Constance O. Curtin
Education:
AB Mount Holyoke College 1948
MA, PhD Columbia University 1950, 1953 (Chemistry)
MAT University of Illinois 1966 (Russian)
Previous Projects:
Cyrillic Alphabet Lesson, Russian Reading Program on PLATO,
Laboratory Material, Slavic 101-104, University of Illinois on PLATO,
Russian Alphabet Program for the Tandy TRS-80, Apple II, and IBM PC,
Russian, French, Spanish and German Language Review Packets, Queue, Fairfield, CT for Apple II and IBM Compatibles.
Other Activities:
Project Director: NEH Grant Foreign Language packets for the microcomputer for French,
German, Russian and Spanish with a hardware grant from the Apple Education Foundation.
Professional Offices:
Secretary-Treasurer of Illinois AATSEEL (American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages) 1980-81,
Vice President 1981-83, President 1983-85.
Award - Outstanding Teacher of Russian for 1986 from the Illinois Foreign Language Teachers Association.
My Professional Concerns, discussed in numerous publications and professional presentations, are:
1. student performance; analysis of individual learning characteristics; computer-assisted instruction as a timesaver for students.
2. methods in foreign language teaching; evaluation of teaching strategies.
3. helping teachers to use microcomputers; computer use as an enrichment activity; presenting language and culture on the micro computer; using microcomputer materials as a catalyst for classroom learning.
4. advising other authors of Computer-Assisted Language Learning.
During twenty-three years of searching for strategies to help students learn Russian, I found many that worked and some that didn't. The pioneering mainframe teaching computer (PLATO) at the University of Illinois allowed me to track university student progress in the computer-assisted Russian lessons that we wrote for the Slavic Department to accompany classroom texts. From student responses my colleagues and I soon learned which ideas were hits and which were rejected. We ran several long term studies of student responses and coupled this with final grades revealing the timesaving advantages of lessons on the computer and the attraction of computer-based learning for students as well as limitations to standard question and response activities.
As microcomputers became available, it became possible to use the results of our computer studies with college students to create language learning programs on the computer with younger students in mind. It was fun to try a variety of teaching methods on the computer in order to find effective learning strategies for foreign language students and to extend and enrich their involvement with foreign languages. At University High School, University of Illinois, I was encouraged to test the new materials with the cooperation of University High School students. Since bright students are perceptive and verbal, feedback was immediate and clear. It became apparent that computer-assisted instruction had a lot going for it on the high school level as well as for college students. Students were motivated to try. They loved the individual interaction with a foreign language on the computer and the opportunity to make their mistakes privately. They enjoyed the chance to move ahead or to delve into a topic in depth.
My colleages and I, amoung them Professor Shinall of the French Department, University of Illinois, were led gradually to an appreciation of what the computer can offer the student. And so we arrived at our current project, Conversations Around the World, in which students can see and hear a new language in context and can express themselves in the language. We present conversations based in a number of countries, using not only text but pictures and sound. The materials appeal to students who favor learning by listening and also to those who like to read before speaking. Culture notes, music, and games add to the fun. Working with innovative native speakers in other languages allowed me to extend the computer lessons to languages other than Russian.
