The interactive board is an advanced touch-sensitive didactic tool that enables the projection of images from a computer screen by using a combination of different technologies. In addition to moving, resizing, highlighting various elements and streaming videos, it allows you to write a text with your finger or stylus, save it, and then print it. Since you are also able to encircle data, add text or color and so forth, it makes it possible for you to become an active participant in learning a foreign language. Teachers have a very large amount of i-tools at their disposal, which allows children to interact with a computer, without even realizing that they are learning. This so-called subconscious learning, during which the learners lose the feeling of time spent studying, is an effective way of acquiring foreign language skills. Oxford University Press has published a collection of textbooks, known as Explorers, to teach English at elementary level. The textbook, workbook and the teacher manual have been provided with i-tools in which various recordings, games and solutions are available for each task. The program makes the teacher's job easier and allows children to play while being actively involved in the learning process. Animations include sounds, and images are supported with written words and speech that is recorded in British English. During songs, chants and dialogues, a text appears, in which the sentence that is currently sung or spoken is colored. By clicking on certain images, the learners trigger various responses from the interactive program.
In the empirical part, I analyzed interactive tools for learning a foreign language from the 2nd to the 6th grade of the First Explorers 1 and 2, Young Explorers 1 and 2, and World Explorers 1. I also analyzed the coordination of objectives from the English syllabus with i-textbooks, topics and content in i-textbooks, and how the latter were upgraded. I learned that the content in i-textbooks is interrelated while gradually becoming more demanding, and that the topics in i-tools are linked with the topics proposed in the syllabus. In addition, I conducted a survey in which 123 learners of a language school in Ljubljana participated. All of them studied English in the school year 2016/17 with the help of the Explorers textbooks and i-tools, used by the teacher on the interactive screen. Most learners want to use i-textbooks during every hour of English and through the whole lesson. The interactive tasks for developing language skills have proven equally popular.
The presented advantages and disadvantages of the Explorers i-tools in elementary schools all over Slovenia contribute to an easier selection of i-textbooks for the above mentioned classes. With the result of the learner survey, English teachers have received a feedback on i-tools and the use of the interactive board. This will make it easier for them to decide, which materials to use when teaching English as a foreign language in the first and second triads of primary school.
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