Language learning requires repetition—of sounds, words, phrases, and larger patterns. This holds true whether for for infant or adult learning. While this work has traditionally taken place in face to face encourters between teacher and student, web technology now allows for much of the necessary work of learning the basics of languages to take place in an asynchronous environment, leaving class time (now 2 to 3 hours/week and not 5 hours/week) for material best covered in a face-to-face learning environment.

The College of Arts & Sciences already has a track record in developing web-enhanced language courses. Three years ago, the College launched a pilot program in web-enhanced language instruction in Spanish 110. Assessment of this course found that student learning was essentially the same for the two versions of the course.

Specific Goals and Methodology
In this current project, we want to expand this pilot program from Spanish 110 to other first-year language courses. While there are common principles involved across the various language courses, there are also key difference in content (obviously) and even in pedagogy. What works in the instruction of Japanese, for example, does not work in teaching German. The 110 course also has a special audience – those with some background in the language – while other first-year language courses assume no prior linguistic experience. We will take advantage of what we have learned in the Spanish 110 pilot project and adapt, modify, and create new courses built on the same web-enhanced paradigm.

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