Nantawan Chuarayapratib Thammasat University Student Behaviors：Academic Task Performance with Support from Information from English Websites Nantawan Chuarayapratib Thammasat University

Previous Studies New Literacies e.g. Martin, A. and Madigan, D. (2006) Humans and Computers e.g. Chuarayapratib, N. (2005) Concept Maps e. g. Chularut, P. and Debacker, T, (2004)

New Literacies ESL students must acquire linguistic competence in a new language as well as use English to acquire, articulate and expand their knowledge Students must be critically literate, defined here as the ability to evaluate the validity and reliability of informational sources so that they may draw appropriate conclusions from their research efforts Students must become electronically literate, able "to select and use electronic tools for communication, construction, research, and autonomous learning”

Humans and Computers Interactions Chuarayapratib (2005) Students did not click much. Their eyes got sore quickly. Students complained about not having chances to write on paper.

Concept maps A concept map is a special form of a web diagram for exploring knowledge and gathering and sharing information. A hierarchy is a system for arranging entities such that every entity has exactly one superior.

Research questions What is the role of information from the web? What are the ways students seek information? How do the students manage information from the Web?

Research Methodology Students at Thammasat University who studied EG 221 Reading for Information during semester 1/2006. They were from several faculties in Thammasat University, such as Faculty of Liberal Arts, Faculty of Political Science, Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy, and Faculty of Economics.

Research Method Questionnaire Interview Web searching demonstration Students’ works

Findings Students claim that information found from the web is to complement that found from printed materials.

Advantages and disadvantages of printed materials Substantial and reliable Easier to read Disadvantages Difficult to find Taking a lot of time

Information from the Internet Advantages Convenient if you have access to the Internet Variety of Information Up-to-date information Disadvantages Lack of reliability of the texts Time available The number of the computers The quality of Internet access

Research Question 2 What are the ways students seek information? Since the students have objectives, they evaluate information found from the web and select that which serves their purposes. They modify their search. Students know when to add some more words into the search engine. They also get some assistance from their classmates.

Websites that they go to often (apart from search engines) Wikipedia National Economic and Social Development Institute (in Thai)

Other Reactions Students’ eyes not becoming sore as often as in the past Students not complaining as much about inability to take notes on paper

Challenges Students need to be point out usefulness of the following features: Boolean operations Electronic journal database listserv

Reliability Students look at URLs which contain .edu, .org Students try to find other web pages with the same information

How do the students manage information from the Web? Loading information for use Students claim that they copy the information into MicrosoftWord so that they can see whether the information is relevant or not.

Another advantage is that they have chances to let their classmates see whether the information can be used in their paper. According to one student, “Since it is a group report, I would like my friends to see it first and comment on it before I print it out.”

Students have two different approaches to this situation. When they find information which is not relevant to the task at had but will be useful in future. Students have two different approaches to this situation.

Group One When the students see information which will be useful for future, they leave some space before they paste information for those new topics.

Group Two The students focus only on the information relevant to the tasks at hand. They will ignore information not relevant to them for the time being.

Conclusion and implications Students benefit from information from English websites. However, most of them claim that information from the Internet is used to complement the information from printed materials.

Students are more familiar these day with websites features such as links. They are more comfortable and exploit them more fully.