In accordance with the syllabuse for the teaching and learning of listening and speaking syllabus, online tasks and assignments as well as materials were uploaded onto the Edmodo platform for students to practise at home. Based on the observations carried out on the changes that students made in class in relation to the frequency of interaction on the Edmodo environment revealed that students who were active in class tend to complete all tasks assigned on the Edmodo platform whereas those who did not login to Edmodo frequently were also students who were passive in class. However, there were also a number of students who were active in online learning but rather passive in class. Those students completed most of the tasks, took part in the discussions on Edmodo, and sent self-captured video clips for their speaking tasks. Nevertheless, they were rather silent in class.
A second questionnaire was given out at the end of the course with the aim of finding out the perceptions of students on the effectiveness of the Edmodo platform towards their listening and speaking skills. The data indicated that 76% (23 students) considered Edmodo a friendly- user online platform. 17% (5 students) had no opinion about the operation of this platform, and 6% (2 students) disagreed with this item. It could be concluded that Edmodo was applicable in teaching and learning of the lsitening and speaking skills as students did not have difficulty in exploring this online learning environment. The number of students having problem using Edmodo was insignificant. It might come from those who were absent in class in the first few weeks of the course and were not willing to share their problems.
The frequency of students who logged into the online course to learn was also verified.
The data collected showed a positive result. The frequencies categorised under; always, often
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and sometimes, recorded 7%, 63% and 27% repectively. However, 3% (1 student) reported that they never logged into Edmodo to practice the lsitening and speaking skills.
For the item in which students could practise listening more on the Edmodo platform, 70% (21 students) chose agree and strongly agree as their answers while 17% (5 students) had no idea, and 13% (4 students) disagreed with the item.
For speaking practice, 53% (16 students) selected agree and strongly agree that they could have more time to practise speaking on the Edmodo platform. 23% (7 students) had no idea; 20% (6 students) disagreed, and 3% (1 student) strongly disagreed. Likewise when asked about the opportunities to interact with friends and teachers on the Edmodo platform, 56% (17 students) gave a positive response, 27% (8 students) had no idea, 13% (4 students) disagreed while 3% (1 student) strongly disagreed. 54% (16 students) of the students also reported positively that is; strongly agree and agree regarding receiving feedback from teachers to improve their communication skills. 33% (10 students) do not have any idea, 13% (4 students) disagreed and no student showed any strong disagreement.
The item designed to find out students’ motivation for English communication on Edmodo, in total 43% (13 students) responded positively. However, 47% (14 students) had no idea, 7% (2 students) disagreed and 3% (1 student) strongly disagree that they felt more confident and comfortable to interact with others in English.
The results achieved through the classroom observation and the collected data confirmed a number of features that the study was hypothesized. The first hypothesis that students spent more time practising listening and speaking skills on Edmodo was proven with over 70% of students signing in Edmodo on a regular basis. Besides that, the percentage of students responding postively towards the increasing time for practising listening and speaking on Edmodo was also high at 70% and 53% respectively. Consequently, this might be able to alleviate the issue of limited time for classroom practice. ‘Practice makes perfect’; therefore, with more opportunities to practise these skills hopefully students’ communicative competence would be improved.
The second hypothesis about generating motivation for students in learning and interacting in English was proven. The following figure displays the results before and after the study about students’ assessment on their motivation. Figure 1 showed that not many students felt confident in their listening and speaking skills. Approximately 9 students or 30%
of them took the communication process confidently, while 53% lacked confidence, and five of them (17%) admitted having no confidence. After the 10 weeks proceeding online listening and speaking activities on Edmodo, there was a change in the attitudes of the students with the communication process. 43% of the number of students felt more confident to communicate with their friends and teachers in English, while 10% of the number of students had negative responses towards. Although this was only a slight difference, it is a good signal for utilizing Edmodo in enhancing students’ communication competence.
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Figure 1: Students’confidence improvement in English communication
The third hypothesis regarding the improvement of listening and speaking skills was confirmed through various means. Firstly, the classroom observation showed that students were more involved in the speaking activities in class, and also collaborated with other friends in groups. In addition, the assessment of the clips they were required to capture enacting scenarios or expressing their opinions showed that a number of students gradually made progress in their speaking skill. They could speak using longer sentences, making lesser grammatical and pronunciation errors in their talk and improving on their fluency as well as the intonation. Although it was not mentioned in the questionnaire, it was noticeable from the project that students were observed to be more confident and comfortable in their interaction with the teacher via this tool as they had time to prepare for their talk and avoided the fear of making mistakes or being judged in front of other people. It is also very likely that during one- on-one tutorial students were able to receive feedback from the teacher to improve their oral performance. Figure 2 shows the attitudes of students on the feedback they received from their
teacher to improve the oral performance.
Figure 2: Feedback received for improving oral performance
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The figure also shows the improvement in interaction between students and teachers. With online learning, the teacher could have more flexible time to view students’ assignments and gave them feedback at home. Although not all students made this progress, it is still worth the while to give due consideration to online learning. Besides, the result of students’ confidence improvement was also a significant factor indicating that progress is being made in their listening and speaking skills.
5.0 CONCLUSION
The findings from the study of the application of Edmodo in supplementing the listening and speaking class indicated positive signs. Besides developing the receptive skills of listening the Edmodo platform can serve as a supporting tool for productive skills of speaking too. The features of the Edmodo platform can be used to resolve the problems of English communication classes in the Mekong Delta such as; the limited time for practice in class, crowded classes leading to the lack of interaction between students-students and students-teachers, and lack of motivation for self-directed learning. It has succeeded in helping students who were introverts, or had strong obsession about loosing face and fear of failure. As a result, it can be utilised for different types of students at different levels of English. The crucial part for the success of the online learning environment is that teachers need to have clear instructions for students in advance about the operation of the platform together with a variety of tasks, resources and assignments to satisfy the needs of different students. The activities also must relate to the lessons that students have learned in class. The commitment of teachers as well as students also contribute to the learning progress.
Although the study showed a number of positive results, there were limitations in the carrying out this study. First, the number of students participating in the study is quite small, so the result of the study could not be used to make a general conclusion. Second, the context that the study was conducted may vary from others, for instance, students’ English levels of proficiency, students’ ICT competence, students’ learning autonomy, and size of the classrooms. The results might be different when it is applied in different contexts. In addition, this study is mainly based on the perceptions of students about their experiences in learning on the Edmodo platform together with the classroom observations of the teacher and informal assessments of their listening and speaking skills, which may not bring to the readers a firm view about the efficacy of the Edmodo application in improving students’ interaction in English.
It is essential to conduct further research with larger number of participants. Pretest and post test for both listening and speaking skills could also be conducted to measure the progress that students make in their learning. Besides that, further studies can also exploit other functions of Edmodo such as creating opportunities for students as well as for teachers to practice so that they can share resources and support others in their learning.
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An Investigation of Pronunciation Learning Strategies among EFL Students in a Tertiary Institution
Nuong. Cao1 and Truyen. Nguyen2
1Hoa Sen University, Vietnam nuong.caothienai@hoasen.edu.vn
2Hoa Sen University, Vietnam truyen.nguyenthuy@hoasen.edu.vn
Key words: Pronunciation, Learning strategies, EFL Students
ABSTRACT
Whilst many learners find pronunciation as one of the most difficult aspects of English to acquire, and need explicit help from teachers, pronunciation teaching still has low visibility in the curriculum and is sometimes considered being of very little importance in classroom. In view of the situation, the researchers conducted this study in an attempt to gain some preliminary insights on the students' pronunciation learning strategies and its implication to the teaching of English pronunciation as well. The main instrument used for collecting quantitative data was a structured survey questionnaire for the 120 first-year students at Hoa Sen University who had learnt English as a foreign language. The findings revealed that the majority of students used different pronunciation learning strategies, but they preferred to use memory strategies and they had a tendency to imitate their teachers’ model pronunciation in classroom. The data also showed that the students were not well aware of utilizing pronunciation learning strategies to practice pronouncing words outside classroom. The findings, therefore, justified the need for more effective pronunciation teaching approaches based on the analysis. Based on the findings, some suggestions on teaching approaches to improve the students’ overall pronunciation performance were proposed.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
English pronunciation learning and English pronunciation instruction are sometimes neglected in EFL classrooms in Vietnam context (Nguyen, N. H, 2013). According to Gilbert (2008), even if teachers are able to find time in class to address pronunciation, attention is usually
117 given to drills, which may lead to discouraging students. Also, psychological factors may make students lose their confidence and fear of making mistakes.
As observed, students and teachers at Hoa Sen University share the same problem. Most students addressed pronunciation as one language area causing difficulties for them. Despite their awareness of the importance of pronunciation learning, they do not know how to improve their English pronunciation effectively. In addition, the majority of teachers have agreed that pronunciation teaching seems to be the most challenging area, which causes their reluctance in teaching this area. In short, although both teachers and students see the value of pronunciation intelligibility in their language learning, it is problematic that many Vietnamese speakers can speak English, but only a few have intelligible English pronunciation (Nguyen, N. H, 2013). These common concerns are identified as a research gap instigating a need to conduct the study.
The study accordingly gains significance in some following aspects. Firstly, the study provides a thorough review of literature on theoretical issues of pronunciation learning strategies in language classrooms. Secondly, its results could reveal the pronunciation learning strategies used by students in the study. Based on the findings, the current pronunciation learning situation of the students could be diagnosed and some suggestions on teaching approaches to help enhance the students’ overall pronunciation performance are given.
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW