Viaje al pasado: los aztecas

CALICO Journal, 25 (2)
Software Reviews
Viaje al pasado: los aztecas
Reviewed by
Francisco Hernández Salmerón
Jack Burston
University of Cyprus
PRODUCT AT A GLANCE
Product Type:
Tutorial
Language:
Spanish
Level:
Intermediate/upper intermediate
Activities:
Identification of tenses, transformations, fill-in-the-blank verb conjugations, tense selection,
sentence sequencing
Media Format:
Web or CD-ROM
Operating Systems:
Windows 98+; Mac OS 9, X
Hardware Requirements:
256 MB RAM; 75 MB of hard disk space (if copied to hard disk); 24X CD-ROM drive; standard
sound card, VGA+ video
Supplementary Software:
Explorer 6+/Safari 1.2+; Macromedia Shockwave Player
Documentation:
Online help; suggestions for use—Word document
Price:
Freely available from the developers’ website (http://www.ccdmd.qc.ca); available on CDROM for CAN $20, student copies, CAN $5 each
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Viaje al pasado: los aztecas. El perfecto simple y el imperfecto en la narración y la descripción (VAP) is a Shockwave-based autonomous learning program that may either be accessed online (http://www.ccdmd.qc.ca/ri/aztecas) or on CD-ROM. The VAP program consists
CALICO Journal, 25 (2), p-p 326-336.
© 2008 CALICO Journal
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of 45 tutorial exercises designed to teach narration and description in the imperfect and
simple past tenses to speakers of any language at the intermediate level of learning Spanish.
Discussion of another past tense, the pretérito perfecto compuesto, is included in order to
explain its relevance in reference to present time. Only one exercise involves the compound
past tense, a mechanical transformation from the compound to simple past tense.
The opening screen of the program displays its seven main components (plus credits
and references), each associated with images associated with Aztec civilization (see Figure
1):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Observación y aprendizaje,
Ejercicios,
Aventuras,
Gramática,
Conjugación,
Cultura, and
Progresión del estudiante.
Figure 1
Opening Screen
Although its components are accessible from the toolbar in a linear fashion, the program itself allows users to navigate freely to any module at any time. Only the “Observación y
aprendizaje” section includes an oral component, which consists of an explanation in Mexican
Spanish of the uses of the simple past, imperfect, and compound past tenses (see Figure 2).
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Figure 2
Observación y aprendizaje
These are presented under five headings:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
narración de eventos (perfecto simple),
descripción de personas, cosas, y escenas (imperfecto),
descripción de costumbres (imperfecto),
narración: eventos (perfecto simple) y circunstancias (imperfecto), and
el pasado en conexión con el presente (perfecto compuesto).
Chili pepper icons indicate the level of difficulty of the usage, ranging from one (easy) to three
(difficult).
The Gramática component repeats in textual form the traditional explanations of past
tense usage presented orally in the “Observación y aprendizaje” section. It includes more
detail and is accompanied by illustrative examples. The entirety of the Gramática component
can be printed out for ease of reference. It includes two mini-tests about the contents viewed
as well.
The Ejercicios component, which provides a variety of activities to practice using the
past tenses, is organized according to the same four narrative/descriptive categories as those
in the “Observación y aprendizaje” section.
The Adventuras component presents two interactive activities, Misión: Códice and En
busca de la esmeralda tallada, that take students to Aztec civilization in the year 1518 AD.
The goal for the students is to find important Aztec artifacts (a book and precious stones) and
bring them back to the twenty-first century in order to save them from plundering conquistadores.
The Conjugación component lists the simple past and imperfect forms of the regular
-AR, -ER, and -IR paradigms, regular orthographically changing verbs, and frequently occur
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ring irregular verbs. In all, it contains the conjugations of 140 verbs. As with the Gramática
section, it is possible to print Conjugación out in its entirety.
The Cultura component is a simple glossary of vocabulary (two maps and a simple
chronology) related to Aztec culture that appears in the various texts used throughout the
program. Entries are arranged in alphabetical order and are linked to the texts in which they
occur. It, too, may be printed out.
The last component, Progresión del estudiante, tracks student activity in the program.
It provides a comprehensive listing of how many times each major component has been accessed as well as how many times each exercise has been started, stopped, and completed
without errors during the current session. No permanent student records are kept, though
students can print out their results for their own reference or that of their teacher.
According to the authors, students should be able to complete all the exercises in
about 7 hours. Each adventure is supposed to take about an hour to complete.
EVALUATION
Technical Features
The VAP program was tested on a PC Intel Pentium IV (2.95 GHz, 512 MB RAM running Windows XP) and a Mac G4 PowerBook (1.67 GHz, 2 GB RAM running OS 10.4.7).
Inasmuch as VAP is Shockwave-based, it runs without installation on any PC or Mac
equipped with a Macromedia Shockwave player and appropriate web browser, both of which
are freely accessible. Except for the audio portion of the “Observación y aprendizaje” section,
VAP consists entirely of texts and graphic images. The program ran equally well from the developer’s website and the CD-ROM (transferred to the local hard disk) on both the Windows
and Mac OS platforms. No operational problems were encountered in either the web or the
local environments. However, though internet access is free, the CD-ROM version is arguably
the better option because it avoids possible interruptions and bandwidth problems that may
be encountered using the web, especially for anyone using a dial-up connection.
Activities (Procedure)
As indicated above, activities are organized into three sections: Gramática, Ejercicios and
Aventuras. Two mini-tests are included in the Gramática component to check comprehension
of essential points relating to explanations of past tense usage. Answers are provided in a
pop-up window.
In Ejercicios, students have access to all the resource links in the program: Gramática,
Conjugación, Cultura, and Progresión del estudiante. There are six types of activities as described below.
Verb form identification
Learners drag and drop conjugated verbs from a text (containing cultural information) into
the cells of a table arranged horizontally by -AR, -ER, and -IR infinitive endings and, vertically,
according to whether the verb form is third-person singular or plural. Students are allowed
four tries, after which the program gives the correct answer (see Figure 3).
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Figure 3
Verb Form Identification
Fill-in-the-blank verb conjugations
Learners complete sentences in a text with the correct form of verbs (see Figure 4). In some
cases, the verbs are given in the infinitive form at the end of each paragraph. In other exercises, only the first letter of a verb is indicated at the beginning of each blank. In the most
challenging exercises, students have to supply the verbs themselves, which requires a good
comprehension of the text.
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Figure 4
Verb Conjugations
Sentence sequencing
Learners order a list of sentences by dragging and dropping them into the correct sequence
(see Figure 5).
Figure 5
Sentence Sequencing
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Identification of tense
Learners select sentences in a text that correspond to specific aspects underlying past tense
usage: primary/secondary actions, narration, and description (see Figure 6).
Figure 6
Tense Identification
A second type of identification involves distinguishing between sentences on the basis
of whether they represent events or habitual actions and then dragging and dropping them
into the appropriately labeled box.
Correcting the text (tense selection)
Learners are presented with a text in which all verbs are either in the preterite or imperfect
tense (see Figure 7). They then click on the verb to either confirm their selection of the tense
or select the alternative. Responses are followed by feedback indicating why the choice of
tense is correct or incorrect.
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Figure 7
Text Correction
The Aventuras component of the program consists of two scenarios: Misión: códice
(see Figure 8) and En busca de la Esmeralda tallada. The objective of each is the same, to
rescue a priceless cultural artifact from oblivion. According to the instructions, each adventure
is supposed to take about an hour to complete, although this will depend on the student’s
comprehension level, the particular paths taken within the story, and the time it takes to
complete the writing exercises that accompany each adventure. The adventure has to be
completed in a single session because there is no way to bookmark progress and resume later.
Students can, however, print out texts generated in the course of their quest.
Figure 8
Aventuras
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In Aventuras, learners are taken back via a time machine to Tenochtitlán, the capital
of the Aztec empire, in the year 1518 (a year before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores). In the guise of a yopi, an inhabitant of an independent city considered barbarian by the
Aztecs, students navigate the capital trying to locate the precious artifact. At the same time,
they must avoid detection as a foreign intruder and, thus, being captured and made an Aztec
sacrificial offering. Learners are aided in their task by being given access to a book entitled
Casi todo sobre los aztecas which provides them with essential information about daily life in
Aztec culture to help them avoid making a faux pas that would give away their true identity.
The Casi todo sobre los aztecas book, however, is only made available on certain pages, thus
obliging students to internalize essential knowledge about Aztec culture for possible future
usage.
Students are informed that, should they find themselves in a dangerous situation, they
can call upon the Aztec god Quetzalcóatl for protection. While there are a number of paths
that students can follow, inevitably they give themselves away and must seek divine intervention to survive. Quetzalcóatl comes to the rescue but requires learners to take a text, summarizing the adventure to that point in the present tense, back to the twenty-first century and
transform it into the past tense. The tense-shifted text is corrected in the same manner as the
grammatical exercises, and, once all the verbal tenses are right, students are returned to the
adventure at the point where it left off in order to continue the quest. When learners finally
find the artifact, they return with it to the twenty-first century where they must transform a
present tense report about it into the past before giving it to a museum for safe keeping.
Teacher Fit (Approach)
Although the theoretical underpinnings of VAP are nowhere explicitly stated, it follows two
quite distinct but complementary methodologies. At heart, the program reflects a traditional
deductive grammatical presentation: formal explanations followed by practice exercises. It is
very much a focus-on-forms approach. Verb conjugation tables give forms that are supposed
to be learned by heart. Completion exercises likewise focus on verbal forms. Notwithstanding,
because verbal tense usage is so semantically based and context sensitive, most exercises
require learners to pay a great deal of attention to meaning and recognize contextual clues
that determine the selection of the imperfect as opposed to the preterite tense.
The emphasis on focus on forms is complemented by a good dose of comprehensible
input consistent with the input hypothesis. Texts used for tense exercises and, most especially
those that constitute the cultural content that make up the Aventuras, provide abundant examples of past tense usage in context. The gaming aspect of the Aventuras likewise engages
learners and helps to keep down the affective filter.
Learner Fit (Design)
The target audience for VAP is adolescents and adults with lower intermediate or intermediate
level writing and reading skills in Spanish.
Response handling in VAP, though basic, is quite adequate to the task. Because of its
focus on just two verbal tenses, the range of student answers is quite limited, making error
feedback relatively straightforward. Answers to drag and drop exercises are by nature dichotic, they are either completely right or wrong. Feedback systematically explains what makes
incorrect answers wrong. In exercises involving written answers, response handling system
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atically ignores upper and lower case. Accent errors, on the other hand, are noted, though
learners are left to find the location of an incorrect or missing accent in words. This is quite
valid pedagogically since it obliges students to “notice the gap” themselves thus promoting
greater attention to form.
The program is well adapted to use by older adolescents and adults. Its attractive
graphics catch the eye and stimulate the user’s curiosity. Reading passages are short but
informative and interesting for mature learners. The game aspect of the Aventuras adds a
playful dimension to the learning experience.
The easy part of mastering past tense usage in Spanish is memorizing verb forms,
which any learner can do. What is much more challenging, especially for anglophone students,
is understanding the contextual semantic correlates affecting the choice of the imperfect as
opposed to the preterite tense. The deductive approach taken by the program to explain
these correlates to students presupposes a field-dependent learner at ease with grammatical
metalanguage. On the other hand, the copious examples of imperfect/preterite tense usage
contained in the grammatical exercises and cultural content material provide data from which
field-independent learners can inductively extract their own parameters governing tense usage.
The one area of learner fit where VAP could be stronger is in active language production. At no stage do learners ever create their own utterances. The closest they ever come
is to transform a ready-made text from the present to the past tense. Adding this dimension
to the program would, needless to say, either involve some state-of-the-art natural language
processing or, more practically, the intervention of a human tutor, for example, to correct writing assignments that have been printed out.
By design, VAP is intended for individual use as an extracurricular learning activity. It
would not lend itself very well to group work because the grammatical distinctions in question
need to be individually mastered. Also, record keeping is minimal and can only be preserved
by printing out results before terminating a work session.
While the content of VAP is entirely fixed, learners have complete freedom to proceed
in any sequence. The program is generic enough to fit into any curriculum. It could be adapted
to communicative approaches through in-class activities focusing on past tense usage involving the imperfect and preterite and/or further exploitation of the cultural component of the
Aventuras.
SUMMARY
The Viaje al pasado: los aztecas is a visually attractive and pedagogically sound tutorial program designed to tackle one of the classic areas of difficulty in Spanish tense usage. It does
so with a skillful combination of old-fashioned deductive grammar and a more contemporary
exploitation of comprehensible input flooding coupled with cultural content learning and game
playing. It is compatible with virtually any curriculum targeting intermediate/intermediatemid adolescent or adult learners. Its only notable shortcoming is its lack of record keeping, a
feature that would made accessing it via a central web-based server worthwhile. The program
makes minimal demands on computer resources, operates on both PC and Mac platforms,
and, last but not least, costs little for the CD version or nothing at all if accessed from the
internet.
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SCALED RATING
(1 low-5 high)
Implementation Possibilities: 4
Pedagogical Features: 4
Use of Computer Capabilities: 3
Ease of Use: 5
Overall Evaluation: 4
Value for Money: 5
PRODUCER’S CONTACT INFORMATION
Authors: Matilde Asencio and Annie Desnoyers
Developer/Distributor
Centre collegial de développement de materiel didactique du Québec
6220, rue Sherbrooke Est, bureau 416
Montréal (Québec)
H1N 1C1
Canada
Phone:514 873 2200
Fax: 514 864 4908
Email:[email protected]
Web: http://www.ccdmd.qc.ca
REVIEWERS’ BIODATA
Francisco Hernández Salmerón has a higher degree in Hispanic Philology from University of
Almería (Spain) and a MA equivalent degree in Methods for Research in Spanish Literature
from University of Málaga (Spain). He has taught Spanish as a foreign language at the university level for several years. Since 2005 he has been a Visiting Lecturer in Spanish at Language
Center of the University of Cyprus.
Jack Burston is a foreign language specialist. He is the Director of the Language Center at the
University of Cyprus. Jack has a particular interest in faculty development, software evaluation, and language center design. He has been the Software Review Editor of the CALICO
Journal since 1996. He has served on the CALICO Editorial Board since 1995 and is a former
member and chair of the CALICO Executive Board. He is also the Editor of the IALLT Language
Center Design Kit and the Digital Language Lab Solutions manual.
REVIEWERS’ CONTACT INFORMATION
Francisco Hernández Salmerón
Jack Burston
Language Center
University of Cyprus
P.O. Box 20537
Nicosia, Cyprus
Phone:+00 357 99870512
Fax: +00 357 22342118
Email:[email protected]
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