EFL Learners’ Perspectives of Using Moodle in an English Course: A Case Study

• Main Authors: Lin, Yi-Jui, 林易叡
• Other Authors: Huang, Hsin-Chou
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/932422

碩士 === 國立臺灣海洋大學 === 應用英語研究所 === 102 === With the advent of the Internet, instruction is no longer restricted to the traditional face-to-face mode. Nowadays, there has been a trend of integrating computers into language learning and technology-enhanced learning environments contribute to better learning effects. Hence, integrating the Internet into teaching has turned into one of the popular teaching methods in the academic world, and using course management systems (CMSs) is one of them. Most studies on CMSs investigate L1 students’ perspectives; relatively few studies center on EFL students’ perspectives. This study aims to examine the perspectives of Taiwanese college students toward an English course using a course management system (Moodle), and examine whether students with different genders have different perspectives toward integrating Moodle into an English course. The participants were 63 freshman college students in a national university in northern Taiwan. The experiment lasted four months and was conducted in a freshman English class in which students met two hours per week. Four articles, each of which was the reading materials of the study, were adopted in the study. These reading materials were all delivered and taught by using every module on Moodle. These functions of each module included (1) Topic/Week Summaries, (2) News Forum, (3) Online Submission of Assignments, (4) Chat Room, (5) Discussion, (6) Web-based Delivery of Examinations, (7) Grade Book, (8) Database, and (9) Glossary. Finally, two questionnaires, background questionnaire (BQ) and questionnaire for college EFL students’ CMS usage and perspectives (CMSUP), together with face-to-face interviews were collected and used to analyze the results. Results of this study showed that students overall provided positive perspectives on the use of Moodle in terms of usability, functionality, learning effects, and overall comments. In terms of the aspect of usability, Moodle was the suitable place for instructors to place handouts received the highest positive feedback. With regard to the aspect of functionality, students’ three favorite modules were grade book, news forum, and online test. However, only the module of chat room received negative feedback. About the aspect of learning effects, Moodle enabled students to have better control over their language learning. Regarding the aspect of overall comments, students unanimously agreed that Moodle was a helpful resource for English learning. Then, no gender differences were found in this study. Possible explanations might be that (1) all participants were either same majors or from similar departments; and (2) gender differences might become negligible because of burgeoning technology. Findings of this study bear pedagogical implications. First, students’ favorite modules, such as grade book, news forum, and online test, need to be utilized more frequently in classes. Second, gender difference in this study does not seem to be a major issue of designing the course. Third, students’ suggestions, such as removing the unnecessary modules, stabilizing the system of Moodle, using both Chinese and English on Moodle, and emphasizing the upcoming events should be taken into consideration in the future use of Moodle. Fourth, for program developers of Moodle, the module of chat room should be integrated with some popular online communicative tools, such as Facebook, Whatsapp, and LINE.