The development of foreign language skills via the use of audioconferencing graphics systems'

1
The development of foreign language skills via
the use of audio-conferencing / graphics
systems.

• Markus Kötter Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität
  Münster

2
Overview
(1) The typical chances and challenges of
learning a language at a distance (2) Some
scenarios and their (dis-)advantages (3) A
rationale for the use of audio-conferencing /
graphics systems in distance education (4)
Salient features of some software packages (5)
Research into the use of online environments (6)
A framework and a checklist for the use of
audio-conferencing / graphics systems in
(foreign) language education at a distance
3
Some assets of learning a language at a distance

• Learners
• can study at their own pace during the given time
• can consult learning materials as often as they
  wish
• are offered guided autonomy

4
Some challenges of learning a language at a
distance

• Learners have few chances to
• practise their skills in authentic interactive
  situations
• develop their communicative competence
• ascertain if their spontaneously generated output
  is accurate or at least understandable to others

5
Asynchronous CMC ...

• allows learners to share their work
• provides them with an audience and increases
  their sense of audience
• can be archived / threaded and re-read
• encourages reflective conversation(Lamy/Goodfel
  low 1999)
• promotes deep understanding of ideas and issues
  that are presented as part of a course (Motteram
  2001)

6
Synchronous (written) CMC ...

• allows for provision of instant feedback
• forces learners to participate in a conversation
  (discourages lurking)
• makes learners aware of paralinguistic aspects of
  interpersonal communication
• fosters community building
• environments such as MOOs allow learners to
  co-edit and share texts with others in real time

7
Furthermore, ...

• self-study exercises offer excellent
  opportunities for improving listening
  comprehension
• audio-dramas and simulated dialogues enable
  learners to engage in role plays and to record
  and listen to themselves
• broadcasting stations often provide didacticised
  versions of the daily news plus transcripts of
  these texts

8
Still ...
Language learning evolves out of learning how
to carry on conversations. (E.H. Hatch 1978)
Language learning is language use. (R. Ellis
1985)
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Three key questions
(1) How can we use audio-conferencing /
graphics systems to improve the quality of
distance language learning? (2) Which tasks types
(dont) work, what effects do online
environments have on the teacher / learner roles,
and what other factors do we need to take into
account? (3) Does the use of audio-conferencing
/ graphics systems lead to demonstrable
changes in learners linguistic abilities?
10
Sonera VoiceChat
Students click on a Talk button if they want to
speak
Learners meet in rooms and can see who else is
present

• Other options
• addition of new rooms
• tool to invite others to a room

An icon shows who is speaking
Possibility of exchanging short written messages
www.medialab.sonera.fi/chat-eng/
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Lyceum Modules
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Lyceums whiteboard
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Lyceums concept map
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Lyceums screen grab
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Centra Symposium
www.centra.com
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Some likely advantages

• Students can
• practise their foreign language skills in
  spontaneous interaction
• work in groups and on their own
• meet whenever they wish, that is, they are not
  restricted by time or place
• share their work with others in real-time and via
  asynchronous means (e-mail)
• form self-help groups that can reduce the
  loneliness of the distance learner

17
Salient findings from research into
audio-conferencing

• Learners engaged in TC did await their turn,
  preferred low-risk activities and tended to be
  passive (Stevens/Hewer 1998)
• Learners engaged in TC who also used e-mail were
  more active, took risks, and employed e-mail to
  draft their contributions (Ibid.)
• There seems to be a maximum group size
• Learners who could arrange their own meetings
  often tried to meet without their tutor being
  online at the time (Marsh 1997)

18
More findings from research into
audio-conferencing

• There was a considerable degree of variation in
  student preparation of tasks between individual
  groups (Dymock/Hobson 1998)
• We noticed that online provision of language
  courses to adults suffers from the same problems
  of occasional absenteeism which befall
  traditional face-to-face tuition in evening
  classes. (Hauck/Haezewindt 1999)

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Case studies FLUENT LYCEUM

• three pilot studies with learners of German of
  different levels of FL ability
• two of them were conducted via VoxChat and one
  via Lyceum
• each study lasted for 3-4 months and revolved
  around 3 or 4 activities, which lasted between
  two and four weeks
• copies of e-mail sent by tutors and learners,
  selected audio recordings, and questionnaire
  responses

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Activities

• mainly open and convergent tasks
• ... because they stimulate discussion,
  encourage learners to use their own ideas, and
  foster language play and creativity
• warm-up activities practising tongue twisters,
  the dustbin game, guess a place
• activities proper town planning (cycling path,
  site development, genetically modified crops),
  holiday marketing, a museum of the 21st century,
  nuclear energy - pros cons, ...

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Spoken online interaction
Student A Ok, ahm, shall we, ahm, try to come
up with a few ideas for next Monday? Ahm, I've
actually got some stuff about Luzern already
written in German. If you'd just like to listen
and maybe make some notes, ahm, and see what you
think afterwards, what do you think? Student B
Sounds good to me. Certainly, I'd only, be only
too pleased to, ah, to listen to, to ah, to what
you've got there, and then perhaps we can put it
into (laughs), put it into German which we might,
ah, be able to write and, ah, and speak, and, ah,
prepare ourselves for Monday. Yeah, yeah, fire
away. (continued)
22
Spoken online interaction (ii)
Student A Ok, ahm, well, I'll just sort of go
sentence by sentence, slowly in German, and after
each sentence if you just stop me and say what
was all that about, and I'll, I'll go over it
again, and maybe say what I've got in English, to
clear up anything you don't, can't hear. Ok, so,
to start with, I've got, ahm Die Stadt, die ich
gewählt habe, because it's two of us, we say Die
Stadt, die wir gewählt haben, the town that we've
chosen, that's the word to choose, I think,
gewahl, gewahlen, I think, ist eine schoene Stadt
in der Zentralschweiz. Ok, that's the first
sentence, any comments?
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Turn-taking in audio-conferencing

• It is difficult to anticipate when another
  speaker will finish.
• One cannot interject the odd word to indicate
  support/puzzlement etc.
• It is harder to actively contribute and much
  easier to hide making the whole process much
  less fluid.
• I think I feel a little more relaxed than face
  to face which is good.

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Potential effects on the aural skills

• The level of concentration required is
  extremely high and this should enable enhanced
  focus on the expression of the language as well
  as the understanding of the sense of what is
  being received.
• ... we have to listen very intently ... and
  speaking is not as natural or easy as in a real
  life situation, but we have to speak
  spontaneously which is good.

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L1 versus L2 risk-taking

• S1 I've got various boxes on the screen
• S2 Auch mich, ja, ich kann Sie
• S1 S2, können Sie unsere Box, ahm, sehen? Ich
  kann nicht
• S2 Nein, sie sind verschwunden. Ahm
• S1 Help! Was ist los mit unserer Box?
• S2 What's the matter?
• S1 S2, ich habe alle Information, auf, o, oder,
  ah, alle, die, die, Boxen, alle Informationen der
  concept map, es ist leider nicht hier!
• S2 S1, ich soll, ah, die, dir die Boxen schicken,
  ja? Und du kannst sie, ah, ah, du kannst die
  Boxen save, ok?

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Intermeditate conclusions (I)

• (1) Audio-conferencing can initially be daunting,
  because learners need time to get used to the
  environment
• (2) AC may encourage some learners to pick up the
  courage to speak up
• (3) AC makes learners listen very intently
• (4) 80 of all student talk was in the target
  language - and this was true for scheduled
  meetings and for those the learners arranged
  themselves)

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Social effects of audio-conferencing

• I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to
  prepare for a discussion with another student
  over a period of time rather than in a hurried 15
  minutes before the discussion starts.
• The contact with a group was very good for me
  as I mostly worked completely alone - being
  based in France.
• The informal sessions made the whole thing
  more relaxed and enjoyable i.e. making friends,
  knowing people and their interests.

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Audio-conferencing vs. face-to-face tuition

• During the last session we met and talked
  amongst ourselves without a tutor for the first
  15 minutes and it struck me how much we had
  advanced since the first hesitant sessions.
• In a tutorial I am always very aware of the
  tutor's presence, ... here I felt obliged to
  participate and the practise boosted my
  confidence. I was amazed how much I could keep
  going off the cuff when I felt that others were
  expecting my input.

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Tutor roles in audio-conferencing

• teacher
• content expert
• convenor / time keeper
• troubleshooter
• observer
• co-learner

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One view on the tutor role
Without the structure provided by the tutor, we,
the students, tend to just "chat", which is OK,
but not as good as talking about the subject
taken from the course.
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Tutor intervention ...
students are working without their tutor T
Excusez-moi de vous interrompre, euh, si je
viens simplement vous dire que si vous avez
besoin de moi, je suis à Caen. S1 Mais
vous avez de la chance! 12 seconds silence T
Au revoir. Tutor leaves S2 Il faut revenir
à la question.
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Intermeditate conclusions (II)

• (1) AC reduces feelings of alienation, it
  provides an authentic context, and it
  encourages learners to form self-help groups (gt
  retention!)
• (2) The role of the tutor is affected by several
  factors, including learners L2 proficiency,
  task-design, reliability of the respective
  software, learner types, ...
• (3) AC often liberates learners in the sense
  that they become more and more independent of
  their tutors / teachers

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Other factors that often influence the learner
experience

• Use of ancillary tools, e.g., e-mail
• Time spent on task preparation
• Frequency of scheduled and additional meetings
• Availability and quality of learning materials
• Provision of corrective feedback
• Audio-conferencing vs. graphics

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The most delicate issueProvision of corrective
feedback

• Research shows that learners crave for feedback
  from their teachers / peers
• Research also shows that instant feedback is
  inconsistent, sometimes incomprehensive or
  flawed, and that it usually has little effect
• Option (a) interrupt students
• Option (b) record, listen, annotate, e-mail
• Option (c) use audio-graphics

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The provision of corrective feedback via a
virtual whiteboard
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The ultimate test Were there any demonstrable
improvements?

• (1) Yes, all learners unanimously reported that
  they had become more confident in using their L2
  in spontaneous interaction.
• (2) Yes, there was a marked decrease in the
  length of gaps between learners turns.
• (3) Yes, the learners provided each other with
  unknown items of vocabulary, which often replaced
  L1 words in earlier contributions.
• (4) Yes, virtually all self-corrections resulted
  in more target-like utterances.

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Conclusion

• AC gives learners more opportunities to practise
  their foreign language skills.
• The absence of context cues increased their
  language (learning) awareness.
• Many learners tried to "outperform their
  competence" (Swain).
• Audio (graphic) conferencing fosters learner
  collaboration the formation of self-help
  groups.
• Task-design and tutor behaviour remain critical
  factors of success.

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The use of AC in distance education A checklist

• preparatory meetings
• level(s) of L2 competence, task design, learner
  types, and group sizes
• frequency and duration of meetings, use of
  ancillary tools, learner support
• access issues and equal opportunities
• provision of corrective feedback
• role of productive skills in the syllabus
• testing
• collaboration with other providers