Extending the language classroom:

Background

In the 1990s the University of Helsinki Language Centre (HULC) experienced the combined effect of several new challenges to language teaching: constraints on class sizes, on teacher contact hours and teaching resources at the same time as there has been an increasing demand for internationalization and efficient language learning. We have had good reasons for promoting effective self-instruction and integrating multimedia software into our curricula in order to supplement traditionally taught classes. What we have had to bear in mind, though, is that merely enabling learners to carry out self-study does not in itself lead to effective self-instruction. It is necessary to have authentic materials accompanied by appropriate tasks, to promote learning strategies suited to learner needs and to provide appropriate feedback on learners' progress.

There is a multitude of international as well as Finnish research on learner autonomy. In this respect, HULC has played an active role since 1994, when the ALMS project, i.e. Autonomous Language Learning Modules for our students, was launched. By now, more than one thousand students have chosen and completed the ALMS option as part of their degree language requirements. The 7th Nordic Conference on Autonomous Language Learning (Autonomy 2000), organized by HULC, was held in Helsinki on 7-9 September 2000.

'Traditional' self-study, studying in a self-access lab on a voluntary basis or as a course component, has been offered at HULC since the beginning of the 1990s. But, as I pointed out above, autonomous learning and self-instruction in a self-access lab are not synonymous activities. Key concepts in learner autonomy are self-directedness, awareness of learning processes and self-evaluation, constructivism, learning to learn and lifelong learning. These things cannot normally be attained without the teacher-counsellor's active role.

Traditional classroom-based teaching aids - video, pictures, sound, and text - can today be combined with tasks and feedback through computer-delivered multimedia. Opportunities to provide interactive multimedia materials have increased in the 1990s through CD-ROM and digital video discs, through the World Wide Web and local area networks. The reason why language educators have become interested in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) stems from theories on second language acquisition and from autonomous learning as well as from research on the effectiveness of multimedia. There are also examples of successful integration of text-based computer programmes alongside institutional programmes, for instance to teach French grammar (see McCarthy, B. 1996, Fully integrated CALL; mission accomplished. In: ReCALL 8, 17-34).

I recently read an article by Paul Brett (English for Specific Purposes, Volume 19, No. 3, 2000), on integrating multimedia into a business English curriculum. Brett has written about multimedia in different journals, and is familiar with previous research into the use of multimedia in language teaching. He points out that there have been few moves to formally incorporate the use of multimedia into language curricula even though multimedia would seem to be a useful environment for facilitating language learning. Research on this subject, listed by Brett in his latest article (see Appendix), includes, besides his own previous writings (Brett 1995, 1996, 1997) and McCarthy 1996, titles like these;

• Theoretical motivations for IVD [= interactive videodisc] software research and development (Doughty 1991)
• Computers and English language learning (Higgins 1995)
• Scaffolding second language communicative discourse with teacher-controlled multimedia (Johnstone & Milne 1995)
• Computer-assisted foreign language learning: effects of text, context, and gender on listening comprehension and motivation (Jakobsdottir & Hooper 1995)
• Effects of multimedia annotations on vocabulary acquisition (Chun & Plass 1996)

According to Dickinson (see Dickinson, L. 1987, Self instruction in language learning) multimedia approaches are compatible with learner autonomy, where learners are to take control over and responsibility for their own learning. CALL is a rather recent innovation, and therefore research into it is still scanty. In his latest article (2000) Brett comments on the recent advances in digital technologies and discusses the possibilities to deliver interactive language learning in multimedia formats beyond CD-ROMs. He foresees that advances in the WWW and in institutional local area networks will lead to on-line multimedia software. According to Brett it is up to language educators to ascertain the potential of this technology and to explore the most productive ways to use it to facilitate language learning.

Recent Innovations at HULC

In fact, this is exactly what some Finnish Language Centre teachers tried out a few years ago. The so called Language Net project in Swedish and English was started in 1996 as a joint enterprise of four university language centres in Helsinki, Tampere and Turku. The materials were (and still are) put in the Internet, so they are on-line, which makes it possible to update the content. It goes without saying that the teachers who actively participated in the project had to be trained as content creators. Doubtless, not every teacher is interested in undergoing long-term training that consumes years of one's career. To date, some four or five years after the start of the project, we have well-trained or self-taught multimedia users among our teaching staff, for instance some of the presenters at the symposium Extending the language classroom.

The challenges of the 1990s were also met at HULC by staff training. In 1998 two parallel training programmes were initiated, one pedagogical and one scientific. The former, called HILC (= University of Helsinki In-Service Training for Language Centre Teachers), consists of sessions or workshops ranging from two hours to a whole day, usually held on Friday afternoons and organized by teams of LC teachers. The purpose is to share new teaching ideas, methodology and materials, and also provide training and support to newcomers among the teaching staff.

To date the HILC programme has, among other things, dealt with these topics:

• Strategies for language learning
• Strategies for learning vocabulary
• Vocabulary workshop
• Teaching oral skills
• Workshop in testing language skills
• Task based learning for language teachers
• Testing oral skills
• Teaching reading comprehension
• Academic reading
• Teaching writing
• Autonomy and self-study
• Using internet and multimedia software in language teaching
• Information technology: web-based courses, web publishing
• Computer-aided instruction - pros and cons
• Translation in language teaching
• Group work in language teaching

Sessions in teaching methodology have grown popular, with the number of participants ranging from some twenty to well over fifty, depending on the timing and themes of the sessions. Annually every participant receives a certificate that lists the sessions he/she has participated in.

The scientific programme is a joint enterprise of the Language Centre and various language departments. To date it involves a core group of some fifteen teachers (i.e. active participants registered in departments as postgraduate students) and another ten or so who are less active right now but are considering more active participation. Trainees in this programme are offered lectures and workshops on Friday afternoons or on weekends with lecturers from Finnish and foreign universities. Regular seminars are held at the Language Centre, where the trainees discuss their educational approaches and present plans for or chapters of their licentiate theses. These will preferably deal with aspects of language centre teaching and learning and thus be fruitful to the development of the pedagogical activities of HULC.

Papers on 'Extending the Language Classroom'

Three of the five papers that were read at the symposium presented current research by the LC staff within the scientific programme. These papers, titled learner-teacher dialogues in an autonomous language learning setting, An innovation in English reading comprehension course by using a computer system, and Students' perceptions of language learning effectiveness in a self-access learning environment, will eventually be presented as licentiate theses at the Department of English of the University of Helsinki. The other two papers, An Internet-based learning environment in Swedish classes at university - an example of a grammar course, and Using and producing web pages in a Swedish course, were based on the authors' extensive experience of producing multimedia materials (they have both belonged to the core group of the Language Net project from 1996 onwards). Concrete examples of web-based courses were presented, one with materials produced by the teacher, the other with materials worked out by students. The idea is not to completely replace contact hours by means of the computer. Rather the teachers prefer to stress two aspects. Firstly, more time is available for classroom discussion when the computer takes care of the more 'mechanical' side. Secondly, classroom time is limited whereas time in the wide world is not. Thus a student can, if he/she so wishes, continue working at home after the class is over.

The five presentations at the symposium all 'extended the language classroom' in time and place. Initially, the reasons for such 'extensions' at our Language Centre were financial, for instance compulsory cuts in the number of contact hours. However, with the 'extension projects' well on the way, we no longer view the savings as the primus motor for these innovations. Rather, the focus has shifted to the aspects of innovativeness, variety, unlimitedness, independence, and effectiveness of language learning. With these instruments we hope to be able to turn our students into lifelong learners.

APPENDIX

Research into the Use of Multimedia in Language Teaching1

• Doughty, C. 1991. Theoretical motivations for IVD software research and development.
• Higgins, J. 1995. Computers and English language learning.
• Johnstone, J. & Milne, L. 1995. Scaffolding second language communicative discourse with teacher-controlled multimedia.
• Jakobsdottir, S. & Hooper, S. 1995. Computer-assisted foreign language learning: effects of text, context, and gender on listening comprehension and motivation.
• Brett, C. 1995. Multimedia for listening comprehension: the design of a multimedia-based resource for developing listening skills.
  • 1996. Using multimedia: an investigation of learners' attitudes.
  • 1997. A comparative study of the effects of the use of multimedia on listening comprehension.
  • 2000. Integrating multimedia into the Business English curriculum: a case study.
• Chun, D.M. & Plass, J.L. 1996. Effects of multimedia annotations on vocabulary acquisition.
• McCarthy, B. 1996. Fully integrated CALL; mission accomplished.