An evaluation of the application of the courseware learn to speak english deluxe 10 in language lab for the first year non major of english students at hanoi university of business and technology

INTRODUCTION

Rationale of the study

For decades, English was taught in classrooms in which the teacher-centered method was applied The teacher gave information, while students gained knowledge passively However, advanced technology has influenced the educational methods in classroom in which computer-based technology is mainly used to reinforce instruction and put the focus on the students in their learning process Learners can use some English learning materials easily if they are equipped with a device from very simple ones as their mobile phone, a radio, a cassette, etc to a more advanced one as laptops, ipads And they can learn English anytime, anywhere whenever they have time because learning English does bring pleasure and interests besides leaving great impact on learner‟s listening skill improvement

Among those conveniences, computer technology can be regarded as an educational tool supporting language teaching In fact, a wide range of electronic technologies have been developed to supplement second language teaching and learning (Bas &

Kuzucu, 2009; Warschauer, 1996) These technologies include hardware delivery methods such as audiotape recorders, videotape recorders, computers and the Internet In addition, there are many innovative electronic tools that support language learning such as speech production and recognition, text analysis, text translation, and software for visualization and animation, electronic mail, list serve discussion groups, streaming audio and video and real-time synchronous as well as asynchronous communication opportunities that bring the target language environment to the learner (LeLoup & Porterio, 1997)

One of the recent educational methods for language teaching, more specifically English Language teaching, is called the Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) method which is combining with face to face classroom instruction to form a new Blended Learning model Learn To Speak English Deluxe 10 is one of those advanced technology in language teaching and learning At Ha Noi University of Business and Technology (HUBT) after two years of experiment, the application of

Learn To Speak English Deluxe 10 Courseware has caused a controversy over its effectiveness among teachers and students Hence, this research is done to explore to what extent this software meets teachers and students‟ needs in teaching and learning as well as to reveal the benefits and challenges in applying LTSE so as to find ways to improve the course.

Aim of the study and research questions

The major aims of the study are:

- To evaluate the courseware Learn To Speak English Deluxe 10 used at Hanoi University of Business and Technology in terms of content as well as the presentation and organization of its content

- To propose some recommendations for administrators and English teachers to fully exploit and better apply the program supporting students in language learning for expected results

In light of the goals of the study, the following research questions are made:

1 To what extent does LTSE meet teachers and students’ needs in teaching and learning in terms of content as well as the presentation and organization of its content?

2 What improvements can be recommended to make the use of the LTSE courseware more effective?

Scope of the study

This study tried to find out teachers and students‟ evaluation of the Learn To Speak English Courseware in terms of these criteria: content and the presentation and organization of its content This kind of information was collected through questionnaires and interview

Due to the limited scope of a minor thesis, research subjects are primarily confined to ten English teachers who have been working with the courseware for two years and 100 random students who are learning at eight different classes of Accounting, Banking, and Finance.

Significance of the study

Firstly, the study serves as a reference source for HUBT administrators and English teaching staffs who are directly involved in Learn to Speak English program and administrators as well as for students who are beneficiaries of the program They will be made aware of both the benefits and challenges in the application of Learn to Speak English and thus promote the quality & effectiveness of the program

Secondly, based on the results of the study, some changes or improvements in the use of the courseware in the teaching/learning process may be made accordingly in order to serve best the goals of the English Department set for the teachers and students in the first school year

Thirdly, it would make a contribution to the research area in the field of computer assisted learning as well as relating to the application of language learning software

Finally, the thesis would also be helpful for those who share similar concern with the researcher.

Design of the study

This study consists of three parts:

Part I: Introduction This part supplies an overview of the study with specific reference to the rationale, the aims, and the design

Part II: Development In this part, three chapters are presented

Chapter one: Theoretical Framework This chapter deals with an exploration of the theoretical background of the research It concerns with the issues relevant to the topic of the research: Computer Assisted Language Learning, Criteria for evaluating language learning software, the software that has been used at HUBT,

Learn to Speak English program

Chapter two: Methodology and data analysis Methodology presents the background information of the subjects of the study, the instrument used to collect data, the procedure of data collection

Chapter three: Results and Discussion In this chapter, the data is analyzed in detail and a thorough discussion of the findings of the study is made Some explanations and interpretations of the findings are also present in this chapter

Part III: Conclusion In this part, the limitations and some recommendations for further research are explored.

DEVELOPMENT

Computer assisted language learning (CALL)

According to Kocak (1997) CALL is “a term used by teachers and students to describe the use of computers as part of a language course” Hardisty & Windeatt

(1989) give a more detailed definition that CALL is traditionally considered as a method of 'presenting, reinforcing and testing' particular language items in which the learner is first presented with a rule and some examples, and then answers a series of questions which test her/his knowledge of the rule and the computer gives appropriate feedback and awards a mark which may be stored for later inspection for the teacher and reference for the learner

1.2 Impacts of CALL on language learning and teaching

In fact, CALL has a lot of effects on language learning in term of methods, context and language knowledge acquisition Higgins (1995) indicates that the value of CALL is that it allows a richer form of language exploration and the use of computers is compatible with a variety of approaches, methods and techniques This gives teachers much flexibility in their teaching practice According to Kramsch and Andersen (1999) multimedia technology can provide authentic cultural contexts that are important for language learning In other words it creates a supportive learning environment Kocak‟s (1997) study investigates the effectiveness of CALL on vocabulary learning and teaching and draws a conclusion that “computer instruction may offer a noteworthy experience to students with respect to vocabulary learning”

Besides, CALL considerably influences the development of language skills As some researchers who advocated CALL programs, especially voice-interactive, say that CALL can improve learners' speaking skills Moreover, computer technology in providing goal-directed writing courses tailored to different learning styles So, making complete use of CALL to develop integrative language skills is truly valuable in language teaching and learning

However, working with the computer, as any other teaching aid, needs to be linked with ordinary classroom work and CALL lessons, like other lessons, need to be planned carefully because Jones & Fortescue (1987) warns that the computer is a resource and not a programmed-learning machine

The diagram shows how various processors in the brain communicate with the working memory, which is instrumental in the learning process The multiple processors such as the visual, auditory, conceptual and many others are involved and can be activated in well-designed activities In addition, these processors work in parallel in the unconscious process and interact with the working memory and long term memory to interpreted language In fact, when languages are repeated many times, neurons are connected, and then create automaticity Making use of this working process of the brain, people create a new model of language learning naming Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) CALL can simultaneously activate auditory, phonological, and visual systems in the brain

Lance Knowles (2004) states that CALL is an emerging force in language education and affirms that “CALL is now moving toward a blended model where the computer provides the necessary optimal input and practice activities, and the

Conceptual Buffer classroom provides the human element accommodating and utilizing the needs and lives of the learners in a social context” Besides, he shows the different but essential roles of “both multimedia and classroom activities” Without the effective practice provided by well-designed, media-rich courseware, language learning is slow, painful and discouraging However, without social environment of classroom, learning is tedious, unmotivating, and too restrictive to meet the learners‟ needs

Moreover, he argues that learners‟ practice should be assisted by teachers who point out practice strategies and materials so that students practice English more effectively.

Criteria for evaluating language learning software

Hubbard (1988) develops an integrated framework for CALL courseware evaluation Its approach is different from others and requires some introduction It is an integrated description of the components of CALL materials with respect to a particular goal- evaluation This framework helps an evaluator create his or her own questions or develop some other evaluation scheme instead of asking specific questions

Rather than asking a specific set of questions, a framework provide the tool through which an evaluator can create on his or her own questions or develop some other evaluation scheme He also gives four principles when using the framework

- Principle 1: the evaluation framework should be linked to a general framework for language teaching methodology In other words, it should build as much as possible on existing views of how to analyze the effectiveness of the language process

- Principle 2: the evaluation framework should contain a wide range of methods, teachers, learners, and syllabus goals It should be flexible and non-

- Principle 3: the evaluation framework should be connected with frameworks for courseware development and implementation in terms of form and terminology That is, the evaluation process should not be secluded from the process of developing and using courseware, but comprise just one module of a comprehensive methodological framework for CALL

- Principle 4: the evaluation framework should express dependencies among different components of CALL Apparently these components interact in non- linear ways Therefore, the framework should be designed in order that the evaluation process should not operate exclusively in a linear manner

The researcher considers these principles to be of great significance in courseware evaluation and should be applied widely and seriously It should be noted that this framework is built on a view of the language teaching/learning process proposed by Richards and Rogers (1986) They think that when analyzing any method of language teaching method, there are three levels to consider: approach, design, and procedure Basically, approach represents the method‟s assumptions about the nature of language and language learning; design represents the realization of those assumptions in terms of curricular goals, learning tasks, and the roles of learner, teacher, and materials; and procedure represents the implementation of those goals through specific learning and practice activities This point of view remains important in Hubbard (1988)‟s framework However, some modifications have been made Because the Richards and Rogers framework is designed to analyze whole methods rather than individual pieces of courseware, some significant liberties have been taken to accommodate the rather different goals of courseware evaluation Following is Hubbard (1988)‟s integrated framework for CALL courseware evaluation

Hubbard’s integrated framework for CALL software evaluation

Based on the work of Hubbard (1987, 1988), Burston (2003) suggest a frame work with four parameters which could be used as a basic guide to software evaluation: technical features, activities (procedures), teacher fit (approach), and learner fit (design)

1 simplicity of installation (adequacy of instructions, trouble free, easy to uninstall),

2 speed of program operation (where are the delays: at start up, loading videos, web page loading?),

3 reliability of operation (crashes and stalls),

4 platform compatibility (PC/Macintosh, operating system, Web browser versions),

5 screen management (esthetics, navigational transparency),

6 user interface (ease of use, operational consistency, online help), and

7 exploitation of computer potential (effective use of sound, video, speech recognition, speech synthesis, intelligent response handling, student record keeping, adaptability based on user profiles, links to www)

Just like technological features, program activities are relatively straightforward to deal with It is all about finding out what students actually do when using the program and how good the activities are The results should be made to be relative to activity type For instance, using grammar exercises may be opposed by some teachers but in evaluating such exercises, it cannot be denied that they are useful

The quality of exercises has to be judged relative to their instructional purpose (The appropriateness of activities, which is another issue depending on the teacher‟s particular curricula objects, will be dealt later in Teacher Fit parameter) Broadly speaking, activities can be classified into three major types:

1 instructional (tutorials, drills, text reconstruction),

2 collaborative (games, simulations, discussion forums, peer group writing), and

3 facilitative (dictionary, database, verb conjugator, spell/grammar checker, authoring system)

Obvious activity features to consider are:

1 linguistic focus (discourse, syntax, lexis, morphology, spelling, pronunciation),

2 language skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking),

3 sociolinguistic focus (information gathering/authentic tasks), and

4 supplementary/complementary/central relationship to the curriculum

The assessment of teacher fit (approach) requires looking at the theoretical base of student activities; judging how well they follow accepted theories of cognitive development, second language acquisition, and classroom methodology; and determining how closely they fit the teacher's curricular objectives Doing this, teachers can show their rejection to the activities of the software program for not according with collaborative objectives

Linguistic accuracy (e.g., grammaticality, authenticity, typos, etc.) and the appropriateness of sociocultural representations (e.g., stereotypes or gender bias) also reflect the how well pedagogical objectives of the program are met

Teacher fit is the parameter that determines the pedagogical appropriateness of the program; therefore considered to be the most critical one of software evaluation

Even though a program is rich in activities or technically brilliant, it is useless if does not help to fulfill teacher‟s curricular objectives Determining teacher fit is the most difficult partly because the theoretical/methodological assumptions inside the program are not always stated by software developers, and assessors have to make implication On the other hand, software producers label their products basing on favored methodological approaches (e.g., communicative, learner-centered, constructivist, and experiential) rather than paying attention to the truth of the matter In addition, some foreign language teachers may not have adequate formal training (e.g., in cognitive psychology, applied linguistics, or language teaching methodology) required to make decisions about theoretical considerations

The step of assessing learner fit (design) involves defining the potential user of the software program in which teachers play an essential role Other factors such as which the program is appropriate to or can be adapted to, the needs for students are also determined by them Learner fit is affected by the following:

2 response handling (error correction, feedback),

3 adaptation to individual learner differences (age, interests),

4 learning styles (recognition, recall, comprehension, experiential learning),

5 learning strategies (field-dependent/field-independent learning, deductive/inductive reasoning, visual-graphic/visual-textual learning, individual/group work),

6 learner control (sequencing, content, operating parameters), and

7 design flexibility/modifiability by instructor

Burston (2003) also suggests that the easiest way to select software is to select bundled software: “an integrated software/textbook package” because “the content is age and language-learning level appropriate, the methodology is sound, and total curricular investigation is assured” (p.36) His framework is of great significance in the assessment of the application of a language learning courseware

2.3 Criteria suggested by Lê and Lê

As cited in Quynh Lê and Thao Lê (2007), software is looked at in different aspects

It can be seen as a tool, an instructor, a facilitator of learning, and a virtual class In the context of NDE, a virtual class may be the best comparison because the students self-study in the virtual environment with the help of the teacher These authors take into account the following factors of educational software evaluation:

- Flexibility: A courseware should be flexible enough to serve up learners‟ learning styles and interests when they negotiate through their learning and to allow the learners to learn at their own pace

The software that has been used at HUBT

Responding to the development in computer technology as well as teaching and learning English, the administrators of HUBT decided to apply The DynEd in 2012

This software provided both advantages and disadvantages

3.1 Over view of Dyned New Dynamic English is introduced for first year students of all majors and it started to be used in 2012 Dyned (Dynamic English) is a useful language learning computer software DynEd's research-based courses provide chances to learn English from kids in school to adults in leading corporations DynED courses are supported by Records Management System, Mastery and Placement tests

DynED is a four-level introductory program which is presented from elementary to upper intermediate learners It focuses on building the receptive skill of listening and the productive speaking skill that are essential for basic English communication Lessons are subject based that relate to students' lives at the college level Topics vary from daily routine to social issues In each lesson of Dyned, there are six main parts: the presentation, the speech recognition, review, video interaction, dictation, matrix vocabulary lesson

Due to the limitation of a minor thesis, the researchers used the studies of some other researchers to make conclusion about the benefits and the disadvantages of applying this program at HUBT as follow

3.2.1 Advantages in the application of NDE at HUBT

The benefit of NDE at HUBT has been investigated by many researchers, thus in this minor thesis, the researcher refer to some benefits that were conducted in some

In the study of Mai (2011), she found out that there are three outstanding advantages of applying NDE in HUBT First of all, it is the oral skills development for learner that it offered According to her study, the number of investigated students approved that NDE helped them improve their oral skills accounts for 82%

Secondly, she also found that NDE also helps to develop communication skills and creates a relaxing environment to learn English The topics presented in NDE reflect real world activities from greeting, families, and jobs to the current social issues like environmental pollution, diseases and wars Finally, she pointed out that the assistance of modern technology is the third benefit of using NDE It is true that the language rooms are equipped with multimedia facilities like projectors, megaphones, computers which are connected to the internet, to create good conditions for language learning These conditions make NDE learning in particular and English studying in general easier

From the data analysis and discussions of Chu (2014), she found that this software provided some benefits for learners with suitable aim of the course because the courseware successfully met the course requirements in developing language skills, especially speaking and listening It also consolidates the students‟ basic grammar due to adequate grammatical structures and exercises It also provides students with sufficient amount of vocabulary necessary for daily communication in English at a basic level In addition, with regard to content, the courseware provides appropriate content for students to learn in some aspects including adequate amount of language skills, functional language and grammatical points Many common topics in communicative situations such as daily activities, families and jobs, etc are also presented Vocabulary is provided through specific situation and conversation in each lesson with the participation of familiar characters (Max, Kathy, etc.) Finally, teaching – learning techniques presented in activities quite satisfy teachers and students There are good interaction between teachers and students, between students and among students throughout modules in the courseware

3.2.2 Problems in the application of NDE at HUBT

In Mai (2011)‟s research, the problems lies in the working schedule The time allocation for each module is insufficient for students to acquire the skills and create automaticity In addition, the heavy workload for each lesson disheartened students a lot and made teachers feel puzzled to deliver such huge work It seems that too much work in a lesson makes both teachers and students tired and demotivated The next problem is that the supplementary materials are not suitable They are badly designed and not compatible with NDE’ content which needs extending and personalizing In practice, some of these materials were too difficult for some learners but were too boring to motivate other students Moreover, the written skills have not been developed much Both teachers and students had the same idea about this problem The results conflict with the claim of this program that it develops integrated skills

Shared the same idea with Mai (2011), Chu (2014) also found out in her study that the proportion of four macro language skills is not really equal Speaking and listening skills are designed with more exercises and given more practicing time than reading and writing skills In her work, Chu (2014) figured out that in terms of exercises, the courseware does not provide a variety of tasks in grammar and writing for students to revise some difficult language points

From the researchers‟ viewpoint, as being taken part in teaching NDE for students at HUBT, beside the above disadvantages mentioned by the two researchers, I found that the technical issues also caused problems The students‟ result in learning was affected a lot by the technical issues because they have to record their voice a lot when using this program In addition, this software needs the internet connection all the time Without the internet connection, students can‟t record their performance.

Learn to Speak English program

LTSE is one of learning software in the flagship Learn to Speak™ Deluxe product line, produced by eLanguage, LLC - a Northern California-based developer of language learning software

Unlike most language software programs, Learn to Speak English teaches the language from the ground up It not only immerses the user in the language, but it provides extensive grammar lessons as well Each lesson contains a vocabulary list, story, dialogue, grammar topic, conversation, and exercises Also included are fun games to break the monotony while strengthening and reinforcing learning Speech recognition technology allows users to test their knowledge and perfect their accents with immediate feedback from the computer

4.1 Learn To Speak English Deluxe 10’s content

Learn To Speak English consists of forty increasingly advanced lessons From lesson 1 to lesson 5 is Beginner Course, lesson 6 to lesson 34 is Intermediate Course and five last lessons are Advanced Course

Each lesson of Beginner Course has four main parts: Vocabulary, Communication,

Grammar, Exercises While each lesson of Intermediate Course and Advanced

Course contain seven main parts They are Vocabulary, Vocabulary Exercises, Story, Story Exercises, Grammar, Grammar Exercises and Conversation There are some similarities between the structures of Beginner Course and Intermediate or Advanced Course Both of them consist of Vocabulary, Communication or Story,

Grammar and Exercise However, in the Beginner Course, all vocabulary exercises, Communication or Story exercises, and Grammar Exercises are put in one part called Exercise, while in the Intermediate and Advanced Courses, each kind of exercises is separated in one part

In vocabulary part, students listen to a list of words or phrase and can understand the meanings by looking at the pictures that come with those words It is unlimited the times of repeating listening to those words After that they will record their voice with the computer‟s speech recognition and assessment meter that measures how close they are to a native speaker‟s voice

The stories section of the program give students chance to experience real situations such as time telling, days and dates, and basic colors, greetings, farewells, introductions, and making acquaintances in Beginner Course or looking for an apartment, going to the theater, taking a taxi, opening a bank account, buying groceries, going to the doctor in Intermediate Course or further broaden contents, including linguistically more challenging topics, such as making business calls, flirting, expressing frustration, or even watching a soccer game of Advanced Course

The grammar part supports students with correct use of grammar point that be used in the previous part of the same lesson

In the Exercises, students can do different types of exercises such as, in Dialog exercises, there are 3 common kinds: See It, Say It; Drag and Match, Multiple Choice In Vocabulary Exercises is See and Say In Grammar parts is Fill in the Blank

The conversation parts help students interact with characters in real-life scenarios based on the most common travel situations

In addition, there are some other parts such as Language Workshops, Games &

Activities, Oral & Written Lessons , Media Center , and Progress All these parts are design to help students make a revision on what they have learnt in the main part of the program

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY AND DATA ANALYSIS

Context of the study

The leaders of Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT) and the English faculty decided to introduce Learn to Speak English deluxe 10, for K19 non- English major students The introduction of the English software is considered as an innovation in the ways of teaching and learning English at HUBT

Actually, Learn to Speak English deluxe 10 is undertaken by making use of blended learning model and computer assisted language learning, which is different from traditional classroom model This requires teachers to adapt their teaching methods as well as improve their proficiency levels Also, students have to change their way of studying

Moreover, the students at HUBT are from many places in Vietnam They have different abilities of learning English and they are learning in different departments such as accounting, administration or finance Therefore, this software has been received differently by HUBT teachers and students In such a context, it is critical to investigate the effectiveness of the new English program in order to have empirical evidence for administrative decisions on how to support teachers and students in running the program.

Subjects

Ten English teachers of English Faculty at HUBT aged from 24 to 40 were invited to take part in completing the questionnaires They are in charge of teaching English in language lab for mainly first year students Among those, eight are female and two are male All of them are qualified teachers who graduated from well- known universities for teacher training in Vietnam such as Hanoi University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, which have adopted the latest approaches in teaching English for years Moreover, five of the teachers have at least ten years of experience in teaching English Eight of them have been teaching English for at least 5 years and are in Group of English for Information Technology

The rests have over 2 years of experience They all have been teaching at the university for at least 2 years and they are very enthusiastic about their teaching career

The researcher chose 100 students aged from 18 to 22 years old from 8 first- year different classes to answer the questionnaires Each class consisted of 25 students on average For each class, about half of the students were picked up by choosing half of the students sitting in every table of the class until 100 sample students were involved in the survey All 100 sample students, 80 girls and 20 boys who had learnt English at high school, now study Accounting, Finance, and Administrative

These participants come from different cities and provinces and are not at the same level of English They are going to learn English for the first term of the school year of 2013- 2014 By the end of the first semester, they have finished the total time budget of learning English (60 periods, each period last 55 minutes) They are considered to have experience in giving and expressing their opinions and have fresh experience working with Learn to Speak English deluxe 10.

The instruments

There are many ways of collecting data such as: mail survey, telephone survey, interview, questionnaire, and so on but questionnaire is one of the instruments which is often used to collect data by most researchers in social sciences According to Gillham (2000: 6), there are some advantages of using questionnaires in doing research such as:

- Low cost in time and money

- Easy to get information from a lot of people very quickly

- Respondents can complete the questionnaire when it suits them

- Analysis of answers to closed questions is straightforward

- Less pressure for an immediate response

- Standardization of questions (but true of structured interview)

- Can provide suggestive data for testing a hypothesis

In order to fulfill the aims of this study as presented, it is suitable to use questionnaires in this study because the researcher wants to collect the information from the students and teachers in their own current situations to find out the appropriateness of the LTSE software in the process of learning English

In addition, to assure the reliability and validity of the results, interviews were also employed together with questionnaires as the main methods of data collection

Two sets of questionnaires (for teachers and students) were designed including both closed-ended and open-ended questions Questionnaires were distributed to 10 teachers and 100 students

The questionnaires were adapted from Georgiadou, E.,& Economides, A (2003)

However, some changes were made in order to fit into the situation of this study

The questionnaire was administered to 8 randomly selected classes (nearly 100 students), aged from 18 to 22, from different classes of different faculties at HUBT and they are studying the Learn To Speak English Deluxe 10

The questionnaires consisted of 2 sections The first section contained 30 questions which dealt with the evaluation of LTSE and the last 4 question in the third section find out the benefits and difficulties in the application of LTSE as well as students‟

The questionnaires were delivered to 10 teachers of English All the questionnaires were written in English and they were designed to focus on three main areas The first area 30 questions coped with the teachers‟ evaluation of LTSE And the last part with 4 questions showed the advantages and disadvantages of LTSE to the students and some recommendations that they give to improve the course

The researcher used semi-structured interviews which were closely related to the questionnaires with little modification but still facilitated chances to obtain a variety of responses from the interviewees

The interview questions were adopted from Mai (2011) who was also the researcher about the attitude toward Dyned Courseware, but there are also some modifications so that it fits my participants in the research The interviews were taken place during breaking time in order to avoid any interruption to the lesson and they feel free to answer

The information from the interviews would be categorized and analyzed in accordance with the data from the questionnaires to answer the research questions

Four teachers of English from the sample who were delivered the questionnaires were randomly chosen for the interview The interview included four questions to further discorver teachers‟ opinions of the benifits of LTSE teaching in langugage lab and reveal some of the difficulties and their suggestions to improve the course were also extracted Each interview was about 15 minutes long and was recorded and transcripted for later reference

Four students who had taken part in the surveyed questionnaires were chosen for the benefits, their difficulties in the process of learning as well as their suggestion for the teacher and the administrator to improve the software and the way of teaching

Each interview lasted about 15 minutes.

Data collection and analysis

Firstly, both of teachers and students filled out the questionnaires The researcher directly explained the purpose, relevance and the importance of the study, as well as answered all the questions that the students and teachers had Then, the researcher counted, coded the data collected from the questionnaires

Next, the results were displayed in forms of tables, figures or charts for the convenience of analysis while qualitative data from the open- ended questionnaires items and the interviews were presented by quoting relevant responses from the respondents

In addition, collected data is classified into different categories and the researcher use descriptive statistics and qualitative statistics to analyze After that, the collected data were synthesized, categorized and discussed to reveal answers to the research questions Comparison between the data from the questionnaires and those from the interviews were also made to assist interpretation

CHAPTER THREE: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Findings from part I of questionnaires and the interviews

1.1 Results of the LTSE’s content evaluation

Table 1 below demonstrates students‟ opinions about LTSE’s content when using the courseware LTSE (1 strongly disagree, 2 disagree, 3 neither agree nor disagree, 4 agree, 5 strongly agree)

1 The information of the software is relevant to age group

2 This software provides correct use of grammar

3 Concepts and vocabulary are relevant to learners‟ abilities

4 the software provides logical progression of topics

5 Ss can do variety of activities, with options for increasing complexity

6 The software supplies enough cultural knowledge, social experience and grammatical rules to help Ss communicate naturally in the real life

Table 1: Results of Students’ and teachers’ evaluation of LTSE’s content

As can be seen from the Table 1, more than half of the students took part in the questionnaire agreed that the content of LTSE software is relevant to age group and half of students answered that this software provides correct use of grammar There is a small percentage disagreed (approximately 5%) Similarly, half of the teachers thought that students have opportunities to develop their speaking skills by using accurate use of grammar and relevant topics to the age group in LTSE software

None of them disagreed with the statement that the information of the software is relevant to age group 20% strongly agreed on that In the third question about the relevant of concepts and vocabulary to learners‟ abilities, there are 5% of students thought that the vocabulary is not suitable with them and 14% disagreed For teachers, more than half of them agreed, however there is still 20% teacher thought that was somewhat not relevant to their students‟ abilities From my personal experience of teaching LTSE, that might be due to the fact that the vocabulary is quite easy for the grade level and subject

With regard to logical progression of topics, both teachers and students shared the same percentage approximately (80% or 87%) that approved the lessons that students learned are organized logically in term of topics progression This is not surprising because when using this software, students were required to follow the story of one character and his story life, so the topics are listed according to time sequence and logical actions

In the fifth question about the variety of activities presented in this software, most visibly, about 91% of the surveyed students approved that the software provided a variety of activities to practice pronunciation and speaking English There is no student disagreed And a high percentage of teachers (90%) shared the same idea with them Indeed, students can do a lot of activities when learning English with this soft ware like drag and match, fill in the blank with the words from the previous part of the lesson, or they can even reinforce their pronunciation by going to the pronunciation workshop to have a further practice

In the sixth question, it can be clearly seen in the table 1 that only a small percent of students and teachers (about 9% or 10%) dissatisfied with the cultural knowledge, social experience and grammatical rules supply of the software On the contrary most teachers and students agreed that the software increased their culture knowledge, social experience and enriched their grammatical rules so that they can communicate naturally in the real life

1.2 Results of presentation and organization of LTSE’s content evaluation

7 The content is structured in a clear and understandable manner

8 The structure of the software permits learners to advance, review, see examples, repeat the unit, or escape to explore another unit

Ss to practice, check their performance and get feedback quickly and easily

10 The software is suitable for different background knowledge of the learners and different learning experience

11 Ss can operate the software independently, creating his or her own sequence of presentation and review

Note: Strongly Disagree (1); Disagree (2); Somewhat Disagree (3); Agree (4);

None of the teachers and almost none of the students disagreed that the content is structured in a clear and understandable manner for students to understand 80% of teachers and 78% of students took part in the questionnaires realized the content is structured in a clear and understandable manner so that students can do the tasks more easily It is easy to understand because students in each lesson hav e chance to both listen to the instruction by the native voice when starting each part in the lessons and they can read along the instruction in the screen as well Moreover, while doing tasks in the LTSE software, students also get the instruction by the help of some symbols so it is very easy to do the tasks

From the table 2, it can be recognized that teachers and students has similar perceptions of the pedagogical factor It is clarified in the evaluation in question eighth 68% of students and 60% of teachers approved that the structure of the software permits learners to advance, review, see examples, repeat the unit, or escape to explore another unit

In response to the question nine that whether this software allows students to practice, check their performance and get feedback quickly and easily or not For students, nearly all of them (95%) supposed that this software was really good for doing those things The situation is much similar for teachers 80% of them valued that the software allow students to practice, check their performance and get feedback quickly and easily None of the teachers disagreed or strongly against this statement Very few of students ticked strongly disagreed with this point (3%) This fact is easy to understand because when doing each part in this software, teachers often assign task as well as the percentage for the students to complete At the end of the lesson or at the end of doing each part, students can check their performance in the progression part of this software Besides, their answers are check true or false immediately

With regard to the effectiveness of LTSE with students of varying abilities and teacher disagreed It is possibly because students attending HUBT come from different educational background with different level of knowledge as well as English ability Moreover, the software is normally fixed and applied to all students so it can have some side effects In addition, in the interview with teachers, one of them said that “I often felt stressed when delivering LTSE lessons in multilevel classes When I explained something in English, just one or two students understood what I meant and the rest just sat and appeared to understand nothing In other words, they have poor background” and one of teachers stated that “from my view the content of this software is quite easy and less challenge Because we are teaching multi-level students so some of them who have good language skill will feel bored with this type of content”

In the questionnaire, sampled teachers and students were asked if students can operate the software independently, creating his or her own sequence of presentation and review or not 48% of the students believed that they can operate the software independently and 60% of teachers shared the same opinion with them

12 The software allows learners to discover information through active exploration

13 The software ask students to apply what they have learnt rather than memorise it

Ss to practice the whole skills(Listening, Speaking, Writing and Reading)

15 Helps Ss to have chance to practice interacting with real situations faster and more effective

16 Let Ss access to “help” or

Note: Strongly Disagree (1); Disagree (2); Somewhat Disagree (3); Agree (4);

Strongly Agree (5) Table 3: Results of Students’ and Teachers’ evaluation of Interactivity

In answering question 12, from the students‟ point of view, there are 63% of them agreed the interactivity of this software is shown by allowing learners to discover information through active exploration It is obviously that software can help students deal with their lessons in the computer more enthusiastically and it will result in a good output of what they have learnt And the interactivity of software is the most important feature to encourage students study it

In the questionnaire, sampled teachers and students were asked if the software helps students to apply what they have learnt rather than remember it, teachers and students shared fairly similar belief that they agreed about that point The percent of agreed teachers and students are 70% and 65% In addition, 2% students and 10 % teachers hold the neutral opinion that showed they are somewhat disagreed A small number of students and teachers disagreed or strongly disagreed It can be easily explained that because students have a lot of chances, during each lesson, to apply the vocabulary, phrases or structures from the first part to the another parts of the same lesson by doing different types of exercises, so they can not only remember the new words, new structures but also apply them thoroughly later in the lesson

In terms of language skills, the courseware offers students chances to improve all the macro skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing However, they are not totally proportional According to the analysis, both teachers and students favored options strongly disagree or disagree or somewhat disagree than the last 3 options

For students, 47% of them disagreed that the software provides them chance to practice all four skills and similarly, 30% teachers shared the same point of view with the students A high percent of both students and teachers chose to strongly against the statement It takes 30% of students and 40% 0f the teacher In the language lab, listening and speaking are given priority, accounting for 90% of the total practice time There is only few teachers and students agreed that the micro skills are developed (both are about 10%) It is the fact that students mostly have opportunity to listen to the recorded voiced in the software and do the speaking tasks rather than do the writing or reading Although there is a reading exercise in each lesson but it seems to be too short and easy without any challenge for students to improve their reading And there almost no writing tasks if the teacher don‟t design any kind of follow up writing for their students in class

Moreover, majority of the students agreed that this software helps them to have chance to practice interacting with real situations faster and more effectively And it lets them access to “help” or “hint” messages easily

Item Questions Students’ evaluation Teachers’ evaluation

17 Menu key for returning to the main page or exit program

18 The keys to assist navigation (e.g back to the home page, exit)

19 Key for moving forward or backward in a lesson, key for accessing the next lesson in a sequence

20 Summary and review key for reviewing whole or parts of the lesson

Note: Very Poor (1); Poor (2); Average (3); Good (4); Very Good (5) Table 4: Results of students’ and teachers’ evaluation of Navigation of LTSE’s content

Looking at table 4, it can be seen the clear difference in the percentage between evaluation of good and poor option in both teachers‟ evaluation and students‟ ones

Findings from part II of the questionnaires and interviews

2.1 Findings from part II of the questionnaires and interviews for teachers

This table below shows the result of teachers‟ opinion about the difficulties or the problems of teaching with LTSE in question 31 of the questionnaire

Difficulty in interaction between teachers and students 70%

Shortage of time for each lesson 80 %

Table 7: Result of teachers’ opinion about the difficulties or the problems of teaching with LTSE

Normally, when applying software to support teaching and learning English, it is difficult to avoid meeting a lot of problems LTSE software is one of those One can see from the table above that the first problem was the shortage of time which made up the highest percentage (80%) The second highest percentage (70%) was difficulty in interaction between teachers and students In the interview with teachers, one of them said that “my students refuse to interact as instructed because they are used to traditional approach” 30% of them admitted that lack of computer skills was a problem Because working with computers, sometimes there were technical problems occurred with the software or the computer or working with the net support to control students‟ activities, teachers often did not know how to fix the problem One of the teacher said that “it is difficult to control all the students’ activities because the net support sometimes doesn’t work well” In addition, some teachers reflected “students have poor background, our students are not able to deal with such a difficult and huge workload” Another problem was revealed by an interviewee saying that “students have difficulty in comprehending the content without teachers’ explanation of words and grammar”

Question 32: In the process of teaching LTSE, which type of lessons or activities appears to be the most difficult to conduct?

Chart 1: Results of difficulties in delivering LTSE lessons

As shown from the chart, the most difficult part to teach is communication 40%

The reason for this high number may be due to the technical problem because in this part students have to use the microphone to record their voice and a noisy environment can interrupt them a lot In addition, teachers themselves were not confident in the lessons because they sometimes recorded without recognition in front of the class The second most difficult part is the stories lesson with 30% Due to the heavy workload and short time for each lesson, teachers often feel stress to do both translation with some useful phrases or structures and check the students‟ pronunciation as well as their recording in this part One of the teachers approved that “I tried my best to complete such a long lesson and heavy workload in a limited

GrammmarExerciseCommunication time and I really felt worried when thinking of too many activities in a short time.” and the vocabulary, 20% chose grammar and exercise seems to cause less problems for teachers in teaching with 10%

Question 33: How does LTSE benefit English teaching and learning at HUBT?

Benefits Percentage a Creates a relaxing atmosphere to motivate target language use 50% b Promotes students‟ needs and autonomy 70% c Develops integrated English language skills, especially oral skills 20% d Designed lessons in LTSE are very meaningful and purposeful based on real- world context 50% e LTSE makes use of modern equipment and technology to support learning 90%

Table 8: Results of teachers’ opinion about the benefits of teaching and learning

Regarding to the benefits of LTSE, most of the teachers agreed there are a lot of strengths from this program As clearly seen in the above table, teachers are highly satisfied with the modern equipment and technology to support learning (90% of them ticked this option.) Another high percentage (70%) of them admitted LTSE could promote students‟ needs and autonomy In fact, students when using this software to learn English always actively try their best to practice and get best result at the end of each lesson In addition, 50% of teacher approved created a relaxing atmosphere to motivate target language use Similarly, half of them agreed that the lesson were created meaningfully and purposefully base on real world context

However, there is a small number of teachers agreed that LTSE develops integrated English language skills, especially oral skills Actually, this software lacks some part to improve students writing if the teachers do not design further tasks In addition, one of the teachers stated that “By using this software, students can expand their vocabulary, their knowledge about the culture of foreign country, and especially, they can improve their pronunciation a lot” Or another said “They feel fresh because of new learning location, and new way of achieving the knowledge”

Question 34: What do you recommend to improve the LTSE program at HUBT?

Reduce the workload for each lesson 90%

Increase time for each lesson 80%

Design further tasks after each lesson 10%

Table 9: Results of Teachers’ recommendations to improve NDE The table showed that 2 favored choices made were reducing the workload for each lesson (90%), increasing time for each lesson (80%) Only 10% agreed to design further tasks for each lesson to do the follow up It seemed that these recommendations needed adopting because most clearly seen was the difficulty of the teachers caused by time limitation and heavy workload

Some teachers suggested in the interview that “To avoid playing games or logging on the web I think no internet connection and no game can be installed is a good idea” Another suggested “we should require students to record and compare and strictly check their performance” Or “ teachers should adapt this software to their classes with some modifications such as more pair work and group work activities in class, more useful video clips and more difficult communicative tasks and more supplementary activities should be added to drill speaking in each lesson”

2.2 Findings from questionnaires and interviews for students

Question 31: What benefits do you get from LTSE?

Benefits from LTSE Percentage a Helps to practice pronunciation 82% b Develop oral skills 56% c Develops communicative skills 70% d Helps to create autonomy 53% e Create a relaxing atmosphere and joy 79% f Others 15%

Table 10: Results of students’ perception and attitudes to NDE’ benefits

According the data, it can be seen that one of the most beneficial things of LTSE is to help to practice pronunciation the approval of 82% of the respondents Through listening to, repeating, comparing with model sentences and self recording as well as a wide range of extension activities, students have a lot of chances to practice and build their pronunciation The second outstanding benefit of LTSE is that 79% of the participants agreed that LTSE can help them create a relaxing atmosphere and joy It is easy to understand because when doing task with LTSE software, students are actively enjoyed the lesson with a lot of information about the culture as well as the videos or vivid pictures which support them in learning

In addition, 70% of students found that they could develop their communicative skills This result was explained more clearly in the interview that “ presenting and speaking in front of the class made me more confident and communicate better ”

56% of the students responded that LTSE developed their oral skill and while 50% agreed it created autonomy when practicing English One of the students admitted that “I also find myself upgrade my computer skill a lot when learning in the language lab.”

Question 32: Which type of lesson do you find the most interesting or the most difficult?

According to the analysis, there is 54% of students found that story lesson is the most interesting part Indeed, in this part students have chance not only experience the new cultures but also learn a lot of vocabulary as well as new structures

Regarding the most difficult lesson, students agreed that communication lesson account for 64% of them Maybe the reason that the communication lesson is the most difficult due to the fact that student find it not easy for the computer to recognize their voice because of the noise around them or their computer technical problems As being disclosed in the interview with students, one of them said: “It is due to the computer’s fault It doesn’t realize my voice even i tried all my best May be it is the technical issues or the noise level”

Chart 2: Results of students’ evaluation of the most interesting and most difficult lesson

Question 33: What challenges do you have when studying LTSE?

Challenges Percentage a Practice to speak like native speaker 45% b repeating whole long sentences 82% c Summarize contents of lessons in English 89% d interacting with screen character 30% e Other 14%

Table 11: Results of students’ evaluation of Challenges in LTSE studying

As one can see in this table, when being asked about the challenges during LTSE lessons, students ranked summarize contents of lessons in English the most challenging It accounts for 89% of students It can be explained that because students are not really good at speaking English and their vocabulary are not various so it is not easy for them to summarize what they learnt in their own words In reality, most of them just repeat the sentences that they remembered in the lesson

Actually, LTSE will not become productive until learners can summarize the content of the lessons in English The second obstacle that students chose is repeating the long sentences As being explained above, it is also due to the amount of words or phrase they have, moreover, their speaking abilities are not good enough 45% thought that they can‟t speak to be judged as good as the native speaker And 30% have difficulty interacting with screen character It is also be revealed in the interview that one student said “for me, I am confident of speaking

Summary of major findings

3.1 LTSE meets students’ and teachers’ need in term of the content and the presentation and organization of LTSE’s content

According to the analysis above in both teachers and students‟ questionnaires and interviews, there are some benefits that they admitted the LTSE software brings to them Firstly, it is a variety of activities, the cultural knowledge that the software provides the logical progression of the topics in the course Secondly, both teachers and students also approved that the interactivity of the courseware contributed a lot to their success in achieving the result in learning and teaching language It could prove effective in helping students develop active learning by allowing them to discover or explore information without interrupting Thirdly, navigation is another

LTSE‟s strength according to students‟ evaluation As a result, with the help of LTSE’s navigation, students for sure find it convenient and time saving doing their learning easily Fourthly, students and teachers were also satisfied with LTSE‟s feedback and screen design Students found that this software provide them with immediate feedback so that they can check their works right away Moreover, the students also highly appreciated their performance record that this software offers

They were also happy with the clear, consistent screen layout and the pictures graphics or videos in this program were judged to be very good

Everything has its two sides, students also pointed out some of the LTSE software weaknesses in its content and its presentation as well as organization The most outstanding weakness of LTSE that is applied in HUBT is that the four micro skills are not equally practiced when using this software Students found that this software developed mainly speaking and listening; just only very few activities are focused on reading and rarely on writing Secondly, in the data analysis above showed that

LTSE is not suitable for different or varying abilities and experience like students at

HUBT As the software will be less effective if it was taught in a environment that students come different educational background with different level of knowledge as well as English ability Thirdly, regarding to the feedback of the program, students still found that the software needs more appropriate feedback on how to correct the mistake not just by say true or false

3.2 The benefits and difficulties in teaching and learning LTSE

Beside some benefits that were mentioned in the evaluation of the content, researcher also made a summary of other benefits which were asked directly in the questionnaires and interviews

First of all, most teachers and a lot of students recognized that LTSE truly helps develop learners‟ oral skills Secondly, apart from developing oral skills, LTSE also helps to develop communication skills and creates a relaxing environment to learn English Finally, nobody denies that teaching and learning English with the assistance of modern technology meet students‟ needs and interests

Similarly, there are some problems in teaching and learning by using LTSE One of the problems lies in the working schedule The data from the questionnaires for teachers and students showed that time allocation for each lesson is insufficient for students to acquire the skills and create automaticity It seems that too much work in a lesson makes both teachers and students tired and demotivated Teaching multilevel students is also a problem As revealed in the findings, most of the teachers were aware of this problem It can be easily inferred that if teachers instruct too fast, less able students will not follow the lesson and in contrast, more able students will find the lesson boring In addition, technical problem is another challenge in learning and teaching LTSE Students sometimes can‟t record their voice to practice speaking English and teachers often cannot control student activities with the net support.

CONCLUSION

Conclusion

In this study, the researcher used the evaluation criteria of Georgiadou &

Economides, (2000) which mentioned both social and practical acceptability of hypermedia courseware to find out the result

There are two types of instruments that were employed in this research: the questionnaires and interviews In order to check the validity of information that provided by students in the research, both 10 teachers and 100 students were invited to participate in the research by doing the questionnaires and randomly some of the assigned teachers and students were chosen to take part in the interviews The questionnaires were designed to find out the evaluation of both students and teachers on content, interactivity, navigation, screen design and feedback

To answer the first question in the research question, it is clearly that the participants in the study generally satisfied with the content and its design such as its presentation and organization Moreover, it is used effectively at HUBT It provides variety of task-types, the cultural knowledge, the interactivity, good navigation, and with useful assistance of feedback and screen design However, if the software offered chance to develop four skills equally, the students are classified in to suitable class levels and better help with correcting the mistake, it would be much more effective

In addition, the benefits of LTSE software were investigated from both teachers and students are developing oral skills, communication skills with the assistance of modern technology The problems of teaching and learning LTSE lies in the working schedule, both teachers and students agreed that it offers heavy workload for them The second problem is multilevel of students This problem affects both teachers and students in teaching and learning And finally, technical seems to be the last problem that they encountered when using this software

Answering the second question, the researcher sees that the results of questionnaires of teachers and students and in the interviews all approved that the first recommendation that they give was reducing the workload so as they have more time to practice Next, it should be carefully instructed before students do their work Then, more supplimentary material should be added and finally, they mentioned the technical problems, they should be improved

From the result and discussion of this study, it can be concluded that this LTSE software is suitable as a supporting learning aid for students to learn English

Students perceive this courseware as user-friendly and capable for enhancing the learning of the subject.

Limitations of the study

Although the researcher tried to conduct the study with her best, there are some limitations Firstly, there are only two types of data collection instruments were applied in the research namely questionnaires and interviews It would be better if the researcher use class observation because more information would have been further clarified and supplemented

In terms of the subjects, the study was limited to a small number of participants

They are 100 out of nearly 2000 first-year students and 10 out of 25 teachers who work with the courseware involved in the research and only one year of the experiment If the study was conducted in a large scale with more participants and over a longer period of time with more courses, the results of the study would be better

In addition, there is no comparison between the achievement of the students who are trained by LTSE and those of the students trained in traditional classroom in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of LTSE program in improving communication skills in English for students.

Recommendations for courseware improvements

In this part, the researcher would like to make some recommendation to make the use of this software better based on some of students and teachers suggestions in the questionnaires and in the interview as well as some suggestions that I myself withdraw from teaching at HUBT From teacher‟s side, the software will be more effective with the more strictly control of the teachers over their students activities

It can be showed in the way teachers control class during the lesson so that their students cannot do private activities with the computer or it can be showed in the way teachers usually check the work of the students Secondly, teachers should be more flexible when teaching LTSE in different classes with different level of students by modifying some parts in each lesson so that the workload cannot be too much but still guarantee the quality of the lesson by choosing the importance to teach Thirdly, due to the fact that LTSE mostly focus on speaking and listening but they are for individually practice To make it better, teacher should design the lesson to have pair works or group work for the students to achieve better results In addition, after each lesson, it will be better if teachers can have some follow up writing relates to the lesson that students are learning to make an equal proportion of micro skills

For the administrators, it is suggested that the learning and teaching time for the course should be increased in order to help their students have more time to practice and make the best use of LTSE software Next, because students at HUBT come from different level of English and different proficiencies, the administrators should organize an entry test to arrange the similar level of English students at the same class to help teachers feel easier in the way of teaching In addition, there should be some tests to offer students chances to check their improvement after half of the course or at the end of the course to motivate students to try their best in learning

Furthermore, teachers should be trained frequently the methodology, language competence and especially the computer skills to be always ready to help students

Suggestions for further research

According to the above limitation for the study, the researcher suggest following further research that can be made to get deeper understanding of hypermedia program in general or LTSE in particular

Firstly, other studies can be conducted to compare the achievements of the learners trained by traditional textbooks and LTSE software

Another suggestions is other researches that expand the number of participants both teachers and students and longer time for more reliable findings and recommendation

1.http://www.elanguage.com/learn-to-speak-english/overview.html

2.http://techpudding.com/2011/04/04/checklist-for-evaluating-technology-software- and-applications/

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Unpublished master‟s Thesis, Hanoi University, Hanoi, Vietnam.

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Education Retrieved December 10 th , 2012 from the World Wide Web: https://www.msu.edu/course/esl/094/Dyned%20V2.7/DynEd/doc/tgtheory.pdf

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Introduction In Fotos, S (Ed.) Multimadia Language Teaching Tokyo: Logos

APPENDICES Appendix 1 QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS

This questionnaire is designed to evaluate the application of the courseware “Learn to Speak English deluxe 10” in language lab for the first year non major of English students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology

Please answer the following questions as many as possible based on your own experience in learning the software Your feedback is very important to the research and the improvement of the software for future use

Your cooperation is highly appreciated

Part I: Specific information to evaluate the “Learn To Speak English” software

Put a tick (√) in your appropriate respond

1 The information of the software is relevant to age group

2 This software provides correct use of grammar

3 Concepts and vocabulary are relevant to learners‟ abilities

4 the software provides logical progression of topics

5 Ss can do variety of activities, with options for increasing complexity

6 The software supplies enough cultural knowledge, social experience and grammatical rules to help Ss communicate naturally in the real life

B Evaluation of the presentation and organization of content B.1.Pedagogical factors

7 The content is structured in a clear and understandable manner

8 The structure of the the software permits learners to advance, review, see examples, repeat the unit, or escape to explore another unit

9 This software allows Ss to practice, check their performance and get feedback quickly and easily

10 The software is suitable for different background knowledge of the learners and different learning experience

11 Ss can operate the software independently, creating his or her own sequence of presentation and review

12 The software allows learners to discover information through active exploration

13 The software ask students to apply what they have learnt rather than memorise it

15 Helps Ss to have chance to practice interacting with real situations faster and more effective

16 Let Ss access to “help” or

17 Menu key for returning to the main page or exit program

18 The keys to assist navigation (e.g back to the home page, exit)

19 Key for moving forward or backward in a lesson, key for accessing the next lesson in a sequence

20 Summary and review key for reviewing whole or parts of the lesson

21 Does this software provide feedback immediately after a respond?

22 For incorrect responses, is there information given to the student about how to correct their answers, or hints to try again?

23 Does it keep performance records for each user?

24 Does it allow students to check their performance?

25 Are enough questions for students to practice?

26 Screens are designed in a clear and understandable manner

27 The quality of text, images, graphics and video is good

28 Pictures, graphics, video are relevant and an aid to understanding

29 The use of pictures or graphics meaningfully supports the text provided

30 The video, audio enhances the presentation of information

Part II The benefits and difficulties and recommendation to improve the use of Learn to Speak English deluxe 10

31 What benefits do you get from LTSE? a.Helps to practice pronunciation b.Develop oral skills c.Develops communicative skills d.Helps to create autonomy e.Create a relaxing atmosphere and joy f.Others

32: Which type of lesson do you find the most interesting or the most difficult?

Types of lessons Most interesting Most difficult Vocabulary lessons

33: What challenges do you have when studying LTSE? a Practice to speak like native speaker b Repeating whole long sentences c Summarize contents of lessons in English d Interacting with screen character e other

34 : What recommendations do you make to improve LTSE? a increase time for each lesson b are carefully instructed by teachers for each lesson c reduce the workload of the lesson d others………

Thank you for your cooperation!

This questionnaire is designed to evaluate the application of the courseware “Learn to Speak English deluxe 10” in language lab for the first year non major of English students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology

Please answer the following questions as many as possible based on your own experience in learning the software Your feedback is very important to the research and the improvement of the software for future use

Your cooperation is highly appreciated

Part I: Specific information to evaluate the appropriateness of “Learn To

Speak English” software in teaching speaking English

Where you are asked indicates your level of agreement with a statement Please put a tick (√) in your appropriate respond

1 The information of the software is relevant to age group

2 This software provides correct use of grammar

3 Concepts and vocabulary are relevant to learners‟ abilities

4 the software provides logical progression of topics

5 Ss can do variety of activities, with options for increasing complexity

6 The software supplies enough cultural knowledge, social experience and grammatical rules to help

Ss communicate naturally in the real life

B Presentation and organization of content B.1.Pedagogical factors

7 The content is structured in a clear and understandable manner

8 The structure of the the software permits learners to advance, review, see examples, repeat the unit, or escape to explore another unit

Ss to practice, check their performance and get feedback quickly and easily

10 The software is suitable for different background knowledge of the learners and different learning experience

11 Ss can operate the software independently, creating his or her own sequence of presentation and review

12 The software allows learners to discover information through active exploration

13 The software asks students to apply what they have learnt rather than memorise it

14 Encourages Ss to practice the whole skills(Listening, Speaking, Writing and Reading)

15 Helps Ss to have chance to practice interacting with real situations faster and more effective

“help” or “hint” messages easily

17 Menu key for returning to the main page or exit program

18 The keys to assist navigation (e.g back to the home page, exit) are clear and easy to use

19 Key for moving forward or backward in a lesson, key for accessing the next lesson in a sequence

20 Summary and review key for reviewing whole or parts of the lesson

21 Does this software provide feedback immediately after a respond?

22 For incorrect responses, is there information given to the student about how to correct their answers, or hints to try again?

23 Does it keep performance records for each user?

24 Does it allow students to check their performance?

25 Are enough questions for students to practice?

26 Screens are designed in a clear and understandable manner

27 The quality of text, images, graphics and video is good

28 Pictures, graphics, video are relevant and an aid to understanding

29 The use of pictures or graphics meaningfully supports the text provided

30 The video, audio enhances the presentation of information

Part II Information about the benefits, the problems as well as the recomendation for LTSE software

31 What problems do you have when delivering LTSE lessons? a Lack of computer skills b Difficulty in interaction between teachers and students c Shortage of time for each lesson d Other………

32 In the process of teaching LTSE, which type of lessons appear to be the most difficult to teach? a Vocabulary lessons b Stories or communication c Grammar d Exercise e Communication

33 How does LTSE benefit the teaching and learning English at HUBT? a LTSE creates a relaxing atmosphere to motivate the target language use b LTSE promotes students‟ needs and autonomy c LTSE develops integrated English language skills, especially oral skills? d Designed lessons in LTSE are very meaningful and purposeful based on real- world context e LTSE makes use of modern equipment and technology to support lessons

34 What do you recommend to improve the LTSE program at HUBT? a Reduce the workload for each lesson b Increase time for each lesson c Design further tasks after each lesson d other suggestions ………

Thank you for your cooperation!

Appendix 4 : Questionnaire for Students – Vietnamese version

Phiếu điều tra sinh viên

Phiếu điều tra này nhằm đánh giá việc ứng dụng phần mềm chương trình dạy học “ Learn to speak English deluxe 10” tại phòng máy cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên anh tại trường Đại Học Kinh Doanh và Công Nghệ Hà Nội Thông tin bạn cung cấp đóng vai trò quan trọng trong việc đánh giá và sử dụng phần mềm trong thời gian tới Dựa vào kinh nghiệm học bằng phần mềm này, các bạn hãy trả lời những câu hỏi sau Chúng tôi đánh giá cao sự hợp tác và những ý kiến của bạn

Phần I: Thông tin cụ thể để đánh giá phần mềm Learn To Speak English

Hãy cho biết ý kiến của bạn bằng cách đánh dấu (√) vào lựa chọn của mình:

(1: hoàn toàn phản đối; 2: phản đối; 3: không phản đối cũng không đồng ý; 4: đồng ý 5: hoàn toàn đồng ý)

A Đánh giá về nội dung:

1 Phần mềm cung cấp thông tin phù hợp với nhóm tuổi của sinh viên

2 Phần mềm cung cấp ngữ pháp chính xác

3 Những khái niệm và từ vựng trong phần mềm phù hợp với trình độ của sinh viên

4 Các chủ đề trong phần mềm phát triển logic với nhau

5 Sinh viên có thể thực hiện nhiều hoạt động với nhiều lựa chọn để tăng mức độ phức tạp của bài học

6 Phần mềm cung cấp đầy đủ các kiến thức về văn hóa, xã hội cũng như các quy tắc ngữ pháp giúp sinh viên giao tiếp tự nhiên trong đời thực

B Đánh giá về cách trình bày, sắp xếp nội dung

7 Nội dung được trình bày rõ ràng và dễ hiểu người học xem qua các phần học, những ví dụ, học lại các bài đã học hoặc thoát ra khỏi bài đang học để học bài khác

9 Phần mềm này cho phép sinh viên luyện tập, kiểm tra quá trình học và cung cấp những phản hồi cho sinh viên nhanh chóng dễ dàng

10 phần mềm này phù hợp với các đối tượng học có kiến thức và kinh nghiệm học khác nhau

11 Sinh viên có thể tự dùng phần mềm một cách độc lập, tạo ra cách trình bày và ôn tập riêng cua mình

B.2 Yếu tố thiết kế giao diện

12 Phần mềm này cho phép người học tìm hiểu thông tin thông qua việc chủ động khám phá bài học

13 Phần mềm này yêu cầu sinh viên áp dụng những gì họ vừa học được hơn là chỉ nhớ những kiến thức họ nhận được

14 Phần mềm này khuyến khích sinh viên luyện tập tất cả các kỹ năng ( nghe- nói-đọc-viết)

15 Phần mềm này giúp sinh viên có cơ hội thực hành giao tiếp nhanh hơn và hiệu quả hơn ở những tình huống trong thực tế

16 Phần mềm này cho phép sinh viên dùng sự trợ giúp “help” or “hint” một cách dễ dàng

17 Phím quay trở về trang chính hoặc thoát khỏi chương

18 Phím trợ giúp cho việc định vị

19 Phím chuyển phần học hoặc quay lại phần đã học trong mỗi bài học, phím chuyển sang bài học mới theo trình tự

20 Phím tóm tắt và xem lại tất cả các phần của bài học

21.phần mềm này có đưa ra phản hồi ngay sau khi người học đưa ra đáp án hoặc ghi âm không?

22 Đối với những câu sai, phần mềm này có cho sinh viên thông tin để sửa đáp án của họ, hoặc những gợi ý để sinh viên thử làm lại không?

23 Các phần học của sinh viên trong mỗi bài có được ghi lại không?

24 phần mềm này có cho phép sinh viên kiểm tra các phần mà mình đã học không?

25 Phần mềm có cung cấp đủ các câu hỏi để sinh viên luyện tập không?

26 Màn hình được trình bày rõ ràng và dễ hiểu

27 Chất lượng các chữ, hình ảnh, va video tốt

28 Tranh ảnh, đồ họa, video phù hợp và giúp người học dễ hiểu hơn

29 Việc sử dụng tranh ảnh hoặc đồ họa giúp giải thích nghĩa cho các từ trong bài học

30 Video, audio của phần mềm trợ giúp cho sự trình bày thông tin

Phần II Những lợi ích, những khó khăn gặp phải cũng như những gợi ý để cải

Hãy cho biết ý kiến của bạn bằng cách đánh dấu (√) vào lựa chọn của mình:

31 Việc thực hành các kĩ năng tiếng Anh với chương trình Learn To Speak English mang lại lợi ích gì cho em? a Giúp em luyện phát âm b Phát triển kĩ năng nói c Phát triển kĩ năng giao tiếp d Giúp em hình thành tính tự quản e Tạo không khí vui vẻ và thoái mái khi học f.ý kiến khác………

32 Loại hình bài học nào trong chương trình LTSE mang cho em hứng thú hay khó khăn nhất ?

Loại hình bài học Gây hứng thú Gây khó khăn Phần bài về từ vựng

Phần bài về các câu chuyện Phần bài về ngữ pháp Phần bài tập

Phần bài giao tiếp với nhân vật của phần mềm

33 Khó khăn lớn nhất đối với em khi thực hành chương trình Learn to Speak English là gì? a Luyện tập nói đạt giọng của người bản địa b Nhắc lại những câu dài trong phần ghi âm c Tóm tắt lại nội dung bài bằng tiếng anh d Tương tác với nhân vật trong phần mềm e ý kiến khác:

34 Em có gợi ý gì để cải thiện việc sử dụng phần mềm Learn To Speak English? a Tăng thêm thời gian để hoàn thành mỗi bài b Được giáo viên hướng dẫn tỉ mỉ hơn c Giảm bớt khối lượng chương trình d ý kiến khác……… ………

Cảm ơn sự hợp tác của em!

1 What do you think about the content of LTSE? Are they all well-organized and logical or easy to deliver to your students?

2 What are the benefits that LTSE brings to your students?

3 What difficulties do you have when delivering LTSE lessons?

4 In your opinion, what problems do your students face when learning LTSE?

5 What recommendations do you have to improve LTSE course?

1 What benefits did you get from learning LTSE?

2 Do you face any difficulties in the process of learning LTSE?

3 What kinds of lessons or activities do you like or dislike both in the language lab?

4 What do you recommend for the teacher or the leader to make the using of LTSE more interesting and effective

Researcher: Good afternoon, everyone! Thank you very much for coming here today As you know, I am doing my MA minor thesis on evaluating the application of the software, “Learn to Speak English” (LTSE) in language lab at Hanoi University of Business and Technology In doing this thesis, I have designed a questionnaire for my analysis and now I would like to involve you into this group interview to ask for your opinions, suggestions and solutions to improvements of teaching LTSE at our university This interview will be recorded and transcribed later However, you should feel safe and be aware that the data from the interview will be kept confidential and will be used only for the purpose of this study You will not be recognized in any parts of the data analysis and discussions