JISC

Start date: 1 October 2000

End date: 30 September 2002

Funding programme: Learning and Teaching (5/99) programme

Project website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/epd/herdu/vdml/

VDML addresses three problems relating to minority language departments. The first is minority language students’ limited exposure to the spoken target language. Secondly, good teaching materials for learners of minority languages are often scarce. Finally, the small size of such departments has consequences for both students and teachers. Students have limited opportunities to work with others and are denied the peer support that students in larger departments can take for granted. Language teachers often have to develop teaching materials in isolation.

Aims and Objectives

The overall aim of the project is to develop a framework to support students and teachers of minority languages. It will create new learning materials, adding value to current Internet resources as well as developing new resources. It will also provide students and teachers with a working environment, a “virtual department”, in which to interact. Using Danish as an example, the specific objectives are to:

• Review the support needs of minority language learners by consulting staff and students
• Create new, task-focused resources for Danish language learners using current Internet materials.
• Develop new teacher-authored material for intermediate and advanced learners of Danish
• Create opportunities for students and teachers to communicate informally
• Increase opportunities for students and teachers to work collaboratively
• Embed the new resources into the day-to-day work of pilot departments
• Present the work to the HE community in the form of a framework or model and encourage its adoption by other groups of departments

Project design

The project methodology is driven by the need to create a resource acceptable to the user group which will continue to be used and developed after the project ends. This implies a requirement for:

• High quality language learning resources which can be used in a flexible manner
• A computer based working environment for teachers and students which is easy to use, easy to learn and requires no more technical support than exists in the target group of language departments
• A design and development strategy, for both learning resources and working environment, which addresses problems known to obstruct the adoption of new technology

To meet these requirements, the approach to developing the framework will be based on action research/participatory design. Development of the teaching resources will be based on a methodology which takes into account relevant strengths and weaknesses of information and communications technology (ICT) and current language learning methods.

Outcomes

The main stakeholders, teachers and students in minority language departments, are represented as partners in the project. This will increase opportunities for embedding the resources in the day-to-day work of such departments in the future and facilitate dissemination.

Findings will be cycled back to the language teaching and educational technology communities through conference presentations, journal papers, seminars and workshops.

The project will yield a Web-based prototype of a virtual department for teachers and students of Danish at UCL and the universities of Hull and Edinburgh. This prototype will serve as the basis of a more general framework which will be made available to minority language departments across the UK.