Computers as expensive electronic workbooks

[Susan Penfield]

All,
I certainly agree with Rudy's comments that the best way learn a language
(especially because all the culture is also encoded) is through
grandpartents, when available. Short of that though, and for the languages
I'm working with which are down to just a few speakers, technology does at
least offer an attempt to teach (I'll also agree with Mia and Rudy -- we
really don't know how much is being learned) the language.  AND, for kids
who may be spending lots of time with other learning games, why not have one
in the native language?  I'll invite you to check out the Learning Games
Initiative site a the  U of A at http://www.mesmernet.org/lgi/

I am reminded by this discussion just how new our field of Indigenous
Languages and Technology ( ILAT !!) still is and how much we all need to
keep exploring the potential. My guess is that people will show a preference
and response to learning much like with other learning styles -- tecnology
will be a great path to learning for some; not so good for others. But, as
noted, the data is still sparse.

Best,
Susan

On 3/11/06, Rudy Troike <rtroike at email.arizona.edu> wrote:
>
> Re Mia's comments, it has been my experience that most of the highly
> touted
> work in "CALL" (Computer-Assisted/Aided Language Learning: a misnomer,
> since
> we don't know how much learning occurs -- it should be Teaching, "CALT",
> but
> it doesn't make as cute an acronym) is really the old paper workbook
> trans-
> ferred to a computer costing a thousand dollars, and the software costing
> several hundreds. I once challenged the editor of a CALL newsletter to
> give
> me an example of a program that was not like this, and out of scores or
> even hundreds of programs, she could cite only a few. Things have improved
> lately, and the military are using virtual reality software to teach
> language,
> but this software is not publicly available, or even viewable. Some of it
> is outstandingly sophisticated, and is based in part on computer games
> technology, which Susan Penfield is also working on with a faculty member
> in
> the English Dept. here at the University of Arizona. I saw a bit of a
> report
> on CBS the other night that said a national study was questioning how much
> computer programs were in fact improving students' learning. Computer
> programs
> are not panaceas, and for child language learning, will never replace the
> personal interaction with grandparents in the Native language. The most
> effective -- and least expensive -- way to preserve a language is to have
> children spend time living with grandparents who are fluent in the
> language.
>
>       I've recently begun experimenting with using Power Point to
> illustrate
> stages in linguistic change, and I think that it will be effective. I'm
> trying to show how the famous "Great Vowel Shift" in English operated
> (where-
> by words such as "ride", originally with the vowel /iy/ [the vowel of
> present
> day "he"] came to be pronounced as /ay/, as it is now. If this works all
> right, I'll try it to illustrate a shift in language usage spreading
> geograhically and between age groups. In any event, PowerPoint offers
> quite a bit of flexibility that can be exploited.
>
>       Rudy
>



--
Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D.

Department of English
Affiliate faculty: Department of Linguistics
and the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Program
American Indian Language Development Institute
Phone for messages: (520) 621-1836
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