Alysse Weinberg

Virtual Misadventures: Technical

Problems and Student Satisfaction
When Implementing Multimedia
in an Advanced French Listening
Comprehension Course
Alysse Weinberg
Second Language Institute
University of Ottawa

ABSTRACT

What are the advantages and problems related to using multimedia tech-
nology in an advanced French listening comprehension course? What are
some of the typical vicissitudes, trials and tribulations encountered when
teachers decide to introduce multimedia activities in their classes? This
article illustrates the advantages and difficulties of using multimedia from
the point of view of both the teacher and the learners. We first give a brief
presentation of the context in which our experiment took place. We out-
line the difficulties encountered by the professor who had to select mate-
rial, create activities, and administer the daily management of the course,
touching on hardware and support issues. We then investigate the reac-
tion of the students to the new media and the teaching approach.

KEYWORDS

Integration of Technology, JavaScript, HTML, Web-Based Instruction,

French as a Second Language, Listening Comprehension

INTRODUCTION

Enthusiasm and fear: Is this how language teachers feel when they ap-
proach the integration of the Internet and multimedia technology into their
courses? Teachers are enthusiastic about Internet resources which can
give their students immediate access to an immense pool of authentic
© 2002 CALICO Journal

Volume 19 Number 2 331

Virtual Misadventures

material (e.g., documents, music, and news broadcasts by native speak-

ers). Learners may experience aspects of the target culture through the
use of video and audio files, graphics, texts, and online tools without hav-
ing visited the country (Garrett, 1991; Joiner, 1997; Pusack & Otto, 1997;
Lafford & Lafford, 1997; Osuna & Meskill, 1998). However, while the
process of integrating the Internet into the foreign language classroom
curriculum stimulates learner interest and motivation (Sohonee, 1998),
implementing a multimedia component in a language course involves a
completely different set of skills than that of normal classroom teaching.
Technologically inexperienced teachers, conscious of their technical inad-
equacies and their lack of control over capricious technology, often ap-
proach this task with trepidation merging into fear.
After a brief presentation of the context in which our experiment took
place we address the following two questions:

1. What kind of technical difficulties are encountered by intro-

ducing Internet and multimedia activities into an advanced
French listening comprehension course?

2. What are the perceptions and preferences of students presented

with three different types of media—audio, video, and multi-
media?

CLASSROOM AND TEACHING PROCEDURES: THE COURSE AND

ITS SETTING

Between 1986 and 1994, the comprehension-based approach, as pro-

moted by Krashen (1981), was widely used in the beginning level French
courses at the Second Language Institute (SLI) of the University of Ot-
tawa. This approach emphasized receptive skills—reading and listening—
and de-emphasized productive skills—writing and speaking. In addition,
the approach put greater focus on the students and their learning pro-
cesses. Comprehension was perceived as the first step for language learn-
ing. This eight-year long experience required the creation of a specific
curriculum, the development of listening and reading materials, and the
implementation of testing procedures, along with studies of student satis-
faction (Corbeil & Thérien, 1992; Cornaire & Tréville, 1992; Courchêne,
1992; LeBlanc, Duquette, & Compain, 1992; Compain, Dionne, Duquette,
Rivas-Rivas, & Weinberg, 1995).
While many low-level comprehension courses have been abandoned,
one advanced course in French listening comprehension was maintained.
The description for this course states that “students will develop their
listening strategies and skills and that they will be systematically exposed
332 CALICO Journal
 Alysse Weinberg

to a variety of accents, registers, environments, text types and delivery

modes.” The main objective is to prepare the student to easily understand
a university course given in French.
No textbook is attached to the course, so the teacher is responsible for
selecting the material at the appropriate advanced linguistic level to match
the syllabus and course aims. The selection criteria for the material was
based on content, authenticity, and variety as stated in the course syllabus.
Content was chosen designed to enlarge students’ knowledge of the con-
temporary manifestations and historical context of French culture. The
main themes were similar to topics in introductory courses in fields of
study such as sociology, history, and so on. All of the audio and video
segments used in the course contained authentic French material taken
directly from stations such as Radio Canada and SRC (Canada), TV5
(France), and from movies such as Le fleuve aux grandes eaux. Nothing
was especially created for the course. A variety of speaking styles were
selected to expose the students to various regional accents, gestures, rates
of speaking, and discourse levels of the language as specified in the course
syllabus. Represented were accents from Alsace, the south of France, Bel-
gium, Switzerland, the Caribbean islands, Africa, and of course from French
speaking Canada, especially Acadia, Québec, and Francophone Ontario.
The media clips varied in length from 10 to 45 minutes.
The course description features listening strategies, and these strategies
represent a major component of this course in order to increase the stu-
dents’ awareness about their learning processes. The definition of strategy
here follows the commonly definition of a conscious mental operation
applied by learners to help with their language acquisition (O’Malley,
Chamot, Stewer-Manzanares, Küpper, & Russo, 1985; Chamot, Küpper,
& Impink-Hernandez,1988; Oxford & Crookall, 1989). The typology pro-
posed by O’Malley and Chamot (1990) classifies strategies in three large
categories: (a) metacognitive strategies which assist learners in the evalu-
ation and improvement of their own learning processes, (b) cognitive strat-
egies which guide learner interactions with their text, and (c) social-affec-
tive strategies which help students with their foreign language interac-
tions with others. By deliberately presenting and discussing learning strat-
egies, the professor trains students to understand their language compre-
hension processes, to become more autonomous in their learning, and to
use these strategies outside the classroom situation (Mendelsohn, 1994;
Oxford, 1990).
All listening comprehension activities in the course included prelistening,
listening, and postlistening components (Underwood, 1989; Joiner, 1997)
and presented inherently interesting subject matter appropriate to the stu-
dents’ level. Working with previewing and prelistening activities reduce
some of the difficulties inherent to the use of authentic material and thereby
enables students to predict the course of a conversation based on their

Volume 19 Number 2 333

Virtual Misadventures

previous knowledge (Duplantie & Massey, 1984; Mendelsohn, 1995). Stu-

dents were also taught viewing strategies such as segment planning, defin-
ing viewing goals, identifying problems, and evaluating the effectiveness
of self-teaching methods.
The course is normally based only on the presentation of audio and
video material, but, starting in January 2000, students were exposed to
multimedia material as well. The class met twice a week for 90 minutes
for 12 weeks. One of the two weekly classes was devoted to viewing video
segments. This class was held in a small amphitheatre where the video
was projected on a large screen (approximately 8 feet high and 12 feet
wide). The second of the two weekly classes was devoted to listening to
audio clips. Before this time, the audio portion of the course took place in
a traditional language laboratory; starting in January 2000, the students
went to a computer laboratory for the multimedia part. The audio and
video segments presented in the same week had similar themes. The test-
ing for the audio and video components of the course also presented ma-
terial similar to the themes shown and discussed in class.

THE MULTIMEDIA ENVIRONMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OT-

TAWA

The course was held in a brand new multimedia laboratory, opened in

May 1999, equipped with 30 Windows 98 workstations each with sound
cards and headsets. The laboratory is run from a Prisma Tandberg control
panel, and the equipment allows the playing and recording of audiocas-
settes. The student workstations have limited but useful Internet connec-
tions. The firewall on the main multimedia server does not allow students
to access sound and video files over the Internet, but these files may be
accessed and displayed by the teacher working at the main console. This
limitation was implemented to reduce the amount of bandwidth required
to service the laboratory. The multimedia materials could be accessed only
from the campus multimedia laboratory.

THE PARTICIPANTS

In January 2000, 11 students registered for the course and in the middle
of the term another student joined the course, making at the end nine
women and three men. All were strong students with marks of A or B
from the prerequisite advanced listening and speaking course. The total
number of 12 students represented a small number of students because
there are normally about 25 students in the course. All the students had
each spent at least one year at the university; they were in their second,
third, or fourth year except for one, a special student over 70 years old
who was just taking the course for his own benefit. Seventy-five percent
334 CALICO Journal
 Alysse Weinberg

of the students had previously taken French courses in our department.

None of the students was working towards a minor degree in French or
had declared French as a concentrated area of study. All students were
Canadians with a rich variety of ethnic backgrounds such as South-Ameri-
can, African, Italian, and Turkish. Some were very familiar with the Internet
and the different formats of sound and video files. Others were true be-
ginners with the technology and required regular review of the different
steps to start the program, to enlarge the screen, and to move from one
screen to the next. Only half of the students had access to the Internet at
home. For all students, this course was their first multimedia language
course. The students were highly motivated and attended 94% of the
classes. The average student mark on the midterm test was 76%, while
the average mark for the final exam was 80%.

INTRODUCING MULTIMEDIA FOR LISTENING COMPREHENSION

The inclusion of a multimedia component in the course added variety,

quality, and interactivity to interesting topics. The following list of fea-
tures highlights the advantages of using multimedia components which
were not previously available in the traditional language laboratory.
(Noblitt, 1990; Furstenberg, 1997; Desmarais, 1998; Lancien, 1998):
• a multimodal presentation combining texts, sounds and vid-
eos,
• high quality sound, video, and pictures,
• glossaries, grammatical and lexical reviews, dictionaries, and
hyperlinks to related material,
• a variety of interactive question types such as fill in the blank,
multiple choice, drag and drop, pairing, associations, and so
forth,
• a pleasant-to-use and attractive program interface that allows
easy navigation,
• controls to pause and rewind the sound track,
• useful feedback analyzing students’ responses,
• different program branching procedures depending on level of
language skill, and
• a system to help students monitor what exercises have been
completed and what tests have been passed.
The following features of multimedia materials are especially useful in a
listening comprehension course:
• The learning activity provides perspectives on different aspects
of the same text in order to allow students to understand more
fully what is being presented.
Volume 19 Number 2 335
Virtual Misadventures

• The clip can be accompanied by a text script or presented with-

out it. The script can include only keywords, the whole script,
the whole script with certain keywords hyperlinked to explana-
tions, or a translation of the script.
• The activity can include text, pictures, and diagrams to clarify
the historical or cultural context.
• Finally, and most importantly, the audio track is recorded in a
high fidelity format.

Implementing a multimedia component into a language course includes

a variety of tasks such as courseware selection, installation, activity selec-
tion, and user support for the students. Hubbard (1988, 1992, 1996) pro-
posed a framework for CALL courseware evaluation and development.
Murphy (1995) listed the six essential characteristics of good software as
good documentation, learner control, branching capabilities, portability,
ease of use, and cost effectiveness. Robb and Susser (2000) made a study
of how foreign language instructors choose courseware and found that,
despite the availability of standardized techniques and checklists to select
and evaluate courseware, a gap exists between the methodology recom-
mended in the literature and the actual practice by the instructors.
Having decided to introduce multimedia in ones course, the language
teacher then faces two options: to buy or to develop brand new material.
For our advanced French comprehension course no commercial CDs were
used. The ones we considered were flawed in some way that made them
unsuitable. Most were aimed at the beginning level and therefore not rel-
evant to this advanced course. Some had poor quality sound or confusing
user interfaces. Some commercial CDs could not be installed on the local
area network. Some emphasized only French culture from France and were
not suitable for a Canadian university. While a single CD may be reason-
ably priced, the cost of a site license may be prohibitively expensive. We
decided then to create our own activities designed specifically for the course.
The next section details the challenges and the problems encountered in
the development and implementation of the multimedia activities.

PROBLEMS WITH PREPARING VIDEO AND AUDIO FILES FOR

USE IN THE LABORATORY

Multimedia File Formats and Student Access

The students needed to have reliable access to video or sound files used
in the learning activities but were frustrated by the university Internet
firewall that blocked downloading sound and video files to student com-
puters. The professor’s computer was also filtered by this firewall, but she

336 CALICO Journal

 Alysse Weinberg

finally obtained authorization to let sound and video files pass the firewall.
These segments could then be displayed to all of the student terminals by
mirroring the professor’s workstation. Nevertheless, this solution was far
from satisfactory for the students because they wanted to have complete
control over the video rather than just having the professor play it for
them.1 For the first video segment, the students even had to memorize the
information presented in the video in order to answer the subsequent ques-
tions on the text. After this first unsatisfactory session, a different ap-
proach was used.
Many video files on the Internet are stored as RealPlayer .ram or .ra
formats. These formats, referred to as streaming files, have been engi-
neered by the company to prevent Internet users from downloading local
copies for copyright reasons. While the video portion cannot be down-
loaded, the audio portion can be saved while the video is playing. We
saved the sound file as an independent file and stored it on the local net-
work. The students could then view the video played by the teacher and
also listen to the soundtrack that they could control as they wished.
Connections to Internet sites from the teacher’s console, which one would
not expect to be a problem, were also unreliable. The Internet site where
the video was stored would sometimes return the infamous HTTP 404
error “Requested page not found” because the server was otherwise occu-
pied or the location of the page had been changed. In the morning when
network traffic was light, the files were usually easily accessible, but in the
afternoon, when more people were using the Internet, the files would not
load or would take a very long time.2

Multimedia File Quality

The inferior quality of the original video and audio tracks was another
problem. Since file distributors want to minimize the amount of data be-
ing sent, they make many compromises in sound and video quality to re-
duce file size. The transmitted sound track might be encoded at 11 kilo-
hertz, 8-bit mono (which should give adequate sound quality) and then
highly compressed, resulting in very poor sound quality. Problems can
also occur in the original recording. On one recording, for example, a
verbal exchange was badly done because the microphone was held too far
away from the people being recorded.
The video portion might also show signs of high compression rates which
result in a very small, stamp size image (Godwin-Jones, 1997). Doubling
the size of the image or enlarging it to the size of the whole screen makes
the image so blurred that users cannot see any details, just colored pixels.
Taken together, the video and audio problems make for a very unsatisfac-
tory listening and viewing experience.3

Volume 19 Number 2 337

Virtual Misadventures

When downloading multimedia files from the Internet, users encounter

frequent pauses as the RealPlayer program waits for the data stream to
come down. The video and sound track can be received in drips and drabs,
full of stops and pauses, often in the middle of a word. Bush (1996) had
already noted that students can become quite frustrated with the poor
performance of the ongoing video stream especially because of the lack of
synchronization between the lips and the sound.4

Size of Sound Files

Seven megabytes per song or video was generally the optimum size of
file to be transferred within a local area network. If the size of the file was
larger than seven megabytes, conflicts begin to interfere with the transfer
when students all tried to access it at the same time. The Audioview 32
program, the sound editing software that was used for the recordings, had
its default sound quality set to 44 kilohertz, 16 bit, stereo. These param-
eters created a sound file with size four times larger than it needed to be.
A more satisfactory setting would be 44 kilohertz, 8 bit, mono, which
created readily manageable files. Quite audible voices may be recorded at
11 kilohertz, and music pleasant enough to listen to may be recorded at
16 kilohertz. Bush (2000) offered a good suggestion that it is better to
save audio or video files under the best format available for archive pur-
poses and then make a second copy in lower quality for immediate distri-
bution.

Problem of Copyright

Scinicariello (1997) pointed out that everyone working with multime-

dia has to be concerned with copyright issues (see also Pusack and Otto,
1997). The development and pervasiveness of MP3 files has further con-
fused the already murky issue of copyright infringement. The wildly popu-
lar Napster and Gnutella programs make music files available to anyone
without distinguishing those that are legally or illegally distributed. Down-
loading a music file for private listening that has also been made available
by the copyright holders is certainly legal. However, copying the same file
without permission to a local area network to make it available to stu-
dents infringes on copyright. Some artists provide freely distributable MP3
samples of one or two of their songs. Many music files are made available
on the Internet so that the music company benefits from advertising when
visitors to their site download them. These files may only be downloaded
from the distributor’s site and may not be downloaded for any secondary
use including educational purposes. As a general rule, it is prudent to
assume that the use of any MP3 or video file infringes on copyright unless
one has explicit permission to use it for educational purposes from the
338 CALICO Journal
 Alysse Weinberg

copyright holder. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)

(2000) states, “A copyright is infringed when a song is made available to
the public by uploading it to an Internet site for other people to download,
sending it through an e-mail or chat service, or otherwise reproducing or
distributing copies without authorization from the copyright owner. In
civil cases copyright infringement can occur whether or not money was
exchanged for the music, and in criminal cases there only needs to be a
possibility of financial loss to the copyright holder or financial gain to the
infringer.” (For an introduction to music copyright laws in the USA, see
www.riaa.com.) As Dvorak, Charlotteaux, Gilgen, Herren, Jones, and
Trometer (1995) noted the language teacher is not only faced with tech-
nology but also with the law.

DESIGNING MULTIMEDIA MATERIALS

It was necessary to find both audio and video multimedia files for use in
the course. Three video segments were selected from the library of TV5
(www.funambule.com). These videos all dealt with the theme of le diable
‘the devil:’ L’Exorciste de Nice (an interview with an exorcist priest in the
south of France), Le Violon du diable (a story about a Québecois fiddler),
and the Les Sorcières de Marchiennes (about a festival of sorcery in the
north of France). For the audio component, the following songs were cho-
sen: L’Auvergnat by Brassens, Honte à qui peut chanter by Brassens but
sung by Maxime Le Forestier, and Nuit et brouillard by Ferrat, all of whom
are classic French folk singers.
While the activities for the songs were first being developed, an e-mail
was sent to the singers’ official web sites asking for permission to use their
material in these activities. No response was ever received. As a result,
these web pages were mostly used as proof-of-concept prototypes and only
used once locally in a class to see whether students enjoyed working with
them. Without the permission of the copyright holder, it is impossible to
use these materials regularly or to post them to the Web. Consequently,
new activities will be based on the music of less well known artists who
are pleased to have the added attention. These new pages will only be
developed when proper permissions are received. The web pages for TV5
and Funambule state that their videos may be downloaded and used lo-
cally for pedagogical purposes. In fact, their web pages were set up to
promote learning the French language.

Outline of the Planned Materials

More activities were planned than were actually used in class. Origi-
nally, each class was to have an audio and a video activity, but time per-
mitted only one or the other. The different activities developed around
Volume 19 Number 2 339
Virtual Misadventures

each audio or video segment took the students much more time than an-
ticipated. (See the original schedule of multimedia programs prepared for
the course and the changes that had to be made in the schedule in Appen-
dix A.)
The students were introduced to the song with prelistening activities
which were designed to activate their background knowledge and to give
them information on the singer and the theme of the song. Students ex-
plored related links that were either stored locally or available on the Web.
The listening section had three parts. The first part was a true or false
activity related to the general global comprehension of the song. The sec-
ond part consisted of fill-in-the-blank questions on the lyrics. These ques-
tions were always accompanied by side notes giving historical, cultural, or
literary details on the elements in the song, glossary explanations, texts
and pictures, and Internet links to related topics. The third part of the
section consisted of multiple choice questions focusing on detailed com-
prehension questions.

Developing Tools for the Server

Two different approaches were used to develop the language activities.

Activities related to the video components were developed using the
authoring tool Ficelle (aix1.uottawa.ca/~weinberg/ficelle.html), while all
the audio activities were encoded in HTML and JavaScript.
Some authoring systems (e.g., ToolBook and Authorware) are difficult
to manage without more advanced technical skills and support. Others
(e.g., WinCalis from Duke University and Dasher form the University of
Iowa) offer simple templates for the language teacher. The Ficelle pro-
gram was developed in a partnership among Michael Davidson, Alysse
Weinberg, and Hélène Knoerr to support the development of multimedia
activities for second language learning. The program makes it very easy
and fast to develop sophisticated fill-in-the-blank and multiple-choice ac-
tivities for reading, listening, and grammar practice complete with auto-
mated generic feedback or customized context-sensitive feedback. The
program allows developers to insert sound files, video files, pictures, re-
view links, glossary items, and phonetic characters in lessons. Students
can record their own voice and compare it to a standard recording. The
program has been used extensively for language activities and for testing
at the University of Ottawa where it has been installed on a multimedia
network. (For a review of Ficelle, see Saury, DiBella, & Berg, 2001.)
Figure 1 shows a sample screen developed for Le Violon du diable using
Ficelle.

340 CALICO Journal

 Alysse Weinberg

Figure 1
A Ficelle Activity for Le Violon du diable

Students can listen to the soundtrack of the video by clicking on the small
wave icon. The screen shows fill-in-the-blank (cloze) boxes with both cor-
rect and wrong answers as well as a glossary item from the script of the
video.

Developing Tools for the Web

Developing language activities for the Web can either be done from first
principles through HTML/JavaScript coding or by using templates like
Hot Potatoes from the University of Victoria or Web Author from the
Penn Language Center at the University of Pennsylvania. (For links to
these sites and other resources including sample activities, see
aix1.uottawa.ca/~weinberg/multimedia.html.) Developing customized
activities in HTML and JavaScript is technically laborious and time con-
suming. It requires a team of technical specialists, including JavaScript
programmers, to create sophisticated learning activities.5 Making canned
exercises is fairly simple with packages like Hot Potatoes, but their stan-

Volume 19 Number 2 341

Virtual Misadventures

dard format does not provide a satisfactory interface, page presentation,

or activity format when these pages are used repeatedly. A novice devel-
oper might also have trouble linking two pages created at different times
without resorting to modifying the underlying HTML coding. We have
used the template and customized HTML approaches. While the neces-
sary JavaScript programming was technically challenging, the task of de-
signing an attractive and appropriate interface for each lesson took a great
deal of thought and creativity. Figure 2 shows a sample web-based HTML/
JavaScript activity for a Maxime Le Forestier lesson.

Figure 2
An HTML/JavaScript activity for Maxime Le Forestier lesson

Problems with Designing the Interactive Multimedia Language Activities

Creation of multimedia language learning activities is of course fraught

with unexpected difficulties. The two browsers Netscape Navigator and
Internet Explorer have subtle and not so subtle differences, especially in
handling the cursor or in moving graphic objects. Certain JavaScript code
may work properly on Explorer but not on Netscape and vice versa. Ac-

342 CALICO Journal

 Alysse Weinberg

cented characters are handled differently on Macintosh and PC comput-

ers and without special HTML/JavaScript coding, these characters will
not present consistently across the two types of platforms. Different ver-
sions of the browser program will interpret JavaScript code differently.
The key to effective interactive multimedia language activities lies in the
presentation of feedback to the student users. If the students fill in a blank
and press enter, they expect to see feedback informing them whether or
not they entered the correct answer and, if not, a clue about what the right
answer is, preferably based on some intelligent interpretation of their wrong
answer.
The fill-in-the-blank control we used was straightforward, simply in-
forming students whether they filled in the blank completely correctly.
Any small difference from the correct answer would result in the cloze
box being blanked out. The students were able to get help by clicking on a
help button, but this approach was not entirely satisfactory. The students
were frustrated using the help function and specifically mentioned the
lack of adequate feedback in their evaluation questionnaires. Frankly, the
feedback models found in the interactive language activities on the Internet
are disappointing and not user friendly. There does not yet seem to be a
JavaScript fill-in-the-blank control with useful and satisfactory feedback
response functionality, although the data input controls of WebPractest, a
shareware authoring program for HTML using Java and JavaScript, pro-
vide an excellent beginning.

Network Support

Vautherin (1999) insists on the presence of a technician to provide sup-

port when new technology is introduced. A network technician was avail-
able for consultation on this class but provided indifferent to poor service.
For example, the latest version of QuickTime was installed on some of the
workstations but not all. As a result, the song that was to be studied could
not be played on all the workstations thus delaying teaching for 20 min-
utes. One week, the students were able to print without problems, the
next week the printing function failed on some of the workstations. The
technician gave up without trying to help, leaving the professor and the
students feeling frustrated and abandoned.

PERCEPTION OF THE STUDENTS: LEVEL OF SATISFACTION

At the end of every multimedia session, a short questionnaire was dis-

tributed to students to solicit their views on that day’s activities. Students’
comments were generally very positive with the exception of those on one

Volume 19 Number 2 343

Virtual Misadventures

video that had poor sound quality. Students responded favorably to the
themes, songs, links, and sound quality of the different activities. (See
questionnaire and sample student comments in Appendix B.)
A second, more detailed questionnaire was administered at the end of
the term to elicit information on the students’ perception of the three
different formats to which they had been exposed during the term. This
questionnaire contained both Likert-scale items and open-ended comment
questions. (See this questionnaire in Appendix C.) Students’ responses to
selected questions are presented below.

Quantitative Preferences

The first question focused on the student’s preference for using video,
audio, and multimedia materials. Their responses are summarized in Table
1.

1.What type of activity did you prefer doing? Indicate your preference.

Table 1
Students’ Preferences for Video, Audio, and Multimedia Materials
First (Greater) Second Third (Less)
Preference Preference Preference

Watching videos in the room with the

8 4 0
large screen

Listening to audiocassettes in the

3 3 6
Multimedia Laboratory

Working with Ficelle and Internet

multimedia exercises in the 5 4 3
Multimedia Laboratory

The pattern of students’ responses to this question is somewhat puzzling.

The students were expected to scale the three presentation formats in a
definite order. However, some students had three first choices (preferring
all three), two second choices and no third choice, or two first choices and
one second. Watching videos was generally the preferred activity. The au-
dio listening was the least popular but was not strongly rejected.
The second question dealt with the ideal distribution of video, audio,
and multimedia across the term (see Table 2).

344 CALICO Journal

 Alysse Weinberg

2. Assume that a semester course has 24 classes. Ideally, what number of

classes do you think should be devoted to each different activity type?
Enter numbers adding to 24.

• Classes watching videos in the room with the large screen

• Classes listening to audiocassettes in the Multimedia Labora-
tory.
• Classes working with Ficelle and Internet multimedia exercises
in the Multimedia Laboratory.

Table 2
Ideal Distribution of Video, Audio, and Multimedia Materials
Total Mean
Student # #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12
hours hours

Watching
9 10 6 9 8 10 8 12 20 7 10 15 124 10.33
videos

Listening to
9 8 8 8 10 4 8 6 2 5 10 6 84 7.00
audiocassettes

Using
6 6 10 7 6 10 8 6 2 12 4 3 80 6.67
multimedia

For these 12 students, the ideal course of 24 classes would have 10 classes
devoted to watching videos, seven classes devoted to listening to audio-
cassettes, and seven classes devoted to multimedia and Internet activities.
These results again show the general preference for watching videos, while
listening to cassettes or doing multimedia activities follow second.
Questions 3, 5, and 7 dealt with the level of satisfaction with the differ-
ent presentation formats the students had been exposed to. Students re-
sponded to these questions on a four-point scale ranging from “very dis-
satisfied” to “very satisfied” (see Table 3)

Table 3
Level of Students’ Satisfaction With Audio, Video, and Multimedia Mate-
rials
Working with Ficelle and
Listening to
Watching videos Internet multimedia
audiocassettes
exercises

Very dissatisfied 1 2 1

Dissatisfied 0 0 1

Satisfied 6 7 6

Very satisfied 5 3 4

Mean 3.3 2.9 3.1

Volume 19 Number 2 345
Virtual Misadventures

The students were generally satisfied with the three presentation formats
with watching video again being the most satisfactory and listening to
audiocassettes being the least.

Students’ Reactions

Questions 4, 6, and 8 solicited students comments on the three formats.

WATCHING VIDEOS

There were two very common praises for the videos. The students praised
the very clear pictures and sound quality. Many students also said that the
contents of the video were educational in themselves. One limitation was
that the students could not rewind or review the video by themselves. The
special viewing room with the large screen was very popular and favor-
ably compared to a movie theatre.

LISTENING TO AUDIOCASSETTES

This presentation format was less popular. One student said that he
“did not find it a very enjoyable activity.” It was uncomfortable wearing
earphones. Even the same topics seemed less interesting when presented
on audio tapes. One student remarked that the sound was unclear. On the
positive side, if students just have cassettes with audio and no image to
give a context, they are forced to listen more carefully. The most popular
feature, mentioned four or five times out of 12, was that students could
rewind and listen to the tape as they choose and that they could work at
their own pace.

USING MULTIMEDIA LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES

The comments for the computerized multimedia activities were much

richer than for the other two media, although the responses were some-
times very contradictory. In general the positive comments outweighed
the negative impressions. Some paraphrased comments follow.
• One student said that he hated computers and preferred to write.
• Technical difficulties complicated the learning.
• There was frustration when the computer did not work.
• Dislikes slowed progress in learning computer technology.
• Dislike of the French keyboard was a problem.
• Some students did not like the automated question correction
function in the HTML/JavaScript pages. They had difficulties
in printing the HTML pages.
346 CALICO Journal
 Alysse Weinberg

Other students said they

• enjoyed working with multimedia activities because they felt
that they learned more this way;
• liked to be allowed to guess word spelling and that repetition
helped understanding;
• never used computer before but really enjoyed it and found it
helpful;
• really liked working with Ficelle and the Internet;
• thought it is nice to do hands-on activities with French;
• appreciated the fact that things were interesting and kept them
busy, that they tended to use their mind, and that it was great;
• enjoyed working by themselves at their own pace; and
• found the experience enjoyable, that it was interesting and good
practice using computers, and that it was fun.
The students enjoyed listening to the songs and having the cultural con-
text explained through side notes and Internet links. Their comments were
quite thoughtful and showed no hesitation at expressing their views con-
cerning the programs. Students clearly liked doing multimedia activities
that allowed them to control their language learning.
Further analysis of the students’ comments revealed that they complained
about the sound quality more at the beginning of the course than at the
end. At the beginning of the course, they were still learning how to ma-
nipulate the sound files, and, in addition, the sound files used in the early
classes were copied from Internet video downloads for which the original
sound quality was mediocre to poor. For the classes later in the course, we
used higher quality sound files which came from music CDs. For these
files we received very positive comments about the sound quality and the
smooth operation of the programs.
Another problem mentioned by students involved their unfamiliarity
with the French keyboard. Although each booth was equipped with a book-
let identifying where the French keys were located and how to type French
characters, the students resented the foreign keyboard. This comment is
quite easy to understand and is a reflection of their lack of automaticity
when typing in French. Anyone using a new keyboard would sympathize
with this comment. The older student in the group complained quite a lot
about difficulty using the computer. As Joiner (1997) has noted, unfamil-
iarity with a computer (e.g., awkwardness of the fingers on the keys and
general fear of technology) is a factor affecting older students’ learning.
One other recurrent comment dealt with the fill-in-the-blank type of
activity. These blanks focused on verb morphology, and some students
thought they were an effective way of reviewing some conjugation
(imparfait and passé composé forms). Some even mentioned they would
have liked links to review grammatical concepts.
Volume 19 Number 2 347
Virtual Misadventures

Various researchers (e.g., Burston, 1990; Brandl, 1995) have investi-

gated the effectiveness and preferences of students for various feedback
mechanisms. Our students also commented on the presentation of feed-
back for the two interfaces. With Ficelle, students received feedback im-
mediately after entering their answers supported by hints about the cor-
rect answer. With the HTML-produced activity, they felt frustrated with
the lack of feedback. (It should be recalled that this activity replaced en-
tire incorrect answers by blanks.) In some extreme cases, some students
filled in the blanks for the whole song before checking their answers and
lost all of their wrong answers. They could of course use the help button,
but the help button only provided the correct answer letter by letter, a
hardly satisfactory technique.
From one week to the other, students tended to forget the different steps
they had to use. They had to be reminded what the passwords were, how
to access the activity sites, and how to navigate from one application to
another. Most of the students were not familiar with the alt+tab keystroke
or any other way to switch application windows. Lafford and Lafford
(1997) reported different reactions to the use of the Web. They commented
that students are generally quite positive about the information found on
the Web but very much frustrated by technical problems. Three years later,
the comments of the students in the course described here follow the same
track. In spite of technical difficulties and some frustration, the students
were very satisfied with the richness of the multimedia activities and the
programs.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE IMPLICATIONS

While, on one hand, language teachers continue to struggle to over-

come technical and content issues in order to introduce multimedia mate-
rials in their classes, on the other hand, the expectation that modern lan-
guage instruction will include a multimedia component grows stronger
and stronger. Harvey and Purnell (1995) defined the three Cs of technol-
ogy literacy as comfort, confidence, and creativity, and the three Cs are
necessary for any professor contemplating the implementation of multi-
media or Internet language activities in the language laboratory. The pro-
fessor must be able to be confident that the programs being used are going
to work and believe that any problems that will arise can be solved.
Vautherin (1999) insisted that the enthusiasm and positive attitude about
the use of technology for language learning instills confidence in profes-
sors and students as well as allows the professor to be more creative in the
use of the technology.
How does the professor become so knowledgeable and confident with
these tools? Reaching this goal will require an investment by both the
348 CALICO Journal
 Alysse Weinberg

professor and the institution. The professor will have to invest time to
learn computer network technology and to keep up to date with commer-
cial language learning packages, HTML/JavaScript, and authoring tools.
The institution will have to provide a resource person to give quality net-
work and software support and adequate funding to maintain a language
laboratory with modern hardware, operating systems, and full Internet
access. The institution also has to allocate time to the professor for the
development of interesting and creative course materials using these mul-
timedia tools and recognize the value being added to the courses.

NOTES

1
Noblitt (1990) showed that learner control is crucial for listening comprehen-
sion. Joiner (1997) also stated that professor control of the listening has two
major drawbacks: all students have to listen to the same material at the same
time, and they have little input into or control over the listening material.
2
Bush (1996) referred to problems with bandwidth and slow file downloads as
the “World Wide Wait”. It is still very difficult to transmit video and audio signals
of sufficient fidelity by modem to make them useful for language learning applica-
tions.
3
Bush (1996, 2000) has contrasted the low quality of some media files found on
the Internet with the high quality sound and video available on CD-ROMs and
DVDs.
4
Kellerman (1990) and Montgomery (1993) have noted the importance of lip
reading for improved comprehension.
5
The Dreamweaver program from Macromedia is a web site design and produc-
tion tool that allows users to develop web pages and interactive exercises without
requiring knowledge of HTML or JavaScript. The WebCT suite is an integrated
environment for use in an educational institution that allows simplified develop-
ment of course pages and exercises. Users still have to master all of the technical
steps of uploading a web page and making it available on the Web.

Volume 19 Number 2 349

Virtual Misadventures

Appendix A
Multimedia Schedule
Week Planned Done

Only the video portion was

Auvergnat (audio)/Exorciste du
7 completed. There was not enough
diable (video)
time for the listening activity.

8 Auvergnat (audio) Completed.

Only the video portion was

Le violon du diable (video)/Honte à
9 completed. There was not enough
qui peut chanter (audio)
time for the listening activity.

Honte à qui peut chanter Only the video portion was

10 (audio)/Les sorciè res de completed. Technical problem
Marchienne (video) disrupted the listening activity.

11 Honte à qui peut chanter (audio) Completed.

12 Nuit et brouillard (audio) Completed.

Appendix B
Sample Short Questionnaire and Student Comments

Directions to students
Comment on the following activities giving constructive criticism, pro-
posing any suggestions for improvement, commenting on how clear the
sound quality was, ease of use of the user interface, usefulness of any
feedback, or saying what you liked or disliked about the activity?

Georges Brassens L’auvergnat

350 CALICO Journal

 Alysse Weinberg

Video: L’exorciste de Nice

Were the sound files that you listened to at your workstation smooth, and
uninterrupted by network buffering pauses?

1. always 2. most of the time 3. occasionally 4. never

How would you rate the clarity of the sound files you listened to.
1. very clear
2. adequate quality (telephone quality)
3. difficult to understand sometimes
4. very poor quality and barely or not understandable

Identify the multimedia file which you felt had the worst sound quality
and was most difficult to follow or understand.

Identify the multimedia file which you felt had the best sound quality and
was easiest to follow and to understand.

Student Comments

Georges Brassens—L’Auvergnat.
• Sound quality fine, easy to use.
• The song was interesting. I like the song a lot.
• Fun exercise, clear sound, satisfying.

Volume 19 Number 2 351

Virtual Misadventures

Video: exorciste de Nice

• Attractive recording, clear information, interesting.
• Great but difficult to guess the answers.
• Video overall interesting.
• A little hard to understand but a good exercise.

Maxime Leforestier: Honte à qui peut chanter

• Clear sound, amusing song, no problem.
• Clear and went smoothly.
• Clear sound no problem. I like the song a lot.
• The song had numerous historical references.
• Really interesting.

Video: Le violon du diable

• Good activity, but the sound wasn’t clear.
• Easy interface to use.
• Sound not too clear, but kept my interest.
• Interaction with the computer was easy; the right answer pointed
with the help of the computer.

Video: les sorcières de Marchiennes

• Sound quality no good; sound quality very poor.
• Topic interesting. Sound distorted but I like the activity.

Jean Ferrat: Nuit et brouillard

• Song quality good. Good song activity.
• Very interesting song.
• I like the song that contained a lot of information on history. It
was really interesting.
• The song was very interesting thematically. The links are inter-
esting and add to the song.
• The song was moving; interesting activity.
• Site very interesting. Sound clear.

Appendix C
End of Course Questionnaire

The following questions seek to find out your preferences with respect to
the different activity types and how they were presented. This is not a
question of content, that is whether or not you liked the subject of an
activity. We want to know how comfortable you were with the presenta-
tion and experience of the different medium.

352 CALICO Journal

 Alysse Weinberg

1. What type of activity did you prefer doing? Indicate your preference
beside each type 1 = preferred, 3 = less preferred.
watching videos in the room with the large screen
listening to audio cassettes in the Multimedia Laboratory.
working with Ficelle and Internet multimedia exercises in the
Multimedia Laboratory.

2. Assume that a semester course has 24 classes. Ideally, what number

of classes do you think should be devoted to each different activity
type? Enter numbers adding to 24.
classes watching videos in the room with the large screen
classes listening to audio cassettes in the Multimedia Labora-
tory.
classes working with Ficelle and Internet multimedia exer-
cises.
24 classes total

3. How satisfied were you watching videos in the room with the large
screen?
1. very dissatisfied 2. dissatisfied 3. satisfied 4. very satisfied

4. What did you LIKE or DISLIKE in general about watching videos in

the room with the large screen?

5. How satisfied were you listening to audio cassettes in the Multimedia

Laboratory?
1. very dissatisfied 2. dissatisfied 3. satisfied 4. very satisfied

6. What did you LIKE or DISLIKE in general about listening to audio

cassettes?

7. How satisfied were you working with Ficelle and Internet multimedia
exercises in the Multimedia Laboratory.
1. very dissatisfied 2. dissatisfied 3. satisfied 4. very satisfied

Volume 19 Number 2 353

Virtual Misadventures

8. What did you LIKE or DISLIKE about working with Ficelle and
Internet multimedia exercises.

REFERENCES

Burston, J. (1990). Maximising intelligent use of unintelligent response-handling

devices. ON-CALL, 4, 7-12.
Bush, M. (1996). Language learning via the Web. Paper presented at the 1996
Symposium of the Computer Aided Language Instruction Consortium
(CALICO), Albuquerque, NM. Available: moliere.byu.edu/calico/
calico96.html
Bush, M. (1996). World wide web technology: What’s hot and what’s not. Multi-
media Monitor, 14 (2), 15-19.
Bush, M. (2000). Digital versatile disc (DVD): The new medium for interactive
video. CALICO Journal, 17 (3), 453-474.
Brandl, K. (1995) Strong and weak students preferences for error feedback op-
tions and responses. The Modern Language Journal, 79 (2), 194-211.
Chamot, A. U., Küpper, L., & Impink-Hernandez, M. (1988). A study of learning
strategies in foreign language instruction: Finding of the longitudinal study.
Rosslyn, VA: Interstate Research Associate.
Compain, J., Dionne, J-P., Duquette, L., Rivas-Rivas, E., & Weinberg, A. (1995).
Etude du niveau de satisfaction d’une clientèle universitaire dans des
cours de français L2 axés sur les capacités réceptives. In R. J. Courchêne,
S. Burger, C. Cornaire, R. J. LeBlanc, S. Paribakht, & H. Séguin (Eds.),
Twenty-five years of second language teaching at the University of Ot-
tawa/Vingt-cinq ans d’enseignement des langues secondes à l’université
d’Ottawa (pp. 178-214) Ottawa: Institut des langues secondes.
Cornaire, C., & Tréville, M-C. (1992). L’évaluation de la compréhension du français
langue étrangère en milieu universitaire aux niveaux élémentaire et
intermédiaire. In R. J. Courchêne, J. I. Glidden, J. St. John, & C. Thérien
(Eds.), Comprehension-based second language teaching/L’enseignement
des langues secondes axé sur la compréhension (pp. 319-337). Ottawa:
Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa.
Corbeil, R., & Thérien, C. (1992). Une expérience d’élaboration de matériel
didactique pour l’enseignement/apprentissage du français langue
étrangère selon une approche axée sur la compréhension. In R. J.
Courchêne, J. I. Glidden, J. St. John, & C. Thérien (Eds.), Comprehen-
sion-based second language teaching/L’enseignement des langues
secondes axé sur la compréhension (pp. 259-279 ). Ottawa: Les Presses
de l’Université d’Ottawa.

354 CALICO Journal

 Alysse Weinberg

Courchêne R. J. (1992). A comprehension-based approach to curriculum design.

In R. J. Courchêne, J. I. Glidden, J. St. John, & C. Thérien (Eds.), Com-
prehension-based second language teaching/L’enseignement des langues
secondes axé sur la compréhension (pp. 95-117). Ottawa: Les Presses
de l’Université d’Ottawa.
Desmarais, L. (1998). Les technologies et l’enseignement des langues. Montréal:
Les Editions Logiques.
Duplantie, M., & Massey, M. (1984). Proposition pour une pédagogie de l’écoute
des documents authentiques oraux en classe de langue seconde. Etudes
de Linguistique Appliquée, 56, 48-59.
Dvorak, T., Charlotteaux, B., Gilgen, R., Herren, D., Jones, C., & Trometer, R.
(1995). Whither the language lab? IALL Journal of Language Learning
Technologies, 28 (2), 13-45.
Furstenberg, G. (1997). Scénarios d’exploitation pédagogique. Le Français dans le
monde. Recherches et applications [numéro spécial], multimédia, réseaux
et formation, 64-75.
Garrett, N. (1991). Technology in the service of language learning: Trends and
issues. The Modern language Journal, 75 (1), 74-101.
Godwin-Jones, R. (1997). Real-time audio and video playback on the Web. Lan-
guage learning and Technology [On-line], 1 (1), 5-8. Available: llt.msu.edu
Harvey, J., & Purnell, S. (Eds.). (1995). Technology and teacher professional devel-
opment. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Critical Technologies Institute.
Hubbard, P. (1988). An integrated framework for CALL courseware evaluation.
CALICO Journal, 6 (2), 51-72.
Hubbard, P. (1992). A methodological framework for CALL courseware develop-
ment. In M. C. Pennington & V. Stevens (Eds.), Computers in applied
linguistics: An international perspective (pp. 39-65). Clevedon, UK: Mul-
tilingual Matters.
Hubbard, P. (1996). Elements of CALL methodology: Development, evaluation
and implementation. In M. C. Pennington (Ed.), The Power of CALL
(pp. 15-32). Houston, TX: Athelstan.
Joiner, E. (1997). Teaching listening: How technology can help. In M. Bush & R.
Terry (Eds.), Technology-enhanced language learning (pp. 77-120).
Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.
Jones, R. (1990). Interactive and computer-assisted language learning. In P. C.
Patrikis (Ed.), Multimedia and language learning: Technology in higher
education (pp. 33-42). (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED
358 819)
Kellerman, S. (1990). Lip service: The contribution of the visual modality to speech
perception and its relevance to the teaching and testing of foreign lan-
guage comprehension. Applied Linguistics, 11, 272-80.
Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learn-
ing. New York: Pergamon.

Volume 19 Number 2 355

Virtual Misadventures

Lafford, P. A., & Lafford B. A. (1997). Learning language and culture with Internet
technologies. In M. Bush & R. Terrry (Eds.), Technology-enhanced lan-
guage learning (pp. 215-262). Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Com-
pany.
Lancien, T. (1998). Le multimédia. CLE International.
LeBlanc, R., Duquette, L., & Compain, J. (1992). Cours axés sur les habiletés
réceptives: fondements et applications à l’élaboration d’un programme.
In R. J. Courchêne, J. I. Glidden, J. St. John, & C. Thérien (Eds.), Com-
prehension-based second language teaching/L’enseignement des langues
secondes axé sur la compréhension (pp.77-93). Ottawa: Les Presses de
l’Université d’Ottawa.
Mendelsohn, D. (1994). Learning to listen: A strategy based approach for the sec-
ond language learner. San Diego, CA: Dominic Press Inc.
Mendelsohn, D. (1995). Applying learning strategies in the second/foreign lan-
guage listening comprehension. In D. Mendelsohn & J. Rubin (Eds.), A
guide for the teaching of second language listening (pp. 132-150). San
Diego, CA: Dominic Press.
Montgomery, A. (1993). Management of the hearing-impaired adult. In J. G. Alpiner
& P. A. McCarthy (Eds.), Rehabilitative audiology: Children and adults
(pp. 311-330). Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.
Murphy, C. A. (1995). An evaluation format for “open” software tools. Computers
in Human Behavior, 11 (3-4), 40-50.
Noblitt, J. S. (1990). Multimedia and listening comprehension. In P. C. Patrikis
(Ed.), Multimedia and language learning: Technology in higher educa-
tion (pp. 43-47). (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 358
819)
O’Malley, J. M., Chamot, A. U., Stewer-Manzanares, G., Küpper, L., & Russo, R. P.
(1985). Learning strategies used by beginning and intermediate ESL stu-
dents. Language Learning, 35 (1), 21-46.
O’Malley, J. M., Chamot, A. U., & Küpper, G. (1989). Listening comprehension
strategies in second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 10 (4),
418-437.
O’Malley, J. M., & Chamot, A. U. (1990). Learning strategies in second language
acquisition. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Oxford, R. L., & Crookall, D. (1989). Research on language learning strategies:
Methods, findings and instructional issues. The Modern Language Jour-
nal, 73 (4), 404-419
Oxford, R. L. (1990). Language learning services: What every teacher should know.
New York: Newbury House, Harper Collins.
Osuna, M. M., & Meskill, C. (1998). Using the world wide web to integrate Span-
ish language and culture: A pilot study. Language Learning & Technol-
ogy [On-line], 1 (2), 71-92. Available: llt.msu.edu

356 CALICO Journal

 Alysse Weinberg

Pusack, J. P., & Otto, S. K. (1997). Taking control of multimedia. In M. Bush & R.
Terry (Eds.), Technology-enhanced language learning (pp. 1-46).
Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). (2000). Music and the Internet:
Downloading and uploading. Available: www.riaa.com/Music-Rules-
2.cfm
Robb T. N., & Susser, B. (2000). The life and death of software: Examining the
selection process. CALICO Journal, 18 (1), 41-52.
Saury, R., DiBella, I., & Berg, J. (2001). Review of Ficelle. CALICO Journal, 19
(1), 226-237.
Scinicariello, S. G. (1997). Uniting teachers, learners, and machines. In M. Bush &
R. Terry (Eds.), Technology-enhanced language learning (pp. 185-213).
Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.
Sohonee, R. (1998). The application of multimedia resources as textbook supple-
ments in Russian language pedagogy: A reference guide. Unpublished
manuscript, State University of New York, Stony Brook.
Underwood, M. (1989). Teaching listening. London: Longman.
Vautherin, B. (1999). Du laboratoire audio au laboratoire multimédia. Alsic [On-
line], 2 (2), 85-92. Available: alsic.univ-fcomte.fr

AUTHOR’S BIODATA

Alysse Weinberg has been teaching French as a Second language at the

Institute of Second Languages at the University of Ottawa in Canada for
many years. Alysse is a co-author of two textbooks and a Complete Idiot’s
Guide to learning French as a second language, a CD of multimedia exer-
cises. She participated in developing the Ficelle multimedia authoring
program and publishes on language learning. She directs the Multimedia
Language Laboratories of the Faculty of Arts for the University of Ot-
tawa.

AUTHOR’S ADDRESS

Alysse Weinberg
Institut des langues secondes
600 Ave. King Edward
Ottawa, Ontario
K1Z 7B2
Canada
Phone: 613/729-5279
Fax: 613/562-5126
Email: weinberg@uottawa.ca
Volume 19 Number 2 357