Books, Pictures and Conversations: UsingBilingual Multimedia Storybooks toDevelop Language Awareness

Viv Edwards and Frank MonaghanReading and Language Information Centre, University of Reading, ButmersheCourt, Earley, Reading RG6 IHY, UK

John KnightSchool of Information Management University of Brighton, Brighton, Sussex, UK

The advent of multimedia technology provides many new opportunities for accelerat-ing learning in a range of situations, including language teaching. This paper describesthe work of Fabula, a multinational, multidisciplinary project funded by the EuropeanCommission. It focuses, in particular, on the evaluation of a bilingual multimediastorybook with primary school children (aged 6-10) in both Welsh- andEnglish-medium settings in South Wales. It explores interesting insights on languagepreferences, learning strategies, and hypotheses about the way that language worksthrough the spontaneous comments offered by pairs of children using the software. Itlocates the use of multimedia technology in research on language awareness, andargues for the positive effects and potential of such resources.

'What is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversa-tions?'

(Lewis Carroll)

IntroductionThe value and power of paper-based multilingual resources is well estab-

lished (MRC, 1995; Edwards, 1998). The advent and widespread availability ofmultimedia technology, however, provides exciting opportunities - and chal-lenges - for further innovative developments in this area (Cummins & Sayers,1995). This paper describes the evaluation of a bilingual multimedia storybookwith primary school children in South Wales. Although the main aim was toprovide feedback on the functionality of the software, this exercise also allowedus to observe pupils interacting with images, as well as sounds and text in twolanguages. Spontaneous comments offered by pairs of children at the computerfocused as much on making meaning of the Welsh and English versions of thestory as on the design and range of fiunctions. As such, they offered invaluableinsights into language preferences, learning strategies, and hypotheses about theway that language works.

The Fabula projectAs a prelude to discussion of these language related issues, it is important to

provide some background information on the history and aims of the Fabulaproject,' as well as the evaluation process and the main features of the software.0965-8416/00/03 0135-12 $10.00/0 © 2000 V. Edwards et al.LANGUAGE AWARENESS Vol. 9, No. 3, 2000

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136 Language Awareness

Fabula was a collaborative venture involving teachers and children, softwareengineers, translators and researchers from across Europe in various fields,including language and literacy, human computer interface, and typographyand graphic communication. The aim of the project was to stimulate and supportthe production and use of innovative bilingual multimedia resources for theteaching and learning of languages. Research efforts focused initially onlanguage pairs which included an indigenous European minority language -Basque and French, Catalan and Spanish, Frisian and Dutch, Irish and English,and Welsh and English. The funding for the project came from the EuropeanCommission, a body which has offered consistent support over time for regionaland minority languages through the European Bureau for Lesser UsedLanguages and policy initiatives such as the Framework Convention for theProtection of National Minorities. There is no reason, however, why the findingsshould not also be applied to other language pairs in the future, including thosewhich use non-European scripts.

The association of high status multimedia technologies with minoritylanguages has far-reaching implications. Educators within these minoritycontexts are faced with various challenges in relation to both print and electronicresources. Because print runs for paper publications are small, the unit price isnecessarily high and, as a result, the range and quality of material are far morelimited than is the case for languages with larger numbers of speakers. Electronicresources are also subject to market forces. Whereas 'major' languages likeEnglish, Spanish and French feature prominently in commercial applications,minority languages, such as Frisian, Basque and Welsh, are poorly served. It istherefore not surprising that the few electronic resources which do exist inminority language are greeted with enthusiasm. Chana et al. (1998), for instance,describe how attendance at Urdu club in a multilingual primary school increasedfrom six to 22 (including six monolingual English speakers) when an Urduword-processing program was introduced: the high status associated with thenew technologies seems to have been transferred to the minority language.

The situation of minority language speakers, even within a western Europeancontext, varies a great deal. In Catalunia, for instance, the vast majority of thepopulation speak and are literate in Catalan. The emphasis in using a multilin-gual application like Fabula is therefore on consolidating the existing languageskills of Catalan speakers and ensuring that in-migrants from other regions ofSpain and beyond acquire fluency in Catalan (Turrell, in press). In Wales andIreland, however, the majority are monolingual speakers of English and, accord-ingly, there is a greater emphasis on the teaching of Welsh and Irish as secondlanguages. Irrespective of regional differences, multimedia storybooks are apotentially powerful tool for learning.

The evaluation process

The present paper grew out of observational and interview data collected aspart of the evaluation of Fabula software in three South Wales schools.^ In Wales,both English and Welsh have equal status for official purposes. Small but grow-ing numbers of children are educated through the medium of both Welsh andEnglish in ysgolion Gymraeg or designated Welsh schools. Even in Englishmedium schools, Welsh forms part of the National Curriculum and by 1999

Bilingual Multimedia and Language Awareness

Table 1 Schools and children participating Ln the software evaluation

137

School

School 1, Swansea

School 2, Swansea

School 3, Neath

School yearand age of childrenYear 2: 6-7 yearsYear 6:1-11 yearsYear 5: 9-10 yearsYear 6:10-11 yearsYear 2: 6-7 yearsYear 5: 9-10 years

Medium ofinstruction

English

English

Welsh

No of children

462422

almost all pupils between the ages of 5 and 16 were studying it either as a joint ora second language (Peate et al, 1998: ECF, 1999). Both Welsh and Englishmedium schools were represented in the present study which drew on childrenin Years 2,5 and 6 to reflect the lower and upper limits of the age range for whichFabula software is being developed (see Table 1).

The evaluation activity which forms the focus for the present study was thetrialling of the Fabula Reader which allows users to read a storybook previouslycreated and stored in multimedia format.^ The children were presented with thetitle page (see Figure 1 below) and, in line with normal primary school practice(cf. Moon & Raban, 1992), were asked questions designed to encourage predic-tions about the possible content of the story. If the hiiman-computer interface hasbeen well designed, the user should be able to use the software independently(Hix & Hartson, 1993; Druin & Solomon, 1996; Clarke, 1997; Schneiderman,

Y brenin trachwantus

Figure 1 Title page of a Welsh/English Fabula storybook

138 Language Awareness

1998). After this brief introduction, the children were therefore left to explore thestory as a whole.

The multimedia story used in the evaluation was based on A lovely bunch ofcoconuts by Dennis Reader (1989), a cleverly crafted and visually sophisticatedtale of a greedy king who spies a stock of coconuts on an island belonging to a'happy man'. The king sends each of his retinue in turn to claim the island on hisbehalf but the happy man uses his coconuts to deflect them one by one. Finally,the king decides to leave the happy man alone, believing that the stock of coco-nuts is now exhausted. However, the happy man - and the alert reader - knowthat there are plenty more in reserve.

The multimedia story is a very versatile leaming tool. Each page, or screen,displays an illustration and the supporting text in two languages as ini Figure 2.Each page also incorporates a number of functions, most of which are activatedby the tool bar at the bottom of the screen.

Untroroedd dyn hapus yn byw0 dan goeden goconytar ynys fach.

Once upon a timea happy man livedunder a coconut treeon a little island.

Figure 2: Page 1 of Fabula storybook

Speech hubbies

By clicking first on the eye button on the tool bar and then on the illustra-tions, children were able to activate speech bubbles which repeated theWelsh dialogue in the main text panel. The use of a speech bubble allowsthe author to provide scaffolding for the students to work out unfamiliarmeanings. In Figure 3, for instance, the interaction of the speech bubblewith the illustration depicting the king's raised and pointing hand helps thereader identify who is speaking and what they might be saying. The factthat the king is clearly addressing the first person in the line may alsosupport the interpretation of Ti gyntaf (You first), especially since thefollowing utterance, Rydzu i eisiau'r ynys (I want that island) has beenrepeated several times by this point in the story.

Bilingual Multimedia and Language Awareness 139

Ti gyntaf.Rydw i eisiau'rynys!

'Rydw i eisiau'r ynys yna,"dywedodd y brenin.

Pwyntiodd ar y nofiwr."Ti gyntaf. Rydwi eisiau'r ynys!"

I want that island,said the king.

He pointed at the swimmer."You first I want that island!"

Figure 3 speech bubble function

• SoundBy clicking on the speaker button at the top of each text panel, children wereable to listen to both the English and Welsh. By clicking first on the mouthbutton and then on the illustration, they were able to hear the Welsh versionof the dialogue, as well as a range of sound effects. The noise of a pneumaticdrill (activated by clicking on the spade used by the King's gardener totunnel to the island), and the splat of a coconut falling into a 'terrible trifle'(the ultimate weapon of the king's cook) added to the inherent humour ofthe story and proved very popular with the children.

• Text linksThe text-link function allows the teacher to link words or phrases in one textwith words and phrases in another to highlight a particular teaching point.In the story used in the evaluation for instance, all examples of the regularpreterite in Welsh (which ends in -odd) were linked with their Englishequivalents. The text-link function is activated by clicking on the 'joinedhands' button in the tool bar. When the child moves the cursor over the text,linked items change colour. By clicking, the child can see the equivalentitem highlighted in the other language, as illustrated in Figure 4. The invita-tion to compare selected features through the use of the text-link function isan example of an inductive consciousness-raising (CR) task: contrastivedata are structured in such a way that the learners are able to discover anypatterns for themselves (Ellis, 1997; see also discussion of Knowledge aboutlanguage below).

140 Language A wareness

"Rydw i eisiaur ynys yna!"dwydedocd y bremn.

"I want that island!"said the king.

Figure 4 Screen detail showing text highlighting feature

Lessons about languageIn addition to the information collected on the design and functionality of the

Fabula Reader, the evaluations produced a wealth of data and evidence relating tolanguage, including language preference, knowledge about language andsupport for first language learning. In the discussion which follows, children willbe identified by pseudonynm, age and medium of education: Kirsty (2E) is thus aYear 2 pupil who attends an English medium school; Craig (5W) is a Year 5 pupilat the Welsh school.

Language preferenceDual texts using language pairs such as Urdu and English or Chinese and

English can be found in many multilingual classrooms (Edwards & Routh, 1999).Interestingly, community language teachers in the UK tend to show a stronglevel of resistance to books of tliis kind: because children are surrounded withEnglish, they prefer to maximise the use of the minority language. They alsoexpress concern that children will simply read the English and ignore or pay littleattention to the other language. There are indeed indications that this is some-times the case. The Multilingual Resources for Children Project (MRC, 1995: 56),for instance, reports the case of a child who preferred books in the minoritylanguage because otherwise he 'would just read the English and not make theeffort to read Bengali'. However, the situation is more complex than it might atfirst appear. Other children reported that the presence of two languages was verysupportive because 'you get the idea of what they are saying' or because 'you Ccinlearn quicker than if there's just one language'. The presence of two languagesoffers scaffolding for the learning of children from minority communities; it alsooffers the possibility to increase the awareness of language of all children, includ-ing monolingual English speakers.

Similar patterns emerged in the case of the Fabula software. The prototypeoffered a number of ways in which the children could evidence a language pref-erence for Welsh or English. For example, they could read aloud in one languageonly, or in one language before another; they could play the audio track in onelanguage only, or in one language before another; after discovering the text linksor the Welsh speech bubbles, they could choose not to use them subsequently.

While preference for the dominant language was sometimes evident, therewere also many examples of the active use of both languages to make sense of thetext. For example, Liam (6E) always played the English first and then the Welsh

Bilingual Multimedia and Language A wareness 141

but, when his partner Jessica took control of the mouse, she played the Welsh firstand then the English. Kirsty (2E) frequently chose to play the audio Welsh text,checking the meaning in English by following the text on screen with her fingerand vice versa. This was interesting - and ambitious - given her limited knowl-edge of Welsh, though typical of her confident approach. Sammy Jo and Tobias(6E) attempted to work out the meaning of short Welsh speech bubbles by find-ing the equivalent stretch in the Welsh text panel and then matching it with theEnglish text.

Children's comments sometimes offered insights into their attitudes towardsthe nninority language. When Lawrence (6E) was asked why he chose to play theWelsh audio track first, he explained that he wanted an opportunity to practise inWelsh. Kurt (6E) professed to be very weak at Welsh but wanted to learn morebecause 'you have to if you want to play rugby'. His instrumentalism appears torest on a misunderstanding: it would seem that in the Welsh media preference isgiven to bilingual players when interviews are being sought. Kurt's view mayrepresent a more sophisticated reading of the advantages of bilingualism in sportthan might appear at first sight.

Knowledge about languageThere has been a great deal of discussion of implicit knowledge (or knowledge

o/language) and explicit knowledge (or knowledge about language) in secondlanguage teaching. EUis (1993,1994), for instance, proposes that L2 knowledgefacilitates implicit L2 knowledge by helping leamers notice linguistic propertiesof the input which might otherwise be overlooked, and by allowing them tomake comparisons which confirm or refute hypotheses in their implicit knowl-edge. Given the potentially important role of explicit knowledge in the develop-ment of implicit knowledge, writers such as Fotos & Ellis (1991) point to theusefulness of consciousness-raising (CR) tasks: learners are required to performan operation on L2 data wliich will lead to an explicit understanding of the targetlanguage.

The Fabula Reader offered a range of CR tasks involving the comparison of LIand L2. In fact, the children even created a task of their own by using the text linkfunction to predict the meanings of Welsh words. The designers' intention wasthat users would click on any part of the text in one panel which changed colourwhen the cursor passed over it: the act of clicking would then highlight the equiv-alent element(s) in the other panel. Some children, however, moved the mousedirectly to the word(s) which they judged as the equivalent(s) in the secondpanel, and only clicked at this point to check for a corresponding change incolour. To some extent, the students used the text Unk as an ad hoc glossary facility,a feature that was subsequently included in the final version of the software.

The tasks - intentional and accidental - offered opportunities for children toreveal their hypotheses about how languages work and for teachers to makesensitive and appropriate interventions in the learning process.

Not surprisingly, bilingual pupils in the Welsh school showed a greater levelof awareness than their peers in the English-medium schools. Kirsty and Ceri(2W), for instance, identified that the number of words in a sentence will notnecessarily be the same in both languages, as in Pzoyntiodd at y nofiwr (He pointedat the swimmer). They also noted that word order can be different; commenting

142 Language Awareness

on Roedd y brenin yn grac iazvn I AWN! (The king was very, VERY angry), Cericoirunented, 'Ah, they've moved around'. The use of metalanguage would not,of course, be expected at this age when the curriculum is focused on teaching'chunks' of language rather than on language forms. Nonetheless, it was interest-ing and encouraging to note their spontaneous observations on similarities anddifferences between languages as they compared the two texts. Rutherford(1987:18) argues that:

The role of C-R is ... one in which data that are crucial for the learner's test-ing of hypotheses, and for his forming generalisations, are made availableto him in a somewhat controlled and principled fashion.

The bilingual environment in Fabula creates a natural space for students andteachers to have the kind of 'principled' discussions proposed by Rutherford.The text was deliberately presented in such a way as to facilitate cross languagecomparisons by placing, wherever possible, equivalent phrases in each of thelanguages on equivalent lines as in Figure 3. Another pair of students in theWelsh school, Joshua and Sara (5W), conunented on this feature, noting aninstance where the line length was strikingly uneven. When questioned, it wasclear that they did not have an expectation that the line lengths would be equiva-lent, no doubt because of their own bilingual experience. Sara did, however,comment on the fact that others might! This particular pair commented on anumber of other differences between the two languages. For example, they drewattention to the absence of the pronoun in Welsh, recognising that galwodd wasequivalent to 'he summoned'. They also noted differences in positions of subjectand verb elements and order of adjectives.

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, children in the English-mediumschools understandably assumed that the rules of English applied equally toWelsh. On some occasions, this strategy served them well. Kirsty and her partnerCeri (2E), for instance, tried to identify elements in one text by matching themwith equivalents which they recognised in the other. This was particularly thecase with the more humorous segments, such as when one character calls out in asing-song voice, Rydw i'n dod i dy ddal di (I'm coming to get you). The familiarintonation pattern provided the clue to the meaning, which they were then ableto check in the English text.

Kirsty and Ceri (2E) drew on the language of classroom instruction - dwy lawar ei ben (hands on heads) - to work out the meaning of a Welsh phrase in thestory, gyda Iwmpyn mawr ar ei ben (with a big lump on his head). Daniel and Emily(6E) also drew on previous experience of going swimming to identify the Welshword for swimmer in the text. These are positive examples of the children acti-vating their prior knowledge to navigate their way through the text.

Children also used the display of both languages to good effect in identifyingcognates. Rachel and Craig (2E), for instance, were able to identify the Welshword for coconuts {coconyts) 'because it's nearly spelt the same'. Explicit knowl-edge, however, is often fragmentary and anomalous (Sorace, 1985; Green &Hecht, 1992). In the case of coconyts, discussion made it clear that the childrenwere identifying common surface features of the cognates. There were instances,however, when the children appeared to recognise a cognate but were in factdrawing on a different, urureliable strategy, as in the analysis of the text in Figure 5.

Bilingual Multimedia and Language Awareness 143

Roedd y brenin yn grac.Galwodd y fwltur.

"Dy dro di nawr!"gwaeddodd.

Hedfanodd y fwltur dros y mori'r ynys.

The king was angry.He summoned his vulture.

"Now it's your turn!"he shouted.

The vulture flew over the seato the island.

Figure 5 Recognising cognates

Yfelsh fioltur [vultir] and English vulture sound very similar, although visu-ally they are quite different. When asked the meaning of the Welsh fiultur, Craig(2E) confidently answered 'vulture', leading us to assume that he recognised thewords as cognates. However, on questioning, he explained that he had countedthe words and matched them. When asked if he could see any similaritiesbetween the two words he said no. This raises interesting questions as to thepoint at which cognates become recognisable as such.

In the case of Lee (E6) the idea of word-for-word correspondence was sostrong that it overrode pre-existing knowledge and alternative strategies whenreading the screen illustrated in Figure 6.

Ac ar yr ynysroedd y dyn hapus yn edrychar y brenina meddyliodd.

And on the islandthe happy man lookedat the kingand pondered.

Figure 6 Word order in different languages

144 Language Awareness

She clearly knew that the Welsh word dyn meant man in English, as she hadidentified it earlier. Yet she was prepared to jettison this knowledge in favour of aposition-matching strategy. Even when encouraged to identify cognates bybeing asked to consider the surface similarity between the English word happyand the Welsh hapus, she persisted with her counting strategy. Significantly,when it was pointed out that the match was incorrect, the pair went on to use aprocess of elimination, tracking which word in the English text co-occurred withdyn across different pages, until finally arriving at a correct analysis. In a discus-sion afterwards, they were able to recognise that their original strategy did notwork and - crucially from a language awareness perspective - that word orderand sentence length can vary between languages.

Daniel posited a reverse model of this word-for-word matching strategy,declaring, 'everything in Welsh is backwards'. He then proceeded to countinwards from opposite ends of the English and Welsh sentences until he reachedthe words he was trying to match. The notion that Welsh was written in reverseorder to English was shared by his classmates, Lawrence and Lee, who employeda similar strategy, commenting, 'in Welsh it goes backwards'. A strikingly simi-lar observation was made by classmate Craig who voiced the view that in Welsh,'they swaps the words around'. This might suggest that an observation made bya teacher, for example, on the order of adjectives and nouns in Welsh being thereverse of English, had been over-generalised by some children.

Comparisons, however, can help correct false assumptions. For example. Leewas convinced that there would always be more words in a Welsh sentence thanits English equivalent: 'in Welsh, there's loads of words when you want to say it'.When presented with a counter-example, she was willing to accept that herhypothesis was false, thus offering support for Tunmer and Myliill's (1984:172)view that: 'the process of separating two languages into functionally independ-ent systems results in an increase in "metalinguistic" awareness'.

Support for first language learningBecause of the project focus on second language learning, we had not antici-

pated that the software would also, incidentally, offer support for children intheir first language. There were, however, a number of instances when multime-dia features helped children, particularly struggling readers, to make meaning ofthe English text. Pupils identified by their teachers as being of lower ability wereable to sustain both interest and concentration for the 20-30 minutes theyengaged with the Reader. The experience of the Fabula evaluation certainlyprovides support for research findings that computer-based learning can foster amore positive attitude in students who have experienced failure (Baljathy, 1989).In a similar vein, Adam and Wild (1997: 123) have pointed out the potential ofinteractive storybooks: 'These facilities may be of useful [sic] for extendingvocabulary ... and developing decoding competence'.

One pair in particular, Kurt and Scott (EY), were keen to use both pictures andthe interactive features which gave them immediate feedback to solve problemswith English text. For the most part, they did not listen to the Welsh text at all,explaining that their Welsh was weak. However, when they came across theword 'pondered', they used all available resources - listening to the English text.

Bilingual Multimedia and Language A wareness 145

looking at the Welsh text, and using the text buttons - to discover the meaning.Finally, they used the speech bubble in the picture (where the man is uttering,'Mmmm ...') to guess that he might be having a thought. They also had a prob-lem pronouncing the word 'trifle'. They played the audio file too and Kurt wasvery pleased to find that he had been right.

ConclusionIt is clear that, from a language perspective, the use of bilingual multimedia

can be extremely valuable and provide numerous insights not only into chil-dren's linguistic capabilities and awareness in general, but also into how multi-media, in particular, can support them. Ellis (1997) raises doubts as to thesuitability of consciousness-raising tasks for certain groups of learners, includ-ing beginners whose implicit knowledge of the L2 will be limited. Another groupwhich he singles out are younger L2 learners who may find the conscious studyof language learning 'unattractive'. He does, however, concede that it may bepossible to devise games which may be 'more appealing'. The evaluation of theFabula software offers evidence that both beginners and younger L2 learners areable to benefit from consciousness-raising tasks.

Many of the strategies discussed above would also be available with apaper-based text. The point to be stressed about the resources which supportlearning in a bilingual multimedia environment, however, is the increasedpower when words, images, and sounds are deployed in dynamic combinations,and especially when the leamer is in control and able to explore this potential increative new ways. We observed how sound, text, and images were used in vari-ous different combinations by the children for many diverse learning purposes:to gain practice in hearing Welsh spoken; to support reading in a first language;to support second language acquisition; to deepen metalinguistic awareness; tomake learning fun.

It is not the work at the computer alone, however, that is valuable but thediscussions which take place between the students during the session and withthe teacher afterwards. From a teacher's perspective, observing the children atwork provided insights on preferred learning style, grammatical understandingand the effects of teaching, all useful features for formative assessment purposesand the planning of future work. As such, we believe that bilingual interactivesoftware provides a powerful framework for activities and discussions that leadto improved levels of language awareness.

CorrespondenceAny correspondence should be directed to Viv Edwards, Professor of Language

in Education, Reading and Language Information Centre, University of Reading,Bulmershe Court, Earley, Reading RG6 lHY (v.k.edwards@reading.ac.uk).

Notes1. The partners in the Fabula project were the universities of Reading and Brighton in the

UK and DTP Workshop in Ireland, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain, GCO in theNetherlands and Ikastola Kanboko in France.

2. Frank Monaghan of the University of Reading, John Knight of the University of Brigh-

146 Language A wareness

ton and Mary Lynne Jones of Canolfan Cymraeg San Helen, Swansea, were responsi-ble for data collection.

3. The final version of the software was changed in several important respects as a resultof the evaluation. The Fabula programme can be downloaded free of charge from:www.fabula-eu.org

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