公共的な発表空間としてのインターネットと外国語学習 : 電子掲示板を使ったドイツ語課題作文の試み

90年代の半ば以降,インターネットの普及は爆発的に進んだ。とりわけ,ここ1～2年の間に,各大学において自習用端末の導入が相次いだことにより,学生がネットワーク化されたコンピュータを利用し得る環境が急速に整備された。こうした情報環境の変化は,大学における外国語教育においても新しい可能性をもたらした。外国語学習への応用という観点から見ると,ネットワーク化されたコンピュータには,(1)チューター的な機能,(2)便利な道具としての機能,(3)公共的な発表や議論の場を提供する機能,(4)コミュニケーション手段としての機能,(5)情報源としての機能などのさまざまな可能性がある。本稿では,そのひとつである「インターネットの公共的な発表空間としての機能」について着目し,広島大学における初級ドイツ語教育の場での課題作文を例にとって,こうした機能の外国語授業への応用可能性について論じる。 CALL(Computer-Assisted Language Learning)というと,しばしば,コンピュータのチューター的な機能のみが注目され,学習プログラムを使って行う機械的な練習というイメージが先行する。また,これまで,そうした利用法において,教授法的なあるいは教育理論的な表付けが必ずしも明確にされてこなかったことから,今日における学習者中心型の授業コンセプトやコミュニカテイブな教授法との整合性が問題にされることも多い。本稿では,こうした議論もふまえながら,ややもすればチューター的な機能に片寄りがちな外国語教育へのコンピュータの利用を,より広い枠組みのなかで考えるための事例を提供する。

Internet's electronic bulletin boards can be used very successfully in foreign language classes. This paper reports on a small project which was carried out in a beginning German composition class. The university students, who had studied German only two-and-a-half months, wrote self-introductions of 15-20 German sentences, and, instead of submitting them in paper form to the teacher, they put them on an electronic bulletin board. This task is relativly difficult for beginners because they must moblize all of their language abilities in German, including knowledge of grammar, sentence patterns, vocabulary, and language learning strategies. So, two full class periods were devoted to the project. The procedure of the project looks like this: 1) In the first class period: - Activate vocabulary and expressions needed by means of associogram (group work and teacher-centered instruction) - conceptualize and structure the composition with key words (individual work) - mutual evaluation of the first concepts (pair work) 2) Homework during the first week: - Write the first drafts and ask questions by e-mail 3) In the second class period: - Confirm the grammar with a grammar check sheet and correct errors in an example text (teacher-centered instruction and pair work) - Correct errors in the drafts using the check sheet (pair work) 4) Homework during the second week: - Write and put the compositions on the electronic bulletin board within 2 weeks - Ask nnpstinnfi via p-mail The resulting compositions, as a whole, are both gramatically better and more interesting than those in recent years which were submitted only to the teacher and not put on the bulletin board. (See the results on the web page 'http://home.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/katsuiwa'.) The public nature of an electronic bulletin board motivates students because not only the teacher but also classmates and friends read the writings. The bulletin board which was used in this project permits every contributor to set his or her own secret code, with which the student can also remove what was written before. It means that students can always modify or rewrite their self-introductions. Students can read each others' composititions, and if they find good expressions in them, they can modify their own compositions. In this way, students can teach themselves. It was found that 32% of students later rewrote their self-introductions, and 12% of students rewrote them more than three times. An electronic bulletin board used as a common platform increases not only the motivation but also the autonomy of learners. Furthermore, it frees teachers from routine correction work, and changes the role of a teacher from an absolute all-knower to a navigator for learners.