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Improving Listening Comprehension among Malay Preschool Children Using…
Improving Listening Comprehension among Malay Preschool Children Using Digital Stories
Dr. Mohamad Jafre Zainol Abidin
Statement of Problem
all of the research on the use of computer-based technology as an instructional tool for second language learning has concentrated on teenagers and adults (Salaberry, 2001; Zhao, 1999).
There is not much research on how Internet-based technology contributes to improve children's listening comprehension (Haddad & Jurich, 2002).
the majority of studies focus on the positive developmental and motivational effects that access to technology may have on children's second language learning (Clements, 1994).
Only a small number of studies suggest that the use of computer-based technologies in the classroom is correlated to positive academic outcomes, including higher test scores (Melmed, 1995; Schacer, 1999).
Based on the above findings, the study on the Internet-based technology and listening comprehension among preschool children is still scarce.
Research Objectives
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To verify whether there is a significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental and
control groups in their listening comprehension tests.
Introduction
Reading and Listening comprehension plays a main role in second language teaching, especially with young learners (Grabielatos, 1995).
This study seeks to explore the ways Internet based technology, more especially digital stories, may promote second language learning by Malay young learners of English.
Literature Review
The interactivity of Internet-based stories may assist learning since children are actively involved in decoding and understanding the story (Donato, 1994).
Lastly, gains in listening skill and understanding seem to bring benefits to improve children's reading comprehension (Biemiller, 2003; Sticht, 2003).
The reason for this situation may be that computer-based technology in the primary classroom is underutilized (Cuban, 2001).
Practical guidelines are being published to help teachers with this task due to the increasing demands for educators to include technology into the curriculum (Dudeney, 2000; Warschauer, Shetzer & Meloni, 2000).
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Methodology
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Instrumentation
A pre-test was designed to collect initial data on children’s knowledge previous to any research intervention and to check that all participants had similar levels of English.
A post-test was also designed to test children's progressive understanding of the linguistic structure, vocabulary, sound patterns and prosody of the language.
Findings and conclusion
Results obtained through the Levene test showed that there was homogeneity of variances between the control and the experimental groups (F= 0.241; p= 0.626)
There were significant differences between the two groups;
The outcomes of this study reinforced that participants in the experimental group were able to comprehend basic linguistic structures and vocabulary and outperformed the control group;
It seems necessary to continue analysing the existing Internet-based content in order to design a coherent syllabus which may respond to young learners' needs.
Participants
50 children participated in this research project;
the pre-school children in a government-run school in Penang, Malaysia. They were of the Malay ethnic who were learning English as a Second Language (ESL).