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Recent developments in Technology and language
learning: A literature review and meta-analysis
College
of Education
Michigan
State University
| Addres |
115 EricksonCollege of EducationMichigan
State UniversityEast Lansing, MI 48864 |
| Phone |
517-353-4325 |
| Fax |
517-432-4797 |
| Email |
zhaoyo@msu.edu |
________________________
1This
study was supported by a contract from the United
States Department of Education as part of its E-language
initiative. A version of this paper was submitted
to the US Department of Education as a concept paper.
The author wishes to thank Dr. Alan Ginsburg, Dr.
Susan Sclafani, and Adriana de Kanter for their
support and insights. Views expressed in this paper
do not necessarily reflect those of the US Department
of Education.
This
purpose of this study is to assess the potential
of technology for improving language education.
A review of the effectiveness of past and current
practices in the application of information and
communication technology(ICT) in language education
and the availability as well as capacities of current
ICTs was conducted. The review found that existing literature
on the effectiveness of technology uses in language
education is very limited in four aspects: a) The
number of systematic, well-designed empirical evaluative
studies of the effects of technology uses in language
learning is very small, b) the settings of instruction
where the studies were conducted were limited to
higher education and adult learners, c) the languages
studied were limited to common foreign languages
and English as a foreign or second language, and
d) the experiments were often short-term and about
one or two aspects of language learning (e.g., vocabulary
or grammar). However the limited number of available
studies show a pattern of positive effects. They
found technology-supported language learning is
at least as effective as human teachers, if not
more so.
Recent developments in Technology
Supported language learning: A review of the literature
and meta-analysis
This review study intended to
address three related issues in technology and language
education. First, policy makers and the general
public are interested in learning about the effectiveness
of using technology in language education because
they need that information to help decide future
investment decisions regarding technology
(President's
Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology
(Panel on Educational Technology), 1997)
. Second,
researchers and developers are interested in knowing
what has been done and what we already know about
using technology to enhance language learning. Such
knowledge will hopefully guide their further explorations
and development. Third, language educators want
to know what works and what does not so that they
can make informed decisions in selecting the appropriate
technology to use in their teaching.
To answer these questions is
not easy for a number of reasons. First, technology
is an ill-defined concept that encompasses a wide
range of tools, artifacts, and practices, from multimedia
computers to the Internet, from video tapes to on-line
chatrooms, from web pages to interactive audio conferencing.
These technologies vary a great deal in their
capacity, interface, and accessibility. It is thus
misleading to think the effects of video-tapes are
the same as those of the on-line chatrooms just
because they are all called “technology.” Second,
the effects of any technology on learning outcomes
lie in its uses. A technology may hold great educational
potentials, but until it is used properly, it may
not at all have any positive impact on learning.
Thus the assessing the effectiveness of a technology
is in reality assessing the effectiveness of its
uses rather than the technology itself. Since most
ICTs can be used in a variety of ways, some more
effective than others, it is inappropriate to over-generalize
the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of one way of
using the technology to the technology itself. Third,
to further complicate things, the effectiveness
of an educational approach is highly mediated by
many other variables —the learner, the task, the
instructional setting, and of course the assessment
tool. Thus even the same use of a particular technology
in different instructional settings may result in
different learning outcomes.
Clearly it is unreasonable to
expect any single study to tell us whether or to
what degree technology is effective in improving
language learning. However, a comprehensive review
of many studies can get us closer toward an answer(e.g.,
(Cavanaugh,
2001; Chapelle, 1997; Lou, Abrami, & d'Apollonia,
2001; Salaberry, 2001)
. With the help of a research
method called Meta-analysis
(Glass,
1977; Hedges & Olkin, 1985; Lyons, 1995a)
, we can assess the effectiveness
of technology uses in language education by
analyzing findings of numerous empirical
studies. A carefully conducted review can also help
us develop a map of past and current work in the
field of technology and language education.
The map should reveal what we know, what
we have done, what works, and what does not. This
study attempted at such a review.
Focusing on the issues of effectiveness,
this review attempted to achieve three goals: 1)
assessing the overall effectiveness of uses of technology
in language education through meta-analysis, 2)
exploring patterns of recent efforts in using technology
to improve language learning, and 3) identifying
effective ways to use technology in language education.
Method
There
is a long history of using technology to improve
language learning
(Salaberry, 2001)
. The review presented in this paper is limited
to research published in referred journals during
the last five years, from 1997 to 2001. The decision
to limit the review to this period of time was motivated
by the concern for relevance. The primary purpose
of this review is to seek evidence and ideas that
will guide our future work, rather than paint a
comprehensive historical picture of research in
computer assisted language learning, which can be
found in many existing publications
(e.g., Chapelle, 2001; Levy, 1997; Salaberry, 2001)
. Thus it is reasonable to focus on studies of technological
applications that have the most relevance. Relevance
is considered in two ways: a) technology and b)
pedagogy. As we know, technology changes constantly
and rapidly. The technological innovations that
we are most interested in and will most likely to
have an impact on language education in the future
are multimedia computing, the Internet, especially
the Web, and speech synthesis and recognition. These
innovations were fairly recent development and efforts
to apply them in language education occurred even
later. Thus
focusing the research publications in the past five
years should give us sufficient insight into the
applications of these relatively new technologies. There was also a major paradigm shift in the pedagogical and research
focus of technology applications in language education
recently
(Chapelle, 1997, 2001; Pennington, 1996; Salaberry,
2001)
—a shift away from traditional drill-and-skill Computer
Aided Instruction (CAI) model toward multimedia,
intelligent CAI, and integration models. Studies
about these applications of these newer models appeared
more recently as well.
Works
included in this review were identified from five
representative journals devoted to a) research on
second/foreign language education and b) technology
and language learning.
Selecting
Representative Journals
A
four-step process was followed to identify the representative
journals. First, a key word search using “Computer
Assisted Language Learning” was performed on ERIC
through FirstSearch. The search was limited by year,
document type, and language. Only journal articles
published in 1997 through 2001 in English were included.
The search resulted in a total of 389 articles.
Second, all articles that did not have the key word
“Second Language” were excluded, which resulted
in a 355 articles. Third, all articles appeared
in non-peer reviewed, irregularly published, or
practice-oriented journals or magazines were excluded,
resulting in a total of 156 articles. The fourth
step is to calculate the distribution of the articles
and their sources. These articles were published
in 22 different journals. The journals fall into
three categories: a) technology and language learning
journals that specifically address issues in applications
of technology in language learning and education;
b) language learning and education journals that
address issues in language learning and education
in general, of which technology application is a
sub-issue; and c) educational technology journals
that address issues in the application of technology
in education in general, of which language learning
and education is considered a sub-area of study.
Figure 1 shows the distribution of articles by journal
categories.
However
in many cases a journal may have only one or two
articles. Nine journals had more than three articles.
(see figure 1).
Notes:
System=System:
An International Journal of Educational Technology
and Applied Linguistics. CALICO=CALICO Journal.
Journal of the Computer Assisted Language Instruction
Consortium. LLT=Language Learning and Technology;
JECR=Journal of Educational Computing Research;
FLA=Foreign Language Annals; TQ=TESOL
Quarterly. MLJ=the Modern Language Journal;
SLA=Studies in Second Language Acquisition;
CMLR=Canadian Modern Language Review. Other=other
journals.
As
Figure 1 shows, most articles appear in journals
devoted to educational technology, especially language
educational technology. The three journals devoted
to language learning and technology (System,
CALICO, and LLT) published nearly
70% of all the articles. Further the articles appear
mostly in two journals: CALICO and LLT
(see Figure 2).
Based
on this analysis, we first selected the CALICO
Journal and Language Learning and Technology
to represent studies published in journals devoted
to technology and language learning. The Journal
of Educational Computing Research was selected
to represent journals devoted to educational technology.
The Modern Language Journal and TESOL
Quarterly were selected to represent journals
in language learning and education. We selected
these two over Foreign Language Annals because
they are generally considered more research oriented
than FLA. This selection represents 72% of
all articles found to be related to computer assisted
language instruction from the ERIC database during
the period of 1997 through 2001. Considering that
13% of the articles are scattered in 12 other journals,
this selection of journals should be considered
as a reasonable representative sample of journals
that may publish studies in technology and second
language learning and education.
Selection
of Studies
Having
selected the journals, the researcher read through
abstracts of all articles published in these five
journals since 1997 to identify possible studies
to include in this review. After identifying the
possible articles. The researcher read through all
identified articles to select the ones suitable
for a meta-analysis. The following criteria were
used for the selection:
1.
The article must report results of an empirical
study or multiple studies on the effectiveness or
effects of a technological application aimed to
improving language learning. Informational articles
describing the process of technological applications
or products and opinion articles that present theories
or review the literature were included as part of
the review but not for the meta-analysis of effects.
2.
Technology was more broadly conceived than just
computers because the convergence of media is an
emerging trend in language education technology.
Thus studies about the application of video, audio,
computer-assisted instruction programs, the Web,
computer-mediated communications, simulation, speech
technologies, word processing, e-books, and grammar
checkers were all included.
3.
The studies included for the final meta-analysis
must have measures of improvement of language proficiency.
Self-assessment of improvement or attitudinal surveys
was not acceptable.
A total of 9 articles were found
to meet the above criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis
although many more articles published in these journals
deal with technological applications in language learning. While the meta-analysis was conducted on only the 9 studies, the
review draw upon discussions and findings from the
other articles as well as a number of books published
around the same period of time.
Results
The
results section is organized into three parts. Part
one presents an overview of the literature on technology
applications in language education. Part two summarizes
how technology has been used to support language
learning and the effectiveness of these usages.
Part three reports the results from the meta-analysis
study intended to assess the overall effectiveness
of technology-supported language learning.
The
review of recent research on technology-supported
language learning reveals a number of interesting
points regarding existing research in this area.
First, the total number of well-designed experimental
studies on the effectiveness of technological applications
in language learning is very limited. For instance,
the four issues in Volume 16 of the CALICO Journal,
which were published in 1998 and 1999, contain 10
feature articles. Only two of the 10 are met the
selection criteria to be included in the meta-analysis.
Of all the 51 feature articles published in Language
Learning and Technology, one met the criteria.
The majority of the articles are either description
of cases of uses of technology in language education
and processes of software development or theoretical
discussions of principles of technological applications.
Some of the limited empirical studies did not measure
learning gains, relied solely on learner self-reports
as measures of effectiveness, or were not well designed.
Second,
the studies were limited to college level language
learners. None of the 9 studies was conducted in
K-12 settings. Only two of the 9 studies were not
about college students—their p participants were
military linguists, who were also adults.
Third,
the target languages under consideration in the
studies were also limited. French and Spanish were
the most studied (10 out 16 or 63%). Other more
commonly studied languages were English as a second
language (ESL), German, and Arabic.
Fourth,
most of the studies were about the application of
a single application instead of systemic large-scale
integration of technology. Only two of the 16 studies
were about long-term technology integration in the
language learning environment. Thus the treatment
reported was also short-term, lasting from a few
hours to a few weeks.
Lastly,
the applications of technology to enhance language
learning have been wide-ranging, both in terms of
the types of technology used and the issues language
education needs to address. The studies investigated
the uses of most available technologies including
video, audio, multimedia, communication, network,
and speech technologies. These technologies have
been applied to support the teaching of various
aspects of the language learning including vocabulary,
grammar, reading, writing, speaking, listening,
and culture.
Uses
and Effectiveness of Technologies in Language Education
The
following paragraphs present detailed discussions
of the specific applications that have been studied
over the past few years. The discussion is categorized
into four groups: access to materials, communication
opportunities, and feedback, and learner motivation.
Providing
Access to Linguistic and Cultural Materials
Access
and exposure to engaging, authentic, and comprehensible
yet demanding materials in the target language is
essential for successful language learning. However for many language learners, whether
in classes or self-study settings, such access is
often limited. Thus language educators have long
looked at information and communication technologies
(ICT) as possible solutions to this problem
(see Egbert, Chao, & Hanson-Smith, 1999; Hanson-Smith,
1999; Salaberry, 2001)
. The uses of ICT to provide better access and exposure
to linguistic and cultural material fall into the
following three areas.
Enhancing
access efficiency through digital multimedia technologies.
Digital multimedia technologies were used
to make access to learning materials more efficiently
than print media or audio recorders because a) multimedia
(visual, audio, and text) presentations can create
stronger memory links than a single medium alone
and b) digital technology allows instant and accurate
playbacks, which helps the learner to access specific
segments much more easily without spending time
to locate them, which can be tedious and a waste
of time
(Hanson-Smith, 1999; Thorton & Dudley, 1996)
. Shea
(2000)
compared the time students needed to complete their
language learning tasks using captioned video versus
interactive video disc(IVD) and found that the students
using IVD completed the tasks significantly faster(p<.05).
Labrie
(2000)
found that although students spent more time learning
a set of French words on paper than those who studied
on computer where they could hear a word pronounced
and see a picture about the word, they did not learn
more words. In another study, Nutta
(1998)
found that after spending the same amount of time
(one hour per day for seven days) learning verb
tenses in English in two conditions: attending a
regular class and receiving instruction from the
teacher vs. using a multimedia (audio, video, recording
capabilities etc.) computer program, the ESL students
using the computer program performed as well or
significantly better (on 3 out of 6 measures, p<.10)
than their counterparts attending the class.
Enhancing
authenticity using video and the Internet. Video
materials can bring natural and context-rich linguistic
and cultural materials to the learner while the
Internet enables the learner to access authentic
news and literature in the target language, which
can reflect current cultural changes more effectively
than printed sources
(Bacon & Finnemann, 1990; Hanson-Smith, 1999;
Herron, Cole, Corrie, & Dubreil, 1999; Herron,
Dubreil, Cole, & Corrie, 2000; Kitajima &
Lyman-Hager, 1998; Lafford & Lafford, 1997;
Lee, 1998; Weyers, 1999)
. Weyers(1999) studied the effectiveness of authentic
video on college Spanish students. He had one class
of students watch a Mexican television show as part
of a second semester Spanish class that met 60 minutes
daily for a total of 8 weeks while the other class
followed the regular curriculum without the video.
He found that the video group’s performance on both
listening comprehension and oral production to be
significantly better than the regular group (p<0.01).
The video group also outperformed their counterparts
on other measures of communicative competence. Herron
(2000)
found that video also helped their first year college
French learners develop significantly better understanding
of the target culture. In another study, Green and
Youngs
(2000)
substituted regular classroom instruction with Web
activities one class period per week for beginning
college French and German students. After a semester,
they found that “the substitution of one class day
for directed, pedagogically sound Web activities
seems to have allowed the treatment groups to continue
to progress toward their personal and professional
goals and allowed them to learn language at a rate
similar to that of their peers in the control groups.
It also appears, in general, that the students had
a positive experience using the Web. . .” (p. 108).
Enhancing
comprehensibility through learner control and multimedia
annotations. Comprehensible input is necessary for language
learning but useful learning materials must also
contain enough unfamiliar materials
(Krashen, 1985)
. For language learners, especially beginning and
intermediate ones, authentic materials are often
beyond their language proficiency and may become
incomprehensible without help. To enhance comprehensibility
of spoken materials, full caption, keyword caption,
or slow-down the speech rate have been found to
be effective
(Shea, 2000; Zhao, 1997)
. Zhao(1997) found that the ESL students who were
able to flexibly slow down or speed up the rate
of speech had significantly better listening comprehension
than those who did not (p<0.05). For reading
materials, glossing or multimedia annotations have
been effective means to enhance comprehension
(Al-Seghayer, 2001; Chun & Plass, 1997; Johnson,
1999; Lyman-Hager, 2000)
. Al-Seghayer (2001) compared ESL students’ vocabulary
learning in different annotation conditions and
found that “a video clip
in combination with a text definition is more effective
in teaching unknown vocabulary than a picture in
combination with a text definition . . . The variety
of modality cues can reinforce each other and are
linked together in meaningful ways to provide an
in-depth experience.”(p<0.001 ) (p. 225).
Providing
Opportunities for Communication
Engaging
in authentic communication in the target language
is another essential condition for successful language
learning yet such opportunities do not exist for
most learners. ICT has again been used in many different
ways to create opportunities for language learners
to communicate in the target language
(see Hanson-Smith, 1999; Kelm, 1998; Muyskens, 1998;
Warschauer & Kern, 2000)
. Efforts in this area can be summarized into two
groups: a) interaction with the computer and b)
interaction through the computer with remote audiences.
Interactions
with the computer. Communicative interactions can occur in either
written or spoken language or a combination of both.
At the simplest level, a computer program can generate
utterances either orally or in writing that require
the learner to respond by selecting an answer with
a mouse click or providing simple writing responses
(Hanson-Smith, 1999)
. With the advancement of speech synthesis and recognition
technologies
(Ehsani & Knodt, 1998)
, the learner can also carry on near natural conversations
with a computer program around pre-selected and
programmed topics
(Jared Bernstein, Najmi, & Ehsani, 1999; Egan,
1999; Harless, Zier, & Duncan, 1999; LaRocca,
Morgan, & Bellinger, 1999; Wachowicz & Scott,
1999)
. The learner can also give either written or spoken
command to a computer program in a simulation and
game environment. The computer program would then
perform the command
(Holland, Kaplan, & Sabol, 1999; LaRocca et
al., 1999)
. Harless et al
(1999)
, for example, tested the effectiveness of a virtual
conversation program in Arabic at the Defense Language
Institute. The program enabled the students to interview
virtual characters of native speakers orally with
speech recognition technology. After interacting
with these virtual characters for at least eight
hours per day for four days, the participants’ reading
and speaking skills increased significantly (p<0.05)
while their listening skill increased “convincingly.”
In another study, Holland and her colleagues (1999)
found a speech-enabled interactive micro-world program
that allowed the learners of Arabic to construct
objects by speaking to the computer improved student
motivation and oral output.
(1999)
.
Interactions
with remote audiences through the computer.
Computer-mediated communication and teleconferencing
technologies have been used to create authentic
communication opportunities for language learners
since the 1980s
(Beauvois, 1997; Pennington, 1996)
. The uses of CMC technologies, such as electronic
mail, bulletin-boards, and chatrooms have been found
to have many benefits for language learners
(Beauvois, 1997; Cahill & Catanzaro, 1997; Kelm,
1998; Salaberry, 2001; Warschauer, 1998)
. CMC brings the much needed audience to the language
learner
(Johnson, 1999)
. It also promotes more equal and better participation,
leading to more output in the target language(Beauvois,
1997)
(Gonzalez-Bueno, 1998)
. It fosters negotiation and form-focused learning
(Pellettieri, 2000)
. CMC was also found to enhance the writing process
and improve student writing
(Schultz, 2000)
. Although CMC communication is, in most cases,
conducted in writing, it has been found to improve
oral proficiency as well. For instance, Beauvois(1997)
found that second year French learners who held
their discussions online achieved better oral proficiency
than those who discusse | |
