An Experiment On Improving Middle School Students' English Listening With MCALL

Computer-assisted Language Learning has been a new experiment and research area. Multimedia Computer Assisted Language Learning (MCALL) is a new developing subject in education. It is the commanding elevation and breach in the reform of education. Computers have been regarded as a useful tool for learning a foreign language. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of MCALL in improving the students' listening ability in English as compared with the traditional instruction.This paper begins with a description of learning theories—Constructivism theory and Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience. Then the paper is followed by a description of the development of computer use in education and history of the research on the effectiveness of MCALL.A controlled experiment is designed to testify the hypothesis. For purposes of this study, the effectiveness of MCALL is measured against that of the traditional instruction. During the experiment, Class B is considered as the control class. Class A is considered as the experiment class. The teaching materials (including audio-visual media and supplementary materials), method and strategies of listening instruction are used in the experiment class. On the other hand, traditional methods are adopted in the control class.During the experiment, both the experiment class and the control class took the same three tests. From the results of the two classes' pre-test, there is no significant difference in the students' listening comprehension ability. However, the results of...