Integrating multimedia into the Business English curriculum: a case study

Abstract

Opportunities to deliver language learning through computer-based multimedia environments, with their capacity to deliver and juxtapose all the traditional media of language learning alongside pedagogic tasks, are set to increase with the expansion of digital communications. Multimedias emergence has implications for self-study and integration with institutional classroom-based instruction. This article describes the formal integration of two interactive multimedia Business English CD-ROMs into the self-study curriculum of sixty undergraduate learners. Data on learners' attitudes, changes in their attitudes, learner strategies, patterns of use and performance on a formal test were collected to evaluate this curriculum innovation. Positive learner evaluations, for the use of multimedia, for its perceived learning effects and as means for self-study, together with self reports of productive language learning strategies and comparable achievements on the formal test, provided evidence for the success of the innovation. Decreases in the strength of positive evaluations, the use of some unproductive strategies and problems with hardware availability revealed aspects of the innovation needing reconsideration.