Due to increased globalization and internationalization in recent decades, English has become the essential language of the world for its widespread use in academia, business, commerce, and technology (Spolsky & Shohamy, 1999). As a result, study of the English language learning has increased worldwide. In Taiwan, English as a second language (referred to simply as EFL) instruction has become one of major subjects at the elementary school level.
Based on grade 1-9 curriculum guidelines in Taiwan, the curriculum goals of English emphasize on students’ basic English communication skills, interests in learning English, and appreciation with foreign cultural practices. On the other hand, in recent years, speaking has been one of the skills that would be assessed in several important English exams. For example, TOEFL, TOEIC, and GEPT have been assessing speaking proficiency in recent years.
However, when learning English in Taiwan, students lacked opportunities to engage with authentic English (Tsai, 2007). Because of the limited opportunities for exposure to English, students in Taiwan could only have the chance to communicate in English in class or in cram schools. Therefore, developing students' English speaking proficiency in an EFL environment and finding out the ways to supplement the insufficiency were the difficulties teachers face.
Several studies verified that multimedia tools or information and
significant contribution to students’ language proficiency (Al-Ansari &
Wigzell,1996; Liang, 2003). Based on the effects of ICT on language learning and due to the limited teaching hours in school, if teachers could incorporate computer-based tools in the language instruction, students would have more opportunities to practice language speaking proficiency outside the classroom.
However, these researches did not take into consideration what appropriate learning strategies would be applied and would enhance students’ learning achievement. In the study of Liang (2003) showed that the use of voice multimedia tool significantly improved students’ English speaking proficiency. The study also suggested pedagogic implications that students’ learning strategies and teachers’
teaching method should be taken into account (Liang, 2003). Thus, the next step of the researches in language learning would put the emphasis on developing ways and strategies to promote students’ English speaking proficiency.
Most studies in recent years have been proved that peer-assisted learning (PAL) had positive effects on students’ learning achievement. PAL could improve the cognitive activity of students (Hartup, 1992). PAL could also increase motivation and satisfaction (Nichols & Miller, 1994). Research suggested that PAL had excellent potential for providing students with rich, real time, and collaborative experiences both in and outside the classroom (Lan, Sung, & Chang, 2007). For example, numerous studies had confirmed the positive educational effects of collaborative learning on the instruction of English reading (Hartup, 1992; Lan, Sung, & Chang, 2007). In the book of Topping & Ehly (1998), they showed four effective methods of PAL strategy, including peer tutoring, peer modeling, peer counseling, and peer assessment. Peer tutoring is those in which carefully matched students are trained, supervised, and motivated to engage in high-quality interactions
on suitably challenging academic tasks. Peer modeling is the provision of an example of learning behavior by a member or members of a group that others in the group will imitate. Peers assessment means that the students assess their partners’ products or outcomes of learning formatively and qualitatively. Peer counseling is that students help others clarify general life problems and identify solutions by listening, feeding back, summarizing and being positive and supportive; due to its characteristic, it sounds like it is not suitable for the language learning research. On the other hand, in consideration of applying peer tutoring and peer assessment should be ensured that students had being trained and they had the ability to provide high-quality feedback to other members, and to effectively apply the feedback provided to them. More importantly, in this research, we considered the time control and the curriculum schedule of classes, so the aim of this study was to design that students could use the leisure time to practice and do self-learning after school without synchronization instead of learning at school. To sum up these reasons, therefore, the emphasis of this study stresses on the peer modeling. The following paragraphs of this study would be emphasized on one of PAL methods- Peer modeling. Some studies certified that PAL and collaborating learning in computer-assisted environment would have significant effects on learning. The study of Hiltz (1998) implied that putting individuals online to interact with course material was not as effective as the traditional classroom, but that using collaborative learning approaches could make online learning at least as effective as the traditional classroom. Moreover, they also proved that peer interaction with computer-based learning would be an effective use of language learning and would improve students’ cognitive processes effectively (Blake & Salem, 2004; Liang, 2003).
Get back to our learning environment, we also based on the advantage of
would improve the cognitive activity of children effectively. Currently, learning management system (LMS) or course management system (CMS) has been driven high attention around the world. Today, LMS is used to supplement regular face-to-face courses and it has been used in universities, schools and businesses as one of the computer-based learning tool incorporated in many instructions. However, building customized learning programs requires the use of authoring systems such as Macromedia Director, Authorware, Dreamweaver, and Flash, etc., which requires high demands on design, programming skills, and time. An alternative to use such applications is the employment of course or learning management systems like Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle (Brandl, 2005). Compared with the commercial tools such as Blackboard and WebCT, Moodle which is a free and open-source system, is emerging as a more and more popular option to teachers without a computer background. Moreover, Moodle is based on a learner-oriented philosophy called social constructionist pedagogy, in which students are involved in constructing their own knowledge by sharing or observing the activities of peers in a collaborative environment (歐展嘉，2007; Wu, 2008). With unique characteristics like easy installation, high compatibility, low technology, etc., Moodle has become more and more common in contemporary schools and presented itself as a promising instructional and learning tool since its advent (Lin & Chan, 2006; Wu, 2008).
Based on the above-mentioned background, this research would incorporate Moodle into the English speaking instructions. The aim of this study was that instead of learning at school, students could use the leisure time to practice and do self-learning in Moodle and this way could solve the above problems.