Nergiz Ercil Cagiltay. Programmer/Analyst. Bloomington, IN Filiz Cicek. Central Eurasian Studies. PhD Student.

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1 Title: Providing a Digital Language Support Name: Department: Affiliation: Address: Nergiz Ercil Cagiltay Indiana University, Digital Library Program Programmer/Analyst Digital Library Program Main Library E E. 10th ST. Bloomington, IN Address: ncagilta@indiana.edu nergizcagiltay@yahoo.com Name: Department: Affiliation: Address: Address: Filiz Cicek Central Eurasian Studies PhD Student. CEUS, GoodBody Hall, Rm.157, Bloomington, IN fcicek@indiana.edu

2 Providing a Digital Language Support Nergiz Ercil Çağıltay, Indiana University Filiz Çiçek, Indiana University Abstract At Indiana University (IU), and in the U.S. in general, there is a shortage of computer-based instruction for students studying Turkish as a foreign language. The main focus of this research study is implementing a computer based support tool named as "Digital Turkish On Demand" (DITOD), for entry-level students of Turkish by analyzing the different settings of the implementation. The content of DITOD presently supports the first chapter of the course textbook by Suzan Özel; the textbook used by first year students at IU. DITOD is a tool, which is developed to support the student s performance, instate of providing structural information. The data is being collected qualitatively by means of interviews and observations during the 2000 fall and spring and 2001 fall semesters at IU. Introduction Since DITOD is not based on structural lessons and instructions, it has several characteristics differentiating it from other traditional and computerized tools designed for Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). It can be tailored to suit the needs and situations of different groups of learners and it provides information on demand and at the place the support is needed. It also provides the specific information the user is looking for and hides the detail information behind the hyperlinks. The information in DITOD is presented in several different formats such as visual, textual and audio.

3 DITOD is designed to accommodate users with varied learning styles. In DITOD, each user could find several different learning opportunities according to their own learning style. It also supports learning by providing several tools. A simple, expert advice is also implemented with DITOD to help users regulate themselves. DITOD can be reached from Web and CD. DITOD is developed based on the lessons, examples related to each lesson, and several exercises related to each lesson. The lessons, exercises and the examples are designed as independent system objects and then the relations are built between these objects. By this way, the same example is repeated in several different lessons, which are related to the examples. The relations between examples and lessons are also built. System Parts DITOD has four main system parts named as, information base, instruction / tutorial, Expert advice and tools. Information base covers all the content including only the first chapter of the textbook. For demonstrating this content in DITOD, more than 200 pages, 153 examples, 43 exercises, 480 sound files, 307 image files (from Microsoft s clip art gallery), an online help, dictionaries referenced from the Internet, a test and some links to other related sites are designed. The instruction / tutorial is the facilitator for the learning and it allows students to practice different activities through content. These activities include listening, repeating, writing and reading. The expert advice system part is designed to give some feedback during exercises. It shows correct answers to the students and says if their answer is correct or not. Some tools such as text boxes for writing, simulated Turkish keyboard with sounds, glossary / indexes (Turkish & English) are also prepared to help students.

4 System Design DITOD is designed to support the classroom environment. It supports learners performance. It also uses objects that can be reused for different purposes. In this sense most of the pages are created dynamically in DITOD. Data Analyses and Findings The data is being collected qualitatively by means of interviews and observations during three semesters at Indiana University. These semesters are: Semester I: 2000 fall semester, Semester II: 2000 spring semester, Semester III: 2001 fall semester, Students used DITOD for different purposes in each of these semesters. For example during semester I, students used DITOD during final exam week, while they were preparing for the final exam. At that time, they had already learned the content of DITOD with traditional classroom instruction and they used DITOD, as they needed to remember the lessons given in the first two weeks of the semester. In the second semester, students used DITOD during the semester. At that time they had already learned the content of DITOD in the first semester with traditional classroom instruction and they used DITOD, as they needed to remember the lessons given in the first two weeks of the first semester. In both semesters II and I the students used DITOD through Internet. During the last semester, the students used the system while they were studying the lessons. They used DITOD as a supplementary tool parallel to the traditional classroom instruction and they were able to reach DITOD anywhere and anytime when they needed help. They were having option to use DITOD via a Compact disc (CD) or

5 Internet. In this semester they also provided by a hard copy of the book on which DITOD is based. Some ties between the content given in the book and DITOD are also provided with the hardcopy of the book. No specific instructions were given during the class hours to control or guide the students to use DITOD. Subjects In the first semester there were five students (three female, 2 male) in the classroom. In the second semester there were three students (2 female, 1 male) in the classroom. In both semesters II and I, the ages of the students were changing between twenty and twenty-eight. In the last semester there were ten students (six female, four male) in the classroom and their ages were changing between eighteen and sixty-one. Findings When an option is given, mostly the students preferred to use the system from their own CD s rather than the Internet. They used the system from their home (dorms) or from the computer laboratories in the university. All of the students liked the idea of using the system anytime and anywhere. They felt as if a teacher or a helper was with them and available for them all the time. They felt that the classroom was in their room. All of the students found the user interface easy to use and easy to learn. The students did not have any technical problems while using the system. According to the students translations helped them to understand the concepts better. They found the organization of the materials is very good. They found using some tools like the simulated Turkish keyboard very helpful for learning the sound of Turkish alphabet letters and to write Turkish alphabet characters easily without any setup. They also found the Turkish and

6 English indexes helpful to reach the content easily and to find what they are looking for. The students comments about the other objects in DITOD can be summarized as: Images They found the visual illustrations very helpful to make associations. According to the students it provided something interesting rather than just boring text. They said that otherwise, they probably would have been just frustrated. The visual illustrations helped the students to visualize the objects better and to figure out what they look like. Sounds According to the students the sounds helped them to practice pronunciation. They found hearing and seeing at the same time very helpful. They said that repeatedly hearing the sound, the vocabulary, and the sentences helped them learn better according to their own learning style. Exercises According to the students the exercises let them kind of apply the language in a different context. Exercises helped them to build an interaction with the computer and receiving feedback from the computer. In general they found the exercises very helpful. Dictionaries The dictionaries were not developed specifically for DITOD. They were just referred from the other sites providing Turkish-English dictionaries. The students said that, the dictionaries were not very helpful for them. According to the students it was hard to use Turkish characters with the dictionaries. They also found the vocabulary of

7 the dictionaries very limited. Most of the students recommended developing a new dictionary specific to this application. Other Links Although the students found the other links useful, they said that they did not go back to the applications when they entered to the other links. They said that they got lost in the other links. Exam They found the exam a little confusing and they recommended developing a more adaptive one or an exam system, which produce a different set of questions each time they enter to the system. They also recommended some little quizzes for helping them in each lesson. Observations According to the researcher s and the classroom teachers observations, students got more benefits from DITOD in the first semester since they have used the system in a short time period and they were more concentrated to the system during that time period. Students benefited from the system during the last semester since they used it parallel to their lessons. They received benefits from the system in the second semester as well although not as much as during the other semesters. Results and Recommendations DITOD, that students reached from anywhere and anytime, and used parallel to the classroom instructions, improved students and the classroom s performance

8 significantly. Students used this system according to their own learning styles and preferences. According to the classroom teacher it was time consuming because the students were more prepared for the lessons given with the supplementary of DITOD. The teacher did not need to spend too much time to give the introductions when starting to study the new lessons just because the students were already got the idea from DITOD. All of the students and the course teacher said that, if they were having a supplementary tool such as DITOD, covering whole content of the course textbook, their and the classroom s performance would be better. If the system can be supported with a more powerful assessment tools, it will have a better support for the students. Teachers also could use this assessment system in state of their current paper & pencil type of assessment system. In this case, the teacher might not have to spent time for doing such exams in the classroom. The current assessment tool could be also reorganized so that the students could get different sets of questions each time they enter to the system. A quiz system could also be implemented within this assessment system. More authentic pictures, which are specifically created for this application, also will improve the support of this system. The course curriculum should be redeveloped to integrate DITOD into the classroom environment. Closer ties between the course textbook and DITOD should be created. Media DITOD currently can be reached from Internet: or