MERLIN - interactive language learning on the Internet

Abstract

Project MERLIN began in September 1995 as a major three year research project to be carried out by members of the Language Institute at the University of Hull in collaboration with and funded by British Telecommunications plc. The aim is to produce a fairly integrated multimedia environment to support language teaching and independent learning at a distance. This project is unique in a number of significant areas but of particular interest and importance for future projects of this kind is the close collaboration between two very different cultures represented in the teams from the University of Hull and the BT research laboratories. The Hull team is made up of highly qualified and experienced EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers who are responsible for the development of the pedagogic structure, and the design and content of the MERLIN language courses. At the start of the project this team had very little IT know how but brought to the project the necessary expertise of language learning and teaching which kept best educational practice in the forefront and did not allow the wonders of modern technology to unduly influence the development process. The BT team are responsible for the design of a system to support the pedagogical principles put forward by the practising teachers. This team had little or no experience of language teaching and learning but brought to the project the necessary 'blue sky' vision and technical expertise to develop a distance learning environment of the future.