An Empirical Investigation of Whether Authentic Web Sites Facilitate Intermediate-level French Language Students’ Ability To Learn Culture

This investigation examined the effects of authentic Francophone web sites on cultural learning at the intermediate level. Fifty-four students “surfed” eight web sites. A pre-posttest design assessed long-term gains in culture and the learning of practices, products, and perspectives from exposure to a curriculum with Internet activities. Eight posttask tests measured the students’ ability to retain information and to make inferences. A questionnaire assessed perceptions of learning. Results indicated a significant gain in cultural knowledge with posttest scores significantly higher than pretest scores. Students learned significantly more products than practices over the semester. On the short-answer and free-recall portions of the posttask tests, students’ ability to make inferences or retain information did not improve significantly in either an advance organizer (AO) or a non-AO condition. The students believed that the web sites featured significantly more cultural products than practices. Results support using the Internet to teach culture and its potential to emphasize cultural products.