Using Rich Media to Bring France to French Students

While learning a foreign language can be an arduous process, it's long been acknowledged that cultural immersion can help speed a student along. French Lecturer Françoise Sorgen-Goldschmidt has undergone a different kind of immersion to create a media-rich website and bring a piece of France to her students at UC Berkeley.

Practical Phonetics and Listening Comprehension in French meets three hours a week. Sorgen-Goldschmidt teaches one or two sections of 15 to 20 students each semester. Her exploration of technology came about by chance. When the old language lab was retired, the French instructor started contemplating adding video to her course. As she explains it: "I didn't fully understand or realize at the time that 'adding video' would necessitate the creation of a website and I certainly did not fully realize what a website was or entailed or could do." After taking classes in a wide-range of subjects including web page design, HTML, Dreamweaver, and PowerPoint, she attended a five-day Technology Symposium at UCSB. Later, she began working with Judy Stern of ETS, who she credits as "a most patient guide in this adventure -- which was much bigger in scope than I could have ever imagined!"

"It is not true that the professor can
design a course and 'technicians' will
take care of the rest."

Integration of All Course Materials
Sorgen-Goldschmidt's work yielded an enormous payoff for her students. While the previous incarnation of her course relied on text and audiocassettes, the new version integrates all media into a course website. Students can watch video and opt whether or not to see subtitled translations. They can view clips repeatedly. Best of all, they can access all course materials on the website. Previously students had to work with audiocassettes ("so linear!") and four different course readers. They were unable to revisit the audio clips Sorgen-Goldschmidt played in class. On the website students can access French TV news clips, links to other relevant sites, and audio-supplemented explanations (that they formerly found in their readers).

What Do the Students Think?
Sorgen-Goldschmidt has set up an email account where students can respond anonymously and send her feedback. Although some students admitted frustration waiting for the site to load or complained about feeling like "guinea pigs" (the site just launched in fall 2001), the instructor also received feedback of this ilk: "One thing I really like about the website is having access to actual French sound clips and learning that you can watch French news programs on the Internet! That is definitely the part of the website that I like the most and find the most useful, because I think that in hearing the French speak in a natural manner I learn to comprehend better and speak better."

Another student weighed in: "Overall I think the convenience of the Web page far outweighs the technical difficulties that occurred this semester (and hopefully will not even occur as much in future semesters)."

Sorgen-Goldschmidt notes that there's been "definite interest (and great attention) when trying to understand authentic video segments — of which there will be more as the site continues to grow."

Wise Words for the Uninitiated
Sorgen-Goldschmidt is quick to dispel the notion that putting up a good course website simply entails finding technically proficient assistance and handing over content. She says, "It is not true that the professor can design a course and 'technicians' will take care of the rest. Even in the best case scenario (lots of free help!), the professor needs to fully understand what the technology can do."

She offers this list of tips for those thinking about implementing course websites:

• Find the right guidance in the beginning
  
  
• Work WITH others — different from getting help from specialists in certain domains, which is necessary too
  
  
• You can't separate the design and pedagogical purposes of the project from their technological implementation. They constantly affect each other. The website may be quite different from what you initially had envisaged.
  
  
• Be open and flexible, ready for difficulties, setbacks, lots of time (obviously) and a pretty steep learning curve depending on where you start.
  
  
• Look forward to a lot of learning and excitement of BUILDING something.

Technologies Used