WELL Case Studies: Completed Case Studies

Language(s)

French

Learner level

Intermediate

Institution

Foreign Language Centre, University of Exeter

Name(s)
Judith Belam

Contact details
j.m.belam@exeter.ac.uk

Objectives

Class preparation on the Web
The students 35 second-year students (divided into two groups) doing French as an option preparatory to going to France for a year as part of degrees with European Study (Psychology, Geography, Economics …).
The material
The course is based on recent articles taken from newspapers and magazines; these form the basis of language study and themes and ideas are then exploited for oral work. The final text of a series of twenty was used for this project.
Hypothesis
- that students would find their class preparation easier and quicker with the glossary and answers provided; the hypertext format would mean that this material could be accessed only from the text and questions and would prevent students from simply going straight to the answers, which they would be more likely to do if the same material were provided in paper format.

Implementation
Students are normally given only the text and worksheet and are expected to do their own preparation at home with the help of their own dictionary and grammar. For the project both text and worksheet were put on the Web. Hypertext links to a glossary in French were added to the text: this glossary was then linked to a glossary in English. The worksheet had links to answers for each section. Preparation was followed as normal by class work where the students were given a photocopy of the text and worksheet and we worked through any problems and looked at the open-ended questions. We also held a debate on the issues raised by the text. Students then filled out a questionnaire about the material.

Outcome
Did the material help more thorough class preparation?
Yes. Students often arrive in class only having read through the text and looked up unfamiliar words. The addition of a readily available glossary cuts down this work dramatically and allows students to go on and spend more time on the exercises.
Did the material help to make more use of class time?
It is boring and time-consuming in class to go through vocabulary and exercises; if the easy and straightforward work has been done beforehand, this leaves time in class to go through any elements which are causing difficulty and need more discussion. Progression to active use of the language learned can take place earlier.
How did students react to the material?
Detailed analysis of questionnaire results can be found in Appendix A. Ready availability of glossary was the most popular feature; the awkwardness of having to switch screens between text and worksheet was the major perceived drawback. It is worth noting that the final judgment was mixed, exactly half the students saying they would welcome more material presented in this way and half rejecting the idea.

Evaluation

1. Positive results:
Students successfully accessed and worked with the material in the intended way;

Students came to class well prepared and class time was more efficiently used.
2. Areas for further development
The worksheet and answers were clearly awkward to handle. This means that the gain in efficiency of students’ own study time was not as great as it might have been. This could be addressed by adaptation of the worksheet design in two main ways:

some questions (nos. 3 and 4, for example) require a lot of switching between text, question and answer, and this type of exercise would therefore have to be adapted or omitted.

Questions need to be shorter in order to allow for a single question to be displayed in a smaller window with the main text window visible behind.

The method clearly relies upon ready availability of computers, and would ideally need a classroom equipped with a machine for each student if the need for paper copies is to be eliminated at all stages.

In its current form the method is significantly more expensive than use of paper copies.

Project url