TASK 2 : ARTICLE REVIEW

A.      The Chosen Article.

Title                     : ‘Using Online EFL Interaction to Increase 

                               Confidence, Motivation, and Ability’.

Journal                 : Educational Technology & Society Journal, Volume 14, 

                              No. 3, page 118-129

Authors’ name designation and background:

                       1) Wen-chi Vivian Wu 

                           (from Providence University, Taichung, Taiwan)

     2) Ling Ling Yen 

         (from National Central University, Taoyuan County, 

         Taiwan)

     3) Michael Marek 

         (from Wayne State College, Wayne, Nebraska, USA)

Retrieved on         : March 23, 2012

Retrieved from     : http://www.ifets.info/journals/14_3/10.pdf.

B.      Summary of the Chosen Article.

The aim of this research was to find out which elements of learning via videoconferencing most beneficially affect students’ motivation, confidence and ability in learning EFL (English as the Foreign Language).

The subjects of this research were 227 non-major EFL learners from the business school of a technical university in central Taiwan with roughly equal numbers of male and female students. The classes lasted for the entire academic year and they had participated in five videoconferences with the American researcher, an American native English speaker and during that timeline, the Taiwanese teacher scaffold and supported them until they became more independent in the interaction process. After each presentation, the subjects were required to talk with the American native English speaker or present on the topic discussed. 

The methodology used in this research was the questionnaire about students’ perception which it consisted four major sections based on Gardner and Lambert’s questionnaire (1972) with some questions added from six different topics which were (i) Intercultural learning (Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide, Shimizu, 2004), (ii) Learning English through different channels (Campell, 2004; Miyazoe & Anderson, 2009), (iii) Confidence in making foreign contacts (Cheung, 2001), (iv) Learning western culture (Muller-Hartmann, 2000), (v) Speaking English accurately, (vi) Understanding English conversation (Shamsudin & Nesi, 2006). The numbers of item asked in the questionnaire were altogether 34 items. The researchers used Likert-scale in their questionnaire which each question used a five-point scale – [1.00=“significantly reduced”], [2.00=”reduced”], [3.00=“no change”], [4.00=”increase”], and [5.00=”significantly increased”]. The survey questions were in bilingual (Chinese and English) in order to preserve similar meaning in both languages.

From this research, the researchers found out that videoconferencing gives positive result to the subjects’ motivation, confidence and ability. I is evident that more videoconferencing sessions improved the subject’s perceptions of their own motivation and confidence at a significant level. The students felt that their interaction with the American professor helped them to learn vocabulary and sentence structure which indirectly increase their English ability in a short time besides their enjoyment in the interactive classroom session which give impact on their motivation in learning and indirectly it succeed in increasing their perceived confidence and ability. In a nut shell, this research article has showed that the use of technology in EFL classes should integrate teacher scaffolding, interaction and active communication between the students and the native speaker of the target language, besides prepare a comfort environment for them to engage in the learning process because these elements of learning via videoconferencing do contribute in affecting students’ motivation, confidence and ability positively.

C.      My Feedback/Opinion/Reaction towards the Chosen Article.

This research really interests me because it shows the connection between the elements in learning EFL with students’ motivation, confidence and ability. In my opinion, this article can be very beneficial for the ESL and EFL scholars because it gives different view in making the ESL/EFL teaching and learning process a success.

This research can also be applied in Malaysia high institution and I think this strategy will surely attract university students’ interest in learning since they are going to be exposed to the native speaker of the foreign language and its culture using the technology. Using the actual native speaker of the foreign language can be both, meaningful and authentic learning to the students in which it will directly affect their motivation to learn and arouse their confidence in communicate or interact with the native speaker of the foreign language. Nevertheless, the most important thing is the effective interaction and teaching process between the native speaker, the local teacher and learners since it will lead to successful teaching and learning process. Therefore, we should not give prior attention to the technology but to the process of teaching and learning. This is supported by Miller (1992 in Doug Cronk and Sunah Cho, n.d) as he proposed ‘the importance of interaction between learners and the instructor because distance education is best defined not by the technology used for delivery but by the nature of interaction involved in the educational process’.

Therefore, I also agree with the idea of using the local teacher to give scaffolding to the students until they become more confident to take part in the communication process because through this way, they would not feel alien to the target language at first and hinder them from get to know the language and the culture. However, to implement it in Malaysian schools could be quite difficult since most Malaysian schools are not been equipped with this videoconferencing technology – poor internet line, inadequate teaching tools and infrastructures.

To conclude, this research is very useful for educational purpose but it will be more solid if the methodology includes interview session besides the questionnaire. It could not be denied that we still need human power to teach even when we use technology.

Work Cited

Doug Cronk and Sunah Cho. (n.d.). Developing Effective Interactive Learning Experiences for Online Distance Education Courses. Retrieved April 14, 2012, from https://www.google.com.my/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=Miller%2C+G.+(1992).+-+interactive+learning&oq=Miller%2C+G.+(1992).+-+interactive+learning&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_nf=1&gs_l=hp.3...5245.13003.3.13327.26.25.1.0.0.0.158.2384.17j8.27.0.dDgNScGWCR8&pbx=1&bav=on.2,

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