The Impact of Wiki Technology on Learning Business English Vocabulary

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether wiki technology impacts students’ learning of business English vocabulary. The qualitative data for this study were collected by administering four questionnaires to 24 students to see their attitude towards/preferences for completing different types of tasks during the course; by interviewing the students from both groups to explore further their approaches to the types of tasks accomplished via a wiki in one group and on paper on the other group; by observing classes in both groups in order to get in-depth information about the classroom phenomena such as motivation of the students, activities used in the classroom, interactions, instructions, classroom behavior, etc. The quantitative data were collected through pre-and post-tests from the groups of business English courses at Eurasia International University (EIU).The results of the quantitative analysis of between-group comparisons demonstrated no significant difference on average in performances of both groups during the pre-and post-tests, separately. The students’ achievement from test to test within the groups, in both experimental and comparison groups, revealed significant difference between pre-and post-tests results in favor of the post-test.The results of the qualitative data showed that students were more motivated to learn business English vocabulary through the types of activities in the experimental group than the students in the comparison group.