i VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI THE UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES THE FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE- STUDIES ********************************************** NGUYỄN THỊ NHƯ QUỲNH TÓM TĂT LUẬN VĂN LEARNERS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS LEARNING THE COURSEWARE “FUNCTIONING IN BUSINESS” THROUGH DYNED SOFTWARE: A SURVEY EVALUATION BY THE SECOND YEAR NONENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY (Thái độ sinh viên việc học giáo trình “Functioning in Business” phần mềm DynED: Một khảo sát đánh giá sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Đại Học Kinh Doanh Công Nghệ Hà Nội) M.A.MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD CODE HANOI, 2011 : METHODOLOGY : 601410 ii VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY THE UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACUTY OF POST GRADUATE- STUDIES **************************************** NGUYỄN THỊ NHƯ QUỲNH LEARNERS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS LEARNING THE COURSEWARE “FUNCTIONING IN BUSINESS” THROUGH DYNED SOFTWARE: A SURVEY EVALUATION BY THE SECOND YEAR NONENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY (Thái độ sinh viên việc học giáo trình “Functioning in Business” phần mềm DynED: Một khảo sát đánh giá sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Đại Học Kinh Doanh Công Nghệ Hà Nội) M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD : METHODOLOGY CODE : 601410 SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN BÀNG, M.A HANOI, 2011 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the thesis Aims of the thesis Significance of the thesis Scope of the thesis Design of the thesis PART 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.1 Courseware in Language Teaching and Learning 1.1.1.Definition of Courseware 1.1.2.Reasons for Courseware Evaluation 1.1.3.Role of Teaching Courseware in General English 1.1.4.Types of Courseware Evaluation 1.2 Courseware Evaluation Framework 10 1.2.1 Presentation and Organization of the Content 12 1.2.2 Evaluation of Learning 16 1.3 Dynamic Education 17 1.3.1.Introduction of Dynamic Program 17 1.3.2.Pegagogical Framework of DynED 17 1.3.3.“Functioning in Business” Courseware of DynED Program 21 1.3.4.The Role of DynED as CALL 23 1.3.5.Related Studies 23 1.4 Summary 23 Chapter 2: Research Methodology 25 2.1 An overview of current English Teaching and Learning at HUBT 25 2.2 Research Methods 26 2.2.1 Research Questions 26 vii 2.2.2 Research Design 26 2.2.3 Research Instrument 26 2.2.4 Participants 27 2.2.5 Data collection procedures 27 2.3 Summary 27 Chapter 3: Data Analysis and Discussion 28 3.1 Results of the Content in “Functioning in Business” Courseware 28 3.2 Results of the Interactivity in “Functioning in Business” Courseware 30 3.3 Results of the Navigation in “Functioning in Business” Courseware 31 3.4 Results of the Feedback in “Functioning in Business” Courseware 32 3.5 Results of the Screen Design in “Functioning in Business” Courseware 33 3.6 Results of the Students’ Learning to“ the Courseware 35 3.7 Results of the Students’ Preference to the Courseware 38 3.8 Recommendations for material improvements 39 3.9 Summary of major findings 41 PART 3: CONCLUSION 43 3.1 Conclusions 43 3.2 Implications 44 3.3 Limitations 45 3.4 Suggestions for further study 46 REFERENCES I APPENDIX V viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS HUBT : Hanoi University of Business and Technology CALL : Computer-Assisted language learning ICT : The advent of Information and Communication Technology CAI : Computer-Assisted Instruction CAL : Computer Assisted learning HC : Hypermedia courseware DynED : Dynamic Education LIOJ : Institute of Japan ix LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figures Figure 1: Diagram of the Evaluation Framework Figure 2: Video Interaction in DynED Figure 3: Sample of Vocabulary question in DynED Figure 4: Sample of sentence construction in DynED Figure 5: Record Manager in DynED Tables Table 1: Analysis on the Content in the “Functioning in Business” Courseware Table 2: Analysis on the Interactivity of the “Functioning in Business” Courseware Table 3: Analysis on the Navigation of the IMM Courseware Table 4: The analysis of the feedback of the “Functioning in Business” courseware Table 5: Analysis on the Screen Design of the Courseware Table 6: The analysis on the students’ learning towards the courseware Table 7: Analysis on Students’ Preferences towards the Use of “Functioning in Business” Courseware Compared to Traditional Methods of Learning PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the thesis In the past, English lessons were normally taught through conventional classroom instruction, in which, most often than not, the teacher would be teaching in front of the classroom, while students were passive recipients of knowledge However, presently technology has had a great influence on the educational practices in the classrooms in which computer-based technology is very much in use to enhance instruction and transfer the focus from the teacher to the students in the learning process (Bork, 2001; Ertmer, Gopalakrishnan & Ross, 2001) Incorporating technology in the classroom is beneficial to the students in a number of ways: assisting students‟ understanding of concepts, enhancing students‟ motivation in exploring, investigating, conjecturing, creating and discovering principles, and making generalization and connections (Wertherimer, 1990); engaging students involvement in the learning process (Guha, 2003) and motivating them The advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought the concept of Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) into the classroom CAI is a kind of instruction that exploits computer software to assist teachers to teach information or skills related to a particular topic (Roblyer, 2004), and students can interact directly with lessons programmed into the computer system (Smaldino, Russell, Heinich & Molenda, 2005) There are many types of software that teachers can use to develop their own teaching courseware Studies demonstrate that the DynED software can be used to help improve students‟ achievement in English hence, to eradicate much English anxiety and fear of using computer software and learning English Aims of the thesis The purpose of this study is to evaluate a courseware for the Business Communications course The courseware is specifically known as “Functioning in Business” It consists of additional information on the subject and quizzes to complement the Business Communications course The objective is the evaluation of the courseware by the students and that of the researcher on its strengths and weaknesses of the courseware The study is conducted primarily to find out the attitude of students towards the use of the Business Communications courseware as a supplementary teaching/learning material in HUBT Significance of the thesis Many teachers often face problems and difficulties in teaching English namely due to shortage of instructional media, students‟ lack of understanding of the basic concepts of English, students‟ incomplete work and negative learning attitude Researchers have shown that students also tend to „find school much less interesting than the myriad of devices they carry in their pocket and backpacks‟ (Prensky, 2005) Thus, teachers need to find interesting strategies and tools to make teaching and learning more effective and interesting to the students Practically, the findings of the thesis will be of great use not only to the researcher but also to the teachers who are teaching DynED software to students at HUBT Furthermore, the findings of the thesis will form a foundation toward improving the quality of the courseware which is currently in use for the students at HUBT Scope of the thesis In courseware evaluation, there has been a great number of criteria that should be taken into consideration such as: the content, the organization and presentation, the design factors, the pedagogical parameter, and so on In this study, the researcher focuses on the following criteria: content, interactivity, screen design, navigation, feedback, students‟ learning and preference towards the courseware Due to the limited scope of a minor thesis, research subjects are primarily confined to English students who have been learning the courseware for year However, to ensure the validity and reliability of the given information, teachers‟ views, which are collected in an informal way through their observation and experience in working/talking with students, is also taken into account Design of the thesis There are three main parts in this thesis: introduction, development, and conclusion The introduction provides the rationale, the aims, the significance, the scope, and design of the thesis The development consists of three chapters: Chapter one presents a review of literature concentrating on the issues related to courseware evaluation It discusses the definition of courseware, the roles and types of courseware evaluation in language teaching and learning, and presents major issues in courseware evaluation including purposes for courseware evaluation, types of courseware evaluation, and courseware evaluation framework Chapter two focuses on the methodology employed in this thesis including an overview of current English teaching and learning at HUBT, research methodology, and the data collection procedures Chapter three discusses the findings of the study; points out the strengths, weaknesses of the courseware, and suggests the recommendations for the courseware improvement The conclusion provides a brief summary of all the major parts being present in the study, the conclusions drawn out and suggestions for further research PART 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.1 Courseware in Language Teaching and Learning As technology improves, computers are becoming more and more common, and in an increasingly diverse number of applications Moreover, not only have computers become commonplace, they have also become indispensable Without the computer, for example, many recent scientific researches would not have been possible Furthermore, the demanding on high-speed communication and the immediate accessibility to information in different ways has fostered the advance for the development of computer technology “These demands and technological advances have worked hand in hand to propel the art and science of multimedia to a new level, resulting in products that weave together text, graphics, animation, audio and video.” (Norton Peter, 2001: 419) Therefore, computer is considered as a tool to improve the quality of teaching technology Recently, the process of teaching with assistance of computer is known as Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) The philosophy of CAI is that the lessons allow the learners to learn their own using structured and/or unstructured interactive lessons The use of computer as a teaching media provides several advantages, as stated by Sudjana & Rival (2009:137) They are: i) The role of computer will stimulate students’ motivation in learning process ii) Color, sound, and graphic increase the students’ impression of realism iii) Students’ individual responses in learning activities will produce long term memory They also add that computer as teaching media provides audio and visualization which helps students to recognize, enrich, and clarify the concept of the learning materials they are learning In line with them, Mc Donough, et al (1994:211) stated that there are several advantages by using computer as learning media, such as: ... học giáo trình ? ?Functioning in Business? ?? phần mềm DynED: Một khảo sát đánh giá sinh viên năm thứ hai trường Đại Học Kinh Doanh Công Nghệ Hà Nội) M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD : METHODOLOGY CODE... Content in ? ?Functioning in Business? ?? Courseware 28 3.2 Results of the Interactivity in ? ?Functioning in Business? ?? Courseware 30 3.3 Results of the Navigation in ? ?Functioning in Business? ?? Courseware... THROUGH DYNED SOFTWARE: A SURVEY EVALUATION BY THE SECOND YEAR NONENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY (Thái độ sinh viên việc học giáo trình ? ?Functioning in Business? ??