Introduction
The web-based or the e-learning mode is gaining more and more weight. More students in Hong Kong are seeking for alternative ways to improve their English skills; especially the ones involve audio training, such as listening and pronunciation skills.
However, only limited “suitable” e-learning or web-based materials are available for students to be used in self-access learning centre, there is a need for quality materials to cater for students’ need.
To identify quality and useful web-based materials becomes necessary. As the provision is so limited, there is a great discrepancy between students’ learning style and the existing teaching style of teachers.
Purpose of Study / Focus of Discussion
The aim of the paper is to discuss means of identifying quality web-based English speaking and pronunciation learning materials. The practice of adopting scaffolding techniques will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the materials investigated in the study.
Scaffolding in educational context
According to the ERIC, The Education Resources Information Center of the US, scaffolding is defined as a "temporary support or assistance, provided by a teacher, peer, parent, or computer, that permits a learner to perform a complex task or process that he or she would be unable to do alone -- the technique builds knowledge/skills until learners can stand on their own."
Web-based scaffolding Environment
"A scaffolded integrated tool environment is a comprehensive environment that integrates several computer tools behind a single task-based user interface aimed at scaffolding the educational inquiry process for students. Tools include animation capability, and integrating tools for mapping, web searching, model-building and data warehouses. The process of scaffolding helps students see "what to do" with the tools and understand the complex process of science inquiry. Such environments are designed with a task-based user interface that attempts to "visualize the process" of inquiry to students."
Two Case Studies
1. Streaming Speech - CD_Rom Software
2. Web-based English Pronunciation program developed by the English Language Centre of Hong Kong Polytechnic University
The data were mainly collected from the program itself, the Teacher's Guide, and Student's Book. I tried to review various chapters of the instructional materials of the program itself, the teaching ideas provided in the Teacher's Guide, and the exercises of the student’s book. I also analyse the verbal feedback collected from five undergraduate students taking the SAP (Speaking Assistance Programme) offered by the ELC in May 2004.
The program was introduced while meeting students to improve their speaking and listening skills.
The concept, known as scaffolding or “teacher-talk” was employed to investigate the pedagogical value of the program to the students. The concept relies very much on the fact that quality learning requires useful feedback supports in the learning process. The accumulation of knowledge or skills is compared with the construction of a building. It will not be sophisticatedly developed without a temporary supporting framework to assist the builders.
In teaching, scaffolding can be considered as the framework that facilitate, monitor, and protect the skills and knowledge that are being transferred. The “scaffolding” in the e-teaching / web-based and learning facilitates engage both the vertical (teacher-talk) and sequential (practice-related activities) learning actions.
Vertical Scaffolding (i.e. Teacher-talk)
As the program is mainly designed for advanced learners, most of the teaching contents are self-explanatory to advanced readers. It can be effective to learners who enjoy reading and can easily get information from their reading. To the five students, they either didn’t really enjoy reading or reject the ideas of spending time reading texts they considered not so as effective as an authentic teacher talk.
Although there are a number of “teacher-talk” like supports that include Introduction of the Program, User Manuel, Student Book, and Teacher Book. The design of its package provision did not really match the students’ learning style. They reported that without teacher’s talk, they could not use the software so effectively and confidently on their own. Their learning interest could not be sustained without teacher guidance; i.e. the mechanism of the “feedforward” in the program itself seemed not really working on them.
Exercises and self-assessment charts were helpful, but the recorded data were only stored in temporary location, known as COOKIES of the computer. There was no real impact on users if they failed to achieve the performance criteria, which I must admit is one of the shortcomings of most educational software. Unless users can feel a genuine need or excitement in engaging in the learning tasks, i.e. experiencing improvement or excitement while working with the program; their motivation of using the software cannot be sustained.
However, it was found that the program helped facilitate the enhancement of learners’ listening skills and helped improve their confidence in listening to native speakers. The audio data, i.e. natural spontaneous speech and the related exercises contributes themselves in assisting students to learn.
Sequential Scaffolding (i.e. practice-related activities)
To get a better picture of the learning exercises, I reviewed the learning content-pages, self-assessment quiz/exercises, and help pages and examined how the contents were accompanied by the learning tasks to achieve the sets of goals defined according to the program:
Learning Contents -two Sets of Goals of Streaming Speech
Listening
According to the software brief, the two aims of the learning are
- To make learners familiar and comfortable with the stream of speech (at speeds up to 450 words per minutes) and the way in which this stream is shaped by the speaker to communicate meanings.
- To improve the learners' perception of words in the stream of speech. To show how speakers change the sound-shapes of words. To show the relationship between slow and fast speech.
Pronunciation - To help learners improve their ability to produce flowing stretches of speech, at natural speeds, and patterned in a way which effectively communicates their meanings and maintains the interest of their listeners.
- To improve the accuracy of vowels and consonants within the stream of speech. To increase the learners' confidence to speak by presenting natural models of rhythm and intonation. To increase the learners' confidence to speak by providing them with strategies to compose speech in real-time.
The authentic contents of Ch1-9 with natural spontaneous speech were well received by students. Students also liked the idea of practices on their own by using the recording features of the software to improve their listening and pronunciation skills. However, they thought the program helped improve mainly their listening skill and some pronunciation skill.
The chunking and streaming techniques introduced helped raise students' awareness of the sound patterns of authentic speech. However, the notation of the pronunciation was not fully introduced. It was difficult for students to achieve accuracy by simply reading the explanation and doing recording without further assistance from teachers. Without teacher intervention, it's difficult for learners to identify various strategies to compose their own speech in real-time.
References
Chamot, A. U. & O’Malley, M. (1994). The CALLA Handbook: Implementing the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
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