Marie-Noëlle Lamy, Robin Goodfellow, Patricia Manning
Open University Centre for Modern Languages, and Insititute of Educational Technology
R.Goodfellow@open.ac.uk
Introduction - a framework for research
This paper describes a project exploring the impact of asynchronous text-based interaction (ATI) on the learning of a foreign language by adult learners in their homes, specifically a group of people studying French with the UK Open University. By ATI we are specifically referring to computer conferencing. Our interest in the medium stems from its appropriacy for geographically dispersed learners with varying personal schedules, and the fast approach of its universal accessibility - by people at home, in the workplace and in education. In this paper we propose that it also has specific advantages for language learning.
Our approach to research in this area has been to construct a conceptual framework within which we can describe the outcomes of our empirical work (pilot studies etc) in terms of both general and subject-specific concerns.
The general (ie: educational technology) concerns, following the approach of Laurillard (1993) are:
The language learning concerns follow Chappelle (1997):
The framework itself, and the types of data which we are looking at in the outcomes of our pilot studies are illustrated in Fig 1:
Fig1 : Framework & Data
The data ranges from the quantitative end of the scale (amount of time students spend in conferencing, number of messages sent etc.), to the qualitative (degrees of collaboration, success of collective problem-solving etc.)
Pilot study - the Lexica Online project
This project ran for six weeks in 1997 with 10 higher intermediate students of French learning at home with the help of a vocabulary-learning software package, a dedicated Web-based conference, and on-line tutor support. Some of the tasks involved were highly structured (working with the software), others less structured (surfing the francophone Web for learning material), and learners were required to converse with each other on an electronic forum, specifically about their learning strategies and experiences.
The configuration of the open learning environment created for this project is illustrated in Fig 2:
Fig 2: Lexica Online project
This project is described in detail elsewhere (see the Lexica Online site http://www-iet.open.ac.uk/courses/lexica/welcome.html). The data discussed below came from the learner's contributions to the course forum (a 'threaded bulletin board'-type conferencing system), and from their responses to evaluation questionnaires at the end of the project.
Discussion of Data
Time and effort spent interacting via the conference
Students' estimations of the number of hours they spent with these different components (Fig 3) shows that they gave the Lexica software work priority over the forum work and the Web work (although there was a small variation between these latter). This is in keeping with an existing tendency of distance learners, as yet unused to communications technologies in learning, to view ATI as supplementary to the main work of study which goes on in private.
Fig 3: Students' estimation of times spent on the project
Patterns of messages
An analysis of the patterns of conversations (long series of exchanges, number of 'silent' visits, preference for responding to particular individuals or groups etc.) is expected to provide indications about the specific effects of asynchronicity on the interactions of this particular language-learning community. Of particular interest is the role of tutors in the interaction, and the breaking down of the 'question-answer' type of exchange typical of much face-to-face classroom discussion which involves teachers and students.
Forms taken by learners' contributions
Some individual messages were complete texts, such as the 'narrative' in Fig 4, which tells the story of a Web search, in the first person singular. It addresses no-one in particular. The language is fairly formal. The text displays good control of the system of narrative tense sequencing (e.g. in paragraph 1), liberal use of logical connectors (e.g. in paragraph 2) and fully articulated syntax (e.g. in paragraph 3).
Fig 4: a monologue-type (or narrative) message
| Msg #161 of 205; posted 17/5/97 by Davidw Du nouveau sur l'origine des espèces J'ai sélectionné quelques pages du Web et je les ai téléchargées. J'ai suivi les conseils pratiques décrits dans <<practical help>> et j'ai réussi à poser l'un des articles que j'avais téléchargés dans la base de données de Lexica. C'est vrai, on peut l'utiliser comme d'autres. Le texte que j'ai choisi c'est ce qui existe à http://www.larecherche.fr/ARCH/N9610/oct96_A01.html qu'on peut trouver en suivant le biais Salle Galilée (Science) de la page Alexandrie. Je suis (ou étais) scientifique (physicien) donc j'ai voulu sélectionner un texte scientifique. Je n'ai jamais sérieusement étudié la biologie mais j'aime lire des articles qui traitent ce sujet dans la presse quotidienne. Je l'ai trouvé assez facile à comprendre, même si j'ai dû chercher quelques mots dans un dictionnaire anglais. J'ai ajouté les mots << rotifères, bdelloïdes, s'accoler, mésappariement, entravé, un coup de gnôle, dudit et levure >> à ma liste. Les auteurs présentent le une thèse qui exprime l'idée que l'échange du matériau génétique parmi des bactéries réalise la même fonction, en ce qui concerne l'évolution, que la réproduction sexuelle parmi des mammifères, par exemple. [...] I selected some Web pages . I followed the advice in "practical help" and I managed to place one of the articles I had downloaded intothe Lexica database. It's true that you can use it [?] just like any other. The text I chose is the one at http://www.larecherche.fr/ARCH/N9610/oct96_A01.html which you can find if you follow the Salle Galilée (Science) link of the Alexandria Library page. I am (or was) a scientist (physics) so I decided to select a scientific text. I never studied biology seriously but I like reading articles on that topic in the daily press. I found it relatively easy to understand, even though I had to look up a few words in an English dictionary. I added the words << rotifères, bdelloïdes, s'accoler, mésappariement, entravé, un coup de gnôle, dudit and levure >> to my list. The authors present a thesis expressing the idea that, in terms of evolution, exchange of genetic material among bacteria fulfils the same function as e.g. sexual reproduction in mammals. [...] |
In contrast, in the conversation-type exchanges, as illustrated in Fig 5,], the contributions are short, participants refer directly to what each other has been saying: ("Je voudrais une bière', 'Je voudrais une bière aussi' : 'I'd like a beer', 'So would I'), they use informal personal forms of address and talk to the whole group ('Une question pour tous': 'A question for all of you') and they share practical information about their forthcoming Summer School in Caen, Normandy.
Fig 5: a conversation-type text with social focus
These two examples are polarized, and the conference offers many examples of contributions somewhere in-between the two ends of the continuum, throughout which learners are creating different genres of texts:
The discourse structures exhibited in messages (textual properties, conversational properties) are susceptible to analysis. The aim of the analysis is to help us understand exactly what the learners are doing when they engage in asynchronous text-interactivity. Once we can describe ATI, we will be placed to promote the kind of learning that can be gained from it.
Patterns of interaction - Collaboration
Collaboration thrived around the issues of 'translation' and 'context' (the designers' instructions merely asked learners to discuss their Web-finds , not to translate them). In these collaborations, participants ask, reply, seek clarification, apologise and thank: collaborative learning is...
Language content and acquisition
In the first phase of the Lexica Online project, the topics that emerged were, unsurprisingly, concerned with the technology itself. The Web-based task offered towards the end of the project opened out to other topical content, notably politics (mainly about the then topical French elections). Throughout the project, there was discussion of both strategies and procedures, and 'language', including points of vocabulary, morphology, etymology, issues around register, translation and contextual meaning.
Among the resources from which learners produce language are the models which they encounter in tutor or peer messages and in Web-texts. Although in post-experiment feedback, a participant said 'I enjoyed watching the native speakers' speech patterns', there were in fact only few indications that anybody was prepared to not only 'watch' but also 'imitate' the models. Some evidence of re-use of linguistic structures and discourse markers was found, but the clearest examples came from the language of Web-searching. Phrases like 'downloading' etc [html] are not in the dictionary which we knew students were using; but they appear in the dedicated Web-terminology glossary of the Lexica project Guide, participants being explicitly alerted to its presence by a forum message. This indicates that language modelling must be promoted via the design of any upscaled project, and should be addressed more explicitly with learners, in order to generate more data on incorporation.
Investigations of types and patterns of ATI contributions as set out above identify the set of conditions that must be present for the most language learning to happen. Language content itself is then investigated (using linguistic and discourse analytical approaches) in order to arrive at evidence of acquisition.
Further research
The programme of which the Lexica Online project is part (Principles of Open Learning of Languages Online) is continuing to investigate this and other data from online language learning interactions, with a view to describing the relationships between the features of the medium, the learning experience, and the language learning outcome. Research is focusing on the following theroretical areas:
Second language acquisition - conference data is treated as evidence of language production and investigated for characteristics predicted by theories of how the underlying competence develops.
Autonomous learning - data is interpreted as indicative of the development of strategies of language learning and language use.
Knowledge construction - learner discussion is seen as the manifestation of the collaborative construction of knowledge of and about the target language.
Speech community building - data is taken to represent the degree of cohesiveness of the 'virtual community' which the participants have created.
A scaled-up rerun of the lexica Online project, planned for Spring 1998, will focus on the following issues:
References:
Laurillard D, Rethinking University Teaching - A Framework for the Effective use of Educational Technology (London: Routledge, 1993)
Chapelle C, 'CALL in the year 2000: Still in search of research paradigms?' in Language Learning and Technology 1/1: 19-43 (1997)
http://polyglot.cal.msu.edu/llt/vol1num1/chapelle/default.html
Principles for Open Learning of Languages On-line (POLLO):
http://sole.open.ac.uk/POLLO/Welcome.html
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