Multimodal language learning environment of the Korean digital kitchen : a study on the impact of physicality and technological affordances on Korean vocabulary learning

Abstract

Task Based Language Learning and Teaching (TBLT) has been integrated with computer-assisted language learning (CALL), contributing to pedagogical developments in the field of foreign/second language teaching and learning (Thomas and Reinders, 2010). While the majority of studies have used the integrated pedagogy inside the classroom context, little attention has been paid to the area outside the classroom (Seedhouse et al., 2013; Seedhouse et al., 2014; Preston et al., 2015). This issue has recently been addressed by the European Digital Kitchen (EDK) project team (Seedhouse, 2017), which has successfully investigated the efficacy of digital technology on foreign language learning out of the classroom. However, as the EDK was designed as a holistic learning environment in which many different environmental factors would contribute to learning, there was a need to disaggregate some of these factors and discover which factors were more or less significant. In order to determine one of the environmental factors to learning, this study attempted to use the technological components of a previous project to create Korean pedagogical materials. This formed the Korean Digital Kitchen (KDK), a real-world environment of a kitchen where students can simultaneously learn Korean language and culture by carrying out the real-world task of cooking. Korean is one of the important global languages to be taught, according to an Ethnologue report (Lewis et al., 2016). Based on the literature on vocabulary learning, especially Nattinger’s (1988) claim that touching and manipulating real objects, as opposed to seeing them, increases learnability, this study explored whether kinesthetic mode adds extra value to foreign language learning processes. Would there be any significant difference between vocabulary learning which involves seeing the learning items only in a classroom and learning which also involves touching the items in the KDK? Thus, this study examined the power of physicality. Furthermore, the salience of real-world and pedagogical tasks has been investigated as factors to different level of vocabulary learning. To this end, a quasi-experimental design was employed for users to conduct two cooking sessions, one in a digital kitchen by using real objects and the other in a classroom by looking at pictures/photos in the textbook. Participants were 48 adults of both British and international origins, living in Newcastle, UK, coming from 20 different countries. To determine which environment between a digital kitchen and a classroom is more conducive to vocabulary learning, users needed to carry out two ii different recipes in the two locations in order to control a practice effect. Subjects went through the real-life cooking activities in three stages of TBLT in both settings using two different recipes with two different set of vocabularies. There were tests before and after cooking to compare their scores to examine the results of learning. Ten vocabulary noun items were targeted in this research. In addition to test score data, three more data sources were employed, namely questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and video-observations for triangulation, revealing the outcomes and processes of learning in two different learning environments. A series of data sets clearly demonstrated which of the two learning settings was more effective to learn foreign language vocabulary and culture in and what their attitudes towards a digitalized learning environment were. Findings suggest that physicality in the KDK makes students link the word and cultural aspects to their memory better than simply looking at photos of objects in the classroom. The learning differences reached statistical significance. Other environmental factors such as technology and its affordances may have contributed to different learning outcomes, playing a role in learners taking positive attitudes (Stricker et al., 2004). In contrast, users in the conventional setting demonstrated relatively less learning, due to fewer senses and its typical features such as the relationship with a teacher, less interaction with peers (Shen et al., 2008) and boredom. It is these differences that contributed to the different results and processes of learning in two settings. From these findings, it could be concluded that the digital kitchen can provide a motivating learning environment which is multi-modal, multi-sensory, multi-interactional, multi-experiential and multi-layered. It is physicality, meaningful tasks and computer technology that foster learning in vocabulary and cultural aspects. This project contributes to building up one more dimension of psycholinguistic factor in language learning, and supports the development of innovative ICT for foreign language learning across the world.