Computer assisted English language learning in Costa Rican elementary schools: an experimental study

Abstract

This study presents first-year findings of a 25-week longitudinal project derived from a two-year longitudinal randomized trial study at the elementary school level in Costa Rica on effective computer-assisted language learning (CALL) approaches in an English as a foreign language (EFL) setting. A pre-test-post-test experimental group design was implemented to evaluate two varying types of CALL curriculum (Treatment A and Treatment B, both technology based to assist English language learning) with a difference in students' time-on-task, as opposed to the Control/ Comparison group (that received no treatment and was a typical practice within the regular English teaching time period). Four subtests from Woodcock Munoz Language Survey-Revised (WMLS-R), a norm-referenced, standardized instrument, were selected to monitor participants' oral English development. A total of 76 urban, rural, and urban/marginal schools with 816 third graders were included in the analysis through multilevel modeling. Results suggested that (1) students held very limited oral English proficiency at the beginning of the third grade; (2) although students significantly improved their oral English proficiency during the 25-week intervention, they were still significantly below the typical native English-speaking norm at the end of the third-grade level; (3) those who were exposed to CALL modules in Treatment A developed at a faster rate than did students in Treatment B and in Control classrooms in lexical knowledge and listening skills when statistically controlling for student-level variables, including initial level and time-on-task; (4) although students in CALL intervention (especially in Treatment B) started with a lower level of oral English proficiency, their gain was numerically higher than that in the Control condition; and (5) time-on-task demonstrated to be an irrelevant variable in the study. These findings imply that it is not just exposure to English that matters for significant gains in the language; rather, it is the type of instruction a student receives, or the quality of instruction in which the software engages the students interactively in a hands-on, minds-on, scaffolded manner, that matters the most in developing steep gains. Finally, we recommend that additional research be conducted with groups that move through kindergarten, first grade, and second grade longitudinally to determine cohort effects in learning English via CALL instruction in EFL countries.

Technology-Mediated Second Language Vocabulary Development: A Review of Trends in Research Methodology

“…In the four-strands analysis, treatments that incorporated all four learning strands were used only in 3 studies and those incorporating three strands were used in 18 studies, two strands were used in 37 studies, and one strand, in 24 studies (15 studies used LF and 9 used MFI). The studies that included all four strands were observational and longitudinal: a 25-week-long CALL curriculum study by Alvarez-Marinelli et al (2016), a six-months Andujar (2016) study that investigated the effect of mobile instant messaging (using WhatsApp) on the accuracy and complexity of students' writing, and DeHaan, Johnson, Yoshimura, and Kondo (2012) who investigated the effect of using wikis on the development of oral communication skills in a fourweek teaching module. In terms of specific strands (used individually or in combination), MFI was used in 64 studies, MFO in 27 studies, LF in 61 studies, and FD in 11 studies.…”

Smart multimedia learning of ICT: role and impact on language learners’ writing fluency— YouTube online English learning resources as an example

“…Taken together, the quantitative and qualitative results of this work confirm previous research and indicate that multimedia brought by ICT technology as a source of language learning can be reliably effective for the optimization of language skills including writing as long as some conditions in the learning environment are met, mainly comprehensibility of input, sufficient exposure time devoted by the learner to the learning material and high engagement level with the material rather than the technology itself. (see ; Alvarez-Marinelli et al, 2016;Hung, Huang, & Hwang, 2014;Kelsen, 2009;Malhiwsky, 2010;Warschauer & Grimes, 2007).…”

ICT multimedia learning affordances: role and impact on ESL learners' writing accuracy development

“…This study surveyed the existing literature and found several studies that dealt with the development of ESL/EFL writing in relation to the effectiveness of the general use of YouTube as an ICT multimedia tool for enhancing the learners' writing experience. Alvarez-Marinelli et al (2016) reported that with the use of the emerging ICT multimedia technology like YouTube, learners' receptive and productive language skills can be enhanced more effectively. Similarly, it was found that the use of YouTube as a multimedia tool can improve language learners' oral, aural and writing skills (Warschauer and Grimes, 2007;Kelsen, 2009;Malhiwsky, 2010).…”