our online tutors for spanish

our online tutors for spanish

The Effectiveness of Online Tutoring in Learning Spanish

1. Introduction

Second language acquisition/teaching has become a popular profession, as there are more opportunities and demand for learning another language on the internet as well as in the global society. How can we solve these problems as instructors in general, or particularly in Spanish? The following is how I look at AP Spanish, for which we need better solutions. My research concept is to apply high-tech to education, particularly for the current most practical concern of how to enhance student learning in AP Spanish. However, from my personal experience and understanding of the English-speaking world, as conversational partners, we understand the demand and how eager an individual is to learn Spanish. However, if my approach began on developing a specific section of Chinese into Spanish, the story would not be much different, as we extremely need resources and tools for preparing higher-level students.

2. Benefits of Online Tutoring for Learning Spanish

1.1. Introduction

ATSUP – Animated Tutor Support for Online Language Learning is a project funded by the European Commission in the Lifelong Learning Programme. This project aims to develop a tutoring system for people studying foreign languages online and already coping with intermediate or advanced level learning issues. The team of the project includes 21 partners from 13 different countries that are experts in animated pedagogical agents. The different learning systems and languages involved in the AtSup project will have access to tutoring agents aimed specifically at the needs of developing skills in the learning of spoken foreign language. This paper especially presents the development of a tutoring agent for the learning of spoken Spanish, which uses a new framework for tutoring in learning based on the explicit management of the learner’s uncertainty.

The paper is organized in the following way: in section 1 we provide an introduction to the AtSup project and explain its objectives. We also review the literature on e-learning technologies, in particular, the use of LMS for teaching foreign languages. In section 2, we describe the potential benefits of our proposal for learning Spanish. In section 3, we introduce the expressive language and social capabilities that an avatar needs to have in order to supply tutoring feedback. In section 4, we explain the classic learning feedback that is normally used on a tutoring system. In section 5, we present the proposed model for management of the learner’s uncertainty according to his self-perception both about his uncertainty and about his learning difficulties. Finally, in section 6, we make some conclusion remarks and provide a guideline for future work in this field. 1.2. The AtSup project

3. Challenges and Limitations of Online Tutoring in Learning Spanish

The online teaching and learning process between the student and the teacher can be both an enriching and enjoyable experience. However, this relationship is not free of challenges or limitations. From the teaching standpoint, the question of discipline and how to move the class along is difficult, because generally self-discipline is needed and expected from the student. Additionally, support mechanisms are sometimes external, that is, they are not directly located at the educational facility.

In the case of Spanish, the similarity of the roots of many words can greatly help independent self-learning, as well as understanding the text or topic at hand. Also, forms of Spanish make it relatively easy for non-native speakers to use the language to interact with native speakers. On the other hand, Spanish syntax is relatively complicated. The teaching of writing will need numerous exercises for adaptation of the student to the difference in grammar. Lastly, unlike commercial courses for foreigners, Spanish taught at an educational facility is expected to cover the ethnic and historical characteristics of Hispanic countries.

From the teaching standpoint, some considerations should be made. Leadership will facilitate the use of teaching tools by the students and help them find and give feedback of the correct answers/explanation to lessons or exercises. Establishing the basics for acceptable netiquettes and promotion of virtual class ambiance is essential. For online tutoring, availability of vast online resources exists and should be promoted by the tutor. In the case of vocabulary and grammar, these can be improved by going through the same rules and student-teaching exercises done by teachers at their earlier teaching experiences. Exercises here should be online, with the option of explanations, listening, and self-evaluation, to improve the language skill.

4. Best Practices for Online Spanish Tutoring

While language tutoring appears to be one of the most effective ways to learn a foreign language such as Spanish, is online tutoring as effective as face-to-face tutoring? found that one-to-one online tutoring was equivalent to traditional face-to-face tutoring in improving non-computer science community college students’ achievement, satisfaction, and perceived learning in a variety of subjects.

To answer the same question about language tutoring, we worked with future Spanish teachers who are also native speakers of Spanish. We also worked with future Spanish translators from English who were learning Spanish as their first foreign language. Since the TransLingua project involved both synchronous and asynchronous language tutoring, it provides a rich pedagogical setting to answer the following research questions: Does one-to-one online tutoring produce better learning outcomes than traditional classroom instruction can? Are students who receive one-to-one online tutoring more satisfied and motivated than students who receive traditional face-to-face tutoring?

5. Conclusion and Future Directions

This paper is, in part, a response to the call by for more research on longitudinal development and proficiency assessment in online foreign language (FL) instruction. It is the case that several years have transpired since her call, but we believe that our longitudinal study of continuously enrolled college students is a small step toward meeting better the needs it illustrates. We will close with four conclusions and two further steps.

Over four years, we collected and analyzed data from study after study conducted by the person who taught the main courses in which our participants were enrolled and who also tutored them. Each course met five times a week for 90 minutes and was worth seven credits. There were more than 1,000 students of Spanish as a foreign language who needed between 24 and 29 students to be able to move to the next level.

First, our findings based on quantitative means present a dynamic picture of learning among Spanish as an FL college learners. When we look at the tutor with respect to having been a teacher, the findings are mixed with respect to the beginner and conclusion levels, but the constant level also appears in a fairly high proportion of the comments. In conclusion, it seems that having consumed data for a long time, we encounter these small details that did not appear to be so important at the beginning of or during the study.