Would Achievement Testing of Students Solve the Problem of Incompetent Language Teachers?

Abstract

a significant time saving for the student of Russian at the computer. The central concept of PLATO is individualization of learning. Each student proceeds through the material in privacy at his own pace. He works through the program in his own way; fast or slow, with little or repeated branching, repeating sections if necessary, until not only the teacher's requirements are met, but the student himself is satisfied. His answers are judged immediately, followed by instant feed-back in the form of messages on the screen. The author provides sufficient meaningful drill with testing check points in order to insure mastery of the lessons. In case of serious misunderstanding on the part of the student, remedial branching is either suggested or required by the author. Since the changing display focuses his complete attention, each student is totally absorbed in his own work. The PLATO class period is a completely active one for the student. We have found that the student masters the translation of Russian prose at the computer efficiently and economically.7 7The authors wish to thank Professors Clayton L. Dawson, Steven P. Hill, and Rasio Dunatov of the Slavic Department of the University of Illinois for their contributions and cooperation in the development of the course. We are. indebted to Henry and Maria Zalucky, also of the Slavic Department, who advised us on modern Russian usage in the preparation of all material. Our efforts were at all times facilitated by Professor D. L. Bitzer, Director of the Computer-Based Education Research Laboratory and his staff. We especially appreciate the innovative programming techniques furnished by Mr. P. Tenczar and Mr. R. Blomme. We wish to thank Professor S. G. Smith of the Chemistry Department of the University of Illinois for the preparation of the figures used in this paper. Evaluative analysis of data was provided by Mr. R. A. Avner of the laboratory. The Computer-Based Education Research Laboratory is supported by the National Science Foundation under grants NSF GJ-974 and NSF GJ-81 and The State of Illinois. The laboratory was formerly supported also by ONR nonr 3985 (08), Advanced Research Projects Agency; U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare; and U.S. Navy, University of Southern California Sub-contract.