Autonomous Technology-Assisted Language Learning: Principles, Resources, Needs, and Possibilities
Gary Cziko (Professor of Educational Psychology and English as an International Language)
Recent advances in technology have provided valuable new resources
for autonomous language learners. Input resources include Internet-based
text, audio, and video, satellite radio
and television, and DVD. Interactive resources include
wikis, instant messaging, voice over IP, and video conferencing.
New resources are also available for exercises and assessment.
However, serious challenges face the widespread and effective use
of these resources for language learning. Gary Cziko discussed
these challenges in his brown bag presentation, offering possibilities
for overcoming them by demonstrating a number of software and hardware
products, prototypes, and designs.
Presentation Summary
Professor Cziko began his presentation by telling the audience
about his background and how he became interested in languages
as a young child, while using a short wave radio to listen to different
broadcasts from around the world. Following his childhood interest
in languages, Cziko began to study languages
in high school, but soon realized that few resources were available
to help him fully master the different languages that he studied.
This lack of language resources, however, has greatly changed with
the rapid increase (and continual transformation) of technology.
The most commonly used technology, the Internet, provides endless
resources for learning languages, although there are many other
useful programs that students can use to learn languages. Cziko
promotes the idea that students should do more than simply
learn languages; instead, students should develop technology
skills they can apply themselves, beyond
the classroom and traditional course structure, toward their
own language development.
In a Spring 2005 course that he was teaching, Cziko started a
Wikibook called ATALL
(Autonomous Technology-Assisted Language Learning), which has
many of the tools and resources that are helpful in language learning.
For example, some of the most effective tools on the web that assist
students in learning languages include Google
News, Google
Toolbar, WordChamp,
and AvantGo.
Google News allows readers to read the news in a variety of different
languages, also allowing for users to customize their news home
page to get news from their country of choice. Google Toolbar has
a very helpful built-in word translator that allows users to translate
any word into English. Google Toolbar is helpful for non-English
speakers wanting to learn English, but not so helpful for English
speakers who want to learn a new language. WordChamp is an interactive
web site that works well for English speakers who want to learn
a different language; Simply scrolling over many of the words reveals
the English translation, and for those who need to hear how words
sound, an audio pronunciation is also available. WordChamp
allows users to compile words in a flash card-type system, which
gives beginning language learners the opportunity to test themselves
on the words and phrases that they are learning. Finally, AvantGo
is a great web site that allows language learners to download text
from the web (text in almost any language) into their PDA. AvantGo
is the text version of podcasting, and is helpful for mobile language
learning.
Along with reading text, autonomous technology-assisted language learners will also want to listen to the languages that they are learning. Again, the Internet provides a wide variety of audio in different languages, including multiple language podcasts. The ATALL Wikibook lists a directory of daily news podcasts in various languages. According to Cziko, it is still difficult to find some high quality podcasts on the Internet in certain languages, but as time goes on, more and more high quality podcasts are becoming available. In terms of learning languages, however, listening to podcasts on an iPod does not allow for adequate speed control that most new language learners need to understand new languages. Instead, using a computer does allow for students to adjust speed control, but the mobile aspect of listening to podcasts is decreased.
Different radio techniques are available to make audio more accessible. Rather than sitting in front of your computer to listen to audio, devices such as cordless headphones are available so that you can listen to Internet audio while being mobile and doing other things. FM transmitters are also convenient in that they make a variety of radio stations available to the listener in different places and at different times. For Cziko, the use of FM transmitters at home evolved into the Latino Radio Service, which he created in January 2005, and operates out of La Casa Cultural Latina on campus. These different radio techniques demonstrate that it is possible to make a variety of different languages easily accessible.
Internet video is another popular medium available to those learning different languages. Although most video is available in English, many sites are expanding to include non-English videos. Non-Internet video such as DVD movies provide a wonderful source for those learning English to use closed captioning and listen to the film while reading the text in their native language. Using closed captioning text is especially useful for learning more common-spoken language and slang. Currently there are only a few non-English films that provide English-language closed captioning, so English language speakers wanting to learn a different language do not have too many DVD options to choose from, but more and more foreign language movies are providing English subtitles. Moreover, many DVD players have speed control, which allows viewers to slow down the movie in order to better understand the dialogue.
Along with input, another important aspect of language learning is interaction. According to Cziko, tandem language learning (language exchange) is important to help people learn second languages. For example, Wikipedia has great potential for collaborative language learning. Wikipedia allows for students to interact with text, and to translate text into numerous different languages, making a permanent contribution to knowledge. Emerging technology, such as dialcasting allows anyone to make podcasts through the telephone, and Cziko thinks this technology may be very useful in a variety of ways. His showcase article, Dialcasting: Making Podcasting Easy and Interactive, illustrates how to make dialcasts and discusses the usefulness of such technology. A number of other interactive sites, such as SharedTalk, allows for collaborative language learning through text, and xLingo which allows for collaborative language learning through audio communication. Finally, Lectation, which is an educational program created by Cziko and Doug Mills from CITES EdTech and currently under development, provides a typing exercise that forces second language learners to reconstruct sentences and paragraphs by re-tying a sample chunk of text.
About Gary Cziko
To learn more about Gary Cziko, visit his web site at: http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/g%2Dcziko/
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