THE EVALUATION OF INTERACTIVE ENGLISH TUTORIAL CDs
A. TALK NOW PLUS ( LEARN ENGLISH )
FOCUS/MAIN SKILL : LISTENING
1. Interactivity: This program is fully interactive with some help activities for beginner levels and young learners. There are many activities which involve the learners actively ,and the instructions are easy to understand. The feed back is also available.
2. Usability (flexibility) This program is easily-operated and navigated. The topics/activities are varied and interesting. The sound system is excellent. Besides, Learners can choose what particular topics/activities and how long they want to learn.
3. Content and appropriateness This program provides adequate materials to practice. The main skill of this program is listening. The embedded skill is pronunciation. The topics are easily understood by young learners. They can also boost their vocabulary because the vocabularies are varied and arranged systematically.
4. Effectiveness This program is quite effective for listening activities. Moreover, if students want to know more how to pronounce the words, it is provided with recorder with pronunciation checking.
5. Program The layout and screen are very colorful and eye-catching which make children get interested in doing the activities. The illustrations (picture, diagram, charts) are also varied and interesting.
The limitation(s):
B. EASY TO SING
1. Interactivity There is almost no interactivity in this program. This program is for young learners and beginners. There isn’t any feedback available, but there are Karaoke subtitles.
2. Usability (flexibility) This program is quite interesting for young children because the songs are easy to sing, and the subtitles are available. It’s difficult to navigate the program because it needs supporting software to operate it.
3. Content (appropriateness) This program is suitable for young children. The songs are varied and easy to sing.
4. Effectiveness This program is not really effective to improve students’ ability to speak English because this program is only for fun. The only exercise is singing. The linguistic component in this program is only pronunciation and listening, but they are not the main skills.
5. Performance The performance and appearance are fair and monotonous.
The limitation(s): The program is diifficult to install because it needs supporting software (power DVD) to operate it. The video is also bad.
C. TALK MORE/SPEAK ENGLISH
FOCUS/ MAIN SKILL: LISTENING
1. Interactivity This program is fully interactive with on-line connection. Feedback is also available. The level of difficulty is graded from easy to quite difficult ones. This program is suitable for basic to intermediate levels.
2. Usability (flexibility) This program is quite interesting with varied activities. Learners get the experience to learn American and British English. It is not really difficult to navigate this program.
3. Content and appropriateness This program has varied activities. Learners get interested to learn because it’s easily-understood by students. These activities are very suitable for students who want to know more about the difference between American English and British English and how to pronounce the expressions in British and American English.
4. Effectiveness This program is quite effective to improve speaking skills because there are many expressions for different occasions available in this CD. The main skill of this program is listening. And the linguistic component included is pronunciation.
5. Performance (attractiveness) The illustrations (picture, diagram, charts…..etc) are interesting. The sound system is good and clear.
The limitation(s):
D. ISSUE IN ENGLISH
FOCUS/MAIN SKILL : WRITING, SPEAKING, AND LISTENING
1. Interactivity This program is fully interactive, and the feedback is also available. The level of difficulty is also graded from easy to more difficult ones. The topics and exercises are varied, and it makes this program more challenging. This program is suitable for basic to intermediate levels.
2. Usability (flexibility) This program is very interesting because students will learn a lot from it. The program provides a wide range of English skills such as grammar, reading, listening and speaking. The learners can choose particular activities they want to study.
3. Content and appropriateness As mentioned before, this program is suitable for basic to intermediate levels. The materials are easily understood and learned. This program is also suitable for students who want to develop their pronunciation because it is equipped with recorder and pronunciation checking.
4. Effectiveness This program is quite effective to assist language learners to learn different skills. I don’t think the students can improve and master grammar significantly because the grammar points provided are still basic.
5. Performance (attractiveness) The presentation is fair, but the sound system is good. The illustrations are also fair.
The limitation(s):
