Development of a multilingual web-based teaching a

Developmentofamultilingualweb-basedteachingandlearningsoftwareforengineeringstudentsChengK.W.E.DepartmentofElectricalEngineeringTheHongKongPolytechnicUniversityHungHom,HongKongEmail:[e-mail]geisdevelopedespeciallyforengineeringstudents.ThesoftwareaimstoimprovethelanguageskillofthestudentswhoareChineseoriginbutthelearningmediumisEnglish.ThepaperfirstdiscussesthecommonEnglishmistakesforthestudentsandhowthenewsoftwarepackagecanhelpthem.Thesoftwaredevelopedconsistsofmanyfunctionstohelpbothstudentsandteachers.Thesoftwareprovidesbasicweb-basedlecturematerialsandanimations.Italsoprovidesascan-dictionary.Itsfunctionismuchbetterthanweb-baseddictionary.ItcangivepronunciationinEnglishandMandarinandCantonese;explanationinEnglishandChinese.Thedatabaseconsistsover60,0000wordswhichcovergeneralEnglishandEngineeringjargons.Thesoftwarealsoprovideschatroom,diary,studentmonitoringsystemandengineeringgraphictools.Italsoconsistsofsearchengine,htmlgeneratorandspelling-checkandoralformoflectures.HTMLgeneratorisveryusefulforconvertingsometextintoHTMLforpostinginaweb-pageinacustomizedformat.Thestudentmonitoringsystemisespeciallyusefultorecordthediaryofthestudentsandunderstandtheirlearningprogress,sothattheteachercanofferhelpstosomeweakstudents.Thesoftwareiswrittenbyanumberofcomputinglanguages.Itisinitiallyusedforelectricalengineeringintheuniversities.Thesoftwarecanalsobeusedinmanyotherdisciplinesbecausetheformatisverygeneralanduserfriendly.Thequestionnairescollectedfrombothstudentsandteachersalsosaythatthedevelopedsoftwareisveryusefulfortheteachingandlearning.ThissoftwareisnowbeingusedintheHongKongPolytechnicUniversity.Theweb-siteis(Oliver,2001).Besidestheabovecommonproblemofweb-teaching,thereisagrowingconcernoftheEnglishstandardoftheengineeringstudentsintheuniversity.Employerskeepcomplainingthatgraduatesnowhavedifficultytowriteaproperarticlewhichisalwaysfilledwithsimplegrammarmistakes.ThesituationisastonishingforbothEasternandWesterncountries.IntheEasterncountries,theengineeringmaterialsareveryoftenusingEnglishastheteachingmedium,thestudentswhoarenotnativeEnglishspeakerwillevenfinditharder(Cheng,2001).WiththerapiddevelopmentofInternettechnologiesandthewidespreadofdistantlearningcourses,web-basedteachingandlearningisnotmoreanewtopic.E-Learningisnowawidelyacceptedmethodoflearning.Itnotonlyrepresentsasanewmethodofteaching,butalsoasanetworkthatcanstore,shareandupdatethelearningresources,sothatthestudentscangainaccessthroughanetworkedcomputer(Rosenberg,2001)attheirownconvenienttime.Thereisnorestrictionofthetimetableandlocationofthestudy.Itisthereforeverymuchwelcomebystudents.Butthelanguageconcernforweb-teachingisstillamajorissue.Theexistingweb-basedteachinghasnottakenintotheaccountforthelanguageconcernintheirsoftware.Webelievethatagoodweb-basedteachingandlearningsystemshouldbeprogrammedformultilingualapplicationandalsoprovidedwithmanyfacilitiestonon-nativeEnglishspeakerswithoutdegradingthequalityofteaching..ThecurrentprojectaimsatprovidinganenvironmentfortheEngineeringstudentstostudysubjectsonlinethroughInternet.Theweb-basedpackagedevelopednotonlytoprovideon-linelearningmaterials,itisalsoamulti-functionalteachingandlearningsystemforengineering.Infact,thepackageisnotrestrictedtoengineeringsubjects,itcanbeusedforanydisciplines.Becausethepackageisdesignedtobemultilingual,itisfoundtobeveryusefulforstudentswhosemothertonguesarenotEnglish.Theexercise,electronicbooksandmaterialsarealsoveryusefulforimprovingtheirEnglishstandards.AnotheradvantageisthatthematerialscanbeinputeasilybythelecturerswhodonotneedtohaveanypriorknowledgeofHTMLorweb-programming.Thepackageshouldalsobeprovidedwithmanagementofthestudents,lecturer,fileanddatabaseincludingnews,message,broadcastandmonitoringsystem.THESOFTWARETheweb-basedmultilingualsoftwareisdesignedtoprovidelanguageassistanceandespeciallyorientedtoengineering.Themainfeatureinassistingthelanguageisitemizedasfollows:lProducedictionaryfortheweb-sitelOne-lineweb-translatorforwordandsentenceslProducepronunciationinoralformlGiveexamplesinvariousapplicationsandalsoproducevariousformatsofwritingslGivesweb-basedexercisesAlsoinordertomakethesoftwarebeusefulinengineering,theabovefeaturesaredesignedtobeorientedtoengineering.Someadditionalsoftwareisaddedtoenhancetheweb-basedteaching.OnlydirectconversionadocumentintoWeb-formatisnotsatisfactorybecausethereisnodifferencefromreadingabook.Althoughsomeweb-siteaddanimationintothematerials,buttheanimationmustbedesignedaccordingtotheteachingmate