Abstract:
The main purposes of this study were to construct a multi-media computer-assisted instruction (CAI) porgram for assisting first-year Chulalongkorn University students to learn Foundation English (FE 1) by themselves, and to make the program effective and suitable for them. The subjects were 88 first-year students from 3 sections and 3 faculties, namely: Law, Communication Arts and Engineering. They were from a population of 3,514 students registering to learn FE I in the frist semester of the academic year 1998. Thhe instruments used were 3 sets of tests, 1 set of attitude scales and a 4-chapter multi-media CAI program. Thes subjects were divided into 3 groups namely: Poor, Moderate and Advanced, based on their general English proficiency test scores taken prior to the actual treatment. Theoughout the semester, they were required to use the program at least for 1 hour a week by themselves in a computer lab, to study in class with an instructor (the researcher) for 2 hours and to study by themselves for 1 hour in a self-access learning center. They took the mid-term, the final and listening comprehension tests provided by the Language Institute. In the last week of the semester, they were asked to answer the attitude scales and to take the general English proficiency test again as a post test. The data were then analyzed by SPSS/PC program using t-test )dependent samples), ANOVA, ANCOVA and scheffe tests. The findings can be summarized as follows: 1. The constructed multi-media CAI program could be used to assist the first-year students to learn FE I by themselves in the areas of reading comprehension, vocabulary items, listening comprehension and semi-writing (error-recognition) 2. The effectiveness of the program was rather high and its suitability was also rather high. For example, a. its effectiveness index wes 85.08/83.65, b. thhe subjects' general English proficiency scores increased significantly, c. there was a tendency showing that the subjects' achivement in learning FE I was significantly higher than that of those who did not use the multi-media CAi program, and d. on average, the subjects had good attitudes towards the design, the content and the uitilization of the program.