As the excerpt of the CING Sitemap (Figure 17) shows, the tool contains a structured hypertext and reflects in its content structure the semantic and pragmatic principles of content organization (Tergan, 2002) on which English grammar is built.
The hierarchy of the CING content begins with the main area topic title Tense/Aspect, which is followed by the content area titles (e.g., Continuous Forms, Perfect Forms), the second level of links (e.g., Continuous Basics, Preliminaries), and finally by the content pages (e.g., Simple vs. Continuous, Simple Past, Use of Perfect). While in Gerdes’ model of a hierarchical hypertext structure the different levels are already filled with information nodes, the CING’s levels are merely links, except for the bottom level (e.g., Use of Perfect) which contains the information pages with grammar information and exercise units. Although they lack content, these links represent vital steps on the way to more specific titles (e.g., Tense/Aspect -> Perfect Forms -> Present -> Present Perfect 1) in the content structure. Without understanding and following them correctly, learners might not reach the grammar content they actually require.
Figure 17: CING Sitemap on Tense/Aspect.
In addition to the Sitemap and its links to the program’s content structure, each content page is presented inside a frame surrounded by links that indicate the page’s location in the content structure (Figure 22, circled parts). These links connect each content page to others in the tool and can be distinguished into thematic links that identify the topic of the target page (e.g., Present Perfect 1), functional links naming the function of the target page (e.g., Bookmarks), or navigational links naming the navigational goal (e.g., Home) or the navigational direction (e.g., Back and Forward) (see Jacobs, 2004, p. 245). Most of the links in the CING are thematic links and name the topics of the target pages and the topic areas (e.g., Tense/Aspect, Perfect Forms).
The color strips directly above the content page contain links to Tense/Aspect, Perfect Forms, Present and Use of Perfect, Present Perfect 1 and Present Perfect 2, and as such interrelate the content pages to the content levels above them. The connection between the different types of content is established by the links under Top Links that relate the currently displayed content type (here Explanation) to the other presentation types (here Discovery and Exercises) of the same topic (Use of Perfect). If learners are selecting links without these aids in the hypertextual content the visited content may appear unstructured (c.f. Gerdes, 1997) which means that, despite the CING’s content link organization and hierarchical structure (see Figure 17), a learner might move outside them and the sequence of visited content might become unstructured.
Within any given navigational path, the Back and Forward buttons in the top frame offer “one-step navigation” to previously visited pages. Other content pages can be reached via the Sitemap link, the Content Menu, or previously established content links (bookmarks) via the View Bookmarks link. The History link provides a drop-down menu of the pages already visited during the current visit.
Overall, the CING presents what Tergan (2002, p. 103) calls a mixed or “hybrid” organizational structure of hypertext, allowing users to freely explore the hypertext content as well as guiding them by a hierarchical structure.
3.3.3 Hypertext usage in learning
In contrast to linear text, hypertext is considered to provide rapid access to information (Whalley, 1993), which can help learners reduce the cognitive costs (c.f. Rouet and Levonen, 1996) involved in searching for information in a book (e.g., by turning the pages). Language learning material is often distinguished into reference books and textbooks, and most hypermedia programs function more as a reference than a learning or teaching tool. Only if they contain underlying didactic structures and aims, such as the CING’s combination of Discovery, Explanation, and Exercise materials (see chapters 2 and 3 [“Theoretical aspects of second language acquisition”]), can they be considered instructional programs (see Kleinschroth, 1993).
Hypertexts entail a system of information units and links, which provides a complex interrelated system of content in contrast to the linear presentation in a book. This makes
(Tergan, 1997) within the hypertext information structure. It also enables the development of a kind of learning that is “concerned with linking, relating, structuring, restructuring, adding, collecting and adapting,” so that existing knowledge can be modified and new knowledge acquired via an active and explorative process of knowledge seeking (see McAleese, 1989, p.19). In this process, “one bit of information [can] trigger an association with another bit of information” (McAleese, 1989, p. 6), and readers will be able to decide independently which information to access and what sequence to follow, thereby creating “multiple texts” (of information) for the same topic via various exploration paths they took in the hypertext material (Spiro & Jehng, 1990, p. 160). Hypertext also supports different learner goals and strategies with the possibility of varying topical prioritization (Tergan & Zimmer, 1992). Every learning task enables the learner to explore different material and paths in the hypertext, which is thus often associated with a more explorative approach to learning (McAleese, 1989).
Many researchers have emphasized this potential of a hypertext to support self-guided and problem-oriented learning (Tergan, 1997) through the constructive processing of its material. Successful learning, however, only comes under certain conditions of high-level self-regulatory competence, learners’ well-defined goals, and explicit scaffolding support (Rouet, 1992; Jonassen, 1993; Jacobsen et al., 1995). Thus hypertext usage for learning is not successful per se, and there are challenges to be overcome before hypertext can lead to an improved learning situation. Learners’ goals play a crucial role here.