Using ICT for Enhancing English Teaching: A Quasi-Experimental Study Innovative teaching practices in using technology

The utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) to enhance English teaching is the emphasis of the basic education reform in China. The purpose of this study was to construct an effective blended learning model of English speaking teaching for pupils in primary schools in China. English Conversational material, which integrates ICT into classroom learning, was developed by David Goldberg and was adapted as the instruments in this study. The theory of Semantic Perception proposed by the second author of this paper was used as the theoretical framework. The Quasi-Experimental research design was employed, and a questionnaire survey and semi-interviews were used to evaluate the outcomes. Two hundred students from six schools were selected to participate in the study. An experimental group using blended learning was set up for comparison with a group using a traditional teaching model. A four-stage procedure was adopted in the study - forming the experimental and comparison groups, pre-testing the two groups for their English speaking competence, using blended learning with the experimental group and traditional learning with the control group, and post-testing the study achievements between the two groups. After the experiments, 40 teachers were asked to fill in a feedback questionnaire, and all the teachers (100%) completed one. Fifty-two subjects, randomly selected from the questionnaire respondents, were interviewed. The results showed that using English Conversational material, which integrated ICT into teaching, could enhance primary school pupils' study achievements in the areas of English speaking and listening compared with traditional teaching methods. It is hoped that the findings of this study will encourage teachers to use ICT in English teaching to make teaching and learning more effective. (Abstract)