An Evaluation of English Language Teaching Courseware in Malaysia

This study included a qualitative analysis of the content of the teaching courseware that was developed by the Curriculum Development Center of the Ministry of Education in 2003. The objective of the study was to determine the efficacy of the courseware from the perspective of learning-teaching. The results indicated that most of the lessons selected for analysis followed a traditionally linear approach. Furthermore, an analysis of the roles of the learner, the teacher and the courseware showed that the courseware had a domineering role throughout the lesson, instructing, modeling and providing feedback. The teacher’s role was reduced to that of a computer operator while the learners followed the instructions of the courseware and were seldom prompted to initiate any communication activity without the stimulus provided by the teaching courseware. The analysis of the data also revealed that the courseware had a lopsided focus on the language skills. Finally, it was found that presenting the materials in the courseware would require a considerably longer time than what is recommended by the courseware developers. The findings of the study may prove helpful for the developers of the courseware in improving its quality in its future revisions.


Introduction
Instructional courseware can be defined as "software developed for the purpose of providing instruction" (Gibbs, Graves, & Bernas, 2001: 2).The term 'courseware' was introduced by SCORE!Educational Centers, the pioneering developer that coined the term by combining the words 'course' and 'software'.It was originally used to term any computerized packages of teaching-learning material that instructors could supplement to the main lessons.Criswell (1989) distinguishes between two different definitions of the term, asserting that, in a narrow sense, courseware refers to programs that administer instructions, and in a wider sense, in addition to such programs, it relates to all handbooks, performance aids and course materials.In this paper, courseware is regarded in a wider sense as "any educational package including a number of lessons or courses appended with tests, teacher's/ learner's manuals and guidelines available online and/or on CDs and/or DVDs" (Mukundan & Nimehchisalem, 2008: 72).
Teaching courseware was introduced by the Curriculum Development Center (CDC) of the Ministry of Education so as to provide support to teachers when teaching English (CDC, 2003a).In the manual accompanying the teaching courseware, it is argued, "using multimedia elements such as graphics, audio, video and animations, classroom lessons become visually more attractive and engaging" (CDC, 2003b:3).Such a quality is thought to add to the motivation level of students.Further, it is believed that by using such courseware, "teachers will have resources that are tailored to their needs" (CDC, 2003b:3).However, since the teaching courseware is something novel, it requires that teachers invest time and energy in first acquainting themselves to new technology and then to see to the compatibility of this new technology to curriculum and syllabus needs.The content in the teaching courseware was evaluated to determine its efficacy from the perspective of learning/teaching.The results of the evaluation have led the researchers to conclude that the teaching courseware seems like a misfit in the learning/teaching situation.The material was found to be violating some important principles in language learning/teaching and specifically, the principles and theories that support materials development for language learning/teaching.What Weible (1984) put forth three decades ago about the teaching courseware of his time may also apply to most courseware developed nowadays in that "the currently available foreign language microcomputer courseware is meagre in quantity and generally unimpressive in quality" (p.63).
Computers and technology have drastically changed the face of education in recent years.However, language learning material developers and teachers should approach technology very cautiously.While there is no empirical evidence evaluating learner attitude toward teaching through multimedia and teaching courseware in Malaysia (Lily & Muhamed, 2000), some researchers warn, "the screen-by-screen approach to the operation of the teaching courseware would give the impression that this is a lecture and not a lesson," (Mukundan, 2008:108).It is also argued that the successful application of CD-ROM courseware in content-based subjects, like science (AiniArifah & Norizan, 2008), does not necessarily mean it is applicable in the language classroom (Mukundan, 2008).
In order to make the best possible use of it teachers should distinguish between the two types of educational software, LMS (Learning Management System) and VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) (Lewis, 2008).While LMS includes the types of software used to deliver, track and manage training, VLE embraces software systems developed to assist teachers and learners in educational settings.Educational software may be either providing a series of lessons revealed to the learner periodically (LMS) or unveiling the whole course all at once leaving the learner free to select (VLE).As Lewis notes, it is of importance to differentiate static types of software that present ready-made exercises with an accompanying key from dynamic programs that suggest options and possibilities through which learners can choose in their learning experience.The former is referred to as only an 'object' but the latter as a 'tool' (Lewis, 2008).Providing learners with mere objects will hinder their interest and creativity whereas tools involve and attract learners guiding them to develop their own materials.

The Malaysian English Teaching Courseware (Form 1)
Curriculum Development Centre (2003a) developed the Form 1 English Language courseware.It includes 28 units.Each unit consists of five lessons, so there is a total of 140 lessons in a package of nine compact disks.These come along with five other CDs, called Teacher's Courseware Resource Guide, which include the two main sections of Teacher's Training and Teacher's Resources.The Teacher's Training section is a manual accompanied by several videos.The manual introduces the courseware, provides guidance on the installation of the necessary equipment, guides the teacher on issues like the teaching plan as well as time management, and finally provides some troubleshooting tips.The videos introduce the courseware and explain how to use it in the classroom.
Each lesson of the courseware consists of PDF files including Teacher's Notes, Activity Worksheets, and Audio-video Scripts.The courseware offers a variety of activities in the form of fill-in-the-blank, drag-and-drop, multiple-choice or marking, true/false, and rearrange pictures/sentences exercises.Every lesson comprises the six parts of introduction, content, activity, evaluation, enhancement and extension.The introduction prepares the class for the new lesson through reading or listening activities.The content exposes the learners to language forms and functions emphasized in the lesson.The section presents the main topic of each lesson.In the activity section, the learner plays a more active role.It involves guided writing or speaking activities that help the students practice what they have learned in the content section.Evaluation is the fourth section where the learners are expected to produce the new function or form they have learned in response to verbal or pictorial stimuli.The section checks students' understanding of the new lesson.The next part of each lesson is called enhancement.It helps the learner further consolidate the new lesson in their minds.It provides remedial exercises for those students who had certain problems in the evaluation section.This screen may include two or more sub-screens arranged in order of their difficulty level.The first practice is for students who have some difficulties with the content of the new lesson while the second practice contains enrichment activities for students to explore the topic.The final section is extension that offers additional tasks that allow them to personalize the new lesson.These activities can be completed outside the classroom as homework.

Objective and Research Questions
The study aims at evaluating the efficacy of the teaching courseware in the learning/teaching environment.Based on this objective, the following research questions are posed: 1. To what extent is the courseware in line with the principles of second language methodology?2. How efficient and consistent are the anticipated roles of the learners, teacher and material?3. Does the courseware emphasize the language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) equally?How practical is the time management scheme suggested by the teaching courseware manual

Method
Two units from the courseware were randomly selected and qualitatively analyzed to investigate the teacher, learner and material roles in order to answer the first and second research questions.Three English as a Second Language (ESL) instructors evaluated the courseware.They were female Malaysian instructors with a minimum experience of 12 years of teaching.After they were cross-checked for consistency, the data were summarized and tabulated to facilitate later reference.Appendix A provides a sample of the tabulated data.Additionally, Appendix B illustrates the tabulation of the overall qualitative analysis of the two units.Moreover, the exercises focusing on each language skill were quantified to show the proportion of focus on each language skill (Figure 1).In order to answer the final research question the three English Language Teaching (ELT) experts predicted the necessary time to cover each lesson.The data were collected and tabulated.The mean of the time allocations was then compared with the recommended time by the developers of the courseware (Table 1).

Results
With regard to the first research question; that is, the extent to which the courseware follows the principles of English Language Teaching, it was found that some crucial ELT techniques were neglected in its development.As the results showed, the courseware did not adhere to the principles of materials development (Tomlinson, 1998).Its content structure and delivery indicated that the teaching courseware stood isolated from Approach (body of theory that supports a method) and Procedure (the way the learner, teacher and material play roles in the classroom).As the results showed, time-tested methods could not be incorporated into the lessons where the teaching courseware was used.According to the principles of methods like the Total Physical Response (TPR), Audio-Lingual Method (ALM) or Communicative Approach to Language Teaching (CALT) the teacher, learner and materials should work in harmony to create and re-create language.The teacher using the courseware, however, would often be a manipulator of hardware and the lesson would be more teacher-centered as opposed to learner-centered.
The findings indicated that the teaching courseware ignored the value of incorporating well-established ELT methods.It was rather based on a traditional and linear approach.It followed the conventional presentation, practice, and production (PPP) approach, in which, first, a topic is introduced to the learner, and then the learner does a series of guided activities related to the topic.This was evident from the titles of the different sections of each lesson.The introduction and content screens presented the linguistic form or function that the learner was expected to learn.The activity and evaluation screens that followed sought to help the learner practice the new lesson.Finally, the enhancement and extension screens aimed at eliciting the desired linguistic product from the student.
As warned by the researchers in the area of ELT material development and evaluation, the application of unsophisticated multimedia developed for language instruction usually does nothing more than providing learners with similar content from conventional materials (Mukundan, 2008).A considerable part of the teaching courseware included still-screen multimedia with simple animation.This would suggest that the courseware fell under the category of educational software programs that are static and merely provide learners with activities that could be presented using textbooks anyway.
To anticipate the roles of the teacher, learner and teaching courseware (research question 2) the lessons were analyzed and the results of the evaluation were summarized and tabulated (Appendices A and B).According to the findings, the teacher most of the time would act as a computer operator, who does nothing more than clicking and operating the teaching courseware.Once a new screen is called up, the courseware automatically reads out the instructions to the class.This can turn to a nuisance element if the teacher fails to mute the speakers or is unable to click on the listening icon to deactivate it.
As for the learners, they would be expected to follow the PPP approach.At the beginning of the lesson, they would be more passive and rather reactive, responding to some guided verbal or visual stimuli.Towards the end of each lesson, however, they would be productively able to manipulate the linguistic elements they had learned.Pair/group work was sometime encouraged.The activities were mostly content-driven and the students were stimulated by the screens to communicate, so they would not be allowed to initiate any communication activity.A few screens aimed at engaging the student in problem-solving activities in imaginative ways.A few activities personalized or localized the topic.
As it was evident from the emerging results, the teaching courseware was the domineering element throughout each lesson.It presented the instructions and examples.It provided the students with feedback as well as the correct responses to the exercises.Explicit focus on the forms and functions of language was sometimes evident.Surprisingly, instances of conflict in the teaching agenda in the courseware could be observed.As an example, in one of the exercises, although the instructions directed the learners to listen and write their answers, the material in the recording appeared both in the worksheet and in the screen that eliminated any need for listening anyway.Some of the worksheets were exactly the same as the screens.This would emphasize the assumption that a textbook could also do what these screens were trying to do.Only in a few cases were the screens manipulated efficiently by disclosing the content slide by slide thereby adding suspense to the learning experience.However, sometimes the screen automatically flipped visuals that could easily distract the learner if the machine were not muted or the video projector were not blocked.
As for the third research question, a lopsided focus on listening, writing and reading activities was observed.As Figure 1 indicates, about one in three activities in the courseware focused on reading (28%), writing (29%) or listening (30%) while very few concerned speaking (13%).This suggests that the learner is given less opportunity to practice speaking as compared to the other language skills.
In order to answer the last research question the three language teachers predicted the required time for each lesson to be presented.The experts individually examined the lessons and recorded the time required for each lesson to be covered in a real language classroom.This helped the researchers to cross-check the allotted time to come up with more reliable data.According to the manual, a period of 40 minutes was assumed to be enough to cover each lesson.The teacher was recommended to spend 3, 10, 10, 5, 7 and 5 minutes on the introduction, content, activity, evaluation, enhancement and extension, respectively (CDC, 2003b: 14).Table 1 depicts the average time predicted by the experts.A comparison of the table and the time recommended by the courseware developers shows that the scheme has been proposed in ad hoc manner and that a teacher who wishes to use the teaching courseware would definitely come short of time.

Discussion
According to its developers, the electronic courseware seeks to raise the standard of teaching by providing high-quality teaching resources (CDC, 2003b).It is claimed that the courseware can engage the students by using visually attractive multimedia and adding variety to lessons from the usual practice of using only books and chalk-and-talk.The courseware may also help ESL teachers by lightening their workload in material development CDC (2003b).
When it embarked on the development of the teaching courseware, the CDC had good intentions.The teaching courseware, however, was found to be inappropriate for language teaching.As the results showed, it might lead to a lack of harmony within the learning-teaching situation for at least four reasons that are discussed in this section.
To begin with, the role of the teaching courseware is unclear within the curriculum.As it can be inferred, the CDC recommended the exclusive use of the teaching courseware.There is clear evidence on this when they produced 140 lessons, more than the number of lessons in a school year.In addition, it was mandatory for teachers to use it.Indeed, supervision of teachers was carried out when it was first implemented, which resulted in confusion among teachers -the textbook which was newly commissioned in 2003 seemed to have lost out in a case of competing resources.
Second, as it emerged from the findings, the teaching courseware lacks the sophistication expected of multimedia.Most of its content resembles that of language textbooks, which means pages from a book merely digitized with the addition of windows that operate on click and drag routines.Admittedly, use of technology may add to novelty to language teaching.However, novelty, as introduced by the courseware, very easily wears off.
What is more, the courseware seems unable to exploit contemporary methodology expected within ELT materials.The courseware mostly follows the traditional PPP approach that is linear and rather inflexible.Language teachers familiar with the ELT methodologies will not be able to incorporate them in their teaching while using the courseware.Methods like the TPR, Suggestopedia and CALT will not feature much when the teaching courseware is used since they cannot easily fit into the prescribed script produced by the developers.The courseware would limit a teacher who wishes to teach listening comprehension using the TPR method since it would require learners' listening and performing physically throughout.The method focuses more on comprehension than on the oral production of language on the part of the learner.However, the courseware does not prompt such activities.
The role of the teacher is reduced to that of a computer operator and the learner-centeredness expected of the learning-teaching situation is diminished since the courseware seems to be doing all the work.The instructions for each activity are read out for the students.Teachers, who are novice or lack the experience of using technology in the language classroom, may fail to mute the courseware once it is switched on, which can distract the learners.The teacher has to stand by the computer and have students follow the instructions and then with the help of the software monitor the responses from the students.The developers provide the correct answers for every activity, but fail to guide the teacher on how to use this material, which may tempt novice teachers to show students the answers after every exercise.This will lead to a technology-centered classroom where the conventional role of learners and teachers is to work together on the materials to learn and produce the language forms and functions.

Conclusion
As the results of the study indicated, the courseware does not appear to have been developed based on the contemporary ELT principles.The considerable budget that was dedicated to its development has interesting implications in the allocation of financial resources for educational purposes.Such an investment sounds unjustified when the recently developed school textbooks cost billions of ringgit.In such a situation it would be more reasonable to ensure the textbooks were not neglected.Developing supplementary materials to make the textbooks more useful would have been more appropriate than investing in a new material to replace the textbooks.This does not sound like a wise investment decision.
Of course, investment on educational technology, especially multimedia, is not a crime.As found in this study, technology in the form of the present teaching courseware looks primitive and lacks sophistication.It has several screens that look like pages of textbook that have been digitized.Such a massive investment on new technology had to be deliberated with experts in the related areas and classroom teachers before making decisions on its development.Prior to being commissioned into classrooms, any new product must be examined and field-tested.The courseware fails to emphasize the commonly prescribed roles of the teacher, learner and materials.The roles of the teacher, learner and materials are not cohesively knit together within procedure in language classrooms.
One possible way to use the courseware more effectively would be to encourage the teacher to regard it as a supplementary material that can be cannibalized for revised teaching approach.Further research is needed to re-examine the performance of the teaching courseware in the real classroom setting.Nevertheless, as it can be assumed, the results of such a re-evaluation would indicate it usurps the role of the teacher that is against the well-established rules and theories of language teaching.

Table 1 .
Estimated time to cover each lesson (in minutes) : The first number in the brackets refers to the unit number followed by the lesson number(s). Note