Sato (2021) noted that "there are surprisingly few empirical studies on the educational effects of computers" (p. 49). Due to the spread of COVID-19 infection, many universities in Japan have introduced distance learning since the 2020 academic year. In line with this, the compulsory first term class named "English 1," for the first-year students at X University, has been conducted in online classes using Google Classroom. Online TED Talks are employed as teaching materials since they are highly convenient, match the intellectual level of university students, and also allow individual study. In 2020, students and instructor were not yet familiar with the operation of Google Classroom, and also Wi-Fi conditions were unstable, so lessons could only be conducted by exchanging text messages related to each TED Talk. However, as they got used to such conditions in 2021, the instructor decided to add an oral explanation to one question with a high error rate in an English "confirmation test" conducted at the beginning of each class. The explanation was given using shared screen on Google Meet (part of Google Classroom). The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of "English 1" classes in 2020 and 2021 that reflect learning styles on the English proficiency of the first-year university students.
The number of participants in 2020 was 74, and that in 2021 was 58 because of the decrease in enrollment. For comparison, a preliminary written test (pre-test) was first conducted in each of the two years to determine each student's English proficiency, and then a total of ten 90-minute lessons using one TED Talks presentation per lesson were conducted. The content of the pre-test was unrelated to the lessons. One week after the tenth class was completed, a post-test employing the same content as the pre-test was conducted. Simultaneously, a five-point Likert scale questionnaire consisting of 15 items related to emotions was conducted. Analysis of the test results revealed the following. First, comparison of the pre- and post-test scores in each year showed no significant difference in 2020 (Hasegawa, 2021), but did show improvement in 2021 with a significant difference at the 0.1% level. Next, as a result of comparing the emotional questionnaire in 2020 and 2021, the point was improved from the median of 3 in the item "I can understand English grammar," producing a significant difference at the 5% level. Because there was no significant difference between pre-test scores of the two years, it was suggested that it is important to add oral explanations targeting the students' weak points in English grammar over shared screens in distance learning.
Bibliography
Hasegawa, S. (2021, August 20-22). Will distance learning using TED Talks improve university students' English proficiency? [Paper presentation]. The 60th LET Annual Conference, Online.
Sato, M. (2021). Dai-yoji-sangyo-kakumei to kyoiku no mirai: Posuto-korona-jidai no ICT-kyoiku [Fourth industrial revolution and the future of education: ICT education in the post-corona era). Iwanami-shoten.
