In Luxembourg, the Education Department has produced a simple
yet highly versatile oral word processor - TEO - which encourages
the development of oral expression skills in both native and foreign
languages. It is now implemented in several schools where its
aim is to stress the importance of developing a fluent, articulate
command of language in pupils and foster the transition from concrete
to formal operational reasoning. Although, nowadays, it is generally
accepted that logic arises from action, not language, verbal reasoning
is still a major vehicle on which logical operations operate.
Language provides the most important means by which children can
communicate their mental representations of scenarios and events,
and have them received and examined, accepted or rejected by others.
Through a process of self-regulation, they will then gradually
modify and build on individual concepts and knowledge to continue
on the path of learning. Due to the demands of busy teaching schedules
and managing the classroom, however, and also to the difficulties
inherent in assessing progress, oral expression is often neglected
in school. It is important to note that TEO is particularly implemented
in classrooms where pupils are from various cultural and ethnic
backgrounds. The computer gives them a greater sense of freedom
in creating an authentic learning experience.
TEO offers an attractive, user-friendly environment for oral expression
through story building in class, and is easily accessible even
to children and teachers who have had little experience with information
technologies. The user interface is presented in the form of a
blank page similar to that used in word processing programmes
with a traditional but simplified menu bar at the top of the screen
with a tool bar on the left and, at the bottom of the screen,
a selection of icons which are numbered consecutively as they
are placed on the page one at a time to 'contain' the users recorded
text. Pupils work at the computer in small groups, taking turns
to input their sentences. They click first on an icon of their
choice, then on the microphone to start the recording process.
An icon is displayed representing the recorded text. A second
click deactivates the microphone and the computer repeats the
recorded speech so that the children have immediate feedback on
the quality of their production. During and after recording, the
story can be edited by deleting, re-arranging or re-recording
icons.
A CD-ROM audio-CD compilation of work produced on TEO shows the
remarkable power of this medium not only to encourage children
to engage in authentic learning trying out new language they have
heard or found in a dictionary, but also expressing their most
secret desires, fears and taboos in stories that they proudly
present in class once their project is completed.
TEO is a particularly valid learning and assessment tool in that
it 'captures' speech graphically and compactly, enabling teachers
to keep records of children's progress by comparing new examples
with earlier work. The children themselves become more aware of
their own production and begin to permanently assess it, thereby
becoming actively involved in the learning process and, at the
same time, developing listening skills. Like word-processing,
oral text processing plays an important role in the psychological
development process as it allows children to dissect their own
utterances, rearranging, deleting and adding as desired. In this
way it enables the child to develop another, more abstract, form
of thinking, disconnected from direct experience. Access to and
development of this mode of 'decentred' or 'disembedded' thinking
is indispensable both in aiding a child to express him/herself
coherently in public, and in developing the higher cognitive skills
needed if he or she is to cope with the school programme or, indeed,
life outside the school.
An inherent advantage in the use of TEO, particularly in a multicultural
country such as Luxembourg where children come from very different
backgrounds, is that children work in groups around the computer,
each using and integrating their own linguistic competencies which
differ largely from child to child. Those with greater capacities
help their peers to reach a higher level by enabling them to bridge
the gap between what they are capable of doing alone and what
they can achieve with the assistance of others more knowledgeable
or skilled than themselves. Obviously, this factor comes into
play in all group interactions, but here TEO serves as a creative
medium which encourages and facilitates exchanges, particularly
for children who have difficulties in expressing themselves orally
in broader classroom situations.
The wider applications of this open-ended oral-expression tool
are still under review in Luxembourg. At present, it is being
successfully incorporated into both school and adult education
programmes to open up new frontiers in foreign and native language
learning.
Contact information:
Gerard Gretsch
Ministry of Education
29 rue Aldringen
L-2926 Luxembourg
e-mail: Gerard Gretsch@CI.EDUC.LU