| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 93 === The study tried to investigate whether the aid of an interactive multimedia CD-ROM would help Taiwanese junior high students improve their vocabulary acquisition, reading comprehension, grammar knowledge, and listening comprehension respectively. In addition, it explored subjects’ learning attitudes and responses to English vocabulary, reading, grammar, and listening learning before and after the project.
During an eighteen-week project of computer-assisted language learning, 142 eighth-graders in Chiao Hsi Junior High School in Yilan County were divided into two groups, CALL instruction group and the traditional instruction group. Two types questionnaires on attitudes were designed to collect related data on the study. Moreover, a comparison of English achievements of the students between the two different groups on vocabulary acquisition, reading comprehension, grammar knowledge, and listening comprehension was obtained after the project. Furthermore, through the questionnaires and the student English learning journals (SELJ), the subjects’ comments and suggestions on CALL instruction were sampled and translated from Chinese into English. Based on the data analyses, both quantitative and qualitative, the findings are summarized as follows:
1. There was no significant difference in vocabulary learning between the experimental group and the control group. The results also showed that the significant difference was not found between two different groups on the higher English achievers (HEA), but found on the lower English achievers (LEA). However, most students in the experimental group still addressed in their SELJ that CALL instruction inspired them to have more interest in learning English vocabulary.
2. There was a significant difference in the grades of the total students’ English reading comprehension test between the traditional instruction and CALL instruction group. At the same time, the significant difference was found between the two groups both on the LEA and the HEA. The findings indicated that CALL instruction had a better effect on students’ reading comprehension than the traditional instruction.
3. The experimental group performed significantly better than the control group in grammar knowledge tests on the instructional material. The results also showed that the significant difference was found between the two different groups on the HEA, but not found on the LEA. For most of the students, however, their English grammar abilities were significantly improved. Especially, the HEA addressed in their SELJ that they acquired the grammatical structures and knowledge with less effort but more fun in the application of CALL instruction.
4. The experimental group performed significantly better than the control group in listening comprehension tests on the instructional materials. Also, the findings of this present study clearly indicated that CALL was effective in teaching English listening aspect to the HEA. According to the student responses to this study, CALL motivated the HEA to improve English listening comprehension successfully. However, the significant difference was not found on the LEA between the two different instruction, but they were aware of an alternative way to improve their listening abilities.
5. The experimental group showed more positive attitudes and responses than the control group in English learning. After the researcher employed the two different instruction, there is a significant difference in the students’ English attitudes. Besides, from the statistical results of the SELJ entries, the effects of
CALL on Taiwanese junior high school students could be identified and verified again.
Based on the study findings, the researcher suggested that EFL teachers should apply CALL instruction to their teaching. Then, they could help their students improve English vocabulary acquisition, reading comprehension, grammar knowledge and listening comprehension in an easy and meaningful way.
|
|---|
