Teaching translation modules using moodle: A quantitative research at university of foreign languages, Hue university

TEACHING TRANSLATION MODULES USING MOODLE: 
A QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH AT UNIVERSITY 
OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY 
Phan Thi Thanh Thao
*
University of Foreign Languages, Hue University 
Received: 10/09/2017; Revised: 22/10/2017; Accepted: 30/08/2018 
Abstract: TESOL instruction has moved from traditional classroom learning to a blended learning 
environment using Moodle as a supportive learning platform in some universities in Vietnam. 
Although Moodle has been successful in other disciplines at some universities, none has been used for 
translation. This paper aims to research the effectiveness of using Moodle in teaching 
English-Vietnamese translation modules at University of Foreign Languages, Hue University. We 
mainly used the quantitative method to collect and analyze questionnaires given to both students 
and teachers and found out several benefits of blended learning. The study results show that 
teaching English with Moodle’s use has increased students’ motivation, and improved the teaching 
quality significantly. Therefore, the implications of using Moodle in teaching translation for 
English-Vietnamese language have been suggested in this study in order to create practical lessons 
at our university and other institutions in Vietnam with similar modules. 
Key words: Moodle, quantitative research, teaching translation 
1. Introduction 
The advancement of network and technology has brought about profound changes in methods of 
teaching and learning in many universities around the world. According to Tang (2013), blending 
thoughts or cogitation and ways of teaching and learning can combine the advantages of traditional 
models of teaching and ways of information technology. Actually, this combination helps the teaching 
achieve the integration of courses and educational technology. In particular, blended learning is regarded 
as an innovative way of teaching and learning English in which teaching and learning activities have been 
completely supported by information technology (David, 2014). Siirak (2008) argues that blended 
learning with computer based learning in the Moodle E-learning environment, based on social 
constructivist learning theory is an effective tool for teaching and learning in the occupational health and 
safety discipline. In fact, using Moodle in teaching develops learners' communicative skills in language 
and requires social interaction between the teacher and students and among the students themselves 
(Al-Ani, 2013). A large number of studies on using Moodle in teaching and learning English were 
implemented in the past few years (Brandle, 2005; Irina & Laura, 2007; Stewart, 2007; Al-Ani, 2013; 
Tang, 2013); however, there has been little research on using Moodle in teaching translation modules thus 
far. 
This article will present some theoretical background related to blended learning and Moodle learning 
management system (LMS), some advantages and disadvantages of using Moodle in teaching and learning 
* Email: phanthao0105@gmail.com 
English, then focus on the use of Moodle in teaching translation modules in University of Foreign 
Languages, Hue University (HU-UFL). Since this research aims to determine the effectiveness of blended 
learning approach, using Moodle in teaching translation modules for English major students at HU-UFL, it 
strives to achieve the following objectives: 
- To briefly introduce blended learning and using Moodle in previous studies; 
- To indicate strengths and challenges of using Moodle in teaching and learning English; 
- To investigate the attitudes of Vietnamese learners and teachers towards using Moodle in teaching 
and learning English and translation courses; 
- To determine students' understanding of benefits of using Moodle at translation class and 
teachers’ concern and competence of using of Moodle in their teaching; 
 - To suggest some implications and recommendations of improving the teaching and 
 learning translation modules with the Moodle’s use through lessons at our university and other 
institutions in Vietnam with similar modules. 
2. Blended learning and using Moodle 
2.1. What is blended learning? 
The term “blended learning” came into being with numerous definitions in recent years. According 
to Mackey (2008), blended learning involved in a combination of online and face-to-face learning may 
also include different combinations of technology, pedagogies and contexts. In a report on the merits and 
potential of blended education, the Sloan Consortium, or Online Learning Consortium (Carl, 2014) 
defined blended or hybrid courses as those that “integrate online with traditional face-to-face class 
activities in a planned, pedagogically valuable manner.” Garrison and Vaughan (2008) agree that blended 
learning is a coherent design approach, which openly assesses and integrates the strengths of face-to-face 
and online learning to address the educational goa ... r. Nevertheless, on the survey of teachers’ expertise of blended learning and Moodle, we found 
out that five teachers agreed that they knew but hardly used it; moreover, three of them did not know 
exactly what it was. How did they interact or communicate with students? Traditionally, they often gave 
information directly for students to internalize it via lectures at class and five teachers used only 
face-to-face communication with students. Two teachers used both traditional and advanced methods 
(using public forum via Facebook) to exchange information, materials, share experience. The teachers’ 
use of these two major methods of communication and lecturing demonstrated the necessity of elevating 
the tendency of IT application into teaching language at tertiary education, which required the learners to 
obtain the high self-study and active learning environment. 
4.2. Students' feedbacks of using Moodle in learning communication and translation courses 
This research addressed the students' understanding of blended learning and Moodle after using it 
in the translation practice course. Following is a summary of most significant findings relating to the 
students’ feedback and evaluation after using Moodle at the translation class. 
Students’ achievements of using Moodle in learning communication 
Table 3 below showed the students’ capacity of navigating Moodle and using it in communicating 
with teachers and other students at translation classes. 46 students agreed that they found Moodle easy to 
navigate, 13 students had some technical difficulties using Moodle in learning English. 22 students 
strongly agreed and 30 students agreed to use Moodle to communicate with teachers and other students 
via email and sometimes through discussion forum. Furthermore, most of students (42 Ss strongly agreed 
and 38 Ss agreed) preferred online discussion to classroom discussion since Moodle is helpful for keeping 
track of discussion. In a big class, there were not any chances to make face-to-face discussion at all. 
Therefore, online discussion was the most effective way to raise questions and receive responses from all 
the members in the course. 
Table 3. Students’ feedbacks after learning how to use Moodle in learning communication 
N
o 
Responses A B C D E 
1 I find Moodle easy to navigate. 3
5 
4
6 
1
5 
1
4 
1
0 
2 I have some technical difficulties using Moodle. 1
4 
1
3 
2
0 
4
6 
2
7 
3 I often use Moodle to communicate with 
teachers and other students via email or 
discussion forum. 
2
2 
3
0 
2
8 
3
4 
6 
4 I prefer online discussion to classroom 
discussion. 
4
2 
3
8 
2
3 
1
5 
2 
As to learning activities using Moodle at translation class, we found out some results as shown in 
Table 4 below. We find out that 46 students agreed and 35 strongly agreed that they preferred doing the 
task online to the traditional paper tasks in class or at home, since they found Moodle useful and 
convenient to help them complete their tasks in their own time and right place. According to many 
students’ comments, they could spend less time typing and translating the texts from English into 
Vietnamese and vice versa with personal computer instead of translating texts by hand-writing. What is 
more, 31 students strongly agreed and 48 students agreed that using Moodle could save them time to 
prepare and complete translation tasks in translation lessons with the item of writing portfolios. That is to 
say, time and place flexibility is one of the Moodle’s strengths in learning activities. 
Working with Moodle in translation module 1 for about 15 weeks, students’ expertise and method 
of professional translation could be enhanced to some extent. Specifically, using Moodle helped the 
majority of students easily create useful glossaries of different domains such as education, health, 
economics, environment, which could support students in translation and interpretation tasks. Moreover, 
62 students strongly agreed and agreed that using Moodle supported them in obtaining or sharing large 
amount of resources of well-translated documents through forum to improve the knowledge and expertise 
of professional translation. As a result, learners explained that they could achieve more independence and 
self-directed learning and high learning motivation through using Moodle in translation class. 
Concerning the learners’ development of computer skills, 78 students confirmed that using Moodle 
improves their computer skills through practice translation tasks with Computer-assisted translation tools 
such as Wordfast, SDL Trados, and Omega T. Since it was fast and flexible to download and access 
documents from Moodle, a variety of documents in different format (.pdf, .doc, .txt, .html, .ppt, .jpg, etc.) 
could be easily downloaded via Moodle. The learners could deal with many kinds of materials for their 
translation tasks. 
Table 4. Students’ feedbacks after learning how to use Moodle in learning translation courses 
No Responses A B C D E 
1 I prefer doing the tasks online to the traditional paper tasks 
in class or at home. 
46 35 17 13 10 
2 I find it useful to download and access documents from 
Moodle. 
52 32 13 11 12 
3 Using Moodle helps me easily create useful glossaries of 
different domains. 
25 33 34 19 9 
4 Using Moodle helps me obtain or share big resources of 
well-translated documents through forum to improve the 
knowledge and capacity of professional translation. 
22 39 38 13 8 
5 Using Moodle can save time doing translation tasks with 
the items of writing portfolios. 
31 48 21 9 11 
6 Using Moodle improves computer skills with other CAT 
tools. 
29 49 22 12 8 
7 Using Moodle helps me easily submit the assignments. 65 31 21 1 2 
8 Using Moodle helps me easily exchange information. 26 49 25 8 12 
9 More content can be covered when we use Moodle in the 
classroom 
20 45 28 18 9 
Finally, to evaluate the main advantages of using Moodle in a translation class in a combination of 
online and blended learning, most of the students gave their feedback and comments by selecting three 
options as follows: 
a. They find it easy to submit the assignments (96/120 students); 
b. They find it easy to exchange information (75/120 students); 
c. They reveal that when using Moodle at the translation class, more content can be covered such 
as written documents, spoken materials, video, photos and pictures, and so forth (65/120 students). 
Thanks to benefits given by Moodle, the majority of learners often felt satisfied with using Moodle 
in translation courses. 
4.3. Teachers’ competence after learning how to use of Moodle in their teaching 
Table 5 indicated the teachers’ concern and competence of using Moodle in teaching English 
language in general and translation practice in particular. Among the ten respondents, six of them agreed 
that they had got the support from the faculty in using Moodle and online activities during their class 
teaching. It is evident, since computer language teaching has been taken into great consideration by 
Vietnamese educators, Moodle became more and more popular in many institutions in Vietnam, and 
HU-UFL is not an exception. This result displayed the considerable concern of the faculty and university 
about the teachers’ use of Moodle at class. 
Table 5. Teacher’s competence after learning how to use Moodle in their teaching 
Responses A B C D E 
1. I have support from the faculty when using Moodle. 2 4 2 1 1 
2. My faculty supports me in using online activities. 2 4 0 2 2 
3. I know how to navigate Moodle to design online 
activities. 
2 3 2 2 1 
4. I can explain what a wiki is. 2 2 3 2 1 
5. I know how to use a wiki within Moodle. 3 3 0 1 3 
6. I only use wiki outside of Moodle in my courses. 1 1 2 3 3 
6. I am interested in continuing working with Moodle in 
other courses such as English language skills, British and 
American culture and literature, and online resources for 
translators. 
3 3 2 2 1 
Some teachers have achieved sufficiency of navigating Moodle to design online activities, such as 
building Wikipedia in different domains, creating lesson plans, offering assignments, managing 
portfolios, share information and materials, joining the discussion form, mastering the chat function, and 
so on. They were aware of how to use wiki within and outside of Moodle in their lectures. In addition to 
translation practice course, they were fond of continuing working with Moodle in other courses. The 
majority of teachers highly appreciated the biggest advantages of using online tools in their teaching 
including its familiarity or easy use, great speed of spreading information, distributing textbooks, 
documents, and time flexibility. Moreover, Moodle provides teachers with the easy way of 
communicating with the students via messages, chat, and discussion forum. 
5. Conclusion and implications 
Though Moodle has achieved great success in many universities in Vietnam (Dinh, 2014; 
Vietnamese document, 2010), no serious research has been conducted to evaluate its benefits in teaching 
translation modules at HU-UFL. This study explored HU-UFL students and teachers’ understandings of 
blended learning and Moodle before using it. This exploration was implemented by investigating 
students’ knowledge before and after using Moodle in the translation practice course, and teacher’s 
support and competence of using Moodle in their teaching. The findings concluded that teachers and 
students were aware of the considerable benefits given by Moodle, which could improve the learners’ 
motivation, self-study capacity and enhance the teachers’ IT expertise and effective teaching methods. 
Dealing with these limitations of using Moodle in learning and teaching translation courses due to 
the requirements for its users, we address some implications for learners, teachers and university as 
follows: 
For learners, first, to use Moodle perfectly at class, students have to be good or competent at IT 
skills, language skills at the beginning of the course. Those are the prerequisites for students to attend 
actively the translation practice courses. Second, due to the flexibility of Moodle’s use, i.e. students can 
learn at any time, any places, it is necessary for them to manage their learning time properly, they should 
study regularly in effective ways and have to get high awareness of self-study. Third, since students can 
make decision of their study by selecting subjects they want, they need to communicate with instructors 
or other classmates for their right and useful advice through chat or discussion forum. In some cases, they 
had better communicate directly with the teachers and friends because of technical errors of online 
activities. 
For teachers, they are required to have good IT skills to work with advanced technology facilities 
that support and diversify their teaching techniques and method. Translation teachers also need to receive 
training on CAT tools that play a vital role in giving translation course to meet current jobs’ needs in the 
market. Therefore, they should be acquainted with the latest development in information technology and 
electronic tools for translators. Without satisfying these requirements, translation teachers will not be able 
to do their job effectively. Finally, they have to select the appropriate teaching methods that depend on 
other factors including classroom facilities, available equipment, availability of time, and above all the 
skills of the teacher in using these resources. 
For universities, due to the high cost of facilities such as classrooms that are required to be 
well-equipped and computers with high-speed and stable connection, the institution should spend large 
amounts of money on high-quality equipment and infrastructure facilities. It is also essential to train 
high-qualified teaching staff with good expertise in order to provide effective courses that can satisfy 
students’ needs for knowledge and skills and come up to their expectations. 
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