Reading Prompt 7

Reading Prompt #7

*LEVY – Ch. 7 Practice
*BLACKBOARD - Grgurović, M. & Hegelheimer, V. (2007). Help
Options and Multimedia Listening: Students' Use of Subtitles and the Transcript. Language Learning & Technology, 11(1), 45-66.

What did Grgurović & Hegelheimer find with regards to using subtitles and transcripts to help ESL students develop listening skills in English? What are some of the implications for instruction?

From your reading of Levy, comment on one or more of the issues related to the practice dimension of CALL what you would want to take into consideration for your own classroom.

Subtitles and transcripts are good ways of helping ESL students developing English skills. They provide modified input to learners, but Grgurović & Hegelheimer (2007) find that students are tent to use subtitles more frequently than the transcript, and the subtitles, which the language learners are using as help option in daily life, are the preferred help options for language learners in language study. The higher proficiency level students use the subtitles more frequently and for longer amounts of time than the lower proficiency group, while they have very similar behavior on using the transcript.

The implications of Grgurović & Hegelheimer findings are since the students preferred subtitles and used subtitles more than the transcript, in designing CALL, the subtitles can be used as help option in multimedia listening materials. At the same time, the CALL designers can offer transcripts in addition to subtitle as multiple help options. Also, in order to accommodate different learning styles and preferences, the CALL designers should give the users more control over the help options, instead of following the prescribed route, the users can have the option of “skipping help”. Help option is an effective learning strategy, the CALL designers, teachers, and students need to interact together to achieve the best goals.

Levy (2006) mentioned that CALL can be used with the teaching and training in language skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and in language areas including vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. And all the examples are evidences of successfully using CALL to teach language skills. But the biggest concern for me to use CALL in my own classroom is how to choose appropriate technological options. Different learning objectives requires different hardware and software, teachers need to master the knowledge to employ the language technologies in the way that enable the students to achieve their learning goals (p191), for example, teachers need to know what kind of technology are best suited for a specific language skills, and what technology is appropriate in a specific language area. Since technology may facilitate or constrain language learning (p192), it’s very important for teachers to take this issue into consideration.