Analisi di settore
A proposito di software per... Multimedia English Language Courses on CD-Rom
Jeffrey Earp
Non-native speakers can choose from a vast range of titles on CD-Rom for the learning of English as a Second/Foreign Language (EFL/ESL). Some offer English as the sole target language, others a range of possible languages to study that includes English. In either case, many of these products can be classified (and indeed are marketed) as courses. While these vary in terms of the content and activities proposed (especially when it comes to courses devoted to young learners), they present a number of common characteristics that permit some rough generalisations. Typically, multimedia English language courses are tutorial in nature and are often hierarchically structured into levels, units and lessons of graded difficulty that are designed to be tackled progressively. They are often quite wide-ranging in curriculum coverage and offer a relatively large quantity of study material. A variety of learning activities is usually available, often coupled with support tools like dictionaries, glossaries, grammars, etc. Courses usually provide opportunities to practise listening, reading, speaking and writing skills; grammar is often dealt with explicitly as an area for special study. There is generally a high degree of hypermediality (integration of text, audio, graphics, video) and of interactivity. While some courses adopt a "full-immersion", English-only approach, many others use the user's native tongue in the support language, and in some cases even in the study material itself (especially within support tools). Taken all together, these characteristics make multimedia English language courses particularly well suited to individual study and self-learning; indeed on the most part they are designed for use without teacher/tutor mediation. In this context, a balance needs to be struck between guided learning and flexibility, so that individual users can harness the program's educational potential to meet their specific learning needs. Accordingly, while most courses present a hierarchical structure of units and lessons designed for progressive study, provision is usually made for choosing an individualised sequence of activities and/or for following individual learning paths. Another way English courses incorporate flexibility is personalisation through adjustment of operational parameters (hiding/displaying text, access to translation, setting severity of voice recognition, etc).
Programmi utilizzati presenti in Essediquadro:
