An Experimental Study on Situated and Dynamic Learning Assessment (SDLA) Environment

The current supplementary web based English learning in Taiwan provides online learning resources and gives assessments at the end of each lesson to evaluate learners' online learning results. Based on the testing results, instructors may adjust their in-class instructional method to focus on the students' weaknesses. For the average classroom size of 40 students with one instructor, it is extremely difficult to provide individual learning content for each learner's needs because each student has his or her own weaknesses. This study conducted the situated environment with Vygotsky's dynamic assessment theory to test learner's learning achievements and satisfactions as compared to the current web learning environment. The study finds that when both groups of Taiwanese students used Internet based learning, those that utilized the situated and dynamic learning assessment environment showed a statistically significant higher achievement score than those using only the current online learning environment (p < .01). In addition, learners in the SDLA environment had statistically significant higher satisfaction scores than those in the current web learning environment

An investigation of Wikipedia translation as an additive pedagogy for Oshikwanyama first language learning

The integration of Information and Communication Technology in the indigenous language classroom lags behind compared to other subjects. In many ways, indigenous language teachers find it difficult and to some extent, impossible to integrate ICT into their classroom activities. The focus of this study is to explore the ways in which ICT could be used as a learning tool in an Oshikwanyama First Language classroom. I investigated the use of Wikipedia translation as an additional teaching and learning tool. I concentrated on the impact that ICT tools have on learning, and the motivation it has on learners to learn Oshikwanyama. This qualitative case study was conducted in an urban school in northern Namibia. The adoption of ICT at the school is good as there is a full-fledged computer lab with unlimited wireless internet access. This was a requirement for the project to enable the participants to work online. I purposefully chose higher-level learners (Secondary phase) for this study. I conducted a survey with them on their access to and use of ICT devices in their daily lives, and thereafter conducted a basic computer workshop and a Wikipedia translation project with them. My research findings show that although the use of ICT is part of the learners’ lives, most of the communication through ICT devices is done in English not Oshikwanyama. Wikipedia translation offers a stimulating learning platform for learners to learn Oshikwanyama and English at the same time and this improved their performance in both languages. Furthermore, the Wikipedia translation, which was done collaboratively, gave learners the confidence to work with other learners to create knowledge. Lastly, Wikipedia translation motivates learners to learn Oshikwanyama and use it in their daily ICT interaction

Development of a unique instructional paradigm for teaching English as a foreign language in Korea: an examination of its effectiveness

The native language of South Korea has come to contain a linguistic subset consisting of English and European loanwords and pseudo-loanwords. The notion that the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learner is immersed in such a lexicon, and that this terminology can be utilized to effectively assist target language (Standard American English) vocabulary acquisition by the false-beginner through Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), was evaluated and examined. The empirical investigation employed a within-methods (i.e. experiment and survey) design. To this end, the researcher developed and deployed multimedia-based learning environments to empirically test research suppositions. In particular, to examine how the student’s knowledge of English words adapted for use in the South Korean vernacular – loanwords – is affected by their attitudes towards computerized instruction, their preference for certain methods of learning and teaching, and also by the attributes of computerized instructional packages. Ultimately, a method of instruction grounded in both CALL and linguistic theory was developed and its effectiveness for use with South Korean EFL learners in a university English program setting assayed. Scholarly accounts of the South Korean cultural learning style were also taken into consideration, and the implications such accounts hold for the implementation of CALL initiatives scrutinized.The findings of this study are significant at the administrative, practitioner, and field level. Research outcomes indicate (a) computer use did not bias results obtained through CALL: (b) use of the L1 (first language) to assist foreign language acquisition produced positive learning gains, albeit marginal and limited, as evidenced by the persistent difficulty learners had in building new form-meaning connections between pseudo-loanwords in South Korean and English-equivalents; and, (c) multimedia-based learning developed on cultural and classroom expectations of learners, as found in the literature, was not as successful as that it was contrasted against. Consequently, results of the research come to support usability of CALL in the tertiary education sector, the existence of a ‘stabilized interlanguage’ on the South Korean peninsula and the need to re-profile the South Korean cultural learning style and student classroom expectations that pertain to EFL