Learning Language Using the Internet

Learning a second language is a challenge for many people worldwide, particularly in developing countries. Computers and the Internet can be extremely helpful in this task, with many useful collections of teaching resources already in existence. However, the Internet is vast. It changes rapidly - and the information in it varies considerably in quality. This poses a challenge to teachers: How can they find reliable material that is relevant for their teaching needs - and is appropriate to the age and abilities of their students?

Professor Ian Witten from the University of Waikato has been awarded a Marsden grant, to develop new software to help with this problem. Professor Witten will create a web-based language learning system that allows users to search, browse and create digital library collections of text and multimedia. The system will contain a variety of activities, some of which are individual, some competitive, and some where students work cooperatively. The exercises will be fun, and students will be empowered to set their own pace and choose their own activities – learning as they go. Teachers will be able to share and contribute their own material, and the interface of the software will be able to be translated into any language.

This new software will be open source, where students and teachers can use any existing exercise, and teachers contribute new material and exercises on the understanding that they will be made freely available to everyone.

This is the first time that such software has been developed, and will allow much better use of the variety of resources available on the Internet by second language learners.

Total Funding:    $538,596
Researchers:    Professor Ian Witten, Computer Science Department, University of Waikato, Hamilton.