“I Love You Ooh Moodle” or “How I Hate You”?

Abstract

The study is an appraisal of employment of language learners at the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) as they register their affirmation or dissidence of MOODLE learning platform. The data were gathered from 78 students via linguistic attitudinal likert scale and a blended questionnaire of closed-in and open-ended items. The main assumption is that speakers of a given language use language to register their endearment or dissidence towards a particular phenomenon be it material or otherwise. At a more practical level, Moodle platform is a new educational innovation at OUT for efficient distance teaching and learning. There is thus a need for appraising its acceptability or the contrary thereof by its users if improvement or efficiency is to be attained. This study seeks to contribute towards that end but from the angle of linguistic analysis of the affective concerns of the learners as they engage in learning using Moodle Platform. The study was guided by Norrick’s (1978) expressive speech act theory and as recently applied as a formal-cognitive approach by Guiraud et al. (2011).