foreign language teachers need more time to be convinced about the exciting role of computer programs in the foreign language classroom, during the testing process we found that a majority of teachers were interested in knowing whether or not computers in the foreign language classroom really made a difference. For this reason we undertook a small study which controlled the content, teaching method and teacher. Two teachers of French were involved over a two-month period.

One French teacher matched students in two Level III French classes by final grades received for French II. "A" students in the experimental group were matched with "A" students in the control group, as were the students with other grades. In the experimental group, ten minutes of the class period were devoted to studying a vocabulary test (English to French and French to

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Foreign Language CAI Evaluation Language: ___French ___Spanish ___Latin ___German ___Russian ___ESL Type: ___Drill ___Simulation ___Tutorial ___Game ___Test ___Author Title Vendor Topic Computer ___Apple Level ___TRS80 Goals ___other Is it modifiable by the teacher? ___Y ___N Is the content...? Is this a creative use of computer a. linguistically sound ___Y ___N a. highly interactive ___Y ___N b. accurate ___Y ___N b. polite feedback ___Y ___N c. presented with accents ___Y ___N c. informative feedback ___Y ___N d. teaching new material ___Y ___N d. graphics appropriate ___Y ___N e. only reinforcement ___Y ___N e. speed (fast enough) ___Y ___N f. sound ___Y ___N Does the program have...? g. sound user controlled ___Y ___N h. screen easy to read ___Y ___N a. a help option ___Y ___N i. user controlled pace ___Y ___N b. a hint option ___Y ___N c. remedial presentation ___Y ___N (describe) d. a second chance option ___Y ___N Technical quality Instruction/Documentation a. accepts "close" answers ___Y ___N a. do you need a manual to use ___Y ___N b. attractive display ___Y ___N b. documentation clear ___Y ___N c. networkable ___Y ___N c. any worksheet or helps ___Y ___N d. frequent exit points ___Y ___N d. classroom management utility ___Y ___N e. flexible entry points ___Y ___N if Yes—is it effective? ___Y ___N f. does not crash EVER ___Y ___N Figure 1

English) on the computer, using drill and practice programs and the Tic Tac Toe learning game. The control group had ten minutes to study on their own or with partners. Both groups had the same teacher, took the same examinations, and covered the same content.

The teacher administered five quizzes for both groups and documented the results as seen in Figure 3.

Results

The results did not show any significant differences between the groups. A number of factors should be considered, though, since the research study should be replicated. Although the teachers controlled a number of significant factors, such as level of French instruction, student ability, content, time for study in both groups, the examinations, and the same teacher taught both groups, there were several variables which could not be controlled. For example, the grades the students received in French II did not necessarily reflect their ability. No attempt was made to determine which students preferred to study on the computer, and which students had their own system for studying. There was no way to control the items which appeared at random on the computer, so that not all the word were presented to the students. Furthermore, there was no control on the quality of the computer programs, nor of the quality of the quizzes. Still another variable was the fact that one teacher told both groups that their grades would count in their overall class average, while the second teacher did not count these grades. However, each teacher adhered to this policy for both groups in her study, so that this was not a major factor.

This study was an attempt by teachers of French on the high school level to determine the effectiveness of teacher-made software in learning a limited amount of content (either vocabulary or verbs). Although there were no significant differences, we believe that the design of the study might be useful for other researchers to replicate or to use some aspects of the study for designing their own research. There is indeed an urgent need for more research on the effectiveness of the computer in learning foreign

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languages on the secondary school level.

Summary and Conclusions

Although the study did not yield positive results in achievement, both students and teachers felt that the use of computers provided more motivation for the students, so from that point of view, the use of computers in the foreign language classroom is her to stay, and NO LONGER A QUESTION.