Implementing a multimodal corpus of TED Talks for teaching academic presentations: Perspectives on EFL learners’ attitudes
No Thumbnail Available
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Despite the recognition of the multiple affordances of multimodal corpora in capturing
the complex and dynamic nature of real-life communication, their use in L2
classrooms is still limited. Informed by the body of related literature and by research
on pedagogic corpora, this research investigates Saudi learners’ attitudes towards
using a pedagogic and context-specific corpus to raise their awareness of spoken
academic discourse. In particular, this research examines the attitudes of the
participants towards the use of a web-based multimodal corpus of TED Talks
(MCOTT), and the potential influence of participants’ profiles on their attitudes.
Participants are intermediate EFL learners (N=103) enrolled in the foundation year of
their tertiary education, and are invited to participate in this exploratory research. Data
is gathered through two questionnaires (i.e. learner profile and learner attitude
questionnaires), interviews, and classroom observations, and are analysed both
quantitatively and qualitatively. To investigate learner attitudes, this thesis explores
questionnaire results relating to the participants’ perceived usefulness, perceived ease
of use, perceived behavioural control, affective attitude, and future intentions.
Generally, participants indicate positive attitudes towards MCOTT, and no significant
issues of concern were reported. Interview and observation data help to extend the
understanding of participants’ attitudes through highlighting reasons for participants’
appreciation of MCOTT and TED Talks, as well as offering need-based
recommendations for improving the corpus. To determine the possible influence of
participants’ profiles on their attitudes, this thesis examines the correlation between
participants’ profiles (motivation, attitudes towards oral skills and towards autonomy,
and ICT competence) and their attitudes to MCOTT use. Results indicate that there is
a positive correlation between all four profile related variables and participants’
attitudes. Finally, while findings reveal the positive attitudes of the participants,
questions are raised regarding whether the content of the corpus (i.e. TED) has a
significant impact on participants’ attitudes.