CD-ROM in language teaching

By Pete Sharma

1. CD-ROM: where are we now?

CD-ROMs for language teaching have been available for a number of years now, and although many teachers are comfortable integrating CD-ROM into their courses, others work in schools which are just beginning to offer a multimedia option.

1.1 Types of disc

There is a wide choice of discs available. I work in the Business English field, where although there are some good BE discs many General English discs such as The Grammar ROM (Longman) prove popular with our students. Another common choice is a multimedia encyclopaedia such as Microsoft’s Encarta, which can be exploited in project work. Rather like choosing a course book, "one man’s disc is another man’s poison".

Reference works such as the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary on CD-ROM (OUP) are also excellent additions to a school’s CD-ROM library. They contain a vast amount of data. Fast search engines mean that teachers can exploit them as part of the students’ course without feeling a "slave" to the material, a criticism which can be levelled against some of the more "complete" courses around.

1.2 Location

There are several common locations suitable for the CD-ROM machine. These include a self access centre, or a multimedia room. Location affects how the software is used. How easy is it to integrate CD-ROM into a classroom activity in the centre where you work? Certainly, research tasks and project work can be very motivating for learners. However, teachers who do integrate CD-ROM into classroom teaching need to be aware that many activities on discs were devised with self study in mind.

1.3 Integrating CD-ROM into language teaching

There are many uses of multimedia in language teaching. Some of the commonest are:

1. as part of a "Learning to learn" session, training students in useful learning strategies
2. as an alternative source of materials for project work or classroom tasks
3. as a means of enriching self study
4. as an extra option for post-course study

In some discs, the student can often open a "Notepad" window, similar to that in word processing packages, allowing him or her to take notes, write creatively, save his / her work as a text file or even e-mail it to the teacher. Many CD-ROM discs have exciting new features.

2. Current trends

One interesting development is the convergence of CD-ROM and Internet technologies. The word "hybrid" is often used to describe a disc that allows access to the World Wide Web. For example, a student or teacher working with Microsoft’s Encarta or another interactive encyclopaedia can click on a hyperlink; providing the computer is connected to the Internet, the web-site can be accessed directly from the CD-ROM. In some ways, the Internet is an extension of the encyclopaedia.

There are some fascinating examples of this link. In Reward (MacMillan Heinemann), students can use the "Chat forum" to communicate with other users in different locations. This is similar to the idea behind e-mail pals. The language in the messages may be far from accurate and not very fluent, but clearly shows the learners’ wish to communicate.

There is also a regular News magazine service, which allows students to print copies on topical subjects. The language is appropriate to the learners’ level. Such developments, combining aspects of using the CD-ROM and being on-line, are exciting and a very good way to increase students’ motivation for learning.

2.2 Customising software

Teachers can now customise multimedia materials more readily. By following authoring instructions on the disc, teachers can create tailored exercises for individual students or groups by importing any combination of text, graphics, audio file and even video clips.

One disc which is worth investigating is MindGame (Clarity Language Consultants). The game is based on the simple principle of matching items, for instance, opposites. There is an authoring package built into the disc, so that the teacher can choose which items to match. One idea would be to ask learners to match up the two sides of strong collocations; or maybe to create a translation exercise for learners, if you work in a monolingual environment.

Part of the Creative Writing Disc (CUP) allows teachers to create their own presentations. They can import digital photographs to illustrate their own texts. Combining text, video clips and audio clips recorded by the teacher is relatively straightforward with a disc such as the updated version of Author Plus (Clarity Language Consultants). Although it takes time, the effect of personalising multimedia to a particular group can be worthwhile.

2.3 Voice recognition

There are various levels and types of voice recognition. In one language learning programme, the learner selects one of three answers; the computer "recognises" the correct utterance. In another, the student can "take part" in a role play as a character, in which case the route through the simulation changes depending on the choices made.

Nevertheless, it is important to note that voice recognition still operates at a fairly basic level. Do not confuse the roles of the teacher and the technology by expecting to "have a conversation with a computer", as some recent marketing hype urges you to do!

2.4 DVD

DVD stands for Digital versatile disc, or Digital video disc, and most readers will instantly recognise it as the new medium for watching films at home, often with a choice of languages available on the soundtrack. There are implications here for language learning, but I am not sure whether electronic publishers will go down this path, even though in many ways DVD is the natural successor to CD-ROM. It is possible to store much more information on a DVD and certainly new encyclopaedias are appearing in this format.

2.5 Other developments

There are two welcome trends: there seem to be more discs coming out to support students taking examinations, such as Cambridge BEC and FCE.

Also, interactive dictionaries are plummeting in cost, and in some cases are now provided in the back of the paper-based dictionary.

3. And so to the future.....

It is difficult to predict what will happen in the future. While parts of the globe are now using faster telephone lines to carry more and more information, other areas do not have the same level and volume of technology and have relatively few computers connected to the Internet available for language learning. However, one can be sure that there will be improvements in video quality and more research into voice recognition in the area of CD-ROM.

We can also be sure that technology will continue to develop and enable the teacher to enhance language teaching courses.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Pete Sharma works as a teacher and teacher trainer for Linguarama International. He is an ex-officio member of the IATEFL BESIG committee (Business English Special Interest Group) and reviews CD-ROM software for the BESIG Newsletter and web-site. He is the author of CD-ROM: A Teacher’s Handbook (Summertown Publishing 1998).

If you would like to raise any issues concerning CD-ROM, or ask any related questions, please contact him on petsharma@linguarama.com .