Wesson Honors Idea Fund Research Results

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Wesson Honors Idea Fund Language Study Research: Cultural Immersion vs. Technology-Driven Classroom Learning

Submitted by: Anurup Upadhyay Project Results 9/15/13

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TABLE OF CONTENTS A. Introduction3 B. Project Changes.3 C. Pre and Post Rosetta Stone 4 D. Pre and Post Cultural Immersion5 E. Discussion.....10 F. Conclusions/Limitations/Future Directions..13 G. Appendices14

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A. Introduction Over the course of my first semester and fourth semester at Colby-Sawyer College, I was introduced to numerous facets of talent through my first year and second year pathway seminars Torrents of Talent. The class discussions mostly focused on the process of talent development and the roles that time, effort, interest, innate qualities, and the surrounding environment play throughout the talent development process. Hugely influenced by these ideas, I have conducted an independent study on one specific facet of talent development the environment which has been made possible by the Wesson Honors Idea Fund granted to me in Spring, 2013. I am passionate about the French language and speak, read, and write French on a basic level. Hence, my project is centered on the idea of how the development of a talent, in this case, written and oral communication in French, is affected under two different environments, cultural exposure in a place where French is the mother tongue of the people, and technology-driven classroom learning. In this report, I will attempt to subjectively as well as objectively compare the levels of improvement that I have achieved under these two environments. B. Project Changes The project saw two minor changes during the cultural immersion portion of the study. They have been outlined below: Change 1: Change of venue Although I attempted to get in touch with Professor Delphine Hills contacts at lAuberge Internationale de Rivire-du-Loup in the province of Quebec (PQ), I was unable to receive any confirmation from the hostel. Therefore, taking into consideration the suggestions from Kate

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Seamans, Assistant Director of College Communications and a Wesson Honors Idea Fund Committee member, I successfully arranged a homestay with a family in Quebec City, PQ, through www.airbnb.com, a website that provides a platform for individuals referred to as hosts, generally private parties, to rent unoccupied living space and other short-term lodging to guests. My hosts, Dan Rodrigue and Maryse Gaudet-Lebrun, referred to as Dan and Maryse from hereon, assisted me with the cultural immersion portion of the study. Change 2: Cultural Immersion Assessments Unlike what was outlined in my project proposal, Dan and Maryse conducted the pre and post cultural immersion assessments of my French speaking and listening skills instead of Professor Hill. Similarly, I used an online French assessment tool to evaluate my writing and grammar skills before and after the immersion. Therefore, the proposed exams before and after cultural immersion were not taken. Details on these changes will follow in this report. C. Pre and Post Rosetta Stone On Friday, March 29th, I took a pre-test before starting the second level of Rosetta Stone. Under the supervision of Professor Delphine Hill, I evaluated my skills with French reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The scores are listed below: Criteria Oral Comprehension (Reading + Listening) Speaking Writing + Grammar Total Full Marks 25 25 50 100 Obtained Marks 18 19.4 36 73.4

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After the completion of the second level of Rosetta Stone, I took a post-test under the supervision of Professor Hill in June. Most of the components of the test were the same; however, the questions themselves were somewhat different. The scores are listed below: Criteria Oral Comprehension (Reading + Listening) Speaking Writing + Grammar Total Full Marks 25 25 50 100 Obtained Marks 17.5 19.8 46.5 83.8

D. Pre and Post Cultural Immersion I reached the venue of my cultural immersion at Quebec City on August 24th, 2013, at around 9 PM. I rented a room at Dan and Maryses apartment starting that night up until August 28th, 2013. Although the stay began that night, my immersion into the French language had started that afternoon in Montreal, as I traveled to Quebec City via Montreal. That night, after talking to my hosts for about an hour, they performed the pre-immersion assessment of my French listening and speaking skills. The assessment criteria were defined by the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), a UK-based organization, and used for French tests given for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in England. My pre-immersion scores and additional comments are as follows:

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For the pre-immersion assessment of my French writing and grammar skills, I took an online test provided by D.B. Linguistics Inc., a Government of Canada-registered supplier of language learning tools. I took the Level 3 (A) - Intermediate I & II assessment in their website and attained a score of 30 percent. Moving on to the ways I immersed into the French language in Quebec City, I actively conducted the following: Whenever in the apartment, I conversed with Dan and Maryse only in French (Dan made sure of it). Apart from normal conversations, I spent at least an hour each evening talking to them in French about topics ranging from how they met and got married to Nepali weddings to things to do in New Hampshire. Both of them were responsive as well as serious toward my research and made sure that neither I nor they switched to English due to discomfort. Navigation around Quebec City is impossible in English. Everything ranging from asking for directions to ordering food at restaurants to ensuring that I was on the right bus had to be done in French. Additionally, all road signs were in French, which required one to abandon ones English speaking mindset and concentrate en franais. Luckily, I was accompanied by Sukriti Raut, who had to accomplish 30 surveys on the public perceptions of the Canadian healthcare system in Quebec City. This required me to translate her survey questions into French, approach people (samples), explain to them who we were, what the study was about, and request them to participate in the same. This was really helpful for my study because I came out much more confident and competent in terms of proper language etiquette.

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After five days of successful cultural immersion, Dan and Maryse performed the same assessment of my French speaking and listening skills, and commented on my improvements, if I had any. The evaluation is as follows:

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Similarly, for the post-immersion assessment of my French writing and grammar skills, I took the same online test Level 3 (A) - Intermediate I & II and obtained a score of 30 percent. My scores saw no change. E. Discussion The results my pre and post Rosetta Stone assessments are summarized below:

Technology-Driven Classroom Learning

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 -10 Oral Comprehension Speaking Writing and Grammar Total 18 17.5 19.4 19.8 36 46.5 Pre-Rosetta Stone Post-Rosetta Stone Percentage Change 83.8 73.4

-3%

2%

29%

14%

The chart above suggests that while my total score saw a moderate change of 14%, most of the same is attributable to writing and grammar (29%). While my speaking skills saw a very small change of 2%, my reading and listening skills actually declined by 3%.

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The results of my pre and post cultural immersion assessments for speaking are summarized below:

Cultural Immersion
23.5 25 20 15 10 5 0 7 8 14% 6 7.5 3 3 25% 0% 4 5 25% 18% Pre-Immersion Post-Immersion Percentage Change 20

The results of my pre and post cultural immersion assessments for listening are summarized below: Pre-Immersion He understands words but not full sentences. We have to talk slowly and make sure he really understands what we say. He says that when we talk together, me and my husband, its like we talk in another language. Our accent is really hard to understand. PostImmersion He got to see if he was understanding well because he translated a couple of times for someone who didnt speak French. He understands almost everything when we speak slow, but cant really understand when we speak to each other with our expressions and Quebecois accent. And we do speak really fast.

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The results of my pre and post cultural immersion assessments for writing and grammar are summarized below: Pre-Immersion Post-Immersion A 30 percent score. A 30 percent score.

Based on the charts and tables above summarizing my language performance before and after the immersion, what can be underlined is that my speaking skills saw a considerable improvement of 18% after the cultural immersion of mere five days. Although some facets of speech improved more than others, the improvement percentage is still significantly higher than what was seen in the same (3%) after the technology-driven classroom learning conducted for roughly the same amount of time hour wise. On the other hand, when it came to writing and grammar, my scores remained static before and after the cultural immersion (0% change) while the same improved significantly (29%) after technology-driven classroom learning conducted for roughly the same amount of time hour wise. When it comes to reading and listening, the evaluations pre and post cultural immersion and technology-based learning shed some light but only subjectively. Dan and Maryses comments as well as the decline of 3% that was seen in the scores after the completion of Rosetta Stone can be explained by the fact that there are vast differences between how native speakers (Dan, Maryse, Professor Hill) speak and how a language student learns to read and listen to French and perceives words, phrases, and sentence structures.

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F. Conclusions/Limitations/Future Directions Taking into consideration the changes seen in my French language skills pre and post technology-based classroom learning and cultural immersion, it can be concluded that cultural immersion gives quicker results when it comes to speaking a foreign language (18% vs. 3%). On the other hand, if ones goal is to perfect grammar and writing skills, one might want to stick to the more conventional methods of language learning, one of them being technology-driven classroom learning tools such as the Rosetta Stone (0% vs. 29%). When talking about oral comprehension, I am not able to provide confident recommendations as to what might be better purely based on this research project. Moving on to the limitations of my research project, time and sample size are definitely the major ones. Because of the fact that the sample [only one in number I] was exposed to both of these methods of language learning for a very short period of time, it was rather challenging to identify minute differences in the effectiveness of each learning technique. Additionally, due to unforeseen developments, I was unable to keep the method of evaluation of my language skills for the two learning methods the same. This might have skewed the results to some level [although, I would like to add that I have tried to remain as objective and honest as possible]. Moving forward, the research can be redesigned in a way that eliminates the limitations discussed above: sample size, timeframe, and evaluation method. This would allow the researcher to identify even the smallest differences seen in his/her samples language growth. Implementation of these recommendations would require a larger investment of time and money. However, I certainly believe that this is a research area that needs more attention and offers boundless opportunities.

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G. APPENDICES

Photo 1: Dan and Maryse work on the pre cultural immersion assessment.

Photo 2: Maryse works on the post cultural immersion assessment.