Language Acquisition in the Classroom: the Role of Digital Video
Computer Assisted Language Learning 2001, Vol. 14, No. 3-4, pp. 305±319
0958-8221/01/1403-4±305$16.00 # Swets & Zeitlinger
Language Acquisition in the Classroom: The Role of Digital Video
Erwin Tschirner
University of Leipzig, Germany
ABSTRACT
This paper looks at the potential of using DVDÐdigital versatile discÐfor language learning. Seven hypotheses are presented on how oral pro®ciency may be developed within multimedia classroom environments. These hypotheses are culled from several areas of SLA research. They focus on how language acquisition may be accomplished within a FL teaching situation, i.e., in the home country of the language learner with little or no face-to-face access to native speakers of the target language. It is argued that multimedia applications, particularly digital video, provide language teachers and learners with effective means to make language acquisition in the classroom viable in a way that has not been possible before the advent of powerful multimedia computers. Consequently, foreign language classrooms need to be equipped with multimedia computers and projectors so that digital video may be used for presentation and practice as well as the acquisition of listening and speaking pro®ciency. Through digital videoÐand through other features of digital media such as easy communication around the worldÐteaching and learning conditions in FL classrooms may become similar to conditions that apply when living in the target culture. It is important that teachers have access to these new media so that they can integrate them in classroom activities. In this paper, I will focus primarily on the acquisition of listening and speaking pro®ciency because these skills often play only a minor role in FL classrooms despite the fact that they often ®gure prominently in curricular guidelines and statements of objectives. However, many of the remarks I will make may be equally applicable to teaching reading and writing (cf. Plass, 1999 for reading and Tschirner, 1999 for writing). In conclusion, it will be argued that FL learning is as much a social process as it is a psychological one. Learners need to be part of a community of speakers and they have to be able to plunge into and participate in the world of native speakers. The digital classroom meets these requirements in a learner friendly way and it marks an important step towards making language acquisition possible in the classroom.
È Correspondence: Prof. Dr. Erwin Tschirner, University of Leipzig, Philologische Fakultat, Herder-Institut, Lumumbastraûe z, 04105 Leipzig, Germany. E-mail: erwin.tschirner@t-online. de
306
E. TSCHIRNER
1. INTRODUCTION This essay presents seven hypotheses on how oral pro®ciency may be developed within multimedia classroom environments. These hypotheses are culled from several areas of SLA research. They focus on how language acquisition may be accomplished within a FL teaching situation, i.e., in the home country of the language learner with little or no face-to-face access to native speakers of the target language. It is argued that multimedia applications, particularly digital video, provide language teachers and learners with effective means to make language acquisition in the classroom viable in a way that has not been possible before the advent of powerful multimedia computers. Multimedia applications help learners to gain broad access to oral communication both visually and auditory. Authentic target language video materials provide rich input environments. Learners ' control over these materials provides them with comprehensible input and allows them to focus both on meaning and form. With the use of multimedia applications, differences between FL learning (in the native language environment of the learner) and SLA (in the target culture) are likely to become less signi®cant. The use of new media in education, however, does not necessarily result in better learning or teaching practices as the early history of CALL has shown. There is no reason to assume that the introduction of new media in schools per se will cause innovation or even a pedagogical revolution. The use of new media in language classes will only improve teaching and learning when it goes hand in hand with curricular and methodological innovation. While there is no dearth of theories in the application of instructional technologies, most of them come from general education and/or psychology. In this paper, I will propose that we need to look to SLA theories if we want to exploit the full potential of what multimedia and the internet have to offer for language teaching. Key terms such as situated learning, input, interaction, and awareness indicate how much the approach to learning FL has changed over the past 10± 20 years. But have these changes also affected classroom realities? Classroom observations and conversations with instructors and students give the impression that not much has changed. We have known for at least 20 years that rich and varied authentic oral input is an essential and fundamental prerequisite for achieving oral competence. Still, in today 's classrooms, rich authentic input is not as prevalent as it should be and may even be missing altogether.
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
307
Rich authentic input in class may be provided by native speakers of the target language or through the use of authentic audio and video documents. In the past, teaching with video has often been cumbersome and inef®cient. With multimedia computers, spoken language can be made more easily perceptible. It can be manipulated for and by the learner in a way previously only possible with written language. Digital data are immanently controllable. Within split seconds, discrete words, phrases, and sentences may be isolated and repeated as often as needed. Utterances may be combined with visual information and simultaneously read and listened to. With the help of a broad selection of tasks and tools, attention may be focused on phonological, grammatical, lexical, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic features within a situational framework. Students may examine pragmatic or sociocultural features of target language interactions by selecting scenes of a particular ®lm dealing, e.g., with how to introduce someone, by cutting and pasting them together so that they can be viewed one after the other, and while doing so identifying common features. Digital video makes it possible to `read ' communicative situations, to move back and forth just as in written texts, to repeat, to pay close attention to language and other features of the communicative situation, and to stop and re¯ect on the components that contribute to a deeper understanding of linguistic and semiotic data and to the language learning process. I will argue that foreign language classrooms need to be equipped with multimedia computers and projectors so that digital video may be used for presentation and practice. In addition, students need to be able to work in language labs equipped with multimedia computers and headphones to review and further practice the material studied in class. Similarly to teaching FL reading, visual texts need to be both introduced and reviewed in class. Those who reject the idea of equipping classrooms with computers and projectors that may be used in whole class instruction, those who argue that the new media should only be given to the `autonomous ' learner (Bauer, 1997; È Ruschoff & Wolff, 1999) appear to misjudge the role of input and interaction in language learning and the role of attention. Digital video needs to be put in the hands of the instructor to generate new qualities of teaching and learning. In this paper, I will focus primarily on the acquisition of listening and speaking pro®ciency because these skills often play only a minor role in FL classrooms despite the fact that they often ®gure prominently in curricular guidelines and statements of objectives. However, many of the remarks I will make may be equally applicable to teaching reading and writing (cf. Plass,
308
E. TSCHIRNER
1999 for reading and Tschirner, 1999 for writing). In what follows, I will propose seven hypotheses on how classrooms need to be set up in order for them to help learners to become pro®cient users of the foreign language, particularly in speaking and listening. These hypotheses are derived from current SLA models and theories and they are grounded in communicative and task-based teaching practices. 2. HYPOTHESES Oral pro®ciency in a FL is more effectively and ef®ciently acquired when the following conditions apply: 1. Learning is situated, i.e., it is application-oriented and it serves practical needs. The contexts in which students learn are similar to those in which they will apply what they have learned. 2. Input oriented learning of the FL is emphasized. Input processing in listening comprehension plays an important role in the development of general communicative competence and in acquiring speaking competence. 3. Output oriented learning (output processing) of the FL is encouraged. Speaking competence is developed through interaction. Input is necessary but not suf®cient for developing productive competence. Productive competence needs to be learned separately. 4. The cultural component of FL competence is promoted. To be useful, FL skills need to be augmented by cultural knowledge. Cultural competence, e.g., knowing how to interact with whom or how to be polite, is an integral part of communicative competence. 5. A focus on form is fostered. A purely content-based approach is not suf®cient for language acquisition to result in native-like speech. The latter may occur only when the learner 's attention is directed towards the linguistic form in addition to the meaning it encodes. 6. Storage in memory of meaningful and situated sequences of sounds and words is promoted. Oral learning begins with storing meaningful and situated sequences of sounds and words. When sound and word sequences have been stored in memory in very large numbers, they are analyzed internally, i.e., subconsciously and automatically. FL phonological and morpho-syntactic competence may be a result of the internal analysis of such memorized forms.
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
309
7. Affective needs of learners are taken care of. Language learning is strongly linked with emotions. Emotions in¯uence learner motivation and what is learned and how it is learned. In the following, I will deal with each of these hypotheses or principles independently. I will review the relevant models and theories and explain how digital video may support a classroom environment built on such principles. 3. SITUATED LEARNING Situated learning is a term that is primarily associated with constructivism. Knowledge is not handed down from one person to another but is created through an active process of construction. In this process, the situation in which the knowledge is acquired plays a central role. Knowledge is based on the context of learning and cannot be separated from the act of learning and the situation in which it is learned. Therefore, learning should be application oriented and take place within `authentic ' learning environments where knowledge and skills are acquired in the same way they are expected to be used. Learning is considered to be the acquisition of knowledge which is shared knowledge within a group of experts. Through learning, one becomes a member of that group, and through interacting with this group, one partakes more and more in that group 's knowledge (Mandl et al., 1997). In FL learning, situated learning means learning through the use of the target language in authentic situations. The group of experts that learners want to become members of are the speakers of the target language. Therefore, communication with these speakers is important, both in terms of comprehension as well as of expression. Comprehension and expression need to serve practical needs and they need to be application oriented. Linguistic knowledge can only be used in authentic communicative situations if it has been acquired in such situations. Skills are learned by being used. Especially in terms of comprehension, audio and video bring the target language world in which one hopes to participate into the classroom. Learners receive input from many different representatives of the target culture, and their exposure to the target culture is greatly increased. In addition, comprehension is situated. Authentic documents also provide complex issues that may enhance motivation since the comprehension of these documents poses an authentic task. Furthermore, these problems create a context in which knowledge is acquired in relation to practical needs.
310
E. TSCHIRNER
As for expression, authentic video may provide a context and a reason for communication. While pictures and photos may serve the same purpose, video has the added advantage of providing models and examples on how to deal with the subject linguistically. The advantages of working with video have often been emphasized (e.g., Schwerdtfeger, 1989). Still, video continues to be rarely used in class as the technology itself, i.e., the VCR is a rather cumbersome and inconvenient device for FL teaching. Frequent forwarding and rewinding of the tape, which is especially important in beginners ' classes, is time consuming and inef®cient. Because of the limited controllability of the medium, authentic video documents in tape format often turn out to be too dif®cult for the learners. Instead of enhancing learner motivation, they may demotivate and frustrate both teachers and learners. Digital video with its unique controllability, ease and speed of access may help to make the use of video in FL classes more widespread and enhance their situated learning component. 4. INPUT PROCESSING Input processing in listening comprehension plays a key role in the development of communicative competence (Brown et al., 1994; Ellis, 1994). Incoming data received through the eyes and ears are processed in the human brain. Processing results in the acquisition of procedural knowledge about the various aspects of language, phonology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics. From an information-processing perspective, children acquiring their native language are faced with six different and distinct tasks. Linguistic forms, meanings, and connections between forms and meanings need to be learned ®rst for comprehension purposes and then again for expression (Keenan & MacWhinney, 1987). In FL learning, a large part of all possible meanings (concepts) has already been acquired through the native language. The main task for FL learners, therefore, is to acquire new forms (sound patterns, morphemes, words, and phrases) and to create links between these new forms and the existing concepts. The more clearly and precisely these new forms can be perceived in the input and the stronger and more durable the links between these new forms and the familiar concepts can be made, the faster these basic learning processes will proceed. Since input processing is of crucial importance for language acquisition to take place, it needs to play a major role in FL classes. Even in a beginners
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
311
class, listening activities should relatively quickly progress from understanding instructor and class mates to understanding authentic audio and audiovisual texts. New functions, words, and structures should be presented in context for comprehension and input processing ®rst before being used productively. When listening (and reading) comprehension is the starting point of language acquisition, the focus of classroom activities will automatically be on information and meaning. In order to facilitate the mapping of new forms (phonological, morphological and syntactical as well as lexical and pragmatic) to familiar concepts, care should be given to visually support oral texts with pictures, drawings, animation, and ®lm. Mapping words and word sequences with meaning is easier when they are clearly and repeatedly perceived and when they are supported by visual elements. This requires exact control of the medium as can only be achieved through digital video. 5. OUTPUT PROCESSING Input processing, i.e., noticing and storing situated and meaningful linguistic units initiates the SLA process but does not usually lead to full productive competence (Swain, 1985). If oral (and written) expression is to be learned besides listening (and reading) comprehension, speaking (and writing) skills need to be practiced separately. To be sure, new L2 forms (sounds, morphemes, and phrases) need to be ®rst acquired perceptively. Expressive forms and meanings are derived from receptive forms and meanings and are a subset of these (Keenan & MacWhinney, 1987). However, expressive forms have to be acquired too. Receptive forms cannot simply be repurposed to be used expressively. Output does not emerge. Receptive forms are auditory in nature and have to be `translated ' into articulatory ones before they can be used expressively. Keenan and MacWhinney (1987) claim that this does not occur automatically. For every single word or morpheme and for every single phrase a new articulation program has to be written to translate each auditory form to its respective articulation form. The mapping of form and function, which is essential for comprehension as well as for expression, can also not be transfered from reception to expression. It, too, has to take place again in expression by mapping productive forms to productive functions. Not only are receptive and expressive forms distinct, they also differ with regard to the direction of mapping. In listening
312
E. TSCHIRNER
comprehension, functions (concepts) are mapped to forms, i.e., forms are perceived ®rst and their meanings have to be recalled. In speaking, forms need to be mapped to functions, i.e., communicative intentions are primary and the correct forms have to be recalled (Keenan & MacWhinney, 1987). There are three implications for FL classes: (1) Classroom activity should not be restricted to providing only input. (2) While words (sequences of sounds), phrases and sentences (sequences of words) need to be perceived clearly and precisely, they also need to be practiced productively. (3) To acquire productive competence, learning activities have to start with learners communicative intentions. For only when speech intentions are primary, the mapping of form to function (intention) may take place and expressive language may be acquired. The special role attributed to the learners ' communicative intentions makes it important for the learners themselves to be the topic of many language activities. Students should explore their own world in addition to the world of the target culture. Tasks and games that explore the thoughts, interests, hopes, and desires of the learner 's classmates are especially suitable for this purpose. Varied and authentic video documents can be used to provide a context for student activities as well as a model. Video may be used to provide words, phrases, functions, etc., all within a concrete situation to help learners move from comprehension (input) to expression (output). 6. CULTURAL LEARNING Cultural knowledge, in a broad sense, is indispensable for pragmatic competence since interpretations, schemata and scripts are often grounded in a particular culture. Language is a cultural product. In the multicultural societies of the information age, intercultural understanding and appropriate crosscultural behavior are likely to become essential skills for all humans. The learning of cultural knowledge and of cultural analytical reasoning may be as important as the acquisition of functional competency. The acquisition of everyday cultural knowledge is greatly aided by the use of authentic video documents. Pictures and photos are barely suf®cient to provide even a rough idea of what life in the target countries might look like. Human action, mimic and gesture, etc. have to be seen if one wants to gain insights about the semiotic systems representative of another culture. Because of the speed and complexity of human interaction, a technology that slows
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
313
down communicative behavior and is able to highlight and focus on its various features is a very helpful device. With every repetition, a different set of signs may be singled out to receive the necessary attention to be learned. 7. FOCUS ON FORM Input may be processed for meaning aloneÐthe default situationÐin which case the form of the message, i.e., the actual words being used, are discarded after meaning has been extracted and only the meaning is stored. Although the input was comprehensible and was actually comprehended, no new language was learned. Sharwood Smith (1993) argues that both form and meaning must be perceived and processed at the same time for interlanguages to develop. One technique he suggests for teachers to use is `input enhancement ', i.e., to draw students ' attention explicitly to form features of the input. As students understand the meaning of a particular sentence while focusing on the form of that sentence, they process both meaning and form and further develop their growing grammatical system. Such `attention to form ' may be one of the central advantages classroom learning has over `natural ' learning environments. As Clark and Clark (1977) ®nd, language users do not rely on a linguistic model when they are comprehending in authentic language use situations but rather are more likely to use comprehension strategies, i.e., they rely on syntactic and semantic clues or background or world knowledge. This strategy use may, in fact, prevent the input from being processed in linguistic ways with the resulting consequence that although comprehension was achieved, no actual language was learned. If language learning requires the perception and processing of the form of the message as well as of its semantic and pragmatic content, learners ' attention needs to be drawn to formal features of the conversation. This does not mean that grammar rules need to be explained but rather that the sound gestalt of the message should be fully and clearly perceived so that it can be stored and saved for later analysis. Novice and intermediate FL learners are often unable to perceive more than a few stressed syllables. None-the-less, understanding these syllables may still be enough to understand the gist of the message. Communication was successful. However, since grammatical information may often be conveyed in unstressed syllables which may not be perceived under the pressure of real time speech events, `natural ' situations of language acquisition may result in pidginization. In this view, ungrammatical
314
E. TSCHIRNER
speech may not be the result of a lack of grammar instruction and practice but rather a result of the human tendency to focus on meaning rather than on form when listening to oral texts. It is not clear which aspects of communicative language use under what circumstances and in what way lead to an improvement of linguistic competence. However, it may be assumed that authentic language use in the classroom or in audio or video documents provides input that is rich enough to achieve communicative competence. When working with authentic documents, attention may be drawn to the language itself after comprehension has been achieved. At the grammatical level, a focus on form may ensure, e.g., that all words and syllables of the message were perceived, at the pragmatic level, that paraverbal information such as prosody, mimic and gestures was noticed and attended to, and at the sociocultural level, that role signals or signs of politeness were noted. The effective and precise focus of attention to linguistic detail and other details of the communicative situation is signi®cantly enhanced by digital video, and for certain features may only be possible with such devices. 8. LEXICAL LEARNING One of the reasons why spoken and written language are different is the fact that speaking is a behavior that takes place in real time and under severe processing constraints, i.e., short-term memory limitations. Pawley and Syder (1983) maintain that speakers are not free to concentrate on the grammatical content of their production because they must invest considerable energy into making their contributions coherent, sensitive to what has gone on before and what might happen later, and sensitive to audience knowledge and other features of the social situation. In addition, their talk should be native like and in an appropriate register and meet other requirements such as being accurate, logical, witty, or modest. Speakers can do all this and still speak more or less grammatically correct because they have recourse to hundreds of thousands of memorized phrases, partial sentences, and complete sentences. Many of these prefabricated sentences and parts of sentences accumulated over a life-time are accessed and used as wholes as they have been on previous occasions. Complete sentences such as How are you going to do that? or There 's nothing you can do about it now are not created from scratch every time a person wants to express these or other meanings but are simply accessed and used in their entirety.
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
315
This method of redundantly storing words and combinations of words appears to make good use of human memory resources which consist of a short-term or working memory that is very limited in size and a large, capacious, and redundantly structured long-term memory system. To make optimum use of their memory resources, speakers essentially follow two strategies when engaging in conversation. They focus on one clause at a time and they use a clause-chaining style, that is, they string together clauses consisting of 4±10 words, many of which may have been fully or partially preassembled. According to Ellis (1996), in SLA as well, implicit grammatical knowledge, i.e., the ability to speak grammatically correct, for the most part is not developed through explicitly learned rules but through memorization of lexical phrases (sequences of words) learned in authentic discourse. These sequences of words are implicitly, i.e., subconsciously and automatically analyzed, when large quantities of such phrases have been memorized. At the same time, these lexical phrases will be retained as phrases and can be recalled in their entirety and linked with other partially or fully preassembled phrases or sentences. It is important to emphasize the role authentic language plays in SLA. Only authentic language provides input that is rich enough for SLA to occur because it ideally combines phonetic, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and sociocultural features. The memorization of lexical phrases, i.e., phrases, partial and complete sentences, may be successful precisely because grammatical morphology is memorized in its semantic and pragmatic context. When these `frozen ' grammatical elements are analyzed at a later time, grammatical competence develops. For this reason, linguistic aspects should not be learned separately, i.e., vocabulary through vocabulary equations and grammar through example sentences and grammar exercises. FL learning is most successful when linguistic aspects are not singled out and when words and phrases are used and learned in their syntactic, semantic and pragmatic contexts. Spoken language needs to be taught and learned via authentic audiovisual texts because only these texts provide students with authentic language input that is rich enough to promote language acquisition. With digital video, it is possible to separate syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features so they can each be observed individually yet without reducing language to discrete words or sentences existing in a communicative and cultural void. Visual texts are always contextualized. When lexical phrases are clearly and completely
316
E. TSCHIRNER
processed and stored with their meaning and other features of the communicative situation, they may eventually give rise to native-like grammatical competencies. 9. EMOTIONAL LEARNING In SLA as well as in FL learning, emotional factors may play a more important role than cognitive ones. FL classes may evoke anxieties for a variety of reasons making language acquisition more dif®cult if not impossible. A focus on the explicit learning of rules and their application in speaking and writing, e.g., combined with rigorous error feedback may generate a great deal of anxiety. Emotional factors, however, may not only in¯uence language acquisition in a negative way but may also contribute to its success. Two motives that may be especially in¯uential in promoting language acquisition are communicative needs and identi®cation with people or groups of people from the target culture (Young, 1995). It is dif®cult to generate communicative needs in FL classes, especially in ones where the native language is shared by everybody involved. In order to generate them, it is necessary that the content of classroom discourse is interesting and that an atmosphere is created in which instructor and learner, and learners among themselves are interested in each other and wish to communicate with each other. The goal of classroom interaction would not be to engage students in simulated conversations to get them ready for later exchanges with native speakers. The goal would be to see them as a group of learners who interact with each other in authentic communicative situations to get to know each other and to jointly work on group and class projects. Moreover, personal exchange, the opportunity to talk about oneself and one 's interests, creates a feeling of belonging that helps to lower anxiety and increases the willingness to take risks, i.e., the willingness to make mistakes or to sound childish or boring. The second motive, according to Young (1995), that may prevent learner languages from becoming fossilized is identi®cation with a group of native speakers of the target language. Children may acquire their ®rst and possibly second and third languages completely in part because they see speakers of these languages with whom they interact as members of a group to which they want to belong. Therefore, they pay close attention to minor nuances of the
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
317
`group language ' so that their output will sound just like the input they receive. In FL classes, it is certainly dif®cult to generate a desire to identify with a particular target language group. Still, learners often choose a particular language because they have a positive attitude towards that language. In most cases, this means an interest in the people speaking that language and an interest in their culture. One important goal of classroom teaching ought to be to sustain that positive attitude and interest and to deepen it. Video documents may support these emotional goals. Carefully selected video clips help to show how people of the target culture satisfy their communicative needs. One of the advantages of visual texts is the fact that language is contextualized and situated and that both verbal and paraverbal structures may be observed. Moreover, the visual and auditory perception of target language speakers in their native cultural environments may contribute to a wish to identify more with this culture. Visual and auditory perception is both concrete and holistic, and it is emotional. Humans automatically assign feelings to voices, faces, and interactions between people, and they perceive these feelings emotionally. 10. CONCLUSIONS AND PERSPECTIVES The starting point for this essay was my contention that the use of digital media will not increase for the pure sake of their existence but rather because they have real and added value. For that to be the case, new methodological concepts need to be developed. I proposed seven hypotheses or principles regarding the acquisition of FL competence, in particular oral competence. These hypotheses are primarily based on psycholinguistic theories of how language is perceived in the brain and how it is acquired. According to these theories, receptive and productive FL competencies develop in authentic communicative situations with the learner responding to input both emotionally and cognitively. Other fundamentals for acquiring competence may be derived from the fact that language is used for comprehension as well as for expression, that language has both content and form, that much of spontaneous language use may rely heavily on prefabricated patterns and routines, and that interactions between learners and members of the target culture must be understood as cross-cultural communication. Digital video ®rst and foremost serves to support situated learning, providing rich and varied input which is perceived both cognitively and
318
E. TSCHIRNER
emotionally and which is grounded in context at all levels from phonology to syntax and from discourse to pragmatic and sociocultural structures. The second great advantage digital video lends to classroom interactions and one that may not be achievable otherwise is the way students ' attention may be focused on formal features of the language and the situation. Digital video allows audiovisual texts to be treated in much the same way as written texts have been treated before. Spoken language can be slowed down and listened to multiple times, unveiling ever more layers of signs and meaning. Discrete features and structures can be highlighted so they can get noticed, processed, and learned. Before the advent of digital video, spoken language, especially for beginning learners, was simply too fast, too rich, and too complex for learners to notice more than some prominent syllables or words. Through digital videoÐand through other features of digital media such as easy communication around the worldÐteaching and learning conditions in FL classrooms may become similar to conditions that apply when living in the target culture. It is important that teachers have access to these new media so that they can integrate them in classroom activities. FL learning is as much a social process as it is a psychological one. Learners need to be part of a community of speakers and they have to be able to plunge into and participate in the world of native speakers. The digital classroom meets these requirement in a learner friendly way and it marks an important step towards making language acquisition possible in the classroom. REFERENCES
Bauer, W. (1997). Multimedia in der Schule? In L. Issing & P. Klimsa (Eds.), Information und Lernen mit Multimedia, 2nd edn. (pp. 377±399). Weinheim: Psychologie Verlags Union. Brown, G., Malmkjar, K., Pollitt, A., & Williams, J. (Eds.) (1994). Language and understanding. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Clark, H.H., & Clark, E. (1977). Psychology and language: An introduction to psycholinguistics. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. Ellis, N. (1996). Sequencing in SLA: Phonological memory, chunking, and points of order. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, 91±126. Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Keenan, J., & MacWhinney, B. (1987). Understanding the relationship between comprehension and production. In H. Dechert & M. Raupach (Eds.), Psycholinguistic models of production (pp. 149±155). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Mandl, H., Gruber, H., & Renkl, A. (1997). Situiertes Lernen in multimedialen Lernumgebungen. In L. Issing and P. Klimsa (Eds.), Information und Lernen mit Multimedia, 2nd edn. (pp. 167±178). Weinheim: Psychologie Verlags Union.
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
319
Pawley, A., & Frances, S. (1983). Two puzzles for linguistic theory: Native-like selection and native-like ¯uency. In J. Richards & R. Schmidt (Eds.), Language and communication (pp. 191±226). London: Longman. Plass, J. (1999). Lernpsychologische Grundlagen der Verwendung von Multimedia in der Fremdsprachenausbildung. Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen, 28, 14±31. È Ruschoff, B., & Dieter, W. (1999). Fremdsprachenlernen in der Wissensgesellschaft. Zum È Einsatz der neuen Technologien in Schule und Unterricht. Munchen: Hueber. Sharwood Smith, M. (1993). Input enhancement in instructed SLA: Theoretical bases. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15, 165±179. Schwerdtfeger, I. (1989). Sehen und Verstehen. Arbeit mit Filmen im Unterricht Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Berlin: Langenscheidt. Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass & C. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 235±256). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Tschirner, E. (1999). Kommunikation und Spracherwerb per Computer. Blick auf einige Forschungsergebnisse. Fremdsprache Deutsch, 21(2), 54±58. Young, D. (1995). Perspectives on language anxiety: An interview with Tracy Terrell. In P. Hashemipour, R. Maldonado & M. Van Naerssen (Eds.), Studies in language learning and Spanish linguistics. In Honor of Tracy D. Terrell (pp. 105±111). New York: McGraw-Hill.
References: Bauer, W. (1997). Multimedia in der Schule? In L. Issing & P. Klimsa (Eds.), Information und Lernen mit Multimedia, 2nd edn. (pp. 377±399). Weinheim: Psychologie Verlags Union. Brown, G., Malmkjar, K., Pollitt, A., & Williams, J. (Eds.) (1994). Language and understanding. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Clark, H.H., & Clark, E. (1977). Psychology and language: An introduction to psycholinguistics. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. Ellis, N. (1996). Sequencing in SLA: Phonological memory, chunking, and points of order. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, 91±126. Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Keenan, J., & MacWhinney, B. (1987). Understanding the relationship between comprehension and production. In H. Dechert & M. Raupach (Eds.), Psycholinguistic models of production (pp. 149±155). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Mandl, H., Gruber, H., & Renkl, A. (1997). Situiertes Lernen in multimedialen Lernumgebungen. In L. Issing and P. Klimsa (Eds.), Information und Lernen mit Multimedia, 2nd edn. (pp. 167±178). Weinheim: Psychologie Verlags Union. THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO 319 Pawley, A., & Frances, S. (1983). Two puzzles for linguistic theory: Native-like selection and native-like ¯uency. In J. Richards & R. Schmidt (Eds.), Language and communication (pp. 191±226). London: Longman. Plass, J. (1999). Lernpsychologische Grundlagen der Verwendung von Multimedia in der Fremdsprachenausbildung. Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen, 28, 14±31. È Ruschoff, B., & Dieter, W. (1999). Fremdsprachenlernen in der Wissensgesellschaft. Zum È Einsatz der neuen Technologien in Schule und Unterricht. Munchen: Hueber. Sharwood Smith, M. (1993). Input enhancement in instructed SLA: Theoretical bases. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15, 165±179. Schwerdtfeger, I. (1989). Sehen und Verstehen. Arbeit mit Filmen im Unterricht Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Berlin: Langenscheidt. Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass & C. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 235±256). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Tschirner, E. (1999). Kommunikation und Spracherwerb per Computer. Blick auf einige Forschungsergebnisse. Fremdsprache Deutsch, 21(2), 54±58. Young, D. (1995). Perspectives on language anxiety: An interview with Tracy Terrell. In P. Hashemipour, R. Maldonado & M. Van Naerssen (Eds.), Studies in language learning and Spanish linguistics. In Honor of Tracy D. Terrell (pp. 105±111). New York: McGraw-Hill.
0958-8221/01/1403-4±305$16.00 # Swets & Zeitlinger
Language Acquisition in the Classroom: The Role of Digital Video
Erwin Tschirner
University of Leipzig, Germany
ABSTRACT
This paper looks at the potential of using DVDÐdigital versatile discÐfor language learning. Seven hypotheses are presented on how oral pro®ciency may be developed within multimedia classroom environments. These hypotheses are culled from several areas of SLA research. They focus on how language acquisition may be accomplished within a FL teaching situation, i.e., in the home country of the language learner with little or no face-to-face access to native speakers of the target language. It is argued that multimedia applications, particularly digital video, provide language teachers and learners with effective means to make language acquisition in the classroom viable in a way that has not been possible before the advent of powerful multimedia computers. Consequently, foreign language classrooms need to be equipped with multimedia computers and projectors so that digital video may be used for presentation and practice as well as the acquisition of listening and speaking pro®ciency. Through digital videoÐand through other features of digital media such as easy communication around the worldÐteaching and learning conditions in FL classrooms may become similar to conditions that apply when living in the target culture. It is important that teachers have access to these new media so that they can integrate them in classroom activities. In this paper, I will focus primarily on the acquisition of listening and speaking pro®ciency because these skills often play only a minor role in FL classrooms despite the fact that they often ®gure prominently in curricular guidelines and statements of objectives. However, many of the remarks I will make may be equally applicable to teaching reading and writing (cf. Plass, 1999 for reading and Tschirner, 1999 for writing). In conclusion, it will be argued that FL learning is as much a social process as it is a psychological one. Learners need to be part of a community of speakers and they have to be able to plunge into and participate in the world of native speakers. The digital classroom meets these requirements in a learner friendly way and it marks an important step towards making language acquisition possible in the classroom.
È Correspondence: Prof. Dr. Erwin Tschirner, University of Leipzig, Philologische Fakultat, Herder-Institut, Lumumbastraûe z, 04105 Leipzig, Germany. E-mail: erwin.tschirner@t-online. de
306
E. TSCHIRNER
1. INTRODUCTION This essay presents seven hypotheses on how oral pro®ciency may be developed within multimedia classroom environments. These hypotheses are culled from several areas of SLA research. They focus on how language acquisition may be accomplished within a FL teaching situation, i.e., in the home country of the language learner with little or no face-to-face access to native speakers of the target language. It is argued that multimedia applications, particularly digital video, provide language teachers and learners with effective means to make language acquisition in the classroom viable in a way that has not been possible before the advent of powerful multimedia computers. Multimedia applications help learners to gain broad access to oral communication both visually and auditory. Authentic target language video materials provide rich input environments. Learners ' control over these materials provides them with comprehensible input and allows them to focus both on meaning and form. With the use of multimedia applications, differences between FL learning (in the native language environment of the learner) and SLA (in the target culture) are likely to become less signi®cant. The use of new media in education, however, does not necessarily result in better learning or teaching practices as the early history of CALL has shown. There is no reason to assume that the introduction of new media in schools per se will cause innovation or even a pedagogical revolution. The use of new media in language classes will only improve teaching and learning when it goes hand in hand with curricular and methodological innovation. While there is no dearth of theories in the application of instructional technologies, most of them come from general education and/or psychology. In this paper, I will propose that we need to look to SLA theories if we want to exploit the full potential of what multimedia and the internet have to offer for language teaching. Key terms such as situated learning, input, interaction, and awareness indicate how much the approach to learning FL has changed over the past 10± 20 years. But have these changes also affected classroom realities? Classroom observations and conversations with instructors and students give the impression that not much has changed. We have known for at least 20 years that rich and varied authentic oral input is an essential and fundamental prerequisite for achieving oral competence. Still, in today 's classrooms, rich authentic input is not as prevalent as it should be and may even be missing altogether.
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
307
Rich authentic input in class may be provided by native speakers of the target language or through the use of authentic audio and video documents. In the past, teaching with video has often been cumbersome and inef®cient. With multimedia computers, spoken language can be made more easily perceptible. It can be manipulated for and by the learner in a way previously only possible with written language. Digital data are immanently controllable. Within split seconds, discrete words, phrases, and sentences may be isolated and repeated as often as needed. Utterances may be combined with visual information and simultaneously read and listened to. With the help of a broad selection of tasks and tools, attention may be focused on phonological, grammatical, lexical, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic features within a situational framework. Students may examine pragmatic or sociocultural features of target language interactions by selecting scenes of a particular ®lm dealing, e.g., with how to introduce someone, by cutting and pasting them together so that they can be viewed one after the other, and while doing so identifying common features. Digital video makes it possible to `read ' communicative situations, to move back and forth just as in written texts, to repeat, to pay close attention to language and other features of the communicative situation, and to stop and re¯ect on the components that contribute to a deeper understanding of linguistic and semiotic data and to the language learning process. I will argue that foreign language classrooms need to be equipped with multimedia computers and projectors so that digital video may be used for presentation and practice. In addition, students need to be able to work in language labs equipped with multimedia computers and headphones to review and further practice the material studied in class. Similarly to teaching FL reading, visual texts need to be both introduced and reviewed in class. Those who reject the idea of equipping classrooms with computers and projectors that may be used in whole class instruction, those who argue that the new media should only be given to the `autonomous ' learner (Bauer, 1997; È Ruschoff & Wolff, 1999) appear to misjudge the role of input and interaction in language learning and the role of attention. Digital video needs to be put in the hands of the instructor to generate new qualities of teaching and learning. In this paper, I will focus primarily on the acquisition of listening and speaking pro®ciency because these skills often play only a minor role in FL classrooms despite the fact that they often ®gure prominently in curricular guidelines and statements of objectives. However, many of the remarks I will make may be equally applicable to teaching reading and writing (cf. Plass,
308
E. TSCHIRNER
1999 for reading and Tschirner, 1999 for writing). In what follows, I will propose seven hypotheses on how classrooms need to be set up in order for them to help learners to become pro®cient users of the foreign language, particularly in speaking and listening. These hypotheses are derived from current SLA models and theories and they are grounded in communicative and task-based teaching practices. 2. HYPOTHESES Oral pro®ciency in a FL is more effectively and ef®ciently acquired when the following conditions apply: 1. Learning is situated, i.e., it is application-oriented and it serves practical needs. The contexts in which students learn are similar to those in which they will apply what they have learned. 2. Input oriented learning of the FL is emphasized. Input processing in listening comprehension plays an important role in the development of general communicative competence and in acquiring speaking competence. 3. Output oriented learning (output processing) of the FL is encouraged. Speaking competence is developed through interaction. Input is necessary but not suf®cient for developing productive competence. Productive competence needs to be learned separately. 4. The cultural component of FL competence is promoted. To be useful, FL skills need to be augmented by cultural knowledge. Cultural competence, e.g., knowing how to interact with whom or how to be polite, is an integral part of communicative competence. 5. A focus on form is fostered. A purely content-based approach is not suf®cient for language acquisition to result in native-like speech. The latter may occur only when the learner 's attention is directed towards the linguistic form in addition to the meaning it encodes. 6. Storage in memory of meaningful and situated sequences of sounds and words is promoted. Oral learning begins with storing meaningful and situated sequences of sounds and words. When sound and word sequences have been stored in memory in very large numbers, they are analyzed internally, i.e., subconsciously and automatically. FL phonological and morpho-syntactic competence may be a result of the internal analysis of such memorized forms.
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
309
7. Affective needs of learners are taken care of. Language learning is strongly linked with emotions. Emotions in¯uence learner motivation and what is learned and how it is learned. In the following, I will deal with each of these hypotheses or principles independently. I will review the relevant models and theories and explain how digital video may support a classroom environment built on such principles. 3. SITUATED LEARNING Situated learning is a term that is primarily associated with constructivism. Knowledge is not handed down from one person to another but is created through an active process of construction. In this process, the situation in which the knowledge is acquired plays a central role. Knowledge is based on the context of learning and cannot be separated from the act of learning and the situation in which it is learned. Therefore, learning should be application oriented and take place within `authentic ' learning environments where knowledge and skills are acquired in the same way they are expected to be used. Learning is considered to be the acquisition of knowledge which is shared knowledge within a group of experts. Through learning, one becomes a member of that group, and through interacting with this group, one partakes more and more in that group 's knowledge (Mandl et al., 1997). In FL learning, situated learning means learning through the use of the target language in authentic situations. The group of experts that learners want to become members of are the speakers of the target language. Therefore, communication with these speakers is important, both in terms of comprehension as well as of expression. Comprehension and expression need to serve practical needs and they need to be application oriented. Linguistic knowledge can only be used in authentic communicative situations if it has been acquired in such situations. Skills are learned by being used. Especially in terms of comprehension, audio and video bring the target language world in which one hopes to participate into the classroom. Learners receive input from many different representatives of the target culture, and their exposure to the target culture is greatly increased. In addition, comprehension is situated. Authentic documents also provide complex issues that may enhance motivation since the comprehension of these documents poses an authentic task. Furthermore, these problems create a context in which knowledge is acquired in relation to practical needs.
310
E. TSCHIRNER
As for expression, authentic video may provide a context and a reason for communication. While pictures and photos may serve the same purpose, video has the added advantage of providing models and examples on how to deal with the subject linguistically. The advantages of working with video have often been emphasized (e.g., Schwerdtfeger, 1989). Still, video continues to be rarely used in class as the technology itself, i.e., the VCR is a rather cumbersome and inconvenient device for FL teaching. Frequent forwarding and rewinding of the tape, which is especially important in beginners ' classes, is time consuming and inef®cient. Because of the limited controllability of the medium, authentic video documents in tape format often turn out to be too dif®cult for the learners. Instead of enhancing learner motivation, they may demotivate and frustrate both teachers and learners. Digital video with its unique controllability, ease and speed of access may help to make the use of video in FL classes more widespread and enhance their situated learning component. 4. INPUT PROCESSING Input processing in listening comprehension plays a key role in the development of communicative competence (Brown et al., 1994; Ellis, 1994). Incoming data received through the eyes and ears are processed in the human brain. Processing results in the acquisition of procedural knowledge about the various aspects of language, phonology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics. From an information-processing perspective, children acquiring their native language are faced with six different and distinct tasks. Linguistic forms, meanings, and connections between forms and meanings need to be learned ®rst for comprehension purposes and then again for expression (Keenan & MacWhinney, 1987). In FL learning, a large part of all possible meanings (concepts) has already been acquired through the native language. The main task for FL learners, therefore, is to acquire new forms (sound patterns, morphemes, words, and phrases) and to create links between these new forms and the existing concepts. The more clearly and precisely these new forms can be perceived in the input and the stronger and more durable the links between these new forms and the familiar concepts can be made, the faster these basic learning processes will proceed. Since input processing is of crucial importance for language acquisition to take place, it needs to play a major role in FL classes. Even in a beginners
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
311
class, listening activities should relatively quickly progress from understanding instructor and class mates to understanding authentic audio and audiovisual texts. New functions, words, and structures should be presented in context for comprehension and input processing ®rst before being used productively. When listening (and reading) comprehension is the starting point of language acquisition, the focus of classroom activities will automatically be on information and meaning. In order to facilitate the mapping of new forms (phonological, morphological and syntactical as well as lexical and pragmatic) to familiar concepts, care should be given to visually support oral texts with pictures, drawings, animation, and ®lm. Mapping words and word sequences with meaning is easier when they are clearly and repeatedly perceived and when they are supported by visual elements. This requires exact control of the medium as can only be achieved through digital video. 5. OUTPUT PROCESSING Input processing, i.e., noticing and storing situated and meaningful linguistic units initiates the SLA process but does not usually lead to full productive competence (Swain, 1985). If oral (and written) expression is to be learned besides listening (and reading) comprehension, speaking (and writing) skills need to be practiced separately. To be sure, new L2 forms (sounds, morphemes, and phrases) need to be ®rst acquired perceptively. Expressive forms and meanings are derived from receptive forms and meanings and are a subset of these (Keenan & MacWhinney, 1987). However, expressive forms have to be acquired too. Receptive forms cannot simply be repurposed to be used expressively. Output does not emerge. Receptive forms are auditory in nature and have to be `translated ' into articulatory ones before they can be used expressively. Keenan and MacWhinney (1987) claim that this does not occur automatically. For every single word or morpheme and for every single phrase a new articulation program has to be written to translate each auditory form to its respective articulation form. The mapping of form and function, which is essential for comprehension as well as for expression, can also not be transfered from reception to expression. It, too, has to take place again in expression by mapping productive forms to productive functions. Not only are receptive and expressive forms distinct, they also differ with regard to the direction of mapping. In listening
312
E. TSCHIRNER
comprehension, functions (concepts) are mapped to forms, i.e., forms are perceived ®rst and their meanings have to be recalled. In speaking, forms need to be mapped to functions, i.e., communicative intentions are primary and the correct forms have to be recalled (Keenan & MacWhinney, 1987). There are three implications for FL classes: (1) Classroom activity should not be restricted to providing only input. (2) While words (sequences of sounds), phrases and sentences (sequences of words) need to be perceived clearly and precisely, they also need to be practiced productively. (3) To acquire productive competence, learning activities have to start with learners communicative intentions. For only when speech intentions are primary, the mapping of form to function (intention) may take place and expressive language may be acquired. The special role attributed to the learners ' communicative intentions makes it important for the learners themselves to be the topic of many language activities. Students should explore their own world in addition to the world of the target culture. Tasks and games that explore the thoughts, interests, hopes, and desires of the learner 's classmates are especially suitable for this purpose. Varied and authentic video documents can be used to provide a context for student activities as well as a model. Video may be used to provide words, phrases, functions, etc., all within a concrete situation to help learners move from comprehension (input) to expression (output). 6. CULTURAL LEARNING Cultural knowledge, in a broad sense, is indispensable for pragmatic competence since interpretations, schemata and scripts are often grounded in a particular culture. Language is a cultural product. In the multicultural societies of the information age, intercultural understanding and appropriate crosscultural behavior are likely to become essential skills for all humans. The learning of cultural knowledge and of cultural analytical reasoning may be as important as the acquisition of functional competency. The acquisition of everyday cultural knowledge is greatly aided by the use of authentic video documents. Pictures and photos are barely suf®cient to provide even a rough idea of what life in the target countries might look like. Human action, mimic and gesture, etc. have to be seen if one wants to gain insights about the semiotic systems representative of another culture. Because of the speed and complexity of human interaction, a technology that slows
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
313
down communicative behavior and is able to highlight and focus on its various features is a very helpful device. With every repetition, a different set of signs may be singled out to receive the necessary attention to be learned. 7. FOCUS ON FORM Input may be processed for meaning aloneÐthe default situationÐin which case the form of the message, i.e., the actual words being used, are discarded after meaning has been extracted and only the meaning is stored. Although the input was comprehensible and was actually comprehended, no new language was learned. Sharwood Smith (1993) argues that both form and meaning must be perceived and processed at the same time for interlanguages to develop. One technique he suggests for teachers to use is `input enhancement ', i.e., to draw students ' attention explicitly to form features of the input. As students understand the meaning of a particular sentence while focusing on the form of that sentence, they process both meaning and form and further develop their growing grammatical system. Such `attention to form ' may be one of the central advantages classroom learning has over `natural ' learning environments. As Clark and Clark (1977) ®nd, language users do not rely on a linguistic model when they are comprehending in authentic language use situations but rather are more likely to use comprehension strategies, i.e., they rely on syntactic and semantic clues or background or world knowledge. This strategy use may, in fact, prevent the input from being processed in linguistic ways with the resulting consequence that although comprehension was achieved, no actual language was learned. If language learning requires the perception and processing of the form of the message as well as of its semantic and pragmatic content, learners ' attention needs to be drawn to formal features of the conversation. This does not mean that grammar rules need to be explained but rather that the sound gestalt of the message should be fully and clearly perceived so that it can be stored and saved for later analysis. Novice and intermediate FL learners are often unable to perceive more than a few stressed syllables. None-the-less, understanding these syllables may still be enough to understand the gist of the message. Communication was successful. However, since grammatical information may often be conveyed in unstressed syllables which may not be perceived under the pressure of real time speech events, `natural ' situations of language acquisition may result in pidginization. In this view, ungrammatical
314
E. TSCHIRNER
speech may not be the result of a lack of grammar instruction and practice but rather a result of the human tendency to focus on meaning rather than on form when listening to oral texts. It is not clear which aspects of communicative language use under what circumstances and in what way lead to an improvement of linguistic competence. However, it may be assumed that authentic language use in the classroom or in audio or video documents provides input that is rich enough to achieve communicative competence. When working with authentic documents, attention may be drawn to the language itself after comprehension has been achieved. At the grammatical level, a focus on form may ensure, e.g., that all words and syllables of the message were perceived, at the pragmatic level, that paraverbal information such as prosody, mimic and gestures was noticed and attended to, and at the sociocultural level, that role signals or signs of politeness were noted. The effective and precise focus of attention to linguistic detail and other details of the communicative situation is signi®cantly enhanced by digital video, and for certain features may only be possible with such devices. 8. LEXICAL LEARNING One of the reasons why spoken and written language are different is the fact that speaking is a behavior that takes place in real time and under severe processing constraints, i.e., short-term memory limitations. Pawley and Syder (1983) maintain that speakers are not free to concentrate on the grammatical content of their production because they must invest considerable energy into making their contributions coherent, sensitive to what has gone on before and what might happen later, and sensitive to audience knowledge and other features of the social situation. In addition, their talk should be native like and in an appropriate register and meet other requirements such as being accurate, logical, witty, or modest. Speakers can do all this and still speak more or less grammatically correct because they have recourse to hundreds of thousands of memorized phrases, partial sentences, and complete sentences. Many of these prefabricated sentences and parts of sentences accumulated over a life-time are accessed and used as wholes as they have been on previous occasions. Complete sentences such as How are you going to do that? or There 's nothing you can do about it now are not created from scratch every time a person wants to express these or other meanings but are simply accessed and used in their entirety.
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
315
This method of redundantly storing words and combinations of words appears to make good use of human memory resources which consist of a short-term or working memory that is very limited in size and a large, capacious, and redundantly structured long-term memory system. To make optimum use of their memory resources, speakers essentially follow two strategies when engaging in conversation. They focus on one clause at a time and they use a clause-chaining style, that is, they string together clauses consisting of 4±10 words, many of which may have been fully or partially preassembled. According to Ellis (1996), in SLA as well, implicit grammatical knowledge, i.e., the ability to speak grammatically correct, for the most part is not developed through explicitly learned rules but through memorization of lexical phrases (sequences of words) learned in authentic discourse. These sequences of words are implicitly, i.e., subconsciously and automatically analyzed, when large quantities of such phrases have been memorized. At the same time, these lexical phrases will be retained as phrases and can be recalled in their entirety and linked with other partially or fully preassembled phrases or sentences. It is important to emphasize the role authentic language plays in SLA. Only authentic language provides input that is rich enough for SLA to occur because it ideally combines phonetic, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and sociocultural features. The memorization of lexical phrases, i.e., phrases, partial and complete sentences, may be successful precisely because grammatical morphology is memorized in its semantic and pragmatic context. When these `frozen ' grammatical elements are analyzed at a later time, grammatical competence develops. For this reason, linguistic aspects should not be learned separately, i.e., vocabulary through vocabulary equations and grammar through example sentences and grammar exercises. FL learning is most successful when linguistic aspects are not singled out and when words and phrases are used and learned in their syntactic, semantic and pragmatic contexts. Spoken language needs to be taught and learned via authentic audiovisual texts because only these texts provide students with authentic language input that is rich enough to promote language acquisition. With digital video, it is possible to separate syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features so they can each be observed individually yet without reducing language to discrete words or sentences existing in a communicative and cultural void. Visual texts are always contextualized. When lexical phrases are clearly and completely
316
E. TSCHIRNER
processed and stored with their meaning and other features of the communicative situation, they may eventually give rise to native-like grammatical competencies. 9. EMOTIONAL LEARNING In SLA as well as in FL learning, emotional factors may play a more important role than cognitive ones. FL classes may evoke anxieties for a variety of reasons making language acquisition more dif®cult if not impossible. A focus on the explicit learning of rules and their application in speaking and writing, e.g., combined with rigorous error feedback may generate a great deal of anxiety. Emotional factors, however, may not only in¯uence language acquisition in a negative way but may also contribute to its success. Two motives that may be especially in¯uential in promoting language acquisition are communicative needs and identi®cation with people or groups of people from the target culture (Young, 1995). It is dif®cult to generate communicative needs in FL classes, especially in ones where the native language is shared by everybody involved. In order to generate them, it is necessary that the content of classroom discourse is interesting and that an atmosphere is created in which instructor and learner, and learners among themselves are interested in each other and wish to communicate with each other. The goal of classroom interaction would not be to engage students in simulated conversations to get them ready for later exchanges with native speakers. The goal would be to see them as a group of learners who interact with each other in authentic communicative situations to get to know each other and to jointly work on group and class projects. Moreover, personal exchange, the opportunity to talk about oneself and one 's interests, creates a feeling of belonging that helps to lower anxiety and increases the willingness to take risks, i.e., the willingness to make mistakes or to sound childish or boring. The second motive, according to Young (1995), that may prevent learner languages from becoming fossilized is identi®cation with a group of native speakers of the target language. Children may acquire their ®rst and possibly second and third languages completely in part because they see speakers of these languages with whom they interact as members of a group to which they want to belong. Therefore, they pay close attention to minor nuances of the
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
317
`group language ' so that their output will sound just like the input they receive. In FL classes, it is certainly dif®cult to generate a desire to identify with a particular target language group. Still, learners often choose a particular language because they have a positive attitude towards that language. In most cases, this means an interest in the people speaking that language and an interest in their culture. One important goal of classroom teaching ought to be to sustain that positive attitude and interest and to deepen it. Video documents may support these emotional goals. Carefully selected video clips help to show how people of the target culture satisfy their communicative needs. One of the advantages of visual texts is the fact that language is contextualized and situated and that both verbal and paraverbal structures may be observed. Moreover, the visual and auditory perception of target language speakers in their native cultural environments may contribute to a wish to identify more with this culture. Visual and auditory perception is both concrete and holistic, and it is emotional. Humans automatically assign feelings to voices, faces, and interactions between people, and they perceive these feelings emotionally. 10. CONCLUSIONS AND PERSPECTIVES The starting point for this essay was my contention that the use of digital media will not increase for the pure sake of their existence but rather because they have real and added value. For that to be the case, new methodological concepts need to be developed. I proposed seven hypotheses or principles regarding the acquisition of FL competence, in particular oral competence. These hypotheses are primarily based on psycholinguistic theories of how language is perceived in the brain and how it is acquired. According to these theories, receptive and productive FL competencies develop in authentic communicative situations with the learner responding to input both emotionally and cognitively. Other fundamentals for acquiring competence may be derived from the fact that language is used for comprehension as well as for expression, that language has both content and form, that much of spontaneous language use may rely heavily on prefabricated patterns and routines, and that interactions between learners and members of the target culture must be understood as cross-cultural communication. Digital video ®rst and foremost serves to support situated learning, providing rich and varied input which is perceived both cognitively and
318
E. TSCHIRNER
emotionally and which is grounded in context at all levels from phonology to syntax and from discourse to pragmatic and sociocultural structures. The second great advantage digital video lends to classroom interactions and one that may not be achievable otherwise is the way students ' attention may be focused on formal features of the language and the situation. Digital video allows audiovisual texts to be treated in much the same way as written texts have been treated before. Spoken language can be slowed down and listened to multiple times, unveiling ever more layers of signs and meaning. Discrete features and structures can be highlighted so they can get noticed, processed, and learned. Before the advent of digital video, spoken language, especially for beginning learners, was simply too fast, too rich, and too complex for learners to notice more than some prominent syllables or words. Through digital videoÐand through other features of digital media such as easy communication around the worldÐteaching and learning conditions in FL classrooms may become similar to conditions that apply when living in the target culture. It is important that teachers have access to these new media so that they can integrate them in classroom activities. FL learning is as much a social process as it is a psychological one. Learners need to be part of a community of speakers and they have to be able to plunge into and participate in the world of native speakers. The digital classroom meets these requirement in a learner friendly way and it marks an important step towards making language acquisition possible in the classroom. REFERENCES
Bauer, W. (1997). Multimedia in der Schule? In L. Issing & P. Klimsa (Eds.), Information und Lernen mit Multimedia, 2nd edn. (pp. 377±399). Weinheim: Psychologie Verlags Union. Brown, G., Malmkjar, K., Pollitt, A., & Williams, J. (Eds.) (1994). Language and understanding. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Clark, H.H., & Clark, E. (1977). Psychology and language: An introduction to psycholinguistics. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. Ellis, N. (1996). Sequencing in SLA: Phonological memory, chunking, and points of order. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, 91±126. Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Keenan, J., & MacWhinney, B. (1987). Understanding the relationship between comprehension and production. In H. Dechert & M. Raupach (Eds.), Psycholinguistic models of production (pp. 149±155). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Mandl, H., Gruber, H., & Renkl, A. (1997). Situiertes Lernen in multimedialen Lernumgebungen. In L. Issing and P. Klimsa (Eds.), Information und Lernen mit Multimedia, 2nd edn. (pp. 167±178). Weinheim: Psychologie Verlags Union.
THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO
319
Pawley, A., & Frances, S. (1983). Two puzzles for linguistic theory: Native-like selection and native-like ¯uency. In J. Richards & R. Schmidt (Eds.), Language and communication (pp. 191±226). London: Longman. Plass, J. (1999). Lernpsychologische Grundlagen der Verwendung von Multimedia in der Fremdsprachenausbildung. Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen, 28, 14±31. È Ruschoff, B., & Dieter, W. (1999). Fremdsprachenlernen in der Wissensgesellschaft. Zum È Einsatz der neuen Technologien in Schule und Unterricht. Munchen: Hueber. Sharwood Smith, M. (1993). Input enhancement in instructed SLA: Theoretical bases. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15, 165±179. Schwerdtfeger, I. (1989). Sehen und Verstehen. Arbeit mit Filmen im Unterricht Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Berlin: Langenscheidt. Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass & C. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 235±256). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Tschirner, E. (1999). Kommunikation und Spracherwerb per Computer. Blick auf einige Forschungsergebnisse. Fremdsprache Deutsch, 21(2), 54±58. Young, D. (1995). Perspectives on language anxiety: An interview with Tracy Terrell. In P. Hashemipour, R. Maldonado & M. Van Naerssen (Eds.), Studies in language learning and Spanish linguistics. In Honor of Tracy D. Terrell (pp. 105±111). New York: McGraw-Hill.
References: Bauer, W. (1997). Multimedia in der Schule? In L. Issing & P. Klimsa (Eds.), Information und Lernen mit Multimedia, 2nd edn. (pp. 377±399). Weinheim: Psychologie Verlags Union. Brown, G., Malmkjar, K., Pollitt, A., & Williams, J. (Eds.) (1994). Language and understanding. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Clark, H.H., & Clark, E. (1977). Psychology and language: An introduction to psycholinguistics. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. Ellis, N. (1996). Sequencing in SLA: Phonological memory, chunking, and points of order. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, 91±126. Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Keenan, J., & MacWhinney, B. (1987). Understanding the relationship between comprehension and production. In H. Dechert & M. Raupach (Eds.), Psycholinguistic models of production (pp. 149±155). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Mandl, H., Gruber, H., & Renkl, A. (1997). Situiertes Lernen in multimedialen Lernumgebungen. In L. Issing and P. Klimsa (Eds.), Information und Lernen mit Multimedia, 2nd edn. (pp. 167±178). Weinheim: Psychologie Verlags Union. THE ROLE OF DIGITAL VIDEO 319 Pawley, A., & Frances, S. (1983). Two puzzles for linguistic theory: Native-like selection and native-like ¯uency. In J. Richards & R. Schmidt (Eds.), Language and communication (pp. 191±226). London: Longman. Plass, J. (1999). Lernpsychologische Grundlagen der Verwendung von Multimedia in der Fremdsprachenausbildung. Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen, 28, 14±31. È Ruschoff, B., & Dieter, W. (1999). Fremdsprachenlernen in der Wissensgesellschaft. Zum È Einsatz der neuen Technologien in Schule und Unterricht. Munchen: Hueber. Sharwood Smith, M. (1993). Input enhancement in instructed SLA: Theoretical bases. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15, 165±179. Schwerdtfeger, I. (1989). Sehen und Verstehen. Arbeit mit Filmen im Unterricht Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Berlin: Langenscheidt. Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass & C. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 235±256). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Tschirner, E. (1999). Kommunikation und Spracherwerb per Computer. Blick auf einige Forschungsergebnisse. Fremdsprache Deutsch, 21(2), 54±58. Young, D. (1995). Perspectives on language anxiety: An interview with Tracy Terrell. In P. Hashemipour, R. Maldonado & M. Van Naerssen (Eds.), Studies in language learning and Spanish linguistics. In Honor of Tracy D. Terrell (pp. 105±111). New York: McGraw-Hill.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
The video shows the actual performance of students at the five stages of oral English Language Acquisition. The stage one enactment of the Silent Period (can last 0 to 6 months (Syrja (2011 p. 35)) shows two male students. One student with proficiency answering the teacher’s questions about the other student and the other student is silent. The stage two Early Production Stage (can last six months to 1 year Syrja (2011p. 35))) enactment shows a girl student talking quietly with one or two word phases answering questions. The stage three enactment Speech Emergence (can last 1 to 3 years Syrja (2011 p.35)) shows a girl thinking out her questions and answers. She sentences has errors but she is doing a good performance. The stage four enactment Intermediate Language Proficiency (takes up to 3 to 5 years Syrja (2011 p. 35)) with a girl talking about her friends and what class she likes at school. The girl is making strong statements and long sentences and thinking about her answers. The stage five enactment Advanced Fluency Stage (Syrja (2011p. 36)) shows an adult man who is in the grade level classroom talking with fluency and discussing his additional support how he learned English for example watching television and having friends help him out to learn and having the vocabulary and a native speaker . These five stages enactments on Language Development depicts the language acquisition that is required to become a successful English Language Learner…
- 1094 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays -
Lemetyinen, H. (2012). Language Acquisition Theory | Simply Psychology. Simplypsychology.org. Retrieved 11 January 2015, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/language.html…
- 1984 Words
- 6 Pages
Best Essays -
Analysing the ease, rapidity and uniformity of a complex, rule governed native language acquisition on the basis of sometimes, a rather slender database, by mere infants led Dan Slobin to hypothesize language or specifically natural language is an inherent human trait and can be grouped with other tasks like walking, grasping objects and recognising faces. He further elaborated his theory, pinpointing to similarities in native language acquisition by children growing up in varied speech communities. Underpinning this proposal are four assumptions. Firstly, that the basis of acquiring an initial rule dominant sound system is embedded in human specie along with a variety of simple cognitive abilities. Secondly, that this ability encompasses children acquiring any natural human language. Thirdly, infants will successfully acquire their speech community’s sound utterances irrespective of the socio-cultural composition. Fourthly, this learning will automatically occur irrespective of varying cognitive abilities and individual preferred styles of interaction with surrounding stimuli. Unfortunately, these characteristics of ease and rapidity of first language acquisition (FLA) does not automatically transfer to second language learning (SLL). Learning a second language still resides in the cognitive domain but evolves into a complex cognitive skill, as several factors like subject’s existing developed cognitive organisational structures, socio- cultural constituents, psychological and affective composition and diversity in individual learning styles mingle and interplay with an altered input. This paper will examine four assumptions supporting the FLA hypothesis propagated by Slobin, followed by a critical analysis of each one’s availability or the lack of it, to the learners of second language, referring to relevant linguistic theories.…
- 1597 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Walqui, A. (2000).Contextual Factors in Second Language Acquisition. WestEd. San Francisco, CA. Retrieved December 20, 2010 from http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/digest_pdfs/0005-contextual-walqui.pdf.…
- 1999 Words
- 8 Pages
Powerful Essays -
IS LANGUAGE UNIQUE TO THE HUMAN SPECIES? Michelsen, Axel. Lyd og liv. Copenhagen: P. Haase & Sons Forlag, 1977. Nathan, Peter. The Nervous System. 2nd ed. (1st ed. 1969). UK: Oxford University Press, 1982. Parker, Gary E. Skabelse og videnskab. Translated by B.Vogel and H.Daugaard. Copenhagen: Lohses Forlag,1995. US: Master Books, 1987. Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct. US: William Morrow and Company, Inc. and UK: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1994. The Penguin Group, 1995. Pinker, Steven. How The Mind Works. US: W.W. Norton, 1997. UK: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1998. Smith, F. and Miller, G.A. eds. The Genesis of Language - A Psycholinguistic Approach. 3rd ed. (1st ed. 1966). Cambridge Massachusetts and London: The MIT Press, 1968. Trask, R.L. Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics. London and New York: Routledge, 1999. Wardhaugh, Ronald. Investigating Language, Central Problems in Linguistics. UK Oxford and US Cambridge: Blackwell, 1993.…
- 5857 Words
- 24 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Duquette, L., & Painchaud, G. (1996). A comparison of vocabulary acquisition in audio and video contexts. The…
- 4063 Words
- 17 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Long (1983), Varonis and Gass (1985), and others have suggested that it is not input per se that is important to second language acquisition but input which the learners get in interaction where meaning is negotiated. When meaning is negotiated the learner not only has to delivery the meaning but also tries to convey it precisely, coherently, and appropriately. In NS-NNS (native speaker-nonnative speaker) interaction usually the native speaker has to simplify, paraphrase the linguistic input, thereby making the input more…
- 4359 Words
- 18 Pages
Better Essays -
2005, Working Paper January. TECHNOLOGY AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING: PROMISES AND PROBLEMS (n.d.): n. pag. Web.…
- 509 Words
- 3 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
[21] Gass, S. & Madden, C. (1985). Input in Second Language Acquisition. Rowley: Mass.: Newbury House.1985.…
- 10070 Words
- 41 Pages
Better Essays -
Hence, there is still a need for English language proficiency for communication purposes either in oral or written to be learnt and mastered accordingly although the technology such as email, skype, telegram and many more has come to rescue. This matter is significant to ensure that the information is being correctly transmitted by the sender to the receiver in which Motteram (2013) clarified that the technology offers adequate strategies for language development and content-specific understanding (as cited in Butler-Pascoe, 2009) where it acts as a platform to practice the language learnt effectively.…
- 1837 Words
- 8 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Nowadays, the first video (or just moving pictures) celebrates its 117th birthday. Do you remember the first movie by Lumière brothers? Which one shocked and impressed the unprepared audience? “The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station”…
- 491 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
A my pencil What the boy hit? Nobody don’t like me 5 Theories of language acquisition Innateness hypothesis Children are equipped with an innate template for language (Language Acquisition Device and Universal Grammar)…
- 1163 Words
- 12 Pages
Good Essays -
The new curriculum ignored pragmatics, phonology, and real syntax. In the new curriculum, communication with world based on our culture means ignoring pragmatics in western culture. However, knowledge of vocabulary cannot be restricted to its meaning. Learners need to know the correct pronunciation, parts of speech, and the proper contexts to use vocabularies.…
- 1450 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Theories of second-language acquisition are various theories and hypotheses in the field of second-language acquisition about how people learn a second language. Research in second-language acquisition is closely related to several disciplines including linguistics, sociolinguistics, psychology, neuroscience, and education, and consequently most theories of second-language acquisition can be identified as having roots in one of them. Each of these theories can be thought of as shedding light on one part of the language learning process; however, no one overarching theory of second-language acquisition has yet been widely accepted by researchers.…
- 1801 Words
- 8 Pages
Better Essays -
Simon Mason (June 2002), Video conferencing as a tool for language learning, published on Masonsan.com 2001-2010…
- 2631 Words
- 11 Pages
Best Essays