~CALL's assignment~

TSL 641 : COMPUTER ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING

ARTICLE REVIEW

TITLE : The Effect of the Computer-based Grammar Instruction on the

Acquisition of Verb Tenses in an EFL Context.

JOURNAL : The JALT CALL Journal, 2007, Vol. 3, No. 1-2,

AUTHORS' NAME & BACKGROUND:

Ali F Abu Seileek

(King Saud University)

Ghaleb A Rabab’ah

(University of Jordan, Jordan)

This research or study was conducted to achieve several aims. The aims are; 1) To examine whether computer based grammar is as effective as teacher-driven grammar instruction for English majors. 2) To prove that the language teachers as well as language learners believe that CALL is very beneficial and helpful in raising the level of proficiency in the target language. The methodology of this research is ‘experimental’ research. Where the students are divided into four groups and the samples consist of 128 male students of King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. Basically, the students are the learners for the second language learning (English) in the university. Before the respondents are being ‘tested’, they need to sit for a pre-examination focuses on the verb tenses. This is to know the level of the students before the study was conducted. thus, it may help the researcher to draw outline of the students' ability in verb tenses. by doing this, it will make the study easier, meaningful and authentic to both the students and teachers. Then, after the experiment has been done, the samples need to sit for another post examination, in order to check the effectiveness of the study. If the result is positive, then the study has achieved the objectives or aims of the research. Meanwhile, if the study does not have any positive values or impacts, the study is a failure.

Personally, I really think that this research is an interesting study to be done. The research is focusing on the use of second language use in teaching and learning English language. Thus, this also helps the students and the teachers in improving the instructions in classroom activities. The research is well conducted, and I really like the methods that they use to get the result of the study. However, there are few steps that can be done in order to improve the study to be more realistic, such as hand in a set of questionnaires to the samples and interview the language teachers and students. According to this study, I think it is good if the research is being done in Malaysia and collect the data for future references. This is because there are a lot of modern methods and techniques in teaching English nowadays. One of them is by using computer in teaching and learning English language. Indirectly, it will instill the interest of learning the language among the students. Thus, it may make the teachers’ job easier. All in all, I am very positive towards the use of computer in teaching English and at the same time, the students will be computer literate and IT literate. By referring to Malaysian context, i think the government also looks forward in this kind of education system. The ministry of education has implemented and renewed the syllabus and english curriculum in order to make the learning and teaching process interesting. For example, the current issue on the implementation of Primary School Standard Curriculum (PSSC) which has been introduced by the government in 2010. This curriculum emphasizing the usage of the English language, numerical literacy and science subjects. All these subjects can use the technology as the aid to teach the new generation students. Thus, i think this way of teaching (by using computer as a tool for instruction) is a successful method and effective to the students. All in all, i think this research is good and an appropriate study to be carried out in Malaysia in future.

the research / study is taken from:

http://jaltcall.org/journal/articles/3_1&2_AbuSeileek2.pdf