Language(s)

Japanese

Learner level

Advanced

Institution

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Leeds

Name(s)

Contact details

Objectives

The purpose of this project is to measure the effectiveness of interactive and multimedia computer-based materials for Japanese language students. I would carry out the experiment by comparing how much the students listening and understanding skills improved when using computer-based methods and how much they improved using conventional methods.

Implementation

First of all, I will create an interactive and multimedia computer-based materials. Then the experiment will be held. The class would be equally divided into two groups and they would learn the same topic but in two different situations. One is computer based learning method the other is conventional method. The conventional method, the students are given worksheets with the exercises together with the vocabulary sheets. Each students are provided a tape recorder and they would listen to the tape and answer the questions on the work sheets. They can play/rewind the tape as much as they want. The worksheets are collected at the end of the hour, will be marked by the instructor and will be returned in the class in the following week. In the computer-based method the students would watch the video on the computer and play/rewind etc by themselves. They would receive all their instructions and feedback from the computer immediately.

After they have spent an equal amount of time learning they would be asked to summarise the content and they would be given a written test in the following week. I would like to analyse the data and find out the advantages and disadvantages of using the computer based materials for language learning.

Outcome

The experimental group did not score better than the control group in post-test 1. (This test was done immediately after the learning session.) However, the experimental group scored noticeably better than the control group for post-test 2 which was held 2 weeks after the learning session.

If we take a look at the scores more closely, in the control group five students did considerably worse in the second test than in the first. However, in the experimental group the scores of only two students dropped.
In the course of the study I treated students who scored below 70 out of 100 as "weak" students and those who scored above 80 as "strong" students. For the experimental group, the scores achieved by all 4 of the weak students went up or remained the same in post-test 2 (compared to post-test 1). However, only 2 out of 3 weak students from the control group scored higher (or managed the same score) in post-test 2 compared to post-test 1.

2 out of 3 strong students in the experimental group scored lower in post-test 2 but in the control group 4 out of 4 strong students scored lower in post-test 2.

For vocabulary learning, there was a significant improvement in the experimental group. The experimental group's average score was much higher than the control group in the vocabulary section of post-test 2. The experimental group actually scored 14.3% higher than the control group.

Evaluation

(1) The results suggest that the multimedia CALL material did not necessarily make the language learner's listening comprehension better. (Although on this occasion the results might have been affected by the "novelty" of the students using multimedia CALL material. Also the results may have been different if there had been more interactivity in the CALL material.)

(2) The multimedia CALL material proved to be effective for weak students. I would suggest that the use of multimedia helps weak students to employ cognitive learning.

(3) The multimedia CALL material helped students retain information better. The multimedia CALL material seems to be particularly effective for vocabulary learning.

Project url

http://www.german.leeds.ac.uk/jimages/well/title.htm