Are You a Good Listener - Research Paper Example

Are You a Good Listener? Introduction Language is a very important thing in the world. Obviously, it helps bridge the gap between people. Without language there would probably be no civilization. Language has helped nations develop laws, culture, education, etc. Nowadays, people do not need language only to be civilized. Different kinds of people study a language other than their own for different purposes. Some study to satisfy their need for knowledge. Others just want to be able to converse when traveling, studying or living in another country. Still there are others, like in South Korea, where learning another language, specifically English, is a means to have a job or get into a top university. “All one has to do is just take a walk in any bookstore and see just how big learning English is…. with the profusion of English language books, tapes, and test study guides (Miller, J., 2006).” The acquisition of a new language, especially English, has led into a thriving business. Individuals and companies have come up and are continuously developing new educational materials to help people have better communication skills. As a result of the increasing demand, the techniques and modes have evolved from simple books and listening tapes to CDs/DVDs, computer software and websites on the Internet. Computer Assisted Language Learning or CALL has become a common method of acquiring another language. “The history of CALL suggests that the computer can serve a variety of uses for language teaching (Warschauer, M., 1996).” Not only do they enhance the users’ listening, speaking, writing and reading skills, but CALL programs also provide a variety of interesting materials and ways of learning. Since its advent, CALL programs have been used by schools, businesses, governments and individuals for different purposes. For those studying the English language, one use of CALL, for example, is as a medium in preparing students for English proficiency exams like IELTS. The Tell Me More English program is one of the many tools in the market that uses computer-based technology as a means of teaching the English language. The software was created by awarded CALL software developer Auralog and has been released in three versions since its introduction in the market. Among its various functions, educational facilities utilize the Tell Me More English program to aid students entering college get a high score on English proficiency examinations such as that of the International English Language Testing System, better known as IELTS. Literature Review “The Tell Me More English program is the only English software that truly covers all of the skills used in learning English: not only reading, writing, listening, and speaking, but also grammar, vocabulary and culture (TellMeMore, nd.).” For learners of the English language, excelling in these skills is the key to becoming good speakers. It has been argued that although computers can be a tool in language learning, there are still questionable aspects of language acquisition through CALL programs that need to be addressed. Furthermore, it is yet to be realized how CALL materials can effectively impart learning of each basic communication skill. “Computer assisted language learning has developed over the last 30 years (Warschauer, M., 1996)”. CALL has three stages: behavioristic, communicative and integrative. The first stage, implemented in the 1960s-70s, was practicing by drills. The next stage, communicative, focused more on how the students interacted with each other while working on the computer rather than developing a more in-depth role for computers in the field of language learning. (Warschauer, M., 1996) Criticisms that surfaced from this aspect of communicative CALL gave rise to the third stage, integrative CALL. With integrative CALL, “students are challenged to construct their own knowledge with guidance from a teacher (Nerbonne, J., et.al., n.d.).” Although CALL has grown to be a popular medium for education, there are still questions regarding the effectiveness of the system. In second language acquisition, for example, “there are financial, isolated and knowledge required issues (Lai, C. & Kristonis, W., 2006).” One author, in a review article, has stated that evaluating CALL is difficult because little is known about second language acquisition (SLA). (Chapelle, C., 1997) There is also the question of the computer’s limited ability to perfectly assess a learner’s response. A student’s reply maybe affected by different factors unknown to the computer. In English, there are four basic communication skills. These are speaking, writing, listening and reading. Students, professionals, educators and tourists have different focus areas although all of them choose to study or practice speaking before the other skills. The next skill people try to master is listening while reading and writing come last because as students may say these last two can be studied without a teacher guiding them. Creators of CALL software try to develop programs which target these skills. Speaking is thought to be an innate skill. Everyone can speak. May it be a simple “Hello” or a complete sentence in a conversation, the ability to say words is something every person can do. However, learners of a language will say that this is the “ultimate test”, the skill enabling them to communicate in the most basic way. (Bygate, M., 1987) Learners believe that they have mastered a language only when they are able to articulate as close to how a native speaker can. They feel successful when native speakers are able to understand what they are trying to say. Listening is another important aspect of communication learners try to enhance. Since the 1970’s, language educators have been encouraged to have students listen to the target language first before other activities. (Feyten, C., 1991) However, to listen takes more than just making someone’s ears available for another’s words. “Listening means paying attention and making a conscious effort to process what you hear. (Are you.., n.d.) Active listening is a tool for an effective spoken exchange of ideas. A great deal of concentration and determination is put into it. (Key Points, n.d.) This is why learners also consider it as a test to watch movies or listen to music that is not in their first language. When they are able to decipher what they are hearing, learners take it as an improvement of this communication skill. Both reading and writing are usually studied after speaking and listening. In reading, learners often focus more on the pronunciation of the written words than on understanding the material as a whole. This is why many students often have to read the material twice or thrice for comprehension. Writing, on the other hand, usually takes a backseat in the study plan unless the learner needs it for work or play. CALL programs teaching the communicative skills have been applauded and also critiqued. Research has discovered that “computer-assisted reading activities have the potential to actively engage students in learning (Healey, D., 1999).” With interactive drills including cloze exercises and shuffled sentences, students have been observed to enjoy working on the computer-assisted reading activities. (Healey, D., 1999) In writing, criticism and corrections are delivered in a non-personal way. This eases the discomfort or embarrassment on the learner’s side so he or she is free to ask questions in order to improve his or her work. In listening, there is a variety of materials such as multimedia that make the activities enjoyable. (Healey, D., 1999) Meanwhile, a small amount of research argues that CALL programs are not sufficient to teach speaking. (James, R., 1999) Most of the CALL software offer speaking drills in phonics or replying to/repeating a given sentence. The computer’s assessment is based on fixed data in its system. This data may not take into consideration some aspects or factors that can affect the student’s response which, on the other hand, can be observed by teachers. Description The Tell Me More program was made public in 1998. It incorporates state-of-the-art speech recognition software in order to give real-time feedback to students. There are a lot of exercises provided for more opportunities to practice their communicative skills. The videos and topics are relevant to the learner’s needs whether it be for business, government, education or personal use. Since its conception, Auralog has upgraded the Tell Me More program three times with each version earning awards for effectiveness. The interface is easy. Learners only need to click on their chosen replies with a mouse. For the speaking practice, the program records the responses delivered through the learner’s microphone. For sentence construction, learners’ are required to drag words into their proper order. Links to help the learner is the task all appear on the screen for easy reference. Instead of brining the learner to a different screen altogether, these open to windows that appear on top of the existing screen. To exit, students need only to click the X at the upper right corner of the screen. This method proves to be convenient as the learners can easily continue on the task. Evaluation There exists a number of computer-assisted language learning software in the market. To have that edge, developers of CALL programs keep on trying to make aspects of their products more “user friendly” yet challenging to the learners. The Tell Me More English program Pedagogical Aspect The makers of both programs used the Communicative Approach (CA) as a guide in developing the software. This way of learning has been used in the instruction of second and foreign languages. The system employs lessons and tasks to reinforce the learning.  Although research has suggested that this method fails to recognize aspects of the learner’s and/or teacher’s mother tongues (Swan, M. 1984), the Communicative Approach is still widely used in language teaching. Tell Me More teaches with the CA method via their PRIME approach. The acronym stands for progressive, real-time, interactive, motivating and effective. The software allows the learner to choose his or her level of ability and presents exercises accordingly. This proves to be very convenient for users as there is no need to purchase several CDs/DVDs for each level of learner. Also, Tell Me More provides challenging materials for intermediate and advanced learners who usually have difficulty in this aspect. (Tell Me More Review, n.d.) These activities will contain material that is consistent with the target language’s culture in order to make studying more authentic for the student. This way Tell Me More is able to immerse, for example, a Korean student in the English world. The software not only requires the learner to participate which solves the problem of motivation and retention of attention. In every lesson, the learner is also able to practice his or her listening and speaking skills, the two skills believed to display a student’s progress in language learning. Technological Aspect Generally, the Tell Me More software is clean and easy to use and understand. The various activities in the software are set against a plain-colored background, giving a bright and uncluttered look to the screen. Because of the simple content, the screen does not take time to load. In almost all exercises, the learner is only required to click his or her answers. This alone is very easy for anyone regardless of age and communicative skill. However, the simplicity of the content may also prove to be a disadvantage. A more colorful presentation may be required for clients who are visual learners and for children who have a short attention span. To further aid the student in understanding the lesson at hand, the screen contains options for translations, the grammar classification of each word and practice on pronunciation and listening. These boxes contain a drop-down menu the user can refer to whenever there is uncertainty or confusion in his or her answer. A drawback of this feature though is that users might depend on these tools more than to try and answer the exercises themselves. One innovative feature of the Tell Me More program is the Spoken Error Tracking System feature. An audiovisual aid or text link which appears in every exercise opens a screen superimposed on the current one. This new window contains a pronunciation practice which records and checks the learner’s speech against that of the native speaker’s. The SETS screen shows the sound waves made by the native speaker. These waves give the learner an idea on pitch, intonation and pronunciation. These are all put together by the learner when imitating the speaker in order to make similar sound waves. The learner is shown the target score he or she must get which reflects the degree of similarity of his or her speech to that of the native speaker’s. Although there is no downside to SETS, a defective microphone or a slow computer can affect the reception of the user’s speech and may result to a low score. The program also allows the learner to easily know if his or her answer is correct. Most items in the exercises contain a “Check My Answer” box. This feature makes the learner recognize his or her error and become more cautious if the word or phrase is shown again in other exercises. Integration The Tell Me More software can prove to effectively assist the teacher and student in the classroom. Teachers can use the courseware to supplement their speaking and listening lessons. (Refer to Appendix A) Because the activities are grouped according to the learner’s level, teachers will find it easy to choose appropriate exercises for their students. Both teachers and students can employ the assessment test provided on the website to help them gauge the student’s skill acquisition. Lessons can be made more interesting and fun with the Tell Me More courseware. Conclusion The use of computers in education is not new. Computers have been integrated in the classroom since the early 90’s. (Lee, K., 2000) Initially, it was used to expose students to the new technology. Later on, computers were used to make teaching more appealing to the students resulting to more effective lessons. In language learning, computers have been a big influence. “English instruction is more efficient when teachers use a digitized medium. (Tanguay, E., 1997) With computer assisted language learning (CALL), teachers are able to reach more students using the Internet. There are numerous CALL programs available to aid teachers’ instructions. It is only a matter of choosing the right program for the lesson needed. It should be remembered, however, that “the effectiveness of CALL cannot reside in the medium itself but only in how it is put to use (Warschauer, M., 1996).” The Tell Me More courseware is one of the CALL programs that can satisfy the demands of most language learners. The adage “practice makes perfect” is manifested in the program’s numerous activities. The materials used allow the learner to study lessons that are significant today. The courseware is sufficient to prepare a language learner for the various assessment tests like TOEIC, TOEFL and IELTS. Appendixes Appendix A – Lesson Plan Number of Students: 10 Duration: 50 minutes Level: Beginner/ High Beginner Objective: At the end of the class, the students are expected to be able to pronounce certain words in the target language (French) in order to introduce themselves. Materials: Tell Me More Introduction Lesson computers Internet access Learning/Teaching Activity: 1.) Warm-up (3 minutes): Students read the vocabulary words on the board. They are asked to search the Internet for the meaning of each word. 2.) Pre-listening (5 minutes): Students are paired together. They should introduce themselves to each other using their native language. Each pair is given a set of words. They have to guess the meaning of the words and arrange them to make sentences. 3.) Listening (20-30 minutes): Students are instructed to proceed to the Tell Me More Introduction Lesson and perform the activities required. Students should take note of the difference in pronunciation between the words/letters of their native language and the target language. 4.) Post-listening (7 minutes): The paired students are instructed to practice the conversations learned from the courseware with each other. They should then switch partners and practice the conversations. Students are to keep switching partners until they are back with their original partner. 5.) Discussion (5 minutes): Students and teacher talk about the differences in pronunciation the students were asked to take note of. Students are assigned to approach someone at school or a neighbor and practice the conversation they’ve learned in class. References: Are you a good listener? (n.d.). Psychology Today. Retrieved on April 17, 2011 on http://psychologytoday.tests.psychtests.com/take_test.php?idRegTest=1605 Chapelle, C. (1997). CALL in the year 2000: still in search of research paradigms. Language Learning and Technology, Vol. 1 No.1, (19-43). from http://llt.msu.edu/vol1num1/chapelle/default.html. Bygate, M. (1987). Introduction. Language Teaching: A scheme for teacher education - Speaking. Oxford University Press: Oxford. Feyten, C. (1991). The Power of Listening Ability: An Overlooked Dimension in Language Acquisition. The Modern Language Journal. Vol. 75. No.2 (pp. 173-180). Healey, D. (1999). Classroom practice: communicative skill-building tasks in CALL environments. In J. Egbert, & E. Hanson-Smith (Eds.), CALL environments: research practice and critical issues (pp. 116-136). Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. James, R. (1999). CALL and the speaking skill. SYSTEM. Vol. 24, Issue 1, (pp. 15-21). doi:10.1016/0346-251X(95)00050-T  Key Points. (n.d.). Active Listening. Retrieved on April 16, 2011 from http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/ActiveListening.htm Lai, C. & Kritsonis, W. (2006). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Computer Techonology in Second Language Acquisition. ERIC. Retrieved on April 24, 2011 from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED492159&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED492159 Lee, K. (2000). English Teachers' Barriers to the Use of Computer-assisted Language Learning: Introduction. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI, No. 12. Retrieved on April 15, 2011 from http://iteslj.org/ Miller, J. (2006). What’s wrong with English education in Korea? Retrieved on April 17, 2011 from http://www.getesljobs.com/newsroom_detail.asp?newsid=14 Nerbonne, J., et. al. (n.d.). A Web-Based Foreign Language Assistant. Retrieved on April 24, 2011 from http://www.let.rug.nl/~nerbonne/papers/gloss-web/ Our History. (n.d.). RosettaStone. Retrieved on April 16, 2011 from http://www.rosettastone.com/global/history Samante, M. T. (2008). The Language Training and Culture Familiarization Program. Retrieved on April 16, 2011 from http://www.ofwguide.com/article_item-899/The-Language-Training-and-Culture-Familiarization-Program.html Swan, M. (1984). A Critical Look at Communicative Approach. ELT Journal. Vol. 39. Issue 2. (pp. 76-87). Tanguay, E. (1997). English Teachers, Prepare Yourselves for the Digital Age. Retrieved on April 15, 2011 from http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tanguay/english-teachers.htm TellMeMore. (n.d.), Retrieved on April 16, 2011 from http://www.tellmemore.in.th/lg_en.asp Tell Me More Review (n.d.), Retrieved on April 28, 2011 from http://www.language-learning-advisor.com/tell-me-more-review.html Warschauer, M. (1996). Computer-assisted language learning: an introduction. In S. Fotos (Ed.), Multimedia language teaching (pp. 3-20). Retrieved from http://www.ict4lt.org/en/warschauer.htm. Read More