FEASIBILITY OF INCORPORATING AUDIO SUPPORT INTO ENGLISH COMPOSITION CAI FOR ADULT LEARNERS

THE PROPOSED RESEARCH FOCUSES ON A STUDY OF THE FEASIBILITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF AUGMENTING A COMPUTER-BASED INSTRUCT- IONAL PACKAGE IN ENGLISH COMPOSITION FOR ADULT LITERACY STUDENTS WITH AUDIO SUPPORT. THIS AUGMENTATION IS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE USE OF A UNIQUE COMPUTER-INTERFACABLE AUDIOTAPE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED BY MEMBERS OF THE PROPOSED PROJECT TEAM UNDER ANOTHER FEDERAL CONTRACT. THIS TECH- NOLOGY CURRENTLY EXISTS IN PROTOTYPE FORM, AND HAS BEEN TESTED SUCCESSFULLY WITH MILDLY HANDICAPPED HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF JOB-RELATED SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING. THE GOAL OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO ACCESS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THIS APPROACH IN THE ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE WRITING SKILLS BY ADULT LITERACY STUDENTS. SEVEN INTERRELATED TASKS WILL COMPRISE THE PROPOSED RESEARCHPLAN: (1) REVIEW THE LITERATURE; (2) DEFINE THE FORMAT AND CONTENT OF A COMPUTER-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL PACKAGE IN BASIC ENGLISH COMPOSITION FOR ADULT LITERACY STUDENTS; (3) SELECT AND DEVELOP A PROTOTYPE OF ONE COMPONENT OF THE INSTRUCT- IONAL PACKAGE; (4) PLAN AND CONDUCT A FIELD TEST OF THE PROTOTYPE IN AN ADULT LITERACY PROGRAM; (5) ANALYZE FIELD TEST AND PRODUCTION COST DATA; (6) DEVELOP GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE BALANCE OF THE PACKAGE; AND, (7) WRITE REPORTS.