My 3rd Assignment

Title: ‘Gender Difference in CALL Programs for English as a Second Language Acquisition’

By: Cheng-Chieh Lai and Ming-Mu Kuo

To view the article click HERE

SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE

Aims of the Research

The article focuses on the study of the effects of gender differences on the application of CALL program for Second Language Acquisition (SLA). The purpose of the study is to gain a comprehension understanding of what effects the gender differences on the use of current technology in SLA and to clarify the functions of CALL programs towards the Taiwan EFL students’ learning.

Subjects of the Study

A set of questionnaire was distributed to 200 students (34 males and 166 females) who are taking the EFL courses and CALL program in the Wanzo Ursuline College of Languages in Taiwan during the fall semester of 2006. Interviews were conducted to five females and five males from the same college.

Methodology

In order to identify the causes of gender differences on the use of CALL program for second language learners, subjects were required to use Microsoft Photostory3 software to produce English video and present the teaching plan through Microsoft PowerPoint Producer. Then, a set of questionnaire entitled ‘EFL & CALL Questionnaire’ was distributed to collect data. In order to identify the problems and barriers for students learning English with CALL program, ten ESL students were interviewed.

FINDINGS

Learning Attitude

A majority of 31 male students (91.1%) felt that CALL is fun and useful and only 71 out of 166 female students (42.7%) agreed with that statement. The rest felt that it is difficult to learn English with computer or CALL program.

Learning Efficacy

A majority of 30 male students (88.2%) think that it is efficient to learn English through CALL, however 89 female students (53.6%) disagree with that statement as they think that traditional EFL instruction is better.

Only a quart of students (11.7% males and 23.4% females) felt that learning English with computer is boring. Nearly 67.7% of the students (124students) think that CALL would not help them to improve their speaking skill thus an improvement needs to be made on the speaking training area.

Learning Anxiety

32 female students (19.2%) stated that they are more nervous learning English with CALL than with an English teachers while only 5 male students (14.7%) agreed with that statement. It means that male students have more confidence and at ease in using computer compare to females.

Learning Barrier

Results from the interviews found that lack of computer knowledge and unfamiliar with the computer software are the obstacles for female EFL students to use CALL program in learning English. Male students are showed more confidence in handling the computer. Three male students stated that the main obstacles for them to use CALL are that the software is expensive and often not available in the library.

OPINION / COMMENT

Strength

In my opinion this is a good research for future teachers as it looks on the function of computer in learning second language. If students are able to learn language through the usage of computer, it will make the teaching and learning more easily as the teachers can provide the software for the students to learn it not only in class, but also back at home.

Weakness

One of the weaknesses of this research is that the findings were not stated clearly for the readers to read. The finding statement is too short and there are even some of the questions which the researchers did not ask the participants or did not state in the findings, like the age of the participants as well as the participants’ opinion regarding how to improve the CALL program. By looking at the recommendation of the students, teachers as well as the college administration can look at the needs of the students and how to improve the CALL program.

Another weakness is which I had stated earlier is the age of the subjects of the study. The researchers should have mention a little bit of the background of the subjects in term of the age of the participants. In my opinion age plays an important part in the outcome of the findings. As we all know, younger generations nowadays are more exposed to the usage of technology thus they are used to handling software computers and may have no problems with learning English through CALL (Shapira, 2007). By stating the age of the participants, researchers as well as the readers are able see and identify if the participants that are not keened with the usage of CALL in language learning are of older age then those who are interested with using CALL.

Recommendation

Learning language through computer software is not something that is new to the teaching and learning world. According to 1960’s (Delcloque, 2000), CALL’s origins and development can be trace back to the 1960’s. However, it is not being implemented in the schools as some of the schools are not equipped with the current technology and not many teachers are experts with the use of computers (Hee Jung Jung, 2005). There are even some students who do not have any computer and lack of computer knowledge. Thus, CALL is not widely use in the education due to lack of equipment and expertise.

By looking at the finding of the research, educators as well as the college administration are able to improve the weakness of the CALL program. My recommendation would be that the college should provide computer learning program for those who wanted to improve their computer skills. However this may be a problems as some of the students may be too busy with their classes and assignments that they have no time to go the computer class which is why that I stated earlier that researchers should have included a section for the participants’ opinion regarding how to improve the CALL program. Some of the students may have written that they wanted a computer class where they can improve their computer skills.

CONCLUSION

Since we are living in a world of technology where pretty much everything we do involves with the technology, so it no shock that even eduction is moving in that direction. But in order to develop a suitable CALL program, we have to look at the pros and cons of using computer in second language learning and factors that prevent the students to use the computer in language learning based on the gender of the students, as different genders have their own opinion and preferences. By referring to this research journal, educators as well as collage administration are able to improve their CALL program that suits all learners. However a few improvements on the researchers’ part can make the research journal better and useful.