REPORT

HyperCard: Using Imagination and Creativity to Enhance Learning

In addition to allowing students to work at their own pace and increasing information retention (Eichel, 1989) and student achievement in different areas of language learning, computers were found to have a strong motivating effect on adult ESL students through activities of keyboarding and peer conferencing (Eichel, 1989; Scane, 1991). The results of a comparative study with community college ESL students suggest that students using computer-assisted readings worked through material more quickly and gained more meaning than those using traditional readings (Eichel, 1989). Most learners in another study did not favor skipping and/or quitting while doing CALL exercises (Hussin, 1994). Another comparative study between a MacMagic Program, a computer-facilitated core program in language arts, and a regular ESL program at a middle school found that the amount of social interaction using English was higher in the MacMagic Program than in the regular ESL program (Kim, 1993). With regard to cooperative learning, two studies describe programs in which ESL students were paired to work together on the computer and how the computer enhanced their interpersonal communication with each other and with teachers (Huss-Lederman, 1994; Meskill, 1993).

However, all students may not find the structured approach of many CALL programs to be compatible with their learning styles. Chapelle and Jamieson (1986) suggest that field independent students, who are capable of and accustomed to using their own internal referents, may prefer to use their natural abilities to structure information rather than to be presented with lessons which define the course of their learning. Another study found that learners perceived CALL to be very helpful when the type of exercises and subject areas matched classroom instruction, and that learning occurred most effectively when teaching and learning styles were matched (Hussin, 1994).

It is noted, therefore, that despite the progress made in hardware and software development and toward integrating computers into ESL instruction, the effectiveness of CAI is still largely dependent on the ability of instructors to choose, adapt, and use computer programs effectively (Huss, 1990). The sometimes misleading computer feedback also suggests that teachers need to guide students along the technological path in the course of language instruction (Sampson & Gregory, 1991). Along with other technologies such as videodisc, interactive video, multimedia, and CD-ROM, HyperCard was recommended for use with ESL students who may not have prior experience with computers (Cannings & Finkel, 1993; Finkel, 1991). As suggested by Marcus (1989), HyperCard is an authoring software package that can be used effectively to build structures that create patterns and connections.

The research discussed in this paper was conducted with a sample population of newly-arrived Japanese students of low level English proficiency enrolled in an ESL program at a small private university in the eastern United States. The course title was Survival Skills; the handouts and the textbook, Speaking of Survival by Daniel B. Freeman (1982), consisted of topics such as how to tell time, days of the week, months of the year, seasons, and holidays; shopping; banking; seeing the doctor; and making phone calls about emergencies. HyperCard (1989) was chosen to be used as an adjunct to classroom instruction for its flexibility instead of the structured approach found in many CALL programs.

From the beginning of the course, the first two-thirds of each three and one-half hour class period consisted of traditional ESL learning activities. Then the group of 12 students were paired off to work at six computers in the computer lab during the last one-third of each class. The HyperCard experiment ran for 14 days. For data collection, a pretest on the course's content to be learned was administered, and the same test was given as a posttest at the end of the course in order to ascertain how much of the course's content the students had learned with the help of HyperCard. A questionnaire about the computer was administered at the beginning and the end of the course to determine change, if any, in the students' attitudes toward the computer. In addition, individual interviews were conducted with each of the students at the end of the course. In these interviews, the students were asked how much they thought using HyperCard had helped them to learn.

Serving as instructor-observer, the researcher videotaped each pair of students as they interacted with each other, with the computer, and with the instructor. A daily log was kept to record the researcher's direct observations of the learners' behaviors in the computer lab. For data analysis, statistical analyses, including descriptive procedures and a two-tail paired t-test with the scores obtained from the pretest and the posttest, were employed.

Prior to the computer lab sessions, the students were given step-by-step instructional sheets on how to proceed with HyperCard. The same steps were repeated on a few instructional sheets, and new steps were added gradually. The students were required to construct short dialogs or short pieces of descriptive text with the vocabulary and grammar they had learned in class.

Table 1 Descriptive Statistics and Paired T-Test of Pretest and Posttest Scores

	Pretest	Posttest	Gain	P
Mean Score	50.417	74.167	23.75 (68%)	.0001
Standard Deviation	13.042	6.337

df = 11; t-value = 7.527*
Note. The highest score possible was 90; *Significant.

The results indicated that the students' performance regarding the course content increased significantly. The statistical data by themselves may not be conclusive proof of HyperCard's usefulness as a vehicle to facilitate second language acquisition, but the results from the ethnographical data obtained from the interviews, the questionnaires, and the video tape, as well as from the observations of the researcher confirmed that HyperCard did aid in increasing the understanding and information retention of the students.

Specifically, all the students reported that, thanks to their experience with HyperCard, they learned to read more carefully for details and were able to listen better, to speak more, and to write with greater clarity and precision. They had to read more carefully for details because they needed to fully understand the course's content prior to applying what was learned to create their own HyperCard projects. For instance, one could not depict a dialogue between a patient and a doctor without understanding what was meant in the verbal exchange. In order to use HyperCard, the students also needed to read the instructional sheets over and over again; otherwise, they would not be able to command HyperCard to do what they wanted it to. If a user still failed to understand and follow an instruction, HyperCard made it easier to observe others on the computer screen. Thus, by experimenting on the computer and referring to the instructions repeatedly, the students learned to understand and follow the otherwise difficult instructions. All reported that they understood the last instructional handout much better than the first one. With the specific objective of creating something of their own, reading repeatedly the textbook or the HyperCard instructions was no longer tedious to the students.

With the availability of pull-down menus, the students reported that they understood better what was being said. HyperCard apparently made it much easier for the instructor or a fellow student to demonstrate what was meant. It promoted comprehensible input. For example, while the instructor was explaining how to use the paint tools to illustrate a dialogue, she would pull down the Tools menu and actually paint with some of the tools; she would then repeat the instruction again to make sure that everyone understood.

As a result of working in pairs, the pairs of students spoke with each other more often, since they needed to exchange ideas frequently between themselves and, when stuck, they needed to ask for help from the instructor or other students. The students were also encouraged to say the words and phrases while typing and to read their written dialogues or texts aloud. This interaction compensated for lack of speaking practice normally associated with working at a computer alone.

Similarly, the students' writing became more precise as the two partners were always monitoring each other's written work on the computer screen; this was not so easy for them to do with paper-and-pen work. Another reason for the improvement in their writing might be that typing made them more aware of details in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, details they might have overlooked before. They were all very willing to correct their mistakes because HyperCard made it easier to do so. They learned from trial and error that they should be exact and careful, especially when typing their commands, or the computer would not obey. For example, whenever there was a spelling error, a missing space, or a misplaced quotation mark, the computer would produce feedback telling the user to check the spelling, punctuation, etc. Again, the computer screen made it much easier for the instructor to monitor the students' work. While they were working, the instructor would move among the students, stopping to assist those needing help. Upon noticing certain common problems, such as omission of verbs and difficulties with spelling and capitalization, the instructor would call the students' attention to such problems.

All students reported that their English classroom anxiety level decreased as they became more familiar with the instructor and with their fellow students in the process of using HyperCard. The students were told at the beginning of the course that HyperCard was only to be used as a tool for facilitating the learning of English, and that this was not a computer class where they would be tested on how well they could use the computer. However, they were encouraged to experiment with its use. That assurance from the instructor played an important role in lowering the anxiety level of the students as they were about to embark on a new experience. Decreased anxiety among the students was also attributed to the learner-friendly environment of HyperCard.

Likewise, the learner-friendly environment of HyperCard contributed to the consistently high interest levels of the students throughout the course. The students were told to compare HyperCard to a stack of playing cards ("stacks" and "cards" are the actual terms used in HyperCard). As with a stack of playing cards, the students could shuffle the cards they created or call up any one card when they wanted to modify anything on that card. But more important than the mere magic of producing and manipulating a stack of playing cards was the learning activities of the students themselves, as they created or selected their own graphics or pictures and wrote their own commands, texts, headings or captions on HyperCard, just as one does when creating a picture book. Only, in this case, the students themselves were both the authors and the illustrators. The project discussed below (included as Appendix) was created by two of the students and is illustrative of the activities of the students using HyperCard. The first card is the title card, which they titled "Imagination and Creativity." The dialogue regarding a house hunting process is hidden throughout cards 2, 3, and 4 and could be seen on the screen by clicking the person speaking. The right and left arrows on their cards can be clicked to navigate among the cards. The dialogue reads:

Real estate agent (R): Glad to meet you.
Customer (C): I'm looking for a house.
R: What color do you like?
C: My favorite color is green.
R: I don't have a green house, but I have a striped house.
C: It's very nice. How much is it?
R: It's $100,000.

The data collected from the students and from the researcher's observations show that the students used several strategies when creating their own projects on HyperCard, including consulting textbooks, instructional sheets, and dictionaries; gaining attention; exchanging ideas; negotiating meanings; and using polite requests, fillers, and hesitation devices. The interactional discourse was marked by use of directives, correction routines, and various forms of repetition employed in the emergent situation as the need to negotiate meaning and exchange ideas arose. It was found that the structure of the HyperCard software had a positive effect on learner discourse and the importance of meaningful repetition was congruent to the researcher's previous experience and to second language acquisition theory.

The researcher's experience suggests that ESL/EFL teachers can effectively incorporate the HyperCard software into classroom instruction. With some computer literacy, teachers should be able to follow the HyperCard manual and create their own well-thought out instructional sheets that combine technical procedures and course contents. A word of caution, however: HyperCard, like any other educational software, such as Hypertext or the Web, is only a tool for facilitating instruction, not a panacea; there should not be any unrealistically high expectations regarding learning gains, since learning occurs best where teachers create well-designed, student-centered, exciting, and supportive learning environments (Hyland, 1993).

Thanks to HyperCard's flexibility, the program possesses high transferability. Thus, the results of the study can be applied to students of different levels of language proficiency, to other subject areas, and to other learning environments or other cultures. It has proved to be effective in classrooms of language arts, the social sciences, and math at the secondary school level (Stebbins, 1990); a college Business Japanese course with dialogue materials in authentic Japanese, Romanized Japanese, and English (Saito-Abbott & Abbott 1993); and a college Business Spanish course (Kelm, 1993). Griffiths (1994) discusses the benefits of the adoption of educational software for other languages and cultures as well as descriptions of experiences translating the "Work Room" HyperCard software into Catalan and Bulgarian. With this well-conceived, stimulating tool, teachers may better tap the talents and strengths of all students and inspire creative thinking and active learning. As Stebbins (1990) states, it is the HyperCard software's ability to fit any user, its ability to grow as the user demands more from it, that makes it an ideal tool in education.

With regard to possible future developments of this line of investigation, I suggest using two randomly selected groups, one with HyperCard and one without, taught by the same teacher, to examine the actual differences in content acquisition. In addition, to further heighten the students' awareness of how they learn, higher level students in each of the two groups might be asked to write about their experiences in a certain subject (e.g., English, history, math) in the form of a journal, a dialogue journal, or via e-mail to the instructor and/or among themselves. The experiences (related to how they learn) of those who used HyperCard would then be compared with the experiences of those who did not.

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Sarah Xie is an assistant professor in the Department of English Studies at Salem-Teikyo University, West Virginia, USA. She has extensive ESOL teaching experience both in China and in the USA. Her professional interests include CALL, critical L2 education, globalization of English, learning through literature, and multiculturalism.