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Further interactive activities on the CD-ROM are located under the heading "Zone," which includes one new section, "Dream Team," as well as a link to the Eaton's Order Form activity in the 3rd Period. The "Dream Team" activity allows students to choose six of the different players they have read about in the the "Stars" section in the 3rd Period and write, by typing into a window, why they would want to have these players on the same imaginary team. Writing guidance will need to be provided by the teacher. This activity might be difficult for the Peewee and Junior levels and might in fact fit better in the "Stars" activity than here by itself. Additionally, the "Zone" includes a link to Eaton's Order Form; this also seems to be randomly placed since students are likely to have completed the order form activity in the 3rd Period.
Finally, "Encounter" provides an opportunity for students to listen to an interview with Roch Carrier, the author of The Hockey Sweater; to read about him; to view an art gallery of pictures by Marcel Dargis, who created the pictures for the animated video; and to learn more about several of the other artists who helped with the creation of the CD-ROM. The interviews could be used for more listening practice, but they are not accompanied by any activities; thus, a teacher would have to create activities for the students and decide upon areas of focus. Students can choose to read the transcript of the interviews while listening to them; however, at times, the video of the interviews is confusing because the interviewer's question, while written in the transcript, is absent in the video. The "Encounter" videos will, therefore, be most appropriate for higher level learners who want more listening practice.
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In addition to the activities, the CD-ROM offers two other helpful features: a "Notebook" and a "Dictionary". The Notebook consists of a pop-up screen that allows students to take notes electronically on the screen by typing directly into the pop-up window. Students can save their notes and print them out later. However, as Caw (2007) mentions in her review of Le Chandail de Hockey, it would be better if the File function keys (new, open, print, close, save, delete) were "more accessible as buttons either at the top or bottom of the notebook because at present they are hidden behind the notebook" (p. 35). The Dictionary allows students to look up any word from the story, but it does not contain all of the words used in other texts or activities on the CD-ROM, such as the vocabulary activities, cultural sections, or the hockey cards. This may prevent students, especially those at lower proficiency levels, from understanding the reading passages presented on the CD-ROM. Students can, however, look up words from the story either by clicking on the individual words in the transcript of the story (located in "Exploring the Story" in the 2nd Period) or by clicking on the link to the Dictionary, which can be found easily at the bottom of the main interface (Figure 4).
Wrapping Things Up
Overall, The Hockey Sweater CD-ROM has a number of positive features. One of the greatest benefits is that it is based on a classic story. Authentic materials provide high interest and create natural opportunties for cultural awareness. Spelleri (2002) states that ESL learners benefit from the use of authentic materials because they provide opportunities for the learners to connect what they are learning to real life situations. In The Hockey Sweater, the authors achieve this goal by having students make connections between the story and their everyday lives. One area which students may, nevertheless, find difficult in English as a Second Language classes is the fact that the story is read by the author, Roch Carrier, in his fairly strong French accent; however, in the 2nd Period teachers can guide students to listen to the story being retold by a native English speaker, or, alternatively, a teacher might begin with this standard version before they have students listen to Roch Carrier's rendition.
The CD-ROM could be very beneficial for English language learners interested in Canadian culture. Dominey (2006) states that, "the language we speak is directly related to the culture the language lives in" (para. 1). With increasing numbers of non-English speaking people immigrating to Canada (Canada Immigrant Job Issues, 2008), the need for the teaching of English as a second language has increased since English is one of the official languages of Canada. This CD-ROM could be quite useful in teaching this group of students.
Another plus of The Hockey Sweater is that its interface makes it very easy to navigate from activity to activity. Many of the activities are fairly easy to figure out for someone who has used computer software before, but it would have been helpful if there were instructions on the screen/pages. Learners on their own can get help by clicking on the Help button. Those at low levels of proficiency or with little computer experience may initially need additional assistance from the teacher to understand how to complete the activities.
The shortcomings of the CD-ROM have been mentioned throughout the review and can be summarized as follows: a lack of adequate progression in activities from level to level and of appropriate accompanying activities for the reading passages. For students to get the full benefit of this CD-ROM at all levels, the teacher will need to create comprehension support for the reading passages in the 3rd Period for lower level students through appropriate activities. Teachers also need to fill in the gaps where there is a lack of scaffolding or progression of difficulty from one level to the next. All in all, however, many activities on The Hockey Sweater CD-ROM could be very beneficial to students learning English and specifically those with an interest in hockey and Canadian culture.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Lily Sorenson is currently an instructor of English as a Foreign Language at Georgetown University. She has taught English as a second language at a number of universities, including Harvard, Northeastern, Boston, and Brigham Young. In addition to being a teacher, she was the Assistant Director of International Academic Programs at Northeastern University. She is interested in curriculum/program development and the use of technology in the classroom. She is currently pursuing a Doctoral Degree for Special Education-Bilingual Education at The George Washington University.
Email: las222@georgetown.edu
REFERENCES
Caws, C. (2007). Review of Le chandail de hockey CD-ROM. Language Learning & Technology, 11(3), 29-37.
Canada Immigrant Job Issues. (2008). Canadian Immigration Statistics. Retrieved Aug. 9, 2008, from http://www.canadaimmigrants.com/statistics2.asp.
Dominey, T. (2006). Strategies for assisting third culture children in the TEYL classroom. The International TEYL Journal. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from http://www.teyl.org/article18.html.
The National Film Board of Canada. (2007). Teacher's guide: The hockey sweater CD-Rom. Calgary, Alberta: Les Editions 3D.
Spelleri, M. (2002). From lessons to life: Authentic materials bridge the gap. ESL Magazine. Retrieved March 10, 2008, from http://www.eslmag.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=18.
Xu, I. H. (2004). Investigating criteria for assessing ESL testbooks (Doctoral dissertation, University of Alberta, Canada, 2004). Retrieved May 22, 2008, from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. (AAT NQ96339).
Review by Lily Sorenson, Georgetown University
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