Materials Development for Language Learning
Are Digital Materials Better at Facilitating
7 Developing Digital Materials
Match Between the SLA Principles and Selected Digital Materials
Our aim was to find how SLA principles are being realized in selected digital materials.
Our investigation was NOT meant as a systematic selection and evaluation of digital materials as you may find in a regularELT Journalsurvey. We would welcome such an evaluation, though, as we have found many potentially useful materials which we do not get to discuss in detail in this chapter. The approach we took was to experience some of the materials by following the activity instructions as language learners and then reflect on the processes we went through in relation to the SLA principles listed above and also on our reactions as users of the digital materials.
No SLA researcher would disagree that exposure to comprehensible input (i.e. input that can be sufficiently understood) is a prerequisite for language acquisition. The World Wide Web provides a massive amount of multimodal and textual resources. More, how- ever, is not necessarily better. In an ICT-rich context, we can, for example, experience a cognitive overload of unreliable, misleading and outdated information. What is crucial is the quality and potential effect of the comprehensible input that is likely to facili- tate authentic experience of language in use. Users of digital materials in this sense are likely to welcome a digital environment that offers carefully selected materials. Such platforms can be created at institutional level and teachers can share materials and communication.
LearnEnglish(http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en)
The British CouncilLearnEnglishprovides a systematic and well-structured web site for users with different attributes, learning styles, needs and wants.LearnEnglishgives choices in the menu bar at the top in relation to:
r
learner attributes (i.e. young learners, teenagers and teachers; proficiency level);r
learning objectives (e.g. skills, grammar and vocabulary, exams, literature, contempo- rary British studies);r
multimodal presentations (e.g. video, audio, texts);r
genre and types (e.g. magazine, documentary, animations, games).We tried the teenage materials and found that, apart from some language learning videos and exercises, the materials seem to provide authentic experience of the view- ing of interesting contents, for example a 5 minute video report by a teenage reporter talking to the actress Kate Winslet about her experience of being involved in making the recent filmSteve Job(http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/uk-now/film-uk/kate- winslet-strong-women-and-learning-lines). This video was in fact developed by Into Film (http://www.intofilm.org/), an organization that uses film and media production to develop skills in young people in the United Kingdom.
In terms of SLA principles, the authentic videos in the “UK Now” section inLear- nEnglishare often cognitively and affectively engaging (i.e. Principle 2) and they seem to entice repeated viewing (repetition is one way of increasing “exposure” in Principle 1).
How comprehensible are the authentic videos?LearnEnglishprovides a rough level of proficiency in terms of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). It is useful even though comprehensibility may also depend on various factors in addition to level of language proficiency (e.g. interest, background knowledge, topic familiarity, motivation).
Materials Development for Language Learning
We felt somewhat put off, however, by the product-based pre- (e.g. pre-teaching of vocabulary) and post-activities (e.g. Multiple choice, True or False) that seem to feature in every video (e.g. http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar-vocabulary/
grammar-videos/future-forms). The downloadable pdfs of the activities may be meant to be used as class materials but the activities without the eye-catching colorful graph- ics and the interactivity become mere tests of declarative knowledge. The underlying assumption seems to be that explicit teaching of vocabulary and grammar can lead to language acquisition and that this can be evidenced by scores on the accompanying comprehension questions. We find it such a pity that engaging authentic videos get this treatment. The content of the videos is not exploited for communication for real-life purposes (i.e. Principles 5 and 6) or for Principle 4: “Noticing how the L2 is used.”
The grammar and vocabulary section does use animation videos, presumably, in an attempt to contextualize grammar or lexis. But the contrived audio script is read aloud and we saw no difference between the digital materials and the much criticized inau- thentic DVDs provided with many coursebooks. No opportunity is given for the users to notice significant language features within meaning focused interaction (i.e. Principle 4). The explicit prescriptive explanation of grammar takes away the point of providing contexts and the teaching method is far from matching contemporary learner-centered learning theories. We can only imagine that conventional practice / testing exercises are what the writers assumed that teachers and learners want.
In the Games section in the Study Break, we found a mixture of quality in the mate- rials. Some games exploit the interactivity of digital media well but some could be played with only visual clues without understanding any language. “Magic Gopher,”
the most popular game (9201 likes and 414 feedbacks when accessed on 28 August, 2016), involves an interactive magic trick (http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/
study-break/games/magic-gopher). Users are instructed to choose a number and, after being asked to do a few additions and subtractions, Magic Gopher guesses what num- ber (expressed in a symbol) the viewers had in mind (Principle 2: Affective and cognitive engagement).
The language interaction comes in the form of reading Gopher’s instructions and fol- lowing them in stages (Principle 6: Being encouraged to interact; Principle 7: Being allowed to focus on meaning). If learners do not understand they can click the help sign held by the icon of an assistant gopher and all the instructions are displayed. (Repetition and recycling that leads to Principle 1: A rich and meaningful exposure to language in use.) We tried it a few times and The Magic Gopher guessed the answers correctly. Com- ments on message boards sometimes share similar experiences but the asynchronous nature of the message board often leads to incoherent threads of viewers’ one-way com- ments. The viewers of the Magic Gopher however seem to have shared the same goal of wanting to find out the trick behind the Gopher’s “magic,” thus helping the thread of messages to cohere and interact and providing purposeful reading for all of us users (Principle 1: A rich and meaningful exposure to language in use).
Onestopenglish(http://www.onestopenglish.com/)
Onestopenglish, with a£42 annual charge, uses a similar web site to that ofLearnEnglish by the British Council (N.B. other major publishers provide similar community web sites). The main menu bar at the top gives various choices such as Business, ESP, and CLIL. Each category has a drop-down menu and a list of all the materials available. There are a lot of lesson plans by established coursebook writers and aspiring writers as well
7 Developing Digital Materials
as teachers’ award-winning lesson plans. For comparison withLearnEnglishvideos, we typed “videos for teenagers” in the search box. We got a lot of results but the top 30 were lesson plans. Many of them were for helping learners to make videos. On the right hand column, “Search by…” appeared. The categories included Language Focus, Age Group, Level, Content area, and so on, but not media such as “video” as a search tag. We then chose the Teenagers section from the top menu. In the main section there are boxes of categories such as Spot on News for teenagers, Time to Travel, etc. We felt that the web site could have been structured in a little more user-friendly way. We felt as if we had gone into a shop filled with goods in rough categories but you had to open each box to find what was in it.
After trying out some materials, we decided to focus on a unit of CLIL material called:
“Webquest: Water” at Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate level, as it did make use of various media as part of the material (http://www.onestopenglish.com/teenagers/topic- based-materials/webquests/webquest-water/554199.article). There was no attribution regarding the writer. There are seven activities that lead up to a project involving a ques- tionnaire survey and a presentation. The first three activities are mainly reading and comprehension activities like the following:
r
Activity 1. Water facts—take the quiz. Users are instructed to answer 11 multi- ple questions and then find out answers by linking to www.explainthatstuff.com/water.html. There is a very interesting information site about water with photos but it is very extensive.
r
Activity 2. Storing and Treating Water: Users are instructed to go to www.scottishwater.co.uk/clearer-fresher-learning/all-about-water/all-about-water/water-treatment and to fill in a chart, to sequence the steps for water treatment and to fill in gaps This is potentially interesting but it features another very long text.
r
Activity 4 involves the learners brainstorming ways of saving water. Then they watch videos for more ideas.r
Activity 5 involves reading an existing webpage on irrigation.r
Activity 6 involves reading about water aids in Tanzania.r
Activity 7 is a project involving a questionnaire and a presentation.In terms of SLA principles, there is a lot of “rich and meaningful exposure to language in use” (Principle 1). The texts are written for L1 adults so we wonder how “comprehen- sible” L2 intermediate to upper intermediate learners might find them (especially if they cannot connect the topic to their lives) and how long reading the texts online might take.
What would the class dynamics and atmosphere be like? The topic and content is intel- lectually interesting but again we are not so sure if L2 teenagers would be “Affectively and cognitively engaged.” If the class is made up of L2 learners from different countries, water could be an excellent topic for exploring the situations in their own countries. It seems to be an opportunity missed.
There are no instructions about what happens after the learners do the comprehen- sion, gap filling, and true or false activities. We do not see any obvious activities for
“Noticing how the L2 is used” (Principle 4). The project in Activity 7 may provide
“Opportunities for contextualized and purposeful communication in the L2” (Principle 5) and “Being encouraged to interact” (Principle 6).
All in all, this is a very worthy CLIL activity. In relation to Principle 2 “Affective and cognitive engagement,” according to Ortega (2009, p. 189), “Motivation is usually under- stood to refer to the desire to initiate L2 learning and the effort employed to sustain it”
Materials Development for Language Learning
(see also Ushioda & D¨ornyei, 2012). Based on new neurobiological evidence regarding the fundamental role of emotion in cognition, Immordino-Yang and Damasio (2007, p. 9) argue that “it is simply not enough for students to master knowledge and logical reasoning skills in the traditional academic sense” and that “When we educators fail to appreciate the importance of students’ emotions, we fail to appreciate a critical force in students’ learning. One could argue, in fact, that we fail to appreciate the very reason that students learn at all.” They also point out that unmemorable knowledge does inherently not transfer well to the real-world situation. For details of a 10-hour blended learning unit also focusing on saving water (but including responding to poems about water and inventing a water-saving device) see Tomlinson and Avila (2011, pp. 150–151).
Onestopenglishprovides a potentially useful community for teachers. The teachers would probably appreciate it even more though if:
r
navigation was more user friendly;r
reassurance was given about how the quality of the materials has been assured;r
materials were included after being trialed with target learners.Lessonstreamby Jamie Keddie (http://lessonstream.org/materials/video-lesson-plans/) Lessonstreamis an online resource of visual activities for teachers created by Jamie Ked- die supported by crowdfunding (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/videotelling- storytelling-for-screenagers-youtube-video˝/). It won a British Council ELTon award in 2009.Lessonstreamconsists of YouTube videos in which Jamie Keddie talks to the viewers and discusses issues and then the main YouTube video follows. There are downloadable materials for each lesson stream. The menu at the top shows: Browse the Lessons, Language levels, Learner type, Time, Main activity, Language aim, Topic and Materials. Browse the Lessons provides boxes containing necessary information in a reader-friendly way. All the lessons have been tried out and thus the author can indicate approximate times taken by activities and suitable levels. We found the site to be easy to navigate. We sampled some stream videos and enjoyed them because they were per- sonal, quirky and entertaining. They also made us think. For example, one video is called Owning English (http://lessonstream.org/2016/03/15/owning-english/). It starts with a video with the author and his friends talking about Camden and debating about whether the word “touristic” is acceptable or not while walking in a park in London. The author then decides to talk to various people in Camden and solicits their opinions about var- ious issues. Two other short videos show the author talking about the difference in use of English between two generations and discussing acceptable use of language with his mother. Through these videos the author explores various aspects of accents and use of language in a very informal and engaging manner. The stream as a whole contains “A rich and meaningful exposure to language in use” (Principle 1) and the material is potentially
“Affectively and cognitively engaging” (Principle 2). It also “makes use of those mental resources typically used in communication in the L1” and helps the learners “Notice how the L2 is used.” The relaxed but interesting discussions are thought provoking. Watching the video “allows the learners to focus on meaning.” This particular lesson stream does not have a lesson plan as most of the other videos do. But the videos have illustrated a lot of issues, therefore it is not difficult to develop activities such as small projects for discovering differences of the use of English by different generations or finding out how language evolves. For each stream there is a message board. For each comment, the author responds. Therefore, there is a feel of genuine interaction even though the
7 Developing Digital Materials
interaction is asynchronous. So Lessonstream does provide “opportunities for con- textualized and purposeful communication in the L2” (Principle 6) and the users are
“being encouraged to interact” (Principle 7). There is a sense of an ongoing relationship between the viewers and the author as the video is uploaded periodically. As we are writing this in the summer of 2016 the most popular lesson stream has been downloaded 26,014 times. What we appreciate is the fact that it exploits the media effectively and it is well-designed both for learners and for teachers.
Very similar principles to those we have used to evaluate the three web sites above are also used by Tomlinson and Avila (2011) to drive suggested webquest, weblog and wiki based activities with the goal of humanizing foreign language teaching.