Why Tangibility Matters: A Design Case Study of At-Risk Children Learning to Read and Spell

Tangibles may be effective for reading applications. Letters can be represented as 3D physical objects. Words are spatially organized collections of letters. We explore how tangibility impacts reading and spelling acquisition for young Anglophone children who have dyslexia. We describe our theory-based design rationale and present a mixedmethods case study of eight children using our PhonoBlocks system. All children made significant gains in reading and spelling on trained and untrained (new) words, and could apply all spelling rules a month later. We discuss the design features of our system that contributed to effective learning processes, resulting in successful learning outcomes: dynamic colour cues embedded in 3D letters, which can draw attention to how letter(s) position changes their sounds; and the form of 3D tangible letters, which can enforce correct letter orientation and enable epistemic strategies in letter organization that simplify spelling tasks. We conclude with design guidelines for tangible reading systems

Moving online: using Zoom and combined audiovisual translation tasks to teach foreign languages to children

This paper examines the reshaping of an audiovisual translation (AVT)-focused language course to make it suitable for children in an online context. Captioning and revoicing have shown to be notably powerful tools, given the potential of rich, contextualised audio-visual input to keep learners’ motivation high, promote well-being and facilitate foreign language acquisition. Nonetheless, the use of combined AVT modes has received scarce attention, and the number of studies devoted to young people is very limited. Therefore, resources available are understandably lacking for teachers who continue to report difficulties in managing online contexts and designing effective learning experiences in this extended pandemic period. This is the first study appraising children’s perceptions of the use of both Zoom and AVT-based tasks in the learning of Italian online. It also proposes a theoretical framework and provides a practical example for moving an AVT-focused language course online. After two years from its initial blended implementation, the course (omitted for anonymity) conducted as part of (omitted for anonymity) was rethought to be moved online. The 6-week course ran three times for a total of 27 hours and involved 38 children, aged 9-12 years. Data have been collected from an end-module questionnaire, a final interview and in-class observations. Findings reveal the suitability of an AVT-focused language course online for children who show a positive attitude towards Zoom and both AVT modalities. They prefer revoicing as an online synchronous collaborative activity, which prevents isolation and fosters sociability. Captioning was perceived as the most difficult AVT task, although some had fun experimenting as remote independent learners. Results show the capacity of young people to use the Aegisub software autonomously but also their need for parental support at home. The benefits and challenges identified during the learning process were crucial for formulating recommendations for teachers and call for further research on AVT in early educational contexts.Este artículo explora la estructura de un curso de idiomas basado en Traducción Audiovisual (TAV) con el objetivo de adecuarlo para su impartición a niños en un entorno virtual. Dado el potencial de los programas audiovisuales, ricos en información contextualizada, las varias prácticas de TAV se presentan como herramientas poderosas para mantener un nivel alto de motivación entre los discentes, promover su bienestar y facilitar la adquisición de la lengua extranjera. No obstante, el uso de la TAV en estos contextos ha recibido escasa atención y son pocos los estudios realizados con estudiantes jóvenes. No sorprende, pues, que escaseen los recursos didácticos para profesores y que estos informen de dificultades a la hora de gestionar entornos virtuales y de diseñar experiencias efectivas de aprendizaje, especialmente durante el periodo de la pandemia. Presentamos aquí el primer estudio en el que se evalúan las percepciones de los niños sobre el uso tanto de Zoom como de tareas basadas en TAV a la hora de aprender el italiano de manera virtual. Dos años después de que se implementara en su formato inicial híbrido, el curso Impariamo coi cartoni! Learning Italian by captioning and revoicing cartoons, impartido como parte del programa Youth Academy en la Universidad de Galway, Irlanda, se reestructuró para adecuarlo a un entorno virtual. El curso, de 6 semanas de duración, se impartió tres veces, a un total de 38 niños de edades comprendidas entre los 9 y los 12 años. Se han recopilado datos a través de una encuesta y una entrevista realizadas al final del módulo así como observaciones recogidas durante las clases. Los resultados demuestran la valía de un curso de idiomas con enfoque en TAV impartido a niños en un entorno virtual. Su actitud es positiva en relación tanto con la plataforma Zoom como con las dos modalidades de TAV. Los participantes expresan preferencia por el locutado de las traducciones que ven como una actividad colaborativa síncrona, realizada en línea, que combate el aislamiento y promueve la sociabilidad. Su opinión sobre el subtitulado es que es una tarea más difícil, aunque algunos disfrutaron con sus experimentos como aprendices independientes remotos. Los resultados revelan que los niños son capaces de utilizar el software Aegisub de manera autónoma, aunque también necesitan el apoyo de sus progenitores en casa. Los beneficios y retos identificados durante el proceso de aprendizaje han sido esenciales a la hora de formular recomendaciones para profesores y señalan la necesidad de realizar más investigación sobre la TAV en contextos educativos tempranos. &nbsp

Teaching Chinese through integrating songs in Task-based learning : a teacher action research project

This research focuses on the exploration of integrating songs in the Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) approach to enhance the learnability of Chinese. The aim of this study is to develop a series of effective curriculum resources, including songs and tasks and a novel framework combining songs and tasks in language teaching. This research is also designed as an action research to improve the teacher-researcher proficiency of the researcher with his teaching experience in Pianpi High School. In this study, different types of songs were experimented with and different tasks were utilized to allow the language to be used in life-like contexts. Finally, an adjusted framework of TBLT, including the Pre-task phase, Song phase, Core task phase and Post-task phase, is developed to combine songs and tasks, and to move the learning of songs to a higher plane of practice and application

Design of CLIL situated cognition experiences for Primary School: ¿This is my kamishibai¿

In this Master's Degree Thesis, I have conducted an innovation project that implemented a situated cognition approach on the CLIL context of elementary education. The main goal was to apply a series of modern and active methodologies that advocate for quality, realworld learning experiences with a view to the comprehensive development of our students. The project, called “This is my kamishibai”, was carried out in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade at CEIP Montaña Roja, in El Médano, Tenerife, Spain. Following the bibliography collection and results of the project, one of the main conclusions of this thesis is that, not only are CLIL and situated cognition complementary approaches, but they are also an ideal fit for Spanish and Canarian educational frameworks and their respective aims for primary school. Keywords: situated cognition, CLIL, learning situation, PBL, kamishibai, primary education.En este Trabajo de Fin de Grado se ha llevado a cabo un proyecto de innovación educativa que ha implementado el enfoque de cognición situada en el contexto CLIL de educación primaria. El objetivo principal ha sido adoptar una serie de metodologías modernas que abogan por experiencias de aprendizaje de calidad, con aplicaciones a la vida real y con miras al desarrollo integral de nuestro alumnado. El proyecto, denominado “This is my kamishibai”, se llevó a cabo en los cursos de 1º, 2º, 3º y 4º de primaria en el CEIP Montaña Roja, en El Médano, Tenerife, España. Tras la recolección de bibliografía y los resultados del proyecto, una de las conclusiones principales del trabajo es el hecho de que los enfoques de CLIL y cognición situada son, no solo complementarios, sino que además son planteamientos ideales para los marcos educativos español y canario, y sus respectivos fines para la etapa de primaria. Palabras clave: cognición situada, AICLE, situación de aprendizaje, ABP, kamishibai, educación primari

An Improvement Proposal of the “Crime” Unit Plan

In the present empirical paper I have carried out an improvement proposal of the “Crime” unit plan. The mentioned plan was created to meet the specification of the Practicum II period. However, it did not occur in ordinary circumstances as it was affected by the health alert situation. Hence, the “Crime” unit plan was mainly made up by individual activities which did not fostered communication nor interaction or cooperative and collaborative work. Therefore, the aim of the dissertation is to create an improved unit plan which places communication at is center in order to comply with the specifications stated by the Aragonese Curriculum and the CLT approach.<br /

Authentic tasks to enhance descriptive paragraph writing in A1 students at a university

145 Páginas."Logrando Mejores Párrafos Descriptivos en Falsos Principiantes a través de Tareas Auténticas” es un proyecto implementado con un grupo de estudiantes de nivel básico de Lengua Inglesa – en el Departamento de Lenguas y Culturas Extranjeras de la Universidad de La Sabana. Puesto que debía mejorar el nivel de escritura en Inglés, desarrollé un estudio para que un grupo de aprendices, con algunos conocimientos mínimos, superara sus deficiencias de escritura al componer párrafos descriptivos. Para esto utilicé Practicing Naturalistically, una estrategia cognitiva de aprendizaje que sugiere modelos naturales de comunicación en contextos reales. Durante la ejecución, utilizamos temas de la cotidianidad como fuente para la composición de descripciones, observé las tareas de los estudiantes y analicé en detalle sus desempeños en la escritura de párrafos. Al implementar Practicing Naturalistically, pude determinar qué tan factible era persuadir a los falsos principiantes para que mejoraran su habilidad para escribir párrafos descriptivos. La estrategia les permitió lograr un discurso formal a través de cartas, de manera que ellos aprendieron a ‘escribir escribiendo’. (Oxford, 1990 y Chamot, 1999)

How to avoid gender bias in classroom interaction? A cooperative learning experience

This project aims to analyse the kind of questions the teacher asks students in order to encourage them to participate in her classes. Consequently, the researcher has read relevant literature and has analysed a short excerpt of a video recorded during her first practicum. She has also analysed a number of activities carried out during her second practicum in order to find out if she had improved her questioning skills in the classroomAquest treball pretén analitzar el tipus de preguntes que la professora fa als estudiants perquè participin a les seves classes. Per a dur a terme aquesta anàlisi, s'ha llegit literatura rellevant, s'ha analitzat una breu transcripció d'un vídeo gravat durant el primer pràcticum de la professora i s'han analitzat algunes activitats del segon pràcticum per veure si la professora ha millorat en la formulació de les pregunte

Guidelines for introducing linguistic landscapes in (foreign) language learning and teacher education

In this document, we introduce you to the potential and practicalities of using linguistic landscapes (LLs) in education and provide suggestions for integrating LLs in educational settings and in teacher education programmes.Although LLs have been studied for some time now – from inter alia linguistic and political perspectives – classroom studies have been relatively scarce. Knowing that LLs can enhance learning and reflection, we wondered why little pedagogical and didactic attention had been paid to them. Identifying this gap, as well as the desire to address it, was the starting point of the LoCALL project.LoCALL, which stands for Local Linguistic Landscapes for Global Education in the School Context, was an Erasmus+ project that ran from 01.09.2019 to 31.08.2022. The aim of the project was to acknowledge the value of contemporary diversity in language education by mapping local LLs and discussing them collaboratively and comparatively at an international level. A further aim was to tackle the formative needs of teachers to deal with (linguistic) diversity in language education. The approach taken by LoCALL was to propose the LL as an authentic andmultilingual resource in overcoming those needs.The LoCALL team comprised researchers and teachers in the cities of Aveiro, Barcelona, Groningen, Hamburg and Strasbourg

Localised, student-centred curriculum construction : a case study of making Chinese learnable for Australian primary school students

With the turn to ‘zhōng wén rè - 中文热’ (Chinese fever), Chinese is now the most commonly spoken second language in Australia. There has been a concomitant growth in interest in the learning of the Chinese language in local schools. However, it has been reported that there exist huge difficulties and challenges in making Chinese learnable for the predominantly Englishspeaking learners in Australia. The high dropout rate from Chinese language courses presents evidence of this. Consequently, this case study has been conducted in a local public school of New South Wales through the Australia-China educational partnership program entitled ROSETE. Specifically, the purpose of this case study is to draw on the local students’ social practices, undertaken in English, for establishing what to teach in the Chinese language classroom. The aim is to construct an appropriately learnable curriculum which will assist to enrich students’ learning of Chinese. In doing so, this study focuses on local students’ daily recurring sociolinguistic activities and their funds of knowledge in the school-based community through addressing and answering the overarching research question: how can the use of students’ sociolinguistic activities and funds of knowledge contribute to curriculum construction to enrich the learning of the Chinese language? Guided by this question, the study initially investigates particular forms of local students’ daily sociolinguistic activities, performed in English at school, then utilises them as the learning content sources. In effect, it gives priority to mobilising students’ knowledge base in order to adapt their preferred instruction strategies to make them suitable for the local educational milieu. Furthermore, it is suggested that this process of generating Chinese learning materials can and should be adjusted, and then applied to more broadly to emergent second language learners of Chinese around the world, in accordance with their diversified cultural and educational environments. The case study suggests that local students’ potential translanguaging capabilities between English and Chinese are evolving and becoming powerful due in part to the effort exerted by their engagement in this form of situated learning practice. Thus, not only can Chinese be made learnable, but a specific localised vocabulary can become the base for more extensive language learning