Designing an Arabic Speaking and Listening Skills E- Course: Resources, Activities and Students' Perceptions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34190/ejel.20.1.2177Keywords:
Technology-enhanced, AFL, Speaking, Listening, Fully-online, NEO LMSAbstract
This paper presents a fully online course model for teaching speaking and listening skills for students learning Arabic as a foreign language at the International Peace College South Africa on the NEO learning management platform. It also investigates the students' attitudes towards the course. The course was developed by the researcher during the first semester of 2020. This period coincided with South Africa’s first wave of COVID-19, and the country’s first strict lockdown. The syllabus consists of three components: listening, speaking and conversational Arabic. It includes various technology-enhanced activities and resources which were developed by using LMS features, Web 2.0 tools, and e-learning specifications such as Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) and Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). The integration of technology in the course is based on an approach that combines Bloom's taxonomy and Technology Integration Matrix (TIM). Apart from the description of the course, this study used a thirty-item questionnaire to investigate the attitudes of thirty-one learners who participated in the course. They answered questions about the course’s resources, activities as well as its impact on their language skills. Results from the questionnaire revealed that the respondents' attitudes towards the online course were positive and statistically significant at p < .05. The design and the approach adopted in this study can apply to any context of language teaching. It provides a myriad of technology-enhanced activities that can be effectively used to teach listening and speaking skills virtually. Foreign language teachers can adopt this approach in its entirety, or with idiosyncratic modifications to design their language courses, irrespective of the virtual learning ecology (VLE) they use.
References
Apriyanti, D. et al., 2019. ‘Technology-based Google classroom in English business writing class’, in Seventh International Conference on Languages and Arts (ICLA 2018). Atlantis Press.
Arcos, F., Ortega, P. and Amilburu, A., 2009. ‘Learning English through an LMS, face-to-face lectures and the resulting blend’, in Trabajo presentado en 2nd edition of the ICT for Language Learning, Florencia, Italia. Retrieved from http://conference. pixelonline. net/ICT4LL2009/common/download/Proceedings_pdf/Francisco_Arcos, Pablo _Ortega. pdf.
Bloom, B. S., 1956. Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Longman.
DonYei, Z., 2007. Research methods in applied linguistics. Oxford University Press.
Grgurovic, M., 2011. Blended learning in an ESL class: A case study, Calico Journal, 29(1), p. 100.
Haggag, H. M., (no date) ‘Using Google Classroom in Enhancing Communicative Grammar Use and Attitudes of Non-English Specialized Post Graduates’.
Hornack, A. M., 2011. ‘Technology Integration Matrix’, Recuperado de: https://bit. ly/2wOh4jx.
Hussein Alsowayegh, N. et al., 2019. Engaging students through blended learning activities to augment listening and speaking’, Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Special Issue on CALL, (5), pp. 267–288.
Islam, M. S., 2019. Bangladeshi university students’ perception about using Google Classroom for teaching English’, Psycho-Educational Research Reviews, pp. 57–65.
Kučírková, L., Kučera, P. and Vydrová, H. V., 2014. English for specific purposes e-learning experimental research’, Journal on Efficiency and Responsibility in Education and Science, 7(3–4), pp. 80–86.
Mohammed, T. A., Assam, B. N. and Saidi, M., 2020. ‘The use of Web 2.0 tools in the foreign language classroom’, Journal of Educational and Social Research, 10(2), pp. 177–190.
Mohammed, T. A. S., 2018. ‘فاعلية استخدام أدوات الجيل الثاني للويب (Web 2.0) في تطوير المهارات اللغوية في اللغة العربية بوصفها لغة أجنبية’, مجلة الدراسات اللغوية والأدبية (Journal of Linguistic and Literary Studies), 10(13), pp. 4–32.
Mohammed, T. A. S., Al-Sowaidi, B. and Banda, F., 2021. ‘Towards a technology-enhanced blended approach for teaching Arabic for Shari’ah purposes (ASP) in the light of the South African National Qualifications Framework’, International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 11(1), pp. 1–9. doi: 10.18178/ijiet.2021.11.1.1481.
Moloney, R. and Xu, H. L., 2018. ‘The Use of Digital Technologies in Quality Teaching of Chinese’, in Teaching and Learning Chinese in Schools. Springer, pp. 73–90.
Pramila, K. and Thomas, J., 2019. ‘Impact of blended learning on the speaking skills of English as a foreign language (EFL) Learners at Sohar University, Sultanate of Oman’, The Anthropologist, 35(1–3), pp. 47–56. doi: 10.31901/24566802.2019/35.1-3.2039.
Rabbi, M. M. F., Zakaria, A. K. M. and Tonmoy, M., 2018. Teaching listening skill through Google Classroom: A study at tertiary level in Bangladesh. Researchgate. net. https://www. researchgate. net/publication ….
Rahmawati, F., 2019. ‘Blended learning in an English listening and speaking course: Freshmen’s voice and choice’, in Third International Conference on Sustainable Innovation 2019–Humanity, Education and Social Sciences (IcoSIHESS 2019). Atlantis Press.
Rerung, M. K. T., 2018. ‘Students’ perception on blended learning in English listening and speaking class’, Journal of English Language and Culture, 9(1), pp. 17–28.
Rymanova, I., Baryshnikov, N. and Grishaeva, A., 2015. E-course based on the LMS Moodle for English language teaching: Development and implementation of results, Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 206, pp. 236–240.
Technology Integration Matrix, 2009. A video resource supporting the full integration of technology in Florida schools. Available at: https://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/ (Accessed: 12 August 2020).
Tumskiy, S., 2019. ‘The use of learning management systems in the teaching of English to high-level learners at tertiary level’, in INTED2019 13th International Technology, Education and Development Conference, pp. 3530–3535.
Welsh, J., Harmes, J. C. and Winkelman, R.,2011. Florida’s technology integration matrix, Principal Leadership, 12(2), pp. 69–71.
Winkelman, R.,2019. The invisible technology integration matrix, TIM. Available at: https://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/the-invisible-technology-integration-matrix/ (Accessed: 11 December 2020).
Winkelman, R.,2020. Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy and the technology integration matrix, TIM. Available at: https://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/blooms-cognitive-taxonomy-and-the-technology-integration-matrix/ (Accessed: 11 December 2020).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Tawffeek Mohammed
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Open Access Publishing
The Electronic Journal of e-Learning operates an Open Access Policy. This means that users can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, is that authors control the integrity of their work, which should be properly acknowledged and cited.