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April 2005, Week 1

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From:
LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 7 Apr 2005 13:01:38 EDT
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--- Forwarded Message from RLD Watson <[log in to unmask]> ---

>User-Agent: Microsoft-Entourage/10.0.0.1309
>Date: Wed, 06 Apr 2005 14:51:15 -0500
>Subject: Re: #7869 VISTA Spanish Books
>From: RLD Watson <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information    Forum
<[log in to unmask]>
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>

We've been using it at Nebraska Wesleyan University for a few years now.
There are tons of things that come with the text itself: CDs, a dictionary,
the entire video program, workbooks, etc. Overall, the potential is
wonderful, but in practice . . .

We've had good results with it. However, the students are not required to do
their work in the language lab, since all the homework is available online.
This has been a blessing and a curse. If you take the time, you can set up
the homework pretty much any way you want it to be done: graded, ungraded, a
specific number of attempts, or just practice. Of course, the computer
grading is merciless; a student may only forget an accent and will receive
no credit for the answer.

Personally, I've found that students tend to go on "autopilot" when doing
the online homework; they don't really pay attention, particularly when they
know they can do an exercise as many times as it takes to get all the
answers right. Also, some have figured out they can just cut/paste the
answers.

If you take the time, the online work could be used to great benefit, but it
will take a lot of teacher editing to get things to work smoothly.

The text itself is okay. It seems to be of the newfangled "web style" I see
popping up so much on menus and in advertising. The pages are just filled
with little asides and colored columns that sometimes contain the most
important grammatical information, which most students simply pass by. The
grammar explanations are, in general, very good and clear.

So, ultimately, if you're willing to put a lot of time into it initially,
the rewards are promising. I find that the younger the teacher, the easier
the implementation of the newer technologies.

Finally, I am worried about the students not having attend the lab at all,
except when they take oral exams; they just don't get enough listening and
speaking practice. That's my opinion, however, from an old teacher's point
of view.

P.S. I teach at Nebraska Wesleyan but work in the lab at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
--
Randall Watson, PhD
Assistant Lab Director, UNL
304 Burnett Hall
(402)472-1786
[log in to unmask]
http://www.unl.edu/langlab
http://langlabcalendar.unl.edu/

>
> I wonder if any of your Spanish departments are using the Vista Higher
> Learning textbooks for 1st year Spanish. We are considering changing books
> and I'd like to get feedback (positive or negative) regarding the textbook
> and the lab materials.
>
> Thanks!
> Karl



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