A Need Analysis on Developing English Interactive Multimodal E-Book Oriented to 21st Century Skills

The need toward availability of online and electronic textbooks (e-books) in
language teaching and learning in digital age and 21st century is very
considerable. To design and develop an electronic book, teachers should
consider all students’ needs. This study aimed to investigate and explore
students’ English learning needs, wants, and difficulties of primary education
on developing English interactive multimodal e-book integrated with the skills
of 21st century including communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and
creativity. The case study research design was used to deeply investigate and
describe the students’ needs on development of English e-book. To collect data
on the students’ necessities, difficulties, and wants for a primary English course
design and skills, the researchers used interview and questionnaire. . The
researcher interviewed one teacher and three students. For questionnaire, there
were three main aspects asked: students’ necessity, wants, and difficulties
totally consisting of sixteen questions. Documentation of the teaching and
learning activities photos was collected and the data were analysed using
qualitative and quantitative analysis. The results included (1) the students’
English skill was considered poor; they had little vocabulary mastery and low
motivation toward learning English materials (2) the needs toward the 21st
century skills to be included in e-book were very necessary to promote
communication, critical thinking, and problem solving skills; (3) inserting
various multimodal materials in each task of e-book was needed to increase
students’ references, reading comprehension, and digital literacy, and (4)
inclusion of various online activities like synchronous and asynchronous mode
was highly demanded.