Yet, what has been the impact of technology on teaching and learning in the language classroom? It seems clear that there are significant numbers of classrooms around the country where technology has had no impact at all. Is there potential waiting to be fulfilled? And let's consider the developers who have been striving to put these technologies to work for language learners. Are they "technology nuts," eager to adopt any new thing that comes along, but who have missed the mark concerning what is important to the profession? Or are they pioneers who have blazed trails that others will follow? Is the foreign language learning profession poised on an exciting threshold of tremendous development, or will it continue to go slow in finding interesting and exciting ways that technology can help solve the language learning problem?
To understand the state of technology in language learning today, one needs to consider the historical setting of the past fifteen or so years. In 1980 Solveig Olsen published an article in the Modern Language Journal that provided a foreshadowing of an answer to the first question above on technology's impact. Moreover, it is quite interesting to consider the findings of her survey as a prediction of what seems to have in fact happened.
In 1978 and 1979, Olsen surveyed foreign language departments in 1,810 four-year colleges. Of the 602 that returned the survey, 527 indicated that computer-assisted instruction was not in use and would not be considered in the near future. When asked about the potential for using computers in language learning, many were suspicious:
"My advice is to stay out. Computers can now teach computer language, not a living language."
To the question of whether their department would introduce computer-assisted instruction by 1980 department chairs responded with comments such as
Consider for example the fact that in 1994 there were 48.5 million PCs sold, representing startling growth in the number of machines installed during the period since the survey was conducted. Although quite impressive by the sheer numbers, the increases are overwhelming when considering the computing power that was sold in 1994. Although there were about 67 times more computers sold that year than 14 years previously, most of those units were roughly 128 times more powerful than the computers of 1980. This means that there was 8,576 times more computing power sold in 1994 than in 1980!
In addition, the advances show no sign of slowing. Moore's Law says that computing power doubles roughly every two years, and there is no end in sight. These advances are making possible some very interesting technological capabilities, putting us on the threshold of another significant development that will perhaps eclipse developments to date. We are witnessing the convergence of computers, communications technologies, and media into a totally new, synergistic something that promises to be infinitely more important than any of the technologies by themselves. The visions of the most visionary of the computer pioneers of the 1970s doubtless did not include the things that in fact are becoming possible.
To place the potential impact of these technologies in perspective for education in general, consider the following recommendations made in a recently completed study by the RAND Corporation for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Office of Technology of the U.S. Department of Education (Glennan and Melmed 1996). This study took an in-depth look at the role that technology is playing and probably should be playing in public schools today and concluded:
Returning to our second question above, where are we today with respect to the implementation of technology for language learning? In 1987 and 1989 ACTFL published two volumes in the Foreign Language Education Series as a result of its commission to Flint Smith (Smith 1989; Smith 1987). Covering the impact of technology on foreign language education at that time, these volumes became two of the best sellers ever in the ACTFL Foreign Language Education Series. But as illustrated above, seven years is a very long time, given the speed with which technology is developing. Things that were interesting but too expensive for wide-spread implementation at that time are now becoming commonplace today. Things that were only marginally imaginable are now becoming possible.
Given the incredible changes that have taken place and that will continue to unfold in our classrooms, it is necessary to once again address how technology can benefit language learners.
Volume Overview
So how do we make sense of imminent technological change and the status of technology implementation in foreign language learning? The main purpose of this volume is to explore new technologies from the perspective of the foreign language teaching professional. Gunther Mueller, a member of the Volume Advisory Committee, proposed the following graphic to help define the specific topics that authors needed to cover. As illustrated, the areas to be addressed fall within the intersection of issues related to the Learner, the Teacher, the Technology, and the Curriculum and converge at educational and learning Outcomes.
It was not possible to present every specific issue implied by this diagram, nevertheless, volume authors were challenged to address areas such as
Chapter Overviews
In Chapter 1, "Taking Control of Multimedia," Pusack and Otto provide an excellent introduction to interactive technologies. After demonstrating how pedagogy must govern the ways new media are used, they go on to discuss how specific attributes can help both teachers and learners. They provide several excellent examples of actual applications and how they have been used to support sound language teaching pedagogy.
Chiquito, Meskill, and Renjilian-Burgy, in Chapter 2, "Multiple, Mixed, Malleable Media," contrast the dynamic nature of language with the static media that have traditionally been used in its teaching. They discuss specific projects and products and show how these can enrich the language learning experiences of students. The authors have done extensive surveys of existing applications and provide this excellent overview of developments in the application of technology to individual language learning - from interactive videodisc to newer digital interactive multimedia technologies and network-based applications.
In Chapters 3 and 4, "Teaching Listening: How Technology Can Help" and "Hypermedia Technology for Teaching Reading," Joiner and Martínez-Lage each provide excellent theoretical underpinnings for how technology can support receptive skill learning. In Chapter 3 Joiner moves from more conventional approaches for teaching listening to multimedia technologies and provides an overview of how various technologies can be brought to bear on this particular skill, supporting her affirmations with actual research. In addition to the excellent overview in Chapter 4 of the reading process itself, Martínez-Lage also shows how she was able to create a hypermedia application from Laura Esquivel's bestselling novel, Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate). She provides an overview of the development process as well as a glimpse at student results from using the application.
Teaching the productive skills with technology presents much more of a challenge than does teaching the receptive skills. In Chapter 5, "Computer-Mediated Communication: Technology for Improving Speaking and Writing," Beauvois reports on actual experiences using the computer in this mode. She thus provides empirical evidence for the efficacy of new approaches that combine technology-based communication and teacher-based instruction to address many important objectives for teaching speaking and writing.
Scinicariello, in Chapter 6, "Uniting Teachers, Learners, and Machines: Language Laboratories and Other Choices," provides an excellent overview of where the language laboratory is today and where it needs to go in the future. She points out that although language laboratories have experienced change in previous years, those of the past are almost insignificant with respect to the changes that are now taking place. Her discussion provides valuable insights into the restructuring that she says will need to take place. Not leaving things there, her advice pertaining to possible steps and potential pitfalls will be valuable to anyone involved with establishing, directing, or using language laboratories now or in the future.
As illustrated in Chapter 7, "Learning Language and Culture with Internet Technologies," Internet technologies such as E-mail and the World Wide Web are making an incredible entrée onto the education scene. In this chapter, Lafford and Lafford discuss activities using online technologies that students at various proficiency levels can perform as individuals or in small groups. They provide numerous examples of applications and show how these can be used with students.
Although there might be a great deal of interest among teachers for the use of technology in their language classes, unless teachers know how to use technology in the instructional programs they devise, it seems obvious to conclude that students will not benefit. In Chapter 8, "Meeting the Technology Challenge: Introducing Teachers to Language Learning Technology," Kassen and Higgins point out how new technologies, more than ever before, dictate a serious need for teacher education. They also provide a specific example of a training program they have devised to address this problem.
Chapter 9, the final chapter of the volume, is entitled "Implementing Technology for Language Learning." With the goal of outlining reasonable expectations, Bush puts technology for foreign language education in the much broader contexts of technology in society and technology in education in general. Pointing out how foreign language students are not benefiting from the new learning tools becoming available, he illustrates how, without the profession's devising a coherent model for implementation, students will continue to miss out on the potential that technology has to offer for addressing language learning problems. He also gives examples of how the situation can be turned around and places the potential for change within an overall societal context for technology in learning.
Conclusion
As illustrated by each of the chapters within this volume, technology for language learning can be an effective force for improving foreign language instruction. Furthermore, it is much more powerful and affordable today than ever before, and there is evidence that this situation will only continue to improve. Unfortunately, despite the incredible advances of recent years, not very many students benefit from its potential today. It is hoped that this volume will help change that.
References
Friedrich, Otto 1983. "The Computer Moves In." Time, January 3, pp. 14-24
Glennan, Thomas K., and Arthur Melmed. 1996. Fostering the Use of Educational Technology: Elements of a National Strategy. MR-682-OSTP. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Also available at <http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR682/contents.html>.
Olsen, Solveig. 1980. "Foreign Language Departments and Computer-Assisted Instruction: A Survey." Modern Language Journal 64, 3: 341-349.
Smith, Wm. Flint, editor. 1989. Modern Technology in Foreign Language Education: Applications and Projects. ACTFL Foreign Language Education Series. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.
_____, editor. 1987. Modern Media in Foreign Language Education: Theory and Implementation. ACTFL Foreign Language Education Series. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.