Reflection: The Role of Instructional Technology

What is the appropriate role of instructional technology in the teaching of languages, and more generally, in the teaching of literature and culture in the humanities?

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Case Western Reserve University

1. Traditional analog audio-visual technology

The technology of paper and printing, as well as related production of book, newspaper and other print materials represent the early examples of information technology. That early information technology enabled its use as instructional technology in the teaching of language, literature and culture in the humanities. The emergence of electromagnetic technology brought about the "tele"-era: telephone, television, radio, audio tape recorder, VCR. That information technology made the audio-visual instructional technology possible.

2. New digital technology

Today, we have not only technologies such as satellite television that extend the use of the "traditional" or "analog" audio-visual technology to an unprecedented degree, but also electronics-based computer technology that creates a "new" or "digital" era. In this new digital era, instructional technology is so-to-speak empowered. Writing and reading become less and less paper-dependent, less and less time-, space-, and distance-dependent, more and more controllable, diversified, and interactive; listening and speaking is becoming less and less time-, space-, and distance-limited and audio-visual materials become more and more controllable, intelligent, and interactive. Wordprocessing in different languages has virtually replaced handwriting and typewriting and is now widely used as an instructional technology in teaching of languages. CD-ROM mulimedia and Internet applications like E-mail, Gopher, WWW, etc. become more and more favorite instructional technologies in the teching of language, literature and culture in the humanities.

The use of technology has reached a very high, to some extent, scary level. One day I listened to a radio talk show with the topic "What do the thirteen years old do with internet?" The answers were diverse and supprising. These thirteen years old boys and girls are doing things the previous generations could not even have dreamed of. Some kids are playing all kinds of games or activies for fun, some are doing internet research for school assignments, some kids are even trying to break national security codes to prove that the internet is not a secure place. Now that the use of information technology has become a daily reality of even these thirteen years old children, we educators should certainly not simply sit back and do nothing. We surely don't want promote people to intrude national security or banking system to prove something because this is not our business. However, we can use sophisticated technology to improve our teaching of language, literature and culture in the humanities. At the same time, globalization of national economies, internationalization of the national cultures, and democratization of national politics urge our educators to provide our students in the humanities with more sophisticated education in language, literature and culture, as well as more international awareness. On the other hand, the trend of down-sizing of traditional literature-based foreign language eduation and some of the other majors in humanities alerts us to find new ways to improve our profession to prevent the down-the-hill movement of our profession. That is, we should not passively keep up with the challenges from new technology but actively think about and take advantage of new instructional technologies for humanities education. This will not only prevent our profession from further down-the-hill movement but rather prepare our students with better international awareness, literacy and thus competitiveness in their future job market.

Computerized foreign language placement test programs such as those developed by BYU, for example, are very useful testing tool for foreign language teaching. Since thoseprograms can calculate and recalculate the students language level, it helps instructors analyze students overall performances before enrollment and after taking courses.

The instructional technology plays first of all an important role for students in FL study at elementary and intermediate levels. Learning a foreign language for students with no FL experience is normally frustrating. It is needless to say that the best way to learn a FL is to go to the country of the target language. This is, however, not feasible for many students. They have to choose to learn a FL in the country. But the biggest problem to learn language, literature and culture is the lack of authentic target language, literature, and cultural environment. Students often have to struggle with a big language and cultural barrier. The state of the art instructional technology, especially the multimedia, will lower that barrier.

Multimedia is a computer based system of several media, a combination of digital video, audio, and text. It is up to now best operational in form of CD-ROM running on local CD-ROM drives. Good multimedia programs can also provide students with interesting interactivity and learning aide.

Here is an example: Parallèles for French. This movie based language program was originally called Video Linguist. It incorporates full-motion video clips taken from French TV news. The digitized video clips are organized by topics. The materials are real, interesting and native, originally not intended for foreign language learners, but for native French people. Because it can provide students with low profile language environment with realistic and interesting materials, students won't feel bored, stressed or challenged. They will be more interested, motivated and attracted to the content of learning. Well designed multimedia FL applications not only provide elementary language learners with animation, annotation, sound, music, dialogues and full motion video, but also a user-friendly navigation tool to control the learning pace and self-testing methods. The French program Parallèles, for example, has two different speeds of voice: one in original news speed, fast and native, one in FL learning speed, slow and clear. It also has two text windows, one in French and one in English. The language learners can browse either or both moving texts. The French text is also clickable hypertext. The language learners can get word meaning or grammar explanation by clicking the text. The clicked content can be printed out as a personal vocabulary list. This feature is very similar to Transparent Language's "decoding" feature, or Annotext's annotation function. That helps students get most of the text and reinforces students reading comprehension skill.

The instructional technology is also very useful, and important, learning aide for more advanced students to cope with target languages, literature and cultures. The newest trend in the use of instructional technology beside multimedia applications is the use of internet applications. The use of e-mail, for example, is a very attractive way to put oneself in a comfortable environment to communicate with the native language users. Today students at many schools and universities are networked through internet with students in a foreign country of target language. E-mail with pen-pals or keyboard pals in their target language is a cost-effective way to improve the language learners in one of the four language skills: the writing skill.

Sophisticated internet applications, such as WWW, offer students in the humanities with tons of authentic materials directly from target language countries. The enhanced WWW represents a recent, most powerful, development in use of instructional technology. It provides powerful interface which combines advanced searching, viewing and downloading methods (e.g. gopher, ftp, telnet, archie, finger, netfinder, etc.) with user-friendly and interactive delivery of hyper linked text, audio (sound, voice, music), video (graphics, picture, animation, and movie). Making good use of these materials can substantially enrich and vitalize one's teaching. For example, the instructor can assign students a specific topic and then have them search certain web sites in target language country or countries for information and make notes, and then sit aside in a circle to talk about the materials they have collected or elaborate in Netscape News their views about the selected topics. Assignments can also be submitted, corrected and graded on-line using secured or unsecured forms. Prof. Bob Godwin-Jones at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University), for example, has designed Web pages with course materials and assignments for his German courses. That way students are more willing and more interested to read and talk about things in target language. The students reading and speaking skills can be enhanced. The stress related to foreign language can be replaced by study for fun of study with fun.

> The recent release of Netscape incorporates three major applications of Internet, that is multiple Web browsers, multiple news readers, and multiple e-mailers. Through integration, three application work like one and information obtained from one application can guide users to follow up using other applications in the program. Java is also incorporated in the recent release of Netscape. Java is praised as the third wave of the Internet. In the recent past, interactivity for WWW sites has largely been limited to filling out online forms. But Java has a capability called executable content, and it's also platform independent. Executable content means that WWW pages can include tiny Java computer programs called applets. Java brings the multimedia, that is, motion and sound and interactivity into Internet and make the Internet navigation more alive. Instead of merely displaying static pages with text and graphics, a Java-enhanced page can include many different interactive activities, from pop-up windows to games to spreadsheets the user can fill out to news feeds that automatically update themselves. The possibilities of use of Java for foreign language teaching and learning are endless. The other advantage of Java is that its applets are platform independent: if your computer can support a Java browser, it can display these applets, whether it's Mac, Window, Unix, or whatever. The next generation of Netscape will even enable real-time audio and real-time video, thus greatly enhancing the multimedia interactivity of the WWW. The use of internet will not only enhance their communication skill in target languages, but also substancially broaden their horizon, improves their international awareness and knowledge in literature and culture.

Realaudio can also be a potential listening tool for teaching language, literature and culture. Since the transfer of the audio using Realaudio software happens in a stream and listeners do not need to wait as they do using other software, it is about five time faster. It can be used for students to listen to international radio stations. CU-SeeMe is another useful tool for foreign language learner. This program was originally developed by Cornell University. It enables language learners do tele-conferencing with native speakers in target countries. It only cost about as little as $100 for hardware, a small digital camara called QuickCam. The free software from Cornell supports black and white video and audible audio. The commercial products support color video and better audio.

According to my own experience, the networked language laboratories like Tandberg Educational IS10 Multimedia are also very powerful instructional technology for teaching of language and culture. Tandberg IS10 Multimedia, for example, allows the language instructor to send the console' s digital or analog video and audio to individual workstations. The instructors can use this feature to teach students how to navigate the Web, how to use different foreign language programs, how to use Netscape News or Netscape Mail for activities in foreign languages. Satellite TV programs can also be fed into Tandberg Sytem so that students can watch SCOLA on individual station in class or individually. Instructors can also involve students in combined activities by incorporating computer programs with Tandberg conferencing, pairing, grouping, instrutor-student and student-class feature. One might readily do the same thing with logs of realtime chat sessions using Interchange or Internet Relay Chat (IRC), or meetings in a MUD or MOO setting.

> For more advanced students and scholars, e.g. graduate students and faculty, the instructional technology is an indispensible tool for study, teaching, and research. The internet, for example, can be used to communicate with students and instructors in the country and abroad. Today we can find many databases and archives on-line where we can get needed information and research materials. All these kinds of use of instructional technology can greatly enhance the teaching of language, literature, and culture. I myself, for example, subscribed to many list groups of my interests, and I can get and exchange relevant information with people in the United States and around the world.

Acording to Prof. Seth R. Katz at the Department of English, Bradley University, Peoria, people in humanities are doing dozen things with hypertext and teaching literature:

1. Having course syllabi and readings loaded on the Web and linked hypertextually.

2. Creating Web Archives

An excellent collection of links to online literature course materials including both "course syllabi on the Web" and "Web archives" can be found on the homepage of Jack Lynch, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. The URL of Lynch's homepage is

http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/

* The World Lecture Hall http://wwwhost.cc.utexas.edu/world/instruction/ index.html

* Voice of the Shuttle Course Materials http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/shuttle/eng-c.html

* Online Courses at U.Texas, Austin:

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/instructors/online/online.html

The homepage of the "Computer Writing and Research Labs" at the University of Texas at Austin contains a wealth of information for using computers--and hypertext--in teaching literature and composition: http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/

3. Linking common themes and ideas in logs of e-mail class discussion (or logs of Interchange, IRC, or MOO sessions)

http://english.ttu.edu/5361/

4. Having students author Web pages and other Web documents. http://www.uiowa.edu/~english/landon.html

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu

5. Using hypertexts that provide sets of questions and prompts for thought, study, and response linked to a text

http://www.acs.appstate.edu/~davisct/

6. Providing students with hypertext versions of primary texts with links to contextual materials

7. Other kinds of hypertext-based presentation materials for teaching literature

8. Having students create hypertextually-annotated and linked sets of texts

9. Using hypertext for prewriting activities

10. Having students author hypertext poetry and fiction http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/hthl/HyperLit_Home.html

11. Examining what hypertext reveals about changes in culture and thought

12. Studying hypertext fiction in the context of a literature course.

Voice recognition or speech recognition represents another potential instructional technology that can be used for foreign language teaching. It can not only help elementary language learners improve their pronunciation, but also be used as a faster input system for non-alphabetical languages like Chinese. The commercially available multimedia language program "Triple Play" in French, Spanish and German, for example, incorporate voice recognition technology. A project by Air-Force Academy incorporating voice recognition technology into WinCalis will eventually substantially enhance the intelligent interactibility of the Multimedia for foreign language learning. The Chinese Dictation Kit by Apple Computers, on the other hand, is a commercially available voice recognition program, which can enter Chinese characters just by microphone input. This program, after several hours of training, can type five time faster than normal keyboard input method. Although the use of voice/speech recognition technology is still in its infancy, the day it is widely used is predictably not too far away.

Since the new instructional technology gives humanities students more control and accessibility to the world at a low cost, we need to pay special attention to the use of instructional technology. However, since the new technology is still in its infancy or childhood, it is far from mature. Hardware is not 100% reliable and will sometimes go down. It still has limitation in memory, space, and speed. Software is often lagging behind. There is often a lack of well-designed college-oriented commercial software and a surplus of system incompatibility. Because the new technology is rapidly changing, we often have budgetary constrains to cope with the recurrent needs of maintenance and upgrading of the instructional technology. To cope with all these "transitional" problems, we need to struggle with budgetary and human resource constrains and to be committed to maintaining, upgrading hardware and maintaining, upgrading and developing software. Therefore the use of the "traditional" analog audio-vidual technology should only be replaced when the new instructional technology is readily and reliably available.

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