Call for help a study of the use of help facilities and language learning strategies in the context of a web-based multimedia CALL program

Abstract

This thesis presents a description of how learners use the help facilities of a Web-based multimedia CALL program designed to foster second language learners' reading and listening skills and language learning strategies.Relevant literature reviews of three main areas of Applied Linguistics research and theory are first presented: Language Learning Strategies, Second Language Pedagogy and CALL. These have a direct influence on both the program and the research design. A description of the program then follows: ImPRESSions© is a Web-based multimedia program intended for self-study to help learners of English in their comprehension skills regarding news in newspapers, on television and radio. The targeted users are learners of English from preintermediate to advanced levels. The prototype for the research study targeted Spanish learners. The author of this thesis first designed the program using HTML and JavaScript programming languages based on the capabilities of the computer to interlink different media. Then the need for various help facilities and options was assessed and designed. Help facilities are understood here as the resources of the program which assist the learner in performing language learning tasks. The help facilities in ImPRESSions are divided between Assistance, those that provide learner help for comprehension of the texts, and Guidance, those that are related to the tasks and provide help for performing them. Thus we could state that Assistance facilities are related to cognitive strategies whereas Guidance facilities are more related to metacognitive strategies. This framework helped to conceptualise the design of the program and enabled the researcher to explore how different learners use the help facilities presented.This study investigates the variation of strategy use taking into account students' level and their perceived language learning strategy use. In essence this is an exploratory study of strategy use in a CALL environment: 22 adult Spanish students worked with the program for four sessions. In these sessions learners' computer moves were tracked by online video screen recording and retrospective questions were audio recorded after they worked on different written and aural texts. As the emphasis is on the process rather than the product, the description and analysis of the data focus on the observation of the language learning strategies learners deployed when they used the help facilities provided: Dictionary, Cultural Notes, Transcript, Subtitles and Play Controls, Feedback and an Experts module specifically designed to provide the language learner training component of the program.The qualitative analysis of the results points to the direction that many variables have an influence on the amount and quality of the use of the help provided by the program, lfom the learners' individual differences to the fact that the CALL environment may prompt learners to behave or work in a different way from conventional learning.The results of the study provide information for future CALL material design, in particular for the design of help facilities in programs dealing with comprehension skills. The type of research outlined also provides information on other areas of Applied Linguistics research, e.g. SLA, and opens new possibilities for CALL research methods