The article that I chose to review is a journal entitled ‘A Study of Low English Proficiency Students’ Attitude toward Online Learning. The article was found in Volume 5, Number 2 of Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching. A limited class time, which is two hours per week, make it impossible for students to get absorbed in the language. When there are too many students but too little time, and extra courses are not available, lecturers will have to find ways to engage students in reviewing and learning the course with as much time as possible outside the class, if they want to improve the students’ English language skills. To achieve this purpose, web-based learning might be a good choice. Therefore, the paper aims to gauge students’ attitude toward the use of CALL to supplement their learning in Freshman English class. This research used questionnaire to explore students’ attitude toward doing online exercises to learn English. The researchers used both quantitative and qualitative method as research design.
The purpose of this research is to investigate low English proficiency students’ attitude toward online supplementary exercises in order to better understand how teachers can help these students. For this purpose, the researchers chose the students of six level-1 classes to answer a questionnaire. The students were considered as low proficiency students because their performance in the placement test at KUAS in 2006 was among the lowest. The subjects consisted of four classes of engineering majors, one class of management majors, and the other of humanities majors. A total of 373 students were surveyed. However, 126 students said that they had never visited the website and did not answer the rest of the questions. Therefore, valid sample number was 247, including 188 male and 57 female students with 2 cases missing data. The paper applies a purposive sampling technique due the fact that it aims to investigate low proficiency students. The quantitative data collected through the questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS for windows 10.0 and presented as descriptive and inferential statistics. On the other hand, the qualitative data collected from the open-ended question were categorized and saved in Word format.
Findings of the research:
| SA* | A | NU | DA | SD | Missing Data | |
| N(%) | N(%) | N(%) | N(%) | N(%) | ||
| 3. The website can help me learn English more effectively. | 44 (18.03) | 132 (54.10) | 63 (25.82) | 5 (2.05) | 0 | 3 |
| 3.1 The website can help me learn pronunciation. | 34 (13.82) | 97 (39.43) | 90 (36.59) | 25 (10.16) | 0 | 1 |
| 3.2 The website can help me learn spelling. | 36 (14.57) | 114 (46.15) | 85 (34.41) | 12 (4.86) | 0 | |
| 3.3 The website can help me learn vocabulary. | 41 (16.60) | 144 (58.30) | 57 (23.08) | 5 (2.02) | ||
| 3.4 The website can help me learn preposition. | 40 (16.19) | 132 (53.44) | 68 (27.53) | 6 (2.43) | 1 (0.40) | |
| 3.5 The website can help me learn sentence structure. | 43 (17.41) | 120 (48.58) | 76 (30.77) | 7 (2.83) | 1 (0.40) | |
| 3.6 The website can help me learn grammar. | 35 (14.17) | 117 (47.37) | 85 (34.41) | 10 (4.05) | ||
| 4. The online resources can help me learn English. | 38 (15.51) | 110 (44.90) | 89 (36.33) | 8 (3.27) | 2 | |
| 5. The website can help improve my English proficiency. | 37 (14.98) | 104 (42.11) | 97 (39.27) | 7 (2.83) | 2 (0.81) |
*SA=strongly agree A=agree NU=neutral DA=disagree SD=strongly disagree
Table 4: Users’ attitude toward the learning website
Based on Table 4 shown above, we can see that most of the students give positive feedbacks toward online learning. The students agreed that online learning help them in improving their English language skills. Based on the research study, it can be concluded that the teacher-designed website can help low proficiency students learn English more effectively and boost their confidence and interest.
This research is very interesting and it requires a lot of efforts from the researchers to conduct it. The researchers used a different approach in teaching English Language to low proficiency students. Besides, online learning is a different environment from the traditional classroom. The website is quite interesting and interactive. A variety of exercises provided by the researchers avoid students from boredom. It is very important to arouse students’ interest since it will make them have motivation in learning. Moreover, this research is well conducted by the researchers. This research involved a large number of students and teachers of Freshman English. The researchers also demonstrated the website to the students. In addition, there were a few procedures that the researchers need to follow in order to investigate this research. I am very impressed when I read this research because the researchers created a website in order to investigate to fulfil the purpose of this research. Besides, this research is very systematic and the researchers explained the result of the research clearly. The researchers also waited for three months to get the feedbacks from the students.
This research has its own implications in the teaching and learning of ESL. It has been a big challenge for ESL teachers to work out effective ways to help poor language learners. This research offers a new approach for teachers and students to learn language in a different way. Teacher and students can work on improvising the students’ proficiency outside the classroom. Online learning is a new alternative for language learning. Online learning offers a new environment and transformation in language learning. Traditional classroom, which used chalk and talk as the medium of teaching and learning kills the students’ interest in learning language. On the other hand, online learning never disappoints learners since the usage of this website is very interactive. The students will get immediate feedbacks when they do online exercises. Online learning offers a variety of exercises for students and it is different from one another. It will avoid the students from boredom. Online learning also promotes students centered learning. Students can learn English on their own and teachers only have to facilitate. Learning language through online learning is very practical. There is no specific time for the students to do the exercises in the internet. Furthermore, students can do the exercises anywhere, as long as the internet connection is available. In Malaysia, it is hard for researchers to set up their own website and ask a large number of students to participate. It is because the researchers have to go through a lot of procedures. Education system in Malaysia is based on exam-oriented; teachers have to finish their syllabus on time. Online learning is not a good idea for Malaysia since it is time consuming. Some of the teachers are not familiar with online learning and the goal is hard to achieve if the teachers are not familiar with online learning. In conclusion, some approaches cannot be used in different contexts. There are a lot of factors to be considered before setting up a new approach in education.
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