This paper sets out to shed light on the hierarchical stages of producing technology-enhanced learning software designed to promote English language learning of Saudi students at Madinah College of Technology, Saudi Arabia. The aim of the software was to meet the learners’ language needs, which defined the learning objective. The paper highlights how suitable language learning theories were implemented by coordinating the interface design theories and principles under-pinning the production process. Toward the end of the paper, an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the software is investigated. Finally, the prospects of the software’s future work are presented.
It is axiomatic that designing and producing any technology-enhanced learning material are a complicated process of two parts: theoretical and technical. By the theoretical part, we mean the design process, e.g., planning and making the blueprints, whereas the technical part means the actual construction, e.g., programming. These two parts must be dealt with equally according to the existing academic background. The theoretical part always dominates the technical part, because the latter is defined by the earlier.
The aim of this software originated from the absence of interaction in Saudi English classrooms, a major deficiency in Saudi English as a foreign language EFL class [
Next, we need to describe the learning objectives of this software. As discussed above, the football factor was incorporated to augment the students’ interaction. This interaction was attained after successfully receiving comprehensible input and producing conceivable output. Accordingly, the object of constructing this software was to produce interaction through comprehensible input and conceivable output among the interlocutors, i.e., the students.
The aims and objectives were built on the learners’ needs. Learners’ needs can be measured by conducting a Needs Analysis (NA). NA is a relatively new concept to language teaching. Yet, NA has long been conducted unconsciously by teachers and other stakeholders (a group of people who have the right to have input into the curriculum process) at schools to assess their learners’ “language competence”. Reference [
Many researchers believe that learners’ needs are crucial to the design of technology-enhanced educational materials [
Given this swift outline of the significance of learners’ needs in educational software, let us now shed light on Saudi students’ needs. The author used Jolly and Bolitho’s seven-step model and began the first step (identifying learners’ needs) by identifying the targeted learners’ needs. These needs were spelled out by [
1) Poor linguistic competence.
2) Negative attitudes toward Language 2 L2.
3) Shyness and inhibition.
4) English is not supported outside the classroom.
This software was designed to address these deficiencies. The first weakness could be improved by increasing the students’ language output. The second pitfall was hoped to be addressed by using the students’ enthusiasm for their teams as a vehicle to learn language. The third seemed to be avoided by introducing the chat facility, where anonymity was maintained with avatars and aliases. The fourth problem was handled by the technology’s mobility factor. It is now clear that this covers Jolly and Bolitho’s second step of the model, which is “exploration of the need”.
This software has provided a considerable amount of English language text about each of the four teams, including images, text, audio and video, as well as hyperlinks to take the students to those teams’ websites and their supporters. It is hoped that all of the four English language skills will be practiced. Moreover, the author has provided a chat facility so that learners can produce comprehensible output with each other. If learners’ needs and current pedagogical theories are interrelated, then this is an interesting area to investigate in the next section.
The fourth step in Jolly and Bolitho’s model is “pedagogical realization”. The importance of considering current pedagogical theories in the specific context underpinning educational software production has been repeatedly asserted by many computer-assisted language learning (CALL) software researchers [
While piloting the first stage of this software, the author noticed that his learners increased their motivation, enhanced their task achievement, and produced greater interaction. Students asked the author to allow them to communicate with other teams’ supporters outside the class, but as this was not feasible in this software, the author was unable to fulfill this request. This demonstrates the clear result that students’ shyness and inhibitions were minimized. As for the language content, this software focuses on meaning-based learning tasks [
In order to deal with students’ negative attitudes toward L2, the home page was designed to be engaging and attractive to the students [
The application is demonstrated using a Mediator 7 pro, a multimedia authoring icon-based software program. MatchWare Corp. produced this award-winning interactive page-oriented multimedia program that offers a wide range of capabilities such as building pages, adding contents and creating activities. Mediator 7 pro is compatible with HTML, HTML codes and Flashes. Educational aids such as hypertexts, hotspots, and animations can be easily anchored at this educational tool. This multimedia package also allows for chat facility by means of synchronous computer networks and/or connecting to the Internet. The author has implemented this chat facility where the screen is split into two halves: the top half shows students interlocutors’ replies; the bottom half shows the students his massage as he is typing. Additionally, it has the facility to save the complete record of any written transactions. This software was designed for first-term students at Madinah College of Technology (MCT), Madinah, Saudi Arabia, studying in the computer department. These students are secondary school graduates who have studied English for six years or more. Their English level is lower-intermediate; however they are good computer users. This icon-based software, as posed earlier, meet the learners’ needs as it focuses on introducing these students to technical English language, namely vocabulary, which they will need in the field of their specialization. Therefore, among the aims of this software is to enable students to comprehend basic technical English in their field as well as preparing them for enrolment in advanced courses of similar nature. As discussed above, while producing this software, Jolly and Bolitho’s seven stage model were followed for producing educational material. The next section will resume to illustrate how Jolly and Bolitho’s model was applied throughout the production of this software.
In order to meet the fifth step of Jolly and Bolitho’s model, which is about the “production of materials”. The user-interface is a crucial element that must be taken into consideration when producing interactive educational materials. It can help the user achieve the utmost level of functional competence of the software if applied successfully and efficiently. Reference [
The function of the interface system is to assign user-input to internal representations of the application and internal representations of the application to the output that is comprehensible to the user. The type of input and output modes employed by the interface system determines the type of the interface.
Reference [
1) Computer-interface: where the functionality relies more on how the computer processes information.
2) User-centered: where the functionality concentrates on how the user processes information.
3) Designer-centered: where the focus is on how the designer prefers to lay out the information.
Although it is clear that the second category is more efficient and beneficial, the current software was done with an equal amount of both the second and the third categories. This is attributed to the fact that the software was designed and produced by an individual teacher, who could not afford to cover the huge expense of constructing it solely based on the second category.
Internal representations to which [
Text has a significant invisible effect on the reader in that every font has three basic attributes: first, size, measured in points; second, weight, which is a “relative measurement of the thickness of the strokes that make it up”; and third, style, which is Roman, Bold or Italic. Changing font means changing these three attributes.
Moreover, the layout was also an important parameter. According to [
As this software adopted Jolly and Bolitho’s model for the production of educational materials, the sixth step “students’ use of material” was conducted. The student used the software and the author observed them. This authors’ observation helped gain a more genuine sense about the “technical considerations, e.g. installation and networking; multimedia design criteria, e.g. aesthetics and help; and pedagogical factors, e.g. integration and fulfillment of learning objectives” [
Some of the weak points of this software will be discussed. For example, some very authentic and useful English media for the Barcelona team was available, but due to its relatively high price, this software used some free Internet media instead, whose quality was not very remarkable. Even though it was free, it took the author hours to find due to the cultural sensitivity issues associated with Saudi students. Reference [
In spite of these weaknesses, this software has many strong points. First, the students stressed the fact that they were very happy and surprised to see their favorite hobby being practiced in English rather than dull ready-course-materials. In fact, this attitude is very profitable to language learning, and is called “learner-driven curriculum” [
The prospect of the post-production development of any technology-enhanced material is a great advantage in comparison with paper-based material. In the previous sections, a number of improvements were suggested, some of which are indispensable. To begin with, this software should encompass more teams, because while piloting, the author discovered students who wanted to support more than one international team that were in different countries. So, the author wishes to add Bayern-Munich (Germany), Paris Saint-German (France), F. C. Porto (Portugal), and Galatasaray (Turkey). These teams were nominated by the students, not by the author. In addition, it would be more interesting if the author could provide subtitles with the sound files so that the students could practice both skills of listening and reading. If a visual explanation of the sounds on the screen could be provided, online dictionaries for those words could also be provided. Additionally, some difficult sound files, like the interviews, could be replaced by the author’s recorded voice, because the students were more apt to comprehend slower conversations than faster ones. With the cooperation of other supporters from international countries, this software can connect Saudi students to chat with the same team’s supporters or advocates from international countries. This would create collaborative learning and scaffolding, especially if they are both non-native speakers and share the same interests [
The influence of video games nowadays cannot be ignored; the students are seeing a great demand for adding short clips. By doing this, we can find exactly what we need to show or convey instead of a long and thorough Internet search for a specific bit of information. For example, at one of the texts, there is a scenario where the goalkeeper scores a goal in the other team. The internet search yielded no result. With this video game, we will be able to create the scenario we want. Also, we can organize championships and leagues and divide students into two teams. Each team has players and supporters. This will be an interaction inducing atmosphere.
A great deal of potential of this software is missing due to the author’s limited skills in programming; with this knowledge from experts in programming, the prototype can be vastly improved. This software failed to record students discourse both verbal and written. With this facility installed in the software, we can monitor the students’ improvements by making a discourse analysis for the students’ output. In this sense, the software can enter an add-in process, where an unprecedented, professional, and promising piece of technology-enhanced interactive software is created.