ELLIS Island Opens Doors for Learners
The introductory letter accompanying the program discs for the ELLIS English Language Learning and Instruction System by CALI suggested that the reviewer call the CALI toll-free technical support line prior to installation just to ensure that the process went smoothly. I wanted to make sure that this was standard procedure and not just a benefit a reviewer would get so I called without identifying myself as such and left a message asking for both pricing information and technical support.
The technical department returned my call within a half-hour and the sales representative was in touch immediately as well. Both assured me that any purchaser would be able to get assistance with the installation. Bill Ger, the southern California sales representative even told me that it is his policy to visit the site and assist with the install himself. I told him that I would try to get the program running myself to see if the average user with a minimal amount of technical background could follow the directions and install the five separate components of the complete ELLIS system successfully right out of the box, but I'd be calling if I ran into any problems.
As of press time, I'm able to report that of the five components, I was able to successfully install three without any additional help following the clear instructions in the manual and in the subsequent setup screens. One program wouldn't let me enter any student names because it told me I couldn't create a file to copy student records and the other told me that it had committed a "fatal error."
This preliminary overview of the ELLIS system will, therefore, focus on the Instructor Utility component which is part of each section of ELLIS; "Placement", an intake program which assists the instructor in assigning new students to the proper level of the three instructional components; "Intro", the beginning instructional program and "Senior Mastery", the most advanced level of the three instructional programs. ELLIS "Middle Mastery" and "Pronunciation" and the "Learner's Response Books" (written exercise books accompanying the instructional programs) will be reviewed at a later date. I'll be able to report on the yet-to-be-tried promised technical assistance as well...
ELLIS presents itself as a complete integrated multimedia system boasting student placement, record keeping, interactivity, integrated video, pronunciation practice, grammar instruction and practice, student voice recording and playback capability, vocabulary practice, and cultural instruction.
My students (adult immigrant learners in an urban public school setting) were impressed immediately by the professional appearance of the visuals and the range of activities. I was thrilled to have an integrated placement test available. The placement test is correlated to the lessons in the three instructional levels and has reading, vocabulary, grammar and listening sections with individual scores in each category. I liked the "adaptive" nature of the placement test.
Starting as a midpoint of difficulty, subsequent questions will be easier or more difficult based on the number of correct answers in the preceding group. This makes for a more efficient test, as advanced students don't have to slog through a bunch of questions that are too easy and lower level students do not get overly frustrated attempting questions that are too difficult for them.
Other student comments about the instructional programs centered on the exposure to natural language. One student commented that she was happy to learn numerous expressions that she hadn't heard before and made a point of writing them down for future study. Several felt that the grammar explanations were made easier to understand because a video clip is available in each explanation to give an example of the grammar point in context. One student also liked the international flavor of the actors in the different roles and the varying accents heard in the video selections.
One component of the instructional program is a pronunciation guide (independent of ELLIS Pronunciation, a stand-alone program). Students can view and hear a male or female model voicing a particular sound or a diagrammatic representation of the oral cavity and the placement and movement of the tongue within the mouth. While they liked the basic idea, they felt the image and sound was presented too rapidly and they couldn't really get the full benefit of seeing the individual sound produced. In future trials we'll check to see if this can be remedied or if the speed in the pronunciation videos is a problem throughout the series.
The instructor utilities allow for a wide range of tracking statistics and additionally can be used to focus student work by restricting access to areas the instructor feels are suitable to that student's level. Student records can be stored on a network server, an individual workstation or on a personalized floppy disc depending on the needs of each server. Overall, students were excited about the opportunity for more instruction using the ELLIS programs. We'll be testing the instructional programs over a longer period of time, checking out the pronunciation program, looking for ease of use and student ability to maneuver within each program without extensive teacher input, and analyzing the accompanying written materials for appropriateness and correspondence with the CD's.