Learn German - Survival Phrases German (Enhanced Version): Lessons 1-60 with Audio

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At 42 sections a quarter, the dean is not willing to add any more for fear of having to cancel sections in other languages. If some of these courses were taught in a hybrid format meeting in class only two days a week, then the same number of instructors could teach twice the number of students. In this sense, courses that teach Spanish at a distance address the problem of an over-subscribed language, as opposed to the situation found with under-subscribed LCTLs where instructors are constantly looking for ways to help increase student access to their courses.

Bringing in virtual students from other campuses for the LCTL programs is one way to increase their closely scrutinized enrollments in today's financially constrained university environment. There is reason to believe that within the options loosely defined by the term distance learning, i. Various other types of distance-learning formats, including live satellite and cable transmission as well as pre-taped video and audio materials, have been employed to deliver language instruction to distance learners over the years.

Furthermore, recent innovations in computer technology including multimedia CALL materials as well as the availability of systems capable of supporting computer- mediated communication CMC make it possible for participants in online courses to engage in the active construction of L2 knowledge and to interact with each other in ways considered conducive to language learning. In this study, we will evaluate the results for one such online course, Spanish Without Walls SWW , taught through the University of California Davis Extension, using both quantitative output data grammar tests and qualitative measures student surveys.

Our data Section 5. The results suggest that well-designed distance language instruction can offer a viable option for learners without access to the traditional classroom setting or for those who prefer the online learning environment to the face-to-face class format. This study is unique in that few completely virtual language courses such as SWW exist and even fewer have been evaluated for their effectiveness see the review of the literature in Section 2.

Furthermore, researchers have primarily examined the use of chat tools that support only textual exchanges, mostly within the context of experimental CMC projects carried out with second- or third-year, i. In contrast, this study looks closely at a fully implemented virtual language curriculum for beginners with daily access to bimodal chatting Blake, In the final sections 6. From the learner's standpoint, it has been suggested that CALL materials may have a positive effect on the language learning process because they stimulate metalinguistic awareness, allow for self-directed learning Murray, , and accommodate different learning styles Bull, Likewise, high interactivity, once thought to be the exclusive domain of the classroom, now also takes place in the virtual classroom, thanks to an array of CMC tools.

The communications component of SWW is crucial in helping to maintain student interest in learning Spanish, as described below in Section 1. To date, most studies of online language learning for beginners have evaluated hybrid courses that combine regular class meetings with computer-mediated instruction. Results indicate that online activities can be substituted for some of the class time normally required in language courses without adversely affecting students' progress.

As a whole, they also suggest that students who learn language online may develop literacy skills that are superior to those of students enrolled in traditional courses Warschauer, In addition, these students performed significantly better than the control group on measures of reading and writing ability. The authors speculate that online students were more motivated to write, but they offer no explanation with respect to the reading results. In contrast, Green and Earnest-Youngs found no significant difference between the scores of the treatment and control groups on the same type of tests used in the above study adapted for the Web.

Why these two studies report different findings is not immediately clear. Perhaps it is the result of methodological differences. The progress of students in the online group was compared to that of others who attended a traditional class four hours per week on tests of oral production, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, grammar knowledge and written production.

The results showed that the scores for the treatment and control groups differed significantly only in the case of the writing samples, with essays by students in the online group being judged superior to those of the control group on a variety of measures including grammatical accuracy, syntactic complexity, use of transitions and cohesive devices, and organization.

It was also found that the online students spent approximately one hour per week less studying than did those in the traditional class. These findings suggest that the online course was more efficient because students achieved results similar to those attained by learners in the conventional class with less time expenditure. It was originally a day course with each day being devoted to learning to survive in Spanish with regard to some aspect of daily life such as ordering meals, getting driving directions, etc.

Nieves expanded it into a semester-long course in which students worked with the materials primarily on their own and attended a one-hour face-to-face class meeting per week. Besides the video newscast, the other multimedia components were audiocassettes and graphics. There were no Web-based activities since the study was done in when the Web was not yet widely employed in language teaching. Nieves used her own set of outcome listening measures to show that students who participated in the multimedia-based course outperformed those enrolled in traditional courses on measures of aural and oral communication skills, but scored slightly lower on a test of writing ability.

To summarize, the two studies described above provide evidence that the online format can contribute to foreign language learning, but that a great deal depends on the learning environment, pedagogical materials, and tasks. Since these studies combine online instruction with face-to-face class meetings, it is difficult to generalize their results to language courses conducted entirely online. In both cases, online learners were found to outperform students in conventional courses on the grammar output measures.

Cahill and Catanzaro reported on an introductory online Spanish class that might be considered somewhat low-tech as it did not have a multimedia component. Online activities included synchronous chat sessions, open-ended Web assignments, practice tests and a substantial number of penpal writing assignments.

Responses to two essay questions were used to compare the progress of students participating in the experimental group to that of students enrolled in conventional Spanish classes.

Based on ratings of global quality and percentage error scores, the writing samples of students in the online course were judged to be significantly better than those in the traditional classes. Although not discussed by the authors, it seems clear that more writing was demanded of the online students, thereby making it hard to ascertain whether this effect was due solely to the online teaching format. Soo and Ngeow compared the performance of 77 students enrolled in conventional English classes with students who studied English exclusively through a multimedia CALL program.

A comparison of pre- and post-test TOEFL scores showed that students in the online group not only made significantly greater improvement than those in conventional classes but also did it in a shorter period of time since the experimental course was 5 weeks shorter due to technical difficulties. As is the case for the hybrid courses reviewed above, the results from these two studies suggest that online language learning can be effective, at least as a means of improving writing, reading and listening comprehension abilities.

But these studies did not explain why the online environment produced these results, and more research is needed to substantiate these initial observations. They found that a greater percentage of students in the hybrid class reported meeting their personal language-learning goals over the course of the semester than those in the traditional class.

A number of students in the technology-enhanced class also indicated that the flexibility of the multimedia materials contributed to their progress in the class, noting the advantage of being able to spend more time on activities they found particularly difficult; in short, there was more student-centered learning.

This is not to say that student-driven materials cannot be incorporated into the regular classroom, but rather that students often perceive that the classroom is teacher-driven as opposed to the student-driven nature of the online format. However, students who completed Web-based activities in place of a fourth hour of class time found some Web pages too difficult and some of the activities not sufficiently well organized. The authors note that the low course ratings may be due to factors other than its technological component, because their complaints dealt with organization and grading.

Murray also reported on students' assessment of their experiences learning language with CALL materials.

For example, students in Murray's study commented that they liked the ability to work at their own pace and focus their efforts on activities that were particularly difficult for them, indicating once again the benefit of student-directed learning. In addition, a number of students stated that they found working independently with the videodisc materials much less anxiety-provoking than participating in a conventional language class. Thus, according to the limited amount of research available at this time, students' reactions to the experience of learning language online cannot be considered universally positive.

However, it does appear that students respond favorably to the flexibility afforded by CALL materials and to their potential for self-directed learning.

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Murray's results also indicate that working with CALL may make language learning less stressful for some students. Although existing studies see Sections 2.

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More information regarding students' perceptions of the online learning experience also needs to be gathered in order to improve the design of such courses in the future. The present study seeks to address the need for more outcome research bearing on the relative efficacy of online language learning. Several measures were used to rate performance, including results from multiple-choice tests of grammatical knowledge and attitude surveys regarding the quality of the online learning experience.

Spanish Without Walls is a year-long course divided into three quarters that combines multimedia language materials from three sources:. The remaining online materials were packaged into a course management system designed to teach first-year Spanish grammar and vocabulary, provide exercises, conduct testing, present authentic Spanish-language readings, and enable oral communication with teachers and peers.

They were held accountable for the CD-ROM material by means of online exams that covered the vocabulary, storyline, and grammar presented by Tesoros. Students were also required to chat live with their instructor in groups of no more than three at least once a week for one hour and several more times with their assigned partners as time and schedules permitted in order to complete the collaborative content-based tasks.

During the chat, the students would share their results with each other in jigsaw fashion.

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The chat tool allowed three different CMC modalities see Figure 1: Classes meet five hours per week and include a variety of activities including information-gap tasks, skits, role-plays, and songs. Students are also required to listen to audiotapes and complete the workbook exercises hard copy that accompany the text.

The exams for this level primarily consist of fill-in-the-blank and multiple-choice items that test grammatical structures, vocabulary, listening comprehension, and reading. A short essay is used to test writing. However, the retention picture is more complicated if one looks separately at the enrollment patterns for the first-quarter sections in contrast to the second-quarter sections.

Of those that passed, students in the SWW I group received A's or B's while the SWW II cohort all scored all A's, which further underscores the fact that those who stuck with the distance format were highly motivated to learn. A sample cohort of 21 students participated in the survey reported here.

More students were invited to participate but data collection from virtual students is fraught with difficulties because they tend to not comply with the surveys or other activities that are not graded because they are working professionals with limited time.

The classroom setting normally allows instructors to administer surveys in person and generates more data. After the course is over, virtual students feel no compulsion to participate in follow-up course evaluations, and it is against university policy to contact them directly by email for reasons of privacy. Information on previous language experience in high school and reasons for studying Spanish for this cohort of 21 online students were extracted from a chatting assignment at the beginning of SWW I and is presented in Tables 1 and 2.

This should not be surprising for an adult continuing education course. The following quotes represent some typical responses from those who take Spanish for professional reasons:. Online students preferred the online format to taking Spanish in a conventional setting mostly for reasons related to their busy schedules. The First-Year Spanish Program in the traditional classroom For purposes of comparison, we also gathered biodata from 46 UC Davis students enrolled in traditional language classes during the Winter Quarter of The data for these students is presented in Tables 3 and 4 below.

This pattern stands in sharp contrast to the SWW students and their professional orientation. Tests of Grammatical Knowledge. Several grammar tests from the Spanish Without Walls course were administered to the undergraduate subjects in order to compare their grammatical knowledge with that of online students.

Learn German - Survival Phrases German (Enhanced Version)

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