The Design of Computer Multimedia Material for English Language Learning

The Design of Computer Multimedia Material for English Language Learning Yu liang Ting Oriental Institute of Technology Ff031@mail.oit.edu.tw Yaming Tai Yuan Ze University yaming@saturn.yzu.edu.tw Abstract: This paper addresses the design of multimedia presentation of language learning material for Freshman English writing course at a University in Taiwan. The material is used to assist teacher’s instruction, and serves as the preliminary step regarding the implementation of instructional strategies in the language teaching course for digital learning materials. Feedbacks from students are collected to reflect learners’ preferences over the current status of multimedia learning. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate an initial step in achieving the effective learning by coordinating external and internal stimulus to the learners’ cognitive activities. 1 Introduction The advance of Information Technology (IT) has varied the ways of learning in recent years. One important application of information technology is distance learning, which has become a prevalent way of learning. Research has focused on the comparison of learning performance between traditional learning and digital learning. However, due to the cost-effectiveness of digital learning and the widely spread of the Internet, it is foreseen that digital learning will become one of the important method in the future learning activities. In general, the applications of IT in the field of digital learning can be classified into learning material development and learning management system. The study focuses on the material development related to the instructional and learning theory, and it serves as the preliminary discussion related in achieving the effective learning through well-designed digital learning material. As the development of IT, many areas of English learning have employed computers as learning tools. In the area of English writing, the most common use of the computer technology is mediating communication such as E-mail, chat, or MUDS and MOOS (Sokolik, 2001). By employing the notions of negotiation of meaning from second language acquisition, the goal of students’ writing is having students engage in real communication through the Internet. Some researchers found that the computer is a helpful tool; nevertheless, there are still some other aspects that computers can provide to facilitate students’ writing. The area of how to use the computer to help learners develop and elaborate their specified cognitive representation for their second language writing is still under explored. Not knowing how to start writing and what to write are always two major challenges novice writers face. The use of information technology can help English writing teachers to produce multimedia materials to facilitate their students in their writing processes. The study is intended to use the computer as a tool to integrate teaching materials through the use of multimedia to motivate students by presenting second language writing in its more complete communicative context. In addition, with regard of schema theory, the use of media can help students relate their existing schemata and employ their prior background knowledge in their writing process. In the study, theories related the above goal are discussed in the following section of literature review. It consists of …

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