Greek for Travelers

A final project presented to the faculty of the Instructional Design Masters Degree Program

University of Massachusetts at Boston

GREEK FOR TRAVELERS

Submitted by

APOSTOLOS KOUTROPOULOS

B.A., University of Massachusetts – Boston

M.B.A., University of Massachusetts – Boston

M.S.I.T., University of Massachusetts – Boston

in partial fulfillment for the requirement of the degree

MASTER OF EDUCATION

April 1, 2010

_______________________________________ Approved by Dianne Nerbosso

Faculty

Instructional Design M.Ed.

2010 Apostolos Koutropoulos

Koutropoulos, Apostolos

Greek for Travelers: A language course designed for the casual traveler / by Apostolos

Koutropoulos – Boston, MA : lulu.com

xii , 106 p. : col. ill. ; cm

Includes Appendices

1. Greek language -- Study and teaching, 2. Language, 3. Language acquisition,

4. Language and culture -- Greece, 5. Technology, 6. Educational Technology. I. Title

PA 231.A6.2010 - LC

489 – dc21

v

A Cheerful Start

Thinking back to my earliest recollections of school and learning, I always start with this cheerful poem, τςιριτρό, from my second grade anthology. I thought it fitting to start a project on the instruction of the Greek language with it since it’s cheerful and many people in Greece are familiar with it.

Τσιριτρό

Σε μια ρϊγα από ςταφφλι ζπεςαν οχτϊ ςπουργίτεσ και τρωγόπιναν οι φίλοι. Τςίρι τίρι, τςιριτρό, τςιριτρί τςιριτρό! Εχτυποφςανε τισ μφτεσ και κουνοφςαν τισ ουρζσ, κι είχαν γζλια και χαρζσ. Τςίρι τίρι, τςιριτρό, τςιριτρί τςιριτρό! Πϊπω, πϊπω, ςε μια ρϊγα φαγοπότι και φωνι! τθν αφικαν αδειανι. Τςίρι τίρι, τςιριτρό, τςιριτρί τςιριτρό! Και μεκφςαν κι όλθ μζρα πάνε δϊκε, πάνε πζρα, τραγουδϊντασ ςτον αζρα. Τςίρι τίρι, τςιριτρό, τςιριτρί τςιριτρό!

- Zacharias Papantoniou

Papantoniou, Z. L. (1920) Chelidonia. Library of the Educational Group Παπαντωνίου, Ζαχαρίασ, Λ. (1920). Χελιδόνια. Bιβλιοκικθ Eκπαιδευτικοφ Oμίλου

vi

Abstract

Project Goals

The goal of this design document is to create a course equivalent to the sum of Modern Greek 101 and Modern Greek 102 that provides students with realistic learning that they can use in the most common use case scenario: a vacation to Greece. Most 101 and 102 level language courses do not adequately prepare students for everyday situations. This course on the other hand can help in making the student’s vacation to Greece more memorable by allowing them to communicate with natives that may not know English and allowing them access to things only accessible to a speaker of Greek.

This course will be rich in media, featuring traditional language learning materials familiar to language learners such as text-based dialogues and their audio counterparts. This course will also feature videos of the aforementioned dialogues and imagery from many of the places that travelers are most likely to go while on vacation (the airport or train station for example). Finally, there will be flash-based simulations of encounters at service points that travelers will have at places like hotels and restaurants, as well as social encounters.

Target Audience

Audience

This course is aimed at two different types of students. The first type of student is the casual traveler to Greece, a person who travels for leisure. While business travelers may also find the course beneficial, the course will not specifically cover business related vocabulary and situations. The course is also aimed at students who would be interested in taking a course in elementary Greek who for the purpose of getting a solid introduction to Modern Greek so that they can continue onto intermediate level Greek courses (200 level).

Audience Size

The ideal audience size is 15-to-20 students per class section. While 20-30 student class sections could be accommodated, the amount of interaction between students and the instructors would be diminished. Interaction and engagement is critical in language courses and as such increasing the number of students would jeopardize the educational outcomes.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course. Module 1, available in advance on the Learning Management System (LMS), acts as a primer to the Greek alphabet for people who’ve never encountered it before. Knowledge of the Greek alphabet prior to joining the class would be highly beneficial as it would allow the student to focus on the dialogues and other class materials, but it is not necessary.

vii

Methodology

Overview

This course will be an instructor lead course. It is designed as a hybrid course, meeting both online though an LMS and face-to-face. The LMS provides course materials and a way to begin and continue discussions, and the face-to-face component ties all aspects together and providing live access to subject matter experts. This class will meet three times a week (90 minute sessions), for fourteen (14) weeks. Students will meet weekly in a face-to-face classroom where new materials will be presented and practiced based on the lesson of the week. After each weekly live meeting, students will be able to access class materials and additional practice materials in the online LMS.

Each module is designed to follow the module previous to it. In Module 2 for instance the students will learn about the numbers zero through fifty. In Module 3, the students will learn the number from fifty to ten thousand. Near the end of the curriculum the modules become more interweaved and to some extent user-generated. Module 6 will be created based on student feedback, and Module 7 will tie the whole course together. The media for these lessons will consist of:

job aids for common vocabulary

job aids for cultural notes

videos and podcasts of dialogues with mainstream pronunciation

authentic annotated photos of the various locations that travelers are apt to visit

links to relevant external sites

flash-based simulation and

flash-based assessments (based on the aforementioned simulations)

Instructional materials

Instructional Materials will include, but not be limited to, original dialogues, travel oriented books, web sites, audio-narrated presentations (podcasts), surveys, role-plays, and discussions hosted on the LMS.

Conclusion

The course Greek for Travelers is intended to be a college level course that covers those same grammar topics as a typical sequence of college level Modern Greek 101 and Modern Greek 102 courses. The difference is that the thematic approach is more geared toward travelers, rather than the typical subject matter covered in college level modern language courses; and the course will be an eight-credit, one semester long, and hybrid course. At the end of the course, students should have the prerequisite knowledge to navigate through different situations while traveling in Greece. In addition, students who wish to continue their studies of the Greek language will have the prerequisite knowledge to begin Intermediate Greek coursework.

viii

Table of Contents A Cheerful Start ............................................................................................................................................. v

Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ vi

Project Goals ............................................................................................................................................ vi

Target Audience ....................................................................................................................................... vi

Audience .............................................................................................................................................. vi

Audience Size ....................................................................................................................................... vi

Prerequisites ........................................................................................................................................ vi

Methodology ........................................................................................................................................... vii

Overview ............................................................................................................................................. vii

Instructional materials ........................................................................................................................ vii

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... vii

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3

Business Need ........................................................................................................................................... 3

Instructional Opportunity ......................................................................................................................... 3

Scope of Project ........................................................................................................................................ 4

Goals ............................................................................................................................................................. 5

Goal 1: Teach Students the Language needed for Travel ......................................................................... 5

Goal 2: Provide Opportunities to Practice Traveler’s Language ............................................................... 5

Goal 3: Prepare Students for Subsequent Courses in Greek .................................................................... 5

Needs Assessment Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 6

Data Collection .......................................................................................................................................... 6

Needs Assessment Findings ...................................................................................................................... 7

Conclusions Based on Analysis.................................................................................................................. 8

Instructional Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 9

Student & Context Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 12

Student Analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 12

Learning Context ..................................................................................................................................... 12

Performance Context .............................................................................................................................. 13

Performance Objectives .............................................................................................................................. 14

Negotiate meaning and communicate in Greek within a travel context ................................................ 14

Demonstrate working knowledge of introductory Greek grammar ....................................................... 14

ix

Demonstrate understanding of Greek culture........................................................................................ 14

Instructional Strategy .................................................................................................................................. 15

Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 15

Second Language Acquisition Theory Overview ..................................................................................... 15

Methodology Overview ...................................................................................................................... 15

Approach to Grammar Learning ......................................................................................................... 19

Logistics Overview ................................................................................................................................... 23

Time Constraints ..................................................................................................................................... 24

Modules (Thematic Units) ....................................................................................................................... 24

Module 1 ............................................................................................................................................. 26

Module 2 ............................................................................................................................................. 29

Module 3 ............................................................................................................................................. 32

Module 4 ............................................................................................................................................. 35

Module 5 ............................................................................................................................................. 38

Module 6 ............................................................................................................................................. 41

Module 7 ............................................................................................................................................. 44

Instructional Materials ................................................................................................................................ 46

Books ....................................................................................................................................................... 46

Handouts ................................................................................................................................................. 46

Slides ....................................................................................................................................................... 47

Emerging Technology (Web 2.0) ............................................................................................................. 47

Video Podcasts .................................................................................................................................... 48

Streaming Videos ................................................................................................................................ 49

Audio Podcasts .................................................................................................................................... 50

Flash-based Simulations ...................................................................................................................... 50

Class Wiki ............................................................................................................................................ 50

Blogs (Weblogs) .................................................................................................................................. 51

Culturally Authentic Realia...................................................................................................................... 51

Learning Management System (LMS) ..................................................................................................... 52

Traditional LMS ................................................................................................................................... 52

Non-Traditional LMS ........................................................................................................................... 52

Evaluation ................................................................................................................................................... 54

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Formative Evaluation .............................................................................................................................. 54

Level 1 Evaluations: ............................................................................................................................. 54

Summative Evaluation ............................................................................................................................ 54





Materials Used ........................................................................................................................................ 57

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................ 59

Appendix A: Needs Analysis Survey ............................................................................................................ 69

Appendix B: Needs Analysis Data ............................................................................................................... 71

Appendix C: Example of Advertising for the Course ................................................................................... 80

Appendix D: Moodle Mockup – Teacher View ........................................................................................... 81

Appendix E: Moodle Mockup – Student View ............................................................................................ 82

Appendix F: Student & Context Analysis Worksheets ................................................................................ 83

Appendix G: Evaluation Worksheets .......................................................................................................... 87

Level 1 Evaluations .................................................................................................................................. 87



Evaluating Course Quality ....................................................................................................................... 93

Appendix H: Podcast Evaluation Ideas ........................................................................................................ 99

The Pronunciation Attitude Inventory .................................................................................................... 99

Podcasting and Blogs Assessment ........................................................................................................ 100

Pronunciation Assessment Rubric ........................................................................................................ 101

Appendix I: Copyright Information ........................................................................................................... 102

Curriculum Vitæ ........................................................................................................................................ 103

xi

Table of Figures Figure 1: Reception of course by intended audience ................................................................................... 7

Figure 2: Differences between Digital Native Students and Digital Immigrant Teachers (Dukes & Dosaj,

2003) as found in (Kárpáti, 2009) ............................................................................................................... 13

Figure 4: The dimensions of a listening situation (Lee & Van Patten, 1995, p. 66) .................................... 16

Figure 3: 5C's of language learning (NSFLEP, 1996) .................................................................................... 16

Figure 5: Common listening situations in a second language classroom (Lee & Van Patten, 1995, p. 67) 17

Figure 6: Sample listening situations in Greek for Travelers – adapted from (Lee & Van Patten, 1995, p.

66) ............................................................................................................................................................... 17

Figure 7: ACTFL Standards for Foreign Language Education ...................................................................... 18

Figure 8: Web 2.0 and School 2.0 - similarities in practice (Kárpáti, 2009) ................................................ 19

Figure 9: The Three Dimensions of Grammar (Larsen-Freeman, 1997) ..................................................... 21

Figure 10: Lesson Flow (Individual Student) ............................................................................................... 22

Figure 12: Legend for Figures 5 & 6 ............................................................................................................ 23

Figure 11: Student (Group) Participation Model ........................................................................................ 23

Figure 13: Web 1.0 and Web 2.0: Differences in philosophy and function (Kárpáti, 2009) ....................... 48

Figure 14: A space of Learning for the use of designed video (Schwartz & Hartman, 2007) ..................... 49

Figure 15: Athens Metro Ticket .................................................................................................................. 51

Greek for Travelers

April 1

2010 Greek for Travelers is a design document for an introductory course to the Modern Greek.

A language course designed for the casual traveler

Introduction

Business Need

The Boston area does not have many college level Modern Greek courses. In the Boston area one can find college level courses in Modern Greek at Boston University1, Boston College2, Harvard3 and Hellenic College4. These schools either offer Modern Greek as part of the Classics department, or as is the case with Harvard as part of a Greek Studies curriculum. The main problem with both scenarios is that the course offerings in Modern Greek are not advertised and potential local students do not know about them.

Another way that one can learn Modern Greek is at a private for-profit institution like the Boston Language Institute5 or a private non-profit institute like the Greek Institute6. The Boston Language Institute advertises on the “T” (Boston Subway) and this is where people would be more likely to take a course in Greek, however it would not be transferable as a college level course.

It appears that there are enough college level students interested in learning Greek at UMass Boston that it would warrant a college level offering in Modern Greek, as part of a Modern Languages department, which can treat Modern Greek a separate entity from Classics and publicize the fact that it is offering Modern Greek. To this effect, an introductory level course which encompasses the curriculum of 101 and 102 level classes could pave the road for a complete set of courses for college level Modern Greek in the Boston area.

Instructional Opportunity

Many language courses suffer from the same problem: they focus on grammar at the expense of communication in real life situations. Grammar is important, but when someone walks out of a traditional Modern Greek 101 course, or any language at the introductory level, they generally can’t interact in everyday situations. A common reason why people go to Greece is leisure travel, and a typical Modern Greek 101 student will generally have a hard time with communicating in Greek after a typical introductory course.

While there are courses in conversational Greek, those still don’t guarantee that you will acquire the language required for a vacation. Greek for Travelers aims to fill that gap by providing situational language learning centered on people vacationing to Greece. Travelers to Greece will benefit by taking this course in that they will be less reliant on flipping through Phrasebooks in order to communicate with locals that may not speak English.

In addition, the thematic approach of a travel to Greece can draw in many college level students interested in satisfying their language requirement through an interesting language learning experience. The course can be used as a Trojan horse to not only teach the students travel related language, but also teach them the vocabulary and grammar necessary to move on to an intermediate level Modern Greek course should they choose to do so.

1 http://www.bu.edu/classics/undergraduate/courses.html 2 http://fmwww.bc.edu/CL/list.html 3 http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~modgreek/ 4 http://www.hchc.edu/assets/files/Catalogues/HellenicCollegeCatalog.pdf 5 http://www.bostonlanguage.com/ 6 http://www.thegreekinstitute.org/

Scope of Project

The scope of this project is to produce a design document; an overview of all materials, media, methodologies, course module outlines and coursework that would be required to produce a course called Greek for Travelers, given a project champion taking interest and providing adequate resources for the production of course materials and multimedia from scratch. The full implementation of this course is beyond the scope of this project due to a lack of resources. There is research that points to the amount of time required to produce eLearning modules. Early estimates were provided by the eLearning Guild (2002), followed by Kapp (2003) for the ASTD. In recent years we’ve had follow-up research by Chapman (2007), and Kapp & DeFelice (2009).

The research indicates that that one hour of eLearning can cost between 33 to 946 hours to produce, depending of course on the medium that is chosen for delivery. For instance, if we take the research at face value, one hour of interactive simulations would cost up to 750 hours to produce (Chapman, 2007). Each lesson aims to have at least one interactive simulation for the students to practice the vocabulary and structures that they’ve learned and ability to decode what the virtual interlocutor, in the simulation, is trying to communicate. If we were to scale back and provide less interactivity, the estimate is about 220 hours. In addition, a lot of the multimedia, the videos and podcasts of dialogues for the course, do require native Greek speakers and actual locations to record, something that is not possible given time and resource constraints.

Goals

Greek for travelers has three major goals. Two goals are aimed at the increasing the student’s communicative competency in the Greek language, within the context of traveling to Greece; and the final goal is aimed at increasing the student’s grammatical competence in the Greek language should they want, or need to, move on to an intermediate Modern Greek course.

Goal 1: Teach Students the Language needed for Travel

The overarching goal for this course is to teach the students who are enrolled in the course the language that they will need for vacationing in Greece. While there are opportunities for students to learn language related to business and non-leisure activities, the theme of the course will be heavily focused on culture exploration, sight-seeing, and leisure. The idea is to prepare students to get a handle on common elements of the Greek language that they will be using during their travel, as well as negotiate meaning for language that will be new to them.

Goal 2: Provide Opportunities to Practice Traveler’s Language

The second goal of the course is to provide students with ample opportunities to practice the language. For languages such as French and Spanish students do not need to go far to practice their language skills, however there aren’t many opportunities outside of Greece to speak Greek, unless you live close to a local Greek community. This course aims to provide as many communicative opportunities as possible. This way students will become acclimated to the language and have opportunities for authentic communication.

Goal 3: Prepare Students for Subsequent Courses in Greek

Finally, from our needs analysis demographics we see that there are enough students interested in the Greek language, either because they like languages or because they are of Greek descent, that would like to continue with their studies of the Greek language. This course aims to provide the necessary background, including, but not limited to grammatical and lexical knowledge, to allow students to continue onto an intermediate level Greek course at another institution that uses more traditional methods of language teaching7.

7 If this course is successful, we could create an intermediate level Greek course called “Greek for Living in Greece”

Needs Assessment Analysis

Data Collection

This type of project was conducive to using questionnaires, focus groups and interviews as methods of data collection. The main impediment was the time of year. The data collection phase of this project took place in the summer of 2009. During the summer most students are on school vacation and the students who are taking summer classes may not be representative of student body that is on campus in the fall and spring semesters. Thus using focus groups and interviews of students on campus during the summer semester was not a viable method for data collection.

The main method of data collection was thus a questionnaire that was distributed in person to new students who were going to be starting their studies at UMass Boston in the fall of 2009 and thus had not yet fulfilled their language requirement. Some students who had completed their language requirement8 but had shown an interest in learning languages were also part of the group that was solicited to fill out a questionnaire. The undergraduate advising office at UMass Boston was contacted in early summer and I was notified that there are two undergraduate orientation sessions. Both orientations took place in July of 2009 and provided me with a wealth of information.

The questionnaire was crafted to not just provide me with information about whether or not new students would be interested in taking a course in Modern Greek, this after all is a “simple” Yes/No question. I had a feeling that there would be many students who fell into the maybe category; therefore I also wanted to discover some of the other factors that go into their decision about which language course to pick. For instance many students come to the university with preconceptions about what language learning is. Many students also have personal reasons for taking, or not taking, a course in a specific language. I wanted to find out what those were in order to determine if those maybes could be swayed to take a course in Modern Greek.

When I administered the questionnaire I introduced myself as both a staff member of the university and a current student working on a class project. The university advising employees had prepared the students by talking about the language requirement for undergraduates and had listed off languages available for credit at the university. Greek is not one of the languages offered and I explained to the students that this questionnaire would be used to determine if there was an interest from the students to take courses in Modern Greek. I also informed the students that the questionnaire was optional, so if they did have to complete it if they did not want to.

Initially, the questionnaire was to have a section that students could complete if they wished to be contacted so that they can provide me with additional information. This section however was removed because I did not want to impose on the kindness of the UMB advising office considering that this was not an official UMass Boston needs analysis. The additional information that I could have gleaned from an in person, or group, interview would be additional attitudes toward learning Greek as a foreign language. Fortunately, for this project, the additional data was not required.

8 Students can satisfy the language requirement by virtue of being bilingual and testing out of the requirement.

Needs Assessment Findings

The first orientation session was on July 9, 2009 and there were twenty one (21) new students present. Of this first group thirteen (13) students responded (62%). The second session was on July 23, 2009 and there were twenty one (21) new students present. From the second group eighteen (18) students responded (87%) giving us a total response rate of 73.8%. The results were quite interesting.

As I expected, the majority of respondents (42%) said that they may be interested in taking a course in Modern Greek. What did surprise me was that nearly one-third of the students (32%) said that they would indeed be interested in taking Modern Greek. I expected the results to be split more or less evenly between the maybes and the nos. In Question 7, where the respondents indicated whether or not they would be interested in a course called “Greek for Travelers”; the majority (48%) said that they would be interested in such a course. A good portion of the respondents, over one-third (35%), said that they may be interested in such a course as well. What surprised me was that some individuals that had indicated that they would not be interested, or may be interested in a course of Modern Greek said that they would definitely be interested in a course called Greek for Travelers.

The motivations of the students to learn, or not to learn, Greek are also of interest. Most of the individuals (64%) who would be interested in learning Greek indicated that they would be interested in Greek because it would be cool to know Greek. This is probably because it is perceived that Greek isn’t spoken widely around the world, but this hypothesis needs to be tested further. Other common reasons to want to learn Greek is that the students are of Greek ancestry (27%), they want to live in the country (18%), and because learning Greek will help them with their English (18%).

A lot of the individuals (70%) who said that they would not be interested, or may be interested in learning Greek indicated that the reason that they didn’t want to learn Greek is because they have never thought about the question before. An interesting observation is that the assumed cool factor that made one segment of the students want to learn Greek is the same factor that appears to be turning another segment of students off.

The perceived utility of the language appears to be a significant factor in students’ decisions. The perceived difficulty of the language doesn’t appear to be a major deciding factor. This attitude is exemplified by the comment “other languages that I am interested in (Spanish and Chinese) is more commonly spoken around the world.” We also see this prevailing attitude among all respondents in Question 5. The answers given indicate that the students want to be able to apply the language both toward day to day situations (like going to the market), and specific situations (like going on vacation). What I found intriguing is the value that students place on vocabulary and grammar, staples of traditional language instruction. In terms of vocabulary, most students either think it’s important or

48%

17%

35%

Would you take a course called "Greek for Travelers"

? (n = 29)

Yes

No

Maybe

Figure 1: Reception of course by intended audience

essential. In terms of grammar instruction, most students think that it’s important. The one caveat here is that the sample size is rather small to make generalizations about the perceived importance of grammar and vocabulary instruction, and any imbalance between the two biggest categories are “important” and “essential” might be remedied with a survey of a much larger population.

Finally, when students were asked if they would prefer to complete their language requirement in the period of one semester as opposed to two, the great majority (75%) responded that they preferred one semester instead of two.

Conclusions Based on Analysis

Strictly speaking, based purely on numerical figures, the Modern Languages Department can offer a course in Modern Greek. At UMass Boston the minimum number of students required is eight (8) and in the first question, about whether students would sign up for a course in Modern Greek, ten (10) responded in the affirmative. There are a few things that can be done to make the course more likely to be offered.

1. Create a course named Greek for Travelers

The number of students that indicated they would be interested in a course called Greek for Travelers is 14 (48%), and an additional 10 students (35%) said that they may be interested in such a course. With 24 students in the class, chances are good that the course will not get cancelled.

2. Make the course a eight credit course

The great majority of students (75%) responded that they would like to get their language requirement completed in one semester. This means that the course needs to combine the content typically found in traditional 101 and 102 courses. An eight credit course would require a higher commitment in terms of how many hours per week students spend in both the classroom and outside of it to complete the coursework. This of course works toward the benefit of the students because more exposure to the target language is preferable.

3. Make the course interactive, unique and relevant

Many students indicated that communicative skills in both specific and everyday situations are something that they wish to take away at the end of the course. The instructor and instructional designer need to not only keep this fact in mind both when designing the course, but also when running the course. Making the course relevant and keeping the students in mind increased the chances that good word of mouth will result in having the course offered again.

Another way of making the course relevant is to advertise. Many people think that Greek has limited utility. A way to get more students into the classroom and make the course viable is to advertise some of the benefits of learning Greek, and to dispel the myth that Greek is only spoken in Greece. Of course to properly determine the preconceptions that students have about Greek a proper analysis of the target student group needs to be conducted.

Finally, it appears that there are a number of students who are of Greek ancestry who would like to learn the language. Perhaps in cooperation with student advising, the Modern Languages Department can reach out to those students to see if they would be interested in taking a course in Modern Greek.

Instructional Analysis

Student & Context Analysis

Student Analysis

It would be impossible to attempt to determine specific characteristics of students without having a group of students, who are taking the course, complete a learning strategies worksheet. However, given our location and our student demographic there are some generalizations that we can make. Our students are expected to have finished high school, and therefore have attained a level of literacy in their native language that would aid them in learning a second language. Students will be of college age, locals from Massachusetts as well as international and out-of-state students and they will have interest in traveling and/or language learning.

Students will most likely have some previous exposure to Greek culture given that there have been films that are loosely based on Greek mythology and Greek history9. In addition, given the relationship of English to classical Greek and Latin, many students will already have exposure to many Greek prefixes and suffixes that they may be familiar with; which will aid them in their studies of Modern Greek.

It is believed that the students do have a positive attitude both toward the institution and the course because attending the course is not compulsory. The course fulfills a World Language requirement for undergraduates, and there are many languages from which to choose from at UMass Boston10. The only hurdle might be the method of instruction. Most students are used to the Audio Lingual Method (ALM) of language learning which is informed by behaviorism and contains a lot of pattern drills as the main method of language teaching (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). Even if they haven’t only experienced ALM teaching, chances are that the generation of teachers, that these students had, taught using the many ALM methodologies. This previous experience might predispose the students to expect the instructor to be the sage on the stage, providing them with all the information that they need and they may not, initially, be as accepting of a communicative based approach.

Learning Context

The classes will take place on the UMass Boston campus, utilizing TEC II classrooms11 that will enable the instructor, and the students, to utilize many instructional media in the classroom. In addition these classrooms provide the ability to record the lecture so that students can access it at a later time for review purposes. The secondary learning location will be the Learning Management System (LMS) that students will be required to use to access course information, lectures, post assignments and collaborate with one another.

The physical learning location should not pose a problem for the students. It is assumed that since these students are undergraduates at UMass Boston, they chose the campus for accessibility, among other factors. The LMS might pose an issue to some students if they are not familiar with how an LMS works. Throughout the duration of Module 1, students will have an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the LMS to help them be successful in completing the course.

9 Examples would be Troy, 300, and Jason and the Argonauts to name a few. 10 At last count there are eleven languages to choose from at UMass Boston. 11 TEC II classrooms include: Computer with data projector, DVD player, Document camera, smart displays that you can annotate slides with, and lecture recording software.

One hurdle that connects the learning context and the student context is the use of technology beyond the LMS. Many of the technologies and methodologies used in this course will be collaborative. The instructor in this context is a digital native12, while students may, or may not be digital natives themselves. Dukes & Dosaj, in Kárpáti (2009), provide us with a good overview the characteristics of digital immigrant teachers and digital native students. In our context the students may be the digital immigrants while the instructor is a digital native. This divide may influence the day to day implementation of the course and how the learning takes place.

Figure 2: Differences between Digital Native Students and Digital Immigrant Teachers (Dukes & Dosaj, 2003) as found in (Kárpáti, 2009)

Performance Context

The true indication of whether a student has actually learned the content will come from the ability to use the language in an authentic context (i.e. traveling to Greece). Once the course ends, that is also the end of official organizational support for that particular group of students. If the course has created a wiki with information, and the student has downloaded the materials and taken them with him on his travel to Greece, the student would be able to access those materials and that could constitute some sort of unofficial organizational support toward the student.

The one downside of learning a foreign language in the classroom is that you cannot get the classroom to be a completely authentic representation of reality in that foreign country; therefore it would be hard to bring completely realistic performance situations and evaluation in a classroom. If the course were offered as an exchange student course in Greece, the curriculum could be modified to include both realistic performance contexts and realistic evaluation contexts.

12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_native

Performance Objectives

This course has three performance objectives. Two of the objectives will be crucial to the student’s travels in Greece (Communication and Culture); while the third objective will be crucial should students wish to continue their studies of Modern Greek. These are the overarching performance objectives of the course. Each module of the course will contain specific objective for the module that relate to these overarching course objectives. These specific objectives will be developed in collaboration with subject matter experts in order to provide students with both required linguistic knowledge and knowledge of current events, as it related to culture and language.

Negotiate meaning and communicate in Greek within a travel context

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to negotiate meaning and communicate with basic Greek in the context of a vacation. This is the main goal of the course. It is a communicative goal in which students will be able to negotiate the meaning of the Greek they are presented with in order to accomplish their goals in a traveling situation.

Demonstrate working knowledge of introductory Greek grammar

Upon completion of the course, students will demonstrate working knowledge of elementary Greek grammar. This goal enables students to pursue further language education in Modern Greek should they choose to do so. Demonstrating mastery is not required as this is a communicative course and studies, including studies cited in Lee & VanPatten (1995) have shown that mastery of grammar does not necessarily equate to demonstrable communicative competency. However, demonstrating working knowledge of grammar can help them in subsequent courses in Modern Greek that may have a more grammatical focus.

Demonstrate understanding of Greek culture

Upon completion of the course, students will demonstrate an understanding of mainstream Greek culture that they are likely to encounter on their trips to Greece. Having an understanding of Greek culture will help students understand the hows and whys of the Greek language and the way of life in Greece. This will aid students and possibly diminish the effects of culture shock when students are, for instance, looking for an open pharmacy and they find most of them to be closed on August 15th13.

13 Second largest religious holiday in Greece after Easter.

Instructional Strategy

This course is designed to blend the best features of teaching face to face, with the best features of learning in a computer assisted, online, environment. This blended approach to teaching a foreign language should provide for an engaging learning experience where the students are able to stay connected with the language, their peers and the instructor, in-between the face-to-face class sessions. There are two cycles for each module; the activities undertaken by individual students, and the cycle of activities undertaken by the group as a whole (See Figures 10, 11, 12).

Overview

Each module is designed to follow the module previous to it. In Module 2 for instance the students will learn about the numbers zero through fifty. In Module 3, the students will learn the number from fifty to ten thousand. Near the end of the curriculum the modules become more interweaved and to some extent user-generated. Module 6 will be created based on student feedback, and Module 7 will tie the whole course together. The media for these lessons will consist of:

job aids for common vocabulary

job aids for cultural notes

videos and podcasts of dialogues

authentic annotated photos of the various locations that travelers are most apt to visit

links to external sites

flash-based simulations

flash-based assessments (based on the previous simulations)

culturally authentic realia14

Second Language Acquisition Theory Overview

Methodology Overview

The design of each module15 is predominantly based on the principles of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) where the principle is that “people learn a second language more successfully when they use the language as a means of acquiring information, rather than as an end in itself” (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). Some other basic “tenets” of CLT are that meaning is paramount, students are encouraged to try to communicate in L216 from the beginning, and fluency and acceptable language are the end goals (accuracy is not judged in the abstract but rather in context). (Richards & Rodgers, 2001)

Because one method does not cover all aspects of language learning, this course has also appropriated philosophies from other methods that aim to help the student become comfortable with the language. Specifically from the Content Based Instruction (CBI) method, which draws upon CLT, I’ve appropriated “second language teaching in which teaching is organized around the content or information that students will acquire, rather than around a linguistic or other type of syllabus.” One goal of CBI is for students to become autonomous so that they come to understand their own learning process and take charge of their own learning from the beginning. (Richards & Rodgers, 2001)

14 See materials section for more on realia 15 Module = Thematic Unit (in the terminology of Richard’s & Rodgers) 16 L1 = native language; L2 = foreign language

Competency Based Instruction "seeks to teach language in relation to the social contexts in which it is used." (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) From this I’ve structured my modules around places, actions and situations where students will need to interact with others in order to accomplish real goals, like they would in real life. Some of the activities are designed revolving around the idea of Total Physical Response (TPR) which involves game-like movements, reduces stress and creates a positive mood for students which facilitates learning. (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) This fits into Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis which states that students with a low affective filter (low level of stress) are more receptive to the input which they are receiving. (Richards & Rodgers, 2001)

This methodology also couples with the ACTFL standards for language teaching, because in learning the language in this course students will also be exposed to a great deal of Greek culture (see Figure 7 for a list of the ACTFL standards. With regard to ACTFL oral comprehension level, the goal of this course is for students to reach a Novice-High level which is described as:

"Able to understand short, learned utterances and some sentence-length utterances, particularly where context strongly supports understanding and speech is clearly audible. Comprehends words and phrases from simple questions, statements, high-frequency commands and courtesy formulae. May require repetition, rephrasing and/or slowed rate of speech for comprehension." (Lee & Van Patten, 1995)

Modality

Aural-Only Aural + Visual

Co

llab

ora

tio

n

Collaborative

Telephone Interview

Non-Collaborative

Radio News Television News

Figure 4: The dimensions of a listening situation (Lee & Van Patten, 1995, p. 66)

Because methodology for this course is based on authentic language, real world contexts, comprehension and competencies, the issue of modality comes into play much more than in language learning methods that predated CLT. The language lab came into being with the Audiolingual method17. This method approached modality by using listening comprehension drills which are supported by behaviorist theory18. The types of modality used in an Audiolingual-based language classroom are seen in Figure 5. In this course design I’ve aimed for a multimodal approach to learning that takes into

17 Also known as the “army method” and the “Berlitz method” 18 See B.F. Skinner for more on Behaviorism

Figure 3: 5C's of language learning (NSFLEP, 1996)

account not just auditory and visual stimuli that have been part of the language curriculum until now, but also using tactile feedback in in-class activities with the use of realia, as well as paralinguistic feedback19 in TPR activities and flash-based activities. For an example of this course’s modality see Figure 6.

Modality


Co

llab

ora

tio

n

Collaborative

??? Classroom "Discussion"

Non-Collaborative

Lab Materials ???

Figure 5: Common listening situations in a second language classroom (Lee & Van Patten, 1995, p. 67)

Modality


Co

llab

ora

tio

n

Collaborative

Dialogues TPR Video Podcast

Simulations Game Shows

Non-Collaborative

Audio Podcast Radio Clips

Video Podcast YouTube Clips

Figure 6: Sample listening situations in Greek for Travelers – adapted from (Lee & Van Patten, 1995, p. 66)

19 "In most cases, listeners see the [other] interlocutor and receive information on how to interpret messages via facial expressions, body posture, gestures, signs, and other visual features." (Lee & Van Patten)

Finally, this course utilizes the principles of schema theory (Carell & Eisterhold, 1988) to help students relate new knowledge to information that they already have either from their C120 or previous interactions with C2. When it comes to grammar teaching it utilizes the principles of structured-input and structured-output (Lee & Van Patten, 1995). To some extent principles of critical literacy (McLaughlin & DeVoogt, 2004) will be used to explore Greek Culture (C2) and compare and contrast elements of Greek Culture to the student’s C1. A small part of the course design is devoted to getting students from BICS to CALP in their C1 (Cummins, 1980 in (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005)) in that we want students to go to the library, do research and write small research blog posts on cultural topics based on things, places, people and activities that they are likely to encounter in Greece as tourists.

This course is meant to have communication flow from many directions to many directions – from instructor to students, from students to instructor and from student to student. This is a way of avoiding a situation where the instructor is an “Atlas” (Lee & Van Patten, 1995) that is all knowing and just broadcasts information to the students. Since language is meant to be used for communicative, meaning bearing, purposes, we want to avoid the lecture. As mentioned earlier, students may have some issues with this methodology because most language learning in the US, as well as in other countries, has been based on the Audiolingual method with the instructor as the “sage on the stage” broadcasting information to students, explicitly giving them all the information they need and correcting them every step of the way. Students may be expecting that the instructor behave in this way and as such expectations may not be met.

CLT departs from this broadcast paradigm and "teachers have to act as insightful mentors *…+ to this new collaborative *…+ type of meaning making." (Kárpáti, 2009) In addition, in accordance to CLT, "the choice of themes and related ideas [will be in part] determined by student interests" and the

20 C1 = Native Culture; C2 = Culture of the language you are learning

Figure 7: ACTFL Standards for Foreign Language Education

"activities in thematic units are task-based, relevant, personalized and accomplished in cooperative settings." (Lee & Van Patten, 1995) This type of instruction closely parallels Web 2.0 developments where "web 2.0 is characterized by personal learning spaces designed and maintained by students." (Kárpáti, 2009) As Kárpáti goes on to further state "The most important feature of Web 2.0 for language education is the change of direction in communication on the internet: while 1.0 was the "readable web", where the dominant activity was reception of texts, sounds and images21, Web 2.0 is the "writable web", where creation of new content is dominant.” (Kárpáti, 2009) See Figure 8 for comparisons between School 2.0 and Web 2.0

When all is said and done, it is important to note that the instructor of the course is responsible to set the expectations for the students in his classroom and to let them know about the format of the course, and how and why it works. This way student’s expectations will be in-line with the methodology of language learning employed by the course and the instructor.

Figure 8: Web 2.0 and School 2.0 - similarities in practice (Kárpáti, 2009)

Approach to Grammar Learning

Early on, as a language student, if I were presented with Krashen’s notion that providing students with grammar instruction does very little to help students comprehend the input that comes from the instructor; I would have found myself in agreement with Krashen (1995). I based this opinion on personal experiences learning foreign languages. When I was an undergraduate I studied German22 and our instructor, based on what I know now, appeared to be following an Audiolingual Method “drill and kill” model of instruction (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). We did go through a lot of grammar, and a lot

21 Web 1.0 is the internet equivalent of the “sage on the stage” equivalent in Instructor Lead Training (ILT) 22 Among other languages

of grammatical drills that had no communicative goal. I did great on all my exams, however I found myself without the ability to communicate with others using German!

In addition, I would have agreed with Krashen in that grammar is more of psychological comfort value more than of linguistic value (1995). I came to this conclusion early on in my studies as a linguistics student having read a few studies on Data Driven Learning (DDL) in which students in a German School were learning the structure of English grammar using DDL. Despite tests proving that the DDL group of students had learned at least as much grammar as the traditional approach, students giving feedback to the instructor said that they felt like they hadn’t learned any grammar because they did not learn rules. This was my reasoning early on for discounting explicit grammar instruction. Based on this I would have not included explicit grammar instruction in the design of this course. Now, however, things are a bit different.

Recently, having read more theory I am now inclined to disagree with Krashen when it comes to explicit grammar instruction. If you take the narrow view of grammar teaching which is traditionally viewed as mechanical practice meaningful practice communicative practice (Lee & Van Patten, 1995) then I would agree that explicit grammar instruction does not work well because students spend a lot of time in mechanical drills, where they can tune out any meaning in the sentence, instead of spending time in communicative drills, where they are asked to not only attend to the information in the input given, but provide new information.

If however we take Ellis’ view of teaching grammar as “involv*ing+ any instructional technique that draws students' attention to some specific grammatical form in such a way that it helps them either to understand it metalinguistically and/or process it in comprehension and/or production so that they can internalize it;” (2006) there are other models for teaching grammar and as researchers have shown there are tangible benefits for studying grammar. In Ellis for instance we see that researchers have shown that instructed students achieved higher levels of grammatical competence than naturalistic students (Lightbrown, Spada and Ranta, 1991 in (Ellis, 2006)). Other research (Noris & Ortega, 2000 in (Ellis, 2006)), contrary to Krashen’s claims, seems to indicate that instruction contributes to both acquired knowledge and learned knowledge.

While there is debate on whether grammatical competence aids in comprehending input and producing output23, grammatical competence is a part of the monitoring system (Krashen, 1995) that allows students to have the ability to monitor what they are producing to make sure that it is correct. We see that research such as the one Lightbrown (1991, in (Ellis, 2006)) conducted also indicates that grammar instruction facilitates learning by providing students with hooks that they can grab onto, thus helping students with the acquisition process.

One thing that I wanted to avoid in the design and implementation of this course is the traditional way of teaching grammar. Traditionally foreign languages have been taught by first having students analyze grammar rules and vocabulary and then after lots of practice with these two elements using them to communicate (Lee & Van Patten, 1995). Traditional grammar focuses on grammatical form while paying little attention to the context that forms are found in. Thus traditional grammar instruction fails to adequately address when and why a grammatical for is used in a given context.

23 after all, I was grammatically competent in my German class!

One part of Krashen’s hypothesis that I do agree with is that within this traditional context “grammatical focus invariably distorts any attempts to communicate” (1995). I think that this is true when you make grammar the focus of language learning, however if we look at it from a communicative perspective “structured input activities can be used to promote growth of grammatical competence” (Lee & Van Patten, 1995) while at the same time promoting the development of the student’s communicative competence.

If grammar is taught in the traditional way then students can tune out and go into autopilot. They are not attending for meaning in the writing or the utterance, but they are just producing a predetermined form using a cookie cutter approach to language production. If exams follow the traditional format of asking for known information in a cookie cutter approach, students will still go into autopilot. As we see in Larsen-Freeman (1997) grammar has three dimensions: form, meaning, and use and students need to master all three dimensions. Traditional grammar teaching tends to only focus on form.

The key to successfully integrating grammar into the communicative language curriculum is to make the grammar instruction serve a communicative task. By using communicative language curriculum we are also attending to the need for students to learn the other two dimensions of grammar: meaning and use, in other words how to use the grammatical structures meaningfully and appropriately.

For example, as Lee & VanPatten (1995) point out, you can have exercises in which the students are asked to attend for meaning in the input while they produce utterances that have new information in them so that the speaker can work at creating a genuine communicate utterance and the interlocutor can attend to the speaker’s message.

As Lee & Van Patten point out, Terrell theorizes that access to what you’ve learned does not follow automatically from acquisition (1995). Just because a student has incorporated a particular form or structure it does not mean that it can be accessed easily and thus produced automatically. This was one of the issues that I had with my German class, not just with grammar, but also with vocabulary. An integrated approach to communicative language teaching could help students both with acquisition of structures and the access to that information so that they can reproduce it.

My final argument against Krashen is a sociolinguistic one. In Ellis (2006) we see that there is ample evidence to show that students can and do learn a good deal of grammar without being taught it, and this is something that Krashen would point to. While you may learn a lot of grammar without explicit grammar instruction, I believe that students are getting the short end of this stick. If we don’t provide students with grammatical instruction we are limiting them to the grammar that they will hear or read in everyday life. This means that by the end of class they may have Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) when in fact they may need to be at the level of Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) for school or work purposes (Cummins, 1980 in (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005)). This isn’t normally an issue for travelers; however one of the goals of this course is to prepare students for higher levels of language learning in Greek.

Figure 9: The Three Dimensions of Grammar (Larsen-Freeman, 1997)

There are many genres and registers of writing and speaking that students need to be familiar with in order to be successful in an L2 society and grammar instruction is one element of that. Granted, given enough time, students would figure things out on their own, however most L2 students do not spend as much time learning their L2 as they did with their L1, therefore they would need a jumpstart somewhere in the learning process.

Given all this evidence I am now in the same camp as many language teachers, I think that students should be explicitly taught grammar; the methodology of course will be a little different since I don’t want to use a predefined textbook because most textbooks lack meaningful and communicative work. The foundations for the creation of such exercises will be laid out in this design document, however specific exercises will need to be devised as the course is implemented and taught.

Review vocabulary

View videos of dialogues

Read & Listen to dialogues

In class practice of dialogues w/ ad lib

Cultural insights of

for selected dialogues

Practice with flash-

based simulators

Figure 10: Lesson Flow (Individual Student)

Figure 12: Legend for Figures 5 & 6

Logistics Overview

This course is a blended, instructor lead, course. The course will meet three times per week (90 minute sessions), for fourteen (14) weeks. Students will meet weekly in a face-to-face classroom where new materials will be presented and practiced based on the lesson of the week. After each face-to-face meeting, students will be able to access class materials and additional practice materials on the online LMS. Since this is an eight-credit course, students are expected to spend 100 hours during the semester working both in class (63 hours) and taking part in online activities and research (37 hours). This breaks down to about six and a half hours per week.

Practice materials will consist of additional vocabulary, audio podcasts with dialogues and pronunciation help, and discussion boards allowing students interact, share knowledge and have access to the instructor throughout the week. Additional activities will consist of scavenger hunts and testing materials using multimodal tests.

Read provided cultural material

Further explore material

interesting to you

Share what you’ve found with others

Participate in forum to discuss cultural interests

Connect culture into

the language curriculum

Figure 11: Student (Group) Participation Model

The intended instructional outline is as follows:

On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before the class students will:

i. Read through the Lonely Planet (LP) assigned reading sections ii. View the videos of the dialogues provided

iii. Try reading (without audio aid) the dialogues to see if they can decipher and pronounce them on their own

iv. Read and listen to the podcast dialogues v. Participate in the online forum discussions

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we will meet in class (90 minute sessions). In class we will:

i. Go over the dialogues and practice. Instructor will ad-lib some of the dialogues to give students a more authentic variation on the dialogues

ii. Go over questions students may have iii. Go over cultural and procedural issues that may come up iv. Use realia and participation activities v. View any in-class videos

vi. Try practicing their skills using the Flash-based simulations

On Thursday, Friday, Saturday students will:

i. Continue the online discussions ii. Continue practicing their skills using the Flash-based simulations

iii. Take the unit tests by Saturday 11:59pm iv. Submit any scavenger hunt assignment

The only exception to this format will be Module 1 where students will have a chance to get to know each other, and the instructor, as well as get familiarized with the Greek alphabet and its sound system.

Time Constraints

The class is planned to be fourteen (14) weeks long, which is a regular semester at the UMass Boston campus.

Modules (Thematic Units)

Usually language lessons do not end neatly at the end of each language lesson class period, thus the instructional approach to lessons is to use modules that have the flexibility to span longer, or shorter periods than prescribed weekly lessons. The modules are designed to take up between a week and a half and two weeks. Each module is a thematic unit which, in typical foreign language situations, follows a set of protagonists through their trip to Greece, from the moment they arrive at the airport, to the moment they get back on the plane.

Each module will contain new vocabulary, new grammar points, new dialogues and multimedia associated with those dialogues. Each module will also contain a culture section that contains cultural information that is related to the theme of the module. Each student will then have an opportunity to

explore websites and other resources that relate to cultural phenomena that relate to those thematic units and they will be able to share with their classmates. This cultural information will then be tied back into the other course material such as grammar, dialogues and vocabulary that the students have used to get introduced to the thematic unit.

Each module is not an island of information. Each module connects to subsequent modules. By chunking new information students will be able to learn, without being overwhelmed, and build upon prior knowledge. Examples of this type of chunking are learning numbers, learning grammar, and to some extent the learning of new vocabulary. Given that English has borrowed vocabulary from Greek, students can, for example, use their knowledge of English vocabulary to build up their knowledge of Greek vocabulary.

Module 1

Module 1 will serve as an introduction to concepts that students will need to be familiar with in order to study and interact with the Greek language and in order to start interacting with people in Greece. In this module for instance students will learn the phonology of Greek letters and letter combinations. Since Greek does not use the Latin alphabet, as English does, students will need to familiarize themselves with how the letters look and how they sound. Students will learn how letters are written so that they can start mastering written communication as well.

Some introductory grammar topics need to be covered as well. Elements that are in common with English (such as personal pronouns) will be covered, as well as elements of Grammar that are not the same, such as an explanation of grammatical gender, cases and agreement. A full breakdown of what will be covered is as follows:

Life/Culture Topics:

The Euro

Basic Greetings Grammar Topics:

The Greek Alphabet

Greek Phonetics

Greek Punctuation

Personal Pronouns

The verb to be (είμαι)

Greek Word Order

Grammar Basics: Gender, Case & Agreement

Omission of pronominal subject

Module Goals:

To introduce the class to the format of the class

To introduce students to the form and sound of the letters of the Greek alphabet

To introduce students to the resources that will be used in the class

Module Objectives:

Upon completion, students will be able to:

Visually identify the letters of the Greek alphabet

Identify the sounds of the letters of the Greek alphabet

Identify the sound of various letter combinations

Read words in Greek

Explain the difference between English and Greek with regard to Case, Gender and Agreement of Nouns

Upon completion of the module students are not expected to be experts in the phonology of Greek, or comprehend the words they are reading. The objective here is to come familiar and comfortable with speaking, as well as connecting what they see with what they hear.

Readings24:

The readings for this section are meant to familiarize students with the topics of the module: the Greek alphabet, basic greetings and the grammar topics. In addition, the readings are meant to familiarize student with different resources that they will be using the in the course to retrieve the information of each module.

Media YouTube videos of Greek alphabet:

o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AwfeLakC7I o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBjAsT_nlNY o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhog0YBFi8o

Podcast of Greek Alphabet

Athens News RSS feed - http://www.athensnews.gr/

Kathimerini Newspaper (English Version) - http://www.ekathimerini.com/

Textual Readings Lonely Planet pg. 13-19

“A is for Αρχιςαμε!” job-aid (Alphabet Job Aid)

Activities:

The activities for this, and subsequent, modules are broken down into Absorb, Connect and Do activities. In Horton (2006, p. 41) we see that Absorb activities are activities where students read, listen or watch content. Connect activities are those where students exercise, experiment and discover, and Do activities are activities where the students link what they have learned to prior knowledge.

Absorb Activities Read the Lonely Planet Phrases text and familiarize yourselves with the lesson topics

View the Greek Alphabet Podcast and read supporting materials

Listen to the Greek Alphabet Podcast

Read “A is for Αρχιςαμε!” job-aid (Alphabet Job Aid)

Connect Activities “Name that Sound” activity (identifying Greek letters)

“Name that Word!” activity (matching aural to the written word)

Identify the grammatical gender activity

Log-onto Kathimerini (newspaper), pick an article and identify the gender of unknown words

Introductions

Verb Conjugations activity: to be

Do Activities Explore the English version of the Greek newspapers

Introductions across cultures: comparing Greek introductions to your own

24 Readings here does not necessarily mean just text. Readings will encompass textual information, as well as multimedia information that the students will have access to.

Assessment:

Assessment activities for this, and subsequent, lessons will draw heavily on the content that students used to practice in the Connect Activities section of the lesson. Each lesson will have two assessment components: an online component and a face to face component. Specific rubrics for each assessment activity in this and subsequent modules will be developed in collaboration with the course instructor once all multimedia has been developed for the course. In this module students will be evaluated 10% on creativity, and 90% on what they can remember about the language (vocabulary, grammar, etc.)

Online Assessments “Name that Sound” assessment (identifying Greek letters)

“Name that Word!” assessment (identifying aural with the visual word)

Identify the grammatical gender assessment

Conjugating the verb to be

Face to Face Assessments Introductions with classmates and the instructor

Module 2

In Module two students will be exposed to language that they are likely to encounter at airports in Greece, both regional airports and the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Athens. Such language will include topics such as getting through customs, claiming baggage, and obtaining public transportation. In many cases individuals who work at airports in Greece have some level of command of the English language, therefore if students don’t speak perfect Greek they will be able to get by with a combination of English and the Greek that they learn in this lesson. The following is a full breakdown of topics covered in the module:


Getting through customs

Mobile Telephones

Public Transportation

Public Restrooms

Stores

Origin (Where you come from)

Grammar Topics

Negative forms

Interrogative forms (WH-questions) with an emphasis on who (ποιόσ/ποιά/ποιό)

Structures of independent sentences (SVO)

Subject/Predicate nominative

Present Tense of Paroxytone verbs (ζχω, μζνω, κάνω, κτλ. – Conjugation A) in the active voice

Possessive Pronouns

Basic prepositions (από, με, ςε, για)

Πάω, λζω, τρϊω, ακοφω in the Present tense, perfective future and simple past

Present tense of Oxytone verbs (αγαπάω, μιλάω, κτλϋ. – conjugation B)

Demonstrative Pronouns (αυτόσ, αυτι, αυτό, εκείνοσ, εκείνθ, εκείνο)

Nominate Case: Noun inflection (masc: in-οσ, -ασ, -οσ; fem: in –α, -θ; neut: in –ο, -ι, -μα)

Module Goals:

Learn the language necessary to negotiate the airport

Module Objectives:

Upon completion, students will be able to speak and understand the Greek necessary to:

Navigate from the terminal to the taxi stand

Find several types of facilities in the airport including: o The restroom/WC o The electronics store o The convenience store o The exchange bureau/ the ATM

Make payments for relatively cheap items (less than $50)

To count from one to fifty

As mentioned in the overview for this module, many employees at Greek airports speak English, therefore students will not be penalized for not being perfect with their command of the Greek

language in these early lessons. The overall objective is effective communication and understanding, at some level, the exchange between airport agents and travelers.

Readings:

The readings for this week focus on three broad areas: Language used specifically within an airport setting (e.g.: customs, bureau de change), language that is used more broadly (e.g.: numbers, directional language, continuation of Greetings) and grammar topics.

Media URL to Hellenic Organization for Travel - http://www.eot.gr

URL of Kathimerini newspaper (English edition) – http://www.ekathimerini.com/

URL of Eleftherotypia newspaper: http://www.enet.gr/

Podcast of numbers 0-50

Podcast of dialogues

ATM flash simulator

YouTube videos: o Basic Greetings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyURBpYflLo o Basic Greetings 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKzdSepIo5k

Textual Readings

Dialogues Getting through customs

Where’s the WC?

At the electronics store

At the convenience store

At the Bureau de change

Where’s the taxi stand?

Can you please take me to…

Other Lonely Planet pg. 229-234, 60-61, 64, 71

Activities:

In this module the students will have additional connect activities that utilize flash-based simulations to help students get acclimated to the type of language that they can expect to hear, and produce, in an airport setting.

Absorb activities: Students will view videos of travelers interacting at the airport engaged in typical airport

dialogues based on the lesson objectives (7 dialogues)

Students will listen to podcasts of dialogues

Students will be presented with authentic Greek airport imagery

Connect activities: Discussions about

o Vocabulary o Culture

o Procedures at the airport

Dialogues o Fill in the blank o Interactive Q&A with instructor

Web-site exploration (EOT)

Job Aid with common airport vocabulary

Do activities: Listen & Repeat dialogues

Mock dialogues in class

ATM simulator

Customs simulator

Store Clerk simulator

Assessment:

Starting in this module, assessments will be enhanced by the use of flash-based simulators that will act as virtual role playing agents for students. In these simulations students will play the role of travelers and the simulators will take them through the different situations that they may encounter at the airport. Online assessments and quizzes will be administered on the class LMS. Since this course aims to help people communicate, students will get greater points if they can demonstrate in class that they can effectively communicate. In this module students will be evaluated 30% on creativity, and 70% on what they can remember about the language (vocabulary, grammar, etc.)

Online Assessments Working with the ATM simulator to get Euros

Working with a store clerk simulator to purchase an item assigned by the instructor

Verbally asking where something is, listening to an answer, repeating the answer in English

Posting on the discussion forum (scavenger hunt of notable Greek news items)

Vocabulary quiz of Vocabulary covered in Lonely Planet & Job Aid readings

Grammar-points quiz

Written Comprehension quiz

Face to Face Assessments Simulation of working with a store clerk (Instructor) to purchase an item of interest to the

student

Oral Comprehension Excersise

“Identify the object” game – A game show type of exercise where groups of students work together to identify the object that the instructor is looking for, phrased in the form of an authentic question

Module 3

This module focuses on what students might encounter in a typical Greek hotel. This module will cover the language used in typical hotel situations, illustrations of grammar used in such circumstances and cultural information about typical Greek vacation and who you might encounter during your trip. Students at this point should start to think about what they would like to explore in Module 6, as well as language that they would like to explore that is alternative to staying at a hotel (i.e. going camping).


Places to stay while in Greece

Where do Greeks stay?

Typical Greek Breakfast

Grammar Topics:

Structure of independent sentences (cont. from previous module)

The Direct Object

Present Tense of Oxytone verbs (μπορϊ, ηω – conjugation B)

Accusative Case: Noun Inflection (masc: in-οσ, -ασ, -οσ; fem: in –α, -θ; neut: in –ο, -ι, -μα)

Passive Voice

Perfective Subjunctive

Verbs followed by subjunctive (κζλω, μπορϊ, προςπακϊ να, πρζπει, κτλ.)

Active Imperative of basic verbs (ζλα-ελάτε, πάρε-πάρτε, κάκιςε-κακίςτε, κτλ.)

Module Goals:

To learn the language necessary to communicate with hotel staff

Module Objectives:

Upon completion, students will be able to speak and understand the Greek language necessary to:

Identify and say Greek numbers zero through fifty

Tell someone the day and date

Understand the spoken date 50% of the time

Greet other people

Register a complaint with the hotel

Pay for their hotel room

Use common imperative verbs in Greek

Use basic verbs in the subjunctive in Greek

Readings:

The readings for this module will include dialogues that are typical in a hotel environment, as well as accompanying videos and audio related to those dialogues. In addition, students will explore websites with authentic language from hotels around Greece. Students will also have the opportunity to explore readings with additional vocabulary and language that is used in hotel contexts, but is also used in day to day life, such as telling time and the date.

Media Hotel check-in simulator

Audio and Video Podcasts of dialogues and job aids

Images of hotel signs

Images of Greek hotel rooms

Website: Aegialis Hotel: http://www.amorgos-aegialis.com/

Website: Laki Village http://www.lakkivillage.gr/

Textual Readings

Dialogues: Asking for your reservation

Do you have a spare room?

Hello? Room Service?

I have no towels?!

It’s here! (food and other item deliveries to your room)

Can I have my key?

Other The numbers 51-500

The days of the week

The months of the year

Lonely Planet pg. 77-84, 48-60

Grammatical explanations

Activities:

Starting in this module, activities will have two components. The first component will contain dialogues and associated media as we’ve had in previous modules. In addition we will use flash-based simulations that we’ve used in previous lessons. Starting with this module is that we will ask the students to increase their participation both in class and online with language and objects that interest them. For the online component students will perform scavenger hunts and have discussions on the LMS. For the face to face meetings, in addition to the realia that the instructor brings to class, students will also bring realia that are significant to them during travel so we want use them to explore cultural bridges between Greek culture and the student’s native culture, as well as build the students vocabulary and speaking/listening skills.

Absorb activities Students will view videos of typical hotel dialogues

Students will listen to audio of typical hotel dialogues

Students will be presented with Greek websites of hotels in Greece

Students will be presented with authentic hotel signage

Connect activities Cheat-sheets with common hotel vocabulary

Discussions about o Vocabulary o Culture o Hotel Procedures

Dialogues o Fill in the blank

o Interactive Q&A with instructor

Hotel related, in-class, gameshow

Do activities Listen & Repeat dialogues


Check-in simulator

Virtual room navigator

Web site scavenger hunt and posting on blog (topic TDB based on student interests)

Group work: creation of an original dialogue

Assessments:

In this lesson student assessments will test how students are able to apply what they’ve learned in a simulated hotel environment. The assessments that are more mechanical in nature will take place online, while the aural/oral assessment will take place in class. Another level of assessment will be to see how creative students are with the language they have acquired, therefore the activity that students performed to create an original dialogue can be used as an assessment instrument as well. In this module students will be evaluated 40% on creativity, and 60% on what they can remember about the language (vocabulary, grammar, etc.)

Online Assessments Hotel concierge simulator – asking for a room

Hotel concierge simulator – paying your bill

Room service (audio) simulation – I have no towels!

Posting on discussion forum

Scavenger hunt blog post: Find a hotel room. How much did it cost? What’s included? Where is it near? Use as much Greek as possible. Any new words that you’ve come across?


Grammar-points quiz


Face to Face Assessments In class dialogues.

Scavenger hunt: Find a hotel room. How much did it cost? What’s included? Where is it near? Use as much Greek as possible. Any new words that you’ve come across?

Performing the original dialogue created for the assignment

Hotel room service simulator

Hotel concierge simulation

The Hotel-game show

Module 4

Food and drink is something that many travelers seek, and when traveling to a foreign country you may want to experiment and sample of that country’s signature dishes, or you may want to seek comfort in food. In this module students will have an opportunity to explore both language and culture associated with food and eating establishments in Greece. In exploring this topic we will cover both Greek cuisine, as well as getting food that students may be more familiar with. During the time that we are working on this module students will be asked to start submitting ideas for the lessons in Module 6.


Food

Expressing likes and dislikes

Ordering

Where do Greeks eat?

Typical Greek foods

Drinks

Grammar Topics

Inflection of adjectives in –οσ-θ-ο, -οσ-α-ο; -οσ-ια-ο; ισ-ιά-ι

Many: the adjectives πολφσ, πολλι, πολφ and the adverb πολφ

Imperfective Future Tense (all conjugations: κα γράφω, κα μιλάω, κα ηϊ)

Comparisons: Positives, Comparatives and Superlatives

Imperfective Past Tense (all conjugations)

Prepositions followed by the Accusative: με, ςε, για, από, κτλ.

Temporal definitions

Module Goals:

To acclimate the students to the different types of eating establishments typically found in Greece and the language required to make use of them

Module Objectives:


Accurately Pronounce Greek words 50% of the time

To decipher at least 50% of the items on a Greek menu

To place an order for a meal

To ask for the check

To count from 501 to 10,000

Use the grammar of this lesson to accomplish tasks within a setting that involves food. The following are some examples:

o Comparing food taste o Comparing eating establishments o Telling waiters which dish belongs to which guest o Talking about future dining o Describing food and cuisine that you like

Readings:

Readings in this module will include the standard dialogues found in previous modules however in this module we will rely heavily on authentic menus from various eating establishments in Greece, as well as current websites that showcase these eating establishments. These use of these realia aims to bring students even closer to Greek culture.

Media Taverna menu

Goody’s menu

Souvlatzidiko menu

Pizzeria/Sandwich shop menu

Upscale menu

Waiter simulator

Video and Audio Podcasts of dialogues and job-aids

Images of varies eating establishments

Website: Cretan Cuisine: http://www.kapnismenotsikali.gr/

Website: Ellinogeusis: http://www.ellinongeuseis.gr/

Website: Megistos: http://www.megistos.gr/

Website: McDonalds: http://www.mcdonalds.gr/

Website: Roma Pizza: http://www.romapizza.gr/

Website: Pita Pan: http://www.pitapan.gr/images/delivery_JAN08Fin.pdf

Website: Lunch-Box: http://www.lunch-box.gr

Textual Readings

Dialogues: At the tavern

At Goody’s

At the souvlatzidiko

At the pizzeria

At the bar

Do you have any vegetarian meals?

Asking for the check

Other: List of common foods and descriptions

The numbers 501-10,000

Lonely Planet Pg 145-168, 229-234

Activities:

Activities in this module will focus around both the mechanics of ordering food (language, vocabulary, grammatical points), and the relationship that people have with food and eating out. Students will be able to pick from different types of establishments and explore the food and culture behind them.

Absorb Activities Students will view videos of typical food establishment encounters

Students will listen to audio of typical food establishment encounters

Students will be presented with Greek websites of food establishments in Greece

Students will be presented with authentic menus

Connect Activities Discussions about

o Vocabulary o Greek food Culture and cultural comparisons

Interactive Q&A with instructor

Listen & Repeat dialogues


Food related in-class game shows

Do Activities Waiter Simulator

Web site scavenger hunt and posting on discussion board (topics TDB based on student interests)

Group work: creation of an original dialogue dealing with food

Assessments:

In this module, compared to previous modules, assessment of students will be based more on creativity, and less on rote memorization. The ratio at this stage of the course should be 50% on how you use language, and 50% on things you can remember.

Online Assessments The “menu deciphering game” (flash-based matching game)

Taverna waiter simulator – ordering from the menu

The numbers game (audio recognition game)

Posting on discussion forum about Greek food (scavenger hunt): new words you’ve learned

Blog Post – Short, 1 paragraph, blog post about what type of food you would like to try (or not like to try) and why


Grammar-points quiz


Face to Face Assessments The numbers game (audio recognition game)

Use as much Greek as possible

What are your likes and dislikes?

“Name that food” game show

“Where did I buy this (food)?” game show

Module 5

In this module students will have an opportunity to learn about different modes of transportation while in Greece. They have already learned how to get a taxi from the airport, and it is assumed that they’ve spent a few days in Athens and are now looking for methods of transportation to get to other locations in Mainland Greece and to get to the Greek Islands.


Asking directions

Means of transportation

Making arrangements

Grammar Topics

Plural of Parisyllabic and imparisyllabic nouns

Indefinite Pronouns: κανείσ, κανζνασ, καμία, καμιά, κανζνα

Basic adverbs in –α (Καλά, ωραία, όμορφα, άςχθμα, γριγορα, ακριβά, φτθνά, ιςυχα, κτλ.)

Syntax of the adverbs of place (μπροςτά, πίςω, πάνω, κάτω, δίπλα, απζναντι, γφρω, μζςα, κτλ.)

Module Goals:

To acclimate the students to the different modes of transportation available to travelers in Greece and the language required to make use of them.

Module Objectives:


Tell the time in Greek

Request and receive schedule information

Request ticketing information

Purchase tickets

Describe a location by using adverbs of place

Readings:

In addition to the readings that we’ve seen thus far in the course, and there will be increasing use of culturally authentic realia and information.

Media Video and Audio Podcasts of dialogues and job aids

Photos of KTEL stations

Photos of Port of Pireas

Photos of a typical train station

Photos of the Metro

Virtual ticket agent simulator

Tickets – Metro, KTEL, Ship, Plane (realia)

Map of the metro system

Maps of Greece

Form for car rental

Photos of typical trains and busses

Website: Attiko Metro: http://www.ametro.gr

Website: OSE: http://www.ose.gr

Textual Readings

Dialogues: Where’s the travel office?

Getting Metro/Bus tickets

Getting a plane ticket to Crete

Getting a boat ticket to Amorgos

Getting a train ticket to Thesaloniki

Renting a car

Other Lonely Planet Pg 60, 63, 65-70, 72-76, 223-228

Activities:

In this module students will have a chance to exercise their creativity by charting their own course through Greece. The first week of this module will also be the last opportunity for students to submit ideas for Module 6.

Absorb Activities Students will view videos that relate to travel

Students will listen to audio that relates to travel

Students will be presented with Greek websites of transportation providers

Students will be presented with authentic itineraries and tickets


o Vocabulary o Greek transportation and comparisons to L1 culture




Travel related in-class game shows

Train ticket agent simulator

Travel agent simulator

Do Activities Scavenger hunt on transportation websites (preparatory work for group work)

“How do I get to….” activity (group work to determine best ways to get around in Athens)

“Getting from here to there” activity (group work to determine route to get from Athens to a location of interest)

Assessments:

In this module students will be evaluated 60% on creativity with language and comprehension, and 40% on what they can remember by rote about the language (vocabulary, grammar, etc.)

Online Assessments Train station ticket agent simulator

Paying for your ticket – numbers practice

Posting on forum (scavenger hunt to find policies, pricing, and information about various modes of transportation)

Short blog post: “How would you get from your hotel (fixed location) to ______” (location of interested determined in consultation with instructor). Students will give directions to fellow students in Greek


Grammar-points quiz


Face to Face Assessments Buying Metro tickets – dialogue

Paying for your ticket – numbers practice

Scavenger Hunt Recap

Around Athens – group game

Giving directions to major landmarks

Module 6

The goal of this module is to give students greater opportunities to influence what is taught in the class. This module is all about hobbies, sports, and recreational habits of students. The instructional material will be made on-demand once student interests are gauged. There are some topics that fit into this module that will have prepared instructional materials. For example no matter what your recreational activity, you will always have a kiosk nearby to supply you with many small everyday things like water, soda, iced cream, newspapers, magazines and so on.


Family Relations

Jobs

Studies

The Kiosk

Grammar Topics

Simple past of the active voice (ζγραψα, μίλθςα, ζηθςα, κτλ.)

Dependent Sentences

Indirect Objects

Future and Past tenses of to be (είμαι)

Genitive of Possession

Perfective Future of the active voice (all conjugations – κα ηιςω, κα μιλιςω, κα γράψω, κτλ.)

Module Goals:

To enable to student to talk about what their favorite pastimes in a social environment.

Module Objectives:


Converse with others about what they like to do on their free time

Converse, to some degree, about what one does for work

Utilize kiosks to obtain information and to purchase products

Additional and more specific objectives for this lesson will be developed once specific student interests are determined.

Readings:

The readings for this module consist of some vocabulary learning materials in order to pave the way and allow students to express themselves. In addition, we will have some prepared dialogues that deal with the types of interactions one sees at a kiosk operator. The remainder of the readings and media will be developed between the time that Module 3 starts and the time Module 625 starts (approximately six weeks).

Media Podcasts of dialogues

25 Of course Module 6 materials will lack the authentic location feature of previous modules since they will be created on site, at and around the university.

Videos of Kiosk related dialogues

Greek music

Images of Kiosks in Greece

Images of products found in Kiosks

Images TBD based on student interests

Films TBD based on student interests

Realia TBD based on student interests

Textual Readings

Dialogues: Asking for directions at the Kiosk

Buying a ticket at the kiosk

Buying a newspaper/magazine at the kiosk

Asking for product availability at the kiosk

Additional dialogues to be produced based on student interests

Other Meet & Greet: LP 48-60, 100-108

Interests: LP 115-135, 187-195

Shopping: LP 145-159

Activities:

Activities this week will depend more heavily on student-student interactions in class and on individual research related activities. Students can do the research on their own online and interact with fellow students via blog format.

Absorb Activities Students will view videos that relate to kiosks

Students will listen to audio that relates to kiosks

Students will listen to audio that relates to recreational activities

Students will listen to audio that relates to jobs

Students will be presented with Greek websites of places of recreation

Students will read dialogues based on topics that student requested


o Vocabulary o Recreation and comparisons to L1 culture




Kiosk related in-class game shows

Recreation related in-class game shows

Kiosk simulator

Do Activities Kiosk related scavenger hunt TDB

Recreational activities related scavenger hunt TDB

Assessments:

In this module students will be evaluated 70% on creativity with the language, and 30% on what they can remember by rote about the language (vocabulary, grammar, etc.). In this context creativity also includes research about a topic that interests the students, writing about it and commenting on other’s posts.

Online Assessments Kiosk scavenger hunt – identifying objects that one may obtain at a kiosk

The price is right – review of numbers and products; students can match kiosk objects with how much they cost

Blog-post and comments on research topic TDB


Grammar-points quiz


Additional online assessments to be created once student interests are determined

Face to Face Assessments The price is right game – face to face version

Additional face to face assessments to be created once student interests are determined

Module 7

Module 7 is the wrap-up module for this course. New material will be covered in Module 7, however the main purpose for Module 7 is to review and integrate all the materials that students have learned throughout the semester. The new material in Module 7 will be material that one can integrate with previous modules, such as reporting theft, or telling someone to buzz off, as well as material requested by students to cover any gaps from previous modules.

Module Goals:

To recap the material from all other classes

To cover any remaining cultural or linguistic issues that travelers should be aware of that we may not have covered officially up to this point.

Module Objectives:


Pronounce Greek words accurately 80% of the time

Ask and receive contact information

Ask for help in case of emergency

Readings:

Readings and media for this lesson will consist of some general dialogues that can be used in many of the previous modules, as well as many materials possible that the students wished to have covered in previous modules but did not have an opportunity to cover. Additional dialogues and media will be determined after Level 1 evaluations for each module have been taken into consideration.

Media Podcasts of dialogues

URL of Tourist police website

Additional media TBD

Textual Readings

Dialogues Theft!

Leave me alone!

Help!

I’ve fallen!

Other: Lonely Planet 235-238

Activities:

The activities in this chapter will be mostly do activities (Horton, 2006) which will asks students in to integrate everything they have learned throughout the semester. Examples of do activities are:

Student generated dialogues around a topic of interest (text creation)

Student generated audio podcasts of those aforementioned dialogues

Student generated video of aforementioned dialogues

In-class skits of dialogues created by students

Ad-libbed situational dialogues

Simulations from previous lessons

Game-show like activities to review previous lessons

Blog post on a topic of interest (mini-research paper in Greek, maximum 2 pages double spaced)

Watching an episode of a Greek sit-com or other show to pick up accents, and see how much they can recognize based on what they’ve learned in the semester.

Specific activities will be assigned based on student familiarity and comfort with the technologies at hand and based on their interests for this final module. Some of the end products of these activities can be used for assessments purposes as well since they represent the cumulative knowledge that students have gained in this course.

Assessments:

Since this module is a wrap-up module, the assessments for this module will include some original assessments for the few new dialogues and situations in this module, but they will also include cumulative assessments which will encompass assessments from previous lessons as well. As mentioned in the Activities section, deliverables for the activities can act as an assessment instrument as well considering that the deliverables represent the cumulative knowledge that students gained throughout the semester. Rubrics for evaluation of these assessment products will be developed collaboratively with the instructor teaching the course as well as the students.

Online Assessments Grammar-points quiz



Simulators from previous lessons

Face to Face Assessments Greek Pronunciation/Dialogues

Face to face interviews with course instructor

Instructional Materials

Greek for Travelers will be utilizing many different types of instructional materials. Some materials will be, what is thought of as, standard instructional material such as books, PowerPoint slides and handouts, however a lot of material will rely on Web 2.0 technologies such as podcasts, wikis, blogs and discussion boards to help students not only contextualize what they are learning, but also, as discussed in the Second Language Acquisition Theory section, help in facilitating a different, communicative, methodology of language teaching.

Books

The main textbook chosen for this course is the Lonely Planet Greek Phrasebook26. A number of Greek textbooks were consulted as potential textbooks for this course, however there were two issues. One issue is alluded to by Lee and VanPatten (1995) when they write that textbooks, even though appearing to embrace a communicate approach to language teaching, still utilize many drill and kill types of exercises common to the audiolingual method. They only appear to be communicative in their approach.

The second issue with mainstream textbooks that I examined is that they have a very clear structure and methodology and this structure is not compatible with the theme of the course which is traveling. Finally, one of our goals for the course is to provide cultural background for the country that the students will be using the language in (i.e. Greek). Theorists such as Kramsch (1988), and pragmatic knowledge, tell us that course books tend to pick topics that are generally mainstream and are not going to cause any discomfort to potential large clients (like school districts), and they thus may not provide authentic cultural information and cultural context. These factors would make existing, and rather expensive, textbooks not suited for this course.

The lack of a course text might make some students uncomfortable. For this reason I picked a fairly good Greek Phrasebook, with two-way dictionary as the textbook for the course. The text provides psychological comfort to those students that feel the need for a textbook, it provides a place for student to find vocabulary on a thematic basis, and it provides a way for students to look up words that they might not know. In addition, once the course is over, students will be able to take this text with them on their travel, so the usefulness of the text outlives the duration of the course.

An optional book for the course is the Lonely Planet Greece guide27 which provides students with real information about locations in Greece. Students would be able to use this information to complete assignments where they have to be content creators themselves. This book is optional because information can be found other ways, including websites and mobile phone and PDA28 applications.

Handouts

Since there is a dearth of relevant textbooks, and because textbooks are rarely authentic, the main method of distributing information to the students will be handouts. All of the course material will be developed collaboratively between instructional designers, Greek language experts and native Greek language speakers. These materials will include:

26 By Athanasions Spilias, ISBN: 1740591402 27 By Paul Hellander and Kate Armstrong, ISBN: 1740597508 28 Personal Digital Assistant

Dialogues in each lesson

Written comprehension exercises

Grammatical explanations

Grammar worksheets

Realia

Job aids to help students with vocabulary and grammar

Alphabet sheets to help with writing and acquitting writing competency

Vocabulary of interest to the students that isn’t available in the text

Cultural explanations

Instructions for exercises

Slides

Slides have been used in many courses to provide both content and structure for the course. In this course slides will be used for a variety of purposes. The main academic use of slides is going to be providing context for the various activities that will be done in class. If a scene needs to be analyzed, it would be better for students to have a culturally authentic images projected on a screen so that they can all point to elements of the same image while performing activities such as TPR activities, simulations, and dialogues. Instructors will also have the option of using slides to present lecture information and record an audio presentation with the slide information that will be accessible by the students after the class is over. These slides can also act as a job aide and lesson review. To add to the educational experience, instructional designers and SMEs can process the class slides with programs such as Articulate and Adobe Presenter that enable them to embed interactive quizzes.

Emerging Technology (Web 2.0)

It’s a little odd to call the Web 2.0 category emerging technologies because they have been in use for close to a decade now. However we as instructional designers and educators are still experimenting to determine where they fit into the teaching and learning process. As such, these technologies can still be considered emerging. Web 2.0 is a term that defines technologies which allow for information sharing and collaboration among users, and a design and classification that is user centered.

Web 2.0 is in contrast to Web 1.0 where communication was generally one-way. The content provider (website owner) would place some information on the website they managed and people would go view it. In a Web 2.0 environment individuals are not only creators of their own content, but are also contributors to other people’s content. Some key differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are summarized in Figure 13.

Figure 13: Web 1.0 and Web 2.0: Differences in philosophy and function (Kárpáti, 2009)

Video Podcasts

Video podcasts are downloadable video files that students can download and play on their own computer or portable media player, like the iPod or Zune. In this course video podcasts will be used to distribute videos of the dialogues of each module.

The videos will be recorded in authentic locations in Greece - if, for example, the dialogue takes place at the Eleftherios Venizelos Athens International Airport that is what the video will depict. The benefit of filming at an authentic location is that students can see what the location looks like, therefore allowing the student to observe and learn the visual cues that they themselves are likely to encounter at those locations. In addition to being able to observe the surrounding environment by using video, students will be able to observe various paralinguistic queues that they would not be able observe in an audio-only context. Students would be able to observe, among other things, things like proxemics, how close the speakers are, and the use of body language.

These paralinguistic queues “assure the transmission of meaning even when complete grammatical and lexical decoding is not likely to be achieved.” (Ciccone, 1995) Studies have shown that when providing students with audio-visual material, without textual transcription, students show characteristics of integration and creativity in their responses drawing from their own life experiences (Absalom & Rizzi, 2008), in other words students use their pre-existing schemata29.

Another use of video podcasts would be to distribute non-copyrighted videos, which include those dialogue situational videos, to the class ahead of the class lecture so that they have time to prepare. Some studies (Shawback & Terhune, 2002) have shown that videos coupled with pre-class

29 For more on schema theory see (Carell & Eisterhold, 1988)

comprehension exercises allow students to build their confidence before coming to class which enables the instructor and the students to engage in rich discussions about the cultural underpinnings of the video, or the specific hows and whys of the language used in the video, rather than just confirming comprehension.

Streaming Videos

In addition to downloadable podcasts, there are many videos that can be used in this class that are streaming videos. Streaming videos are not downloaded to the student’s device, but rather are available on demand via services like YouTube. There are both pros and cons to using streaming videos. By using streaming videos you are requiring the student to either be in front of a computer, or own a device such as an Apple iPhone that has mobile access to the internet to view these videos. The benefits though can overcome the shortcomings of the technology.

Many videos are available on YouTube that are provided by people in Greece. These videos are either personal videos, or rebroadcasts of videos that were available on Greek television. They make it possible to explore and find videos that fall into many different categories and provide a variety of educational opportunities (see Figure 14). These videos fall under culturally authentic documents which further provide the student with authentic context for the language elements that they are learning in class. By using a shared video service like YouTube we can find a lot of material without being (as) concerned about copyrights.

Figure 14: A space of Learning for the use of designed video (Schwartz & Hartman, 2007)

Audio Podcasts

Audio podcasts can be used in a variety of ways in this course. Audio podcasts allow the students to listen, and re-listen, to content when they are not in front of a computer in situations when the optimal method for delivering information is by auditory means, such an example would be when the student is at the gym or commuting to work. The content that would be included in audio podcasts is audio-only versions of the dialogues of the module, audio vocabulary to help students with pronunciation, cultural notes and additional information that came up in the class lectures. Podcasts have the ability of embedding text transcription in the digital audio file, therefore allowing students to follow along if they so wish. In addition, through the use of Enhanced Podcasts, podcasts that can display images simultaneously with the audio (Wikipedia, 2009), students can have access to images of what is being spoken about in the dialogues or the lecture notes.

Research indicates that using listening exercises, without textual transcription, triggers higher anxiety for students. While this may not be great for lowering the affective filter30, it does simulate what the students are likely to encounter while on their travels to Greece, and it was shown that despite the higher level of anxiety students do work at deconstructing the text to obtain meaning, something that does not always occur with students working on written texts (Absalom & Rizzi, 2008).

One additional use for podcasts is as a replacement for the traditional language lab activities. In traditional language labs, one of the activities is to repeat dialogues, or take part in mock recorded dialogues, in order for students to check their pronunciation and to have the instructor help them with developing a native-like accent. Some research has been done on the subject (Absalom & Rizzi, 2008), however recording yourself on tape is easier compared to recording yourself for a podcast. The use of podcasts for this purpose would be up to the instructor if students are interested in improving their accent31 and if they are technologically savvy to produce their own podcasts.

Flash-based Simulations

Greek for travelers will have many flash-based simulations in order to provide interactivity outside the classroom. Flash-based simulations are the second best thing to interacting with a live native speaker. Flash-based simulations will take the leaner and place him in an authentic context where the student will have to complete a certain action, such as get directions for the nearest metro station. In this context, flash-based simulations can be used both as practice instruments for students to hone their language skills, and one of many assessment instruments to see if students have learned the language required to negotiate that particular scenario.

Class Wiki

One of the technology options that the instructor will have available is a class based wiki. The students can use the class based wiki to work collaboratively on dialogues that students need to create later on in the semester. In addition, students can use the wiki to create content pages that explain grammar and vocabulary, store dialogues used in the course and a place to access course knowledge once the course has been completed. The one concern I have about including a wiki, on top of everything else, is that it may result in cognitive overload on the part of the students. For this reason, the use of a wiki will be left up to the instructor once the results of a student learning style inventory have been gathered and once the technology level of students has been assessed.

30 For more on affective filters, please see Krashen (1995) 31 This will be evaluated using a PAI – see Appendix H for a sample PAI evaluation

Blogs (Weblogs)

Blogs have been a part of the internet for more than a decade now. While blogs tend to be thought of as personal diaries, or as a way of getting news out on the web, they do have many practical educational applications. Recent research (Murray & Hourigan, 2008) has looked at blogs as a medium for both gathering feedback, and encouraging students to write more fluidly in the foreign language that they are learning. For our course it would be too much to ask our students to blog in L2; however we can still use blogs.

One way that we will be using blogs in this course will be as a way of gathering feedback from the students. Students will be using blogs once a week (on average twice per module) to let the instructor and their fellow students know what they think of the methods, materials, and facilities used in the execution of this course. In addition students can provide feedback as to what could be done to improve what they might not like, or how to implement more of what they do like.

Another way that the blog will be used is as a way for the students to reflect on their language learning experience in this course, and in the past. For the purposes of reflection, students will be blogging at least once per week (at least twice per module), reflecting on grammar acquisition, cultural information, and lexical knowledge that they receive in class. Students will tie what they’ve learned to knowledge they already have and how they find different aspects of L2 and C2 learned, and what comparisons with L1 and C1 they find interesting, or perhaps not interesting.

Culturally Authentic Realia

As Little et al. (1989), in Mishan (2005), write, culturally authentic realia are objects that are created to fulfill some social purpose within a social context of the language community that they are found in. They are not meant to be created specifically for instructional purposes. Realia can encompass many different things from everyday items such as newspapers, websites, metro tickers, chocolate bars, to things that you don’t encounter as often such as an insurance policy application, or an airplane ticket. As we saw, streaming videos found on YouTube are an example of authentic realia that we can use in this course.

As we see in research though (Silber, 1991), we need to be careful in our implementation because the use of culturally authentic realia is not an end in and of itself. It is a means to an end. As Silber writes, it is also not a panacea. The idea is that culturally authentic realia will provide context for the students, but there is also the danger that these objects will be presented in a decontextualized manner. Therefore there is a danger that they might lose their educational value and potentially confuse the student. In addition, in using realia we must provide substantial pedagogical support to our students so that the realia is used toward an educational outcome rather than use them as a classroom decoration.

Some examples of realia that will be used in this course are:

Tickets for transportation services like the bus, train, metro, boats and ferries

Newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals

Websites of Greek agencies and businesses

Greek Music

Videos of broadcasts, films, and user generated content (amateur video on YouTube)

Figure 15: Athens Metro Ticket

Audio from broadcasts and amateur podcasts

Products such as drinks, food, personal and electronic items like batteries and matches

Informational brochures and pamphlets from museums, menus from restaurants, bus and metro routes and maps

Nature objects like sand, shells, and pine cones

Learning Management System (LMS)

One of the major factors to consider when implementing this course is the selection of the Learning Management System (LMS). As we’ve seen in research (Lane, 2009), the choice of the LMS can impact teaching and learning. An LMS is not a pedagogically neutral technology. Each product is built with a particular end-user in mind, and thus the product is tailor made for that particular user segment. The instructors of the course have two general options: a traditional LMS, and something less-traditional like a private social network or online group32.

The instructors will have to work with instructional designers to implement the course on their LMS of choice because the LMS is a central platform for this course. The course is worth eight credits; four of those credits are earned in class through weekly face-to-face sessions and remainder is going to be earned thorough online activities which will be facilitated by the LMS. Thus, no matter which technology is chosen, it is crucial that this part of the course is polished before the course starts.

Traditional LMS

The UMass Boston campus has access to both Blackboard and Moodle. As we see in Lane (2009) Moodle is an Opt-In system, which means that instructors and instructional designers need to turn on each feature that they plan to use, while Blackboard is an Opt-Out system in which the instructors need to actively turn off features that they do not wish to use. For novice faculty turning features off that they aren’t familiar with can be a daunting task, and it can lead to both instructor and student confusion down the road. For this reason it would be crucial to have an instructional designer active in the implementation of the course, and available for help and consultation during the time that the course is offered.

There are some benefits to choosing a traditional LMS over a non-traditional LMS. A traditional LMS allows you to only accept authenticated students into your course right from the start, it can provide structure for the course, and it can act as a way to distribute copyrighted materials. A campus sponsored LMS can also comply with state and federal regulations such as FERPA33 which aim to protect student privacy. The down-side of the traditional LMS is that for novice it may seem daunting to the novice instructor, where as they may have used non-traditional LMS in other facets of their professional and personal lives.

Non-Traditional LMS

Non-traditional LMS are not provided by the campus. These are services, like Ning34 and SocialGo35 that provide you with a White Label social network. This technology can be leveraged to provide an interface might be easier to navigate for both the students and the instructor. Instructors can

32 The use of an LMS is not a requirement for UMass Boston courses 33 For more on FERPA regulations see: http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html 34 http://www.ning.com 35 http://www.socialgo.com

use the Group functionality of sites like these to create a separate area for each instructional module, provide an area for students to have access to information, and provide them with the ability to contact each other either through their profiles, or through the email system.

Just like the traditional LMS, the non-traditional LMS have pros and cons. The benefit of a non-traditional LMS is that it incorporates successfully many Web 2.0 technologies that will be used in this course; whereas the traditional LMS still have not implemented features like blogs very well. The second benefit is that non-traditional LMS look like social networks that students will probably be familiar with, but provide more functionality that can be used for educational purposes than those networks that exists for purely for social reasons (like facebook). The down-side of a non-traditional LMS is that it may not comply with state and federal regulations, like FERPA, and it’s up to the instructor to make certain that the information posted on this platform complies with regulations.

Evaluation

Formative Evaluation36

During the implementation period for this project it would be wise to reach out to other SMEs of the Greek language to evaluate how well each module is implemented, how well the instructional materials fit within the context of the module, and how well each the various pieces of instructional media fit within the practices of communicative language teaching, our underlying language theory. To implement this evaluation we will use a level 1 evaluation.

Level 1 Evaluations:

Our formative level 1 evaluation will be conducted once each module has been created. We will ask our SMEs to imagine themselves as students, knowing what they know about the Greek language and about second language acquisition. We will describe, and demonstrate, our instructional materials, and describe and demonstrate how the classroom and LMS activities will work. In addition, we will make available summative L2 and L3 instruments that students will use so that they can get a holistic view of the course.

Once we’ve demonstrated each module in its entirety, SMEs will fill out questionnaires with questions that will be answered using LIKERT scales. In addition SMEs will be given opportunities to provide general and specific feedback in the form of short answers to help the designers improve the quality of each module. In these L1 evaluations37 we would like to know how authentic our materials sound, how well have we matched up our module objectives with our activities and assessments, and how engaging they think that our module will be for the students.

Summative Evaluation

Summative evaluations will take place during the running period of the course. Students will complete level 1 evaluations during each module, at the end of each module, and at the end of the semester to provide the instructor and the university with a sense of how they rate the course, the materials and the instructor. Level 2 evaluations will be conducted during each module and at the end of each module. These evaluations are meant to measure the learning that has taken place and how much students have retained and put to use. Finally, we will conduct level 3 evaluations, again during and at the end of each module. The only caveat is that we will not be able to observe students on-the-job (i.e. on vacation), so our level 3 evaluations will be conducted using simulations.


In terms of level 1 evaluations, this course will utilize three types of levels 1 evaluations which are both aimed at measuring different aspects of the course:

Blog Posting: Blogging will be used in this course as a way of evaluating how the course is progressing, in

addition to being a method of completing assignments. As mentioned in the Instructional Materials

36 In this design document I am using formative as a process that occurs during the creation of the course, while summative is a process that occurs while the course is running. In an actual training situation, formative would occur while the course is running and summative would occur at the end of the course. 37 Please see appendix G for specific type of questions to be asked in formative L1 evaluations.

section, students will be asked to blog about their educational experience while they are going through the course. Student’s blog posts can indicate areas that students feel uncomforable in, or that they have not yet mastered. Their blog posts can also help instructors to determine which instructional methods really resonate with the group of students in the course, and which ones are not as successful.

Post-Module Questionnaires: These questionnaires will be administered online after each module. The main objective for

these questionnaires is to evaluate the overall attitudes and beliefs that students have having just finished a module. We want to see if students were engaged by the content, what stuck out for them, and if there are any questions that have been left un-answered, or if there is a particular area that caused throuble. We can use this information both for the improvement of the module for future students, and also to try and cover the information in subsequent modules. For examples of the types of questions asked of students in these questionnaires.38

Post-Course Questionnaires: These questionnaires are mandated by the College of Arts through which the course is offered.

At the end of each semester the college gives students both a quantitative and qualitative L1 evaluation to rate the interest in the course prior to taking it, the interest in the course after taking it, the effectiveness of the instructor and a wide variety of other areas that are of interest to the College. The format is generally 12 quantitative questions, on a LIKERT scale of 1 to 5 (Strongly Disagree – to – Strongly Agree) and five qualitative questions.


Most of the evaluations performed in this course fall under the category of level 2 evaluations. We want to use this opportunity to evaluate the learning that took place both in each module, and cumulatively throughout the duration of the course. Our evaluation strategy is multimodal. We want to evaluate the student’s reading and writing skills, but since this course has a theme relating to travel, we also want to evaluate how students can understand aural information and how they respond verbally to that their interlocutors.

Quizzes: When one thinks of traditional language learning classes, one thing that comes to mind is

grammar and vocabulary quizzes. While our focus is communicative language, our class will incorporate some traditional assessment methods. Theorists, like Stephen Krashen (1995), have hypothesized that providing communicative activities, along with traditional explicit grammar instruction, helps some types of students39. While I do not agree with most of Krashen’s hypotheses, I do think that it is a good idea to provide students with an instrument that is familiar to them. In addition to assessments for lexical and grammatical knowledge, we will use these traditional types of quizzes to test for comprehension of texts and cultural knowledge. The instruments that we will use are:

38 See Appendix G for general examples of questions for L1 evaluations, and Appedix H for a sample of the blogs and podcast L1 evaluation used in (Kárpáti, 2009) that could be adapted for our use. 39 Namely those that feel uneasy when they are not explicit told the rules and feel that there is a lack activities that they associate with language learning (i.e. rote reproduction quizzes)

Multiple Choice

Matching

Fill-in-the-blank

Short Answers

Short Research Essays: Another aspect that we will evaluate is how students have assimilated the information that is

presented in each module (lexical, grammatical and cultural), how they’ve assimilated that information and how they’ve personalized it. To test this out we will use blogs for each student to post a short blog post on different topics such as comparing and contrasting certain cultural elements in C2 to their C1. This type of activity will be done in their native language (English). Another example would be for them to use what they’ve learned in each module to write up a small itinerary, discussion, short story using simple language in Greek.

Scripted Role Playing: Another way we can assess how students have assimilated the information from the module,

and how they’ve personalized, is to role play. In this evaluation method we will ask students, in groups of two or three, to get together outside of class and create dialogues that they can then reenact in class. Each student will be given a persona that they have to be, such as “college student studying philosophy” or “professor of computer science,” and the dialogues they create have to reflect the role that they’ve been placed into within the context that has been specified (airport, restaurant, train station, ski slopes, etc.). Alternatively, students can play themselves as travelers meeting fellow travelers. Some students may have higher stress if they portray themselves, so it is good to keep the option of portraying someone else available.

Game Shows: One method of level 2 evalations is the implementation of game show type of activities in class

where students take part in a mock game show as participants. This type of assessment can gauge how well students have assimilated the information in the module that the activity takes place in. A benefit of using this is that we can use multimodal testing such as playing videos and audio clips, working with text, realia, and photos. This way, assessments become fun and engaging leading to the lowering of the affective filter and getting students more eager to participate without fearing the evaluation.


Traditional level 3 evaluations are on-the-job observations; however it’s not possible to really evaluate students once the course is over. Some may arrange a trip to Greece immediately after the semester is over, and some may wait for a long time before going on vacation to Greece. Of course there is the logistics issue of being around each and every student when they do go to Greece (and whether they want you spying on them if you are around!). These factors make a traditional level 3 evaluation impossible. However, we do have some tools that allow us to simulate the environment, namely simulations.

Flash-Based Simulations: Flash-based simulations used for evaluation purposes are very similar to the flash-based

simulations that students will use in each module to practice their language skills. By using flash-based simulations students will be able to use language in a controlled environment, thus providing the instructor with some information on how well the student has learned to use the language within a

specific set of constraints (dialogue trees have a finite set of possibilities). The activities will be undertaken online, and students will be evaluated at the end of each module.

In-Class Unscripted Role Play: Another type of controlled environment is an in-class role play. In this environment students

will be able to use the language they’ve learned with a real human being. This means that there are more possibilities for authentic interaction since human communication is generally potentially infinite. Students will have access to native speakers (guest speakers in class) that they will be able to converse with, within the specific context of the module. These guest speakers will not be constrained by the knowledge of what we have and haven’t covered in class, which will give the students access to additional authentic interactions. These evaluations will take place both at the end of each module, and as a cumulative evaluation of the course during the final exam period.


As part of this project there is no plan to conduct level 4 evaluations. Once students have completed the course, it is not feasable to track them down to determine the ROI of this course on the student’s life. It is conceivable that the organization as a whole can conduct level 4 evaluations of this course to see how it has impacted their bottom line. For example the University of Massachusetts can do evaluations to determine how many students have requested to sign up for the course and how many are wait-listed. They can examine whether or not offering this course has increased enrollment and/or interest in related areas such as Modern Languages, Classics and History. Finally, based on all these factors, it is possible that they can determine what the ROI of this course is for the University based on how many students are enrolled or want to enroll in the course.

Materials Used

The materials that we will use for evaluating student performance closely resemble the materials that we will be using for conducting our class. This will be helpful to students because they will already be familiar with the materials used in class, so it can potentially lower the stress levels of students and help avert performance anxiety that is generally associated with evaluations.

Survey Monkey: For our Questionnaires (L1, post-module surveys) we will use the online survey provider survey monkey40. Survey monkey allows us to create surveys and provides with both a general analysis of the data (for quantitative data) in the form of charts, and it also provides us with the ability to download this data and further analyze it using tools like Microsoft Excel and SPSS.

LMS: If we use a traditional LMS, we will use the LMS functionality to create and grade multiple-choice, true/false, matching, fill-in-the-blank and short answer quizzes. If we do not use a traditional LMS, we can use tools such as hot potatoes41 to create web-based quizzes for our students. The benefit of using an LMS is that the LMS also takes care of the scoring and grade reporting, while a tool like hot potatoes does not tie into a grade book.

40 http://www.surveymonkey.com 41 http://hotpot.uvic.ca/

Flash: Adobe Flash will be one key component to our testing. Our L3 simulations, which provide a controlled environment for language comprehension and production evaluation, will be based on Flash technology. Our students will need to have flash installed on their computers and our development team will need access to a flash production environment. In addition, Flash is used for streaming video sites like YouTube, which we will also use as elements in our evaluation. If students already have access to YouTube, it follows that playback of our simulations should not be a problem.

WordPress: WordPress42 is one of the major free blogging platforms available on the internet. For our evaluation of blogging exercises we will use a course blog hosted on WordPress because WordPress allows us to have one blog where many students can contribute content. This way all of the coursework is consolidated and it lowers the technological and time barriers for students, and the instructor. Students and the instructor will only need to check one blog for all updated content, and they can use their one log-in to provide feedback and comments to their classmates. In addition, the blog can be made private which means that students can feel secure that the materials they contribute as they explore the language are private.

Realia: In our game show type of evaluations we will use culturally authentic realia. This gives students something concrete that they can interact with while they are engaged in the game. In addition to physical realia, we will also use culturally authentic videos on YouTube as part of our L2 assessments (Comprehension exercises).

Pencil & Paper: For our mandated L1 evaluations we will use tried and true materials such as paper based forms for qualitative data, and number 2 pencils and scantron (bubble) sheets for quantitative data.

42 http://www.wordpress.com

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Appendix A: Needs Analysis Survey 1. Would you be interested in taking a language course in MODERN GREEK as a way to satisfy

the language requirement? (Circle your answer)

Yes | No | Maybe

2. If you answered YES to Question 1: Why do you want to learn Greek?

(Check off as many as apply)

It will help me with my English vocabulary

I am going on vacation to Greece and want to learn the language

I would like to live in Greece

I am of Greek Ancestry

I think it would be cool to know Greek

Other (Please Specify)

3. If you answered NO or MAYBE on Question 1: Why are you not very interested in

studying Greek? (Check off as many answers as apply)

I think that Greek is too hard to learn

I think that Greek is boring

I think that Greek isn't spoken by a lot of people

I don't think that Greek will be that useful

I have never thought about learning Greek

Other (Please Specify)

4. If you answered NO or MAYBE on Question 1: What would convince you to consider

taking GREEK as a foreign language?

5. How would you rate the importance of the following with regard to learning a foreign

language?

Least Important

Somewhat Important

Important Very Important

Essential

Learning a language's Grammar

Learning new Vocabulary

Learning about how to interact in Everyday Situations

Learning about how to interact in Specific Situations (ex: going to the grocery store)

Learning about that country's Culture

Learning about that country's Entertainment (Cinema, Music, Television)

Learning about that country's Customs

6. You would prefer to satisfy my language requirement in one semester instead of two.

(Circle your answer)

AGREE | DISAGREE

7. If a course were offered called "GREEK FOR TRAVELERS", where you would learn the

language you needed to know to travel in order to Greece, would you sign up for this course?

(Circle your answer)

Yes | No | Maybe

Appendix B: Needs Analysis Data 1. Would you be interested in taking a language course in MODERN GREEK as a way to satisfy the

language requirement?

Response Percentage

Yes 10 32%

No 8 26%

Maybe 13 42%

32%

26%

42%

Would you be interested in taking a language course in MODERN GREEK as a way to satisfy the

language requirement? (n = 31)

Yes

No

Maybe

2. If you answered YES to Question 1: Why do you want to learn Greek?

Response Percentage

It will help me with my English vocabulary 2 18%

I am going on vacation to Greece and want to learn the language 0 0%

I would like to live in Greece 2 18%

I am of Greek Ancestry 3 27%

I think it would be cool to know Greek 7 64%

OTHER responses:

If I ever go to Greece it would be nice to be knowledgeable somewhat

Family in Greece

I might visit Greece

It's difference43, not everyone knows it

I want to learn as many languages as possible

Interested in Greek Society - Ancient Greece

I want to travel to different countries in the future. Knowing Greece wouldn't hurt

43 Note: Responses have been entered verbatim. No correction for grammar and spelling has been made

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

It will help me with my English

vocabulary

I am going on vacation to

Greece and want to learn the

language

I would like to live in Greece

I am of Greek Ancestry

I think it would be cool to know

Greek

18%

0%

18%

27%

64%

Why do you want to learn Greek? (n = 11)

3. If you answered NO or MAYBE on Question 1: Why are you not very interested in studying Greek?

Response Percentage

I think that Greek is too hard to learn 2 10%

I think that Greek is boring 1 5%

I think that Greek isn't spoken by a lot of people 7 35%

I don't think that Greek will be that useful 8 40%

I have never thought about learning Greek 14 70%

OTHER responses:

I already have 2 concentrations and do not know if I would be able to handle the workload /

languages aren’t my strength

I am more interested in other languages

I don't know when I'll be able to use it in my everyday life

I have interest in learning other languages first

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

I think that Greek is too hard to learn

I think that Greek is boring

I think that Greek isn't

spoken by a lot of people

I don't think that Greek will be

that useful

I have never thought about learning Greek

10%5%

35%40%

70%

Why are you not very interested studying Greek? (n = 20)

4. If you answered NO or MAYBE on Question 1: What would convince you to consider taking GREEK

as a foreign language?

1. Couldnt tell ya.... I dont really know 2. field trip/study abroad to Greece 3. Not much because the other languages that I am interested in (Spanish and Chinese) is more

commonly spoken around the world 4. Nothing 5. Getting a guaranteed A 6. If I was planning a trip to go to Greece 7. If you take me to the country 8. N/A 9. If I knew I was going to use it 10. Nothing 11. if it was more commonly used, or was given as a class in high school and could be continued 12. It is not that I won't want to. I have just never thought much about it. 13. Someone who has taken Greek would have to convince me to take it. I'd want to hear their

opinion on it 14. If it was free! 15. going to Greece... 16. If it helps me with anything else that has to do with my college carreer 17. If it was demonstrated to be relevant in the global community, specifically as it applied to future

career options

5. How would you rate the importance of the following with regard to learning a foreign language?

17.2%

3.4%

0.0%

3.4%

14.8%

50.0%

6.9%

34.5%

34.5%

20.7%

17.2%

48.1%

14.3%

27.6%

17.2%

27.6%

17.2%

37.9%

22.2%

32.1%

44.8%

27.6%

34.5%

62.1%

41.4%

11.1%

3.6%

20.7%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Grammar

Vocabulary

Everyday Situations

Specific Situations

Culture

Entertainment

Customs

How would you rate the importance of the following with regard to learning a foreign

language?

Least Important Somewhat Important Important Very Important Essential

Number of Responses:

Least Important

Somewhat Important

Important Very Important

Essential

n


1 5 10 5 8 29


0 1 10 8 10 29


0 0 6 5 18 29


0 1 5 11 12 29


1 4 13 6 3 27


0 14 4 9 1 28


0 2 8 13 6 29

Percentage Breakdown:

Least Important

Somewhat Important

Important Very Important Essential


3.4% 17.2% 34.5% 17.2% 27.6%


0.0% 3.4% 34.5% 27.6% 34.5%


0.0% 0.0% 20.7% 17.2% 62.1%


0.0% 3.4% 17.2% 37.9% 41.4%


3.7% 14.8% 48.1% 22.2% 11.1%


0.0% 50.0% 14.3% 32.1% 3.6%


0.0% 6.9% 27.6% 44.8% 20.7%

6. You would prefer to satisfy my language requirement in one semester instead of two

Response Percentage

Agree 21 75%

Disagree 7 25%

75%

25%

I would prefer one semester of language instead of two (n = 28)

Agree

Disagree

7. If a course were offered called "GREEK FOR TRAVELERS", where you would learn the language you

needed to know to travel in order to Greece, would you sign up for this course?

Response Percentage

Yes 14 48%

No 5 17%

Maybe 10 34%

48%

17%

35%

Would you take a course called "Greek for Travelers" ? (n = 29)

Yes

No

Maybe

Appendix C: Example of Advertising for the Course

Example of a great Modern Greek Language advertising poster from the University of Illinois:

http://www.moderngreek.illinois.edu/flyers/mgflyer.pdf

Appendix D: Moodle Mockup – Teacher View

Appendix E: Moodle Mockup – Student View

Appendix F: Student & Context Analysis Worksheets

Instructional Design Project Student & Context Analysis Worksheet, Step 1: Student Analysis44

1 What are the general characteristics of your target population? Examples include age, grade level, topic area, etc.

Characteristics of the target audience include:

college age,

non-native speakers of Greek

have interest in languages

have interest in travel

local to the Boston area

may be descendants of Greeks

2 Are there any entry behaviors that are not specific to your goal, and yet you feel are required for your intended students to possess? (Entry Behaviors)

Entry level behaviors would include:

literacy in native language

ability to communicate in native language

problem solving skills

3 Do the students already know something about the topic? (Prior Knowledge)

Students have most likely heard of some elements of Greek history (such as King Leonidas of Sparta), elements of Greek mythology (12 Gods of Olympus, Hercules, Medusa, etc.) and they probably know a lot of words with Greek roots, such as “autocracy”

4 Do they have a positive attitude towards the content and the delivery system? (Attitudes Toward Content and Potential Delivery System)

The class is an elective course. Even though it satisfies a language requirement, it is not the only class. Therefore it is assumed that the attitudes toward the subject matter are positive. The potential delivery system may have some negative attitudes considering that most people tend to think of the ALM as the way to teach languages.

5 Is it reasonable to expect them to want to learn what needs to be learned? Is the topic likely to interest them? (Academic Motivation)

Yes, it is reasonable to expect them to learn what needs to be learned. The topic should be of interest to them since they are not forced to sign up for this course, and it would be something that comes in handy in their personal lives.

6 Is it reasonable to expect that they can learn what needs to be learned? (Educational and Ability Levels)

It is reasonable to expect them what needs to be learned. The course materials will be plenty, however this is an introductory communicative course, so they do not need to master every nuance of the language.

7 Do they have any general learning preferences? (General Learning Preferences)

I would say that the students do indeed have general learning preferences. If they‟ve ever learned a language in school before, they probably expect to be taught in the same method. Additionally some students do better with visual versus aural stimuli. A complete student inventory would need to be undertaken to know the specifics.

8 Do they have a positive attitude regarding the organization providing the instruction? (Attitudes

I believe that they do indeed have a positive attitude toward the university, otherwise they

44 Adapted from Mary Hopper’s INSDSG 601 Student & context analysis worksheet.

Toward Training Organization)

would be somewhere else.

9 Are there any important group characteristics? How similar or diverse are they? (Group Characteristics)

I believe that the group of students that takes this course are quite diverse which will make the course quite interesting in both interaction between themselves and the instructor, and they can provide for authentic learning that is relevant to the students

10 How did you obtain this information regarding the student characteristics?

Deduced information from the needs analysis data

Instructional Design Project Student & Context Analysis Worksheet, Step 2: Performance Context

1 What type of organizational support can students expect to receive when they use their new skills? (Managerial Support)

Once the students have completed their course, I don‟t think that there will be organizational support on site (in Greece) when they use their skills.

2 Will the use of their new skills depend on certain equipment, facilities, tools, or other resources? (Physical Aspects of the Site)

They will use their new skills with individuals in the host country.

3 Will they work alone or in a team? Will they work independently in the field or as a supervisor? (Social Aspects of the Site)

It depends on how they are going to be traveling. If traveling alone, they will most likely use their skills alone, however if they are traveling as part of a group, team work is most likely to come into play. Since a lot of language production is collaborative, I would say that the skills would be used in a team context more often than not.

4 How relevant are the new skills to the actual workplace? Will the new skills actually be used in the performance setting? Are there any physical, social, or motivational constraints to the use of the new skills? (Relevance of Skills to Workplace)

While traveling to Greece, the student will encounter many that speak English (to some degree). In that sense the new skills may not be as relevant; however the new skills will allow students to interact more fluidly with the natives if there are words that the student knows in Greek, but the locals do not know in English.

5 How did you obtain this information regarding the performance context?

Personal experience as a traveler

Instructional Design Project Student & Context Analysis Worksheet, Step 3: Learning Context

1 How many sites are there, and what are the characteristics of the sites? What equipment and resources are available? (Number and Nature of Sites)

There are many classrooms on campus. The ideal classroom would be a TEC level II classroom that includes:

Computer + digital projector

Video playback unit

Document camera

Lecture recording ability

2 Does the site include any tools or other items that are necessary for the learning of the goal? Are there any personnel or time constraints that you can identify? (Compatibility of the Site With the Instructional Requirements)

There are no personnel constraints, however there are timing constraints. In recent years classes have been scheduled back to back at the university, so there would be little room for slack at the end of each lecture to meet with students in the classroom or to expand the meeting time of the lecture if students wanted to do so.

3 Are the sites convenient to the students, are there necessary conveniences available, and is there adequate space and equipment for the expected number of students? (Compatibility of the Site With the Student Needs)

The site is on campus; therefore it is assumed that it is convenient for students. The online „facilities‟ (learning management system), may present a problem in terms of convenience for students since it is now yet known how computer savvy they are.

4 Does the learning environment adequately simulate the eventual work environment? Is there anything that can be done to make it more like the work environment? (Feasibility for Simulating the Workplace)

No, it does not. The classroom is a bit deficient for simulating traveling through Greece. If the course were an exchange student course, offered in Greece, perhaps the resemblance would be much closer.

5 How did you obtain this information regarding the learning context?

Personal knowledge

Appendix G: Evaluation Worksheets45

Level 1 Evaluations SMEs (Formative)

Worksheet 3-1. Choosing the right question to get the right information.

Response Question You Will

Ask

What the Response Can Tell You

Were the dialogues chosen written

to sound authentic in context?

We want to measure whether or not the dialogues sound like

something that a native Greek would say, or whether the

dialogue language sounds contrived. We are aiming for

authenticity.

Were the visuals (in the video) and

the acting authentic for the context

they were in?

Just like the dialogue, we want our visuals (location, actor’s

responses and paralanguage) to reflect an authentic situation,

and not a cheesy television drama (unless of course we are

making fun of these types of dramas in our dialogues)

Did the quizzes measure the

learning of the subject matter in the

unit?

We want to make sure that our quizzes (L2 evaluation of

students) measure real communicative learning rather than rote

memorization.

What did you think of the research

assignments?

Generally introductory courses in language don’t involve any

research. We want to see if our SMEs think that we are providing

an acceptable level of challenge to our students, or if we are

overwhelming them.

Do you think that students will find

something confusing in this lesson?

Our SMEs have experience teaching Greek; therefore we want to

tap into their knowledge to see if any elements of the module

could potentially cause problems for the students. If so, we want

to try and fix it before we offer the course.

Does this lesson connect with

previous lessons?

No lesson (module) is an island. The knowledge has to connect

to previous knowledge, and with things to come. We want to

know if our SMEs think that lessons flow smoothly from one

lesson to the other, or not, so that we can rectify this.

If you had to choose one word to

describe this week’s lesson, what

would it be?

We want a general overview of what our SMEs think of the

module. This way if negative words come up, we can see what

we can do to rectify the issues.

45 Adapted from Horton (Horton, Evaluating e-Learning, 2001)

Students (Summative)

Worksheet 3-1. Choosing the right question to get the right information.

Response Question You Will

Ask

What the Response Can Tell You

What did you think of the

dialogues? What did you like? What

did you not like?

We want to ask our students for an honest opinion of the

dialogues. Did they think they were authentic or did they think

that it was inauthentic and therefore not as appropriate for our

communicate objectives.

Were the visuals (in the video) and

the acting authentic for the context

they were in? What did you like?

What did you not like?

Same as the dialogues, did the student think that the videos

were an accurate representation of reality? Or were they like bad

telenovelas?

What did you think of the Quizzes?

What did you like? What did you

not like?

We want to get feedback from the students with regard to the

more traditional grammar and vocabulary quizzes to see how

students respond to them. Some students prefer them, while

others do not. We want to know why.

What did you think of the Flash

simulation? What did you like?

What did you not like?

We want to know if the flash simulations were helpful to the

students. These flash simulations, while cartoony in nature, can

be realistic enough when they are programmed with dialogue

trees. We want to see how useful and engaging they were to

the students.

What did you think of the blog

exercise? What did you like? What

did you not like?

We want to know if the students felt positive or negative about

the blog assignments, and see if they picked up any fun facts

that they may not have picked up had they not done the

research. We also want to know what would make this exercise

more engaging and meaningful to the students.

Were there any confusing elements

in this week’s lesson?

We want to know what confused students so that we can have

an opportunity in a subsequent lesson to rectify this.

If you had to choose one word to

describe this week’s lesson, what

would it be?

We want to see how our students felt, in general, about this

lesson.

Worksheet 3-3. Identify ways to use automated evaluation methods for level 1 evaluation.

Electronic

Technique

Suitable for

GR4T

(Yes/No)

How Will You Use This Technique?

Track access and

navigation

Yes We can use our LMS features to determine how often

students are logging on. If there are certain features

that don’t get as much traffic from students, we need

to explore why.

Online surveys and

questionnaires

Yes We will use online surveys and questionnaires for L1

evaluations (See previous section), as well as L2 quizzes.

Email address for

feedback

No While the instructor’s email will be available to the

students, and students are free to submit ideas,

comments and feedback to the instructor if they wish, it

will not be an advertized method of feedback

On-screen feedback

forms

No

Discussion forum for

course quality

Yes We will have a course discussion forum called “Online

Café” where students will be free to talk to each other,

and with the instructor, to share concerns, likes and

dislikes about the course.

Online focus groups No

Level 2 Evaluations Students (Summative)

Worksheet 4-2. What kinds of test questions will you use to measure learning from GR4T?

Question Format What These Kinds of Questions Will Measure

True/False True/False questions will measure basic understanding of elements in the

module, such as the overall idea of a story or dialogue used in a module

Pick One This type of question will be used for testing elements like lexical knowledge

exercises (e.g.: completing sentences); grammatical knowledge exercises (e.g.:

picking the right verb form); and used in comprehension exercises, like the

flash exercises, as part of a dialogue tree.

Pick Multiple This type of question will be used to pick out relevant themes in the stories

used in modules, and to pick out correct responses in response to an

interlocutor’s query.

Text Input Text input will be used to provide short, free form, answers to elements such as

story comprehension questions, and in response to verbal queues.

Fill-in-the-Blanks Fill in the blanks will be used for similar situations as “Pick one”, except that

students will not have a list to choose from. They will have to discern from

context what they need to input. This may be used near the tail end of the

course as students are getting more familiar with the methodology of the

course.

Matching Lists Matching lists can be used for exercises such as matching vocabulary with its

definitions, matching elements of C2 to C1, and matching actions (from the

story) to outcomes (again from the story)

Click-in Picture Click-in picture measures can be used to measure elements such as knowledge

of vocabulary (i.e. naming an object and the student clicks on it), and

understanding directions (i.e. directing the user to open the door). This second

part would be like an electronic TPR exercise.

Worksheet 4-3. What other Level 2 evaluation techniques will you use?

Technique What It Will

Measure

How Will You Use It?

Observing students’

behavior

It will measure the level

of the ability of students

to negotiate meaning

with their interlocutors,

and with the text that

they are negotiating.

Observation of student’s behavior will take place

in the face to face component of class. The

instructor will observe how students negotiate

meaning of texts that they are provided, and how

they interact with the instructor in role playing

exercises.

Hands-on activities It will measure the ability

of students to navigate

information sources, in a

foreign language,

negotiate meaning and

accomplish a goal (such

as getting information

for a ticket to a nearby

island)

Hands on exercises will take place predominantly

online. Students will be given a list of websites

each week that correspond to the topic of the

module. Students will then use these websites to

retrieve information that relates to more critical

work, such as writing a blog post or creating a

new dialogue to be practiced in class.

Simulated work

activities

It will measure the ability

of students to use

language to accomplish

a goal (i.e. ordering food

or getting directions)

Simulated work activities and role-playing

activities serve the same function, however they

will be used in different contexts. Simulated work

activities will be used online, using flash-based

simulations. In these activities students will

interact with a simulated interlocutor to

accomplish a certain goal, such as getting

directions to the Acropolis Museum.

Role-playing activities on the other hand will take

place in the face to face component of class, and

students will interact with each other and the

instructor to accomplish some goal. The benefit of

RPA over SWA is that the instructor can be more

ad libed to provide students with a more realistic

language negotiation activity.

Role-playing activities Role playing activities

will measure the

student’s ability to

deviate from known

texts and negotiate

meaning when they

don’t fully know the

vocabulary or

grammatical structures

used.

Learning games Learning games can be

used to measure if

students understand

directions given to them

and have knowledge of

the module vocabulary

Learning games will be used both in online and

face to face contexts, and they will most likely be

based around TPR methodology. Some examples

of learning games are game-show types of

activities in class.

Level 3 Evaluations Students (Summative)

Worksheet 5-2. How will you measure e-learning performance?

Technique for

Measuring Job

Performance

Suitable for

Evaluating

GR4T

(Yes/No)

How Will You Use It?

Observing OTJ behavior Yes (tentative) Observing of interaction of learners with native

speakers (guest of the class) attempting to

communicate and negotiate meaning based on certain

contexts. The guest speakers will have a general idea of

what we covered in class, but since they won’t know

specifics, their language use won’t be constrained.

Opinions of those who

can rate worker’s

performance

No

Job performance

records

No

Controlled tests of work

output

Yes (tentative) In class, face to face, students interacting with the

instructor in a role-playing situation. The instructor can

use realistic language, in specific contexts, that the

student may not be fully familiar with, but the student

will have enough knowledge to negotiate meaning and

interact in that specific situation. Since the instructor

knows what the class has covered, his input can be

more controlled, and the output of the students can be

more controlled compared to guest native speakers.

Analysis of performance

trends

No

Monitoring action plans No

Simulations of work

activities

Yes Same idea as the above two examples.

Evaluating Course Quality

Worksheet 10-1: Criteria for evaluating an e-learning project.

Business Issues Weight Rating Score

Do the course’s learning objectives match

your learning objectives? 5 x ____ = _____

Are the total costs of the course low

enough so that you can meet your

financial goals? 2 x ____ = _____

Can the course be implemented in time to

meet your schedule? 2 x ____ = _____

Subtotal = _____

Technical Issues Weight Rating Score

Will the course run on computers

students already have? 4 x ____ = _____

Will pages and other components

download quickly over students’ network

connections? 4 x ____ = _____

Can students take the course without

having to obtain and install additional

software? 2 x ____ = _____

Can the course work under your learning

management system? 3 x ____ = _____

Does the course comply with applicable

technical standards (AICC, IMS, SCORM,

etc.)? Standards: ACTFL 4 x ____ = _____

Subtotal = _____

Content Weight Rating Score

Is material in the course accurate and

current? 4 x ____ = _____

Does the course cover the subject in

sufficient breadth and depth to meet your

objectives? 4 x ____ = _____

Is the course free of production errors,

such as broken links, missing graphics,

and typographical errors? 3 x ____ = _____

Subtotal = _____

Instructional Design Weight Rating Score

Is the type of course (tutorial, simulation,

online seminar, email correspondence) the

best choice to meet your objectives? 3 x ____ = _____

Is material presented in a logical

sequence that helps students understand

and master the material? If the student

can control the sequence, is the default or

suggested sequence appropriate? 5 x ____ = _____

Are abstract concepts (principles,

formulas, rules, etc.) illustrated with

concrete, specific examples? 4 x ____ = _____

Do post-tests and other assessments

adequately measure accomplishment of

your learning objectives? 5 x ____ = _____

Are diagnostic pretests available to help

students custom tailor learning to their

individual needs? 3 x ____ = _____

Is the course certified by ASTD’s eCC

program? 0 x ____ = _____

Subtotal = _____

Practice and Feedback Weight Rating Score

Are students given the opportunity to

practice ideas and skills immediately after

they are presented? 4 x ____ = _____

Do practice activities exercise knowledge

and skills in a way that prepares students

to apply what they learn to their jobs? 5 x ____ = _____

Are practice activities provided to help

students integrate separate bits of

knowledge and low-level skills? 4 x ____ = _____

Is feedback in practice activities and tests

sufficient to help students recognize and

correct misconceptions? 5 x ____ = _____

Subtotal = _____

Usability Weight Rating Score

Can students get started taking the

course (locate it, install plug-ins, register,

and access the starting page) using only

online assistance? 3 x ____ = _____

Is the combination of on-screen

instructions and online help sufficient for

students to successfully navigate and

operate the course? 4 x ____ = _____

Is it clear what students should do if they

get stuck or have questions? 4 x ____ = _____

Can students predict the general result of

clicking on each button or link? 4 x ____ = _____

Can students take the course without fear

of more software crashes, server outages,

and misformatted pages than are

common with general Web surfing? 4 x ____ = _____

Subtotal = _____

Media Weight Rating Score

Is the text in the course written at a level

that students can fully understand? 4 x ____ = _____

Is text legible as displayed using default

browser settings and only default fonts? 5 x ____ = _____

Are graphics (illustrations, photographs,

graphs, diagrams, etc) used appropriately,

for example, to communicate visual and

spatial concepts? 4 x ____ = _____

Are multimedia content modules used

where simple words and pictures are not

adequate? 3 x ____ = _____

Do graphics and multimedia assist in

noticing and learning critical content

rather than merely entertaining or

possibly distracting students? 5 x ____ = _____

Will the course be accessible to those with

visual and hearing impairments? 4 x ____ = _____

Subtotal = _____

Navigation and Control Weight Rating Score

Can students decide which parts of the

course to take, in which order, and at

what pace? 2 x ____ = _____

Can students control whether and when

large media components are downloaded

and played? 3 x ____ = _____

Are navigation and access mechanisms

(menus, browsing trails, maps, indexes)

sufficient for students to find specific

items of content? 4 x ____ = _____

Are units self-contained enough that

students can take them out of sequence

without becoming confused? 0 x ____ = _____

Do students always know where they are?

By examining page titles, constantly

displayed menus, or other location

indicators, can students deduce their

current location in the course? 5 x ____ = _____

Subtotal = _____

Motivation Weight Rating Score

Does the course initially make clear to

students what they gain by taking the

course? 5 x ____ = _____

Does each lesson or other sizable unit

make clear to students what they gain by

taking it? 5 x ____ = _____

Will the difficulty of the course

appropriately challenge your students—

not too hard or too easy? 4 x ____ = _____

Is the visual design (layout, color choices,

emblems, icons, etc.) one that will appeal

to students initially as well as over the

entire period of training? 3 x ____ = _____

Subtotal = _____

Additional Criteria Weight Rating Score

Reusability: Is this course a course that

any SME on the Greek language could

teach, or do instructors need special

training/guidance? 3 x ____ = _____

Reusability: Are the materials going to be

out-dated rapidly and therefore need to

be updated often? 4 x ____ = _____

Subtotal = _____

Summary

Total Score _____

Average of Ratings

for criteria with nonzero weighting) _____

Appendix H: Podcast Evaluation Ideas

The Pronunciation Attitude Inventory (PAI) (Adapted from Elliott, 1995)

46

Please read the following statements and choose the response that best corresponds to your

beliefs and attitudes.

Please answer all items using the following response categories:

5 = Always or almost always true of me

4 = Usually true of me

3 = Somewhat true of me

2 = Usually not true of me

1 = Never or almost never true of me

1. I'd like to sound as native as possible when speaking a foreign language.

2. Acquiring proper pronunciation in a foreign language is important to me.

3. I will never be able to speak a foreign language with a good accent.

4. I believe I can improve my pronunciation skills in my foreign language.

5. I believe more emphasis should be given to proper pronunciation in class.

6. One of my personal goals is to acquire proper pronunciation skills and preferably be able to

pass as a near-native speaker of the language.

7. I try to imitate foreign language speakers as much as possible.

8. Communicating is much more important than sounding like a native speaker of my foreign

language.

9. Good pronunciation skills in my foreign language are not as important as learning vocabulary

and grammar.

10. I want to improve my accent when speaking my foreign language.

11. I'm concerned with my progress in my pronunciation of my foreign language.

12. Sounding like a native speaker is very important to me.

46 PAI adaptation in Ducate & Lomicka (Podcasting: An effective tool for honing language students' pronunciation?, 2009)

Podcasting and Blogs Assessment47

47 In Ducate & Lamicka (Podcasting: An effective tool for honing language students' pronunciation?, 2009)

Pronunciation Assessment Rubric48

48 In Ducate & Lamicka (Podcasting: An effective tool for honing language students' pronunciation?, 2009)

Appendix I: Copyright Information This work is licensed under a Creative Commons “BY-SA” license49.

49 See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ for more information

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Curriculum Vitæ

Greek for Travelers

Documents

Transcript of Greek for Travelers