3. The use of multimedia as the instructional media in English
learning
Dwi Puspitarini, S.S., M.Pd. STAIN Jember, Indonesia
Abstract
The use of technologies, such as computer and internet, have expanded so widespread in schools and homes as the instructional media for language learning. In EFL (English as a Foreign Language) the English teacher should facilitate a better English teaching as one way to increase the students’ skills. This paper analyzes the necessity of multimedia technology in language learning. It also aims to make English teachers aware of the strategies to use instructional media in the process of learning. The author points out the discussion of computer-assisted learning, the role of multimedia language center, and the advantage of using multimedia in language learning. Finally, the choice of suitable aids/multimedia and the use of appropriate techniques, must be considered to increase the teaching efficiency and toarouse students’ motivation and interest to learn English. Multimedia offers teachers enormous opportunities for making learning and teaching environments meaningful and effective.
Key words: Multimedia, Instructional Media, English Learning
Introduction
With the coming of the twenty-first century, our era could be characterized as the age of media and technology. As conduits for information and entertainment, the mass media literally surround us day and night. Technology, especially in terms of digital communications, permeates our work and play. In school and after school, at home and at work, children and adults are enjoying the benefit of learning through media and the new technologies for learning.1
As we think about our future in the world of education, consider these vignettes as samples of ways media and technology affect the processes of teaching and learning. Instructional media and the technologies for learning provide us with the tools to engage students powerfully in the learning process. The array of media formats and of quality materials available to the teacher is increasing dramatically. Nowadays, some schools have serviced their students with multimedia classrooms or Library Media Center. There are many types of applications of computers in schools today. Nearly all school library media centers have at least one station that is designated for database searches using CD-ROMs and the Internet. As a teacher we must be prepared to choose the best tools for our students, who are in diverse situations and pursuing different sorts of learning goals.
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'Technology' in its broadest terms could include LCD (liquid crystal display) and even pen and paper but, in the context of Learning Technology, it is generally understood that we are talking about technologies that have arrived with the 'Information Revolution' i.e. those associated with computers. Here, media and technology have transformed not only the world of work and leisure, but the world of education as well.2
Moreover, the use of technology inside or outside the classroom tends to make the class more interesting. Recently, though, computers have become so widespread in schools and homes and their uses have expanded so dramatically that the majority of language teachers must now begin to think about the implications of computers for language learning.
Meanwhile, multimedia offers many opportunities for language learning with the availability of text, images, sound and video as well as interactive activities, the problem is that these opportunities have not been taken advantage of well. Most multimedia computer programs tend to be strong on presentation but weak as far as pedagogy and even interaction. Based on the problems above, the English teachers have to be more creative in choosing the material, media, and the techniques which can make the writing class more interesting, exciting, and enjoyable. It can be done by choosing
the material that appropriate with the students’ background knowledge and use a media
that the students like. Students need a kind of stimuli for encouraging their imagination toget the idea of writing. As Edgar Dale cites in his “Dale’s Cone of Experiences”, that
the empirical things which is gotten from the environment will support more detail to our memory, and give better result in our understanding.3
What Are Instructional Media?
According to Azikiwe (2007), instructional media cover whatever the teacher uses to involve all the five senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste while presenting his/her lessons. In a similar vein Adegun (1997) says instructional media are things which are intended to help the teacher to teach more effectively and enable the students to learn more readily. Instructional media are information carriers designed specifically to fulfil objectives in a teaching-learning situation. They are very important in language teaching, especially the foreign language i.e. English, because they facilitate the direct association between sounds and their symbols and also words and the objects they represent. They help to vividly illustrate meanings of things because they are associated with materials used by the teacher to improve the quality of his teaching.4Instructional media according Rayandra Asyhar are usually classified based on the characteristics
2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_language_learning, diakses 1 Pebruari
2013.
3
Arsyad, Azhar. 2007.Media Pembelajaran. Jakarta: PT RajaGrafindo Persada.p.11
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ADENIREGUN, Gbolahan Solomon
they exhibit. There is a wide variety of instructional media which could be profitably and effectively used in the second language classroom learning situation. They could be broadly classified into four groups namely visual aids, audio-visual aids, audio aids and multimedia.5While Najjar (1996) in Asyhar states that:
‘Multimedia is the use of text, graphics, animations, pictures, video, and
sound to present information. Since these media can now be integrated using a computer, there has been a virtual explosion of computer based multimedia instructional application.’6
Learning and Multimedia for English Learning
Learning is the development of new knowledge, skills, or attitude as an individual interacts with information and the environment. The learning environment includes the physical facilities, the psychological atmosphere, instructional methods, media, and technology.7
In a sense, the term multimedia is quite straight forward. It is a combination of two or more media into a single coherent message. Thus a sheet of paper containing an image and text meets this strict definition of multimedia. In practice, however, owing
the computer’s capability to harness and manipulate diverse media, the term multimedia
has become more complex.8
These days, multimedia usually refers to contemporary software that contains combinations of text, graphics, animation, video, or audio. Multimedia often implies the inclusion of some form of hyper-linking. It allows users to determine their own paths or follow personal interests through a lesson, rather than a linear path. The generic term multimediarefers to the sequential or simultaneous use of a variety of media formats in a given presentation or self-study program.
Multimedia systems may consist of traditional media in combination or they may incorporate the computer as a display device for text, pictures, graphics, sound, and video. The term multimedia goes back to the 1950s and describes early attempts to combine various still and motion media for heightened educational effect. Multimedia involves integrating these formats into a structured program in which each element complements the others so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Today examples of multimedia in education and training include slides with synchronized audio-tapes, videotapes, CD-ROMs, DVD, The World Wide Web, and virtual reality.
The goal of multimedia in education and training is to immerse the learner in a multisensory experience to promote learning. In the past the predominant mode of providing instructional experiences was the written and spoken word through textbooks
and the lecture. As shown in Dale’s Cone of Experience, ‘verbal symbols’ are the most
abstract. A newer form of media, virtual reality, is near the bottom (more concrete) of
5
Asyhar, H. Rayandra. 2011. Kreatif Mengembangkan Media Pembelajaran. Jakarta: Gaung Persada Press.p. 53.
6
Ibid. p.75. 7
Seels B. B. & Richey, C.R. 1994.Instructional Technology. The Definition and Domain of the Field.Washington, DC: AECT.p.3.
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Dale’s Cone. Virtual reality is very effective and efficient in recreating reality and approaches‘direct purposeful experiences’- the most tangible mode of learning.9
Instructional designers understand that individual learners respond differently to various information sources and instructional methods, so chances of reaching an individual are increased when a variety of media are used. Multimedia also attempts to simulate more closely the conditions of real-world learning, a world of multisensory, all-at-once experiences, even it applies also in English learning.
Multimedia addresses different language learning styles. Auditory learners, visual learners, and tactile learners all benefit from multimedia’s varied presentation
forms. The redundancy of print, sound, visuals, and motion media allows learners to choose for themselves the most meaningful sensory mode. When you, instructor, have a clear sense of the objectives and the necessary student practice, you can decide what media will best facilitate the English learning and how best to deliver it.
This will explore the following types of multimedia:
1. Multimedia Kits: a collection of materials involving more than one type of medium and organized around a single topic.
2. Hypermedia: media that allow the composition and display of nonsequential materials.
3. Interactive Media: media that require learners to practice skills and receive feedback.
4. Virtual Reality: media in which users experience multisensory immersions and interact with phenomena a they would in the physical world.
5. Expert Systems: software packages that teach learners how to solve a complex problem by applying the collective wisdom of experts in a given field.
Here, some explanation of them: 1. Multimedia Kits
A multimedia kits is a collection of teaching/learning materials involving more than one type of medium and organized around a single topic. Kits may include CD-ROMs, filmstrips, slides, audiotapes, videotapes, still pictures, study prints, overhead transparencies, maps, worksheets, charts, graphs, booklets, real objects, and models. Some multimedia kits are designed for the teacher to use in classroom presentations. Others are designed for use by individual students or by small groups.
Commercial multimedia kits are available for a variety of educational subjects. These learning kits may include videotapes, audiocassettes, floor games, board games, posters, full-color photographs, activity cards, murals, wall charts, geometric shapes, flash cards, laboratory materials for science experiments, and even puppets to act out
stories. They also normally include student workbooks and teacher’s manual.
Teachers or media specialists can also prepare multimedia kits. The main purpose of a kit is to give learners a chance at firsthand learning-to touch, to observe, to
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experiment, to wonder, to decide. Availability and cost of materials are obviously important considerations. Will there be one kit for all students to share, or can the kit be duplicated for all? Are the materials reusable? If not, you will need replacement supplies. Will the kits include audiovisual materials? If so, where will students find the necessary equipment? Can the kit be used in a variety of instructional situations?
Advantages:
1. Interest. Multimedia kits arouse interest because they are multisensory. Everyone likes to touch and manipulate real objects- to inspect unusual specimens up close.
2. Cooperation.Multimedia kits can be an ideal mechanism for stimulating small-group project work. Cooperative learning activities can revolve around experiments, problem solving, role playing, or other types of hands-on practice. 3. Logistics.Kits have an obvious logistical advantage. Being packaged, they can
be transported and used outside the classroom, such as in the media center or at home.
Limitations:
1. Expense.Learning with multimedia kits can be more expensive than with other, more conventional, methods.
2. Time consuming. It can be time consuming to produce and maintain the materials.
3. Replacement.Lost components can make the kit frustrating to use. 2. Hypermedia
Hypermedia provides a number of advantages for language learning. First of all, a more authentic learning environment is created, since listening is combined with seeing, just like in the real world. Secondly, skills are easily integrated, since the variety of media make it natural to combine reading, writing, speaking and listening in a single activity. Third, students have great control over their learning, since they can not only go at their own pace but even on their own individual path, going forward and backwards to different parts of the program, honing in on particular aspects and skipping other aspects altogether. Finally, a major advantage of hypermedia is that it facilitates a principle focus on the content, without sacrificing a secondary focus on language form or learning strategies. For example, while the main lesson is in the foreground, students can have access to a variety of background links which will allow them rapid access to grammatical explanations or exercises, vocabulary glosses, pronunciation information, or questions or prompts which encourage them to adopt an appropriate learning strategy.10
3. Interactive Media
Computer-based interactive media creates a multimedia learning environment that capitalizes on the features of both video and computer-assisted instruction. It is an instructional delivery system in which recorded visuals, sound, and video materials are
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presented under computer control to viewers who not only see and hear the pictures and sounds but also make active responses, with those responses affecting the pace and sequence of the presentation.
The interactive aspect of interactive media is provided through computers, which have powerful decision-making abilities. Combining computers and video allows the strengths of each to compensate for the limitations of the other to provide a rich educational environment for the learner. Interactive media is a powerful, practical method for individualizing and personalizing instruction. With the introduction of hypermedia, it has become easier to prepare teacher-developed and student-developed interactive multimedia. Students are discovering an innovative way to activate their learning through simple-to-prepare hypermedia stacks.
Advantages:
• Multiple media. Text, audio, graphics, still pictures, and video can all be combined in one easy-to-use system.
• Learner Participation. The R of ASSURE model is achieved with interactive video materials because they require that learners engage in activities. These
materials help to maintain students’ attention, and they allow greater
participation than does video viewing alone.
• Individualization. It is provided for because branching allows instruction on remedial as well as enrichment levels.
• Flexibility.The learner may choose what to study from the menu.
• Simulations.Interactive video may be used to provide simulation experiences in such areas as medicine, machine operations, and especially interpersonal skills. Interactive media is a valuable learning system for tasks that must be shown rather than simply told. Some instruction cannot be adequately presented by printed materials. If learners need to interact with the instruction, interactive media is an appropriate choice. Interactive media can be used by individuals as well as small groups. There is a growing trend, particularly in elementary education, toward small group applications, providing opportunities for students to engage in cooperative and collaborative problem-solving activities.
Dr. Meenu Pandey states that the potential pedagogical value and rationale for using multimedia classroom in these three points are as follows:
1. To raise interest level -- students appreciate (and often expect) a variety of media
2. To enhance understanding-- rich media materials boost student comprehension of complex topics, especially dynamic processes that unfold over time
3. To increase memorability -- rich media materials lead to better encoding and easier retrieval. The beauty of multimedia is that it has no limitation and it can be used at all the levels of learning.11
Role of Computer in English Learning
The potential uses of computers in education settings go far beyond direct instruction.
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One function is administrative-keeping school records, scheduling classes, doing payroll, and managing student assessment data. Another is service oriented, as when guidance programs use computers to deliver career planning assistance. In the domain of instruction there are four broad classes of computer applications:
As an object of instruction As an tool
As an instructional device
As a means of teaching logical thinking.12
In its role as a tool, the computer assists both teachers and students. Some of the roles of the computer are relatively simple, such as calculator. Other roles are more advanced, such as multimedia composer, presentation aid, communication device, and data retrieval source. Whatever the reason for using the computer, as a tool it has become indispensable.
In writing as one of English skills, computers are being used widely for word processing and desktop publishing. Most students have access to word processing programs with which they complete term papers and assignments. Some students create multimedia term papers, integrating such media as graphics, sound, and motion for a more complete presentation. Presentation software, which incorporates the computer with video projection, can be used for student presentations. Computers also allow students to communicate with others around the world via e-mail.
There are some advantages of using computer in school. Among of them are:
• Learner control. Computer-based instruction allows students some control over the rate and sequence of their learning (individualization). High-speed personalized responses to learner actions yield a high rate of reinforcement.
• Special needs. Computer-assisted instruction is effective with special learners-at-risk students, students with diverse ethnic backgrounds, and students with disabilities.
• Record keeping. The record-keeping ability of the computer makes individualized instruction feasible; teachers can prepare individual lessons for all students and monitor their progress.
• Information management. Computers can cover a growing knowledge base associated with the information explosion. They can manage all types of information: graphic, text, audio, and video. More information is put easily at
the instructor’s disposal.
• Diverse experiences. Computers provide diverse learning experiences. These can embody a variety of instructional methods and can be at the level of basic instruction, remediation, or enrichment.
• Communication precision. One serendipitous effect of working with computers is that they literally force us to communicate with them in an orderly and logical way. The computer user must learn to communicate with explicit, exact instructions and responses.
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Computer-Assisted Learning (CAL)
The term Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) covers a range of computer-based packages, which aim to provide interactive instruction usually in a specific subject area. In general, the use of computers in education through CAL has been sporadic a great deal of effort was expended with little general impact. Many of those academics that took part in that earlier crusade are now cynical about the effectiveness of computers in teaching.
Computer-Assisted Learning (CAL) helps students learn specific skills. Software is now capable of providing students with complex tasks to engage them in real-world problems. Video technologies can easily be incorporated, focusing attention on tangible examples. Word processing, graphics, and a host of computer software help students organize and communicate their ideas.13
While multimedia computer-based materials can be used directly in the classroom, because of costs, such resources are usually found in a multimedia language center, fulfilling the role of the previous cassette-based and digital language laboratories. However, managing such a center requires knowledge of a wide range of equipment and the increasing expectations of such equipment from administrators, language teachers and students.
Multimedia Language Centers
Nowadays multimedia refers to computer-based materials that can perform more varied tasks then the purely-audio mixed-media. Not only can such play pre-recorded audio and video material, it can create new audio and video recordings. It also has the capability of integrating the four basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as giving immediate, if limited, feedback to the student. However, like its predecessors, multimedia centers run the risk of being underutilized due to poor management.
While multimedia computer-based materials can be used directly in the classroom, because of costs, such resources are usually found in a multimedia language center, fulfilling the role of the previous cassette-based and digital language laboratories. However, managing such a center requires knowledge of a wide range of equipment and the increasing expectations of such equipment from administrators, language teachers and students.
While multimedia offers many opportunities for language learning with the availability of text, images, sound and video as well as interactive activities, the problem is that these opportunities have not been taken advantage of well. Most multimedia computer programs tend to be strong on presentation but weak as far as pedagogy and even interaction. The only advantage to the multimedia in these cases has been better sound and color images. Most modern language learning theories stress the importance of teacher guidance rather than control, giving students control over
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what they do, how fast they do it and even the ability to find and correct their own mistakes.
Managing a multimedia language center properly requires not only knowledge of foreign languages and language teaching methodology, it also requires a certain amount of technical know-how and budget management ability as well as the ability to combine all these into creative ways of taking advantage of what the technology can offer. Often a center manager needs assistants for technical problems, for managing resources and even the tutoring of students. Multimedia centers lend themselves to self-study, and potentially self-directed learning, but such is often misunderstood. The simple existence of computers in a laboratory does not automatically lead to students learning independently.
The Advantage of Multimedia in English Learning
Students believe they learn faster and better with computer-mediated communication. Also, students learn more about culture in such an environment. In networked computer environments, students have a conscious feeling of being members of a real community. In situations where all are learners of a foreign language, there is also a feeling of equality. In these situations students feel less stressed and more confident in a language learning situation, in part because surface errors do not matter so much.
The one of the ultimate goals of multimedia language teaching is to promote
students’ motivation and learning interest, which can be a practical way to get them involved in the language learning. Without this technology, English language learners are often left to their own devices. Concerning the development of technology, we believe that in future, the use of internet and multimedia English teaching will be further developed. The process of English learning will be more student-centered but less time-consuming.
Therefore, it promises that the teaching quality will be improved and students’
applied English skill scan be effectively cultivated, meaning that students’
communicative competence will be further developed. This process can fully improve
students’ ideation and practical language skills, which is helpful and useful to ensure and fulfill an effective result of teaching and learning Technology is not a proxy for time and money - it needs to work effectively. A teacher cannot be a substitute of technology and hence he must not compromise his positive role in the classroom while using technological aids in the classroom.
Conclusion
Use of multimedia and computer technology in classrooms is generally reported to improve self-concept and mastery of basic skills, more student-centered learning and engagement in the learning process, more active processing resulting in higher-order thinking skills and better recall, gain confidence in directing their own learning. This is true for both language and non-language classrooms. The goal of multimedia in education and training is to immerse the learner in a multisensory experience to promote learning. One can read about walking on a beach. Someone describing the experience
box of sand and handling sea shells lets the ‘experience’ become more real. Finally, multimedia makes one’s experience as realistic as possible without actual being there.
Teachers can incorporate multimedia learning into their classroom by identifying the learning styles of each of their students, matching teaching methods to
learners’ multimedia learning for difficult tasks, strengthening weaker learners’
multimedia learning through easier tasks and drill, and teaching students, selection of
learning strategies. Multimedia that is effective in learning and teaching doesn’t simply
consist of using multiple media together, but combining media mindfully in ways that capitalize on the characteristics of each individual medium and extend the learning and teaching experiences. Multimedia offers teachers enormous opportunities for making learning and teaching environments meaningful and effective.
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