This chapter presents the findings of the study, and is divided into three sections. The first section illustrates the online students’ perceptions toward the English online tutoring program. The second section presents the online tutors’
perceptions toward the English online tutoring program. And the third section describes the perceptions from the supervisor’s perspective of the elementary school toward the English online tutoring program.
Online Students’ Perceptions
The first research question aimed to understand the online students’ perceptions toward the English online tutoring program. In this program, the online students were expected to learn four skills of English, especially speaking skills. After analyzing the interview data and checking with the classroom observation records, I found that there were positive and negative perceptions toward the English online tutoring program, which will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
Positive Perceptions
This part presents the online students’ positive perceptions. Generally speaking, the online students enjoyed learning English in this program and were satisfied with their performance at the final presentation. They also found the learning contents
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useful and helpful, and felt more confident in speaking English. They also showed the positive attitudes toward learning English during the lessons as well.
Satisfaction with the performance
As the data shows, all the online students were content with their performance after the ten-week lessons. Five online students expressed they were happy with their performance, as the following two online students reported in the interview:
I was satisfied with my performance when I had English conversation with my online tutor at the ending presentation. (S-6, interview) <在成果發表會和大學 伴用英文對話時，我對自己的表現還算滿意。>
Before I attended this program, I felt it difficult to have an English conversation.
But I made it without seeing any notes at the one-minute conversation with my online tutor. I was very happy with it. (S-5, interview) <在還沒上英語視訊之 前，覺得要跟大姐姐全部用英語對話一分鐘是很難的，但是我在成果發表 會的時候，可以不用看筆記，就可以完成一分鐘的英語對話，我很開心。
>
The above statements show that the online students were pleased with their performance when they were talking to their online tutors in English at the ending presentation. As an observer in the classroom of this program, I saw all online students practice several times before the conversation and try very hard to complete their English conversation at the ending presentation. When the online students finished their conversation, some online students said to me with a big smile, “Yeah, I made it!” (耶,我辦到了!) or “Miss Lin, I just spoke English to my tutor for fifty
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seconds!” (林老師, 我剛才和大學伴講了五十秒鐘耶!) The following conversation was from one pair of an online tutor and her online student at the ending presentation on 25th December, 2017.
T-3: Hi, Annie. How are you?
S-3: I’m fine. Thank you and you?
T-3: I’m great. Thank you. How old are you?
S-3: I’m 11 years old.
T-3: What do you like to eat?
S-3: I like to eat fast food. And what about you?
T-3: I like mangos.
S-3: Oh, I like mangos, too.
T-3: Let’s eat mango ice together.
S-3: OK. Let’s go!
Generally speaking, the online students didn’t have chances to speak English at school or home. At the ending presentation of this program, however, each online student could finish an English conversation with his/her online tutor. Besides, based on the interview records, the online students’ feedback and their conversation with the online tutors, and the online students seemed to feel content with their performance at the ending presentation. This finding was similar to Huang’s 2015 study, which illustrated that the online students in her study had positive feedback about the English online tutoring program because they did well on their school English tests.
Learning vocabulary through various materials and methods
All the online students also reported that the learning materials and methods were helpful for them. They specifically mentioned that they had learned a lot of
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English vocabulary and sentences during this program.
According to my classroom observation records, every online tutor utilized various teaching sources and methods to teach the online students, such as pictures, videos, cartoons, movies, quizzes and games. During the lesson time, I saw online students cooperate and interact with their online tutors through the above resources and methods. I took some records in the classroom as follows.
S-1 saw a movie played by her online tutor. (13th Nov., 2017) S-2 played games guided by her online tutor. (27th Nov., 2017) S-6 played games guided by her online tutor. (27th Nov., 2017) S-5 saw a cartoon played by his online tutor. (4th Dec., 2017)
The following quotations are from some online students’ feedback in the interview.
My online tutor taught me a lot in this English online tutoring program. The things I learned were really helpful, especially English vocabulary. (S-2, interview) <我覺得這次英語視訊，大姐姐教我很多東西，很有用，尤其是 英文單字。>
My online tutor taught me many useful words.(S-3, interview) <我的大姐姐教 我很多有用的單字。>
I think that the best result of attending this English online tutoring lesson is learn a lot of English words. (S-4, interview) <我覺得參加視訊最大的收獲是 學很多英文單字。>
My online tutor taught me lots of words which are helpful to me. She also played English games with me and showed me some English videos. I liked them very much. (S-7, interview)
大姐姐教的很多單字對我很有幫助，她還教我玩許多英文遊戲和看許多影 片，我都很喜歡。
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According to the teaching contents as shown in Appendix C and 220 high frequently used words for elementary school students in Tainan City, the teaching contents were helpful to the online students to build the fundamental ability in English, since the vocabulary in the teaching contents is included in the high
frequently used vocabulary organized by Bureau of Education in Tainan City, such as numbers, family members, school, stationery, colors, body parts, musical instruments and animals. The following figure shows the vocabulary of one unit in the online materials designed by Flomo Education Foundation. For example, the topic of Unit 5 was body parts. All the words on this page might be used frequently in daily life.
In addition to the teaching contents, the multiple ways that the online tutors utilized during the lesson seemed motivating and appealing to the online students.
According to the photos during the video conferencing, the online tutors arranged
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various methods to help their online students learn, such as interactive tasks, quizzes, games, videos or cartoons.
One issue worthy being discussed is that one-to-one online tutoring lesson offered the students many opportunities to interact with their online tutors
individually. Each online tutor could arrange activities and teaching schedules based on the online student’s English ability. Each online student could be taught with close attention from the online tutor. This hardly happens in a general English classroom in which an English teacher needs to face many students of various English abilities at the same time. One-to-one video conferencing lessons, however, could offer each online student many chances to interact with and ask questions of his/her online tutor.
To sum up, during the ten-week English online tutoring program, the online tutors taught online students many things which were included in the high frequently used vocabulary list in Tainan City, and utilized various methods to motivate their online students to learn. At the ending presentation, each online student finished conversation with the vocabulary and sentences learned during the ten-week lessons.
Therefore, it seemed that the English learning materials used in this English online tutoring program were helpful to the online students.
More confidence in speaking English
In the ten-week English online tutoring program, the online students had many
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opportunities to talk to their online tutors. According to the classroom records and the online tutors’ teaching journal, the online students followed the online tutors’
instruction and attended the learning activities. After the English online tutoring program, the online students seemed more in speaking English. As the two online students reported in the interview:
After this program, I am more willing to attend activities in relation to English.
Also, I like English classes more than before. (S-1) <參加完這次的英語視訊，
以後我會更喜歡參加和英語有關的活動，也會更喜歡上英語課。>
I had been to New Zealand to perform the erhu (a kind of Chinese musical instruments). I couldn’t say any English when I saw foreigners during that time.
I think that I learned a lot from my online tutor in this program, so I can utilize what I have learned if I go abroad to study when I grow up. (S-5, interview) <我 以前去紐西蘭表演二胡的時候，看到外國人都說不出英語。我覺得視訊的 大姐姐教我的東西很實用，以後我長大了，想出國讀書，就會用得到。>
According to the interview records, six out of the seven online students said that they would be more confident in speaking English and more willing to participate in English activities. Actually, the students in our school have very few chances to speak English. In order to increase opportunities of speaking English in our school, the academic affairs office established a small shop at the campus. The students have to speak English to sell and buy items at the shop. There is a shopping dialogue poster on the wall for the students’ reference. Some days after the English online tutoring program was finished, the students were buying stationery at the shop during the
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break time. I saw a girl, who was in the online program, teaching the young graders to speak the English dialogue and finish purchasing. The reason why I mentioned this girl student here is that she was a slower learner in her English class but she could stand out and teach young graders to speak English for shopping in front of other students. This incident seems to prove that this girl had become more confident in speaking English after this English online tutoring program.
The following picture displays the shopping activity at the break time in the elementary school. The girl online student and the other elementary students were helping the younger students speak English to buy stationery.
Therefore, it seemed that the online students gained more confidence in speaking English and were more willing to speak English after the English online
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tutoring program.
Positive attitudes toward English learning
In addition to the above three positive perceptions the online students held, it is worth talking about a finding about the online students’ attitudes toward English learning. In this ten-week English online tutoring program, I found the online students behave themselves pretty well in the computer laboratory most of the time, as shown in the following observation records:
S-1 always cooperated with the online tutor, concentrated and behaved well.
S-2 always cooperated with the online tutor, concentrated and behaved well.
S-3 sometimes cooperated with the online tutor, concentrated and behaved well.
S-4 usually cooperated with the online tutor, concentrated and behaved well.
S-5 always cooperated with the online tutor, concentrated and behaved well.
S-6 usually cooperated with the online tutor, concentrated and behaved well.
S-7 usually cooperated with the online tutor, concentrated and behaved well.
Based on the observation records, it seemed fair to say that the online students had positive attitudes toward English learning in this program. Further evidence lends support to the observation as well. First, the online students reviewed important contents taught in the previous lesson. For example, I saw Student-5’s online tutor review the previous sentence “How are you doing?” on 23rd October, 2017. This sentence was taught on 16th October, 2017 but his tutor tried to make sure if Student-5 remembered it one week later. I asked Student-5 in the interview why he reviewed the previous contents. He said that he forgot many things easily after each video
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conference lesson. He appreciated that his online tutor usually helped him review the previous contents at each lesson.
According to the teaching journal of Student-5’s tutor, she recorded what Student-5 forgot in the previous lesson as the following figures shows.
In addition to Student-5, Student-2 indicated that the online tutors helped her review the previous contents as the following quotations from 5 and Student-2 in the interview.
If I have any chance to converse in English, I will need to review some key words and sentences since I would have forgot them. (S-5, interview) <如果過 一陣子要再英語對話，我需要複習一下，因為我可能已經忘記一些單字和 句子。>
I would forget what my online tutor taught me at each lesson. I need to review at the beginning of each lesson. (S-2, interview) <大姐姐每次上課教我的東 西，下次會忘記一些，每次上課開始的幾分鐘我都需要複習一下。>
As an English teacher in this school, I have taught these students for two semesters. I had tried to review some important contents in English classes, but these two students usually complained to me that they did not want to review anything even though they would have a mid-term exam in the coming week. There was no exam for
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the English online tutoring program, but the online students accepted their online tutors’ help and reviewed the learning contents of previous lesson without complaints.
Second, the online students took notes during the lesson. According to the classroom observation record, two girl students took notes during the lesson. I was curious about what they had done, so I asked Student-4 to show me her notes at the sixth week of this program. I asked her, “Why did you take these notes?” She
answered, “I think these words are important and I may use them in the future.” (我覺 得這些字很重要，而且我以後可能會用到。) The following pictures show what
she wrote at her notebook.
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Third, the online students paid much attention to their online tutors. In this ten- week program, for instance, I saw all the online students sit in front of the computers without transferring their attention, keep their eyes on their monitors with the online tutors’ guidance and interact with their online tutors.
Fourth, the online students were reflective about their learning. In the individual interview after this program, student-7 said to me that she would study harder and concentrate more if she attended the English online tutoring program in the future.
Based on the observation data, it seemed that the online students developed positive learning attitudes in this program. This finding was the same as that reported in Huang (2015), who reported the online students in her study also showed positive attitudes toward the English online tutoring program.
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Positive expectation of English performance
Although five online students were content with their performance at the ending presentation, they also showed strong determination to excel themselves next time.
They hoped they could be better in some ways. The following quotations present their reflections and expectations for themselves.
I have to try harder to memorize the contents of English conversation next time.
(S-2, interview) <下次我需要再把英語對話的內容背熟一點。>
I should speak louder next time (S-4, interview) <我下次應該講大聲一點。>
I believe I can do better next time. (S-7, interview) <我相信下次我會表現更 好。>
Based on the above information, it seemed that the online students had good attitudes toward this English online tutoring program. At the end of this program, these five online students, including Student-2,4 and 7, were satisfied with their performance and also expected to improve in the future. Pan (2014) also observed that his students who attended the online tutoring program understood their conditions of learning and expected to have better performance next time. In this study, it seemed that the online students would have positive expectation of themselves in learning English.
In summary, based on the above evidence, it is found (1) that the online students were satisfied with their English conversation, (2) that they considered the learning
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contents of this program beneficial, (3) that their positive learning attitudes would be fostered during the ten-week video conferencing lessons, and (4) that the online students had positive expectation of English learning.
Negative Perceptions
Though the online students had positive perceptions as mentioned above, they also reported two problems they met during the ten-week lessons. The first one is related to the technology and the Internet problems. The second one is that this program seemed too short for the online students.
Technology and the Internet problems
The technology and the Internet problems were the main issues raised by the online students in the interview. One online student said that she sometimes couldn’t clearly hear or see her online tutor (Classroom observation record, 30th October, 2017). Another online girl student reported that the music would suddenly stop for some unknown reasons when her online tutor played music for her (Classroom observation record on 20th November, 2017). The following quotations are their feedback.
Sometimes the online tutor would disappear from the monitor and I couldn’t hear her voice during the video conference. (S-4, interview) <我在跟大姐姐視 訊的時候，她的影像有時會消失，有時會聽不到她說話。>
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The music would be disrupted sometimes for some unknown reasons, so I couldn’t hear the music. (S-3, interview) <有時候大姐姐播音樂給我聽，不知
The music would be disrupted sometimes for some unknown reasons, so I couldn’t hear the music. (S-3, interview) <有時候大姐姐播音樂給我聽，不知