<h3>IPods, iBook laptops help students
learn critical languages</h3><h3>by Cindy Weiss - April 17, 2006
</h3>
http://www.advance.uconn.edu/2006/060417/06041711.htm<br /><br />
Michael Crutchfield, a senior majoring in political science and
sociology, decided this year to add Mandarin Chinese to his course load
so he can teach English in China after graduation. <div class="left">
<p>
His tools include a textbook, web-based resources, and an iPod.
</p>
<table width="210" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"
align="left" style="padding-right: 15px; padding-bottom: 10px;">
<tbody><tr>
<td bgcolor="#c6cdd3"
class="photo_border_left"> <img width="280" height="210" alt="Maxwell
Gigle, a sophomore majoring in political science and international
relations, uses a podcast and a computer learning program as part of
his study of the Arabic language."
src="cid:2thlsj9gl8hs@www.email.arizona.edu"
/> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" class="captionpad">
Maxwell Gigle, a sophomore majoring in political science and
international relations, uses a podcast and a computer learning program
as part of his study of the Arabic language.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="captionpad_credit">Photo by
Jordan Bender </td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>
When youre trying to learn a language, you need as many resources as
you can get, says Crutchfield.
The iPod makes it easier. </p>
<p>
Starting this semester, students studying Chinese and Arabic have been
issued iPods those ubiquitous portable players to allow them more
frequent exposure to the language they are trying to learn. </p>
<p> The iPods are loaded with language files that
reinforce and expand what the students learn in weekly instruction with
a native-speaking conversation partner. </p>
<p>
It frees them up physically to listen more often, says Barbara
Lindsey, director of the Multimedia Language Center in the Department
of Modern and Classical Languages. </p>
<p> Arabic and Chinese are
considered level 4 languages: they take a native English speaker
three to four times longer to learn than, say, French or Spanish. </p>
<p>
Besides listening, the students use iTalk, an iPod plug-in voice
recorder.
</p>
<p>
They record conversations with other Arabic or Chinese language
students at Tufts or the University of Pittsburgh schools that have
language learning partnerships with UConn and later with native
speakers around UConn. </p>
<p>
We want them to realize that Arabic is spoken in many parts of the
world, including the United States, says Lindsey.
</p>
<p>
The students self-instruction is bolstered by resources that include
two Apple computer labs in the Arjona Building, wireless iBook laptops,
digital cameras, web-based language programs, and iChat instant
messaging. </p>
<p> They must also record and publish their own
podcast an Internet-based digital broadcast to demonstrate their
language proficiency. </p>
<p>
The goal is to get up to speed quickly in languages that traditionally
have not been part of a college curriculum.
</p>
</div>
<div class="right">
<p> The technological trappings have been made possible by a $475,000
grant from DARPA, the research and development arm of the Department of
Defense, which is trying to promote learning the languages of areas
where the U.S. has strategic interests. </p>
<p>
Maxwell Gigle, a sophomore majoring in political science and
international relations, is in his second semester of Arabic.
</p>
<p> DVDs and a laptop computer issued during the course allow him to
see the facial expressions of Arabic-speakers and to pick up their hand
movements, which are part of the Arabic communication culture, he says.
The iPod provides audio practice, allowing him to focus on distinctions
in pronunciation.
</p>
<p>
In Arabic, the emphasis is on where in the throat you pronounce the
words, he says.
</p>
<p> Manuela Wagner, director of the Critical Languages Program, says
critical languages are those that have not been taught as full-blown,
academic programs in which a student can major.
</p>
<p> Students currently can take Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Portuguese, or
Russian, but instruction is available only for four semesters.
</p>
<p>
Contact hours with a teacher called a conversation partner are
limited, so self-instruction is essential.
</p>
<p>
When at least four students request a particular language, it can be
added to the program, says Wagner.
</p>
<p>
In the past, the choices have included French Creole, Gaelic,
Vietnamese, and Wolof, an African language.
</p>
<p>
So far, the semester-long loans of iPods and laptops are only for
students of Arabic and Chinese, the DARPA-promoted languages.
</p>
<p> More traditional language courses such as Spanish are using
podcasts, which can be accessed via computer or downloaded to an MP3
player or an iPod.
</p>
<p> The use of technology in critical languages may be increasing class
retention rates, says Lindsey. Arabic and Chinese are often dropped
after the first semester, but this year, 12 students out of 15 who
began Arabic in the fall continued for the second semester.
Those who did not continue had scheduling conflicts or illness.
</p>
<p> Before the new technology was introduced in the critical languages
program, the curriculum was revised, with input from student surveys
and interviews with instructors and outside examiners.
</p>
<p> The high-tech approach that resulted will allow instructors to hear
students progress with the language more easily and remediate problems
during the semester, Lindsey says.
</p>
<p>
Our main focus was to make students autonomous, she adds, but also
lifelong learners.
</p>
</div>