Technology-Enhanced Language Learning

1996 Volume in the Foreign Language Education Series of the

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

Anyone who has access to any form of media has heard some or all of these terms. No matter where we turn, we are barraged with evidence that digital technology is affecting virtually every aspect of our lives. For example, 1994 saw a computer market that surpassed television sales for the first time ever. Not even the wildest dreamers of the early days of the computer industry would have predicted that such a possibility could become reality as quickly as it did. It is clear that some sectors of our society have experienced phenomenal growth in the implementation of digital technologies.

Yet, what has been the impact of technology on teaching and learning in the language classroom? It seems clear that there are significant numbers of classrooms around the country where technology has had no impact at all. Is there potential waiting to be fulfilled? And let's consider the developers who have been striving to put these technologies to work for language learners. Are they "technology nuts," eager to adopt any new thing that comes along, but who have missed the mark concerning what is important to the profession? Or are they pioneers who have blazed trails that others will follow? Is the foreign language learning profession poised on an exciting threshold of tremendous development, or will it continue to go slow in finding interesting and exciting ways that technology can help solve the language learning problem?

To understand the state of technology in language learning today, one needs to consider the historical setting of the past fifteen or so years. In 1980 Solveig Olsen published an article in the Modern Language Journal that provided a foreshadowing of an answer to the first question above on technology's impact. Moreover, it is quite interesting to consider the findings of her survey as a prediction of what seems to have in fact happened.

In 1978 and 1979, Olsen surveyed foreign language departments in 1,810 four-year colleges. Of the 602 that returned the survey, 527 indicated that computer-assisted instruction was not in use and would not be considered in the near future. When asked about the potential for using computers in language learning, many were suspicious:

"My advice is to stay out. Computers can now teach computer language, not a living language."

To the question of whether their department would introduce computer-assisted instruction by 1980 department chairs responded with comments such as

• "I hope not."
• "Forget it!"
• "... CAI is a waste of time, energy, and money that should be used to buy library books."
• "Don't do it. It is a very stupid idea. Language is a living thing. You must really be desperate to think of anything so dumb."

Some apparently felt that the computer would replace the teacher:

• "Somehow it does not fit into our concept of a liberal arts college where human communication is paramount."
• "A waste of time; you are dehumanizing language instruction. It will be held against you when you argue the humanistic nature of language studies."

In contrast with the negative attitudes of this group, other sectors of our society were of a different mind. Computer sales jumped from 724,000 in 1980 to 2.8 million units in 1982. In January 1983 Time picked the computer as the "Machine of the Year," replacing their traditional "Man of the Year" for 1982:

"Time's Man of the Year for 1982, the greatest influence for good or evil, is not a man at all. It is a machine: the computer" (Friedrich 1983).

This event most certainly raised anxiety to serious levels for many of the members of Olsen's survey group. Furthermore, their worst fears continued to come true before their eyes and at a pace they probably could not comprehend.

Consider for example the fact that in 1994 there were 48.5 million PCs sold, representing startling growth in the number of machines installed during the period since the survey was conducted. Although quite impressive by the sheer numbers, the increases are overwhelming when considering the computing power that was sold in 1994. Although there were about 67 times more computers sold that year than 14 years previously, most of those units were roughly 128 times more powerful than the computers of 1980. This means that there was 8,576 times more computing power sold in 1994 than in 1980!

In addition, the advances show no sign of slowing. Moore's Law says that computing power doubles roughly every two years, and there is no end in sight. These advances are making possible some very interesting technological capabilities, putting us on the threshold of another significant development that will perhaps eclipse developments to date. We are witnessing the convergence of computers, communications technologies, and media into a totally new, synergistic something that promises to be infinitely more important than any of the technologies by themselves. The visions of the most visionary of the computer pioneers of the 1970s doubtless did not include the things that in fact are becoming possible.

To place the potential impact of these technologies in perspective for education in general, consider the following recommendations made in a recently completed study by the RAND Corporation for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of Technology of the U.S. Department of Education (Glennan and Melmed 1996). This study took an in-depth look at the role that technology is playing and probably should be playing in public schools today and concluded:

• Educational technology has significant potential for improving students' learning.
• Extensive use of technology in schools has the potential to promote significant school restructuring and expand the time and motivation for student learning.
• The growth in use of technology by schools is strong; schools are adding equipment and developing connections to the national information infrastructure at a high rate. However, many schools still lack significant access to technology.
• Data from a study by the IEA in 1992 suggested the availability of technology in schools serving poor, minority, and special needs populations did not appear to lag substantially behind the averages of schools taken as a whole. However, to the extent that technology enables learning outside the school, large disparities in the access of students of different classes and ethnicity to technology is a matter of concern.
• Some schools and school districts have moved rapidly to a fairly ubiquitous use of technology, and their experiences should provide guidance to others that are following.
• The costs of ubiquitous use of technology are modest in the context of overall budgets for public elementary education but moving to such use requires significant and potentially painful restructuring of budgets.
• When technology is deeply infused in a school's operations, teachers tend to assume new roles and require new skills. There is a strong consensus among the experts we consulted that neither the initial preparation of teachers nor the current strategies for continued professional development have been effective in developing these skills.
• While there has been a rapid expansion in home education software, the market for school-based content software has been modest and comparatively stagnant. Quality content software for middle and secondary schools is not broadly available. However, this market is likely to evolve rapidly. [See <http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR682/ed_ch5.html# RTFToC1>.]

The changes that these conclusions portend for public schools should give rise to great reflection on the part of all foreign language educators. Ready or not, it appears that technology will play an ever-increasing role in each of our institutions. It therefore behooves foreign language education professionals to better understand technology and its potential for foreign language learning. From curricular objectives to lesson planning, from pedagogical considerations to capabilities of hardware and software combinations, and from teacher training to software applicability, there will not be any aspect of foreign language learning that will not be influenced by the technological revolution.

Returning to our second question above, where are we today with respect to the implementation of technology for language learning? In 1987 and 1989 ACTFL published two volumes in the Foreign Language Education Series as a result of its commission to Flint Smith (Smith 1989; Smith 1987). Covering the impact of technology on foreign language education at that time, these volumes became two of the best sellers ever in the ACTFL Foreign Language Education Series. But as illustrated above, seven years is a very long time, given the speed with which technology is developing. Things that were interesting but too expensive for wide-spread implementation at that time are now becoming commonplace today. Things that were only marginally imaginable are now becoming possible.

Given the incredible changes that have taken place and that will continue to unfold in our classrooms, it is necessary to once again address how technology can benefit language learners.

Volume Overview

So how do we make sense of imminent technological change and the status of technology implementation in foreign language learning? The main purpose of this volume is to explore new technologies from the perspective of the foreign language teaching professional. Gunther Mueller, a member of the Volume Advisory Committee, proposed the following graphic to help define the specific topics that authors needed to cover. As illustrated, the areas to be addressed fall within the intersection of issues related to the Learner, the Teacher, the Technology, and the Curriculum and converge at educational and learning Outcomes.

It was not possible to present every specific issue implied by this diagram, nevertheless, volume authors were challenged to address areas such as

• electronic technologies and ways their impact can benefit each of the four language skills;
• appropriate pedagogical strategies for technology in language learning;
• specific, noteworthy, technology-based applications for language learning;
• teacher education issues;
• technology implementation strategies to maximize positive impact on language learning outcomes; and
• the potential for using technology to learn about the language learning process itself.

Coverage of all possible topics was not exhaustive, but as the reader will see, the list of areas of concern discussed by the authors was extensive throughout the volume's nine chapters.

Chapter Overviews

In Chapter 1, "Taking Control of Multimedia," Pusack and Otto provide an excellent introduction to interactive technologies. After demonstrating how pedagogy must govern the ways new media are used, they go on to discuss how specific attributes can help both teachers and learners. They provide several excellent examples of actual applications and how they have been used to support sound language teaching pedagogy.

Chiquito, Meskill, and Renjilian-Burgy, in Chapter 2, "Multiple, Mixed, Malleable Media," contrast the dynamic nature of language with the static media that have traditionally been used in its teaching. They discuss specific projects and products and show how these can enrich the language learning experiences of students. The authors have done extensive surveys of existing applications and provide this excellent overview of developments in the application of technology to individual language learning - from interactive videodisc to newer digital interactive multimedia technologies and network-based applications.

In Chapters 3 and 4, "Teaching Listening: How Technology Can Help" and "Hypermedia Technology for Teaching Reading," Joiner and Martínez-Lage each provide excellent theoretical underpinnings for how technology can support receptive skill learning. In Chapter 3 Joiner moves from more conventional approaches for teaching listening to multimedia technologies and provides an overview of how various technologies can be brought to bear on this particular skill, supporting her affirmations with actual research. In addition to the excellent overview in Chapter 4 of the reading process itself, Martínez-Lage also shows how she was able to create a hypermedia application from Laura Esquivel's best­selling novel, Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate). She provides an overview of the development process as well as a glimpse at student results from using the application.

Teaching the productive skills with technology presents much more of a challenge than does teaching the receptive skills. In Chapter 5, "Computer-Mediated Communication: Technology for Improving Speaking and Writing," Beauvois reports on actual experiences using the computer in this mode. She thus provides empirical evidence for the efficacy of new approaches that combine technology-based communication and teacher-based instruction to address many important objectives for teaching speaking and writing.

Scinicariello, in Chapter 6, "Uniting Teachers, Learners, and Machines: Language Laboratories and Other Choices," provides an excellent overview of where the language laboratory is today and where it needs to go in the future. She points out that although language laboratories have experienced change in previous years, those of the past are almost insignificant with respect to the changes that are now taking place. Her discussion provides valuable insights into the restructuring that she says will need to take place. Not leaving things there, her advice pertaining to possible steps and potential pitfalls will be valuable to anyone involved with establishing, directing, or using language laboratories now or in the future.

As illustrated in Chapter 7, "Learning Language and Culture with Internet Technologies," Internet technologies such as E-mail and the World Wide Web are making an incredible entrée onto the education scene. In this chapter, Lafford and Lafford discuss activities using online technologies that students at various proficiency levels can perform as individuals or in small groups. They provide numerous examples of applications and show how these can be used with students.

Although there might be a great deal of interest among teachers for the use of technology in their language classes, unless teachers know how to use technology in the instructional programs they devise, it seems obvious to conclude that students will not benefit. In Chapter 8, "Meeting the Technology Challenge: Introducing Teachers to Language Learning Technology," Kassen and Higgins point out how new technologies, more than ever before, dictate a serious need for teacher education. They also provide a specific example of a training program they have devised to address this problem.

Chapter 9, the final chapter of the volume, is entitled "Implementing Technology for Language Learning." With the goal of outlining reasonable expectations, Bush puts technology for foreign language education in the much broader contexts of technology in society and technology in education in general. Pointing out how foreign language students are not benefiting from the new learning tools becoming available, he illustrates how, without the profession's devising a coherent model for implementation, students will continue to miss out on the potential that technology has to offer for addressing language learning problems. He also gives examples of how the situation can be turned around and places the potential for change within an overall societal context for technology in learning.

Conclusion

As illustrated by each of the chapters within this volume, technology for language learning can be an effective force for improving foreign language instruction. Furthermore, it is much more powerful and affordable today than ever before, and there is evidence that this situation will only continue to improve. Unfortunately, despite the incredible advances of recent years, not very many students benefit from its potential today. It is hoped that this volume will help change that.

References

Friedrich, Otto 1983. "The Computer Moves In." Time, January 3, pp. 14-24