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,
(820 WORDS – exclude title for each
subtopic and the reference)
