Courseware Development for Less Commonly Taught Languages:
“Beginning Brazilian Portuguese”1
By Rosângela S. Silva
Paper presented at the National Association for Self Instructional Language Programs (NASILP) conference, Washington, D.C., October, 1999
During the McGraw Hill 1996 Teleconference, Prof. Blake (from UC Davis) quoted a professor from Monterey who said, “technology won’t replace teachers; but teachers who use technology will replace the ones who don’t.” Three years after that statement was made, we realize that the use of technology in language teaching is a reality, with more and more language teachers integrating technology, in various ways, into their curricula.
The use of technology is important for Second Language (SL) courses, more important for Foreign Language (FL) courses and even more important in the curricula of the less-commonly taught foreign languages, which, in most colleges and universities in the US include Portuguese. Oftentimes, low registration numbers in those languages impact the feasibility of providing quality instruction in a regular classroom-oriented teaching format. Instructional products, such as interactive CD-ROMs, now allow institutions to provide a wider selection of foreign language courses as well as improve the quality of existing courses.
One of the main challenges in developing computer-aided pedagogical material is how to integrate technological resources with findings from research on foreign languages learning. In this paper I discuss an example of a successful integration technology-research findings, by examining the course “Beginning Brazilian Portuguese”, offered in CD-ROM format, as part of the Critical Languages Series of the University of Arizona. The Critical Languages Series includes interactive CD-ROMs for Cantonese, Chinese, Kazakh, Korean, and Turkish, besides Brazilian Portuguese. The project was funded by the National Security Education Program (NSEP) and the University of Arizona, in collaboration with the National Association of Self-Instructional Language Programs (NASILP). The CD-ROMs are distributed by the University of Arizona Press .
The multimedia tool focus of this paper indeed combines important research findings with the best of language learning technology, resulting in an effective and fun way of learning Portuguese as a FL. The courseware is designed for beginners and includes 20 lessons, equivalent to two semesters of language learning classes, 10 lessons for each semester. Each lesson has a main text or dialogue, footnotes on grammar and culture, graphics and several types of exercises: multiple-choice, vocabulary fill-in-the-blanks, audio flashcards, dictation and pronunciation, which have immediate correction and grading by the computer. The two CD-ROMs have 39 digitized video clips of dialogues and texts spoken by Brazilians. They also have over 9000 individual audio recordings of words, sentences and translations.
The first CD begins with brief information on the Portuguese language, its origin, where it is spoken, etc. Following this, and taking into account the importance of background knowledge in foreign language learning (Nunan, 1985; Lee, 1986), an English text presents the story line for the lessons. Here learners are introduced to characters and general context of the story, so lessons make sense from the start.
The main characters of the story are Helen, an American undergraduate student who goes to Recife, Brazil, in an exchange student program, and Pedrinho, her Brazilian “brother”. Pedrinho is Helen’s main source on matters of language and culture. The course begins when Helen arrives in Recife and each lesson builds up on the previous one.
The courseware development took into consideration the strong and crucial link between language and culture. Thus, all lessons have pictures and notes about Brazil and Brazilian culture. Topics of the notes include social and family relations, gestures, eating habits, and traditional celebrations. Simultaneous presentation of language and culture will lead students to develop a “critical cultural competence” (Kramsch, 1995), and at the same time will facilitate and motivate language acquisition.
In relation to Proficiency, the CDs cover most linguistic functions usually offered in a first-year program. Learners practice asking and giving information, addressing people with different degrees of politeness, describing people and places, and asking and answering questions about a wide variety of topics such as family, health, banking, food, and personal preferences, to cite just a few.
At the bottom of each lesson, in the footnote called “Now you know”, learners find a summary of what they were expected to know by the end of the lesson. The summary includes not only grammatical items and vocabulary but also linguistic functions and phonetics explored in the lesson.
The CD-ROMs themselves are all one needs for the course. There is no textbook or workbook, and regular Portuguese dictionary and grammar are recommended for further learning only. The CDs include all dictionary and grammar information necessary for the course itself. However, if learners feel more comfortable with additional printed material, they can print out lesson texts as well as exercises. Similarly, teachers can require students to print out specific materials so they can go over them in class together.
Language teachers are familiar with teaching approaches, which use “SL only”, at all levels. These materials, however, tend to present insufficient grammatical explanations, especially for adult learners. It is an illusion to expect adult learners to acquire the new language without taking into account their previous linguistic knowledge. In addition, I believe in the right of language learners to understand the linguistic structure of the SL, and be able to compare their previous grammatical knowledge of one or more languages to that of the new language. Thus, besides being a facilitator of SL learning, the English mode of the course is also a learner’s right. To have a thorough view on “learner’s linguistic rights”, examine Gomes de Matos’ vast work on the matter.
In “Pragmatics, bilingualism, and the native speaker”(Silva, 1999), empirical research strongly suggested that it is not possible for adults to learn a SL the same way children learn their first language. The SL learners’ minds will naturally make connections to any previous linguistic knowledge they might have. The use of the knowledge of a first language can facilitate and accelerate second language learning because it makes learners more confident and independent in their learning process.
The English translations, as well as the notes in English (both linguistic and cultural), are particularly vital for students involved in Critical Language Programs, who can only rely on a tutor (who is not a teacher) and the course material. Precise linguistic and cultural explanations of the SL will definitely help those students’ self-instructional process.
On the other hand, the program was developed in a way that the English language can also be kept out of lessons and exercises, if one wishes. Learners can limit their access to oral English translations of word and sentence segments to quick references only, going back to the Portuguese mode right after the consultation.
One of the best features of this instructional tool is the digitized videos. Printed materials do not tell us how a language is spoken. Videos not only do that but also encourage oral fluency. Research has demonstrated that comprehension is facilitated and stimulated by paralinguistic features such as facial expressions and gestures. Also, access to sound characteristics, such as loudness or duration of syllables, pitch and rhythm will help learners fully comprehend and speak the new language.
In addition to videos, thousands of audio recordings allow learners to listen to words, sentences or whole texts and thus hear the differences between words spoken in isolation vs. sentential context.
All these features give learners great control over the pedagogical material they are using. This control over the material contributes to an important factor for successful language learning: learner’s self-assurance. Some learners are very shy of speaking in front of classmates. Some do not volunteer as much in class, and do not take many risks trying to speak the SL. Nevertheless, research has shown that students who are not risk-takers miss lots of opportunities for practicing and improving their SL knowledge. Ely (1986) showed students’ risk-taking behavior was a positive predictor of students’ voluntary participation in class and of their oral correctness.
Videos, as well as audio recordings, will help those students by giving them the opportunity to improve speaking and listening skills on their own. Learners can also practice the sounds of the new language through simple songs, dictation and pronunciation exercises. In the latter, learners can record their own voices and compare them with versions pre-recorded by Brazilian speakers. In the dictation mode, the computer dictates sentences and learners type them in. As soon as a sentence is finished, the computer corrects it. Learners also have the option of listening to a sentence more than once and/or listening to the sentence spoken in different speeds. In order to make good use of the songs, first learners practice their word and sentence segments. After that, they sing along with Kaia, and finally they memorize the songs and sing by themselves. Research and practice have suggested that simple songs in the second language teach valuable notions of language intonation, pitch, rhythm and syllable stress, besides being fun and motivating for learners.
Indeed, research (e.g., Garden & Lamber, 1972) has shown that motivation is an important factor for successful SL learning. Motivation can be a result of learner’s wish to identify with the target language group/culture. It can also be related to the learner’s wish to learn a language for a variety of reasons, such as furthering a career. In addition, motivation can be created, or intensified, by the type of pedagogical material used in the learning process.
The multimedia tool focus of this discussion, is a very motivating product, which goes far beyond a regular language book. As already mentioned, it offers colorful pictures as well as videos and audio recordings. Furthermore, the dialogues of the lessons are written in a way to make the student interested in the next lesson, as soon as s/he finishes one.
Another important feature of this course is its versatility, in terms of learning strategies as well as of teaching approaches. Research has also shown that, in addition to factors related to learner’s personality, several other factors may influence language learning, including factors related to cognitive styles and learning strategies. For instance, Lepke (1977) claimed that students performed better when they were taught in their preferred mode of presentation (visual or aural). In a similar fashion, several studies have shown correlation between specific learning strategies and learning of specific skills. Moreover, learners’ strategies change over time, with their target language proficiency, what makes flexible learning tools even more important.
These interactive CD-ROMs are also a very flexible learning tool. On the one hand they allow different learning approaches, which can be modified and adjusted over time, according to learner’s needs. On the other hand, they allow teachers develop their own approach to language teaching. We find this a very important feature because we agree with Larsen-Freeman and Long (1992) who suggest that “until more research gives evidence for a specific method, perhaps a combination of methods would be a good solution.”
A combination of teaching methods was certainly taken into account during the development of this course. In general terms, the course follows an information-based approach where meaning and communication have more emphasis than linguistic forms. As a result, grammatical points are presented in footnotes linked to the word segments that originated them. That is, the linguistic forms and rules of the new language are discussed only after learners see and hear them in meaningful contexts. Grammar footnotes include verb conjugations, tips on Portuguese phonetics, and the use of idioms and slang. These grammatical footnotes avoid complex and less commonly used grammar points. The second year of Portuguese will view those grammatical points in more detail.
The course also provides a Suggested Activity List, which will help learners and teachers with no particular method or philosophy in their use of the course material. This list is based on guidelines found in different methods, particularly in those known as Communicative Language Teaching (Savignon, 1983) and Natural Approach (Krashen and Terrell, 1983), which include:
- The main goal of language learning is communication;
- Learners need to be exposed to comprehensible, meaningful input, in its various forms (visual, audio);
- Comprehension precedes learners’ production; and
- Learners’ production should be meaningful and communicative.
Following the steps of the List, learners are initially exposed to meaningful input in various forms—written texts, graphics, videos, oral recordings, and songs. In the classrooms, teachers are free to provide additional input to learners in many other ways. For instance, through additional visuals, techniques such as Total Physical Response (Asher, 1977) and through a variety of language games.
When learners are ready for their output, the List guides them to go first through exercises that involve recognition and understanding of the language such as oral flashcards and multiple-choice. These activities do not require learners to produce language but to react to the input by selecting right answers (multi) or indicating comprehension of aural and written language (flash). Learners have a chance to activate the new language but do not actually produce any language themselves.
In a second phase, learners explore exercises that allow them to activate and produce the language although the production is controlled and systematic. That is, there is only one correct way of using the language. This is the case of Cloze, Dictation, and Pronunciation, exercises as well as simple songs with lyrics about the topics of the lessons.
Finally, the activities suggested in “Further Practice” give learners an opportunity to go beyond the lessons. These activities foster learners’ ability to learn on their own and encourage them to use the new language in creative, non-systematic ways, which is the ultimate goal of all Foreign and Second Language programs.
Getting back to the initial point of this paper, I believe technology will not replace classroom face-to-face interactions because language learning is also a social act. However, there are circumstances when teacher-learner interaction is limited or not possible at all. State-of-the-art instructional material, such as this interactive CD-ROM, can be a very rich tool, both in and outside the language classroom. This particular product offers a unique approach to the teaching of Portuguese as a FL. In addition to its important role in the Critical Languages Program, it can be effectively used in traditionally structured courses, alone or in combination to other pedagogical materials. It is suitable for distance education, and it can be used as a self-instructional tool for those who are not able to be physically present in a classroom and yet desire to learn Portuguese. Portuguese, as one of the less commonly taught languages in the US, benefits substantially with the use of this multimedia instructional tool.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the Critical Languages Series project co-directors Alexander Dunkel (Principal Investigator), John Means and Richard Demers for their constant support.
Special thanks go to Kaiannaraly Carvalho and Laerte Ferreira for their great roles in playing our main characters, Helen and Pedrinho.
I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of Scott Brill (Project Coordinator), Anna Senarslan, Onur Senarslan, Bryan Kohl, Shirley McDowell, and several other people involved in this project. Their professional and wonderful work in providing the software, editing, recording, taping, and so many other things, made the development of a multimedia product like this one a reality. Scott Brill also provided valuable comments and suggestions for improving an earlier version of this paper.
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1 This project was funded by the University of Arizona, the National Security Education Program (NSEP), and the National Association of Self-Instructional Language Programs (NASILP).
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