Multimedia in Foreign Language Learning

Multimedia in Foreign Language LearningZ. Dovedan, S. Seljan, K. VučkovićDepartment of Information SciencesFaculty of PhilosophyI.Lučića 3, Zagreb, CroatiaPhone-fax: 01/ 6002-431 E-mail: zdovedan@hotmail.com, sseljan@ffzg.hr, krivucko@yahoo.comAbstract: Computer technology and Internet are inevitablenew media in education methodology. Still, the central rolein teaching belongs to humans. The power of Internet liesin offering authentic materials, software, education plans,list of exams, literature, etc. to schools, universities, andinstitutions all over the world but under the sameconditions. Next to its commercial importance, it is seen aspedagogical tool for either the independent research orteamwork.The paper brings out positive and negative effects of newtechnology and its implementation in foreign languageI. INTRODUCTIONToday, more than ever, advancements intechnology influence our jobs, education, scientificdevelopment, market and political cooperations,communications, etc. Information and communicationtechnologies have entered every aspect of our lives.Computers are no longer intended for the selected fewsince they exist in all forms of contemporary life, andthus including educational institutions as well.Every day, we face the infinity of informationthat needs to be selected among many and thenappropriately used. Computer technology has become apart of every-day activities in such an amount thatpresent generations must be computer literate no matterwhat his/her expert of scientific field might be. Such asituation introduces an idea of on-line web-basedcurricula in order to respond to increasing demands fromsociety and industry the same.In spite of the fact that computers are beingused for education purposes for the past decades, theirusage still does not suffice.Introduction of Internet speeds up the usage ofnew technologies even more and reconsiders the socialrole of educational institutions. According to someresearch done by the American Technology EvaluationOffice (Wellburn, 1996), the technology should be oneof the major factors for bridging over larger and largergap between schools and society. Online environmentsand the use of the Web have been seen as an educationalpanacea for providing students with skills such as onlinecommunication, discussion and negotiation of meaning.The new technology helps the teacher with theeducational process, presents new possibilities ofcreative work and two way communication, andfurthermore presents teachers with a challenge toprovide an active participation of all students.Browsers with interesting graphical designs,enable key word search for not only textual pages, butlearning. Besides for the lessons learning, the idea ofinformation literacy maintains crucial position ineducation. The new technology demands investment oftime, effort, money, and self-education, so that theprincipal question remains: Are we ready for new type ofeducation in order to offer better teaching, moreinteresting lessons and more importantly, to prepare newgenerations for future challenges?also search for pictures and sounds as well. Usage of e-mails also enables active participation in discussion listswhere all participants can discuss, give their opinions orask for help. Data transfer permits transmission ofpictures, sounds, texts or programs needed for theclassroom work. Electronic newspapers and search ofdistant libraries are also different and exciting ways ofgetting required information.Today, computer technology and Internet needto be seen as unavoidable teaching materials that providestudents with new ways of communication, differentways to access the authentic materials, initiative toindividual research and also to the individual and teamwork. The main question today is no longer 'Does theneeded technology exist?' but rather 'Are the educatorsready for the new educational era, for further selfeducation and for putting more effort and time in theirpreparations so that they can offer more interestinglessons and more importantly, to prepare presentgenerations for future challenges?’II. MULTIMEDIA USAGE INSCHOOL SETTINGSMultimedia can be used for teaching differenttopics in math, informatics, foreign language learning,biology, chemistry, etc. There is an immense quantity ofweb pages with already made materials that can be usedin the classroom and that cover almost all subjectscovered in primary and secondary schools, as well as thematerials for the youngest and the oldest students aswell. So, for example, if you visit FunBrain.com, Quia,GetSmarter.org and similar sites, you will find all sortsof exercises, drills, games, tests, and explanations thatcan be used in the classroom. The pages offer differentmaterials for students, according to their age group, butalso for teachers and parents.Many conferences and associations concerningthis field, speak about the importance of the newtechnology usage in the educational process. Here we

can mention only some like Computer AssistedLanguage Instruction Consortium (CALICO), EuropeanAssociation for Computer Assisted Learning(EUROCALL), Foreign Language Learning Educationand Technology (FLEAT), International Association forLanguage Learning and Teaching (IALL).Teachers' reaction to the Internet usage variesfrom those who strongly oppose it as a place with toomuch, chaotically organized information, to those whouncritically embrace it. Both reactions produce equallynegative results and should be changed. In spite of thegreat potentials that Internet offers in the languageclassroom, its effectiveness depends on the way bothteachers and students exploit it.It has been proved that students generally enjoyworking with computers, and this fact should be used tomotivate them during learning process. They should bethought how to use Internet as a learning material asonce they were thought how to use books.III.METHODOLOGY OFMULTIMEDIA SYSTEMSMultimedia as teaching material presents a newmethod in educational process in Croatia's schools.These educational packages consist of different forms ofknowledge. Depending on their design, they can be usedfor several class periods, for one semester or for even anentire school year. On one hand, these packages maketeachers' job easier, especially for the teachers workingin dislocated schools, but on the other hand, they requirespecial computer equipment, computer literacy ofteachers as well as students, and great motivation.Multimedia packages combine differentthematic areas: the main theme, i.e., the context onwhich the language learning is based upon, grammar,written and spoken communication. Teachers also needto include multimedia packages in their lesson microplans, and then decide on the class type, plan the topicand domain of the material that will be covered, timeneeded to complete the assignments, the main objectivesof the class, testing, and other.Usage of the multimedia packages requirescertain teaching aims to be satisfied: educational – acquisition of the new; behavioral – learning good manners,communication, motivation, self-perception,self-responsibility; functional – fine-tuning of reasoning, practicingmemorizing, observing, and drawing skills.Contemporary methodology has an accent on the usageof different forms of teaching believing that it brings thebest effects, and thus suggests the combination offrontal, group, pair and individual work. If multimedia isadequately included in such a teaching, it givesextremely good results.A. StrategiesAnita Wenden defines learning strategies as mentalsteps that learners use to learn a new language andregulate efforts to do so. She also believes that there areonly two main kinds of learning strategies that aredistinguished on the basis of their function in learning: Cognitive strategies – steps taken to processlinguistic and sociolinguistic content and theyinclude selecting information from incomingdata, comprehending it, storing it, andretrieving it for the use; Self-management strategies – steps taken tooversee and manage learning and they includeplanning, monitoring and evaluation.Julika Matravers however makes a different division anduses six kinds of strategies that are used in teachingprocess: Cognitive apprenticeship – watching an expertin action and asking questions; Successive refinement – the learning material isexplained in steps with gradual addition ofdetails; Practice – presentation of a problem that needsto be solved; Demonstration – presentation of example; Socratic hinting – placing the user in a specificframe of mind by providing short reminders orquestions; Analogue reasoning – presenting a differentviewpoint of a situation.The strategy is selected according to the subject area andhas to be supported by the interface used in theclassroom.IV.MULTIMEDIA IN FOREIGNLANGUAGE LEARNINGInformation and communication technologies areprobably the most used technologies for foreignlanguage teaching. There is probably no teacher who,next to the standard text books, does not bring authenticmaterials, like city maps, newspaper articles, bookreviews, recipes, poems, etc., to his/her classroom. All ofthese and even more can be found on the Internet.Just by using search engines on the web, one canaccess far away libraries, find the on-line magazines thatcover specific topics, send massages, discuss problems,or ask for help. This shows that the new technology isnot only a technical helping tool, but an educationallyrich source for the teachers and their students.The web pages that offer different activities forstudents are considered to be very valuable as a sourcefor different: grammar exercises comprehension reading exercises writing of abstracts and letters solving puzzles vocabulary learning through recipes, fashionand sport articles information on studying abroad searching for jobs or for a certain product translation between languages and many more.In this way, students practice their writing skills,they search for the things of their own interest and thuslearning becomes more fun. Except for the primary aim,

which is learning foreign language, students are alsoworking on their computer skills and new technologyusage.As German philosopher, Alexander von Humboldthas noticed 'A language cannot be taught. One can onlycreate conditions for learning to take place.' and by usingmultimedia, one certainly creates such conditions.All nine approaches to language teaching that were usedthrough out the history, grammar-translation approach,direct approach, reading approach, audiolingualism,situational approach, cognitive approach, affectivehumanisticapproach, comprehension-based approach,and communicative approach are only brought togetherin multimedia and web usage. This is something thatevery teacher needs to have in mind when ponderingover using multimedia or not.A. Examples of Multimedia on WWWLearning with the help of multimedia packages isno longer a one-way process, but rather a dialog amongthe participants. Most often, students use multimediaindividually or in pairs, in the classroom, and also athome. Working with such packages, studentssystematize lessons, revise through games, and logicallyconnect learning materials with real life situations.Next to the multimedia packages on CD-ROMs orfloppy discs, variety of exercises, drills and examplescan be found on the Internet, usually under theEducation category. Except for the main portals(www.yahoo.com, www.google.com, www.excite.com,...) with Education as a subcategory, there are also directlinks to specialized pages for foreign language learning,like Education Resources Website(http://www.edufind.com/), Language on the Web(http://www.languages-on-the-web-com), On-lineDictionaries (http://www.yourdictionary.com), ForeignLanguage Resources on the Web(http://www.itp.berkeley.edu/~thorne/HumanResources.html), and many others.There are multimedia packages intended for earlylearning (up to ten year old ones) that offer story telling,song listening, and game playing which are moreappropriate forms of learning for that age group. CD-ROMs and Web pages(http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Dictionary.html,http://www.pdictionary.com) with picture dictionariescan also be found and used for these learners.Multimedia packages for older learners differ in theircontent and presentation, but nevertheless, offerdynamical, interesting, multimedia environment, withdifferent topics to cover, many types of exercises anddrills, tests, grammatical rules explained and used onseveral levels, and last but not the least, feedback to theuser about his progress.V. EVALUATION CRITERIADifferent criteria are mentioned throughout theliterature concerning the evaluation of multimediapackages. Among them, there are few that can be viewedas the major ones that need to be taken intoconsideration so that their form, strategy and proceduresmake a system that can be employed in education.According to Richard and Janice Schreck three majorevaluations must take place: evaluation of content and instructional presentation; evaluation of the smoothness of the learningexperience; evaluation of the courseware's value in thecurriculum.Multimedia interfaces for educational systems alsohave to be adjusted to the user – student, concerninghis/her individual needs, already obtained results, testingand topics. Criteria that every interface needs to satisfyare: cognitive load and style which include consistency,abstraction, fidelity, and flexibility; supportiveness which is a right level of feedback orhelp for the user to feel comfortable with theprogram; acceptability which refers to the ability of thesystem to be simple to use, not to cause tiredness,frustration or any discomfort.Multimedia interfaces that are used for educationalpurposes are aimed toward the user who needs toefficiently complete his/her assignment. So, next to thealready mentioned criteria, the interface must support thelearning process in a way that the user interface is seenas the student interface since the context of interactionbetween a computer and a student is a different one ofthe interaction between a computer and a user.A. Example of Multimedia Package on CD-ROMMultimedia Package Learn to SpeakFrench/English is one of multimedia packages that unifythematic units with dynamic and static pictures andsounds. Next to lessons, it offers grammar exercises,vocabulary drills, tests, grammar rules, soundrecordings, listening of the native speaker with thepossibility of a feed-back.Students usually use these packages individually orin pairs, outside the classroom area. By working on suchmultimedia package, the student systemizes lessons,reviews through the game, establishes new logicalconnections between the learned material and real lifesituation and thus justifies the teacher’s investment oftime and effort.There are, also, multimedia packages for earlylanguage acquisition (up to 10 years) that enable storywriting, game playing, and song listening.Some CD-ROMs have picture dictionaries withanimations (movement and sound), that children can useindividually, in pairs or in group. Such CD is PictureDictionary CD-ROM.B. Personalization of Multimedia PackagesOne of the criteria of multimedia package is theability to personalize it. Since the central role belongs to

a student as an individual, it is important to be able toadopt the program for his/her personal needs. Thestudent can repeat exercises at his/her own will, movethrough the program at his/her own pace and accordingto his/her interests, broaden the lesson using links andadditional texts, evaluate him/herself through recordingof his/her own speech, check the test results or exit theprogram in every moment. This way, learning becomes atwo-way communication instead of one-way as it used tobe.The package can be placed on web-site of thespecific class, together with the links to other similarpackages.VI.ADVANTAGES ANDDISADVANTAGESThe Internet is only one of the possible uses ofcomputer technology but is still the most disputed andthe most praised one. For some, it as a confirmation ofthe dominance of American ideas, and for others, avictory of globalization and free market. Someemphasize a user and his/her writes, and someemphasize the idea that the Internet is leading us towardsalienation and communication breakdown. We oftenhear about the variety of easily accessible informationand knowledge, but also about unsatisfactory generalculture and lack of education.We find similar reactions concerning the Internetusage in the process of education. Some of theadvantages that are usually given as a vote for usingInternet are: 24 hour access to materials; all data can be easily changed, edited or added; data can be exchanged and compared amongdifferent users; learning is with more enthusiasm that leads tofaster memorizing of new materials; communication can be led outside the spaceand time that involves school as a centrallearning place; exercises and drills are adjusted to differentlevels of knowledge; developing of new technology usage skills; developing skills for individual research andteam work; acquisition of social awareness;Of course, there are at the same time disadvantages thatwe should be aware of and that we should keep in mindwhen preparing the Internet materials for the classroomusage: lack of a person in charge of the information wefind on the Internet; easy access to unsuitable content; surfing the web during and after the class timefor the materials not connected with thelearning process; virus threat.In spite of these negative sides of the Internet usage,they should not be seen as a threat to using it at all.Teachers should have a central role here and with his/herchoice of decisions use new technologies and Internet toenrich teaching process in multiple ways.VII.CONCLUSIONInternet and Web provide new forms ofcommunication and thus bring many possibilities, butalso make their demands for permanent education, usagein classroom, cultural spreading, scientific education andeconomic development. The new technology has to beseen as a possibility of a new kind of communicationand as a help to a teacher whose role stays irreplaceable.Teachers should be placed in the role offacilitator whose task is to develop and maintainsupportive class atmosphere. They will always be theones who decide, direct, explain, connect old with thenew, recognize nonverbal communication, and givemoral support. Communication between a teacher and astudent, and among students themselves, must not belost. That is why it is important to adequately usetechnology and Internet in the classroom and make surethat alienation does not take place at any cost. Directedand wisely managed teaching should only profit by theuse of computer technology.The ability of multimedia packages to motivatestudents should be used to do exactly that. They can onlybe seen as the helping tool for the classical teachingprocess, and the variety and flexibility that they offershould be used to bring out the best that students cangive.LITERATURE[1] M. D. Bush, Language Learning Via the Web. Symposiumof the Computer Aided Language Instruction Consortium,Albuquerque, 1996.http://moliere.byu.edu/calico/calico98.html[2] M. Celce-Murcia (ed.), Teaching English as a Second orForeign Language, Heinle & Heinle Publishers,Massachusetts, 1991.[3] J. H. Hulstijn, The Use of Computer Technology inExperimental Studies of Second Language Acquisition: ASurvey of Some Techniques and Some Ongoing Studies,Language Learning & Technology, Vol 3, No 2, 2000.http://llt.msu.edu/vol3num2/hulstijn/index.html[4] Language Learning Activities for the World Wide Web,http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/lss/lang/nflrc.html.[5] Language, Education and Technology,http://kloatu.oit.umass.edu/langctr/langlearn.html.[6] J. Matravers. 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