Questionnaires to Inform a Usability Test Conducted on a CALL Dictionary Prototype

Questionnaires are often considered a suitable instrument to gather data on language learners’ experiences. To test the usability of an online dictionary prototype, a series of questionnaires were distributed to a class of language learners before and after they completed a language task at the computer using the dictionary prototype. Measures of task effectiveness and efficiency were obtained and correlated with the questionnaires’ results. This study shows how the questionnaire results informed the overall measure of usability and, in particular, addressed user satisfaction, a more subjective yet a central component of this measure. Pre-questionnaires prepared learners for the task, whereas post-questionnaires fostered a reflection about the task process and its outcome. Hence, it is argued that combining observation and questionnaire techniques in that context was effective in providing a fuller insight into the learner-task-tool interaction at the computer. In this CALL research and development context, questionnaires served a double function as an evaluative and a pedagogical instrument.