Language Learning Online

Language Learning Online
Reviewed by Lauren Goldenberg
School of Education
New York University

Propelled by their enthusiasm--or the enthusiasm of their administrators--many educators use networked computers in a variety of innovative ways. However, their approach usually has more to do with intuition and experience than research-based methods. The truth is, we just don’t know much about how the use of networked computers influences student learning. Journals such as the TESOL Quarterly and System are have begun to publish more articles on technology-enhanced language learning and newer, specialized journals like Language Learning & Technology are emerging. Books, too, are being published, some of the how-to variety and others with a more research bent.

The collection of ten essays in the edited volume Language Learning Online: Theory and Practice in the ESL and L2 Computer Classroom falls into the latter category and contributes some much-needed empirical research to the field. The title is a bit misleading: the word "online" is generally associated with wide area networks and in particular with the widest area network of them all, the Internet. The majority of the essays in this volume, however, are based on working with a specific local networking application: the Interchange module of the Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment (DIWE), software developed at the University of Texas at Austin to facilitate English composition. The online nature of the computer use described here focuses on real-time (synchronous) written exchanges that take place between students sitting in the same classroom or computer lab. All research was conducted with students and/or instructors at the university level in subjects like French, German and Portugese as a Foreign Language, ESL, and developmental English. And although the phrase "action research" is not utilized, most of this classroom-based research was conducted by instructors looking at their own classes.

The book is divided into four sections, each with one to three essays. Three essays by Janet Swaffar, a professor of German at the University of Texas at Austin and one of the book’s editors, bracket the volume. In the first chapter, Swaffar provides a good introduction to the book along with some research questions and a rationale for using this sort of networked classroom for language learning. Her argument is well-presented but would have been stronger had there been more reference to existing literature. At the end of the book, Swaffar proposes a scheme for assessing development in writing through a coding system. One of the problems in existing research is how to evaluate both student writers’ progress, and also the impact of the computer on that progress. Swaffar’s coding system is well thought out and introduces possibilities for future research. In the final chapter, Swaffar summarizes the findings of the volume’s studies and offers some suggestions for classroom activities based on the results of the studies and also for further research.

Section 1, "Marrying Technology to the Liberal Arts," describes the history of the Computer Writing and Research Laboratory at the University of Texas, Austin. This is a sort of institutional case study by John Slatin, the person responsible for the lab and also for DIWE (in which he discloses a financial interest; it should also be noted that the book’s publisher also publishes DIWE). This chapter is useful for anyonr at a university anticipating the introducton of a computer lab for language learning.