Contents
Abstract
1.
Introduction
2.
English Education in Japan: Course of Study for junior high school
3.
The Travel Buddy Project: a motivation for students
3.2
The Travel Buddy Project: Case study
3.3
How do the students use this project as homework?
4.
Moodle: What is Moodle?
4.1
Moodle course examples
4.2
How can students use Moodle as homework?
4.3
Hot Potatoes: An alternative to Moodle for non-registered teachers
4.3.1
Examples of Hot Potatoes’ quizzes
4.3.2
How can students use Hot Potatoes as homework?
5. Conclusion
6. Bibliography
Appendix
Abstract
今日、日本の英語教育においてコミュニケーション能力の習得が強調されている。
平成１０年度の中学校学習指導要領では「実践的コミュニケーション能力」の基礎を養う
ことと目標で示されている。しかし、実践的コミュニケーションとはどのように学習した
ら習得できるものであろうか。この論文では、インターネットやコンピュータを題材に、
コミュニケーション能力の学習と動機付けの関連を述べることにした。特に Travel Buddy
Project、Moodle そして Hot Potatoes といった３つのプロジェクト及びコンピュータソ
フトウェアを取り上げ、それぞれがどのような学習を生徒に与えるのか研究した。
Travel Buddy Project は、生徒のコミュニケーション能力を伸ばすのに最も良い
プロジェクトであり、e-mail やチャット、ホームページを通して外国の生徒と日本の生徒
が自由に交流を深めることができる。このプロジェクト自体、生徒への学習動機付けは大
きく、また実際にコミュニケーションを行う要素をたくさん持っている。Moodle も同様、
同じような要素を備えているが、さらにここでは教師が生徒のための e-learning の授業を
行うこともできる。Moodle は、コミュニケーションとして英語学習を行うのに生徒と教師
といった範囲は狭いものの、効果的に使うことによって英語学習に良い教材となる。Hot
Potatoes は Moodle と比較して研究してあり、教師が簡単に練習問題を作れる教材として
紹介した。
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)
1.
Introduction
Recently, information technology has progressed widely in our society and
having English classes using internet will be helpful to students’ acquisition of
communication skills in English. If the computer is used in English classes, the
students will be able to communicate with others in the world through the classroom. So
the internet can be a media to learn English as a means of communication. Teachers
may use the computers for the students’ learning English as one of teaching materials.
Using the internet can give students a lot of motivation, if it is used it
effectively. Motivation is divided into two types: extrinsic and intrinsic. Intrinsic
motivation makes them eager to study more. The details of these two motivations will
be discussed later in chapter 3. Using computers in class has various good elements of
communicating with others and also enjoying studying a language such as e-mailing,
chatting, posting journals, discussing, doing quizzes or activities about English
grammar and vocabulary on computers etc.
However, there are various kinds of materials with the internet. It can be said
that E-leaning is a most popular. It is the delivery of learning activities by computer,
either over the web or through a program running on the computer or CD.1 The process
of learning something using a computer instead of using a teacher and a face-to-face
classroom
setting
is
called
variously
distance
learning,
open
learning,
computer-assisted learning (CAL), computer-based training (CBT), computer-assisted
language learning
(CALL),
technology-enhance
language
learning
(TELL)
or
web-enhanced language learning (WELL).They are all mean essentially the same thing.
According to the book of Modern English Teacher, there are four steps to start
e-learning for teachers. At the stage 1 the teacher needs to set up the technical
infrastructure at school. At the very least, the teacher needs one computer somewhere
with Internet access, so he or she can download materials or print out web pages. At the
stage 2 the delivery systems such as CD-ROMs or Internet will be chosen to teach
English and then the students will be able to access interesting material and activities
on a various ways; from programs on the computer, from the live Internet, from stored
Internet materials on the Internet, and from CD-ROMs the teacher has given them. At
the stage 3 the teacher looks for the web site or CD-ROMs which seem to be used for
teaching. Then at the last stage, the teacher needs to design his or her own materials.
Although there are numerous materials for e-learning, for the computer
1
Modern English Teacher: Getting Started with elearning -Delivering learning
activities by computer, Volume 13, November 2004, p50
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)
program in order to improve the students’ skill of communication in English, especially
the Travel Buddy Project, Moodle and Hot Potatoes are surveyed here in this paper. At
first, the condition of English Education in Japan will be considered using from the
course of study for junior high school.
2.
English Education in Japan: Course of Study for junior high school
Today’s English education in Japan is changing gradually from understanding
grammar to learning languages communicating with others. MEXT (Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) revised the course of study for
junior high school in 2000. Compared with the course of study in the 1990 version, the
greatest change is its objective to study English. The objective of the old one was “to
foster students’ basic abilitiy to understanding the international world, while
developing the students’ basic communication abilities and skills of expressing in a
foreign language with understanding it.”- (This was translated by the author because
the old version of course of study could not be found.)外国語を理解し、外国語で表現する
基礎的な能力を養い、外国語で積極的にコミュニケーションを図ろうとする態度を育てる
とともに、言語や文化に対する関心を深め、国際理解の基礎を培う and new version’s
objective is “To develop students' basic practical communication abilities such as
listening and speaking, deepening the understanding of language and culture, and
fostering a positive attitude toward communication through foreign languages.” It
changed the words “communication abilities “to “basic practical communication
abilities” in the new version. This means the new English education focused on leaning
English as a means of communication.
Besides, to develop the students’ practical communication abilities, MEXT
arranged three-year-education. In the old version, students had an objective for each
year and needed to develop their abilities year by year. However, in the new version
they do not have the yearly objective, and they can learn English more slowly. Thanks to
this revision, teachers also became to be able to teach English with a greater focus on
English communication activities without thinking of a yearly objective. The new
version also gives the treatment of language activities and elements. MEXT gave the
methods of teaching English as a tool of communication with language activities and
elements.
MEXT added phonetic instruction for students. Speech sounds should be given
through pronunciation practice from the standpoint of emphasizing listening and
speaking.
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)
3.
The Travel Buddy Project: a motivation for students
It is important to have motivation when the students learn something. The
intrinsic motivation comes from within and intrinsically motivated students engage
themselves in learning out of curiosity, interest, or enjoyment, or in order to achieve
their own intellectual and personal goals. 2 The Travel Buddy Project can give the
students have their motivation to learn English more. In this project the students need
to introduce their own culture or schools to others and have to communicate with people
using English. So in this case English will be used as a means of communication. When
the students feel interesting to understand other culture and communicate with others,
they will be eager to learn English more to be friends with others.
The Travel Buddy Project gives students a lot of motivation to learn not only
English, but also world culture. The Travel Buddies Project has spread to various
countries. When we search “travel buddies project” on the Internet (Google), 858 pages
of results appear. Most of them are made for schools to learn other culture or language.
The schools have the project to communicate with people in the world. However, it is
hard to tell when and who started this idea. It is said that this idea from Australia on
the purpose of communication with the others abroad.
The Travel Buddy Project works like this. One class decides where their travel
buddy will travel in the world. A Travel Buddy can be a soft toy, stuffed animal or a
puppet. The class names the toy and makes its passport and then finds a partner school
to send the travel buddy to the partner class. Each class exchanges e-mails and
understands each culture. That is to say, a travel buddy is a representative of the class.
The Travel Buddy Project can support a pen pal project, assist in studying communities,
enhance cross-cultural experiences, reinforce foreign language learning, share favorite
stories, books, poems, songs or recipes, find out about history or geography of other
places, aid in investigation of endangered animals around world, attend events like a
space shuttle launch, concert, exhibition, or school assembly, and accompany students
on excursions to local places of interest. This is referred to the home page of MSTE,
mathematics,
science
and
technology
education
(http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au
/old_oz-teachernet/projects/travel-buddies/) Then schools can look for their partner
schools through IECC which is a free teaching.com service to help teachers link with
partners in other cultures and countries for email classroom pen-pal and other project
exchanges. http://www.iecc.org
Increasing Student Engagement and Motivation: From Time-on-Task to Homework,
Brewster, Cori & Jennifer Fager Oct 2000, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
2
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)
3.2
The Travel Buddy Project: Case study
A small English class which has six students from the third to fifth grade
started this project. They decided on a small stuffed animal named “Taro” as their
travel buddy. The students started to learn English in August 2004 and they studied
some vocabulary of greetings, names of food and animals, dates and so on.
First of all, they decided their travel buddy’s name, sex, birthday, hobbies,
favorite food, least favorite food, and things it likes to do. Taro has his own passport
which the students made. He will travel with his passport. The students also make their
own profile with pictures because this project’s intent is to communicate with others in
the world. The students introduce themselves to others with the profiles.
Secondly, the students take turns taking Taro to their home and spending some
days with him. The student who takes Taro home writes Taro’s diary as if Toro has done
so. The students write about the day with Taro and introduce their town, culture, and
Japanese traditions by describing them in the journal.
Thirdly, the students will send Taro to another country with some presents in
his backpack. This is not referred exactly when because this project is underway in
December 1, 2004. Although the partner school could be found at a web site, this class
will send him to the house of an acquaintance of the teacher in Los banos in California,
the U.S. Taro will stay there on a home stay program. Then the host family will write
Taro’s diary with pictures and send him back to the children’s English class. When Taro
is in the host house, the students can contact the host family of Taro through e-mail.
TB
The students
Objective of having the TBP
Taro will be sent to…
Contents
Taro
Six students
-Understanding the culture
A family in Los
-Exchanging a notebook
(A small
from in the
of the world
Banos, California, in
which is written a diary
stuffed
third to fifth
-Making friends in the world
the United States as
of Taro
dog
grade
-Motivating the students to
a home stay
-Introducing each family,
(A Travel
Buddy)
animal.)
learn English
3.3
culture, town, and so on
How do the students use this project as homework?
In this project the students need the teacher’s help. The Travel Buddy Project
for the children’s English class was described in this thesis, but this project can be used
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)
for the students in various levels of the classes. Here is an idea of how to modify this
project for high school level students.
First, the students decide on one travel buddy as the children did in the former
chapter. After that they make their own homepage for the Travel Buddy Project. The
way of dividing into small groups in the class might be a good idea. Making their own
web page will be very helpful to find a partner school or exchange ideas. Then they need
to find a partner school. There are so many web pages for this type of project that it is
not hard to find a partner school.
Second, when the partner school is found, exchanging the ideas of the students
can begin. The students at high school should introduce Japan to the world as the
elementary school children did but by using a diary or through the internet. Using
media seems easier to get immediate messages from the partner schools. It will give the
students a chance to improve their presentation skills because they have to tell the
partner school about their culture or school.
Third, their cultural exchange will be done through e-mail. The students in
Japan check the e-mail daily and learn what their travel buddy did in the partner school.
In this way, the students reply to e-mail often.
The Travel Buddy project needs communication skills to exchange ideas. If the
Internet is involved, the presentation skills or writing skills will be needed more. The
students can have presentations with small groups in the class about culture in the
world or what they learned through this project.
media
Building home page
Finding
a
Exchanging
partner school
ideas
E-mail
Improved
-Presentation skill
-Reading to find
-Understanding
-Reading e-mail
skills
-Writing in order to
information they
other culture
and writing
introduce something to
really need
-Understanding
e-mail
own culture
-Understanding
-Motivating
the e-mail form
through making
in English
others
friends in other
countries
This chart is an idea to get the high students to have this project at class. If the
students build their home page for the project, they can have presentations with the
home page. They can tell the others where their travel buddy is and with which school
in the world they are communicating. Then they can also talk about what they have
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)
learned through this project. The home page the students built aims to introduce
something about their own culture to the world. So the students’ writing ability in order
to introduce something will be improved. They will be eager to look for more vocabulary
when they feel fun to communicate with students in other countries.
On the other hand, the students need to find their partner schools in the world.
There are a lot of web sites to look for the partner school, and then the students have to
pick up a good school for them. Almost all the home pages which are looking for partner
schools are written in English. Of course the students’ reading in English skill will be
needed. In addition to this, they have to get the information which the students really
need.
Exchanging e-mails also helps the students to improve the skills of writing and
reading. They can learn the new types of writing in English, such as “writing in English
with e-mail form.” They can learn different idioms or greetings, and impression marks
like face marks. (^o-)/ :-) :-$
The most important aim in this project is to make the students to motivate
themselves to learn English when they feel exchanging ideas with others is very
interesting. When the students feel that they really want to learn English for
themselves, this project will be successful. This means that the travel Buddy Project can
give the students to have the intrinsic motivation they are eager to learn English more.
4.
Moodle: What is Moodle?
Moodle stands for Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment
and it is a piece of e-learning software for teachers. ( http://moodle.org/ ) It was
established by Martin Dougiamas in Australia. Teachers can have their own page and
give their lessons through it. The lessons are called “courses” here in Moodle. Teachers
have lessons with an extension course or non-extension one. Before the students start to
learn a course, they need to register. In an extension course the students need their
own password to enter the class, but in a non-extension class they do not.
Moreover, teachers can build a course involving seven types of activities;
assignments, choice which is such as a survey of the class, forums, journals, resources,
quizzes, and surveys. Each of these examples is explained in the “Teacher’s Manual”
available on the home page. These activities help the students to learn more. Indeed,
Moodle is not only for language teaching, but also for business uses. This is a main page
of moodle for business uses. http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=32 People can read
articles about the interview with a business person at the page and also there are a lot
of useful information about business categorized “News and Announcements”, “Social
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)
Forum”, “Business Chat”, “Events and Organization” and so on. There are courses of
Moodle users’ page too. “Moodlers” built their pages of the companies or offices in order
to advertise them. http://moodle.org/mod/glossary/view.php?id=2040
4.1
Moodle course examples
In Moodle there are various pages that teachers have built for teaching
language and they made their own courses for students on their pages. People can see
those pages as a guest, but sometimes the courses are not allowed for people to enter the
courses. Some of these courses will be introduced here in this paper as a useful page for
learning English. There are pages that some universities and schools made as on-line
courses for students. The full list is available at http://moodle.org/sites/#JP
This
is
one
page
of
“Shujitsu
Junior
and
Senior
High
School”
http://esl2day.com/index.php?lang=en This page was built by Judith Mikami who lives
in Okayama, Japan for students at junior and senior high schools. She writes her
journal in English with some pictures on her page and students can try to read her
writing in English. She recommends Disney movies for kids too in her journal. She also
made some courses for students to learn English. The categories are divided into levels,
the titles of “Junior High second year”, “Junior High third year”, “High first, second,
third year”, Volunteer program, Eiken, Feedback, Listening, Reading, Writing, and
Student work are found in her courses. Students can learn English more using
computer and entering her courses. Though almost all of her courses do not allow the
people to enter as a guest, we can find that she gives her students can get new names of
animals, countries, and other vocabulary through her explanations of each course.
Next, there is another page named “English Workbook”. It was built by
Timothy
Ervin
who
is
an
English
teacher
in
Hiroshima,
Japan.
http://english.yasuda-u.ac.jp/wb/indexon.php He has a forum on his page and English
learners can write their questions in it and then all participants can discuss topics
which someone suggested. He also makes course materials such as “Vocabulary”,
“Grammar”,
“Composition”,
“Reading”,
and
“Miscellaneous”.
Basic
English,
homophones, adjectives, idioms and proverbs are categorized in his “vocabulary” course.
He chooses words not only for beginners but also for advanced learners like those who
take TOEIC and TOEFL. It might be motivational for learners to see the trivia in
English in his “Miscellaneous” course. In chat rooms the students can talk with others
in English and discuss new things about English, although the time is decided when
they can enter the chat room.
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)
4.2
How can students use Moodle as homework?
The students will require some computer skills in order to take Moodle courses.
The teachers also need to help their students to register the courses at the first class at
school. When students can use their computer frequently, taking Moodle courses will
help them to learn more at home. Therefore, giving Moodle courses to students as
homework at junior high schools and senior schools seems a little difficult.
However, Moodle will help students a lot in order to learn English because it
has many activities in a page. There are seven types of activities as mentioned
previously. Teachers can make their courses efficiently for students to learn English by
combining activities. Judging from the two pages which were introduced in 4.1 (Moodle
courses’ examples), students seem to have feedback of learning which they have learned
at class taking by “writing”, “listening”, “ vocabulary”, and so on. Moreover, students can
have not only review at class but also have opportunities to practice English with
teacher or other friends in chat room, forum, and journal.
4.3
Hot Potatoes: An alternative to Moodle for non-registered teachers
“Hot Potatoes” is software which was made at the University of Victoria,
Canada. Teachers can make some quizzes or exercises for learners in order to practice a
language through the page of Hot Potatoes, but the quizzes do not need to be online. If
the teachers download this software from the page of Hot Potatoes, they can use it with
their computer freely. Teachers can download Hot Potatoes from this page.
http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/
Hot Potatoes can create six kinds of activities; JQuiz, JMix, JCloze, JMatch,
JCross, and The Masher. The Masher is a combination of the other five activities from
JQuiz to JCross. JQuiz is the multiple choice quiz, JMix is for for jumbled-sentence,
JCloze is for the gap-fill, and JMatch is for matching or ordering.
4.3.1
Examples of Hot Potatoes’ quizzes
There are examples of quizzes. Hot Potatoes quizzes are very easy to make
after downloading. The present author created several quizzes herself. At first, Jquize
(http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher/~judy/shoko/shokojquiz.htm) gives the students a
multiple choice quiz and teachers can categorize each question with some titles such as
questions about the perfect tense, the passive voice, or adverbs. This is useful to do
drills of grammar exercises when the teacher wants the students to practice grammar.
With Jcross (http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher/~judy/shoko/shokojcross.htm)
teachers can make their own crosswords quiz with some hints and it gives the students
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)
exercises to practice finding words with definitions. All categories of vocabulary can be
used in this section such as the name of animals, colors, people’s jobs, and so on. After
the teacher put some vocabulary, he or she can make the crossword puzzle with clicking
an icon. Jcloze ( http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher/~judy/shoko/shokojcloz.htm) is a
gap-fill quiz and it is easy to make because there is an icon to choose some words
automatically, so the teacher does not need to choose words. This is a good to check the
students’ reading skills. In Jmix (http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher
/~judy/shoko/shokojmix.htm) the students can practice making sentences with some
words. There are some words in jumbled order that the students can choose to use to
make sentences. Then they will arrange the sentence with the correct word order. It is
useful for students to memorize the basic sentence with a collocation or important rules,
word order, and idioms. Finally, in
Jmatch(http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher/~judy/shoko/shokojmatch.htm)
will help them do it. The teacher can also use the pictures. So the students can learn
new vocabulary with pictures.
This is another homepage of the examples with Hot Potatoes used for various
language learners: http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/sites6.htm
4.3.2
How can students use Hot Potatoes as homework?
First of all, the teachers need to build a home page or some web site like their
own page. Then, after they download Hot Potatoes, they can put finished quizzes in
html format into their own page. When the students want to drill grammar and
vocabulary, they can use Hot Potatoes quizzes which were made by the teacher by
visiting the teacher’s home page. This is a good example of homemade CAI
(computer-assisted or aided instruction)
7.
Conclusion
It is very important that teachers make their students motivated in order to
learn new things by themselves, i.e., to give them intrinsic motivation. As Goro Tajiri (a
teacher at Hita junior high school in Shimane prefecture) says “If doing homework is
not fun, does not have any benefits for the students, or the students do not understand
how to do their homework, the students do not feel like doing it or just do not.” Teachers
need to give their students meaningful homework.
The Travel Buddy Project, Moodle, and Hot Potatoes were introduced in this
thesis, and from these examples we may conclude that using computers in English
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)
education is helpful for the students in order to improve their communication skills and
have motivation to study while enjoying studying. The Travel Buddy Project gives the
students a lot of materials to communicate with others via e-mailing, chatting, and
writing. Then the experience which the students had can motivate them well. On the
other hand, Moodle has some activities for improving students’ communication skills
such as e-mailing, chatting, and writing journals. However, Moodle has materials for
giving motivation to the students more than for improving communication skills. The
courses in Moodle are good examples and they allow the students to learn English
online. Although Hot Potatoes does not have activities to improve communication skills,
it has enough elements to motivate the students to study. The students can easily
practice English because they can see their scores and feedback for quizzes which they
did offline. If students can get something new or useful in their future and feel that
homework they are doing makes them get a higher score in exams or improve the
English skills in general, they will do the homework their teacher gave.
However, although using computer looks fantastic to make the students learn
English, it is still not widely used in schools. According to the survey of Yomiuri
newspaper, nowadays, only 37.2% of all schools maintain the school LAN in July, 2004.
Also MEXT surveyed how many teachers in public schools can use computers in their
class. The results are as follows: 73% of all the teachers in elementary schools can use
computers, 54% in junior high school, and 46% in high school. Another problem is
whether teachers have the ability and time to use these materials offensively, even if
they do have access. Using computers in English education will be helpful when all
students can use the computers freely and the teachers’ computer skills are improved.
Bibliography
Brewster. Cori & Jennifer Fager Oct 2000, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Increasing Student Engagement and Motivation: From Time-on-Task to Homework,
available http://www.nwrel.org/request/oct00/textonly.html
Japanese Moodle online, available http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=14
IECC online homepage, (2002) available http://iecc.org
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan “The Course of
Study for Forein Languages”. available
http://www.mext.go.jp/english/shotou/030301.htm
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)
Modern English Teacher Volume 13: Getting Started with elearning –Developing
learning activities by computer- Nov 2004
Moodle online homepage, available http://moodle.org/
MSTE, Mathematics, science and technology education online homepage. (2003)
available http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/old_oz-teachernet/projects/travel-buddies/
Sugimoto, Taku. Asao, Kojiro. (2002) Internet wo ikashita eigo kyouiku ( English
Education using the internet) Tokyo. Taishukan
Tajiri, Goro (2004) Seminar of English teaching ”Tajiri world e youkoso” presentation at
“Yukaina Nakamatachi”, Kumamoto, December 11, 2004.
The
University
of
Victoria,
Hot
Potatoes,
(2004)
available
http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/
Yomiuri Newspaper, “Teachers who can use computers in their class.” July 28, 2004,
reprinted in Kirinuki Sokuhou Kyoiku ban (Press clippings about education) Vol904.
Oct.2004. P13. Nihon Mick
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)
Appendix
“Teachers’ manual” in the Moodle. (http://moodle.org) Teacher Manual
Assignment: An assignment is where teacher sets a task with a due date and a maximum grade.
Students will be able to upload one file to satisfy the requirements. The date they upload their file is
recorded. Afterwards, teacher will have a single page on which the teacher can view each file and how
late or early it is, and then records a grade and a comment. Half an hour after teacher grades any
particular student, Moodle will automatically email that student a notification.
Choice: A choice activity is very simple -the teacher asks a question and specifies a choice of responses.
Students can make their choice, and the teacher has a report screen where he or she can see the
results. Teachers can use it to gather research consent from their students, but they could use it for
quick polls or class votes.
Forum: This module is by far the most important - it is here that discussion takes place. When teacher
adds a new forum, he or she will present with a choice of different types - a simple single-topic
discussion, a free-for-all general forum, or a one-discussion-thread-per-user.
Journal: Each journal activity is an entry in the whole course journal. For each one the teacher can
specify an open-ended question that guides what students write, as well as a window of time in which
the journal is open (weekly course format only). A general rule is to create one journal per week.
Encourage students to write reflectively and critically in these journals, as they are only available to
them and their teacher. Afterwards, the teacher will be able to grade and comment all the entries for
that week or topic, and students will receive an automatic email informing them of teacher’s feedback.
Resource: Resources are the content of teacher’s course. Each resource can be any file the teacher has
uploaded or can point to using a URL. Teachers can also maintain simple text-based pages by typing
them directly into a form.
Quiz: This module allows teachers to design and set quiz tests, consisting of multiple choices,
true-false and short answer questions. These questions are kept in a categorized database, and can be
re-used within courses and even between courses. Quizzes can allow multiple attempts. Each attempt
is automatically marked, and the teacher can choose whether to give feedback or to show correct
answers. This module includes grading facilities.
Survey: The survey module provides a number of predefined survey instruments that are useful in
evaluating and understanding the class. Currently they include the COLLES and the ATTLS
instruments. They can be given to students early in the course as a diagnostic tool and at the end of
the course as an evaluation tool.
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)
Using Computers in English Education to Improve Communication Skills and
Motivation (Shoko Tanaka)