What Was Old is Made New Again: Using Technology to Enliven Language Learning

University of Maryland at College Park

Technology, the latest «buzz word», constantly appears in newspapers, magazines, television programs, and even in our professional journals. What do we mean by «technology?» My colleague and I prefer to use the word in a broad sense, for everything from tape recorders to computers. The potential of new interactive technology is exciting and holds much promise, but we should not forget the «old» technology -such as audio tapes, transparencies, and slides- which still has much to offer us⁹⁴. For those of us who have dreams greater than our budgets, there are many affordable ways to exploit traditional technology for communicative teaching. In this article, we will describe several techniques using older technology to develop listening and speaking skills, and we will show how readily available materials can be used effectively in the classroom as well as the laboratory⁹⁵.

Imagine you have been assigned to teach a beginning Spanish class. Since you have been given a textbook and a syllabus, you know which chapters you must cover by the end of the semester. For your first class, you plan a lesson involving an audio cassette. Within minutes after you start, however, your students seem bored. This scene occurs innumerable times in both the classroom and the language laboratory. Gone are the days of «watching the radio.» Part of the reason for this boredom is that our students belong to the television generation and are accustomed to playing fast paced video games, listening to high-quality audio tapes and compact discs, and seeing professional video tapes and full-color illustrations in magazines. They expect similar «entertainment» in class. We definitely are doing the right thing by bringing in audio-visual aids. My colleague and I, nevertheless, find that students generally do not respond favorably to many of the materials, such as drill tapes, which are available commercially. Overall, students want variety, and they need to be actively engaged in discovering language. Many of us are required to use textbooks chosen by others and to follow a set curriculum. Under these circumstances, it can be difficult to use supplementary materials. We should not, however, allow ourselves to be limited to the text and the tapes that accompany it, even though these certainly have their place. While more and more good materials are being produced, the development of commercial audio-visual products is moving slowly; thus, we are discovering that we must produce our own materials to enliven our programs. From our experience we have found that the audio-visual components of a course should not be slavishly textbook-bound and that inexpensive techniques to breathe life into our delivery are at our fingertips.

To customize our audio-visual presentations and avoid having students exclusively use publishers' tapes and workbooks, we edit selected exercises from the tapes. Since we prefer to emphasize communication, we choose exercises focusing on oral skills, and we exclude any note taking or answer writing. One of our main goals in this activity is to break the students' sole reliance upon the workbook and the written word. When work books provide excellent pictures, word clues, or other aids to help students answer the questions, we use those visual cues. Rather than distribute photocopies to every student, we make color transparencies, one exercise to a page, and project the image for all to see. Students and teacher can then work together while the tape is playing. As the instructor points to the appropriate cue or part of the picture, students focus on the visuals. Al though timing is important and the teacher has to be alert, the resulting atmosphere -in which the students, unwittingly caught up in the challenge of responding, lose their feelings

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of inhibition- is well worth the effort.

Intermediate students who have acquired a basic vocabulary usually can view a picture or sequence of pictures on a transparency and describe what they see. This well-known technique, long used in foreign language achievement testing, still works! As Rick Altman points out, there are many studies which confirm the importance of visual materials for identifying appropriate context. According to him, «it has been repeatedly demonstrated that even a single line drawing that provides only a very general indication of the contents of a passage can have a marked effect on comprehension, if it is shown to subjects before they read or listen to the passage» (Altman, 9). A picture, then, actually is «worth a thousand words.»

Images, when well chosen, encourage students to recall the vocabulary they already know to describe a scene. In an «audio-active compare» language laboratory, students can record their compositions, play them back, improve them, and re-record, while the laboratory instructor assists individuals. In the classroom, this exercise can be modified and presented as a task-based activity in which students work in groups to describe a picture or make up a story. While collaborating, they assume the teacher's role, correct each other, make suggestions, and learn together. Finally, they can be asked to summarize each group's creation. This activity is one of the easiest to prepare and provides a rich linguistic environment in which students learn by actually doing.

Listening material can be taken from the radio or telephone. A tape recorder connected to a radio can allow you to record commercials, songs, interviews, and commentary directly off-air. For telephone conversations and recorded messages (such as public service announcements, business hours, time, and the weather), a telephone «pickup⁹⁶» can be suctioned onto the ear piece of the receiver and plugged into the jack of a tape recorder. This inexpensive technique provides unedited material, which can challenge but not overwhelm the learner and which has application at all levels of language instruction. When using this device, be sure to follow legal guidelines involving wire-tapping⁹⁷. Beginning students can be directed to listen for specific information (such as dates, times, names), while more advanced learners can be challenged to under stand idioms, reduced forms, pronunciation variants, formal or informal speech, and even entire passages.

Students of the television generation often plead with us to let them «see a movie» or «watch TV.» Not only is full-color video attractive to students, it obviously has tremendous pedagogical applications. At the very least, many of us have used a film or a recorded television program and played it straight through from start to finish. Some students benefit from this exposure, even without being fully prepared for the linguistic and cultural complexity of the material. Unfortunately, others are not always able to digest that much material at one time, and, all too often, the video cassette recorder can be come a way for students to pass time.

We contend that a video lesson should not be perceived by the students as a free period. Teachers must plan purposeful activities in order to exploit the potential of this medium. One way to successfully incorporate video into instruction is to correlate short segments with topics in each chapter of the textbook. For example, a portion of a videotape showing a plane landing and passengers disembarking can be used to present culturally appropriate greetings. As the same scene continues, the conversations of other passengers preparing for departure can be shown as models for typical expressions of farewell. Audio tapes recorded by the instructors can include exercises based on those same topics. After students see the video segments several times, instructors can animate a discussion of the topic by using transparencies that depict related activities and use these visual materials as springboards for brief exchanges between teacher and students. Students may then listen to the audio tapes, record the answers, play them back, and correct themselves in an audio-active-compare language laboratory. Meanwhile, the teacher monitors and assists students individually.

When students see a direct relation between the chapter they are studying and the

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supplementary materials, they understand more clearly the value of these activities for their academic success and their linguistic proficiency. In addition, enthusiastic teachers can keep the session moving at such a pace that the students become involved in the excitement of learning.

Many slide shows accompanied by audio tapes are available commercially. Some are excellent, and, if the topic is interesting, can be very useful. Unfortunately, however, many of them end up stored and forgotten or rarely used. Our experience has been that presentations of the «home-made» variety have greater appeal than commercial ones. They can be used most effectively when the students are involved in the design and production of the show in consultation with the teacher. By allowing students to experiment with the language in a controlled setting, this kind of exercise makes an excellent project; it also produces materials that can be used by others.

Students have made several slide and tape shows for our collection. One, about a trip to a restaurant, includes ordering, eating, and paying. Some of the slides (with captions, which can be added since we have photographic facilities available) reappear at the end of the program and provide a point of departure for further exercises. Another one, called «Los placeres de la primavera⁹⁸» depicts a student couple who spontaneously decide to have a picnic on a lovely spring day. They go to the supermarket, examine items, make selections, and pay. Making a slide show accompanied by audio tapes, we have found, is one of the easiest class projects to undertake. It requires only a camera and film, a tape recorder and tape.

Teachers or students can take pictures while on vacation in a foreign country for subsequent projects. Alternatively, many people have private slide collections that they may be willing to share. Copies of slides can always be made at reasonable cost. Although these slides are not professionally produced, they are often well done and can withstand the test of time. An added benefit of this activity is the possibility of sharing the slides (as well as the production and equipment costs) with teachers of other languages. Of course, some substitutions of slides may be necessary to maintain cultural appropriateness.

Certain slides, shown at the beginning of a class, can provide critical background knowledge, set a scene or mood, and heighten interest in a particular lesson. As Altman attests, «Surprisingly, even pictures only vaguely related to a passage aid comprehension more than prior access to a list of the actual vocabulary words employed in the passage» (Altman, 9).

Teachers can simulate situations based on mimed scenarios (such as going to the doctor, meeting someone at a party, and taking a taxi) like those in Speak Easy⁹⁹. These scenarios provide a framework within which students can be motivated to experiment with the target language. After the first viewing, we teach students the vocabulary they will need. We group them in pairs and ask them to create and act out an appropriate conversation to accompany the mimed situation. Each student plays a role. To help them improve their speaking skills, we have students rehearse their dialogues several times, and the teacher assists students individually when necessary.

In a laboratory setting, we record and play back the dialogues. Some are played back along with the video to the entire class. Synchronizing the students' audio recordings with the video is a challenge but adds to the fun. In the classroom, the students' skits could be videotaped. We have had great success with this exercise, which is enjoyable for the students and challenges them to produce language in a non-threatening atmosphere.

Used within the bounds of the copyright laws, videotaped television programs in the foreign language provide a rich source of authentic materials. The incompatibility of television transmission standards around the world poses technical problems that must be solved before programs telecast from certain countries can be used. Multi-standard television equipment is now available for some what more than standard video equipment and is a good investment since video companies charge high rates to convert foreign tapes to the US. standard. More and more good language videos containing commercials, news clips, game shows, documentaries, and cultural

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programs are becoming available for purchase¹⁰⁰.

Avoid, by all means, showing an entire video program to the class non -stop with little or no preparation or follow- up by teachers and students. To understand and benefit from programming intended for an audience of native speakers, your students will probably need extensive help. A short segment can provide a wealth of linguistic material for one lesson. Even a 60-second commercial can be exploited to illustrate cultural and social phenomena as well as grammar and vocabulary. As Katherine Lawrence points out, «advertisements provide a means of facilitating linguistic competence by an authentic exposure of phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic elements... commercials not only expose students to a new semiotic environment, but also can help them decode various social messages in the culture of the target language and compare it with values they already know» (Lawrence, 842).

A fun alternative to using commercially available video entails using a video camera to produce your own materials. We use camcorders to film student dialogues, presentations, simulated news and weather reports, and other activities carried out in class. Students enjoy watching themselves on television and appreciate the immediate feedback we provide during replays. These «home-made» tapes can be stored for later evaluation of student progress. Since recording equipment has become increasingly portable, teachers can now use this technology to record scenes in foreign countries. One of the teachers of English as a second language at the University of Maryland at College Park, Lois Kleinhenn Lanier, videotaped relatives in her home while they staged scenes, such as calling the doctor, making introductions, and reminiscing about the past. She reports that this material not only provides students with samples of unedited speech and exposure to diverse dialects and discourse styles, but also gives them a glimpse of home life. Cultural information (interior decoration, gestures, dress, mannerisms, and architectural styles, etc.) is difficult to convey in writing or by using commercially-available materials but can come to life in these productions.

Most of the activities described here can be used both in a language laboratory and the classroom. More and more instructors who work in a laboratory environment are seeking innovative ways to use the equipment available to them. As LeeAnn Stone points out, «... many institutions are now in the position of utilizing a communicative approach in their foreign language programs, while their existing labs, often carry -overs from the halcyon days of audio- lingual approaches, remain virtually idle, are used for testing, or... to carry on the tradition of programmed instruction» (Stone, 3).

We believe that the success we have had with the ideas presented here is due to the dynamic nature of the interaction of students and teacher with the different media. We have attempted to cast old ideas in a new light, and we encourage you to adapt and apply these techniques to your circumstances. While we acknowledge that planning these activities requires extra time and effort, we must also point out that collaborating with other teachers, sharing expertise, and adapting the materials for use at various levels can reduce the initial investment of human resources without diminishing the educational return. Expensive or inexpensive, old or new, traditional or innovative, equipment is of little use without creative yet well-planned applications similar to those we have suggested in this article: edited audio tapes; «oral composition» with transparencies; authentic audio materials; video, transparencies, and correlated audio; synchronized slide and tape shows; miming and pairing; commercial video; and «home made» video. Above all, the more we expose our students to media other than just the printed text, the more we will spark their interest and help them to function better in a multi-lingual, multi-cultural world.

Altman, Rick. The Video Connection: Integrating Video into Language Teaching. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989.

Lanier, Lois Kleinhenn. Beginning Listening Materials. An in-house publication of the Maryland English Institute, University of Maryland at College Park, 1984.

Lawrence, Katherine. «The French TV Commercial as a Pedagogical Tool in the Classroom» The French Review 60.6 (1987): 835-44.

Stone, LeeAnn. Task-Based Activities: A Communicative Approach to Language Laboratory Use. International Association of Learning Laboratories, 1988.

Duncan, Janie. Technology Assisted Teaching Techniques. Vermont: Pro Lingua Associates, 1987.

Ely, Philip. Bring the Lab Back to Life. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1984.

The IALL Journal of Language Learning Technologies, formerly known as The Journal of Educational Techniques and Technologies. Many useful articles appear in this journal published by the International Association of Learning Laboratories. Write IALL, c/o Language Media Center, 125 Schaeffer Hall, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242.

Hispania [Publicaciones periódicas]. Volume 73, Number 4, December 1990