VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** PHÙNG THỊ NGỌC HÀ AN EVALUATION OF APPROPRIATENESS OF APPLYING “LEARN TO SPEAK ENGLISH” SOFTWARE IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS FOR NON- ENGLISH MAJOR 1ST YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY Đánh giá sự phù hợp của việc áp dụng phần mềm „ Learn to Speak English‟ trong việc dạy kĩ năng nói cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên Tiếng Anh của trường Đại Học Kinh Doanh và Công Nghệ Hà Nội M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi – 2013 z VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** PHÙNG THỊ NGỌC HÀ AN EVALUATION OF APPROPRIATENESS OF APPLYING “LEARN TO SPEAK ENGLISH” SOFTWARE IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS FOR NON- ENGLISH MAJOR 1ST YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY Đánh giá sự phù hợp của việc áp dụng phần mềm „ Learn to Speak English‟ trong việc dạy kĩ năng nói cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên Tiếng Anh của trường Đại Học Kinh Doanh và Công Nghệ Hà Nội M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Đỗ Tuấn Minh, Dr. Hanoi-2013 z DECLARATION I hereby state that I, Phung Thi Ngoc Ha, K20D, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master‟s Thesis deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I worked on the Thesis on my own and used the sources of information listed in the references only. Signature Hanoi, October 2013 Phung Thi Ngoc Ha i z ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly and foremost, I would like to express my special words of thanks to my supervisor, Mr. Đỗ Tuấn Minh , Dr. for his constant encouragement, precious advice and especially for his valuable correction throughout this study.
There is no doubt that without his help, this thesis would be impossible to be accomplished. I also wish to express my deep gratitude to all teachers from Faculty of Post Graduate Studies giving lectures and advice that are of great help for me to complete this study. I am very grateful to all the teachers of English Division III and all of the students of three classes at Hanoi University of Business and Technology for their enthusiastic participation in the survey questionnaire and interview. Without their help, this thesis would not be able to be completed.
My thanks go to many writers whose important ideas and notions are exploited and developed in the study. Finally, I would like to send my deep gratitude to my family and all of my close friends who are always by my side to take care of and support me in the process of doing this thesis. ii z ABSTRACT With the development of Information and Technology Communication (ITC), computer- Assisted Instruction (CAI) has been brought into the classroom. CAI is a kind of instruction that exploits computer software to assist teachers to teach information or skills related to a particular topic, and students can interact directly with lessons programmed into the computer system.
Universities are also exploiting using many types of software to help develop students‟ English competence. Therefore, the research is aimed at evaluating the appropriateness of the software, known as “Learn to Speak English” (LTSE) in teaching English speaking skills as a supplementary material at Hanoi University of Business and Technology. And then give some suggestions for adaptation this software to bring the effectiveness on teaching and studying English speaking. From the result and discussion of this study, it can be concluded that this LTSE software is suitable as a supporting learning aid for students to improve their English speaking skills.
Students perceived this courseware as user-friendly and capable for enhancing the learning of the subject. However, they also hope for further improvements of the courseware. iii z TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study…………………………………………………….
Aims of the study………………………………………………………………1 3. Significance of the study …………………………………………………. Scope of the study ………………………………………………………. Design of the study…………………………………………………….3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Literature Review………………………………………………….
Software in Language Teaching and Learning……………………. Definition of software…………………………………………….2 Roles of teaching and learning software in general English courses. Definition of Speaking……………………………………………. Characteristics of Speaking…………………………………….
Teaching and Learning Speaking Skills with Software……. Reasons for Software Evaluation……………………………………………11 3. Types of Software Evaluation………………………. Software Evaluation Framework …………………….
Presentation and Organization of the Content……………………………. Evaluation of Learning ……………………………………………. Learn To Speak English Deluxe 10 software……………………………….1 Introduction of Learn To Speak English Deluxe 10 (LTSE) software…. Reasons to Choose Learn to Speak English…………………………………20 4.3 Learn To Speak English Deluxe 10‟s content……………………………….21 Chapter II: Research Methods…………………………………………………25 1.
Description of the LTSE course and its objectives at HUBT………. Description of the students at HUBT……………………………………. Description of English teachers at HUBT…………………………………. The Research Methods……………………………………………………….
The data collection methods ………………………………………………. Data analysis procedure…………………….28 Chapter III: Results and Discussion…………………………………………. Results of general information……………………………………………. Results of how students learn LTSE at HUBT…………………………….
Results of the LTSE’s content evaluation…………………………………. Results of presentation and organization of LTSE’s content……………. Interface design factor ………………………………………. Results of Learning and Preference toward the use of LTSE Software.
Recommendations for Courseware Improvements………………………. Summary of Major Findings……………………………………………….42 PART III: CONCULSION 1. Implications of the Findings……………………………………………. Limitations of the Study……………………………………………….
Suggestions for Further Research………………………………….………48 REFERENCES APPENDICES Appendix 1: LTSE‟s Vocabulary Part Appendix 2: LTSE‟s Communication Stories Appendix 3: LTSE‟s Grammatical Point Appendix 4: LTSE‟s Exercises Appendix 5: LTSE‟s Conversation Part Appendix 6: Questionnaire for Students Appendix 7: Interview Questions for Teachers Appendix 8: Transcription for the semi-structured group interview with teacher. v z LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS HUBT: Hanoi University of Business and Technology LTSE: “Learn to Speak English” ICT: Information and Communication Technology CAI: Computer- Assisted Instruction CALL: Computer-Assisted Language Learning CALM: Computer -Assisted Learning Material vi z LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Results of the LTSE‟s Content Evaluation Table 2: Results of Pedagogical factors of LTSE‟s content Table 3: Results of Interactivity of LTSE‟s content Table 4: Results of Navigation of LTSE‟s content Table 5: Results of Feedback of LTSE‟s content Table 6: Results of Feedback of LTSE‟s content Table 7: Results of Learning Evaluation vii z PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study For decades, English was taught in classrooms in which the teacher-centered method was applied. The teacher gave information, while students gained knowledge passively.
However, advanced technology has influenced on the educational method in classroom in which computer-based technology is mainly used to reinforce instruction and put the focus on the students in learning process. By incorporating technology in the classroom, the students can be beneficial in a number of ways: assisting students‟ understanding of concepts, enhancing students‟ motivation in exploring, investigating, conjecturing, creating and discovering principles, and making generalization and connections; engaging students involvement in the learning process and motivating them (Wertherimer, 1990). The advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought the concept of Computer- Assisted Instruction (CAI) into the classroom. CAI is a kind of instruction that exploits computer software to assist teachers to teach information or skills related to a particular topic, and students can interact directly with lessons programmed into the computer system (Roblyer, 2004).
There are many types of software that teachers can use to develop their own teaching software. Studies demonstrate that the Learn To Speak English software can be to help improve students‟ achievement in English in general and speaking skills in particular hence, to eradicate much English anxiety and fear of using computer software and speaking English. Aims of the study The purpose of this study is to evaluate the appropriateness of the software, known as “Learn to Speak English” (LTSE) in teaching speaking skills as a supplementary material at Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT) in order to find out conclusions and suggestions for using LTSE in the future. The objective is the evaluation of the software by the students and that of the teachers on its strength and weakness of the software.
Research questions All the above aims are carried out by answering the following research questions: 1. How do Ss learn speaking English with LTSE? 2. How do teachers teach speaking with LTSE? 3. To what extent does LTSE meet the needs of teachers and Ss in teaching and learning speaking? 4.
Significance of the study In evaluating the appropriateness of LTSE for 1st year non-English major students in learning speaking English and suggesting some solutions, it is hoped that the result of the study will somehow be used as reference to help students to learn speaking skills better with this software in the next semesters. In addition, the findings of the study will be a great use not only to the researcher but also to the teachers who are teaching LTSE software to students at HUBT. Furthermore, the findings of the thesis will form a foundation toward adapting effectively the software which is currently used for the students at HUBT. Scope of the study Firstly, although HUBT only apply to teach LTSE for students in the first year in order to improve their English in communication skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing), it is believed that LTSE can be continuously used as a reference resource for students after this course.
Due to the limitation of time and the narrow scale, the study only focuses on evaluating the strength and weakness of LTSE software in teaching English speaking skills for the 1st year non-English major students at HUBT from the perspectives of students and teachers. Then, this study will also give out some suggested solutions generated from the teachers in the interview for students to overcome those difficulties and improve their speaking skills. Secondly, in software evaluation, there have been a great number of criteria that should be taken into consideration such as: the content, the organization and presentation, the design factors, the pedagogical parameter, and so on. In this study, 2 z the researcher focuses on the following criteria: content, presentation and organization of the content, and students‟ learning.
Design of the study There are three main parts in this thesis: introduction, development and conclusion. The introduction provides the rationale, the aims, the scope, the significance, the research questions and the design of the study. The development consists of three chapters: Chapter 1 presents a review of literature concentrating on the issues related to software in language teaching and learning, speaking skills, software evaluation. It discusses the definition of software, the roles and types of software evaluation in language teaching and learning, the definition and characteristics of speaking, teaching and learning speaking with the help of software and present major issues in software evaluation including purposes for software evaluation, types of software evaluation, and software evaluation framework.
Finally is an introduction of LTSE Deluxe 10‟s content. Chapter 2 focuses on the methodology employed in this thesis including an overview of current English teaching and learning at HUBT, research methodology, an the data collection procedures Chapter 3 discusses the findings of the study; points out the strengths, weaknesses of the courseware, and suggests the recommendations for the courseware improvement. The conclusion provides a brief summary of all the major parts being presented in the study, the conclusions drawn out and suggestions for further research. 3 z PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Literature Review 1.
Software in Language Teaching and Learning Computers are becoming more and more common, and in an increasingly diverse number of applications. They are used in all aspects of life such as schools, hospitals, military, offices, banks, airplanes and so on. Therefore, computer is considered as a tool to improve the quality of teaching and learning.