Given the burgeoning interest in the application of technology and electronic tools for educational purposes, this study set out with the purpose of investigating Iranian paramedical students’ perception and use of e-learning tools in an English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) course. To this end, a course plan was designed with an eye to incorporating e-learning tools in the course and was implemented for eight weeks. Next, a questionnaire eliciting the students’ responses on the significance of the e-adjunct to the ESAP course and on the extent to which they preferred to use different types of paper, offline e-learning and online e-learning resources (paper dictionaries, offline mobile dictionaries, offline computer-based dictionaries and software and Internet-based applications and tools) was used. Then, an interview was conducted with the students to discover the purposes for and the conditions in which they preferred to use the resources. The findings showed that the majority of the students preferred offline mobile dictionaries and that the Internet-based applications were given less priority. Most students also perceived using the electronic tools in the course as “much” significant. The results of the qualitative content analysis of the students’ responses in the interview revealed that they tended to use mobile dictionaries as their first choice for learning general and technical vocabularies anywhere anytime. They also preferred to use Internet-based applications as their last resort for translation purposes and learning language skills like grammar a
nd pronunciation where free quality Internet was available. Moreover, they expressed a preference for using paper dictionaries for learning only general vocabularies when they were at home or when they could not use their cellphones for any reason. The study carries practical implications for incorporating offline and online e-learning tools in the ESAP courses at universities, especially in the places where Internet problems still linger on.
Exploring Paramedical Students’ Perception and Use of Electronic Learning Tools in an ESAP Course
Authors
Abstract
Given the burgeoning interest in the application of technology and electronic tools for educational purposes, this study set out with the purpose of investigating Iranian paramedical students’ perception and use of e-learning tools in an English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) course. To this end, a course plan was designed with an eye to incorporating e-learning tools in the course and was implemented for eight weeks. Next, a questionnaire eliciting the students’ responses on the significance of the e-adjunct to the ESAP course and on the extent to which they preferred to use different types of paper, offline e-learning and online e-learning resources (paper dictionaries, offline mobile dictionaries, offline computer-based dictionaries and software and Internet-based applications and tools) was used. Then, an interview was conducted with the students to discover the purposes for and the conditions in which they preferred to use the resources. The findings showed that the majority of the students preferred offline mobile dictionaries and that the Internet-based applications were given less priority. Most students also perceived using the electronic tools in the course as “much” significant. The results of the qualitative content analysis of the students’ responses in the interview revealed that they tended to use mobile dictionaries as their first choice for learning general and technical vocabularies anywhere anytime. They also preferred to use Internet-based applications as their last resort for translation purposes and learning language skills like grammar a
nd pronunciation where free quality Internet was available. Moreover, they expressed a preference for using paper dictionaries for learning only general vocabularies when they were at home or when they could not use their cellphones for any reason. The study carries practical implications for incorporating offline and online e-learning tools in the ESAP courses at universities, especially in the places where Internet problems still linger on.
Keywords
e-Learning, ESAP course, Mobile dictionaries, Internet-based apps, Paper dictionaries
