AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ EVALUATION OF AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS SYNCHRONOUS COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION ON LANGUAGE SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAMESE INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT

Abstract

The study explored students’ evaluation of and attitudes towards synchronous computermediated communication (SCMC) on language skills development after a fifteen-week semester of
instruction, using quantitative and qualitative approach. One class of English level 3 of CEFR – Vietnamese
standard (B1) participated in oral role plays and one class engaged in synchronous online discussions. The
research participants filled out the pre- and post- questionnaires and the participants from the SCMC group
were called for semi-structured interviews to obtain their evaluation and attitudes towards synchronous
computer-mediated communication on language development. Analysis of the questionnaires and semistructured interviews exposed that the fifteen-week semester English intensive course contributed to
students’ language skills development. They had positive attitudes towards SCMC and were contented with
the activities in the computer lab. Remarkably, the SCMC group felt more confident in chatting in computer
lab than the role play group. It showed that doing written online discussions would intrigue learners in their
learning English. SCMC is thus shown to be a valuable addition to the foreign language classroom.