Benkyoukai #3

Enhancing language learning through electronic reading

John Fahey

Network Manager, LACIT

(Liberal Arts Center for Instructional Technology)

University of Texas at El Paso

jfahey@miners.utep.edu

The following is based on my own experience and bias. Any opinions are my own and so are any errors. I am not a teacher. Most of my judgments are based on my experience as a language learner. I believe language learning should be an enjoyable experience even when it is challenging. It should ideally include time spent living in an environment where the language is naturally spoken. One of the reasons for my interest in Japanese culture and language is the great interest and fascination in Japan for new technologies. I’d like to explore how those technologies can be used to enhance language learning. In particular, I am interested in how technology can assist with language input through reading.

I recently read an article on ZDNet by Roger Ebert, the famous American movie critic defending "real books" against the potential onslaught of electronic texts. He describes how each of his cherished books has a history and brings back memories of important moments in his life. He fears that replacing his entire book collection with a single disk would be like turning them into ashes in an urn. He takes issue with Microsoft's predictions that in twenty years electronic text will virtually replace paperbound books. He issues his own prediction that within a few years ebooks will end up at yard sales next to eight track tapes.

While I Respect Mr. Ebert and his fine collection of texts in addition to his film reviews, I can't help but wonder why we have to make an either-or choice. Shouldn't there be room for both on our shelves? A beautifully bound book perhaps with elegant illustrations or photographs should be a treasure for a lifetime.

Saint John's Abbey and University is currently engaged in the long-term task of recreating by hand the entire Bible in elaborate calligraphy, character by character. This will be an expensive and lengthy project. Although it rejects the technology of Gutenberg, it is a work of art and will be appreciated by many.

    Gutenberg's press brought mass publishing to the world and books into the hands of thousands. Electronic texts shouldn't be seen as merely a way to eliminate tons of paper waste, although this could be of great benefit. It shouldn't be seen as merely a way to stuff thousands of pages of text into a device that you could hold in one hand, though that too may be of value. It can open up new avenues of learning. It offers new opportunities for people with learning difficulties or who for various reasons cannot read traditional texts. It offers everyone new ways to learn through combined technologies and overlapping media.
    All new technologies can be used for good or evil. Recently many respected members of the scientific and academic community have stepped forward to warn us of the dangers we may face in the future from new technologies. We should certainly listen and pay serious attention to what they have to say. Technological development will proceed in spite of all real or perceived dangers. We need to understand and take control of it in order to make sure that it will benefit all of the world's people.
    I would like to generate discussion of some of the possible positive uses of new technologies to enhance language learning through electronic reading. I see this as an addition to the use of paperbound text. For the near future, the use of paper texts still has an advantage at least in terms of comfort for reading lengthy works. Many of the best features of electronic texts may still have to be used on a full computer. The small hand held devices are advancing but can't equal the memory and power of a desktop or even a notebook computer. But what we do today on a desktop computer will be possible on handheld electronic books within a few years.
    The comfort issue is mainly an issue of the quality of the display. As the screen resolution and the frequency rate of the display improve, it will become easier to read long texts electronically. Much work is being done on improving the visual quality of electronic text. Microsoft research, Steve Gibson Research and others have developed software to greatly enhance the display capabilities of LCD monitors in regards to text. A group of researchers from Cambridge University have set up a company called Cambridge Display Technologies to produce high quality displays from low cost plastics. They plan to produce low cost, low flicker displays, with wide-angle view capability from flexible plastics. The development of low cost, high quality, thin monitors will help popularize portable electronic readers.
    Currently, it is far more feasible to focus on the receptive mode (reading and listening) in terms of providing electronic language learning materials, than on the productive mode (writing and speaking). Computers are still very primitive at analyzing natural language input such as student writing and speech. There is much greater control over the content and quality of the reading material. The text can be electronically marked in advanced to provide access to meaning, pronunciation, additional background information, visual and audio cues, and syntactical and morphological information. Dictionaries, concordances, and search tools can all be linked to the text for detailed study. For Japanese, hiragana readings can be linked to kanji. The same text can be layered to be read various times at different levels of difficulty and using different grade levels of kanji.
    A number of programs already provide combinations of these features and are delivered on various media including Floppy Disks, CD-ROMs, Networks, the Internet, DVDs and other high capacity storage media. Karaoke, manga, and anime have all helped to popularize Japanese culture. Although the quality of the content varies, the medium can be very useful and can be delivered through electronic text. High quality content for language learners can be selected or developed. Even the Pocket PC from HP, Casio, and Microsoft has the ability to play MP3 audio in addition to running software and displaying high color graphics.
    There are many good programs available. Keiko Schneider Sensei's Bookmarks list a number of them, particularly those available online. I will mention a few that I haven't seen discussed recently on various lists. But there are many more. Broderbund's living books show how text, audio, and animation can be combined into an educational and entertaining format. At least one of their books "Just Grandma and me" comes with three languages (English, Spanish, and Japanese). Although it is developed for young children not especially for language learning purposes, and is not authentic material for Japanese learners, it does demonstrate the possibilities. The program will read the entire story highlighting the text as it proceeds or it will allow you to go one page at a time, playing a word or page at a time. One weakness is that the text is embedded as graphics and there is no possibility of searching for or looking up words.
    In 1995 in Akihabara, I bought a Karaoke CD disk that supports CD graphics. I was unable to access the graphics on windows. Eventually I was able to download a program for the MAC called CD+G that allows CD + graphics disks to play on a MAC. The disk I bought happens to have tracks with vocals, which I appreciate, that are sequenced to kanji text with some furigana.
    Yamaha has an audio plugin and player called Sound VQ for delivering on-line stories and music. Lavender story is an example of an online book in Japanese with audio that uses this technology. Students can copy and paste Japanese text from the story into an online dictionary.
    There are many tools for developing electronic texts including everything from authoring programs with prepackaged templates to low level programming languages. The quality and ease of use of these systems varies greatly. Plain HTML is fairly easy to learn and works well with Japanese and other languages across different browsers and operating systems. JavaScript offers interactivity and feedback to the user and runs directly from the browser on the user's computer. Support for Japanese varies according to the user's browser and operating system. For example on English systems with Netscape navigator, JavaScript dialog boxes display mojibake. This appears to be fixed for Internet Explorer 5.0 on the Mac. Java is a full-blown programming language like C++ but is designed to run on many different systems without modification and will run as applets in most current web browsers. Although designed to be cross-platform there are still significant differences in performance and compatibility. CGI scripting with perl, C++, and other languages is very powerful. But it is run from the server and the author needs access to and privileges on the CGI server.
    Another way to develop fast, powerful programs that are platform dependent is by using Rapid Application Development tools (RAD). An excellent example on the Windows platform is Delphi. It is based on the Pascal programming language. The interface and menu design is done by simply dragging and dropping objects with a mouse. The logic portion does require writing Pascal code. On the Macintosh platform, there is an excellent new RAD program called RealBasic. It is possible to put together a 'simple' Japanese capable text editor in a matter of hours. Matt Neuberg, a former professor of classical Greek, and a contributor to the Tidbits Newletter (Macintosh) has written "The definitive guide to RealBasic." Writing a 'simple' RealBasic program is no more difficult than writing HTML code by hand, in my opinion.
    The number of tools and programs available for electronic reading is extensive. The major problem is not the lack of tools but deciding which one is best for a particular job. Another obstacle is keeping up with the rapid pace of changes on the computer front. Often as one program changes compatibility problems arise. There are many opportunities and it is an exciting time to be involved with language learning programs.