Computer Assisted Language Learning as a Bridge to Social Inclusion of Blind Learners in Mainstream Schooling.

Jarosław Wiazowski, PhD

Poland

Computer Assisted Language Learning, (CALL), with its more current name Technology Enhanced Language Learning (TELL) is not a norm in majority of English classes. Nonetheless, computers are not confined to IT classes anymore and more adventurous and inventive teachers of other subjects enrich their curricula with ICT techniques, hoping to raise the effectiveness of their teaching. Teaching foreign language these days is being shifted more towards learners. The role of the magister is a long-forgotten past. Teachers are at their learners service, but more as facilitators and councillors rather than omniscient mother/father figures. Computer technology has indisputably influenced the introduction of the new trends. Life in the information era enforced the use of means that allow an easy and fast exchange of data in the process of educating young generations. Computer communication, both synchronous and asynchronous, is a crucial element of professional and private lives of millions of people across the world. The virtual world with a myriad of services such as e-shopping, e-banking, e-dating, e-anything does not belong only to Hollywood superproductions like Star Wars, yet it is as ubiquitous as the physical reality that has always surrounded people. The global network has linked local networks, stand-alone machines, but what is more important, it has bound people. The Internet is not a mere resource of data that can be transferred in all possible directions. It’s a world where people interact with one another, entertaining themselves or arranging serious matters. The virtual world has taken over a substantial part of physical reality impressing its users with the speed and quantity of transfer. Another advantage of the Internet is convenience. After a short training, all users are able to access numerous Websites with desired information. It is sufficient to type in keywords and users receive sites at which they can obtain necessary information. Reality, even this virtual, sometimes bites. Instead of the information users have searched for, they get a handful of irrelevant sites. Nevertheless, in majority of cases, the quest is accomplished with a success and users have what they want.

All the above services have been established to serve people in their mundane affairs. The internet has not been tailored only for educational purposes. On the contrary, it has been adopted by education. Single machines, LANs and eventually the Internet have sneaked into classrooms squeezing in between blackboards and VCRs. As a matter of fact, they have become powerful rivals to the former. Multimedia and their complex cousins, hypermedia, display the content of their presentations engaging more than one sense of the users. This way they simulate the physical reality, in which people perceive the surrounding milieu through different senses simultaneously. Textual information is wrapped up by multisensory elements like moving pictures and sounds. The multitasking environment of Windows system allows the user to toggle between several applications running at the same time. All these elements along with numerous others can be applied in teaching/learning a foreign language.

Computers in teaching/learning foreign languages play a manifold role. Their functionality ranges from mere type-writer to sophisticated presentations, like PowerPoint, and from simulated talks with programs to long-distant chatting via IRC or forums. It is computer-mediated-communication (CMC) that I intend to zero in on today. Before I mention the blind, let me give another short introduction to state-of-the-art situation in TELL. With the Internet flourishing, and numerous forms of network communication, a new approach to teaching/learning foreign languages has been introduced. Foreign languages, especially English, are not aims in themselves, yet tools for exchanging thoughts, ideas, interests, etc. English, being an international language is spoken widely, and as such has become a social, rather than purely linguistic phenomenon. It is not the lord of the mansion, it is more a butler that carries our orders back and forth. Similarly to the Internet, it links people living in different corners of the world not only in the geographical terms, but also the cultural ones. The two media, the network and language, have altered modern lifestyle. Thanks to electronic forms of exchanging messages, the process is fast and in most cases reliable. English as a first, second and foreign language presents on the infohighway carries verbal and non-verbal messages. Despite iconographic presentations that are informative and attractive, verbalization of ideas and thoughts still seems to be indispensable.

Online communication has offered non-verbal elements in conversation that for the first time can be received by blind speakers. Although imperfect, smileys and emoticons illustrate the significance of no-word behaviors in a dyadic discussion. Words express mainly ideas, body reflects the attitude of the speaker and listener. It is not easy to teach especially the congenitally blind to use and control communicative non-verbal behaviors in live conversations. Nevertheless, there are obstacles to familiarize them with symbolic representations used in online communication. The clusters of characters that show smiles and apprehension are also visible for blind users. They can produce them as well as receive. Even though the scope of emoticons is not as wide as real facial expressions and gestures, their functionality is alike. What is more the characters are equally new for all internet newbies, irrespective of their disability. It seems imperative that these are presented to both sighted and blind learners at the same time. There is no reason why the blind should be excluded from trained groups. They can contribute to this communicative phenomenon as much as their sighted peers. What does need extra attention in case of the blind is the explanation of what facial expressions are and clarification of their functions. Emoticons are splendid aids in the training of social behaviors. It cannot be forgotten that the graphical presentation is based on visual features and associations, which means that the blind will not directly connect the symbols with physical reactions. Nonetheless, they are much clearer to blind users than bodily reactions that are not visible or tangible for them. Non-verbal elements in the online systems can be taught in ways. On the one hand, as regular emoticons used in online communication, on the other hand as introduction and some sort of visualization of physical expressions used in real communication.

Visual impairment may and in numerous cases does hinder social communication. Limited use and perception of body language become hurdles lined up along the communication track. Frozen postures and expressionless face discourage sighted speakers to continue their turn in a dyadic discourse. Adding to it Braille, which is illegible for majority in any community, the visually impaired, and the blind in particular, end up neglected and often underestimated.

Thus, it seems important to establish a well-functioning system for mutual, comprehensible and uninhabited communication based on common channels and standards. This system is suggested to make use of information technology with its special form known as access or adaptive technology. Inclusion implies sameness of all learners regardless of their deficiencies.

Computer technology in the most significant part is common for all users irrespective of their specific needs. The core of the system includes exactly the same components, which are enhanced by peripheral devices. Text input is based on identical set of characters that are common for particular languages. Textual info is also legible for all literate users.

Without being linguistically imperialistic, I need to pinpoint the superiority of English over other languages used in the virtual reality. English in cyberspace has become a sort of lingua franca. What it means in this context is that both English and computer technology integrate people of different nationalities and needs. These two media link users spread all around the world.

Based on these principles I have incorporated TELL into my curriculum in the high school for the visually impaired in Laski, Poland. Students that take an extensive course of English are offered computer assisted classes. Current methodological trends aim at socio-cognitive approach. The implication of this psychological term in TEFL is that the language is taught as a part of social understanding, not only as a cognitive process related to mental phenomena.

After this lengthy theoretical background I will go on to suggest some of the techniques I have used in my classes that can also find their place in inclusive environments. My intention here is not the discussion over all aspects of CALL, yet CMC, which stands for computer mediated communication. My students, in majority being sufficiently trained to operate computers have been mastering their English with the assistance of stand-alone and networked computers. Communication for me has always been regarded a considerable part of language learning. In the global world it is prerequisite to master modern methods of distant communication. The internet-based approach doesn’t merely imitate reality, yet it generates it. CMC has not been established particularly for teaching foreign languages. It only entered classrooms bringing along modern communication tools.

My groups are composed of both low-vision and blind students. In a way this is an even more complex situation than in integration. Low-vision students also require specific configuration customized according to their sight deficiency.

One of the tools is a local chat program. This piece of software, dubbed by myself ‘cyberboard’, can function as virtual blackboard. The teacher of a language may use it to demonstrate new linguistic elements. These could be sentence structures, vocabulary, verb forms, etc. At the same time, cyberboard is more interactive than a traditional board because students having rights to enter their comments can react keying in words and sentences. Both the teacher and peers are in a position to give immediate feedback to the entries. At the same time online communication is being practised. In the classroom situation the ’silent’ chat is frequently accompanied by oral reactions of both students and the teacher. Research also showed that structures used by FL students in chat are more complex and versatile than in oral conversations. These results prove validity of this technique.

Apart from synchronous communication tools students are given asynchronous ones. The most popular and most often used is e-mail. Similarly to chat, the message exchange can happen within local mail systems and with external mail services. E-mail in TEFL is utilized as a vehicle for sending back and forth attached documents with e.g. lists of vocabulary, exercises both grammatical and lexical for peer correction or as a simple exchange of services. It’s also a forum for expressing opinions in the written form. E-mail eventually, being a regular tool to exchange messages outside the classroom, generates reality that is one of the principles of modern language teaching methodology.

However, the potential of e-mail cannot be limited only to local exchange. The Internet with its versatility opened new approaches to teaching and learning foreign languages. The teacher is no longer the only ‘omniscient’ source of language. He facilitates the process of learning by advising students how to get exposed various linguistic examples online. Students find the language on Websites, yet also they communicate with other people speaking the target language. Several years ago, CALL was accused of dehumanization of learning. Computers were believed to take over the teachers’ role. Students were envisioned be sitting in front of soulless machines completing exercises generated by computers. In TELL, the function of computers changed. They serve as a medium to swap messages sent by human learners. The communication is mediated by machines, not controlled. With all the benefits offered by electronic mail, blind learners are given a medium that produces characters legible for anyone that speaks a particular language. Braille is no longer a barrier for mutual correspondence. Students at Laski have benefited from e-mail by writing messages to students from different schools abroad as well as individuals who have wanted to share their knowledge, experiences, and opinions. They, for example, got in touch with a Japanese school, a German school, and individual users from the USA. It wasn’t only private correspondence about everything and nothing, though.

Socio-cognitive approach to language teaching armed n the Internet services resulted in project-based learning. Blind and low-vision students of mine have also been involved in a project launched and directed by them. The project being a part of communication training within the course of English aims at constructing an online multilingual dictionary of sounds and noises. The learners have collected (recorded) and digitized a number of sounds produced by animate and non-animate objects, including sounds that humans make, put them in categories, built a data base, and constructed a Website. They did it in a cooperation with learners from the above-mentioned schools, as well as from an international school in Norway belonging to a network of United World College.

Because dictionary has been mentioned, it seems necessary to discuss this aspect of CALL. Blind learners of foreign languages in integrative settings cannot permanently bank on their peers’ help in looking up vocabulary. Owing to computer and online dictionaries, they can individually and independently check up new words and phrases. Although, there are dictionaries in Braille, everyone who has seen them will know how cumbersome a task it is to make use of them. Dozens of bulky volumes cannot compete with fast, and easy-to-use computer dictionaries. Even sighted users can appreciate digital dictionaries. For the blind, they are much more helpful. Also teachers knowing that their blind learners have access to dictionaries do not need to prepare extra lists of vocabulary with translations or explanations. Electronic dictionaries take quite a load off their shoulders, at the same time increasing blind learners’ effectiveness.

Coming to concluding remarks, I wanted to pinpoint the usefulness, more than importance of computer enhanced classes. Machines, though versatile cannot shadow interhuman relationship. It is people that are in charge of the learning and communication process. Blind learners have been equipped with a variety of aids that were supposed to make their education more efficient. Such writing tools as stylus and slate, Braille typewriter, all sorts of electronic Braille note-takers have been in blind learners’ school bags. These have been supported by audio devices. Today, computers embrace all the qualities of an editing and audio tool, however, with additional features, they endow the blind with communication services that are identical for sighted and blind users. They connect people thanks to unified systems of encoding and transmitting data. Moreover, they mediate between human users who prior to the computer era could only use special written codes, like Braille. Also in this respect information technology is revolutionary, because the blind uses regular hardware and software putting in characters readable to any other user that speaks the same language.