The Experimental Group and The Control Group

The researcher divided the sixty-three students into two groups, an

experimental group with thirty-two students and a control group with thirty-one students. In the study, the teacher taught four lessons from the Han-lin Version English Book One, from Lesson Three to Lesson Six. The lessons moved in a cycle four times.

For the experimental group, in the first session of each lesson, the teacher gave each student a Tablet PC. Through the software program,, Visual Classroom, she

sent the students a worksheet with word explanations, usage and exercises for the lesson. Then the teacher used an Electric Whiteboard to explain the worksheet.

The students used the stylus of their Tablet PCs to take notes and write down their answers to the worksheet on the screen. After they completed the worksheet, they had to e-mail the worksheet back to their own mailboxes, so the students could review their work. In the process of teaching the words through Visual Classroom, the teacher sent messages to the students to make sure they followed proper steps, for example, “ Welcome to my English class!” “ Are you ready to have your English class?” “ I will send a file to you.” “ Please open the file that I just sent you.” “ Who has not received my file?” “ Have you finished your worksheet?” (see Figure 7) The teacher also opened a chatroom in Visual Classroom for students to ask questions and share their feeling as well as their opinions in class (see Figure 8).

Figure 7. Sending a Message to Students through Visual Classroom

Figure 8. Opening a Chatroom for Students to Ask Questions or Share their Opinions

In the second session, the teacher gave two students one Tablet PC. The students had to finish their mission with their partners. The teacher sent them a PowerPoint file containing list of words for sentence making from the lesson through Visual Classroom. The students had to discuss with their partners and then make sentences for the words. They had to use the stylus to write down the sentences on the screen. After they finished making the sentences, the teacher asked volunteers to share their sentences with their classmates. They had to raise their hands to get the chance of sharing their sentences with others and each pair could get points for it.

The teacher then broadcasted their screens to the other students through Visual Classroom (see Figure 9). The teacher also asked the other students to find grammatical mistakes in the sentences and encouraged them to correct the sentences.

The students who corrected the sentences could also get points. If there was no student who could correct the sentences, the teacher would show the correction with her stylus on the screen.

Figure 9. Broadcasting One Group’s Screen to the Other Groups

The teacher used Hot Potatoes software program to design a test covering the words of this lesson before the third session started. In the test, there were five kinds of questions: Puzzle Words (JCross), Match (JMatch), Filling in the blanks (JCloze), Multiple Choice (JQuiz) and Unscrabbling Sentences (JMix). There were five questions in each part except the Unscrabbling Sentences (JMix) which had only one (see Figure 10, 11, 12, 13 & 14). The teacher opened a class on Moodle and uploaded the test on this teaching and learning platform before the third session. In the third session, the teacher gave each student one Tablet PC. The students had to take the test on Moodle by the stylus. After the students finished the test, the

& 16). The teacher could receive students’ scores immediately (see Figure 17).

Moodle helped the teacher produce statistics, such as correct facility (see Figure 18).

And then the teacher and the students can review and discuss the topics where the students made their most mistakes.

Figure 10. Five Questions of JCross in Hot Potatoes

Figure 11. Five Questions of JMatch in Hot Potatoes

Figure 12. Five Questions of JCloze in Hot Potatoes

Figure 13. Five Questions of JQuiz in Hot Potatoes

Figure 14. One question of JMix in Hot Potatoes

Figure 15. One Student’s Score and Time of the Test on Moodle

Figure 16. Showing the Right Answer of Each Item on Moodle

Figure 17. The Participants, Time and Scores of the Test on Moodle

Figure18. The Statistics Data such as Correct Facility on Moodle

For the control group, in the first session of each lesson, the teacher gave each student a worksheet. The worksheet of the control group was the same as that of the experimental group. The worksheet had the explanation, usage and exercises for the words in this lesson. The teacher used the blackboard to explain the worksheet.

The students had to finish the worksheet with pens or pencils in class. The teacher encouraged the students to raise their hands if they had any questions and the teacher would answer the questions and communicate with the students face to face.

In the second session, the teacher gave two students one worksheet. The students had to finish their task with their partners. The worksheet of the control group was the same as that of the experimental group. The worksheet was about making sentences for the words of this lesson. The students had to discuss with their partners and make sentences based on the vocabulary. They had to write down their sentences on the worksheet with pens or pencils. After they finished making the sentences, the teacher asked volunteers to write their sentences on the blackboard, so they could share their sentences with their classmates. They had to raise their hands to get the chance of writing their sentences up on the blackboard and each pair could get points for it. After the volunteers wrote their sentences on the blackboard, the teacher asked the other students to find any mistakes in the sentences and asked them to correct the sentences. The students who corrected the sentences correctly could

also get points. If there was no student who knew how to correct the sentences, the teacher corrected their sentences.

Before the third session, the teacher gave a Hot Potatoes test covering the words in this lesson. She then printed the test out for the students. The test of the control group was the same as that of the experimental group. In the test, there were five kinds of questions: Puzzle Words (JCross), Match (JMatch), Filling in the blanks (JCloze), Multiple Choice (JQuiz) and Unscrabbling Sentences (JMix).

There were five questions in each part except the Unscrabbling Sentences (JMix) which had only one. In the third session, the teacher gave each student one test paper. They had to finish the test with pens or pencils. After the students finished the test, they corrected the test papers for one another. The teacher asked students if they had any questions and the teacher answered the questions in class.

Finally, the teacher had to collect the test papers to register the scores of the students.

3.3.3 Post-test

After both groups complete the experiment, the sixty-three students took a

post-test to examine score improvement and to see if there was any significant difference between the two groups. There were forty multiple-choice questions about the word usage and twenty-five cloze questions testing the word spelling. The

questions in the post-test were very similar to the questions in the pre-test.

3.3.4 Questionnaire

After the post-test, the sixty-three students had to finish a questionnaire. The questionnaires included three categories of questions—5-point Likert scale questions, multi-multiple-choice questions and open-ended questions. In the 5-point Likert scale questions, there were five questions about their satisfaction with a Tablet PC, three questions dealing with motivation to use a Tablet PC and one question about difficulties they had using a Tablet PC to learn English vocabulary. In the multi-multiple-choice questions, there were two questions about their satisfaction, two questions about the difficulties and one question about the future use of a Tablet PC in English teaching as well as learning. In the open-ended questions, there were two questions about suggestions they would give about using a Tablet PC and the future use of a Tablet PC in English teaching as well as learning.

3.3.5 Interview

At the end of the experiment, the teacher chose four students with two boys and two girls to do the interview. The teacher asked them three questions. The first question was “What are the advantages and disadvantages of a Tablet PC?” The

second question was “Do you think learning English is more interesting with a Tablet PC?” The third question was “Do you think a Tablet PC is helpful in learning English?” Then the four students answered the three questions one after one.