FIPSE Grant Will Help UCSC Establish ‘Spanish Without Walls’ Web Classroom

SANTA CRUZ, CA–According to the visionary speculations of the web wizards and Internet gurus, over-the-counter purchases should have been just about obsolete by now. By the middle of 2001, we were expected to be suckling at the teat of technology for all our needs–credit card numbers whizzing through cyberspace in an orchestrated orgy of high-tech consumption. Okay, it didn’t work out that way and the dotcom downturn has soured a lot of the Internet enthusiasm. But maybe commerce isn’t the only, or even the best use of the Internet.

Maria Victoria González-Pagani, a lecturer in the UCSC Language Program, and her colleague Robert Blake at UC Davis, have devised a way of using the web as a tool for learning a second language instead.

González-Pagani and Blake have received a FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education) grant to fund the development of a Spanish-language-learning web classroom dubbed Spanish Without Walls. For the UC system, anticipating an ever-increasing demand on resources and space by a bugeoning student population, Spanish Without Walls represents a promising alternative to the traditional classroom setting.

The project will unfold in three stages. The initial phase will involve creating a Spanish-language database and an interactive web site, and establishing them on the server at the UC Davis Language Learning Center. González-Pagani will select the resources entered into the database, drawing on her extensive experience teaching "topic-oriented" Spanish-language courses at UCSC.

Topic-oriented classes differ from the traditional language classes by shifting the focus of learning from the language itself to a specific topic in the language, such as geography, nature, art, history, or any of a number of other topics. The web site uses a multimedia approach, incorporating written material, audio clips, video, interactive task-oriented activities, and a sophisticated chat room that supports not only text exchanges, but sound transfers, web-page manipulation, and a collaborative writing window. These web tools are augmented by a five-CD set called Tesoros (Treasures), compiled by Blake, a professor of Spanish and classics at UC Davis. Blake designed the CD set specifically for Spanish-language distance-learning courses, and it will serve as the "textbook" for Spanish Without Walls.

Topic-oriented language programs benefit students by developing language skills and learning strategies in the target culture, promoting communication in the language, and motivating students with real-world activities. For most students, it is as close as they can come to immersion in another language without traveling to a foreign country. This approach has the added benefit of allowing students to progress at their own pace, and measure their progress by proficiency rather than by hours spent in class. Web-based instruction lends itself very well to this approach, allowing teachers and students to individualize instruction, whether it is by distance learning or in a classroom setting.

Initially, Spanish Without Walls will only be used by language students at UCSC and UC Davis. The online class will run parallel to traditional language classes. By the spring of 2002, González-Pagani and Blake hope to be able to survey students from both classes in order to evaluate the competency of the students in the Spanish Without Walls program. If the results meet their expectations, they plan to expand the program to the entire UC system. Eventually, UCSC and UC Davis will conduct training workshops for language teachers; those teachers will be able to access all of the language-learning materials through the server maintained by the UC Davis Language Learning Center when they return to their own classrooms.

Although the program will only provide Spanish instruction initially, if it is successful, it could obviously be applied to other languages, as well. Online language learning could provide instruction in wide variety world languages–a tremendous benefit on smaller campuses with limited resources, allowing them to offer language instruction they would not have the resources for otherwise.