LEVY – Ch. 7 Practice
In the Listening section, I can agree that audio-video-conferencing-activities would seem to have a huge potential in giving students authentic listening (and speaking) practice, but since I have never actually seen it done, I would have to say that I have a difficult time visualizing exactly how such classroom activities it could be structured effectively.
I don’t agree completely with Levy’s ideas about the CMC. He states several times that “asynchronous forms of CMC are potentially better-suited to grammatical development…” (p.186).
Yes, synchronous CMC (chat) dialog is more like spoken communication than formal writing, but I think that the grammatical knowledge that learners build (and internalize) though extensive speaking (or CMC chatting) will reinforce their sense of what grammatical forms are appropriate even in formal writing.
CMC chat can provide immediate feedback, and for learners at early stages, the way they write is more like the way they speak.
Of course, if it is an course for advanced learners specifically focused on academic writing, then synchronous chat will not be the best form of practice.
Grgurović, M. & Hegelheimer, V. (2007). Help
Options and Multimedia Listening: Students' Use of Subtitles and the Transcript. Language Learning & Technology, 11(1), 45-66.
All the while I was reading this study, the question that kept occurring to me is this:
Is the activity that the authors designed specifically for this study actually an effective way to practice and reinforce listening skills?
Or was it designed solely to answer the very narrow question of whether students find using subtitles or transcripts more effective in the case of comprehension breakdown?
If it is the first purpose, then that makes a lot more sense to me. However, if they see it as an effective listening practice for ELLs, then I would have a lot of questions to ask, for example:
If it is supposed to be a listening activity, then why are the comprehension questions given t the students in writing??
If it is supposed to be a listening activity, why are students sent directly to a text-based form of support (if they answer incorrectly) without first giving them some modified form of audio-visual (listening) input to help them comprehend better?
Many ELLs have difficulty in improving their speaking and listening precisely because they are in the habit of relying too heavily on reading. If given the choice, these students may rely 100% on the text-based support, and ignore the audio…which kind of turns a “listening” activity into just another reading activity.
I think if I was designing (or testing) this kind of multimedia activity, I would also like to see at least one more level added to the activity. In the case of a wrong answer to the comprehension question at the end of each segment, instead of sending the user straight to a text-based form of support, I think it would be good to add at least one (and maybe two) steps to the process in the form of audio support. For example, if they answer incorrectly after the first viewing, let them:
1. see the video segment again (without textual support, and without the option
to pause or rewind), and then have them attempt the comprehension
question again. If they still answer incorrectly, then have them…
2. see the video segment once more (again without textual support), but this
time give them the option to pause or replay the segment before
attempting the comprehension question again.
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I have not met many students in my experience, that would use any help option. In fact, most students I observed and worked with in CALL labs skip past introduction and help options.
ReplyDeleteMaybe language is an issue, some CALL I see has options for Spanish help and some students did try it out. In the end, students tend to ask the instructor or try it on their own until they figure it out. Just my simple observation over the last three years.
I thought the article was maybe trying to show that people prefer video and subtitles to transcripts and reading. So, future CALL design should keep this in mind.