On the other hand, educators pointed out the drawbacks of e-learning as well. In the first place, the high cost is likely to be the essential and inevitable problem. The primary limitation is the cost. As Gips, DiMattia, & Gips (2004) points out, the increase of educational cost is unequal for the learners from different economical situation. Everyone has the right to study so that the educators and governors cannot overlook some groups of learners who do not have the capacity to afford the high expense for the new educational technology. Secondly, studying online requires knowledge in terms of basic computer technology. Lai and Kritsonis (2006) states that it is likely to be difficult for ‘untrained students’ to get the utmost out of the online resources through computer. Additionally, the lack of communication is probably a drawback, as communication is the purpose of language learning (Lee, 2000). Besides, the computer technology itself is necessary to be improved in the future (Lai, Kritsonis, 2006).
According to those elements of the authors and educators, it can be seen that studying a second language through e-learning has a number of advantages and disadvantages. However, as Clarke (2008) indicates that e-learning need numerous skills so as to improve the second language learning effectively, there are a few resources which discuss how to make e-learning more successful and suitable for second language learning. The literature related to the assessment of study through e-learning in terms of the advantages and disadvantages is much, whereas there is not much about how e-learning proceeds in realistic English language courses. Therefore, this research will focus more on the measure of how to develop the e-learning skills and what merits and limitations are in reality in INTO.
Research design
This research will take a case study as the methodological approach. A case study is defined as ‘a strategy of inquiry in which the researcher explores in depth a program, event, activity, process, or one or more individuals’ (Creswell, 2009). It is always designed in order to clarity a ‘more general principle’ (Nisbet and Watt, 1984). Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2000) explain that case studies provide the unique instances of ‘real people in real situations’. The information I want to acquire through a case study in this research is actually what the real students and teachers think about the application of computer technology and how it is used currently in English language teaching. Therefore, the researchers tend to employ this approach while they need to understand or interpret the phenomenon. Compared with the simple presentation with abstract principles and professional theories, a case study enables people to understand the viewpoints of the researchers more clearly. Besides, it also enables to understand that how the general theories and the research ideas can fit with each other (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2000).
Merriam (1998) lists the key features of a case study. The first one is the pertinence. A case study frequently focuses on a specific situation, time, project or phenomenon. Hence, it is a practical approach to study some realistic issues, such as my research about the phenomenon of e-learning in current English language teaching. Secondly, the final result of a case study is the outcome of the detailed and specific descriptions to the research phenomena. Geertz (1973) demonstrates that a case s
