Students evaluation of computer tools and language literacy development Odette Radi La Trobe Univers

1
Students evaluation of computer tools and 
language literacy development Odette Radi La
Trobe University, Australia 
2
Introduction

• The study took place in 2005
• A sample of 65 Year 8 students, aged 13 to 14
  years old in a Co-educational school.
• ACER literacy tests were administered
  Vocabulary, comprehension and writing.
• Surveyed students about their literacy skills
  ability and ways of using computer tools
  (spelling and grammar checkers).
• The ACER tests results were compared to the
  students survey responses and their strategies
  when using the computer tools in both school and
  domestic environments

3
Purpose of the study

• Personal observation.
• The study was set to investigate how spelling and
  grammar checkers benefit the students in the
  short and long terms.
• Samples of students typed up work

4
Aim of the study

• To find out
• How students perform in the literacy tests
  without the aid of computer tools (spelling and
  grammar checkers)?
• How computer influences the language literacy
  development of school age students ?
• How students make use of the spelling and grammar
  checkers when they compose their work on the
  computer?
• How students manage to compose an English writing
  piece on the computer without the aid of the
  spelling and grammar checkers?
• How and why the students use computers in the
  ways that they do?
• How their patterns of use relate to their English
  literacy?

5
Samples of students typed up work without the
aid of the spelling and grammar checkers.

• Male student
• I play football for douttastars footballclub. We
  play on Sundays at twelve fourty five and finnish
  at around two thirty. The age group that I play
  is under fourteen divission one. Unfortnatly we
  only won a couple of games this season and we
  didnt make finals eather.I realy enjoy playing
  football and I train two days a weak,our team has
  a realy good coach he gives eavry one a good run
  on the groundand he knows what he is toking
  about. Our team was very unlucky we didnt make
  finals because we played good footy all year the
  only problem was we couldnt work hard enough
  towards the ends of games so we ended up loosing
  by a couple of points.
•  

6
Sample 2

• Male student
• Ummm the game I would probbly choose is project
  gothem racing 4 cause its a car simlator and you
  can get inbored cameras for the views. Me and
  Jake in my class both make videos and edit them
  and put them on youtube cause me and him want to
  get a satifficat in filming and edititing so we
  can create our own videos but I am not able to
  film ood videos cause my video camera is broken
  but I would buy a new camera but dont have the
  mony.

7
Sample 3

• Female student
• a row of coloured boxes will aper on the game
  screan. with these boxes u are to clik on the
  same coloured boxes with the mouse. for example
  if there is a row of coloured boxes and more then
  two boxes have the same colour if u were to click
  on them they would disaper which would give you a
  hiher score. As you delete more of the boxes ur
  level will get greater. The levels are from 1 to
  50. each level gets faster and faster which makes
  it harder to consintrate on the boxes. If your
  boxes do touch the top of the page then you
  otomaticly loose the game. There are also
  different types of collapes games or different
  type of mazes to the games that can be easier of
  more chalenging for your liking.

8
Sample 4

• Female student
• At the age of eleven I thought it would be a
  good idea to try out for a girls soccer club. I
  suceded and became a key deffender for the team.
  After two year of playing for the team was
  begining to falll apart, players were getting
  older, their main prirority was school. There was
  no more sport club.
• My initial thoughts were I had to quit.
  Fortuntely to my surprise the team my father
  suported (sport club) had made a girls team it
  was open age but it would do. By the end of the
  year the sport club had come 4th which was a
  marveous acheivement. I was aworded with best
  player.

9
Defining computer and language literacies

• Computer literacy
• Involves the understanding of what is possible
  with computers, the physical use of equipment
  peripherals and the applied software
  applications). (Yallop et al, 2005)
• The ability to use a computer with confidence
  and skill and to see ways in which computers can
  be used profitably to achieve a goal (Yallop et
  al, 2005 p. 304).
• Language literacy
• Minimum ability of individuals to read and write
  in a designated language use in everyday life.
  The ability to interpret the world as presented
  to them in the texts. (Winch et al 2006 xxxii
  xxxvi).
• Involves a set of structures ranging from
  individual skills abilities, knowledge, social
  practices and functional competencies, to
  ideological values and political goals (Blake et
  al 2005 pp.7 12).
• Involves the integration of speaking, listening,
  viewing and critical thinking with reading and
  writing and includes the cultural knowledge which
  enables a speaker, writer or reader to recognise
  and use language appropriate to different social
  situations.(Early childhood Australia 2007 )

10
Acquiring Computer and Language Literacy Skills

• Acquiring computer literacy skills
• In a less specialised level, by learning how to
  physically operate the computer components and
  the applied software applications.
• With additional computer components by learning
  how to use the scanner, iPod., CDs, cameras and
  the like and the explosion in the software
  available for use including the Internet. (Winch
  et al 2006 34-36).
• Acquiring language literacy skills
• Determine the relationship between cognitive
  skills (perception and memory) and reading skills
  (decoding and comprehension) and writing skills.
  (Christensen 2006).
• Range from word identification, word recognition
  and decoding to understanding the intent of the
  person who wrote the passage or influencing the
  readers when definition is applied to writing.
  (Christensen 2006).

11

Findings from other studies

• New technologies do change patterns of language
  and written communication. After a period of
  use, we often forget their origins to the point
  of poor spelling and slipshod grammatical
  informality Teenagers have realized,
  spell-checking and other editing tools are
  changing both perceptions and habits. (Harris
  2005 49a)
• Students expressed their concern with the
  mechanics of writing and the efforts involved
  with letter formation, spelling words, typing on
  the computer, and creating pictures to illustrate
  their story. (Van Leeuwen and Gabriel 2007 420
  430)
• Students saw the main use of the computers for
  work as word processing. Correct spelling,
  legibility of text and good presentation were
  very important to them for obtaining good grades.
  (Cuthell 2002 47)

12
Findings from other studies cont.

• FUCHS and WOESSMANNs (2004 1) findings revealed
  that the family background and school
  characteristics indicated that the relationship
  gets negative for home computers and
  insignificant for school computers.
• Active traditional reading with a strong
  engagement in fiction is associated with a high
  level of reading literacy proficiency. In
  contrast, the lowest performance level was
  attained by the group of heavy digital readers,
  who typically almost never read traditional
  fiction or non-fiction. This suggests that if
  students tend to read electronic texts only, they
  will not reach a very high level of literacy at
  least when assessed by using traditional texts
  and methods (Leino et al, 2004, p. 262).

13
Research methodology

• Quantitative method was used
• Students computer use and English writing
  (Gall et al 2003 319 321). 65/135 students
  participated 40 boys and 25 girls.
• The data was gathered by administering
• (1) Vocabulary ACER tests Progressive
  Achievement Tests in Reading and Comprehension
  (PAT R) (2001) and writing Developmental
  Assessment Resource for Teachers (DART English)
  (1994)
• (2) A self-developed questionnaire that explored
  patterns of educational and domestic computer
  use, by Year 8 students.

14
 The results of the ACER tests for both boys
and girls
 
24
16
Graph 1. Boys and Girls average performance in
Vocabulary, Comprehension and Writing
tests.
15
Students responses to
the questionnaire on the use of spell checker
Graph 2. The use of spell checker
Computer-pupil interactions are often
characterised as progressive (Madinach et al,
2000 p.389)
16
Spell checker and strategy for word replacement

Table 1 Spell checker and strategy for word
replacement
17
Students responses to the questionnaire on the
use of the grammar checker

•  

Graph 3. The use of grammar checker.
18
Correlation outcomes between the students
responses of their estimated time spent using
computers at home against the results of the ACER
tests.

•  

Graph 4. Boys and Girls overall test results mean
and minutes per week
19
Conclusion

• students responses indicated an extensive use of
  computers
• They are engaged in the use of computer tools
  (spell and grammar checkers) in both education
  and domestic environments.
• The results also showed
• - Both positive and negative relationships
  between the two
• literacies.
• - Graph 1 (literacy tests) compared to
  students perception in Graphs 2 and 3 (spelling
  and grammar checkers) showed that the regular use
  of computer tools at Year 8 level has
  implications on the development of their language
  literacy skills.
• Goss (1997 15) states that the issue is not
  computers versus literacy on the basis that the
  increased use of microelectronic tools still
  requires adequate literacy skills to enable
  students and others to interpret the messages,
  look for several possible meanings and also fully
  participate in reading and writing.

20

• Approximately, half of the students responses
  indicated that they do not connect the computer
  tools to their wider language literacy skills. As
  demonstrated in Table 1, 53 of boys and 44 of
  girls responded with non-reflective strategies
  when selecting the correct vocabulary word
  replacement from the spell checkers list while
  composing their English writing. Those students
  and others like them require their teachers to
  intervene and be pro-active to engage them in a
  more reflective use of the computer tools
  (spelling and grammar checkers). Teachers have to
  teach their students how to make use of computer
  literacy, in ways that, will be beneficial for
  language literacy.

21
Suggestive strategies

• Vocabulary and grammar are crucial tools to
  assist students in their language development.
• Strategies how to learn from the computer tools
• Students may list/write the misspelt words into
  their workbook /electronically.
• Use the spell checker to correct the words and
  list them next to the incorrect ones.
• Use the dictionary to find the meanings (can be
  set for homework).
• Put the word in a sentence to ensure the meaning
  of the word(s) that they intended to include
  is/are correctly spelt.

22
Table
23
More questions than answers

• This level of exposure and familiarity leads to
  questions such as
• Are the spelling and grammar checkers doing the
  young people any good?
• Are these tools enhancing or hindering the young
  people basic literacy (vocabulary and
  comprehension) skills in order to operate such
  devices and tools?
• Are teachers assessing the level of students
  literacy skills or the production of computer
  tools?
• What is the role/responsibility of the parents
  when their children are using the home computer?

24
Bibliography

• Australian Council for Educational Research.
  (2001). Progressive Achievement Tests in Reading
  Comprehension and Vocabulary Tests Form 4, Third
  Edition. Victoria. Australia ACER Press.
• Blake, Brett Elizabeth, and, Blake, Robert W.
  (2005). Literacy Primer. New York Peter Lang.
• Christensen, Carol. (2005, December). Decoding
  Reading Link is Transforming the Teaching of
  Literacy. The National Enquiries into teaching of
  literacy report. Australia Network Educational.
• Cuthell, John P. (2002). Virtual Learning The
  Impact of ICT on the Way Young People Work and
  Learn. Ashgate. Sydney.
• Early Childhood Australia. (May 11, 2007 )
  Language and literacy. Retrieved
• August 5, 2008.
• http//www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/position
  _statements/language_and_literacy.html. . Fuchs,
  Thomas., and, Wößmann, Ludger. (2004, November).
  Computers and Student Learning Bivariate and
  Multivariate Evidence on the Availability and Use
  of Computers at Home and at School. Ludger CESIFO
  Working Paper No. 1321. Category 4 Labour
  Markets. Retrieved October 16, 2007 from
  http//www.res.org.uk/econometrics/504.pdf.
• Harris, Frances Jacobson. (2005). I found it on
  the Internet Coming on Age Online.American
  Library Association. Chicago.
• Leino, Kaisa., Linnaky, Pirjo., and, Malin,
  Antero. (July, 2004). Finnish Students
  Multiliteracy Profiles. Scandinavian Journal of
  Educational Research. 48 (3), 251 270.
  Retrieved on April 28, 2008 from
  http//www.informaworld.com/smpp_contentt71344599
  3.
• Myers, Miles. (1996). Changing Our Minds
  Negotiating English and Literacy. National
  Council of Teachers of English. Illinois.
• Van Leeuwen, Charlene A. and  Gabriel, Martha A.
  (February 2007). Beginning to write with word
  processing integrating writing process and
  technology in a primary classroom as technology
  becomes ubiquitous, teachers can support
  students' writing development in new ways.
  Journal of Research on Computing in Education.
  The Reading Teacher 60.5  pages 420 - 430. 
• Winch, Gordon., Johnston, Rosemary Ross., March,
  Paul., Ljungdahl, Lesley., and, Holliday,
  Marcelle. (2006). Literacy Reading, Writing and
  Childrens Literature. (pp. xxxii xl). Third
  Edition. New York Oxford University Press.
• Yallop, Collin., Bernard, Jrl., Blair, D.,
  Butler, S., Deldridge, A., Peters, P., and,
  Witton, N. (2005). Macquarie Dictionary. Fourth
  Edition. Australia Macquarie Library.