VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** ĐÌNH THỊ HỒNG VÂN AN EVALUATION OF THE APPLICATION OF PHONICS SOFTWARE IN AN ENGLISH COURSE FOR CHILDREN AT THINH QUANG PRIMARY SCHOOL Đánh giá việc ứng dụng phần mềm tiếng Anh Phonics đối với khóa học tiếng Anh của học sinh tại trường tiểu học Thịnh Quang M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi – 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** ĐÌNH THỊ HỒNG VÂN AN EVALUATION OF THE APPLICATION OF PHONICS SOFTWARE IN AN ENGLISH COURSE FOR CHILDREN AT THINH QUANG PRIMARY SCHOOL Đánh giá việc ứng dụng phần mềm tiếng Anh Phonics đối với khóa học tiếng Anh của học sinh tại trường tiểu học Thịnh Quang M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Phùng Hà Thanh, M. Ed Hanoi - 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENT Page Acceptance page i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of content iv List of abbreviations vi List of figures and tables vii PART I - INTRODUCTION 1.
Introduction and rationale for the study 1 2. Aims and objectives of the study 1 3. Scope of the study 2 5. Methods of the study 3 5.
Significance of the study 3 6. Organization of the study 4 PART II - DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5 1. CALL Models in Language teaching and learning 5 1. Motivation and the Young – Learner 6 1.
Definiton of Motivation 7 1. The Young-Learner 8 1. Instructional design and Motivation 9 1. Keller's ARCS Model 10 1.
Satisfaction 12 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Researches on ARCS 14 CHAPTER 2: THE DESIGN OF PHONICS AND AN OVERVIEW OF THE 16 USE OF PHONICS at THINH QUANG PRIMARY SCHOOL 2. The design of Phonics 16 2. Guided teaching techniques 19 2.
An overview of the use of Phonics at Thinh Quang primary school 20 2. The origin of Phonics 20 2. The context of Thinh Quang school 20 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 21 3. Participants of the study 22 3.
Data collection instrument 22 3. Data collection procedure 23 3. Data analysis 24 CHAPTER 4: RESULT FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS 26 4. Implications 39 PART III - CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 40 1.
Limitations of the research and suggestions for further study 40 REFERENCES 42 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS IT: Information Technology ICT: Information Communication Technology ARCS: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction CALL: Computer-assisted Language Learning ISD: Instructional System Design CIS: Course Interest Survey IMMS: Instructional Materials Motivation Survey LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS No Title Page Table 1 – 1 Summary of ARCS Components 13 Table 4 – 1 Frequencies of Participants Concerning their Ages 26 Table 4 - 2 Statistics of the ARCS Sub-Scores on IMMS 27 Table 4 - 3 Statistics for the “Attention” Sub-scores on the IMMS 28 Table 4 - 4 Statistics for the “Relevance” Sub-Scores on the IMMS 32 Table 4 - 5 Statistics for the “Confidence” Sub-Scores on the IMMS 35 Table 4 - 6 Statistics for the “Satisfaction” Sub-Scores on the IMMS 38 Chart 4 - 1 Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #7 29 Chart 4 - 2 Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #9 30 Chart 4 - 3 Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #18 31 Chart 4 - 4 Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #27 33 Chart 4 - 5 Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #5 34 Chart 4 - 6 Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #3 36 Chart 4 - 7 Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #6 37 Chart 4 - 8 Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #28 37 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART I - INTRODUCTION 1. Introduction and rationale of the study The 21st century has witnessed the rapid development of information technology and its impacts on every aspect of our social life in which education in general and foreign language teaching and learning in particular have been strongly affected. It can be said that ICT has been applied in many teachers‟ lectures to bring fun and interest to students in English classes. Ahead the trend of integration and development of technology, recognizing the benefit of ICT, at the beginning of the year 2009, Thinh Quang primary school started using Phonics – an English software - in English teaching and learning with the belief that Phonics would lay the foundation to improve English language learning among children and create the environment for children practice English from the early age.
It lies in the fact that Phonics is a newborn English program applied in some schools in Vietnam including Thinh Quang primary school. This program is also the novel practice of Phonics at Thinh Quang. It is partly for this deep-rooted reason that the researcher decided to conduct the study to the extent the application of Phonics software brings about children’s motivation. The researcher hold the belief that through the evaluation of the application of Phonics there would bring insights into the changes of teaching practices among teachers to better it, and basic premise for the administrators in considering using this software.
Specifically, the study is of: “An evaluation of the application of Phonics software in an English course for children at Thinh Quang primary school. Aims and objectives of the Study The study aims to evaluate the application of Phonics software based on the motivation created on the part of children in an English course at Thinh Quang primary school. Hence, it is expected to achieve the four following objectives: LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 First, to investigate whether Phonics holds children attention. Second, to find out the relevance of the application of Phonics to the children level.
Third, to investigate if the application of Phonics brings children‟s confidence in learning English at class. Last, to reveal children‟s satisfaction to the application of Phonics in the English course. Research questions In order to achieve the aims of the study, the following research questions were raised: (1) To what extent does Phonics hold children attention? (2) To what extent is the application relevant to the children? (3) To what extent does Phonics bring about children‟s confidence? (4) To what extent are the children satisfied with the application? 4. Scope of the Study The present study operates within the following scopes: (i) As constructed in the IT, “application” depends on both the users (in context of classroom, they are the teachers and the learners) and the instructional design.
The research is to evaluate the instructional design of the program. Purposely, it goes to evaluate the motivation due to the instructional design created on part of the children in an English course at Thinh Quang primary school. (ii) This study is a case study since the instructional design is restricted by the children. (iii) Regarding to the monitoring of the software, (Galavis, 1998) pointed out that „Instead of being a simple holder and provider of knowledge, the teacher will become the guide of students.‟ The teacher, in this case, does play the role as the guider who controls the software leading children through every activity without intervening the content of the software.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Methods of the Study Case study was chosen as a research method applying for this study. A questionnaire was used as a main instrument on 141 children of 4 classes including grade 1 and 2 at Thinh Quang primary school who have just finished the first level of the program – Phonics, i., level starter, to investigate whether the instructional design brings about motivation on children based on ARCS model of Keller (1993), including Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction. An interview is then conducted on some students for clarifying problems arising from the data.
Significance of the Study The research, first of all, would provide the researcher herself with further information to validate the new software for the children, to see whether it is a good one in term of the motivational factors positively affected through its instructional design. The second significance of the study is for the improvement of English teaching and learning at Thinh Quang primary school. The research is of great value for the teachers by providing them a deep overview from the extent that the instructional design brings about children‟s motivation. The teachers then would have better adapting in their teaching to better children‟s learning.
Last but not least significance of the study lies in the fact that it can bring the teachers, the students and the administrators the beliefs of using IT in language teaching and learning. The researcher hopes that it would bring them positive beliefs on the use of information technology in their class and school. Finally, the study then informs to the designers of the children‟s perception of their software. Accordingly, they would aware of the strong and weak points of their product.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Organization of the Study This study consists of three main parts: introduction, development, and conclusion. The introduction presents the rationale, the aims and objectives, research questions, scope, method, significance and design of the study. The development comprises three chapters: - Chapter one reviews the theoretical background to the application of CALL in English language teaching with the models of CALL, the relation between motivation and the young-learner, the relation between instructional design and motivation, the description of Keller‟s ARCS Model of Motivation and some prominent recent researches on ARCS of Keller.
- Chapter two details the setting of the study in which all the language items displayed in the software are specifically defined and the context of the study are also described. - Chapter three presents the methodology of the study. - Chapter four is where the data are presented, the findings come up with and the implications built upon the basis of the evaluation in the previous chapters. The conclusion, apart from summarizing the main issues so far touched upon in the study, proposes recommendation for future research.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 PART II – DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter reviews selected literature reflective the potential impact of instructional design on learner motivation. The chapter considers the popular models of CALL in language teaching and learning and then reviews the relationship between motivation and the young- learner. Next the chapter looks at the principles of instructional design system, including Keller’s ARCS Model of Motivation and its Motivation Instrumentation that support the theory of improving learner motivation. It then ends by summarizing some prominent ARCS researches laying the foundation for the present study.
CALL Models in Language teaching and learning According to Taylor (1980, cited in Warschaure (1996), the first model of CALL is computer as a tutor, adopting the role of the teacher. He explained that the computer serves as a vehicle for delivering instructional materials to the student. Many of the early CALL exercises were drill and practice activities, often focusing on accuracy and fluency.