Year: 2003
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This investigation represents a case study of the implementation of \ntechnology in a university-level Spanish program. The study is both qualitative \nand quantitative in nature, and was conducted largely during the first phase of the \nimplementation of a computer-enhanced component in the first-semester Spanish \ncourse at the University of Texas at Austin. The purpose was to observe what \noccurred in general, and specifically in two courses that were different iterations \nof the same first-semester Spanish curriculum: one version had a computerenhanced \ncomponent and the other did not. There were two research objectives: \n(1) to provide a historical perspective that describes the development of the \ncomputer-enhanced course; and (2) to describe learner progress in SLA with \nrespect to one aspect of the target language—verb morphology. Three research \nquestions guided the study: (1) What was the development of technology use in \nthis language program? (2) What effect, if any, does participation in computerassisted \nverb exercises in the first-semester Spanish classes have on learners' \nability to notice and focus attention on Spanish verb forms, thereby helping to \nlearn the forms, as shown by accurate oral and written production? (3) What \neffect, if any, does participation in computer-assisted verb exercises have on \nlearners' ability to use verb structures in oral production in terms of more selfinitiated \ngrammatical corrections but less overall fluency? The study examined \none group of 50 Computer-Assisted learners and one group of 54 Classroom-Only \nlearners, and considered both quantitative and qualitative data to describe the \nlearners' oral and written verb production performance. Results of a pretest \nmeasurement (oral picture description, discrete-item verb test, and written \ncomposition) and a posttest measurement (final oral interview, discrete-item verb \ntest, final written composition) are examined. Quantitative analysis of the posttest \ndata showed a higher frequency of self-initiated grammatical corrections by the \nComputer-Assisted learners, but did not yield a significant statistical effect for the \ncomputer-assisted verb exercises on accurate oral and written verb production, \nexcept for the discrete-item verb test. Qualitative analysis of six sample \ntranscriptions indicated between-group differences in learner speech with respect \nto pause frequency and distribution.
Institution: The University of Texas at Austin
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2097148210