Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

One or two loud speakers per room insure that there is no problem in hearing the Spanish phrases as they are spelled out on tape. Later, students cheek their spelling by referring to skeleton manuals. Miss Wilma Kramer, teacher, knows no Spanish. FOR the last year and again this year Westside High School of Omaha, Nebraska, has been experimenting with various ways of making tape and tape recorders take over a part of the teaching load. These experiments are being conducted under the auspices of the Commission on the Experimental Study of Staff Utilization of the National Association of Secondary-School Principals of the NEA. In the first year's study the experiments were confined to the teaching of seventh grade spelling and seventh grade Conversational Spanish. In the spelling four tape-taught classes were compared with one teacher-taught class. All used the same word list prepared locally after much research on seventh grade spelling. In the Spanish four groups were taught by their own non-Spanish speaking classroom teacher using the tapes and a teacher's manual. The control group was taught by a high school Spanish teacher using the tape and adding to this tape at times. In the spelling two questions were asked: 1. Will the scores in word-list tests and in use-in-sentence tests (long after the material has been studied in class), and achievement tests at the end of the year, prove that the tape-taught classes have learned as much as the teachertaught group? The statistical analysis conducted T)y the Statistical Department of TVebraska University concluded that not only had the tape-taught classes fared as well as the Jeacher-taught class but in many cases were significantly superior to the teacher-taught class. In only one comparison out of sixteen was there a significant difference in favor of the teachertaught class. The achievement tests at the end of the year compared with pretests showed no significant differences between tape-taught and teacher-taught groups.* 2. Will the voice of the class's own teacher be more effective on the tape than the voice of an outsider? After many weeks, when no apparent difference between classes using tapes prepared by their own teacher and a class using tape prepared by an outside teacher, showed up — this phase of the experiment was dropped. In the Conversational Spanish course two questions were asked: 1. Can a teacher who has had no previous experience with the language teach it by using tapes twenty minutes a day and following a teacher's manual which merely gives the material on tape in a skeleton form? Not only did none of the teachers using the first year's tapes last year and this year (10 teachers) experience no difficulty whatsoever, but those who used the tapes last year were anxious to use them again this year as a part of regular seventh grade instruction. A change of teachers was made in one room midyear. A new teacher went into the situation and picked up the reins CAN TAPES TEACH? effectively after a few days of demonstration and a quick review on her own of the tapes the class had used. 2. Will a teacher who has had language training use the tapes more effectively than a teacher with no experience? By weighing the evidence in written semester tests and taperecorded-answer individual tests (on nonstop tape), a panel of expert linquists at Nebraska University concluded that Conversational Spanish had been taught to seventh graders effectively. They commented on the excellent pronunciation which, of course, was due to the native speakers used on the tapes.* This panel found no significant differences between the experimental groups using tape only and the control group having a regular Spanish teacher handling the tapes — as far as oral responses were concerned. In the written tests they found no significant differences between one experimental group and the control group. There were significant differences between three of the experimental groups and the control but these differences were not large. Apparently whereas some teachers who have had no training can do as well with the tapes as trained teachers, other teachers lacking training will not do quite as well their first year. This year experiments are being made in the seventh grade with last year's tapes revised, and with new ^.^ lull stathlical refiort itl both the seventh grade spellttig and the seventh grade Conversational Spanish experlmenls oj last year will he found on fiages SI 9i in the January 195S issue of THE Bill LET IN ol the Xational Association of Snondary-Sehool Hrinrijials. 180 EdScreen & AV Guide — April, 1958