Plugging ESL Students In
CALL is not a new educational phenomenon. Stand-alone software programs have been widely used in elementary and high schools for years to help kids learn English, Spanish and other elective languages. However, with the advent of the Internet, a growing number of teachers, students and software companies are logging on to see if Web-based language learning methods can become as common a tool for teaching ESL students as the blackboard.
In Bobbi Houtchens' ESL classes at San Bernardino High School in San Bernardino, Calif., east of Los Angeles, students whose native languages include Spanish, Hmong, Vietnamese and Arabic routinely use the Internet to enhance their English skills, primarily by researching Web sites for assignments. Her ESL students also practice their conversational English skills by communicating via Internet e-mail with English students in other countries, and they will soon share their critiques of American literature with students across the country by posting their analyses -- written in English -- on an educational Web site.
Researchers agree that the interactive nature of Internet-based language learning offers the most promise for technology-based ESL education, since language learners can communicate directly and cheaply over long distances with other learners or speakers of the target language. According to University of Hawaii CALL researcher Mark Warshauer, Bulgarian English-language students effectively learned the detailed nuances of American culture and English grammar by communicating by e-mail with a group of American graduate students studying to become teachers.
However, Houtchens, like many educators, sees technology as a tool, not a panacea for bilingual education; nor does she see it making ESL instruction any easier for both teacher and pupil. "I don't think technology can speed up the time it takes people to learn a language," Houtchens said. "We all want our students to learn English as quickly as possible, because we know that's their only vehicle for success in the schools."
Diane McClelland, principal of Fallbrook Street School in Fallbrook, Calif., north of San Diego, agrees. Her school, a K-3 facility, has adopted an English-only approach that uses computer technology to help ESL students improve their mathematics and social-studies skills. "The focus of our district has become English instruction, and we use computer programs in our bilingual classrooms really for English language development," McClelland said. "I see technology as continuing to be a supplement to what the teacher is doing, and I don't think that would really change."
Online Instruction Offers New Tools
Nevertheless, as Internet use continues to increase at an exponential rate, new ways of using the interactive features of the Web for language instruction are evolving. Syracuse Language Systems, a manufacturer of language instruction software, recently introduced its Language Connect University -- an Internet-based, distance-learning language school that combines interactive self-study on multimedia CD-ROM with one-on-one instructor assistance over the Internet. Students log-on to a Web site to participate in learning exercises and send sound files to an instructor for pronunciation checks. Last year, the company released a 12-lesson course in conversational Spanish for the adult and business-traveler market and plans to release an English version for elementary and high-school ESL programs. "Kids are vulnerable between the ages of 10 and 12, and they don't like the burden of doing things orally," said company spokesperson Esther Zorn. "This program allows them to do their lessons in private yet still have the benefit of an instructor who can provide one-on-one attention at the student's pace."
However, some educators, accustomed to the "drill and practice" nature of stand-alone programs flooding the educational software market, are leery of making the leap to online instruction. "We've found that it's hard to find good-quality bilingual software," said Gloria Pelanco-McNeely, principal of Del Norte Heights Elementary School in El Paso, Texas, where 40 percent of the students are Spanish-speaking Limited English Proficient (LEP). "We tend to use more vocabulary development-type programs in our ESL classes, which feature games and exercises to keep things interesting. If the programs improve, we will evaluate them."
Houtchens said teachers must choose software programs that avoid "drill overkill" and make sense for today's ESL students. "I don't care how fast students can conjugate verbs, but I do care how fast they can call 911 or answer a question in class," she said.
Syracuse Language Systems' TriplePlay Plus! software is already in use at schools around the country. A stand-alone package, it uses the multimedia immersion approach, which plunges students into a new language by way of interactive games and activities that allow them to hear, speak and read a new language without teacher direction. CD-ROMs feature QuickTime videos that dramatize grammar lessons with real actors.
Connectivity the Key
Before ESL educators can take full advantage of the Internet as a language learning tool, schools must first get connected to the information superhighway. Over the past five years, the number of computers being used for instruction in public schools has jumped 186 percent -- from 2.2 million in 1992 to 6.3 million in 1997, according to a recent survey of 85,000 public schools conducted by Market Data Retrieval, a provider of education information to industry.
However, Internet access has lagged behind workstation growth. While the number of K-12 schools having at least one Web connection has more than doubled since 1992, just 61 percent of elementary schools surveyed have Internet access in the classroom. The study found that most Web connections are in school offices and libraries and are used predominantly for research by school staff.
Getting the growing number of classroom computers online is the challenge most schools now face. A 1995 study by the General Accounting Office showed that nearly half of American public schools have inadequate wiring for computers and Internet communications. The numbers are lower for schools with LEP student populations, where online ESL programs would have the most benefit.
"It's really all about access," said Houtchens. "My classroom happened to go online first because it was one of the rooms that had a phone line." Today, Houtchens' classroom is a popular hangout for ESL students, who routinely use her computer for Internet activities from 7 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.
The numbers are changing, however. The influx of technology funding has unleashed data-infrastructure improvement projects throughout the country. At San Bernardino High, there are currently 20 computers in the library with online access, and the school recently had another 35 data lines brought to the library for more machines. Two years ago, the El Paso Independent School District embarked on a multimillion-dollar distance learning initiative that will bring 100Mbsp computing speeds to each classroom in 50 of its elementary and middle schools. In the program's second phase, classrooms are being wired so that teachers and students will have Internet access and schools will be linked in a wide area network (WAN), allowing multimedia activities and video-based distance learning programs to be used districtwide.
Elsewhere, some school administrators aren't waiting for grant dollars to fall into their laps before taking the leap toward connectivity. Parents and teachers at Westwood School in California's Napa County, which has a significant number of ESL students, in April joined forces in a volunteer effort to install high-speed data cables to classrooms. According to Technology Coordinator Terry Faherty, the school plans to establish an e-mail "pen-pals" program between its students and elementary-school students in a Mexican sister city and ultimately employ "see-you-see-me" interactive video programs once the school becomes part of a larger districtwide WAN. "Like most schools, we are in the process of implementing technology as much as we can," said Faherty. "It will give us some very powerful teaching tools for our immersion programs."
Tom Byerly is a Sacramento, Calif.-based writer.
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