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Computer Assisted / Aided Language Learning (CALL)




Enviado por jairo_agustin



Partes: 1, 2

    1. Abstract
    2. Introduction
    3. Theoretical
      framework
    4. Research
      design
    5. Data
      analysis
    6. Conclusions
      and implications
    7. References
    8. Glossary

    ABSTRACT

    This research aims at analyzing the potential benefits
    of interaction with multimedia
    software
    environments by providing strategies to enhance teaching and
    learning processes. It illuminates some aspects resisting the
    development of quality interaction while using teaching-learning
    English as a foreign language multimedia.
    Interaction includes communication or inter-personal-machine
    contact and multimedia includes audio (speech, sounds, music),
    video (text,
    graphics, pictures, animations, movies) and interactivity (via
    keyboard, mouse,
    microphone). A combined ethnographic and oral analysis is used to
    describe the participants group dynamics. In the development of
    this research, adults from the Extension English Program were
    observed in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Gran Colombia
    University Language Laboratory. Following the communicative
    approach, the purpose of the study is more to observe what
    learners do each other around the computer rather than examining
    what they do with the machine. The teacher is considered as
    participant observer who describes step by step the
    students’ behavior in the learning process. The scope is
    intentionally limited to research concerned with evaluating the
    nature of interaction and teacher and student’s roles.
    Results from this study are expected to contribute to the area of
    TEFL and to raise critical questions about the integration of
    multimedia in the curriculum and
    to study how to foster interaction amongst learners, teachers and
    the use of multimedia software.

    CHAPTER 1

    INTRODUCTION

    This study discusses the nature of interaction and
    participant’s roles during ten months observation of
    students and teachers using the Discoveries multimedia
    teaching–learning software. Interactivity in learning is "a
    necessary and fundamental mechanism for knowledge acquisition and
    the development of both cognitive and physical skills" (Barker,
    1994:1). The role of interaction in foreign language curriculum has
    grown since its beginnings. There is a high body of research
    reported about interaction in the traditional classroom. However,
    there is a little body of research reported about interaction at
    instructional settings equipped with computers and programs. At
    the lab, it is very important to identify ways to promote quality
    interaction amongst students, teachers and computer software.
    Quality interaction is understood as the one that allows the
    development of knowledge acquisition and the one that promotes
    language use.

    The Discoveries multimedia learning software gives a
    diverse opportunity to interact with learners and teachers.
    During a typical multimedia session in the computer lab, each
    student sits (or two students) in front of a computer terminal to
    work with multimedia programs. The teacher walks around the lab
    in case any student needs some help. Adequate assistance to
    students is a very important teacher task because it promotes
    interaction.

    This project evidences the fact that computer pair work
    enhances interaction. Pool (1999) argues that a growing number of
    research indicates that group work is an efficient model. In this
    research, there is evidence that students learn better when they
    cooperate with others students that when they work alone by their
    own way.

    Several aspects motivated me to study about the use of
    multimedia in English learning. For instance, computerized
    classrooms are becoming in something normal in Colombian schools
    and universities. We need to know how to incorporate the computer
    in the curriculum and to assist teachers in a effort to become
    the best educators.

    Multimedia is one of the many tools and techniques that
    can improve the students learning environments available for
    them. The new technologies for education have increased
    responsibilities, creativity, productivity and team work.
    Interactive Teaching Approach and computer-assisted language
    learning usually look into the topics in their own domain. The
    research combining the two fields is not common so far, which
    makes this study important.

    This research is related to the conceptual and empirical
    fundamentals of the technology and education research area
    presented in the Master’s program in Applied Linguistics
    because through observation, use, and appraisal in the computer
    laboratory of a computer specific multimedia application which is
    thought to be an important alternative that teachers have in
    preparing future English speakers in the area of foreign
    language. Ortega (2002) affirms that language learning is
    concerned with the development of communication skills and
    teachers and students have traditionally and creatively exploited
    all these communication elements. The results of this project
    offer another opportunity for English teachers and foreign
    language programs to achieve objectives focused on technology and
    education.

    In this study I see to gain insight into what impedes
    the development of quality interaction while students use
    multimedia in a setting were I work as the multimedia EFL
    language laboratory teacher. Recently, I have developed a
    pronunciation program called "Talker" which complements the
    Discoveries multimedia activities. With a lesser amount of
    frequency, students also interact with various multimedia
    programs like "Talk To Me," The Internet, and they even
    design electronic Power Point
    hyper-histories. In spite of this, the report of this study is
    limited to subjects interacting with the Discoveries because at
    the laboratory in the research setting is the software most used
    by students and teachers.

    The findings stemming from the existing body of
    interaction research on multimedia were critically examined. In
    addition to analyzing interaction outcomes by means of
    well-motivated measures of communication use, a multiplicity of
    data sources be used in research, so as to be able to document
    the processes learners actually engaged in when interpreting and
    carrying out multimedia tasks. A process and ethnographic-driven
    research was accomplished with the ultimate goal of describing
    the nature of interaction and the interlocutors (learners,
    teachers and computers) adopted roles as well as the
    context-related specific emerging roles while working with
    multimedia.

    The present thesis is organized as follows. Section one
    contains the statement of the problem, the objectives and the
    rationale that supports this study. Section two presents the
    theoretical framework which explores the relevant theory for this
    study, the concept of interaction, multimedia, collaboration,
    autonomy, forms of negotiation of meaning, talk taxonomy, input
    modification devices, knowledge construction and teachers and
    learners roles. Section three describes the research design,
    methodology, and data collection. Section four refers to the
    instructional design. Sections five, six, seven, and eight
    present findings and discuss the issues raised by the study with
    pertinent pedagogical implications, some limitations of the
    study, and recommendations for further
    research.


    Statement of the
    Problem

    Gran Colombia
    University has a modern Internet language laboratory
    equipped with new hardware and software that
    is not fully exploited as a tool for foreign English language
    teaching because the absence of current knowledge about effective
    use of technology and empirical knowledge about the best way to
    interact with multimedia. For years the teaching of English at
    Gran Colombia University has used teaching methodologies with a
    multimedia material and audiovisual rooms, which have not
    fulfilled the needs and expectations of both students and
    teachers in the learning process of English as a foreign
    language. A common concern among students from the Language
    Center is the technical problems. Some students also ask for an
    adequate guidance during the multimedia sessions because some
    teachers lack training in using multimedia.

    Due to my studies as a systems engineer in the field of
    computer science, I was appointed as the new language laboratory
    English teacher hoping to solve both technical problems and
    unsuitable guidance. To solve technical difficulties is easy
    because their mechanical and predictable origin. On the other
    hand, the complexity of teaching and learning is a matter of
    systematic research. The technical details of the mouse are
    simple but the teaching principles are complicated; for that
    reason, we need to consider the effectiveness of learning through
    multimedia.

    Breakthroughs in technology have made possible for
    students to be in contact with multimedia simulations of the
    target language. Teachers are introducing multimedia software as
    a means of exposing their students to native realistic activities
    of the target language. Students now have the opportunity to
    interact with simulations of residents of different communities
    and as a result realistic input takes place. After reviewing the
    literature and having had some teaching experience, I found that
    in a Colombian context and more specifically at Gran Colombia
    University the nature of multimedia interaction has not yet been
    explored. These were the main reasons which motivated me to start
    this research about quality interaction more in agreement with
    the new technology of the world the students are living in and
    more related to their interests, likes and needs.

    General
    Objective:

    To see to what extent the use of multimedia software
    enhances the communicative behavior of the students and teachers
    and promotes interaction within the language laboratory so as to
    enrich and improve the teaching-learning processes when learning
    a second or foreign language.

    Specific
    Objectives:

    1. To identify the oral and multiple-level of students'
      interaction while using multimedia software.
    2. To establish the role of interaction in EFL
      multimedia classes.

    Rationale

    The role of interaction in foreign language curriculum
    has grown since its beginnings. Interactivity in learning is "a
    necessary and fundamental mechanism for knowledge acquisition and
    the development of both cognitive and physical skills" (Barker,
    1994:1). Today, computer technology helps the communicative
    approach of learning that is concerned with the interaction
    between the teacher and learner, and in which the teaching
    strategy is dependent upon students' learning needs and learning
    styles.

    Due to the significant changes in second language
    teaching and learning (the role of the teacher, the role of the
    learner, the role of multimedia, and the way the learning process
    has to occur in the language laboratory settings), interaction
    has become an increasingly important and relevant area of study
    in the field of second language acquisition since it reflects
    what goes on in formal learning and teaching
    processes.

    The role of interaction in the foreign language
    curriculum is increasing with influential works like the one done
    by Warschauer, M., & Healey, D. (1998) about software-related
    research in CALL such as the amount and type of interaction at
    the computer and attitudes toward computers and CALL. Interaction
    is intrinsic to success, effective instructional practice as well
    as individual discovery. The implementation of interactivity can
    be perceived as an art (Sims 1997) because it requires a
    comprehensive range of skills, including an understanding of the
    learner, an appreciation of software engineering capabilities,
    the importance of rigorous instructional design and the
    application of appropriate graphical interfaces.

    The increased quality interaction is directly translated
    into increased performance. This expectancy theory of the value
    of interaction states that a learner’s performance is based
    upon a quality interaction between the learner’s and a
    qualitative input. The source of qualitative input ranges from
    pair, teacher and multimedia. The introduction of multimedia
    technology into the education process in higher education not
    only provides an opportunity to reconsider teaching strategies to
    be adopted but also requires reconsideration. This
    reconsideration should address the opportunities for promoting
    the efficiency and effectiveness of learning through the use of
    this new technology.

    We must therefore specify the value of how multimedia
    can enhance interaction to enhance learning. Warschauer, M.,
    & Healey, D. (1998) state that the type of software and the
    task teachers set for students had a large effect on the type and
    quality of student interaction with each other when working in
    pairs or small groups. English as a foreign language Colombian
    teachers may want to work on preparing students for meaningful
    learning, recognizing the role of multimedia, context and
    interaction in language teaching. With the continuing development
    of technological advances in the areas of communications,
    information networks, and multimedia and with each new
    development, the challenge for foreign language classrooms goes
    far beyond current knowledge about effective use of
    technology.

    Results from some studies, which I refer in the
    literature review, show that multimedia interaction opens the
    doors to different points of view, different ways of behavior,
    beliefs, linguistic expressions, and styles of communication.
    With the advent of multimedia computing and the Internet, the
    role of computers in language instruction has now become an
    important issue confronting large numbers of language teachers
    throughout the world.

    Interaction and technology are of special interest for
    the area of applied linguistics since, as it was mentioned
    before, it is a topic not far from the foreign language
    classroom, curriculum and programs. For instance, Gran Colombia
    University is interested in giving ample opportunities for
    teachers and students to interact with virtual environments.
    Within this view, the administrative staff of the Language Center
    promotes the need on behalf of the University, to adapt to these
    new technologies, and to analyze concepts on education
    technologies applied to the language development. Furthermore,
    the third semester exploratory hyper-stories seminar at the
    Master program in Applied Linguistics at Universidad
    Distrital has contributed, with high level of impact, to embrace
    these new technologies in our teaching learning rooms.

    CHAPTER
    2

    THEORETICAL
    FRAMEWORK

    The objective of this research is to observe and
    describe the communicative and social interactional events that
    take place in the language laboratory in order to understand how
    learning opportunities are created. It should be an attempt to
    demonstrate the effects of different types of interactional
    opportunities on L2 because according to Ellis (1994) few studies
    have investigated this relationship directly.

    To answer the research questions, the theory reviewed in
    the following pages is relevant to the work with multimedia
    learning software to promote interaction in an English as a
    foreign language teaching and learning setting. The literature
    quotations and references review facilitate the incorporation of
    technology in education.

    The present theoretical framework, which explores the
    relevant theory that supports this study, is organized as
    follows. Part one contains the concept of interaction and the
    notion of interactive in the technological field. Classroom
    Interaction and its modes of negotiation of meaning, talk
    taxonomy and input modification devices. Part two presents the
    theoretical review of multimedia for this study. Part three
    examines the concepts of collaboration, autonomy, knowledge
    construction and teacher and learner roles..

    Interaction

    Through decades the role of the students have been
    changing from a receptive agent (Behaviorism) to more active one
    (Interactionism). This is why cognitive approaches emphasize the
    importance of what the learner brings to any learning situation
    as an active meaning-maker and problem-solver. Thus, the learner
    plays a central role in this model. Examination of humanistic
    approaches emphasizes also the development of the whole person in
    educational settings and to suggest that language
    teaching/learning can and should be seen in this
    light.

    Social interactionism emphasizes the dynamic nature of
    the interplay between teachers, learners and tasks, and provides
    a view of learning as arising from interactions with others.
    Since learning never takes place in isolation, it is also
    recognized the importance of the learning environment or context
    within which the learning takes place.

    Williams and Burden (1997) have identified four key sets
    of factors which influence the learning process – Teachers,
    learners, tasks and contexts. However, none of these factors
    exists in isolation. They all interact as part of a dynamic,
    ongoing process.

    Teachers choose tasks which reflect their beliefs about
    teaching and learning. Learners interpret tasks in ways that are
    meaningful and personal to them
    as individuals. The task is therefore, the interface between the
    teacher and the learners. Teachers and learners also interact
    with each other. Besides that, the context plays an important
    role here since according to it, the tasks have special
    characteristics and parameters to be developed.

    The way that teachers behave while teaching reflects
    their values and beliefs and the way in which learners react to
    teachers will be affected by the individual characteristics of
    the learners and the feelings that the teacher conveys to them.
    These three elements : teacher, task and learner are in this way
    in dynamic equilibrium (Williams and Burden, 1997).

    Defining
    classroom interaction

    Learning a foreign language, like the learning of
    anything else, is essentially an individual achievement, and
    exploitation of the capacities of the brain to make sense of the
    environment. But typically this private process takes place in
    the public context of the classroom , the individual is one of a
    group, a member of the class, and the activities which are to set
    the process are determined by the teacher. The assumption is that
    this internal process of learning will come about as a
    consequence of the external interaction which takes place between
    the two kinds of participants: the teacher on the one hand and
    the learners on the other. To be in agreement with the preceding
    views; subsequently, it is necessary then to talk about different
    aspects such as: Classroom action, Action and actual reaction,
    Classroom interaction and Cooperation and conflict.

    Classroom
    action

    This aspect refers to the plans teachers have in order
    to develop their classes, so as to establish what they want to do
    in their lessons by means of having a clear idea of the aim of
    the lesson. Therefore a good plan for
    classroom action is a first step to succeed in the teaching
    goals.

    Action-reaction

    After having a plan of action,
    the next step is to put this plan into action, from which the
    students are expected to evoke some sort of reaction. Teaching is
    undertaken so that learning can occur. Hence the success of any
    lesson can be best judged in terms of the learning that results
    from it and in terms of the kind of interaction learners and
    teacher have.

    Actual
    Classroom Interaction

    The first two above-mentioned aspects do not constitute
    quality interaction. On the contrary, they need to be implemented
    in order to have quality interaction. Interaction is more than
    action followed by reaction, it is acting reciprocally, acting
    upon each other; that is to say, the teacher acts upon the
    students, but the class reaction subsequently modifies his next
    action and so on. The learners’ reaction becomes in itself
    an action evoking a reaction in the teacher, which influences
    his/her subsequent action. There is a constant pattern of mutual
    influence and adjustment (Malamah-Thomas, 1988).

    The notion of
    interactive in the technological field

    The Collins English Dictionary (New Edition) unlike many
    other contemporary dictionaries includes the vocabulary of modern
    technology in its aim to represent its increasing use in
    contemporary English language. It contains two definitions of
    interactive. First, allowing or relating to continuous two ways
    transfer of information between a user and the central point of a
    communication system, e.g. computer. Second, two or more persons
    or forces acting upon or in close relation to each other. Even
    from a superficial glance at these definitions one can see
    clearly that the first is the technological
    definition.

    As is clear in definition 1, the word
    interactive in the technological field denotes two-way
    communication between a computer system and its operators. Its
    common usage has earned it an entry in the dictionary and it is
    not difficult to see why this particular word was
    chosen: it reflects, as previously mentioned, the developments in
    technological communication systems. The ability to send a signal
    to access
    information from the main communication system and have it sent
    to the user's workstation has demanded a descriptive label versus
    the linguistic interactive. Out of the applied linguistic
    community the term interactive could be described as the two-way
    transfer of information. But, to the language teacher and applied
    linguist, definition two relates far more closely to their
    concept, which is more complex and certainly more
    dynamic.

    Ann Malamah-Thomas (1987) expands on its definition:
    `Interaction is more than this, more than action followed by
    reaction. Interaction means acting reciprocally, acting upon each
    other'. In the language classroom, then, interaction does not
    only denote the presentation of material followed by a programmed
    reaction from the student. Included in this term are the
    student’s responses to it and the teacher's pragmatic
    reaction to that response and so on; each is dependent on a
    variety of influential factors and capable of producing an
    infinite number of variations. For instance, oral interaction
    involves the combining the listening and speaking skills in order
    to exchange information and to respond to the speech of
    others.

    Levels of
    interactivity

    Sims (1994) has proposed 7 levels of interactivity:
    Object, Linear, Support, Update, Construct, Reflective and
    Simulation Interactivity. Object interactivity (proactive
    inquiry) refers to an application in which objects (buttons,
    people, things) are activated by using a mouse or other pointing
    device. Linear interactivity (reactive pacing) refers to
    applications in which the user is able to move (forwards or
    backwards) through a predetermined linear sequence of
    instructional material. About support interactivity One of the
    essential components of any software application is the facility
    for the user to receive performance support, which may range from
    simple help messages to complex tutorial systems.

    Update interactivity relates to individual application
    components or events in which a dialogue is initiated between the
    learner and computer-generated content. The construct class of
    interactivity (proactive elaboration) is an extension to update
    interactivity, and requires the creation of an instructional
    environment in which the learner is required to manipulate
    component objects to achieve specific goals. A classic example of
    this form of interaction is a lesson created for the original
    PLATO system (0distill) which required the learner to construct
    distillation apparatus from component parts.

    Reflective interactivity records each response entered
    by users of the application and allows the current user to
    compare their response to that of other users as well as
    recognised "experts". Simulation interactivity (which ranges from
    reactive elaboration to mutual elaboration, depending on its
    complexity) extends the role of the learner to that of controller
    or operator, where individual selections determine the training
    sequence. With hyperlinked interactivity (proactive navigation),
    the learner has access to a
    wealth of information, and may "travel" at will through that
    knowledge base.

    The theory relevant to interaction, the input
    modification devices, talk tanonomy and the different levels of
    interactivity helped me answer the first subquestion. The aim was
    to find out about the nature of interaction. The intentions of
    the participants in producing their oral interaction were
    critically examined. I hoped to describe the most common
    students’ interaction patterns while using multimedia
    software.

    Input modification
    devices

    Input perspectives on interaction and negotiation in
    language learning stem at least in part from the theories of
    Krashen (1981; 1985; 1987), who postulated that language learning
    is directly related to the amount of comprehensible input a
    learner receives. While later researchers rejected some of
    Krashen's other points—for example, the view that
    acquisition is an unconscious process (the significance of
    noticing and awareness will be discussed later in this
    paper)—the notion of comprehensible input has nevertheless
    inspired an active school of research. Scholars such as Long
    (1980; 1989; 1991; 1996; Long & Sato, 1984; Long &
    Porter, 1985), Pica (1983; 1993; 1994; Pica and Doughty, 1985;
    Pica, Kanady, & Faladun, 1993), Gass (1990; Gass &
    Varonis, 1994), and Varonis (Varonis and Gass, 1985) have
    directed their attention to examining what features of linguistic
    interaction and negotiation seem to make input more
    comprehensible and facilitate language learning. Proponents of
    input-processing models make a number of claims about the
    relationship of interaction and negotiation to language learning.
    The first claim, related to Krashen's views as well as to
    research by Long (1980; 1985), is that "comprehension of message
    meaning is necessary if learners are to internalize L2 forms and
    structures" (Pica, 1994, p. 500).A second claim is that
    interactional modifications due to negotiation for meaning
    facilitate language learning (Long, 1980; 1996). Negotiation is
    defined by Pica (1994) as "modification and restructuring of
    interaction that occurs when learners and their interlocutors
    anticipate, perceive, or experience difficulties in message
    comprehensibility" (p. 495).

    Input modification devices deemed beneficial include
    repetitions, confirmations, reformulations, comprehension checks,
    recasts, confirmation checks, and clarification requests (Long,
    1996). Research has indicated that these input modifications "are
    significantly more abundant during negotiation than during the
    rest of learners' interaction" (Pica, 1994, p. 506); they also
    occur to a greater degree in NS-NNS speech than in NS-NS speech
    (1994). There are three possible interpretations as to how these
    interactions assist language learning: (1) they make input more
    comprehensible; (2) they draw attention to L2 form (see next
    claim below); and (3) they help provide negative evidence to
    learners, that is, information as to the inappropriateness of
    certain linguistic forms (Long, 1996). A third claim—and
    one that will be especially important when we later discuss
    computer-mediated instruction—is that some form of
    conscious awareness is beneficial if not required for language
    learning to take place (Long, 1996; 1990; Schmidt, 1993). Schmidt
    (1990) makes a distinction between input and intake, which he
    defines as "that part of the input that the learner notices" (p.
    139). Schmidt's earlier longitudinal study (1986) of his own
    experiences learning Portuguese demonstrated a high degree of
    overlap between the linguistic forms that he noticed in the
    process of learning the language and those that later appeared in
    his own speech. A number of researchers have given further
    attention to the relationship between noticing and learning (see
    discussion in Long, 1991), and have demonstrated that enhanced
    input benefits language learning by calling learners attention to
    certain linguistic forms (Doughty, 1991; Sharwood-Smith,
    1993).

    Pica T. & Doughty C. (1987). Have establish the
    following taxonomy. Confirmation checks, Clarification Requests
    and comprehension Checks. Furthermore, Long (1996) has identified
    a number of Input modification devices that include Repetitions,
    Confirmations, Reformulations and Recasts.

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    The interactive perspective

    According to the interactive perspective, learning a new
    language is a function of social and meaningful interaction
    (Long, 1983); the degree of language learning success depends on
    the quality and type of interactions between learners and teacher
    (Long, 1983; Pica, Kanagy, & Falodun, 1993). In this view,
    language learning is enhanced `particularly when they [the
    learners] negotiate toward mutual comprehension of each other's
    message meaning' (Pica et al., p. 11).

    Long (1983) proposes that during meaningful interaction
    learners use different communicative strategies, ranging from
    modifying and adjusting input to using facilitative strategies
    such as requests for clarification, requests for repetition, and
    comprehension checks. It is argued that these strategies promote
    negotiation of meaning and consequently enhance second language
    acquisition; they make input comprehensible and result in further
    opportunities for communicating thoughts in a meaningful context
    (Gass & Varonis, 1984; Pica et al., 1993; Swain,
    1985).

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    Cooperation and
    conflict

    One more aspect to be considered when talking about
    interaction is cooperation and conflict. As is well known,
    interaction is a two-way process with a positive state, where the
    interactants feel that something worthwhile is being achieved as
    a result of the interaction, or with a negative one when the
    opposite happens. How the situation actually develops depends on
    the attitudes and the intentions of the people involved and their
    interpretations of each other’s attitudes and intentions
    .

    As seen, having a plan of action means that the teachers
    knows what he or she wants to do in the classroom. The teachers
    have something to communicate to the students, but having
    something to communicate is not the same thing as actually
    communicating it. In order to achieve this, the plan of action
    must be carried out in a context of interaction. The teacher must
    engage in the sort of interaction with the learners which will
    enable communication to take place.

    Where there is no interaction, but only action-reaction,
    there can be no communication. Where there is conflict in the
    interaction, communication breaks down. Only where there is
    co-operation between both sides involved in the interaction can
    communication effectively take place, and learning
    occur.

    Knowing what you want to do, what you want to
    communicate to your students in the classroom, is a good start.
    Actually doing it, actually achieving communication, requires a
    lot more effort and expertise ( Malamah-Thomas, 1988).

    Collaboration
    and Autonomy

    Tinzmann (1990) affirms that effective communication and
    collaboration are essential to becoming a successful learner. It
    is primarily through dialogue and examining different
    perspectives that students become knowledgeable, strategic,
    self-determined, and empathetic.

    Moreover, involving students in real-world tasks and
    linking new information to prior knowledge requires effective
    communication and collaboration among teachers, students, and
    others. Indeed, it is through dialogue and interaction that
    curriculum objective come alive. Collaborative learning affords
    students enormous advantages not available from more traditional
    instruction because a group–whether it be the whole class or a
    learning group within the class–can accomplish meaningful
    learning and solve problems better than any individual can
    alone.

    Vygotsky (1986) has influenced some of the current
    research of collaboration among students and teachers and on the
    role of cultural learning and schooling. His principal premise is
    that human beings are products not only of biology, but also of
    their human cultures. Intellectual functioning is the product of
    our social history, and language is the key mode by which we
    learn our cultures and through which we organize our verbal
    thinking and regulate our actions. For example, children learn
    such higher functioning from interacting with the adults and
    other children around them.

    Vygotsky’s work (1986) has also major influence on
    learner autonomy. His emphasis on social relationships in the
    development of mental abilities and thus also learning underlines
    the importance of peer support for any form of learning. Central
    to his theory is the idea of "the zone of proximal development.
    It is the distance between the actual developmental level as
    determined by independent problem solving and the level of
    potential development as determined through problem solving under
    adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers"
    Vygotsky (1978). The Vygotskian approach, then, emphasises the
    need for a collaborative learning environment where learners are
    enabled and encouraged to interact and give each other support
    with their language learning, a public space characterised by
    interaction and scaffolding.

    Construction of
    knowledge

    The book Dialogic Inquiry by Gordon Wells characterizes
    a unified picture of knowledge and knowing. This social
    constructionist model, with an emphasis on the importance in the
    `co-construction' of knowledge, is presented as an alternative to
    unstructured discovery learning. A number of specific educational
    activities and classroom practices can be constructed.

    As with many modern investigations of learning, Wells
    begins with discussions on the meaning of knowledge itself,
    leading to the spiral metaphor shown in Fig.(1). The projection
    into the figure characterizes varying modes of knowing, ranging
    from the `Instrumental' knowledge of basic tools on the part of
    primitive humans to the development of Theoretical (scientific)
    knowledge within the last three millennia. While the
    identification of socio-historical phases in the development of
    knowledge is clearly interesting, it is the common, spiral model
    of constructing knowing within each mode that is more important
    for the present study purpose.

    According to the spiral metaphor, knowing is achieved
    (or, more properly, incremented) in a four step process. First,
    experience: an individual's social history defines the context
    within which new stimuli are to be encountered and processed.
    Second, information: this is, in general, an `interpretation of
    others' – an expression of meaning as construed and presented by
    some external, often authoritative, agent. It can come in a
    number of genres, including speech, written text, physical
    artifacts, and works of art.

    Third, knowledge Building: in order to assimilate
    externally provided information, the learner must construct, use,
    and progressively improve various representational artifacts.
    Ideally, this produces a consistent, coherent `internalization'
    which is, however, individual and personalized. Fourth,
    understanding: With time (and recurring use), the internal
    representations constructed during knowledge building become
    `second nature', and part of the learner's enhanced experience
    base. This transformation of `knowledge' into `understanding' is
    almost holistic.

    The cycle then repeats. Beginning from a personal
    experience base, knowledge building transforms new information
    into understanding. Understanding, in this sense, is taken to be
    the real goal of any educational activity. Vygotsky ideas helped
    me provide answers to the study research questions and Wells
    model was significant to understand the way participants
    constructed understanding while working with Discoveries
    multimedia software.

    Forms of
    Negotiation of Meaning

    Littlejohn, A. & Breen M. (2000) established three
    types of form of negtiation. PERSONAL: A psycho mental process to
    discriminate, analyze, synthesize, memorize or recall, and so on.
    INTERACTIVE: spontaneous social events when people use language
    to share meaning. PROCEDURAL: The discussions between people who
    seek to reach agreement.

    Talk
    Taxonomy

    Peter Scrimshaw (1995) has identified three types of
    talk after the analysis of students interacting around the
    computer. DISPUTATIONAL: Characterized by disagreement and
    individualized decision making and it challenges other views.
    CUMULATIVE: Speakers build positively but uncritically upon what
    other has said. EXPLORATORY: Partners engage critically but
    constructively with each others ideas.

    Multimedia
    learning software

    "Space age multimedia technology might
    replace stone age methodology."

    Hardisty & Windeatt (1989) establish that CALL
    (Computer Assisted Language Learning) is the term most commonly
    used by teachers and students to describe the use of computers as
    part of a language course. According with the English Discoveries
    teacher’s pedagogical guide interactive multimedia (IMM) is
    one of the aspects of CALL that is effective in language
    learning. The word multimedia comes from the latin multus =
    "many, multiple" and medium = "a channel or system of
    communication, information, or entertainment.

    Multimedia is any combination of text, graphic art,
    sound, animation and video that is
    delivered by computer. When you allow the user–the viewer of the
    project–to control that and
    when these elements are delivered, it is interactive multimedia.
    When you provide a structure of linked elements through which the
    user can navigate, interactive multimedia becomes
    hypermedia.

    At the beginning, during the period before multimedia
    were used in the language laboratories the term multimedia was
    used in the field of education to describe the audiovisual tools
    to teach. The actual version of the word, just differs in what it
    consists of more equipment such scanners, CD laser units,
    remote controls, digital picture and video cameras, etc. To use
    the equipment it is necessary to have the computer programs
    required to adequately run each device. To the aims of this study
    multimedia is the integration of: Audio (speech, sounds, music),
    Video (text, graphics, pictures, animations, movies) and
    Interactivity (via keyboard, mouse, microphone).

    Because multimedia technology, which integrates
    graphics, sound and text, is someway similar to the relational
    manner of human thinking, I consider that multimedia software
    might be effective to language learning. Therefore, it is
    important to develop pedagogy and methodology related to
    multimedia learning software. In fact, to engage the learner
    actively in the knowledge construction process, three main things
    should be considered. First the multimedia software; second the
    methodology and third the student's task.

    The best technological description of multimedia might
    be "the integration of two or more media forms on a computer."
    The possible media forms include text, graphics, animation,
    video, music and digital audio. But merely defining multimedia in
    the context of the technology alone does no more justice to the
    concept than describing books as pages of paper with printed text
    on them.

    The uses of multimedia are even more diverse than the
    numerous variety of media combinations. Initially, multimedia was
    no more than a enhanced version of a traditional slide show, but
    in today’s times multimedia is being used more and more to
    present information to the masses as information kiosks,
    interactive manuals and encyclopedias, product demonstrations,
    and interactive training packages as well as providing
    entertainment in the form of computer games.

    On the conceptual level, the potential of multimedia
    represents a fundamental change in the way we communicate.
    Multimedia allows us to use the best combination of media to
    present compelling information suited to specific situations and
    allow user-control over how
    and when that information is accessed. This technology empowers
    anyone with a message to communicate his or her ideas effectively
    to others.

    One of the constructs of an English program can be to
    return the control of the learning process to the learners. For
    example, Soo and Ngeow (1998) worked in a university program
    study in which one of the constructs was to give control of the
    learning process to the students through multimedia. Probably,
    students can construct meaning by interacting with the multimedia
    listening and speaking segments that includes speakers of the
    target language in authentic situations. Soo and Ngeow (1998)
    also found that the creation of the learning environment was
    crucial to the success of the project and that it would have been
    made much harder without appropriate software. Their findings
    make me think about the importance of having a good multimedia
    program but at the same time how equally important is to have an
    appropriate methodology.

    Discoveries CALL
    software

    English Discoveries is a interactive multimedia computer
    to learn English as a Foreign or Second language.. It combines
    high resolution color graphics,
    animations, videos, text, music, digital voice and a voice
    recognition function. English Discoveries presents the basic
    linguistic structures and aproximately 3000 lexical elements.
    Students do not need previous computer experience to work with
    English Discoveries. The initial proficiency level of English
    Discoveries is cero (students do not need previous English
    knowledge) and the final level is advanced. The complete course
    covers more than 1500 academic hours of study and it is divided
    according with the following levels:

    · Let's Start (First steps)

    · Basic (Beginners)

    · Intermediate (Intermediates)

    · Advanced (Conversation)

    · The Executive (Commercial English)

    With English Discoveries, students can chose their own
    road of learning. Using the mouse they can click on the activity
    that they are more interested in: a linguistic structure, a
    structured lesson, a test, or an
    adventure game. Students can navigate through the modules at
    their will. The program is always there to help and to orientate
    students. Some students become addicts to work with the
    linguistic interface (picture 1) with the many options available,
    they always have a new learning experience.

    Communicative CALL corresponds to cognitive theories
    which stresses that learning is a process of discovery,
    expression, and development. Discoveries CALL software includes
    text reconstruction programs (which allows students working alone
    or in groups to rearrange words and texts to discover patterns of
    language and meaning) and simulations (which stimulates
    discussion and discovery among students working in pairs or
    groups).

    Teacher and
    learner roles

    When working with multimedia software the role of the
    teacher as authority source and expert changes. She or he becomes
    a mere participant as stated by Warschauer, 1998. Hence, the
    teacher does not dominate the floor and does not do most of the
    talking. Besides, he or she does not direct and redirect the
    development of the topic, pose display questions, nominate
    students as next speakers, or evaluate individual student's
    contributions, all of which is the norm in traditional
    teacher-fronted EFL classrooms. Then again, multimedia provides
    another light that can be turn on in the students mind. Thanks to
    multimedia, teachers can explain old ideas in new
    manners.

    As pointed out by (Warschauer, Turbee, & Roberts,
    1996), the teacher must learn to become a "guide on the side"
    rather than a "sage on the stage". A situation which is likely to
    lead to the kind of atmosphere optimal for language learning. The
    guide on the side teacher labor does not imply a passive role for
    teachers. Teachers' contributions in a learner-centered,
    multimedia-enhanced classroom include coordinating group
    planning, focusing students' attention on linguistic aspects of
    computer mediated texts, helping students gain meta-linguistic
    awareness of genres and discourses, and assisting students in
    developing appropriate learning strategies.

    In the traditional classroom students are more willing
    to pay attention to the teacher lecture. In contrast, at the
    laboratory, according with Huang 2000 the student-teacher
    communication seemed to be blocked to some extent by the layout
    of the multimedia lab. Physically, the multimedia lab is larger
    than the traditional classroom. The physical distance enlarged
    the psychological distance. It has the tendency that the two-way
    communication between the teacher and the students turned to be
    the one-way teacher to student communication.

    The role of the teachers and the learners are influenced
    by interpersonal factors and task-related factors:

    Interpersonal Factors:

    Status and Position

    Teachers and learners are accorded a social status
    depending on what we value in their performances. The relative
    positions are usually fixed, although types of teaching and
    learning situations differ a great deal.

    A power relationship exists between teachers and
    learners in which power is not shared equally. This fact,
    combined with perceptions of status, gives rise to social
    distance.

    Attitudes, beliefs

    While teachers have a set of professional attitudes,
    personal attitudes and beliefs are likely to differ considerably
    between teachers and learners. The attitudes may be towards
    teaching and learning, the ‘content’ of learning, or
    each other as people.

    Personality

    All individuals bring their personalities into social
    encounters. Indeed, social life is a major factor in shaping
    personality. In the intimacy of the teaching/learning situation,
    it is extremely likely that personalities will be modified. An
    additional complication arises in the situation where learners
    are trying to cope with a foreign language. The internalization
    of the new language may bring about changes in the personality of
    the learner.

    So far, we have pointed out the various factors which
    influence the way teachers interpret their roles in the
    classroom. Our aim in this section is to find out what teachers
    and learners actually do in the classroom; our focus is on the
    teacher and learner role behavior.

    Essentially, teachers have two major roles in the
    classroom:

    1 To create the conditions under which learning can take
    place: the social side of teaching.

    2 To impart, by a variety of means, knowledge to their
    learners: the task-oriented side of teaching.

    The first is termed the ‘enabling’ or
    management function and the second the instructional function.
    They complement each other ; the latter would be more or less
    impossible without the former. In practice, it is very difficult
    to separate the two and often one act in the classroom can
    perform both functions simultaneously.

    In relation to the instructional role of the teacher, it
    can be scrutinized from three broad perspectives:

    1 Modes of instruction

    2 Instructional material and resources

    3 The management of the knowledge

    • Modes of Instruction

    A teacher can persue his/her instructional goal in a
    variety of modes. It is rare for a classroom language teacher to
    stick to only one mode during the course of a lesson. Based on
    this, some possible instructional modes can be found, like
    :

    Lecture

    The teacher expounds at length on a topic. Learners
    listen and may take notes. The lecture can be interrupted by
    questions from the learners, but these normally occur at the end
    of the lecture.

    A ‘mini-lecture’ is also used quite
    frequently, to explain what appears to be a misunderstood
    concept, for example, ‘explaining’ is often a form of
    mini-lecture.

    Elicitation

    Teachers probe learners through close questioning in
    order to bring previously acquired knowledge to the surface. In
    this way teachers either clarify that knowledge or get learners
    to say or do something with the knowledge as a prelude to
    embarking on new knowledge.

    Evaluation

    The means by which teachers assess what the learners
    already know or have learnt as a result of the new language
    having been presented through question and answer
    routines.

    Demonstration

    It is the most relevant to this study. The means by
    which teachers introduce the fundamentals of a multimedia
    software program. The teacher expounds at length on a navigation
    system. Learners listen and may take notes. The demonstration can
    be interrupted by questions from the learners, but these normally
    occur at the end of the demonstration.

    Lockstep Activities

    The teacher leads the class through a tightly controlled
    sequence of activities centered on a new language point. All the
    learners work at the same pace under the direction of the
    teacher.

    Learners Role

    The social climate of the classroom depends, to a great
    extent, on the strength of each individual’s contributions.
    It is how, the role of the learner in the context of a group
    activity will be dynamic or receptive depending on role teacher
    takes whereas the roles these learners -looking at them as
    individual subjects- will be determined by their
    personalities.

    Personality

    Four main types of learners are distinguished in this
    analysis. Individuals could can differ according to the degree of
    the tendency towards being of any one type, the types are as
    follows:

    1 The enthusiast : This type of learner has the teacher
    as the point of reference but at the same time is concerned with
    the goals of the learning group.

    2 The oracula: Once again this learner centers on the
    teacher ; however, s/he is much more oriented towards the
    satisfaction of personal learning goals.

    3 The participator: Focuses attention both on group
    goals and on group solidarity.

    4 The rebel: Leans towards the learning group for his or
    her point of reference but is mainly concerned with the
    satisfaction of his own goals. (Wright, 1991).

    The above mentioned kinds of learners are taken into
    account when analyzing the roles of the learners during the
    laboratory classroom interaction.

    CHAPTER
    3

    RESEARCH
    DESIGN

    There are multiple orientations for doing research.
    There is not simply a finite number of these orientations, nor is
    there a simple dichotomy between qualitative and quantitative
    approaches. Indeed, there is an off-cited division in the SLA
    field between those researchers who favor qualitative
    methodologies and those who prefer quantitative ones. The
    prototypical qualitative methodology is an ethnographical study
    in which the researchers do not set out to test hypotheses,
    but rather to observe what is present concerning their focus, and
    consequently, the data are free to vary during the course of
    observation.

    The ethnographic methods which characterize qualitative
    research were initially developed by social anthropologists to
    study the cultures of different social groups, they have been
    used since the late 19th century, and have become
    increasingly popular amongst educational researchers during the
    last quarter of the 20th century. Qualitative research
    methods have been describe by a number of authors such as Patton
    (1980).

    Type of
    Study

    This research thesis is presented as a qualitative case
    study. A qualitative research is a study that serves as a
    foundation for the understanding of the participants worlds and
    the meaning of shared experiences between the participants in a
    given social context. Because the subjects will be observed
    behaving in a natural manner at their computer laboratory
    setting, then this study has a qualitative
    orientation.

    The qualitative research gives an important role to
    participants, it allows researchers to listen to their ideas, and
    to incorporate them into the research, it has a strong commitment
    towards the values of the fieldwork. Merriam (1988) states that a
    qualitative case study is "an intensive, holistic description and
    analysis of a single instance, phenomenon, or social unit" (p-9).
    Following Merriam statement, the objective of this research is to
    qualitatively examine the nature of the oral interaction within
    the laboratory setting in relation to the teaching-learning
    processes.

    Research
    Questions

    The following questions were used to guide this
    research

    Main
    question

    What type of interaction happens when students construct
    understanding using multimedia learning software in an English as
    foreign language setting?

    Sub-questions

    What are the most common interaction arrangements
    between students, teacher and computers while using multimedia
    software? Distribution

    What type of interaction appears at the lab from the
    allocation of students, teacher and computers’ while using
    multimedia software?

    What is the most common oral interaction that takes
    place while using multimedia software?

    What are the most common roles learners and teachers
    assume in a multimedia class?

    Instruments

    The instruments to observe the classes and see to what
    extent the communication within the computer laboratory fosters
    oral interaction are an observation scheme, transcripts done by
    means of video taping the classes and questionnaires during ten
    classes. Also, a semi-structured interview was carried out with
    the same group of students. A technique such as transcribing
    classes by means of videotaping them was used in order to gather
    data in relation to laboratory class interaction since these
    transcripts are the closest or the truest probes of every single
    situation that actually will occur during the class
    sessions.

    Research
    Setting

    This case study was carried out in one specific context
    – at Gran Colombia University Languages Center a private
    university located in Bogotá. The present study was
    conducted in the first semester and second semester of 2002. The
    study took place in the setting of the students "Mutimedia
    Practice" laboratory. All the subjects that participated in the
    research are students from Gran Colombia University Languages
    Center which offers fifteen different English courses. The aim of
    the courses during first and second semester was to further
    expand students' English oral skills to a more communicative
    competence. The teacher and students met for one 1 hour session
    every week. Most of the students graduated from secondary school.
    Eighth subjects for the study were randomly chosen for the
    research aim.

    Students were familiar with the basic operation of
    computers such as saving and retrieving files because most of
    them took a required computer introductory course at secondary
    school and meanwhile were taking an optional basic computer
    science course. The instructor did not instruct and guide the
    English conversation practice in a classroom merely equipped with
    only desks, chairs, and a large blackboard. Instead, the course
    was carried out in a multimedia computer language
    laboratory.

    There are sixty Pentium class
    personal computers in the lab. They are all networked. Two
    computers are set for instructor use only. The multimedia lab
    shares some features with the traditional audio-lingual language
    lab. The teacher can broadcast the teaching materials by playing
    audio tapes, video-tapes, or CDs. Students practice with each
    other in pairs by themselves.

    The multimedia lab has some features that traditional
    language lab cannot compete. First, a traditional language lab
    does not have the function of video on demand. Students can
    choose an English teaching program they are interested in and
    learn on their pace of learning. The English learning program
    will just serve the student's desired goal of learning. In one
    sense, students easily get the individual attention from the
    computer. Second, the function of a multimedia lab is multiple.
    It can not only assume the role of a traditional language lab,
    but also offer teachers more powerful teaching tools with the aid
    of modern computer technology. For instance, the Internet
    projects and electronic hyperstories can be created y
    designed.

    Participants

    The participants for this project were a group of 8
    English students of the extension program of English with
    Emphasis on Teaching English as a Foreign Language. They ranged
    in age from about 14 to 40 years old. Six students were female
    and 2 were male. Students received 10 hours of English per week.
    From these 10 hours, students met for 1 hour in the multimedia
    laboratory, which had installed the Discoveries network version.
    This group of students was selected at random from a group of 20
    students. These criteria were pertinent in order to be coherent
    with the characteristics of the project.

    The abovementioned criteria, as well as the requirements
    are shown in the following section: the instructional design.
    Since I was the 1 hour multimedia English instructor for this
    group of students, I had the possibility to implement the
    research project at the laboratory. All of the points mentioned
    above were logically connected with the dynamics and the intended
    results of the multimedia interaction project.

    Procedures and
    Instruments for Data Collection

    The information collected for this study was obtained
    from various sources: teacher journal, videotaped classes,
    students’ questionnaire and observations made by the
    teacher during the laboratory sessions. Also, a semi-structured
    interview was carried out with the same group of students. Patton
    as cited in Merriam (1988) states that "qualitative data consist
    of detail descriptions of situations, events, people,
    interactions and observed behaviors, experiences, attitudes,
    beliefs, and thoughts; and excerpts or entire passages from
    documents, correspondence, records, and case histories"
    (p-23).

    During 10 months, in agreement with the proposed
    methodology, data was collected and presented in a qualitative
    form. A student’s questionnaire was administered and
    classes were videotaped to collect data. Annex No. 1 is a copy of
    the questionnaire. The ultimate purpose of the questionnaire was
    to understand how students feel and communicate their experiences
    at the level of language behavior in the computer lab.
    Transcripts excerpts illustrate the interpretations and have been
    chosen as representative episodes.

    During the two semesters (40 weeks), we had 40 sessions
    in the laboratory. The students had their first multimedia
    session on February, and the project was formally completed on
    the last week of November. During that period I wrote down the
    teacher journal entries, videotaped the classes and conducted
    both the questionnaire and the interview. During all the
    laboratory sessions, students had the opportunity to interact and
    comment with their teacher about the activity at hand. This
    interaction allowed me to observe the whole machine, multimedia
    software and interlocutors project process very
    closely.

    Piloting the instruments and collecting data, I realized
    that it was important to conduct an interview with the students
    in order to confirm some assumptions that were not explicit in
    the data. During two sessions, I interviewed the students who
    participated in the multimedia project. The interview was audio
    taped to facilitate the classification of the
    information.

    To guarantee the validity of this study, a triangulation
    process was carried out for the data analysis. It was based on
    the confirmation of the categories through an in depth analysis
    of the information gathered by different instruments for data
    collection. The teacher’s journal, videotaped records,
    students’ questionnaire and the transcription of the
    interview provided the information in order to illustrate the
    reflections of students in the nature of pair interaction, oral
    devices, roles and their social role at the
    laboratory.

    I videotaped students to observe their oral interaction
    and body language as well. The information was qualitative
    because they behaved naturally as usual; I videotaped as many
    classes as possible avoiding that they would have changed their
    behavior because the feeling of being observed. The information
    was gathered from students, teacher, and the computer. For the
    reason that the setting is an EFL and the institutional educative
    goal, the focus was more on, listening and speaking students'
    needs. I looked for patterns and commonalties that match the
    student’s styles; for example, I looked at who was working
    alone and who was speaking to collaborate and to work in a
    team.

    Partes: 1, 2

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