Using digital stories to improve listening comprehension with Spanish young learners of English.

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the effects that digital stories may have on the understanding of spoken English by a group of 6-year-old Spanish learners. To accomplish this aim, a quasi-experimental research study was launched in six state schools in Madrid. A pre-post test design was used to investigate whether internet-based technology could improve listening comprehension in English as a Foreign Language (henceforth, EFL). Findings indicate that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the final test administered. These results raise interesting issues related to the use of technology in the context of foreign language learning. Future research which includes other age groups and digital materials and which explores other linguistic areas could further substantiate the link between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) rich environment and improved language learning.

INTRODUCTION

It is well known that listening comprehension plays a key role in foreign language teaching, especially with young learners (Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Brewster, 1994; Brown, 1986, 1989; Grabielatos, 1995; Phillips, 1993; Rost, 1990; Shorrocks, 1994). Web sites for children, if appropriately selected and organized, can offer a range of opportunities to develop foreign language listening and proficiency in a playful and enjoyable context (Van Scoter, Ellis & Railsback, 2001; Wright & Shade, 1994). This paper reports on the results of an ongoing research project (1) that explores the ways Internet based technology, and more specifically digital stories, may promote foreign language learning by Spanish young learners of English. Tales and stories are effective listening materials for children to develop listening comprehension and literacy both in their first and foreign language (Dickinson, 2001; Elley, 1989; Isbell, 2002; Penno, Wilkinson & Moore, 2002; Raines & Isbell, 1994; Richards & Anderson, 2003; Zevenbergenn & Whitehurst, 2003).

At an early stage of language acquisition, stories can offer a valuable way of contextualizing and introducing new language, making it meaningful and memorable (Wasik & Bond, 2001; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998; Wright, 2000). They are associated with feelings and memories, as they are a distinctive manifestation of cultural values and perceptions. Besides, they present linguistic forms, grammar, phrases, vocabulary, and formulaic speech within a meaningful and structured context that supports comprehension of the narrative world (Glazer & Burke, 1994; Jennings, 1991; Koisawalia, 2005; Mallan, 1991). This verbal information is commonly complemented with non-verbal information in the form of large pictures, which helps children reconstruct the storyline (Kellerman, 1992; Meyer, 1990; Mueller, 1980; Neu, 1990).

During the last few years, with increasingly more sophisticated multimedia technology, there is renewed interest in the complementary relationship of visual and auditory channels in listening comprehension (Brett, 1995; Felix, 1995; Hoven, 1999). Multimedia applications for foreign language learning can provide a more realistic picture of the new language and culture in the classroom, including not only linguistic but also paralinguistic features such as body language, gestures, prosody, etc., which help to convey meaning to the learners (Brett, 1995; Fidelman, 1997; Gassin, 1992; Hurley, 1992). It is believed in this study that digital stories, if appropriately selected, can prove to be very useful in developing children's listening skills. They tend to be visual, interactive and reiterative. Usually, learners have to listen to and understand a simple order in order to proceed with the story by clicking on parts of the screen or the picture. The interactivity of Internet-based stories, we assume, may facilitate learning since children are actively involved in decoding and understanding the story (Donato, 1994). Students are allowed to proceed at their own pace which also affords a high level of individual control. The reiterative nature of the kind of stories used here could also help children progressively learn the foreign language. Finally, gains in listening skills and understanding seem to bring benefits to improve children's reading comprehension (Biemiller, 2003; Sticht & James, 1984; Sticht 2003).

In despite of all these potential benefits, however, there is insufficient research on how Internet-based technology contributes to improve children's linguistic comprehension (see Haddad & Jurich, 2002 for discussion). Most of the research on the use of computer-based technology as an instructional tool for foreign language learning has concentrated on teenagers and adults (e.g., Salaberry, 2001; Zhao, 1999). As regards primary school settings, the majority of studies report on the positive developmental and motivational effects that access to technology may have on children's foreign language learning (Clements, 1994; Clements, Nastasi & Swaminathan, 1993). Only a few studies suggest that the use of computer-based technologies in the classroom is correlated to positive academic outcomes, including higher test scores (Melmed, 1995; Schacer, 1999).

One of the reasons for this situation may be that computer-based technology in the primary classroom is under utilized (Cuban, 2001). And this reality is most evident in the modern foreign language classroom. Many English language teachers might be attracted by the resources the Internet can bring into the classroom but are often overwhelmed by a large quantity of sites and materials that often exceed the linguistic level and the technological abilities of their students. Deciding how to use and integrate those materials within a more traditional methodology demands an extra effort many full-time teachers cannot afford. In this sense, and given the increasing demands for educators to include technology into the curriculum, practical guidelines are being published to help teachers with this task (Dudeney, 2000; Warschauer, Shetzer & Meloni, 2000). Unfortunately, real adaptation of these resource books into the classroom, we believe, has not taken place yet. Many professionals feel uncertain on how to take advantage of the Web to bring that part of the world into the language classroom, especially when working with young learners. All of this suggests the need of conducting further research on the use of Internet-based content and methodology in language learning settings. Only with sufficient objective data and results will we be able to assess the effects that computer-mediated instruction actually exerts on language acquisition processes.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

This study was designed to examine the effects that digital stories have in improving the understanding of spoken English by six-year-old Spanish young learners. A quasi-experimental analysis was carried out at six different schools of Primary Education in Madrid (Spain) during 22 weeks in the second semester of the academic year 2005 (January to June). All schools are located in the suburban Northern area of Madrid and share similar social and cultural characteristics with very homogeneous groups of Spanish speaking learners (information available at: http://www.educa.madrid.org).

Working with state schools constrained some of the decisions taken in the design of the present study. For example, as regards the timing of the study, all students participating in the research project could only receive two EFL sessions of 45 minutes a week, as established by the Spanish General Law of Education (LOCE, available in Spanish at: http://sid.usal.es/idocs/F3/LYN6125/ 3-6125.pdf). Regarding group composition, learners could not be assigned at random to either the control or the experimental group, since groups are usually arranged by the school authorities at the beginning of each academic year and cannot be altered. Hence, in each school two natural groups were selected, a control group and an experimental one. Both groups had the same EFL teacher, so a total of 6 EFL teachers participated in the project. In each school it was the teacher who decided which group would be the experimental and control one. The average number of students per class was 20 (ranging from 16 to 25 children per class).

As far as the kind of instruction students received during the project, the control group received English language lessons based on teacher instruction and the exploitation of an EFL textbook specifically targeted at Spanish learners (Zoom 1, by Richmond Publishing-Santillana, 2003) during two sessions per week. No use of Internet-based technology was contemplated for this group. The experimental group also received EFL lessons during two weekly sessions. However, while during one session learners received the same kind of instruction as the control group, based on teacher instruction and the exploitation of the text book, the other session was devoted to work on a selected number of digital stories, as explained below.

As mentioned in the introduction, the use of digital stories, we believe, could show greater improvement in children's progressive understanding of the linguistic structure, vocabulary, sound patterns and prosody of the foreign language as compared to that obtained by children receiving language instruction without the use of Internet-based technology. Therefore, we aimed to verify whether there is a significant difference between the mean for the control and experimental groups in their listening comprehension score.