Integrating computer aided language learning to enhance English language skills of Sri Lankan university students

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1 Integrating computer aided language learning to enhance English language skills of Sri Lankan university students Neelakshi Chandrasena Premawardhena University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka Key words: computer aided language learning, English as a second language, language skills, second language teaching Abstract: Enhancing English language and IT skills of undergraduates has been identified as a main goal in improving the quality and relevance of undergraduate education in Sri Lanka. This paper discusses results of a study conducted to enhance English language skills of university students by integrating computer aided language learning. Recent research conducted on Foreign Language Teaching at University of Kelaniya was the basis for this study. The paper analyses how similar methods were applied to enhance English language skills of a group of medical students at University of Colombo. The results bear ample testimony to the success of CALL supplementing traditional teaching methods. 1 Introduction Improving the quality and relevance of undergraduate education (IRQUE) in Sri Lanka has been the focus of several measures undertaken in recent years to produce employable graduates equipped with relevant skills and abilities in addition to their competence in the relevant field of study. Enhancing English language and IT skills were thus identified as priority areas that needed a marked improvement. As a result, necessary steps have been taken by the Government of Sri Lanka with a number of grants provided to support IT and English language teaching at universities. This paper puts forward results of a study conducted to enhance English language skills of Sri Lankan university students by integrating computer aided language learning (CALL). Computer Aided Language Learning (CALL) or ICT enhanced Foreign Language Teaching is present worldwide in the field of language teaching [1, 6, 7]. However, not many studies have been conducted on its effectiveness in foreign and second language teaching in Sri Lanka, [2, 3, 4, 5]. Results of recent studies conducted on effective Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Kelaniya [2, 3, 5] paved way for the above study as students offering foreign languages possessed better skills in respective languages than in English at the completion of their undergraduate studies [4]. This paper discusses how attempts were made to introduce similar methods to enhance English language skills of a group of medical students at the University of Colombo. 2 Background The medium of instruction in Sri Lankan schools is the mother tongue (Sinhala/Tamil) although a few schools in major cities offer English medium instruction, too. University 1(8)

2 education, especially in medicine, engineering and sciences is conducted in the English medium. Although English is taught in schools as a second language from Year 1 to Year 13, the language skills of students leave much to be desired mainly due to lack of quality language teachers. Thus it is a major hurdle for students following their secondary education in the first language being compelled to commence university education in the English medium. Intensive courses in English are provided to the students initially and supplementary courses are continued throughout their university education. However, lack of motivation and time constraints have resulted in only a few students attending the supplementary courses which are not compulsory. Especially with regard to the medical students, time constraints and tight schedules in their study programmes offered them seldom time to devote to improving their English language competence. Hence it was required to make more opportunities available for students to enhance their language skills not solely relying on faceto-face teaching. The successful results seen in the pilot studies conducted at University of Kelaniya in integrating CALL to foreign language learning since 2004 to improve their language skills [2, 3, 4, 5] paved way for this pilot study in teaching of English. Since a remarkable improvement in student performance was observed in the foreign languages where CALL was introduced, it was timely that these methods were adopted to improve skills of second language, too. The government initiative to improve the quality and relevance of undergraduate education (IRQUE) and the grants available for improving their English skills has paved for the setting up of several computer aided language learning centres in universities. These aim at providing ample technical support for students to improve their language competence. It is noteworthy that at the time of entering university, the students have a minimum of years of English language lessons in schools. However, the quality of language support offered is much to be desired, especially in rural areas of the country. Out of around schools in Sri Lanka, not even 50% can boast of having quality English language lessons for their students due to lack of qualified teachers. Hence, a student entering university from a rural area may not have the same English languages competency as a student from an urban area. The undergraduates thus need additional support at the university to improve their English language skills. 3 The study A group of medical students in their fourth year of study at University of Colombo were selected for this study as a part of the IRQUE project which had also funded an interactive computer laboratory supporting language learning at the Faculty of Medicine. Albeit all medical undergraduates in Sri Lankan universities follow their entire course of study in English medium, it has been a long felt need that supplementary language support is given to the students to improve their language competence. The time that could be allocated for teaching English to undergraduates is limited, especially when the course schedule is tight as in the field of medicine. Hence, introducing language learning software for self learning, web based technology, and use of multi-media content to supplement traditional face-to-face teaching paved way for a remarkable improvement in language skills of the students within a limited time. Introduction of computer assisted teaching has also made language learning more attractive to students as learning is not restricted to classroom based activities alone [5]. 3.1 Aiming for the future Once qualified as a medical doctor, many graduates opt to specialise in a particular field. Following successful completion of their postgraduate studies, they need to proceed abroad for specialised training. Since a minimum of two years foreign training is mandatory for a 2(8)

3 doctor to be qualified as a consultant, they require a sound knowledge of English to be accepted for a placement abroad. The majority of Sri Lankan medical doctors prefer training in the UK and some in Australia and the standard examination for securing a placement for specialised training is the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) where a minimum band score of 7. Due to their tight schedule during undergraduate and postgraduate studies, hardly any doctor has the time to devote to training themselves for IELTS examination on their own. Thus, achieving a band score of 7 in all four tests has been a hurdle for many a medical doctor mainly due to lack of knowledge of the structure of the examination and ways to improve their language skills to obtain the required level in listening, speaking, reading and writing. On many occasions they have had to defer the placement abroad until they achieved the required band score at IELTS. Thus a timely decision was taken by a team of senior academics in charge of the IRQUE project at the Medical Faculty of University of Colombo to introduce medical undergraduates to the structure of IELTS examination and offer them training with ample opportunity to improve their language skills. Although the students will not be taking the examination immediately, they will be well prepared when it is time for them to obtain the qualification in the future. 3.2 Course structure and content The English language course was designed to enhance language skills of the fourth year medical students who had opted to follow this course and prepare them for the Academic Module of the IELTS examination. With a duration of 15 weeks and two hours per week (30 hours in total), the course was divided into a minimum of 20 of face-to face teaching followed by a minimum of 10 hours of computer aided learning in the CALL laboratory. Material to practice reading, listening, writing and speech skills aiming at IELTS examination with required guidelines were provided to the students. The recommended texts and material consisted of practice material for IELTS including audio CDs and supporting websites offering online practice tests, language exercises and other sample material. A website developed by the author for each lesson provided necessary guidelines and links to relevant websites which the students accessed during the practical hours in the CALL laboratory. Students were also provided access to recommended texts to be used for self studying. While the listening test of IELTS consists of 4 sections and 40 questions with excerpts from authentic dialogues or monologues dealing with current affairs, university life or informal conversation, the academic reading module presents three authentic passages amounting to around 2700 words and 40 questions. The writing test consists of two tasks including an interpretation of a graph, table or flow chart in minimum 150 words and an essay of minimum 250 words on a given topic. The speaking test consists of three sections of minutes and the candidate s ability to engage in both informal and formal conversation, expressing himself on a given topic for 2 minutes and participating in a follow up discussion of a more abstract nature is tested [7]. Thus the course of 30 hours was designed considering all these aspects of the IELTS examination. It has been observed that the integration of CALL has been extremely helpful to the students especially in listening and speaking practice as there was ample practice material available online. 4 Observations made during the study and results The majority of participating students, in fact 90%, were from reputed schools in Colombo, and the rest from similar schools in major cities of the country. Hence their level of English 3(8)

4 was expected to be of a good standard. A baseline test was conducted to measure their language skills of students prior to the commencement of the course. Since the students had followed their medical studies in the English medium for over three years at the university, the students scored on average above 55% at the test. After identifying the areas of strengths and weaknesses of individual students, supplementary reading, writing, speaking and listening material to be used in the CALL laboratory were provided in addition to the work assigned for each lesson, which also included web based learning. At the completion of the course following the 30 hours of learning, students showed a marked improvement in their language skills, scoring 75% and above at the baseline test on average. Similarly, their competence in facing the listening, reading, writing and speaking practice tests showed a remarkable improvement, too. The line graphs below show the average performance of participating students at Listening and reading modules after 10 hours, 20 hours and 30 hours of the course hrs 20hrs 30hrs Listening Fig. 1. Performance at Listening practice tests hrs 20hrs 30hrs Reading Fig. 2. Performance at Reading practice tests Both Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 indicate the enhanced performance of students at the end of the course that would place them at band score 7 or above at both Listening and Reading modules of the IELTS examination. At the commencement of the course the performance was on average 49% in Listening and 62% in Reading. Generally, the academic reading test is believed to be one of the most difficult components of the IELTS examination by the candidates. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that the medical students showed great competence in skimming and scanning skills at the reading modules as they practice this method in their daily study routine, too, when referring to medical text books. Hence it was not a difficult task to train the students on skills of answering the questions given in three reading passages within the given time limitation of 60 minutes. 4(8)

5 Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 indicate the enhanced performance of students in Speaking and Writing practice tests of the IELTS examination at the end of the course and the relevant band score achieved hrs 20hrs 30hrs Speaking Fig. 3. Performance at Speaking practice tests hrs 20hrs 30hrs Writing Fig. 4. Performance at Writing practice tests In both these modules the students needed time to get used to. Speaking on given topics other than anything related to their medical studies at viva voce examinations was not the order of the day. Similarly, writing argument or opinion essays on a given topic dated back to their school days. However, with relevant guidelines, sufficient practice during the lessons and CALL laboratory hours, the students reached on average the standard of band score 7 in Writing and 7.5 in Speaking test. 4.1 Areas of difficulty When considering the areas of difficulty faced by the students, the listening speaking and writing tasks were a new experience for the students. Nevertheless, with regard to the reading component, as mentioned above, the students possessed sufficient reading practice obtained throughout their 4 years at the Medical Faculty. In the Listening tests, the students needed time to get used to different accents of native English speakers, figures of speech and listening to identify specific information which may not be directly expressed during the conversations presented. The websites developed for each lesson by the author with guidelines and links to abundance of practice material available online for listening exercises helped the students to overcome these difficulties in a relatively short period of time as shown by the average performance at the end of the course. With regard to the speaking component of the examination, some students found it difficult to talk for 2 minutes on a given topic and showed lack of fluency and confidence, shyness to speak up, and also lack of facts to contribute to part 3 of the speaking test. With more time allocated for discussions on current 5(8)

6 affairs and following conversations in the listening practice tests the students could overcome these difficulties to a great extent. As for the writing tasks, the graph interpretation was handled by the students more competently than the essay. Lack of practice in organising and writing essays, lack of practice, lexicon and grammatical structures needed in formal writing and limiting the essay to round words were some of the difficulties the students faced during the initial stage of the course. With relevant guidelines provided and discussions held during face-to-face teaching sessions as well as links to material including model essays available online gave the students sufficient training to plan and present their essays according to the expected standards of the IELTS examination. 4.2 Continuous support Albeit the allocated teaching hours were limited, continuous support was available to the students through online material, recommended texts and accompanying CD-ROM/audio CDs and other language learning resources to improve grammar, vocabulary and expression. Thus the students could always log into the website designed by the author and try out the exercises when they had time for self studying, opening new avenues for them to improve their language skills. The course also provided them with an insight into the culture and lifestyle of English speaking countries, university life, useful hints for healthy lifestyle, effective public speaking as well as work related problems through the listening tests and exposure to a wealth of knowledge on current affairs, important technological developments, inventions, different cultures in the world, science and technology etc. 4.3 Constraints A pilot study does not go without the inevitable constraints and hardships. This study was also subject to several such shortcomings which were not foreseen at the commencement of the course. A few of them included the limited bandwidth in the CALL laboratory which prevented access to some websites with practice listening tests, for instance, or the closure of the laboratory for 3 weeks due to the absence of demonstrators, changing of lecture rooms due to previously reserved lecture hall being taken away at the start of the new semester of the Medical Faculty. The CALL laboratory was the only facility available in the whole faculty premises for students to access the internet. Thus the presence of non-participating students occupying the PCs during the allocated laboratory session, too, forced several students to share one computer at times. Also, although the laboratory was equipped with over 50 PCs not all were in working order. Some did not facilitate web access and others did not have head phones to do the practice listening tests. Furthermore, the extremely tight schedule of study programmes hampered the students attending the lessons, however motivated, they were. Regular lectures and appointments at hospitals in different locations prevented many from coming for lessons regularly. 4.4 Future perspectives The use of internet and multimedia content in learning was not new to the students as many lecturers use such material for teaching at the Medical Faculty. However, facilities available for enhancing language competence with the assistance of computers were a novel experience to all participating students. For the first time computers and the web were used to improve language skills of students which shows a remarkable success by analysing the results and 6(8)

7 motivation of students. Although the time allocated was limited, the students benefited a lot from the course and learnt about new ways of self studying for languages, too. After considering the constraints and the experience gathered from conducting the present course, it can be suggested to design similar courses not entirely aimed at IELTS and also improve the facilities available in the CALL laboratory. More hours need to be allocated for CALL for improvement of language skills of students and also a course of a shorter duration and more hours per lesson could be introduced that the time span will not stretch almost over four months e.g. 10 weeks with three hours per lesson. Since the student feedback clearly indicated the advantages of integrating CALL into their language course which included comments such as something novel, very useful and effective, similar courses could be introduced at other universities to improve the English language skills of undergraduates. Had it not been for the CALL facility provided to the students, their language skills could not have improved to this extent during the limited period of 30 contact hours. 5 Conclusion As discussed above, the performance of the students and their evaluation at the end of the course reflected in the success of integrating computer aided learning to enhance language skills even though the time stipulated for the course was extremely limited. Thus, courses of similar nature are to be implemented by the Faculty of Medicine in the future. It is expected that other universities also will adopt similar methods to improve English language skills of undergraduates. Furthermore, the results of this pilot study also show that traditional language teaching supplemented by computer aided language learning bring out more successful results even within a limited period of time as students had more access to supplementary practice material online. Due to teacher centred learning traditions existing in Sri Lanka, it is not an easy task to shift immediately to leaner autonomy through computer aided learning, especially in language teaching. However, a balance between the two methods of learning has already shown immense success as seen by the results of this study. Integrating computer aided language learning is not only an answer to limited resources and time available for undergraduates, but also provides them with an opportunity to work for themselves, identify own areas of weaknesses and learn independently to improve their language skills. It may thus be the answer to the burning issue of improving English skills of undergraduates in Sri Lanka. References: [1] Barr, D. : ICT Integrating Computers in Teaching, Peter Lang, Bern (2004) [2] Chandrasena Premawardhena, N.: Web-based teaching as a performance enhancer in foreign language teaching in Sri Lanka, ICL 2007, Villach, Austria [3] Ch. Premawardhena, N., De Silva, C.H. ICT beyond school education: Challenges and future perspectives of ICT enhanced Foreign Language Studies. 2nd International Conference on Information Technology in Schools (ISSEP), Vilnius, Lithuania, (2006), pp [4] Ch. Premawardhena, N., Enhancing quality of English teaching: Some suggestions derived from Foreign Language Teaching in Sri Lanka. Conference on Enhancing University English Language Teaching (EUE), Colombo, (2006): p 11 (full paper in print). [5] Ch. Premawardhena, N., De Silva, C.H. Integrating ICT in foreign language teaching: A Sri Lankan experience. 10th International Conference on Sri Lanka Studies, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, (2005), p 186 [6] Levy, M.: Computer-Based Language Learning: Context and Conceptualization. Clarendon, Oxford (1997). [7] Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B., Osborne, J; Schulte, F. (2001): Foreign Language Teaching and Information and Communication Technology, Peter Lang : Frankfurt/Main [8] 7(8)

8 Author(s): Neelakshi Chandrasena Premawardhena, Dr. University of Kelaniya, Department of Modern Languages Department of Modern Languages University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka 8(8)