Teaching Young Learners English (Nancy Barreno)
Teaching Young learners
English
Education in
the teaching-learning process handles tools that make to the student a
multidisciplinary being, in order to get involved learners, creative and
independent. The teacher in last times is facing a complex process, who is
immerse in different technological-academic scenarios and the development of
values.
Technology has gained a lot of
ground, accelerating in part the academic process through the use of tools and
the teachers are learning how to teaching with emerging of technologies such as:
(tablets, iPads, smart boards, digital cameras, computer interactive platforms, even the digital game based learning as : Minecraft, on-line chess, didactic games, especially in the learners between 5-10 ages , which it helps in the creativity and increasing the critical and strategic
thinking in the learners.
According the
use of technology is useful because the students get a work independently and
the same time a great help for teachers who need extra time with struggling
students when the students are able to learn independently even through this
tool can help teachers assess student level without paperwork or grading they
can identify learners who are struggling an understand what they are struggling
with.
On the other hand, from my point of view, the collaborative and cooperative work, it has lost in the classroom, nowadays
we have students more selfish, less communicative because they are more focused
in the technology, completely forgetting the affective side the ideal would be
developing a Project-based learning, work in pairs, work in groups and workshops where students share a physical space, who
explore and share their own interests and needs.
According, Bruner, JS (1978) refuse. The scene
of creativity is figuring out how to use what you already know in order to go
beyond what you already think. I agree with this principle because the learner
must learn to develop skills and abilities in order to carry out an activity,
to be able to take risks, to achieve their goals and solve their own problems.
The improvement of foreign language
has a strong relation with the use of new technologies, because it helps to
develop the spoken language, through interactive software, interactive
platforms, apps and social networks designed in English, in order to improve
the conversation, the discourse, and these activities that learner loves doing
and feel very identified which help his / her, to keep them motivated and
engaged to learning. Moreover, it is a support spoken language with writing
language. Through development of writing
skills, he / she increases the participation in literacy events, lectures,
discourse.
There are
some disadvantages of the learning of L2, as rural sector the technology has
not been developed little children have no access to on-line learning, have not
access to the language labs. On the
hand the teachers are not trained to teach an alternative TO the maternal
language, even they do not receive an appropriated remuneration, which creates
nonconformity and demotivation.
REFERENCES
Bruner, JS (1978). El papel
del diálogo en la adquisición del lenguaje. End A. Sinclair, R.,
J. Wood, DJ.
(Cox, Janelle
(20013). Benefits of technology in the classroom, Teach Hub.com, collection of relevant
and up-to-date K-12 education news and editorials. For teachers, by teachers.
According to the Nancy's research I agree because children are accustomed to the tecnology
ReplyDeleteand we as teachers have to be prepared to use the different type of tecnology like videos, games
computer, infocus to teach young learners.
(technology is useful because the students get a work independently)
ReplyDeleteAccording with this comment and according with my experience technology is useful .i work with EDMODO in this platform i send students some posts,about the class ,songs,parts of dialogue .then students go home and review they try to practice all the information that i post.
Hi Nancy, You mention some great examples of technology for the classroom. Have you used any of these? Which ones seem interesting enough to you to try implementing in the classroom? Whenever we use technology in the classroom, there are things we should consider: challenges, issues, and problems that can occur. What do you think the biggest challenges are for our context here in Ecuador?
ReplyDeleteI also thought your analysis made some interesting points on collaboration. In Spain there is a great push to use more collaborative learning (aprendizaje colaborativo) in the classroom because of these exact issues (students less attuned to the affective side of classroom interaction, more interested in their devices). If you're interested in this phenomenon, a lot of research is coming out of Spain on it, which is interesting for our context.
Good analysis. You got me thinking about a lot of different things.