Students' Preparedness and Training for CALL

Catherine M. Barrette
Wayne State University

Abstract:

Planning for the integration of computers in language classrooms is complex, requiring information from many sources, yet some basic information has been underrepresented in the professional literature. The state of students' computer literacy (CL) and their accompanying training needs, for example, are two aspects that are infrequently investigated. Some studies do discuss these issues, but few report the time allocated to training for computerized tasks or the gains made in CL. While research on the effectiveness of computers for language learning is growing, little of it indicates the practicality of this tool for teachers who need to train their students in CL before the computer can become a tool for them. However, it is exactly this type of practical information that complements effectiveness research for teachers who need to prepare appropriate tasks and determine whether they have the instructional time to offer training to students. The present study provides data on the CL of university-level Spanish students with respect to word processing, CD-ROMs, e-mail, and the World Wide Web. The training method used integrated technical training into activities focused on learning language and culture and resulted in gains in students' CL for a small investment of class time.


INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW

As teachers learn more about computers and their applications in the language classroom, many contemplate integrating technology into their curriculum. The implementation of technology, however, requires instructors to make decisions beyond those made for a traditional curriculum.


Among the technological issues faculty must address are the hardware and software options available, the curricular needs that computers might meet, the support available to both instructors and students, and the level of computer literacy necessary to make use of the selected technology. A substantial body of research exists which provides guidance to teachers and technology planners regarding the effectiveness of certain applications and activities, the types of materials and equipment available and actually used in classrooms, financial costs of computers and support services, user characteristics, standards for faculty's technological literacy, and the varieties of instructional tasks which utilize computers. In contrast, scant information is available which details the amount of time and types of training needed to prepare students to take advantage of the technological opportunities presented to them. Such training is nonetheless a central concern in the successful use of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) tasks. Thus, computer literacy and training become part of the foreign language teacher's domain.

But what exactly is computer literacy (CL)? Current efforts to describe CL have arisen as part of a widespread drive to set goals for teacher training programs and to create a competitive technological populace. The US Department of Education (1996) published a report on the status of technological literacy, defining it as "computer skills and the ability to use computers and other technology to improve learning, productivity, and performance." The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) (1999) presents standards for instructional technology which describe three major divisions of CL: basic operations and concepts, personal and professional use, and applications in instruction. Basic operations and concepts include running software, managing and manipulating data, publishing results, evaluating the technology, and troubleshooting. Personal and professional use consist of productivity tools, telecommunications, assistive devices for problem solving, collaboration, research, and lifelong learning. The division of instructional applications incorporates the ability to appropriately integrate, create, and evaluate computer activities in instruction according to students' characteristics and needs.

ISTE focuses on CL in terms of the needs of teachers, yet students must also possess some of these same proficiencies in order to complete the tasks assigned by their teachers. Depending upon the CALL task, students will most likely need (within the ISTE paradigm) to control aspects of basic operations and concepts and of personal and professional use. For example, current uses of technology in a language class might require students to run word processing software, research information on-line, prepare a presentation, or participate in a collaborative project by means of a discussion forum.

Hammond (1994) confirms the importance to both teaching and research of students' preparedness for using instructional technology in ananalysis of two studies about the impact of instructional technology on children's learning. Neither study in his analysis revealed significant gains in learning, but Hammond argued that the outcomes were confounded by students' limited CL since teachers had to spend a substantial amount of time at the beginning of the study teaching technical skills, thereby reducing the time spent on the target content and biasing the results of the studies. Hammond concludes that "Both [studies] lead to the broadly similar conclusion that developments in IT [Instructional Technology] have to take account of teachers' and pupils' knowledge and understanding of the software … ."

Despite Hammond's concrete example of the importance of assessing CL prior to integrating IT in teaching or research, few details have been published which focus on students' preparedness to take advantage of instructional technology (i.e., their CL). The US Department of Education (1996) provides little assistance in making a realistic assessment of what can be expected. That report claims only that "Students make minimal use of new technologies for learning, typically employing them for only a few minutes a day." Some teachers simply ignore the issue and take an optimistic approach, expecting students to be more computer literate than they are themselves (Green, 1997).

In a rare, detailed report, Coley, Cradler & Engel (1997) analyzed data on CL for more than one million college-bound high school seniors. They found that 72% of the respondents had experience in using word processing software, 51% had taken a CL course, up to 44% had used computers for their content courses (e.g., English, mathematics, natural science, and social science), and 26% for data processing. Only 9% reported no experience with computers. While this information is more concrete than that provided by the US Department of Education's report, it does not specify the content of the CL course and hence does not adequately inform language teachers about many of the skills which relate to CALL. These findings, therefore, reinforce the importance for teachers to assess students' CL prior to undertaking computer-based tasks in order to provide training when it is needed. Lee (1997) carried out such an assessment in her study of teaching culture with Internet tools. All participants reported some experience with computers, 56% with e-mail, and 24% with the Internet. As a result of subjects' responses, Lee incorporated three hours of CL training during class time.

A comparison between Lee's working definition of CL and those of ISTE and the US Department of Education reveals the situation-dependent nature of technological proficiency. The skills necessary for successful computer use as a teacher may not be essential to a student; similarly, experience in, say, mathematics applications may or may not be helpful in foreign language activities. Teachers in each field must therefore determine the skills needed for their curriculum, define CL based on that information, and assess students' preparedness accordingly.

For the purposes of the present study, CL is defined as the ability to create, modify, and save documents in a word processor, utilize the navigational functions of a browser, send and receive e-mail messages, and access information from CD-ROMs.

Defining computer literacy is not the only issue, however. Language faculty must also determine whether CL should rightly be their concern. Pucel (1995) raises this question from a technology educator's perspective: "As the need for technology education as part of the education of all students is becoming accepted, there is still confusion over which school programs should deliver it." Bush (1997) asserts that teachers in all fields (including foreign languages) must integrate technology if students are to be competent in their use. He recounts his experience with students who had taken a CL course but were unable to copy a file for an assignment in his class. As in Bush's case, many teachers include CALL activities in the belief that they aid language acquisition only to discover that students need greater computer proficiency than they really possess in order to reap the benefits of the activities. So while faculty may be philosophically predisposed toward CALL, they must first take into account students' CL and training needs. Faculty must assess whether the cost/value ratio works in students' favor before deciding to integrate CALL into their curriculum. In order to do so, they must have better information about the implicit costs of CALL (e.g., training time) to complement the more widely available research on effectiveness that helps teachers to assess the value of their investment in technology.

A sample of recent studies demonstrates two approaches to the cost issue as it relates to CL training. In some, the researchers chose to train their participants without assessing CL; others elected first to assess their subjects' need for training and plan accordingly. For example, Adair-Hauck, Willingham-McLain, and Youngs (2000), Beauvois (1997), Chávez (1997), and Davis and Lyman-Hager (1997) chose not to assess students' CL but, rather, proceeded to ensure it by training all subjects in their studies in the use of the appropriate technologies. Chávez's training took place during one class period; neither Adair-Hauck, et al., Beauvois, nor Davis and Lyman-Hager specified a duration, but indications suggest that training was quite short. Lee (1997), as mentioned earlier, based her training program on an assessment of her subjects' CL, as did Johnson & Brine (2000) who determined by means of a questionnaire that students needed keyboarding lessons (which they subsequently included in the first six weeks of their curriculum).

However, unlike Johnson & Brine (2000), Lee (1997), and Chávez (1997), who specified the type and length of computer training given to their subjects, most researchers report very little with regard to participants' experience with computers since it is not the focus of their investigations.

Nor do they generally provide details about the amount of time required for subjects to learn how to use the technology in question or for the training provided since that information is typically peripheral to the goals of their studies. Nonetheless, these two pieces of information are necessary for teachers to make accurate plans to integrate technology.

A survey of recent articles in the CALICO Journal and Foreign Language Annals in which subjects exerted primary and independent control of a computer for language learning demonstrates the widespread absence or vagueness of this type of information. Burston (1998), Collentine (1998), Guillory (1998), Hong (1997), Inoue (1998), Lee (1998), Nagata (1997), Nutta (1998), Yang (1998), and Yang and Akahori (1998) provided no information about participants' CL or about training offered prior to subjects' use of the technologies studied. Yoshii & Milne (1998) gave their participants a training document to review before using their program for learning English articles but did not indicate the amount of time required for users to learn to manipulate the program. Grace (1998) reported for her study using CD-ROMs that all of her subjects had general experience in using computers; she did not clarify whether they were all familiar with CD-ROMs, however. Van Handle & Corl (1998) reported showing students how to send private e-mail messages but gave no further details of training time or the number of students requiring this assistance. Coniam (1998) studied the accuracy of a continuous speech recognition program and reported a training process of 60 to 90 minutes; the training was not for the speaker to adjust to the technology but, rather, for the program to learn to recognize the user's speech. Of the 153 respondents to Fidelman's (1998) survey about the use of web-based activities, only nine respondents reported spending time training students to use the Web. The amount of time dedicated to training was not requested in the survey. Poling (1994) described his successful utilization of e-mail for communicating with his students but spent no class time in training students to use e-mail procedures. Instead, he provided an instruction sheet and required that students send him a message to demonstrate that they learned how to use the system. It is clear that the training for CL was not the purpose of any of these valuable studies; nonetheless, greater detail on this topic may aid readers who are interested in implementing similar tasks in their own classes.

In summary, while students and research subjects are clearly learning to use the specific technologies, the details of their training are generally absent from reports. Cases in which training procedures are presented usually omit the amount of time needed to complete the training. Information on these details can indeed help teachers and researchers better plan for CALL. The study described in the next sections addresses both issues raised here: students' computer literacy and training.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The present study was undertaken to broaden current knowledge about students' CL and the need for and cost of training them. The project investigates the preparedness of 35 Spanish students in university-level courses to engage in CALL activities, and the changes in their CL over one semester with respect to the use of word processing, e-mail, CD-ROMs and the Web. The questions underlying these issues are: (a) At the outset of the semester, which of the target applications do participants report knowing how to use? (b) At the end of the semester, which of the applications do participants report knowing how to use? (c) How much class time is spent on training to achieve a gain in students' CL? and (d) How did students perceive or assess the CALL activities?

INSTRUMENTS

Three sources of data provided information relevant to the stated research questions: (a) an initial questionnaire on computer literacy, (b) records of students' use of computers for language learning, and (c) a second questionnaire on computer literacy. The initial CL questionnaire elicited students' perceptions of their own preparedness for CALL at the beginning of the semester. Participants completed this questionnaire prior to undertaking any computer activities for their Spanish class. During the subsequent 12 weeks, learners were required to utilize a computer for various assignments, some of which integrated technical training into the assigned language task. Participation in and completion of these activities was recorded and graded by the teachers (i.e., the researcher and a colleague). Finally, participants responded to a second CL questionnaire designed to reveal perceived changes in their level of computer skills and to obtain their evaluations of the technologically enhanced activities used during the semester. Each of these three data sources is described in detail below.

Questionnaire and Activity Development

In the semester prior to this study, the researcher developed and piloted two questionnaires with a group of 10 students. Based on their comments, two items were changed on both questionnaires to a checklist format. On the second questionnaire, one question was added to elicit better information about the perceived value of the computer activities, and a reminder of the activities assigned on the computer was incorporated into the wording of another question. The revised questionnaires were then used for the present study. (See questionnaires in Appendices A and B.)

The two teachers met for a total of seven hours during the summer before the study to discuss and finalize the activities to be used with participants. In addition, both located on-line materials pertaining to the course curricula for subsequent use in the student assignments. Some of these activities integrated CL training into a language or culture task, while others focused solely on language and culture. (See the sample of a language, culture, and CL training combination in Appendix C.) The selection of activities took into account the facilities available in the language lab which consisted of sixty Macintosh LCII computers linked to a Web server via local talk. The limitations of this outdated system restricted the type and frequency of activities scheduled. The software in the lab that students learned to use during the present study included Netscape Navigator 2.0, Microsoft Word 5.1, and Eudora Light 3.0.

METHOD

Initial Computer Literacy: Pretraining Questionnaire

In the first full week of the semester, the two instructors provided students with both oral and written explanations of the project. Those who were willing to give permission for their questionnaire responses and class grades to be used for this study then signed an informed consent form. No compensation was offered to students for their participation since their class activities were not altered by their participation.

This first questionnaire contained 34 items; four of the responses were open-ended, while the remainder were forced-choice selections. The questions sought information about familiarity with Macintosh and PC platforms, familiarity and comfort with nine computer uses and four pieces of software, frequency of and purposes for computer use, attitudes toward computers, and previous experience with computers in an instructional setting. All students (both participants and nonparticipants) were asked to complete the pretraining questionnaire for the purposes of deciding between in-class and individual training for the various technologies to be employed during the semester. Nonparticipants' questionnaire data were separated and omitted from this report.

Computer Use: Training

Training in the various applications was scheduled based on the results of the initial questionnaire and in keeping with the curricular goals of each class. Students' responses served to establish the list of computer
skills which students needed to acquire; CL instruction was then planned and integrated within a language or culture activity, thereby minimizing the amount of time spent focused on technical issues. Training for word processing took place individually with the instructors due to the limited number of students unfamiliar with a word processing program. The use of e-mail by students was a new addition to the campus during the semester of this study, and students were encouraged to attend a campus workshop to learn to use it. Those few students unable to attend the workshop met individually with the instructors and chose to learn either Netscape Navigator's mail feature or Eudora. This combined approach to e-mail training obviated the need for in-class instruction.

Guidance in the use of Netscape Navigator as a browser took place during a single class period in the university's language laboratory. Students received a step-by-step instruction sheet in English for a treasure hunt which guided them through basic navigation and searching in order to find various language learning resources and cultural information (see Appendix C). Students completed this activity during one 55 minute class period; the instructor and a lab assistant were in attendance to resolve any problems. For homework, students were to locate and record the URLs of three web sites in Spanish which they found interesting. They later made these URLs into links on their personal homepages.

After learning to use Netscape for browsing, a second training session served to initiate students' development of a personal homepage. Two days in advance, students received a copy of their instructor's homepage which contained a simple greeting, an introduction, some descriptive information, three links to interesting web sites, and a link to send e-mail to the teacher. For homework, learners drafted parallel information about themselves in Spanish, using the three web sites from their earlier homework in place of the links on the instructors' models. During class, students received a diskette with a text file containing the HTML version of the teacher's sample homepage. Accompanying the disk was a printout of the same document. The hard copy contained highlighting to draw students' attention to the information displayed on the homepage and to separate that information from the HTML tags. In addition, students received directions for including characters with diacritic marks. The teachers orally compared the HTML text file with the browser display, and instructed students to work together to replace the highlighted information in the text file with their own prepared information and to edit each other's work for linguistic accuracy. The instructors again facilitated the process with individual assistance and referred hardware problems to the lab attendant. The initial comparison of the browser display and the text file took 20 minutes of class time; students spent the remaining 35 minutes working to create their own homepages.

After 30 minutes, students were instructed to save their progress and to open Netscape in order to view the results of their work as it would be displayed in the browser. The teachers gave detailed oral instructions to guide students to open their files within the browser and then used the remainder of the class period to allow students to share their pages with their classmates. For homework, students had one week to complete the basic homepage and add any further information and design features they desired. At the end of that week, students turned their disks in to the instructor, who put the files on the language lab's Web server. Students were encouraged to revise their pages throughout the semester and to use their classmates' e-mail addresses to communicate with each other. At the end of the semester, homepages were graded for content, linguistic accuracy, and creativity.

Once students had gained experience in browsing the Web and using e-mail, the teachers reserved a class period in the language lab for the purpose of introducing students to Spanish language chat. The instructors provided a preselected list of chat rooms appropriate for student participation and directed students to go to the log-in page and follow the instructions. The chats were chosen for their inoffensive content, ease of use, population, and clarity of instructions. Learners worked in groups of two or three to interpret the instructions, enter a room, read the active conversation, and introduce themselves into the conversation. They received a participation grade for their ability to do so. One member of each group took notes of new words and phrases encountered in their conversations which they wanted to learn. The instructors provided linguistic and technical support during the activity. No overt training was provided since part of the activity involved comprehension of the instructions given on line for entry into each chat room. All groups were able to enter a room and submit a message within 10 minutes of finding the site. Further participation for the Spanish 201 students was limited by technical difficulties. Since the class met during the noon hour, the load on the lab's network was heavy and slowed the exchanges to the point where students could only read the dialogs without sending messages of their own. The Spanish 102 students did not encounter this problem at their later meeting hour.

In all, activities used for training students in the use of computers accounted for less than 90 minutes of class time. In addition, that time was predominantly focused on language learning tasks. Development of CL was integrated into the language activities in order to minimize the amount of time lost from language and culture acquisition.

Computer Use: Student Assignments

The two teachers jointly chose several CALL activities, including those that integrated CL training. In place of certain textbook-based assignments and in-class activities, students participated in computer-based tasks that fulfilled the same purpose. A class newspaper, chat rooms, personal homepages and e-mail respectively replaced thematic compositions, scripted dialogues, some partner activities, and some face-to-face meetings between students and teachers. For example, in place of a traditional reading/writing task, the Spanish 201 students researched a topic of personal interest on the Web in the target language and wrote a news article in Spanish on that theme for the on-line class newspaper. They completed three research tasks of this type throughout the remainder of the semester at approximately three week intervals. A handout given to students before beginning the first iteration specified the length, format, and required elements of the final product and included grading criteria. Their articles had to relate to the Hispanic world; beyond this restriction, topics were unconstrained. The assignment required a minimum of three on-line references for each article. Students submitted a draft of each article to their teacher either on diskette or via e-mail and made revisions based on their instructor's feedback. They had the option of turning in either a standard word processing document or an HTML file. The researcher's student assistant compiled the submitted revisions, added HTML tags when necessary, and published the submissions as an on-line newspaper, providing links between the bylines and the students' personal homepages. The teachers then invited students to view each edition of the class newspaper on line. Research for the first article began during class time and was combined with training in the use of Netscape Navigator. (See the sample activity in Appendix C.)

On other occasions, students worked in small groups during class time to participate in chat rooms rather than writing dialogues or interviewing each other. The goals of their participation varied by level and day. For all occasions, exposure to and comprehension of informal Spanish was one of the purposes. In one Spanish 102 assignment, an additional goal was to practice question formation and vocabulary for nationalities and origins. In a second assignment, the intent was to practice past tense narration. For the Spanish 201 students, one of the additional objectives was to learn about places of interest to travelers.

Personal homepages initially took the place of rapport-building partner activities and later served as a mini-portfolio of students' on-line work once links were established between the homepages and the students' news articles. Students introduced themselves to their classmates through their homepages by presenting some limited information about themselves such as interests, area of study, and future plans. They gradually added information and links to sites of interest as the semester progressed.

As for e-mail, the Spanish 102 students sent messages to each other during class time as part of a writing activity on two occasions. The Spanish 201 students did not exchange e-mails in class. Students from both
levels did, however, have the option of communicating with their instructors via e-mail rather than in person to ask questions, submit homework, or discuss the class.

Although initial plans called for the use of CD-ROMs, hardware failure made this activity impossible. Information from the CL questionnaires pertaining to this technology is included, however, for the sake of comparison with the changes in CL for other computer uses that were overtly employed.

The computer activities described here accounted for six of the graded activities in Spanish 102 and Spanish 201. The Spanish 102 students' tasks included two compositions, a personal homepage, participation in chat rooms, student-to-student e-mail dialogs on two occasions, and one on-line research activity during class time. The Spanish 201 students completed three news articles, in-class chatting and on-line research once each, and a personal homepage. Other assignments and in-class activities used more traditional means of delivery including teachers' presentations, overhead transparencies, textbook-based materials and ancillaries, paper-and-pencil handouts and worksheets, oral/aural tasks, videotape presentations, and audio recordings.

Students' completion of the CALL tasks is evidenced in the grades assigned for these activities by the two teachers. Therefore, the records of students' grades provide an indicator of changes in their CL as influenced by their efforts and thereby complement students' self-report of participation in the second CL questionnaire.

Final Computer Literacy: End of Semester Questionnaire

In the final week of classes, all students completed the second CL questionnaire. The 41 items elicited responses from students on their perceived CL (plus further information on whether the technologies were learned in Spanish class or elsewhere), students' participation in class computer activities, their opinions of the usefulness of the assigned tasks for learning Spanish and computer skills, and ways to improve the activities or the support provided to students. Six of these responses were open-ended, while the others were in a forced-choice format. Only the responses from those students who had given permission for their inclusion in the study became part of the data set reported in this article.

RESULTS

Initial Computer Literacy: Pretraining Questionnaire

Questionnaire responses revealed that, at the outset of this study, all participants had previous computer experience. Thirteen of the 35 respondents had not used a Macintosh computer, indicating a need for an introduction to the basic functions of a Macintosh since PCs were not available in the language lab where class activities would take place.

Table 1 lists the nine target computer uses and summarizes the results of the pre-training questionnaire items directed towards students' comfort with their use.

Table 1

Students' Initial Computer Literacy (N = 35)

0x01 graphic

The majority of students reported feeling comfortable in using word processing programs and CD-ROMs, but the number of proficient users of other functions fell consistently below half of the sample. The most technically demanding aspect, developing a homepage, was marked by only one of the 35 participants as a use with which he or she felt comfortable. On average, the Spanish 102 students reported comfort with 2.90 of the nine target uses; Spanish 201 students averaged comfort with 3.47 uses. A t-test comparing these means revealed no significant difference

(t = -0.69, df = 33, p = .50) between students of the two instructional levels.

Students' lack of comfort with a target use does not preclude experience with it. They may have had experience with a particular use of the computer but felt uncomfortable with that use. In fact, students reported having experience with several additional functions each but indicated that they did not feel comfortable with those uses. On average, the Spanish 102 students had utilized an additional 2.20 functions that they felt uncomfortable with; the Spanish 201 students increased their count by an average 1.60 uses. The difference between instructional levels is not significant (t = 0.811, df = 33, p = .42).

Responses to items about familiarity with the specific software packages that were to be incorporated into the class activities indicated that all but three students had experience with either Microsoft Word or WordPerfect, the two most widely available word processing programs on campus. In contrast, only 16 students reported knowing how to use Netscape Navigator, and no student indicated any knowledge of PageMill or Eudora. This high level of familiarity with word processing may be a result of the contexts in which students reported using computers most. School was the most common reason for using a computer; work placed third (after entertainment).

Students utilized a computer an average of 2.21 days per week (2.12 for the Spanish 102 students; 2.33 for the Spanish 201 students). More frequent usage had a significant positive correlation with the number of the nine target uses with which participants were comfortable (r = .5956, p < 0.001) and with the number of software packages known (r = .5377, p < .005). Twenty-five participants reported feeling generally confident when using computers, and 31 enjoyed using them. Furthermore, 19 indicated having previously been enrolled in a course which used Computer-Aided Instruction (CAI), and 14 of those students held a positive attitude about CAI. The five who made negative comments about their CAI experiences alluded to technical difficulties and lack of support as the central contributors to their discontent. In sum, despite individual differences between students' initial CL, there were no significant differences on any item between students in the two classes. Furthermore, all students reported some previous experience with computers, with the greater numbers of students indicating familiarity with the more established aspects of computer use: word processing, use of CD-ROMs, and e-mail. Final Computer Literacy: End of Semester Questionnaire During the period of this study use of eight of the target computer functions 17 increased in both Spanish 102 and Spanish 201. Table 2 details the end of semester results, and Table 3 summarizes the changes in CL. Table 2 Students' Final Computer Literacy (N = 35) 0x01 graphic 18 Table 3 Overall Changes in Computer Literacy (N = 35) 0x01 graphic Skills in word processing showed a limited increase since most students were already familiar with this use at the outset of the study, and corresponded to a nonsignificant change (t = 1.392, df = 68, p = .1686). However, comfort doubled in the use of e-mail, navigation of the Web, chatting, printing, and searching . Ability to download from the Web increased by 50%, and comfort in creating a personal homepage increased fivefold, although this number still represented only a small percentage of the total sample. Comfort increased significantly for e-mail (t = 3.324) and for all aspects of Web use (navigation, t = 4.35; search, t = 4.948; download, t = 3.55; printing, t = 3.011; chat, t = 3.984, for all df - 68, p < .05). Two fewer students reported comfort in the use of CD-ROMs at the end of the semester than at the start of the study, lowering the number comfortable in using this technology from 19 to 17, a nonsignificant change (t =-0.472, df = 68, p = 0.6383). The Spanish 102 students showed a significant mean 19 increase in total comfortable uses of 2.55, and the Spanish 201 students had a comparable change of 2.80 uses, for a combined average increase of 2.68 uses per person (t = 4.859, df = 68, p < .0001). Of the additional comfortable uses gained since the initial questionnaire, participants reported learning the majority through their Spanish class. All those who learned how to use word processing, create a homepage, and engage in chat sessions reported that they had acquired these skills through their language activities, and all but one learned e-mail and Web navigation in this way. Of the 12 students who reported learning to print from the Web, eight learned to do so in their Spanish class; 10 of 13 learned to download from the Web, and 14 of 16 learned to search the Web from doing the Spanish assignments. In terms of students' experience but discomfort with target functions, the same number of students felt uncomfortable with the use of e-mail and chat rooms on the initial and final questionnaires (see Table 2). However, when viewed in conjunction with the increase in comfortable uses shown in Table 3, the result is a substantial increase in the total number of participants who became familiar with the use of chat rooms and e-mail. In all other categories, the number of respondents indicating that they had used a function but felt uncomfortable with it decreased by an average of 2.4 people. A count of the total possible number of uses (comfortable and uncomfortable) for the nine functions and 35 participants equals 315 possible uses. The results of the initial questionnaire indicate that subjects were familiar with 178 uses. Of those 178 uses, students were comfortable with 110 (62%), and somewhat uncomfortable with 68 (38%). That total increased to 249 of 315 uses by the end of the study: 203 (82%) comfortable and 46 (18%) uncomfortable. This substantial increase in comfortable uses is significant (t = 4.859, df = 68, p <. 0001) as is the augmented overall familiarity (comfortable and uncomfortable combined) (t = 3.498, df = 68, p < .001). With respect to the four targeted software packages, there were no changes in students' familiarity with Eudora or PageMill; due to the use of Netscape Navigator's mail feature in place of Eudora and unforeseen restrictions on the use of PageMill, these two applications were not widely used during this study. The same number (32) of the participants reported knowing either Microsoft Word or WordPerfect (as opposed to familiarity with any word processing package) at the end of this study as at the beginning, yet 33 reported knowing how to use Netscape Navigator, doubling the number familiar with this browser at the beginning of the semester. Students reported increasing their average weekly use of a computer as well, from an initial mean of 2.21 days per week to a final 3.46 days (t = 2.776, df = 68, p < .01). The change between the two groups was similar, 20 with the Spanish 201 students augmenting their frequency of use only slightly more than the Spanish 102 students. Students' Perceptions and Assessment of CALL Activities On the end of semester questionnaire, half of the participants (18) indicated that they enjoyed using computers more at the end of the study than at the start of the semester, and 21 felt more confident about using them. Thirty-four of the 35 students stated that they usually participated in the computer activities done in class as well as those done outside of class hours. Grade reports from the teachers indicated a high level of participation; students completed an average of 88.9% of the CALL tasks. Twelve of the 20 Spanish 102 students finished all six assignments, and six more had grades for at least four of the six activities. The remaining two students had completed three of the six activities. Seven of the 15 Spanish 201 participants had done all six CALL activities, and all had completed at least four of the six. These figures confirm students' self-assessments of the frequency of their participation. The number of tasks completed did in fact have a significant relationship to the change in CL over the semester (calculated as the final number minus the initial number of target uses rated as comfortable, familiar but not comfortable, and of software known). Students who completed more assignments had a significantly greater increase in their CL in terms of the number of comfortable uses (t = 33.4), of familiar but uncomfortable uses (t = 33.6), and of software known (t = 35.0) (for all, df = 34, p < .0001). In their open-ended responses, participants evaluated and described their opinions about the computer activities assigned, the amount of Spanish learned, and the value of the skills gained through the computer tasks done for this class. Twenty of the 41 comments were positive, citing the assignments as good sources for learning Spanish, enjoyable, and useful for learning computer skills. Ten of the 21 negative comments focused on technical difficulties resulting from the lab facilities, while the remaining 1 cited linguistic challenges, a perceived lack of usefulness, stress, and time requirements. At the same time, 17 of the 35 students responded that they had learned and used Spanish in real contexts. Eight others denied any benefits, while two more indicated a desire to have more time to realize the advantages of the computer tasks. Twenty-one participants valued the technical skills gained through these activities, commenting on the particular computer skills that they believed they would use in the future. Indeed three students reported already using Spanish chat rooms outside of class requirements, and 13 indicated finding their new Web skills to be useful for other classes or activities. Seven indicated they had not learned any skills that 21 they would use in the future; no characteristic clearly distinguished these seven from the remainder of the participants with respect to CL, number of assignments completed, or any demographic element. Another seven students gave no response. Many students offered suggestions for improving their experience with CALL. Eleven advised improving the hardware in the language lab and increasing the support available to them outside of class hours. Others expressed preferences about the balance of activities (more chat: 7, less chat: 4; keep homepages: 2, homepage too difficult: 1; omit all computer activities: 3, increase number of CALL activities: 3; keep e-mail: 3). Additional suggestions dealt with class management, with one student commenting that the chat activities in Spanish 102 would have been easier in larger groups, and another student suggesting that the computers be on and the appropriate software running when students arrived to the lab. In Spanish 201, the largest number of comments related to the newspaper assignment, which was deemed by eight students to be the most valuable assignment for the class, although four would have preferred a shorter required length for each article. Two suggested omitting the newspaper altogether. DISCUSSION Question 1: At the outset of the semester, which of the target applications did participants report knowing how to use? Participants began the study with some basic computer skills; every student reported previous use of a computer, and almost all had experience with word processing in particular. Few reported feeling comfortable with all nine target uses. Students who felt comfortable in the use of CD-ROMs at the start of the semester represented more than half of the sample, with additional participants having some experience with them. Despite the increasing popularity and availability of Internet technologies (e-mail and the Web), less than half of the students felt comfortable using them. This figure indicates that teachers cannot assume that their students will come prepared to make use of on-line resources but, rather, must plan to train them. Question 2: At the end of the semester, which of the applications do participants report knowing how to use? Students made substantial gains in CL during the semester of this study. The simultaneous increase in students' proficiency with e-mail (learned 22 outside of class) and the tools taught in the Spanish classes demonstrates that multiple sources of computer training can be an effective and efficient approach to CL for the already dense foreign language curriculum. Students' comfort and familiarity with e-mail rose 37% during the course of this study, a gain equal to that made with navigating the Web. Even greater increases occurred for searching the Web and chatting (both gains of 43%). Smaller gains were made in printing from the Web (23%), downloading (20%), and creating a personal homepage (11%). The limited losses seen in students' familiarity with CD-ROMs suggest the importance of providing students with continuous contact with technology in order to maintain proficiency with it. This issue is discussed in more detail below. The gains in CL are quite rapid, particularly in the case of students who began with no familiarity for a target use and ended the semester feeling comfortable in its use. Evidence of this change is found in the increase in the number of students comfortable with various functions without a corresponding increase in the number familiar but uncomfortable with uses. The implication for the in-class training time within which substantial gains in CL can be achieved is promising. Clearly this measure does not include the amount of time students spent outside of class to accomplish these gains, but it does provide teachers with a guideline for the amount of training for CALL that they can reasonably incorporate in their own curriculum once they decide upon pedagogically appropriate uses of computers. One unusual result did arise in the data. Students reported a decrease in their comfort and familiarity with CD-ROMs over the course of this study. Two fewer students indicated comfort in using CD-ROMs, and another two fewer stated that they had used CD-ROMs but felt uncomfortable in their use. Several interpretations of these facts are possible. First, these four students may have revised their understanding of what it means to be comfortable or familiar with a technology after gaining more extensive experience with the other computer tools used during the class. Such a change in their interpretation could have led them to evaluate their knowledge differently and thus indicate a lack of experience or comfort. Alternatively, some respondents may have initially misunderstood CD-ROMs to be the same as the commonly available compact discs in popular use today and later learned that this was not the case, leading to revised responses on the second questionnaire. A third explanation stems from the ultimate lack of use of CD-ROMs during this study. Some participants may have felt less comfortable after a semester of not using them despite having had previous experience in their use and hence the lower reporting for these items, or they may have focused their attention on the aspects actually used in class and thus reported less experience. 23 Question 3: How much time is spent on training to achieve a gain in students' computer literacy? The 90 minutes of class time allocated for students to learn computer skills does not provide an accurate measure of the class time used for this purpose since training was embedded in language learning tasks. As such, at least half of those 90 minutes was spent using Spanish. Little time was wasted dealing with technical details since they were integrated into the instructions for the activities. Yet, less class time could be dedicated to training in the future in the form of on-line tutorials such as Hatasa's (1999) technological literacy lessons for teachers are adapted for foreign language students and their particular needs. The results of the training in this study are clear. The overall increase in participants' comfort and experience with word processing, e-mail, and the Web cost little in terms of class time but provided students with new technical skills and novel resources for language learning that students themselves value. The success with which students advanced their CL at a small cost in instructional time suggests that CL can legitimately become a part of the language curriculum without grave concerns about time lost to irrelevant activities. Given the resources and opportunities for language learning that accompany proficiency especially with Internet technologies, gains in computer skills benefit students and open further avenues for instruction to teachers as well. Question 4: How did students perceive or assess the CALL activities? Students representing all degrees of CL perceived (and objectively achieved) gains in CL during the semester of this study, many of whom had already put their new computer skills into practice outside of their Spanish assignments. In addition, approximately half of the participants described the technology-enhanced tasks as helpful for learning Spanish and for using it in real (i.e., outside of the classroom) environments. Half of those who negatively evaluated the use of computers focused on technical difficulties rather than on the value of the tasks for language learning; the rest found the activities either too challenging, stressful, or time consuming. Directly related to the complaints were the suggested changes for future use of CALL activities. The most frequent advice was for improved hardware and support outside of class time, followed by suggestions for changing the balance of task types based on personal preferences. Students' ideas give some insight into issues that teachers and researchers alike may find important in making instructional decisions or in developing a hierarchical model of factors that influence CALL success. 24 Limitations of the Study Training decisions must take into account not only the actual state of students' CL, but also their perceptions of their own CL so that they can complete assigned activities and believe themselves to be capable of doing so. Nonetheless, self-report data is less reliable than independent measures, as was seen in this study with the results of the CD-ROM item in the questionnaires. The small sample size also requires careful interpretation of the results presented here. Finally, teachers and researchers must note that in-class CL training time (as with any content) does not reflect students' total learning time. Participants spent time outside of class using the target technologies to complete assignments, and some of them required additional assistance from friends and lab attendants to do so. Therefore, teachers in particular must take this issue into account when planning CL training for their own students. CONCLUSION In this study of students' preparedness for CALL and the amount of in-class time required to train them in computer literacy, the data point to an optimistic future. While participants began the study with some computer skills, they needed to acquire others in order to successfully complete tasks using a word processor, e-mail, and the Web. An integrated approach to training which combined technical and language learning activities resulted in an efficient and effective means to deliver instruction in both areas simultaneously. Students' gains in CL were substantial and provided them with novel avenues for learning Spanish. The cost in instructional time was minimal, thus empowering teachers to integrate these technologies into their classes without fear of a substantial loss of time to other aspects of the curriculum. These results and similar investigations need to be paired with the body of studies on the effectiveness of CALL in order to give practitioners a solid empirical foundation upon which to make technology decisions for their foreign language curriculum. 25 APPENDIX A PRE-TRAINING QUESTIONNAIRE: COMPUTER EXPERIENCE We would like to know how familiar and comfortable you are with using computers before we begin the activities that make use of them this semester. At the end of the semester we'll ask you to fill out another questionnaire to see what you have learned, and if your attitude has changed. We'll also ask you later to give your opinion about the types of activities we will be doing during this semester, so keep that in mind as you participate in the class computer activities. Computer experience: 0x01 graphic 26 0x01 graphic 27 APPENDIX B END OF SEMESTER QUESTIONNAIRE: COMPUTER EXPERIENCE During this semester our Spanish class has made use of various computer applications, software packages, and capabilities. As you know from the questionnaire you completed at the beginning of the semester, we would now like to know what you've learned about using computers, as well as how well you liked having technology play a role in your Spanish activities. Please take a few minutes to answer the questions carefully and thoughtfully. Your responses will have bearing on the continued use of technology in basic Spanish courses. Computer experience: During this semester you have made use of several aspects of computer uses to add to your previous experiences. Which aspects of computer use do you now feel comfortable with? 0x01 graphic 28 0x01 graphic 29 Suggestions: If your instructor were to use these activities again in another class, what changes would you suggest? What should your instructor not change? Did you have enough support from your teacher and other assistants with using the computers, programs, and applications? If not, what else would have made this experience easier? Appendix C SAMPLE INTEGRATED COMPUTER LITERACY TRAINING AND LANGUAGE/CULTURE TASK WEB TRAINING FOR SPANISH BASIC COURSE STUDENTS The World Wide Web (WWW) is an exciting and immense resource for all kinds of information. For the purposes of this class, it gives us access to the Spanish language in many of its dialects and to Hispanic cultures—the same access that native speakers of Spanish have and make use of in their daily lives. We now have the opportunity to peek into the Hispanic world and interact with it through the Web, and we'll be taking that opportunity throughout the semester. Let's get started with some orientation: For novice web users: Netscape is a piece of software that is called a browser. It lets you not only look at text, but also at graphics and video, and hear music, people talking, and anything else someone puts on the Web. You can converse with people in writing as well as in speech if you have a fast enough computer, and it can be done in real time. Netscape, like other browsers, also allows you to move between Web pages easily by simply clicking on words or images that link you to other pages. Take a look at how it works: Getting started: Open Netscape by double-clicking on its icon on the desktop. You should see Wayne State's homepage appearing. While it's loading, look in the upper right hand corner of the Netscape window. You'll see an N with meteors streaming across it. The meteors tell you that Netscape is working on getting information from another computer, as does the bottom of the window, where there is a message line. When you see "Document Done," Netscape thinks it has gotten all of the information. 30 Moving around: Move the mouse around somewhat slowly. Watch for where it changes from an arrow to a pointing finger. Where you see the pointing finger, you are over a link to another page. Follow the most logical links to find the Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures homepage. (Hint: It's in the College of Liberal Arts.) Then look for the syllabus for this course and this section under the Fall 1997 course offerings. Look also for the link to Spanish Language Web Resources—a site that we'll make a lot of use of this semester. Fortunately there is a much quicker way to get to this page: bookmarks. Look at the menu bar at the top of the screen. Click and hold on Bookmarks. Drag the mouse to highlight one of the titles in the menu and let go. What happened? Now look at the buttons across the top of the screen—from the left arrow to the red stop sign. Try them out and see what they do. (Cancel the printing option.) The smaller gray buttons under the control buttons you've just tested are also easy shortcuts to some specific tasks. The most important one for this class is the Net search button. Click on it. What are the names of three of the search engines on this page? What does a search engine do for you? You can also get to a page by typing in its location, or its URL. URLs start with http:// followed by more specific identifying information. Type in the following URL in the line to the upper right just below the buttons, and press return: http://inferno.asap.um.maine.edu/emp/laurie/videos/chile.html Doing two things at once: Find the video "Horóscopo" and click on it. While it downloads, let's do some other things. Go to File on the top menu bar and choose New browser. Click on Net search again. Try one of the search engines out: Type español and música into the search box and click on the search/do it button. What are the first two links you see in the resulting list? What does that suggest to you about the kinds of music that are popular in Spanish? Scroll to the bottom of the screen. Do you have the option of adding in other keywords and searching through the current results to refine your search? Use the BACK button to return to the Net search page and try the same thing with another search engine. Do you get the same list of sites? Type "El país" (in quotes) in the search box and search. Do you get a link to the Spanish newspaper? Remember that if you want to find a specific title and not just keywords (like español and música) that you have to put the title in quotes. What links at "El país" would you follow to get more information about Spanish music? To find other Spanish language newspapers, go to the Spanish Language Web Resources page we saw earlier and follow the logical link. 31 Sources, the code that tells browsers how to display a web page: In your web travels today, did you see any presentations of materials that you were impressed by? Keep them in mind because your next project will be to create a personal web page, which you can design. You can find out how others created their presentations by looking at their Source. Using the web page you're on now, go to View on the top menu bar and select Source. A Simple Text document will appear, which you can save to disk if you like. (See the next section.) The codes that you see in < > are formatting and display information. We'll be learning about some basic ones in the next session. DON'T PANIC. We don't expect you to know how to do this. We'll make it easy.

Downloading and printing:

You may decide that you want to download information from the Web for later use. If you want to print anything that you see, you must either download it and take it elsewhere to print, or get online from another site that allows printing and print off of the screen.

Downloading is fortunately very easy. Insert your diskette. Go to the File menu and choose Save As. In the dialog box that appears, either leave the name that is automatically inserted or change the name to something else by simply typing over the text that's there.

Make sure you are saving to your disk, and not to the hard drive. Look at the upper right corner of the "Save" window. If the icon is not a diskette, click on the button "Desktop" until the icon changes to a disk. You should then see a list of the contents of your disk to the left. This means your materials will be saved to your disk.

The last step is important. You must decide whether to save the web page as Text or as Source. If you only want the textual information that's on the page and you want to be able to open it in a word processing program, save as Text. If you want to be able to view the text from the page as you saw it originally, save it as Source, and then open the file within a browser. If the page has pictures, you'll need to save them separately. Ask for help.

Finishing up:

Once you're done for the day, go to File and choose Quit. This will close the program. Also, go to the upper right hand corner of the screen to the farthest icon. Hold it down. This shows you which pieces of software you have open. If any other software name is there besides "Finder," highlight it and then Quit it also.

A test of your new expertise:

Now that you've learned how to use the web, let's put your knowledge into practice with an information treasure hunt. Find the answers to the following questions USING ONLY SPANISH LANGUAGE SOURCES. Start on the class page with Spanish Language Resources and return to it as needed.

1. In what country is the newspaper El país published?

2. What is the number one song on the salsa and merengue charts this month? Can you find a link that allows you to read the lyrics of any of the songs listed?

3. In what century was the Museo del Prado created? Do they have a music-related exhibit? If not, what Hispanic museum does?

4. Listen to the horoscope video you downloaded. Does the man say more than what the quote under his picture said? What kind of music is playing in the background? Is it of a kind you would expect?

Your homework:

1. Go to the URL below and explore it. Write down two places you could go, what you can see there, and what you can eat.

http://sunsite.unc.edu/expo/1492.exhibit/Intro.html

2. Find three URLs in Spanish that a) are not on the list of Spanish Language Resources on our class homepage and b) that are of interest to you. Write down the URLs so that you can put them on your personal homepage as links.

3. Think about what kind of information about yourself that you'd like to put on your personal Spanish homepage.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author would like to thank Adriana Milani and the participating students for their contributions to this project and Dr. Theresa Antes for her helpful feedback during the preparation of this paper.

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AUTHOR'S BIODATA

Catherine M. Barrette is Assistant Professor of Spanish and Research Methodologist at Wayne State University where she teaches courses in CALL, other aspects of second language acquisition, and Spanish. She also coordinates the Spanish basic language program in which she continues her efforts to integrate CALL throughout the curriculum.

AUTHOR'S ADDRESS

Catherine M. Barrette

Wayne State University

1566 Nantucket Rd.

Plymouth, MI 48170

Phone: 734/207-3869

Fax: 313/577-6243

Email: C.Barrette@wayne.edu