An evaluation of the application of phonics software in an english course for children at thinh quang primary school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** ĐÌNH THỊ HỒNG VÂN AN EVALUATION OF THE APPLICATION OF PHONICS SOFTWARE IN AN ENGLISH COURSE FOR CHILDREN AT THINH QUANG PRIMARY SCHOOL Đánh giá việc ứng dụng phần mềm tiếng Anh Phonics khóa học tiếng Anh học sinh trường tiểu học Thịnh Quang M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi – 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** ĐÌNH THỊ HỒNG VÂN AN EVALUATION OF THE APPLICATION OF PHONICS SOFTWARE IN AN ENGLISH COURSE FOR CHILDREN AT THINH QUANG PRIMARY SCHOOL Đánh giá việc ứng dụng phần mềm tiếng Anh Phonics khóa học tiếng Anh học sinh trường tiểu học Thịnh Quang M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Phùng Hà Thanh, M Ed Hanoi - 2010 iv TABLE OF CONTENT Page Acceptance page i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of content iv List of abbreviations vi List of figures and tables vii PART I - INTRODUCTION Introduction and rationale for the study Aims and objectives of the study Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study Significance of the study Organization of the study PART II - DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1 CALL Models in Language teaching and learning 1.2 Motivation and the Young – Learner 1.2.1 Definiton of Motivation 1.2.2 The Young-Learner 1.3 Instructional design 1.3.1 Instructional design and Motivation 1.3.2 Keller's ARCS Model 10 1.3.2.1 Attention 10 1.3.2.2 Relevance 11 1.3.2.3 Confidence 12 1.3.2.4 Satisfaction 12 v 1.3.3 Motivation Instrument 14 1.4 Researches on ARCS 14 CHAPTER 2: THE DESIGN OF PHONICS AND AN OVERVIEW OF THE 16 USE OF PHONICS at THINH QUANG PRIMARY SCHOOL 2.1 The design of Phonics 16 2.1.1 Phonics structure 16 2.1.2 Guided teaching techniques 19 2.2 An overview of the use of Phonics at Thinh Quang primary school 20 2.2.1 The origin of Phonics 20 2.3.2 The context of Thinh Quang school 20 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 21 3.1 Research design 21 3.2 Participants of the study 22 3.3 Data collection 22 3.3.1 Data collection instrument 22 3.3.2 Data collection procedure 23 3.4 Data analysis 24 CHAPTER 4: RESULT FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS 26 4.1 Result fingdings 26 4.1.1 Demographic summary 26 4.1.2 Research questions 26 4.1.2.1 Research question 28 4.1.2.2 Research question 32 4.1.2.3 Research question 34 4.1.2.4 Research question 38 4.2 Implications 39 PART III - CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 40 Conclusion 40 Limitations of the research and suggestions for further study 40 REFERENCES 42 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS  IT: Information Technology  ICT: Information Communication Technology  ARCS: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction  CALL: Computer-assisted Language Learning  ISD: Instructional System Design  CIS: Course Interest Survey  IMMS: Instructional Materials Motivation Survey vii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS No Title Page Table – Summary of ARCS Components 13 Table – Frequencies of Participants Concerning their Ages 26 Table - Statistics of the ARCS Sub-Scores on IMMS 27 Table - Statistics for the “Attention” Sub-scores on the IMMS 28 Table - Statistics for the “Relevance” Sub-Scores on the IMMS 32 Table - Statistics for the “Confidence” Sub-Scores on the IMMS 35 Table - Statistics for the “Satisfaction” Sub-Scores on the IMMS 38 Chart - Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #7 29 Chart - Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #9 30 Chart - Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #18 31 Chart - Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #27 33 Chart - Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #5 34 Chart - Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #3 36 Chart - Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #6 37 Chart - Percentage and Number of respondents – Item #28 37 PART I - INTRODUCTION Introduction and rationale of the study The 21st century has witnessed the rapid development of information technology and its impacts on every aspect of our social life in which education in general and foreign language teaching and learning in particular have been strongly affected It can be said that ICT has been applied in many teachers‟ lectures to bring fun and interest to students in English classes Ahead the trend of integration and development of technology, recognizing the benefit of ICT, at the beginning of the year 2009, Thinh Quang primary school started using Phonics – an English software - in English teaching and learning with the belief that Phonics would lay the foundation to improve English language learning among children and create the environment for children practice English from the early age It lies in the fact that Phonics is a newborn English program applied in some schools in Vietnam including Thinh Quang primary school This program is also the novel practice of Phonics at Thinh Quang It is partly for this deep-rooted reason that the researcher decided to conduct the study to the extent the application of Phonics software brings about children’s motivation The researcher hold the belief that through the evaluation of the application of Phonics there would bring insights into the changes of teaching practices among teachers to better it, and basic premise for the administrators in considering using this software Specifically, the study is of: “An evaluation of the application of Phonics software in an English course for children at Thinh Quang primary school.” Aims and objectives of the Study The study aims to evaluate the application of Phonics software based on the motivation created on the part of children in an English course at Thinh Quang primary school Hence, it is expected to achieve the four following objectives:  First, to investigate whether Phonics holds children attention  Second, to find out the relevance of the application of Phonics to the children level  Third, to investigate if the application of Phonics brings children‟s confidence in learning English at class  Last, to reveal children‟s satisfaction to the application of Phonics in the English course Research questions In order to achieve the aims of the study, the following research questions were raised: (1) To what extent does Phonics hold children attention? (2) To what extent is the application relevant to the children? (3) To what extent does Phonics bring about children‟s confidence? (4) To what extent are the children satisfied with the application? Scope of the Study The present study operates within the following scopes: (i) As constructed in the IT, “application” depends on both the users (in context of classroom, they are the teachers and the learners) and the instructional design The research is to evaluate the instructional design of the program Purposely, it goes to evaluate the motivation due to the instructional design created on part of the children in an English course at Thinh Quang primary school (ii) This study is a case study since the instructional design is restricted by the children (iii) Regarding to the monitoring of the software, (Galavis, 1998) pointed out that „Instead of being a simple holder and provider of knowledge, the teacher will become the guide of students.‟ The teacher, in this case, does play the role as the guider who controls the software leading children through every activity without intervening the content of the software Methods of the Study Case study was chosen as a research method applying for this study A questionnaire was used as a main instrument on 141 children of classes including grade and at Thinh Quang primary school who have just finished the first level of the program – Phonics, i.e., level starter, to investigate whether the instructional design brings about motivation on children based on ARCS model of Keller (1993), including Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction An interview is then conducted on some students for clarifying problems arising from the data Significance of the Study The research, first of all, would provide the researcher herself with further information to validate the new software for the children, to see whether it is a good one in term of the motivational factors positively affected through its instructional design The second significance of the study is for the improvement of English teaching and learning at Thinh Quang primary school The research is of great value for the teachers by providing them a deep overview from the extent that the instructional design brings about children‟s motivation The teachers then would have better adapting in their teaching to better children‟s learning Last but not least significance of the study lies in the fact that it can bring the teachers, the students and the administrators the beliefs of using IT in language teaching and learning The researcher hopes that it would bring them positive beliefs on the use of information technology in their class and school Finally, the study then informs to the designers of the children‟s perception of their software Accordingly, they would aware of the strong and weak points of their product Organization of the Study This study consists of three main parts: introduction, development, and conclusion The introduction presents the rationale, the aims and objectives, research questions, scope, method, significance and design of the study The development comprises three chapters: - Chapter one reviews the theoretical background to the application of CALL in English language teaching with the models of CALL, the relation between motivation and the young-learner, the relation between instructional design and motivation, the description of Keller‟s ARCS Model of Motivation and some prominent recent researches on ARCS of Keller - Chapter two details the setting of the study in which all the language items displayed in the software are specifically defined and the context of the study are also described - Chapter three presents the methodology of the study - Chapter four is where the data are presented, the findings come up with and the implications built upon the basis of the evaluation in the previous chapters The conclusion, apart from summarizing the main issues so far touched upon in the study, proposes recommendation for future research 42 REFERENCES Bandura, A (1997) Self-efficacy: The exercise of control New York: W.H Freeman and Company Barr, D (2004) ICT – Integrating computers in teaching: Creating a computer-based language-learning environment New York: Peter Lang Clark, R C., & Mayer, R E (2008), E-learning and the science of instruction (2nd ed) Pfeiffer Dornyei, Z (2001) Teaching and Researching Motivation Longman Gabrielle, D M (2003) The effects of technology – mediated instructional strategies on motivation, performance, and self-directed learning Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Florida State University Gagné, R M., & Driscoll, M P (1988) Essentials of learning for instruction (2nd ed.) Englewood cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Galavis, B (1998) Computers and the EFL Class: Their Advantages and Possible Outcome, The Autonomous Learner English Teaching Forum, 36 (4), Page 27 Keller, J M (1983) Motivational design of instruction In C M Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional design theories and models: An overview of their current status (pp 383433) Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Keller, J M (1987) Strategies for stimulating the motivation to learn Performance and Instruction, 26(9), 1-8 Keller, J M (1992) Enhancing the motivation to learn: Origins and applications of the ARCS model Reports from the Institute of Education (Vol 11, pp 45-62) Sendai, Japan: Tohoku Gakuin University Keller, J M (1993) Manual for Instructional Materials Motivational Survey (IMMS) (pp 5) Tallahassee, FL Keller, J M (1999) Motivation in Cyber Learning Environments International Journal of Educational Technology, 1(1), 7-30 Málfrídur (2007) English for Very Young Learners Retrieved September 25th, 2010, from http://malfridur.ismennt.is/haust2006/pdf/malfr_27-31.pdf 43 Nunan, D (1992) Research methods in language learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Reigeluth, C (1983) Instructional Design: What is it and why is it? In C Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-Design Theories and Models: An overview of their current status (pp 36) New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Rothwell, W., & Kazanas (1992) Mastering the instructional design process: A systematic approach San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Song, S H., & Keller, J M (1999, February) The ARCS model for developing motivationallyadaptive computer-assisted instruction Paper presented at the AECT Distance Learning Conference, Denver Song, S H (1998) The effects of motivationally adaptive computer-assisted instruction developed through the ARCS model Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Florida State University Taylor R (1980) The computer in the school: tutor, tool, tutee New York: Teachers College Press Taylor M & Perez L (1989) Something to on Monday La Jolla, CA: Athelstan Visser, J., & Keller, J M (1990) The clinical use of motivational messages: An inquiry into the validity of the ARCS model of motivational design Instructional Science, 19, 467500 I APPENDICES APPENDIX A SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (English version) This survey questionnaire is designed for my research in to An evaluation of the application of Phonics software in an English course for children at Thinh Quang primary school Your assistance in completing the survey is highly appreciated Thank you very much for your cooperation! Dinh Thi Hong Van Teacher at Thịnh Quang primary school – Ba Dinh – Hanoi I Personal information Sex: Male Female Age: ……… Grade: ……… II Please place an "X" to the right of the number that relates to the numbers in the legend below Not true Slightly true Moderately Mostly true Very true true II STT Statements When I first looked at Phonics, I had the impression that it would be easy for me There was something interesting at the beginning of each lesson that got my attention The lessons were more difficult to understand than I would like for it to be After being introduced the information for each lesson, I felt confident that I knew what I was supposed to learn from the lesson It is clear to me how the content of Phonics is related to things I already know Many of the pages had so much information that it was hard to pick out and remember the important points The graphics in the lessons are eye-catching Sounds in the Phonics are from English teacher and children that made me easy to hear and understand Pieces of cartoon presented in each lesson helped to hold my interest 10 The lessons are so abstract that it was hard to keep my attention focused on the material 11 As I worked on Phonics, I was confident that I could learn the content 12 I enjoyed Phonics so much that I would like to know more about its topics III 13 Each segment of Phonics looks dry and unappealing 14 The content of Phonics is relevant to my interests 15 The way the information is arranged on the pages helped keep my attention 16 Phonics had things that stimulated my curiosity 17 I really enjoyed studying Phonics 18 The amount of repetition in every lesson caused me to get bored sometimes 19 The content and style of writing in Phonics convey the impression that its content is worth knowing 20 I learned some things that were surprising or unexpected 21 After working on Phonics for a while, I was confident that I would be able to pass the final exam 22 Phonics was not relevant to my needs because I already knew most of it 23 The variety of cartoon characters, cartoon characters’ saying, questions, and illustrations, etc., helped keep my attention on the individual lessons 24 I could relate the content of Phonics to things I have seen, done, or thought about in my own life 25 There are so many words on each page that it is irritating 26 It felt good to successfully complete this program 27 The content of Phonics will be useful to me IV 28 I could not really understand quite a bit of the lessons in Phonics 29 The good organization of the content helped me be confident that I would learn this material 30 It was a pleasure to work on such a well-designed software program PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA NGHIÊN CỨU (Vietnamese version) Những câu hỏi thiết kế cho nghiên cứu đánh giá việc ứng dụng phầm mềm tiếng Anh Phonics khóa học tiếng Anh cho trẻ nhỏ trường tiểu học Thịnh Quang Chúng đánh giá cao giúp đỡ việc hoàn thành bảng câu hỏi sau Cảm ơn hợp tác con! Đình Thị Hồng Vân Giáo viên tiếng Anh trường tiểu học Thịnh Quang – Đống Đa – Hà Nội I Thông tin cá nhân Sex: Nam Nữ Tuổi: ……… Lớp: ……… V II Con chọn thang mức độ câu cho sẵn bảng sau: Hoàn toàn Không Chỉ không Đúng Rất khía cạnh STT Các ý kiến đánh giá Lần tiếp xúc với phần mềm tiếng Anh Phonics thấy ấn tượng dễ học Mở đầu học hát khởi động thú vị gây ý với Các học thường khó hiểu nghĩ Sau nghe cô giáo giới thiệu học, thấy tự tin học Con nhận thức rõ nội dung học liên quan tới mà biết Con không nhớ hết câu chuyện hội thoại nhân vật học Các hình ảnh đồ hoạ học đẹp sinh động Âm sử dụng phần mềm giọng nói cô giáo bạn người Anh dễ nghe dễ hiểu Các đoạn phim hoạt hình học giúp thấy VI hứng thú học 10 Các học khó hiểu làm cho không tập trung học 11 Con tự tin học tiếng Anh với phần mềm Phonics 12 Phần mềm Phonics tạo hứng thú cho việc học tiếng Anh, giúp có ham muốn khám phá tìm hiểu học 13 Mỗi hoạt động học Phonics khô khan không hấp dẫn 14 Nội dung học Phonics phù hợp với sở thích 15 Các hoạt động tổ chức học có liên kết nên giúp thấy học thú vị 16 Phần mềm tiếng Anh Phonics có nhiều ưu điểm kích thích trí tò mò 17 Con thích học tiếng Anh với Phonics 18 Việc lặp lặp lại câu nói tương tự nhân vật hoạt hình phần mềm làm cho thấy nhàm chán 19 Các chữ cái, nhận vật hoạt hình câu chuyện xoay quanh nhân vật hoạt hình xuất học phần mềm ấn tượng đáng để tìm hiểu 20 Con bắt gặp nhiều điều thú vị đáng ngạc nhiên học tiếng Anh với Phonics 21 Sau học với phần mềm tiếng Anh Phonics thời gian, thấy tự tin vượt qua kỳ thi VII 22 Phần mềm tiếng Anh Phonics dễ biết hết kiến thức phần mềm 23 Sự đa dạng câu nói, câu hỏi, nhân vật hoạt hình, hình ảnh minh hoạ giúp tập trung vào học 24 Con liên hệ nội dung học với điều mà thấy, làm nghĩ sống 25 Có nhiều chữ viết, hình ảnh hình khiến thấy khó nhìn không tập trung 26 Con thấy vui học xong học 27 Nội dung học Phonics hữu ích cho 28 Con thấy thực không hiểu số học phần mềm 29 Việc tổ chức khoa học hoạt động nội dung học phần mềm giúp tự tin 30 Con vui học tiếng Anh với Phonics-một phần mềm tiếng Anh thiết kế chuyên nghiệp VIII APPENDIX B FOLLOW – UP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Eight children from classes were asked to clarify in details the following statement based on their opinion in the questionnaire survey Item #3* The lessons were more difficult to understand than I would like for it to be ‘I feel that all the lessons are of difficult to understand, especially the reading section which includes long sentences I also find the pronunciation difficult too, I cannot imitate exactly many words.’ ‘I feet it difficult in writing section, the words are some time long that take me long time to remember, just some common or easy words are of my favor.’ Item #5 It is clear to me how the content of this material is related to things I already know ‘There are many familiar topics such as animals, fruits, family, etc Words and sentences are the same with things in the life.’ ‘Some stories are not of true or the same in my life such as the story about the horse, the insect; I don’t like horses and insects.’ ‘Some the same and some different Some are familiar with me such as the boy, the girl Some are strange to me such the the owl, the mouse that can say, unbelievable.’ Item #18* The amount of repetition in every lesson caused me to get bored sometimes ‘I see the cartoon characters always repeated their saying or say the same thing so many times that make me feel bored.’ ‘I like all the cartoon stories; many of them are so good and interesting However, for example, if the boy and the girl appear in the stories all the time I would not like that way.’ ‘I like the way the cartoon character repeats the sounds and words This helps me a lot in remembering them, sounding them and it is not boring at all.’ (2 children) ‘The continuous repetition is boring and I don’t like the scene that the boy and girl appear all the time.’ (2 children) ‘The repetition helps me feel easy to learn by heard or remember the words or sounds right in the class and feel of no boring.’ IX APPENDIX C John Keller Florida State University Instructional Materials M Scale The instructions and items for the IMMS are as follows (Tables and 2): Instructions Instructional Materials Motivation Survey John M Keller Florida State University There are 36 statements in this questionnaire Please think about each statement in relation to the instructional materials you have just studied, and indicate how true it is Give the answer that truly applies to you, and not what you would like to be true, or what you think others want to hear Think about each statement by itself and indicate how true it is Do not be influenced by your answers to other statements Record your responses on the answer sheet that is provided, and follow any additional instructions that may be provided in regard to the answer sheet that is being used with this survey Thank you Table Instructions for the Instructional Materials Motivation Survey Instructional Materials Motivation Survey John M Keller Florida State University (or A) = Not true (or B) = Slightly true (or C) = Moderately true (or D) = Mostly true (or E) = Very true When I first looked at this lesson, I had the impression that it would be easy for me There was something interesting at the beginning of this lesson that got my attention This material was more difficult to understand than I would like for it to be After reading the introductory information, I felt confident that I knew what I was supposed to learn from this lesson Completing the exercises in this lesson gave me a satisfying feeling of X accomplishment It is clear to me how the content of this material is related to things I already know Many of the pages had so much information that it was hard to pick out and remember the important points These materials are eye-catching There were stories, pictures, or examples that showed me how this material could be important to some people 10 Completing this lesson successfully was important to me 11 The quality of the writing helped to hold my attention 12 This lesson is so abstract that it was hard to keep my attention on it 13 As I worked on this lesson, I was confident that I could learn the content 14 I enjoyed this lesson so much that I would like to know more about this topic 15 The pages of this lesson look dry and unappealing 16 The content of this material is relevant to my interests 17 The way the information is arranged on the pages helped keep my attention 18 There are explanations or examples of how people use the knowledge in this lesson 19 The exercises in this lesson were too difficult 20 This lesson has things that stimulated my curiosity 21 I really enjoyed studying this lesson 22 The amount of repetition in this lesson caused me to get bored sometimes 23 The content and style of writing in this lesson convey the impression that its content is worth knowing 24 I learned some things that were surprising or unexpected 25 After working on this lesson for a while, I was confident that I would be able to pass a test on it 26 This lesson was not relevant to my needs because I already knew most of it 27 The wording of feedback after the exercises, or of other comments in this lesson, helped me feel rewarded for my effort 28 The variety of reading passages, exercises, illustrations, etc., helped keep my attention on the lesson 29 The style of writing is boring 30 I could relate the content of this lesson to things I have seen, done, or thought about in my own life 31 There are so many words on each page that it is irritating XI 32 It felt good to successfully complete this lesson 33 The content of this lesson will be useful to me 34 I could not really understand quite a bit of the material in this lesson 35 The good organization of the content helped me be confident that I would learn this material 36 It was a pleasure to work on such a well-designed lesson Table Items of the Instructional Materials Motivation Survey  Scoring As with the IMMS, the survey can be scored for each of the four subscales or the total scale score (Table 3) The response scale ranges from to (see Table 1) This means that the minimum score on the 36 item survey is 36, and the maximum is 180 with a midpoint of 108 The minimums, maximums, and midpoints for each subscale vary because they not all have the same number of items An alternate scoring method is to find the average score for each subscale and the total scale instead of using sums For each respondent, divide the total score on a given scale by the number of items in that scale This converts the totals into a score ranging from to and makes it easier to compare performance on each of the subscales There are no norms for the survey As it is a situation specific measure, there is no expectation of a normal distribution of responses As data become available from a variety of applications of the scales, descriptive statistical information will be published Scores are determined by summing the responses for each subscale and the total scale Please note that the items marked reverse (Table 3) are stated in a negative manner The responses have to be reversed before they can be added into the response total That is, for these items, = 1, = 2, = 3, = 4, and = Attention Relevance Confidence Satisfaction (reverse) 14 11 10 21 12 (reverse) 16 (reverse) 27 15 (reverse) 18 13 32 17 23 19 (reverse) 36 20 26 (reverse) 25 22 (reverse) 30 34 (reverse) 24 33 35 XII 28 29 (reverse) 31 (reverse) Table IMMS scoring guide Thank you for evaluating AnyBizSoft PDF Merger! 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Go to Purchase Now>> AnyBizSoft PDF Merger  Merge multiple PDF files into one  Select page range of PDF to merge  Select specific page(s) to merge  Extract page(s) from different PDF files and merge into one [...]... which the application of Phonics software brings about motivation to the children in an English course at Thinh Quang primary school Obviously, the study employs the ARCS as the instrument to collect data 16 CHAPTER 2: THE DESIGN OF PHONICS AND AN OVERVIEW OF THE USE OF PHONICS at THINH QUANG PRIMARY SCHOOL 2.1 The design of Phonics 2.1.1 Phonics structure Phonics consists of 6 levels, including Starter,... motivation On the other words, the instructional design of Phonics software does bring children s motivation in context of Thinh Quang primary school As the result, the software is of practical significance in the context of the school 4.1.2.1 Research question 1 To what extent does Phonics hold students’ attention? Table 4 - 3 reports the means and standard deviations for the attention subscale of ARCS... schools in Vietnam As the result, the Phonics program is welcomed and applied in many schools around the country so far 2.2.2 The context of Thinh Quang school Thinh Quang is one of the pioneers in applying this software in English teaching and learning at primary level The program is first delivered to 4 classes which encourage volunteer children from grade one and two at school The total number of children. .. Level 4 and Level 5 It was designed with the aim of providing a Standard English environment for children in which they can shape their habit of using English in natural ways At the outset, only children of 6 and 7 (grade 1 and 2) at Thinh Quang primary school are involved in the course Thus, the researcher would like to focus on the detail description of the first level for those of grade 1 and 2:... and the discussion based on the data collected from the survey questionnaire and the follow – up interviews The chapter begins by reviewing the purpose of the study It then looks at the demographics of the population accessed in the course of gather data for the research It ends up with the implications based on the result findings 4.1 Result findings The purpose of this study is mainly evaluating... evaluating how the application of the Phonics software brings about children s motivation in an English course at Thinh Quang primary school Through questionnaires and interview, a large amount of data was gathered and analyzed for measuring motivation 4.1.1 Demographic summary 141 questionnaires were delivered to children and all were collected after that by the researcher This means the total response... on 22 instructional design of the software not something else Consequently, the study is conducted in the context of only Thinh Quang primary school 3.2 Participants of the Study The population of the study is 141 children from four Phonics classes; including two classes of grade 1 and 2 classes of grade two that started to learn English with Phonics from school year of 2009 to 2010 All of the children. .. Sing to learn: Children learn news words or words with songs and actions together Write and draw: Children learn to write by remembering the symbols of the letters and draw them 2.2 An overview of the use of Phonics at Thinh Quang primary school 20 2.2.1 The origin of Phonics Phonics is an English program applying Standard English (Received Pronunciation) to teach children from different countries in. .. motivation, in relation to performance, is a means and not an end; and (c) systematic design and implementation can predictably and measurably influence motivation Put it another way, motivation based on Keller‟s definition, is measured by the amount of effort the student makes in order to attain the instructional goal As can be inferred from the two definitions of motivation, the core elements in both... listen and answer the questions in chorus, groups and individuals Description: Children imagine that they are the character and then do the typical actions of that character in the lesson Role – play: Children play the role of the character and sound like the character or act out the scene of the story Back chaining: Use for the long reading sentences to help children practice reading and sounding from the ... premise for the administrators in considering using this software Specifically, the study is of: An evaluation of the application of Phonics software in an English course for children at Thinh Quang. .. is designed for my research in to An evaluation of the application of Phonics software in an English course for children at Thinh Quang primary school Your assistance in completing the survey... welcomed and applied in many schools around the country so far 2.2.2 The context of Thinh Quang school Thinh Quang is one of the pioneers in applying this software in English teaching and learning at