Remedial and second language English teaching using computer assisted learning

Abstract

The problem addressed is that of teaching collegial and entering level university students the requisite skills to write intelligible papers and reports in English. This is a real problem in Montreal because a high proportion of the students have English as a second or third language in which their proficiency is limited or. though English may be their native language, their training in it is not adequate for the pursuit of further education. Several hundred students have worked through 20 or more CAL lessons each year for 3 years, and appreciable gains in skills have been measured. However, where it was possible to duplicate the CAL lessons as programmed texts, equal gains were achieved by those using the programmed texts. Current work is in two divergent directions: (i) providing simple template software for ESL and other teachers to write lessons; (ii) providing a measure of artificial intelligence and auto-adaptation, via a student-constructed sentence diagnosis and remediation package. A service and record system in CDC BASIC was produced to support the grammar lessons. However, a more powerful language is needed for the sentence diagnostician remediator. This was initially written in APL but used too much CPU time in that language and is now being re-written in NATAL (the Canadian standard CAL language). Three quasi-technical questions which also have paedogogical implications occurred and are answered: (i) To what extent can access procedures and frame formats (typography, etc.) be standardized for all studyware on the system? (ii) How: much data needs to be collected automatically to ensure that studyware is working properly and to identify needed improvements? (iii) To what extent should self-documentation of source-code be used, and to what extent should it be in a standardized format? Although a CAL language. CITCAN. was used initially on the CDC system, the level of expertise required to maintain it was too high, and subsequently the present system, written in BASIC, was developed. Personal computers, although available in this environment, are not as yet cost-effective when compared to time-shared access. We expect to move to a hybrid system, with studyware and records stored on the maxi-system. but actual "delivery" being provided by personal computers to which the studyware will be downloaded in blocks and from which the usage data will be collected back at sign-off. © 1982.