Grant program: Teaching and Learning Development Grant (TLDG)

Grant recipient: Christian Guilbault, Department of French

Project team: Roisin Elworthy, research assistant

Timeframe: December 2015 to June 2018

Funding: $5000

Course addressed: FREN 275 – Introduction to Linguistics

Final report: View Christian Guilbault's final report (PDF)

Description: This project will assess the effectiveness of a digital resource (currently called Coup de Pouce) that helps second-year students acquire transcription skills using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). In linguistics, it is imperative that students learn to transcribe speech excerpts phonetically before they can perform other linguistic analyses.

The overall goal of this project is to evaluate Coup de Pouce’s effectiveness in allowing students to learn and practice French phonetic transcription outside of the lecture sessions for Fren 275: Introduction to Linguistics. A secondary goal is to determine if there are benefits specifically for Anglophone second-language learners of French who use this tool.

Questions addressed:

• Is the tool effective?
• Does this tool address specific needs of learners of FL2?
• Is the tool equally effective for all students
• What can be improved?

Keywords: online exercises, individual learning, second language learning, practice