Developing a VLE to Enable the Innovative Learning of English Pronunciation

DEVELOPING A VLE TO ENABLE THE INNOVATIVE LEARNING

OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

Ana María Pinto Llorente

Mª Cruz Sánchez Gómez

Francisco José García Peñalvo

Oporto, October 2015

RESEARCH PURPOSE

TEEM’ 15 Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality

October 2015

RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

To highlight the benefits of some transmissive, interactive and collaborative tools to learn

English phonetics and phonology.

1. English pronunciation learning level and the satisfaction of students will be higher with the

implementation of this technological innovative model.

2. The VLE implemented will help them to develop their ability to perceive and produce English

more accurately, and it will supply them with a natural environment for pronunciation practice.

BLENDED LEARNING MODEL

TRANSMISSIVE RESOURCES


October 2015

COLLABORATIVE RESOURCES

Podcast

VideocastForum

INTERACTIVE RESOURCES

Online questionnaires

Online glossary

METHOD

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Quantitative

Ex-post-facto design.

Natural groups.

Descriptive study, survey method, using

techniques of descriptive & inferential

analysis.


October 2015

SAMPLE


October 2015

Quantitative

87 students

English Phonetics and Phonology

Probability sample.

Cluster sampling.

Relative error 2.5%.

INSTRUMENT


October 2015

Quantitative

2 Questionnaires

Open, closed, multiple choice, and Likert scale -rating questions → halo effect

Internal consistency → Cronbach’s alpha, α=0.819 & 0.824

External validity → Experts

FIELDWORK


October 2015

Quantitative

Students filled in the questionnaires during the first and the last face-to-face lesson of the

course.

174 questionnaires.


October 2015

ORGANIZATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

Quantitative

We followed this scheme in the process of quantitative data analysis:

1. We prepared the register coding to process the questionnaires → the data matrix.

2. We introduced the data.

3. We did descriptive and inferential analysis using the SPSS statistical software version 20.

We used Microsoft Office Word to illustrate the results.

RESULTS


October 2015

Effectiveness of Podcast, Videocast, Online Questionnaires, Online Glossary & Forum

There were significant differences between groups in the effectiveness of podcats

(p=.000), videocast (p=.000), online questionnaires (p=.000), online glossary (p=.000)

and forum (p=.000), and in the mean of the effectiveness of any of these resources

between the groups as a whole.

Tukey post-hoc test revealed that there were statistically significant differences in the

effectiveness of Podcast, Videocast, Online Questionnaires and Forum between the

youngest (20-24 and 25-29) and the oldest students (30-34, 35 or more than 35). However,

there were no significant differences between the groups of students aged between 20-24,

and 25-29.


October 2015

The youngest students (20-24 and 25-29) assess better the effectiveness of these

technological tools (Podcast: 20-24 4.65 and 25-29, ẋ =4.56, Videocast: 20-24, ẋ=4.77 and 25-

29, ẋ=4.58, Online questionnaires: 20-24, ẋ=4.73 and 25-29, ẋ=4.49, Online glossary: 20-24,

ẋ=4.67 and 25-29, ẋ=4.63, Forum: 20-24, ẋ=4.63 and 25-29, ẋ=4.50) than the oldest age groups

(Podcast: 30-34, ẋ=3.95 and 35 or more than 35, ẋ=3.78, Videocast: 30-34, ẋ=4.09 and 35 or

more than 35, ẋ=3.84, Online questionnaires: 30-34, ẋ=3.10 and 35 or more than 35, ẋ=3.35,

Online glossary: 30-34, ẋ=3.40 and 35 or more than 35, ẋ=3.38, Forum: 20-24, ẋ=3.77 and 25-29,

ẋ=3.96).

RESULTS


October 2015

Effectiveness of the E-activities to develop students’ phonological competence and

improve their pronunciation and oral skills

There were significant differences between groups in the dependent variables that referred to

the e-activities to develop students’ phonological competence, to improve pronunciation,

and to improve oral skills (p=.000, p=.000 & p=.000).

There were statistically significant differences in the three variables between the youngest

(20-24 and 25-29) and the oldest students (30-34, 35 or more than 35.) However, there were no

statistically significant differences between the groups of students aged between 20 and 24, and

25-29.


October 2015

The youngest students (20-24 and 25-29) agreed with the statement that the e-activities

developed in the blended-learning model were more effective to improve phonological

competence, pronunciation and oral skills (20-24: ẋ=4.18, ẋ=4.06, ẋ=4.15 and 25-29: ẋ=3.95,

ẋ=3.96, ẋ=4.15) than the students of the oldest age groups (30-34: ẋ=3.52, ẋ=3.61, ẋ=3.63 and

35 or more than 35: ẋ=3.25, ẋ=3.36, ẋ=3.40).

RESULTS


October 2015

The VLE as an Environment to help students to develop their ability to perceive and

produce English more accurately

There were statistically significant differences between the age groups in the dependent

variable that refer to the VLE as an Environment to help students to develop their ability to

perceive and produce English more accurately. These differences existed between the

oldest students (35 or more than 35) and the rest of the age groups (20-24: p=.000, 25-29:

p=.001, 30-34: p=.001).

Most of students considered that the VLE implemented had provided useful tools and e-

activities to develop their ability to perceive and produce English more accurately (20-24:

ẋ=4.38, 25-29: ẋ=4.24 and 30-34: ẋ=4.19). On the other hand, if we take into account the

opinions of the oldest age group (35 or more than) we appreciate that they neither agree nor

disagree with this statement (ẋ=3.63).

RESULTS


October 2015

Students’ self-assessment of their level of oral skills and pronunciation

We analysed if there were statistically significant differences (CI 95%) between all the

items of the pre-test and post-test that referred to oral skills and we found that there were

differences between the mean of speaking (t=-22.578), listening (t=-21.313) and

pronunciation (t=-24.036). We rejected the null hypothesis and say that there was a

relation between the improvement of students’ level of oral skills and pronunciation,

and the effectiveness of the technological model implemented in the subject English

Phonetics and Phonology. We conclude that the participants in our study clearly improved

their level in this matter.

CONCLUSIONS


Octubre 2015

Blended model implemented & transmissive, interactive and collaborative resources to

create the e-activities are appropriate to improve students’ English pronunciation level and

their ability to perceive and produce English more accurately.

Their satisfaction towards the course is very positive and their interest towards the subject is

higher with the implementation of this technological innovative model.

They consider that the VLE implemented has helped them to develop their ability to perceive

and produce English more accurately, and it has supplied them with a more natural

environment for pronunciation practice and to acquire the competences of the subject.

.

CONCLUSIONS


Octubre 2015

The learning outputs and their improvements in their oral skills and pronunciation are in

line with the positive results of students’ satisfaction.

Data show the effectiveness and potential for using podcast, videocast, online

questionnaires, online glossary and forums for academic purpose, specifically for learning

and improving English pronunciation.

Our study provides more information for future educational and innovative proposals that will

allow us to decide better the priorities in educational intervention and move towards more

effective models to teach English Phonetics and Phonology in higher education.

Education

Developing a VLE to Enable the Innovative Learning of English Pronunciation