The Design of an Affective Tutoring System Based on the Perspective of Language Learning Anxiety

• Main Authors: Ching-Ju CHAO, 趙靖如
• Other Authors: Hao-Chiang Koong LIN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/79853y

博士 === 國立臺南大學 === 數位學習科技學系碩博士班 === 103 === Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has a long-standing history. Be it an instructional tool, a learning tool, a tutor, or a communication medium, computer uses its multimedia technologies which integrate texts, images, and sounds to help teachers present more diverse teaching content, arouse students’ motivation to study, and create more diverse patterns and methods for language learning. In this study, an affective tutoring system (ATS) is designed from the perspective of foreign language learning anxiety. In combination with digital teaching materials for entry-level Japanese language, the affective tutoring system is introduced to course lectures with the purpose of exploring how to let learners study Japanese in a less stressful scenario, reduce learners’ learning anxiety, enable learners to keep positive emotions in course of learning, enhance learners’ motivation to learn, and improve learning results. In this study, design based research is employed in a cycle of analysis, design, implementation, evaluation, and redesign to factor in real teaching situations, what teachers need in teaching activities, and what students need in the course of learning. Results of experiments are examined from multiple perspectives objectively to find out whether digital learning technologies facilitate students’ learning results and learning attitudes. Further, how to use digital learning technologies to change the learning environment and atmosphere in a classroom is explored from the perspective of front-line teachers. At the analytical stage, theories such as the affective filter hypothesis proposed by Krashen(1983) and many foreign language learners’ learning anxiety proposed by Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope(1986) are used as this study’s theoretical foundations to hand out a Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) questionnaire to 218 students of an institute of technology in southern Taiwan. In doing so, this study aims to analyze students’ foreign language learning anxiety in actual course teaching scenarios and formulate a plan to introduce the affective tutoring system to Japanese language learning as well as strategies which reduce learning anxiety and improve learning results. In the design and implementation stage, interim research results (at the evaluation stage) which correspond to results of implementation is put forward to provide a point of reference for designs and modifications at the next stage. This study is made up of three cycles of the introduction of the affective tutoring system to course teaching and modifications to the affective tutoring system. According to results of experiments such as the system usage scale, observations of actual course teaching scenarios, and student interviews and feedback, the affective tutoring systems designed by this study and the number of participants are as follows: 35 participants in the first generation PC ATS-JP (standalone version), 67 participants in the second generation Tablet ATS (v.2014), and 42 participants in the third generation Tablet ATS (v.2015). Finally, this study discusses technology-aided language learning and proposes suggestions to future studies.