domingo, 23 de mayo de 2010

Improving our findings


After reading, rereading and understanding the collected data following the procedure from Auerbach, C. F. & Silverstein L. B. (2003) procedure, it is essential to keep in mind that analysis involves researchers and participants in making sense of the data by identifying broad trends, characteristics or features across an event or a series of events (Burns, 1999). In Strauss & Corbin (1997) words, categories are formed by grouping similar incidents, events or other instances of phenomena under the same label. The analysis of the data evidence effects such as: motivation towards English; motivation towards a blended learning environment; the acquisition of English vocabulary; and value of collaborative work helping the child during the developing of created modules using the blended learning environment.

The chosen categories determine the data analysis process of this project in order to answer the research question.

QUESTION

What will be the effects of the creation of thematic modules in a blended environment to work on early vocabulary acquisition in very young learners?


MAIN OBJECTIVE


To describe the effects of the creation of thematic modules through a blended environment to acquire English vocabulary in very young learners.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

To implement a blended course to encourage very young learners to learn in a different learning environment

To expand motivation of very young children towards second language acquisition in terms of vocabulary

To describe the importance of collaborative work (school-home) in the English Language learning process.


CATEGORIES


1: Motivation towards a blended learning environment

2:Motivation towards English language learning in terms of vocabulary acquisition

3: The value of collaborative work: school- home (parents, children and teachers) in the English Language learning process.

Working on the further research


We believe the collaborative action research has initiated to discover the usefulness of blended learning environments for very young children, so it is crucial to continue with this trend in future research, both quantitative and qualitative ways. More studies are needed in order to determine the long lasting effects and effectiveness of technology tools in the acquisition of English language in terms of every skill.


The created blended course provided very young learners with a variety in terms of input, even though they were not expected to write at this stage, it would be interesting to know about how they start to perceive the differences between the sound and spelling of some of the lexis in the stories, games and nursery songs. In short, the effects on literacy using technology tools developing a blended course.


It is vital to bear in mind that this project is challenging since blended learning is a pedagogical strategy that is not frequently used with very young learners. We can say that it is something new and innovative in the educational environments with preschoolers. So, the implementation on blended environments with children demands different skills from the teacher researcher, for instance, the creativity.

Finally, teachers-researchers ought to acknowledge that in “action research, the task is not finished when the project ends; the participants continue to review, evaluate, and improve practices” (Elliot, 1991 cited in Bell, 1999, 8). Definitely, we could realize that the process we experienced as a researchers was a significant experience which allow us to understand better Carr and Kemmis’s (1986, cited in Burns, 1999) broad definition about action research: “It is simply a form of self-reflective inquiry undertaken by participant in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices” (p.153). With this research project, we hope that some of our colleagues will become aware of the need to be updated not only in technology resources but also with innovative methodologies and strategies. We look forward to encouraging very young learners to deal with new learning environments and to use technological tools to enhance students’ progress in the second language acquisition, in addition to helping their professional growth.

domingo, 2 de mayo de 2010

Working on the pedagogical implications


This part is still under construction  and these are some attemps:

The blended course we created during this study, avoid routine using the textbook and traditional teaching models because the enjoyable activities in every module trigger the children motivation, their creativity and their second language skills specifically in terms of vocabulary acquisition.

We feel it is necessary to continue analyzing the usefulness of blended learning environments for very young children in order to design a coherent syllabus which may respond to young learners' needs, profiles and their preferences. Lesson plans focus on the use of new technology tools would be very useful for full-time schoolteachers. Based on Lewis (2004) suggests, there hardly exist any didactic proposals of how young learners could do foreign language work using Internet-based technology.

Developing the blended course, very young learners had different opportunities both in and out the classroom to make decisions about the activities in every module, to develop their independent work, to enhance their autonomy and their skills to work with their parents in a collaborative way.

The created blended course is a good strategy to help very young learners to acquire new English vocabulary.

Very young children learn better interacting with their parents at home. So, it is crucial to involve them in their children education process.

Finally, since every single stage during the process gave us elements to reflect about the next module of the blended course to improve the instructions and to continue favouring the children profiles, the study met the expected results achieving the main and specific objectives we met at the beginning of the process. We would like to continue working on action research projects and enriching our professional performance with meaningful learning strategies and technology tools that we can apply in the classroom with our very young learners as blended learning.

Drawing some conclusions


Conclusions


Since the challenge of this study was to find the effects of early vocabulary acquisition through a blended course in very young learners, this collaborative action research made us realize about different important aspects that we meet in the following conclusions:


Firstly, it is vital to understand about the meaning of new learning environments such as blended learning as well as to be aware that it is a pedagogical strategy that fosters not only the acquisition of a second language, but also the use of technology in the teaching and learning practice.



Secondly, teaching English to very young learners is a big challenge that demands from language teachers different skills such as creativity, innovation and critical thinking. The improvement of these abilities helped us to become in active observers and researchers. On this way, we can choose, adapt and involve new learning strategies to improve our teaching performance; we can get awareness about the fact that we are the educators of a new generation with a variety in terms of needs, preferences and profiles; we can understand that they learn in different ways and that they require the development of new competences to face the challenges of this century. The created blended course met very young learners’ profiles and favoured their improvement of their English vocabulary and language skills.

Since education at this stage –early years- constitute the base of the life of very young learners, it was crucial for us to be aware of the responsibility we have being in accordance with the appropriate directions, materials, links and activities in the created virtual course. We took advantages from children motivation integrating technology tools with very young learners’ profiles and parents’ involvement. The study promoted activities that make children to observe, to describe, compare, and analyze providing them with appropriate tools that favour their English vocabulary acquisition and competences according to the ones that the globalized world is demanding.


The role of parents was crucial since it guided and supported their very young learners developing the blended course at home. The involvement demanded an appropriate training from the researcher teacher to get the progress of the virtual course and the achievement of the study objectives. Parents and their children worked in a collaborative way exploring technology tools acquiring English vocabulary in an enjoyable way base on real life activities. Hence, children enriched their second language skills in terms of vocabulary, early communication, phonological awareness and producing spontaneous and meaningful responses.



The development of the blended course grew and maintained motivation in very young learners. It produce good results since it provided them a comfortable learning environment in which they were engaged in the development of different activities such as interactive games, short stories and nursery songs. It not only allowed them to acquire new English vocabulary, but also foster children’s motivation towards technology tools as well as the learning of the second language. Besides, the enjoyable activities from every module provided meaningful input that facilitated the learning process since children participated actively during the F2F sections and at home. They exchanged ideas, shared experiences and enrich their English vocabulary developing the blended course.

The blended course was a good pedagogical strategy to enjoy and achieve the acquisition of English vocabulary. Since it exposure the children to a variety of activities with new vocabulary that tested children’s capability for learning and recognizing the previous learnt words during their daily life, most of the children were marvellous when describing the worksheets they did at home, singing the nursery songs, answering to different questions. They were very coherent in their thinking using the new English vocabulary according to every module.

Finally, the whole experience of having carried out this collaborative action research project using the blended environment as learning strategy to acquire English vocabulary was enriching not only for our whole group of very young learners, but also for their parents, some members from the school community and for us as language teachers. Based on the data and findings we are sure that children acquired a lot of English vocabulary; and they are more motivated to explore new learning strategies to acquire English using technology tools. Hence, it was satisfying to observe how very young learners took part and got involved in the process by being motivated to participate developing the blended course.



References


Chapman, Gary, Ph.D. and Campbell, Ross, M.D. (1997) The Five Love Languages of Children. Chicago: Northfield. Tampoco


Gordon, L ( 2004). The internet and young learners. Oxford university press. New York.

Improving chapters of our study


We are in continuous contact with our tutor who is giving permanent feedback and suggestions about the work we are doing. She helped us to be in contact with a native person who is reading our four chapters in order to help us to improve language aspects and to avoid L1 interferences. We are very motivated working on the suggestions from this person.

Moreover, we are working very hard on the article and on the last chapters of our study.

Drawing the abstrat

Well, since we already have most of the chapters of our study and although we realize that they still are under construction given that we are reading, rereading and improving them constantly, we are starting to write the abstract of our study.




This is the starting of the possible abstract of our study.


The impact of this kind or work deals with the creation of new environments of a joint curriculum construction, students and teachers’ motivation and expectation, introduction of an innovating methodology and active participation of educational community. It is widely recognized that the second language acquisition learning is one of the most crucial processes in which children are involved from early years.



In order to meet the students’ needs in the 21st century; educators are pressed to create new learning environments to improve the process of second language acquisition in very young learners. The ability to acquire new vocabulary in the target language is considered one of the most crucial skills that students of English as a Second Language need. Based on Morris, C. (2009), language is the foundation of literacy process. And one of the components of emergent literacy is the vocabulary which is the skill to know the names of things. As a result, learners need to be exposed to an abundance of second language vocabulary to participate effectively in communication with others over a lifetime.



This study aims to support the potential impact of technology and a new blended learning in order to expose and enrich L2 vocabulary. The research proposes that through creating a blended course for very young learners, they increase their second language in terms of vocabulary. The thematic modules in the blended course are created taking into account pedagogical and technologic components of the educational exercise to have a better management of the learning environment with a better and permanent comprehension and assimilation of the learning objectives, a better development of communicative skills and consequently, a better social interaction between school and home, with more cooperation.

Key Words: blended learning, second language, vocabulary acquisition, parental involvement.

Evaluating the quality of our Study

Taking into account the criteria for Grounded Theory Studies we can say:

Credibility

This collaborative action research was carried out to expose and involve very young learners to the second language acquisition in terms of enriching vocabulary through a learning strategy named blended learning. It involves not only the use of different technology tools such as computers and the white board but also provide a variety of activities that foster the acquisition of new English vocabulary. We think that the collected data display in its totality the effects of the creation of a blended course with thematic modules in a moodle platform to work on early vocabulary acquisition in very young learners. It is evidenced in every category supported by appropriate excerpts.
Originality

Since blended learning is a pedagogical strategy that is not frequently used with very young learners, we can say that it is something new and innovative in the educational environments with preschoolers. And it is important to mentioned that this kind of activities did not exist at school where we apply the study.

Resonance


Base on the triangulation, we found 4 categories with appropriate evidence and support from the collected data. Every category is an effect of the creation of a blended course with thematic modules in a moodle platform to work on early vocabulary acquisition in very young learners.

Usefulness


The process of the data analysis shows that the creation of a blended course for very young learners offers useful and enjoyable activities such as video-songs, video-stories, games, and worksheets that promote and favor the acquisition of English vocabulary. Besides, it inspires creativity and engages children in applying skills and content in meaningful ways as well as brings advantage to improve our teaching practice.

Drawing the title for our article


POSSIBLE TITLES


1. English vocabulary acquisition in very young learners using a blended course

2. Integrating English vocabulary acquisition with a blended course in very young learners

3. Blended learning: How very young children learn in an enjoyable way?

4. Involving very young learners in a blended course

5. (M+T)•(BE) PT =M VA =outstanjoyful very young learners

6. The role of a blended course in second language acquisition in terms of vocabulary

7. (M+T)•(BE) PT =M VA =six key ingredients to make very young learners outstanjoyful.

The meaning of the formula could be:

 (M+T)•(BE) PT =M VA


Moodle course plus technology having as a main factor the blended learning in a higher parents and teachers’ support equal to motivation with a higher vocabulary acquisition.


We think it is better


(M+T)•(BE) PT =M VA = Innovative formula to empower very young learners L2 to the infinity and beyond

Planning to write the article





This is the plan we have to write our article:

1. We are going to take into account the question of the collaborative Action Research, the analysis and the answer.

2. It is important to follow the suggested steps to write an article in order to get an appropriate layout with a meaningful content.

3. It is crucial write, read, rewrite and reread many times the draft by the authors, the colleagues and the tutor in order to get the final version.

4. Write the final version of the article taking into account the suggested recommendations from the different feedbacks.

5. When we write the final version and the article meet the requirements, we are going to submit it to the chosen journal.


The Journal


Since the National University has two interesting magazines “Profile” and “Matices” which main objectives are To offer the academic community a setting for disseminating quickly and extensively the results of research and reflection in the field of foreign languages and to promote the publication of works based on research, reflections and innovations in English language teaching, we want to work in either. Both focus its interest on sharing different findings of research studies conducted by English teachers. Besides, these journals favor professional development of teachers enhancing them to improve their performances.

Authorship

We will consider Vancouver guidelines on authorship. The responsible for the content, design, drafting, corrections, improvements and revisions of the paper will be Sindy and alba. We plan to read, reread, write, and rewrite it many times in a critical way in order to get meaningful content for the readers.

Reference:

Peat, J. (2005). Scientific Writing: Easy When You Know How. London, GBR: BMJ Publishing Group. (pp. 12-47).

PROFILE Issues in Teacher’s Professional Development. Retrieved March 20, 2010 from http://www.revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/profile

MATICES en lenguas extranjeras. Retrieved March 20, 2010 from http://www.revistamatices.unal.edu.co/matinop02.html

Publishing Academic Papers: the article



Since we are beginners in the publishing field because this is the first time we are attempting to write from research experiences, we expect to do our best in order to have our study be accepted and published in any Educational Research Field.

Some Results



We continue looking for Results, for instance we can say that:


Activities such as preparing and pactising for talking publicly, sharing findings so that others may reflect upon them in relation to their own contexts, opening up debate to others from similar or different perspectives, mentioned by Elton-Chalcraft, S., Hansen, A. & Twiselton, S. (2008), engage us to publish our research study. Moreover, publishing our outcomes will give us credibility as researchers and it will build up a professional setting. And the most important reason is that after spending years, month, days, hours, minutes and seconds working on the research study to obtain positive results, it is fair and ethical to share our findings not only with our community but also with the entire world. Through the conferences, professional magazines, we can exchange our experience and generate debate and possible further research based on our experience.



Reference:

Elton-Chalcraft, S., Hansen, A. & Twiselton, S. (2008). Doing Classroom Research: A Step-by-Step Guide for Student Teachers. Berkshire, GBR: Open University Press.

A Data report

This is our Data Analysis report:  it is under construction

Introduction

Based on the fact, language is a vehicle for the expression and interaction between human beings in any language, it is important to develop the skills that favor communication in early years. Our purpose here was to find the impact and the effects of the creation of thematic modules in a moodle platform to enhance early vocabulary acquisition in four-five years old involving parents’ assistance in the second language acquisition process.

This study was developed in a group of 20 pre-kinder learners at St. George’s School. Since this specific group will be exposed to the bilingual immersion (because of the nature of the school) from kinder to eleventh grade, we wanted to provide them with a new learning environment which allows them to keep in contact to the target language.

To deal with the theoretical framework to carry out this study, it was important to have a clear idea about second language acquisition: to generate interaction through thematic modules in a real context and to enhance vocabulary acquisition.

Given that the study was developed in F2F and virtual sessions, it was essential to take into account the blended learning method in order to analyze how it affected the language acquisition and motivation towards English learning inside and outside the classroom using technology. Since the lack of abilities to use computers and technology tools, very young learners need the adults’ support. It took us to involve parents in the project. They played an important role in terms of collaborative work to support their children’s learning process and increase the level of participation in this process. As well as they introduced the children to know how to handle their computers at home and the value of this tools to acquire a second language. . They also provided the foundations for children’s knowledge, attitudes, and appreciation of technology tools in the learning process.

At the time when we decided to work together, we took into account the main objectives of collaborative action research. Objectives such as articulating the professional development of teachers, analyzing the processes of construction of pedagogical knowledge by school teams, and stimulating changes in school organizational culture as well as motivating improvement in the teacher’s performance engaged us to make this research project. Based on Gerald J. (2009) who stated that collaborative action research bear in mind teachers’ knowledge not only when they collaboratively define and describe problematic situation from the classroom, but also when they work collaboratively reflecting in order to seek appropriate solutions to improve their instructional strategies, those aspects were also very important to take us to work together in this study.

According to Burns, A. (1.999), collaborative action research involves two or more colleagues who are interested in addressing a classroom issue like in our case. It took us to change the learning environment and some resources, it means that we planned and acted then we observed the effects through a process of examining the evidence.
Based on our theoretical framework for this specific study, and choosing the research method, we gathered data by means of following instruments: surveys, students’ documents, video recordings, and journal. As a final step of the study, we chose a method to analyze the data. In words of Burns, A. (1999), Qualitative research is the one that involves analyzing and interpreting data in order to discover meaningful descriptive patterns of a particular observable fact. Based on this main idea, we decided to apply a qualitative method called “grounded theory”. Although this theory was discovered by Glasser and Strauss (1967), we decided to work on the data analysis procedures mentioned by Auerback, C. F. & Silverstein, L. (2003). The basic scheme of this qualitative theory is to read and re-read the database and discover and label variables called categories and their interrelationships.

Finally, bearing in mind our research question “What will be the effects of the creation of thematic modules in a moodle platform to work on early vocabulary acquisition of 4-5 years old?” we can answer it explaining, that the creation of a new learning environment in a moodle platform motivate students not only to acquire a second language but also to use technology. The study showed that collaborative work and parents’ involvement increased and it had benefits such as parents-participation in their learning process and engagement with learning. Regarding to the last one, we can explain that they improved their early vocabulary acquisition. Additionally, they enhanced listening comprehension and phonemical awareness.


Sources of data

Burns, A. (1999) define collaborative action research as a qualitative research that involves analyzing and interpreting different gathered data in order to discover meaningful patterns and describe a particular phenomenon. The data for this particular study came from the following instruments: surveys, tests, field notes, video recordings and learners’ documents. The analysis was made by each one of the researcher to determine the validity and the relevance of the data by comparing it.

Considering the collected data and the previous analysis we made, we can affirm that the pedagogical intervention and implementation, allowed us to find the main effects of the use of thematic modules in a moodle platform. Every instrument provided us meaningful excerpts with enough evidences that favor the validity of the study.

The first instrument we want to refer is survey. This instrument allowed us to gather relevant information about the reactions, impressions, effects and experiences using the virtual space: “the moodle platform”. According to Burns, A (1999), the surveys content questions. We included them to gather responses and relevant information from parents and learners. After applying this tool we collected data about parents’ and students’ attitudes, perceptions, and motivation. We got information about the progress during the process working in a blended environment. We applied this tool during the pre-stage, while stage and post-stage. The collected information provided us meaningful citations that favored the validity of the interpretation.

The second instrument is the test. Based on Selinger, H. & Shohamy, E., (2004) “Test is used to collect data about subject’s ability in and knowledge of the second language in areas such as vocabulary, grammar, reading, metalinguistic awareness and general proficiency”. We decided to apply this tool to collect relevant and specific data to use as evidences for validity. The information from test told us about individual learner’s comprehension, improvement of the second language and their performance.

The test was applied to students in the pre-stage to make a diagnostic of the amount of vocabulary every one recognized. And at the post-stage, to gather information about students’ improvement and contrast how much students enriched their vocabulary according every topic in the module they developed. One facet of validity in the test is the outcomes of the tests. For instance in the graph No. 1 we realized how very young learners improved the vocabulary related to numbers developed in module number three. The graph shows that in the pre-test, five students knew one color, 10 students knew two colors, three students knew three colors and two students knew four colors. The post-test shows that more than half the group reached 10 colors.


The third instrument we used is video recording. Based on Burns (2003), it helped the researcher to capture detailed interaction and expressions that will probably be hidden in the teaching and learning practice. The collected data from this instrument let us to reflect on the students’ performances and those gave us essential information related to the effects using the modules to acquire the second language. Since very young learners showed motivational attitudes to participate in the F2F sections sharing their products done at home as well as making comments about the experiences they had at home working with their parents.

In Burns (1999) words, the researchers can assume different roles and duties in the research process. During this study, Sindy was a teacher researcher and Alba was a participant researcher. The participant researcher wrote notes by observing Sindy’s class. Then, the researchers together discussed and reflected on the notes to get another perspective to write in the journal. This helped us to find meaningful excerpts to evidence: learners’ performances in terms of motivation towards technology and English. We also found evidences of the parental involvement by means of the very young learners’ comments about their experience working with their parents at home.

Another instrument we used during the implementation of this study is students’ documents. In Burns’ words, (1999), students’ documents provide a valuable tool for analyzing data. We took the students worksheets to reflect on the learners’ productions, and improvement of their English vocabulary developing the activities from the thematic modules.


Descriptions of the data analysis method

Based on Strauss and Corbin (1997) Grounded theory consists of a set of steps that guarantee the explanation of the data gathered in terms of outcomes by reading and discovering the categories and their interrelationships, we based the data analysis on this approach. Taking into account the proposed procedures for Data Analysis by Auerbach, C. F. & Silverstein L. B. (2003) we found that this theory is applicable to our study because we can discover the patterns from the different instruments by following the coding procedure. That is why we took excerpts of relevant text from the sources; then, we remark the repeating ideas to got the themes or categories and develop the theoretical constructs, and the narrative of the study. In this way we understood and interpret the data to describe the findings and phenomena we stated.


Data Analysis procedure




Supported by Strauss and Corbin (1997), the main idea of Grounded theory is to read and re-read the database, discover and label variables called categories and their interrelationships. This step of grounded theory is called “coding”. According to Auerbach, C. F. & Silverstein L. B. (2003) coding is a process for organizing the text of collected data and discovering patterns. The central proposal of coding is to move from raw text to research concerns in small steps, each step building on the previous one. Those small steps are:

Raw text

Relevant text

Repeating ideas

Themes

Theoretical constructs

Theoretical narrative

Research concerns


Chart: Coding procedure


Through this work, we showed that grounded theory and its small steps helped us to discover and identify the categories in the collected data. The categories were: positive motivation towards second language, motivation towards the use of technology, parents’ involvement, and English vocabulary acquisition. The chart below shows every stage we followed to analyze the collected data.

Grounded theory steps and  researchers actions

Raw text: We collected the information and every participant researcher read it carefully; then, every one found the raw texts in the different data instruments.

Relevant text: When raw texts were found, each one selected the relevant text capturing the ones that met the effects on 4-5 years old students developing the created modules using the blended learning environment.

Repeating ideas: When every researcher identified the relevant text, they chose and remarked the sentences which express the same idea. For instance, the ones that meet effects of motivation, parental involvement, and language improvement.

Themes: After classifying the repeating ideas, the researchers named the possible themes for each group taking into account the commonalities. When we finished that part, we met to reflect on the previous steps. We found common themes and chose the most relevant based on our study.

Theoretical constructs: Auerbach, C. F. & Silverstein L. B. (2003), “themes are implicit topics that organize a group of repeating ideas”. So, we organized the repeating ideas into themes arranging them into more abstract ideas named the theoretical constructs. These theoretical constructs expressed the effects of thematic modules in a moodle platform in 4-5 years old. So we found that we had more information about motivation towards technology and the second language as well as the role of parental involvement in the development of the six modules. We discovered that motivation plays an important role in the learning process and the importance of parental involvement in early years. And this motivation takes the students to have better results in terms of vocabulary acquisition.

Theoretical Narrative- Research concern Finally, based on the definition of theoretical narrative, we wrote the report of this study including the researchers’ concerns and the participants’ experiences. To do this, we took from the data resources the relevant quotations, not only the ones that clearer met the effects of the creation of the six modules, but also the ones that provide and give validity for the new theory we found doing this study. The chosen quotation evidence effects such as: motivation towards English; motivation towards the use of technology; the acquisition of English vocabulary; and the parental involvement helping and guiding the child during the developing of created modules using the blended learning environment.

Triangulation In order to confirm the patterns and categories, we implemented a methodological triangulation; basically we compared and contrasted the information and reflections about it in the first instrument, which were teachers' journal, with the other two, the tests and the surveys. Each initial and recurrent theme was verified in the three instruments. We also validated our finding by making contrast comparisons to theory or research related to our topic.

Findings

After read, reread and understand the collected data following the illustration from Auerbach, C. F. & Silverstein L. B. (2003) procedure, it is essential to keep in mind that analysis involves researchers and participants in making sense of the data by identifying broad trends, characteristics or features across an event or a series of events (Burns, 1999). In this collaborative research project “The creation of thematic modules using the blended learning environment, it is vital to determine the “Categories”. In Strauss & Corbin (1997) words, categories are formed by grouping similar incidents, events or other instances of phenomena under the same label. The chosen categories met the main concepts that determine the data analysis process of this project in order to answer the research question: What will be the effects of the creation of thematic modules in a moodle platform to work on early vocabulary acquisition of 4-5 years old? The answer to that question allowed us to identify four main categories:

 Question:


What will be the effects of the creation of thematic modules in a moodle platform to work on early vocabulary acquisition of 4-5 years old?

Aategories:

  1.  Motivation towards the use of technology
  2. Motivation towards English language learning
  3. English vocabulary acquisition
  4. Parental involvement
Taking into account the collected information during the implementation and the analysis we did of the data it was possible for us to name those four categories. It is essential to develop the categories in terms of their properties and dimensions. As claims by Strauss & Corbin (1997) the properties are the characteristics or attributes of a category and the dimensions represent the locations of those properties along the continuum of the whole research project. Instruments such as surveys, journal, tests, students’ documents and video recordings supported and gave evidence of every category. So, the properties and dimensions of every category might be represented in the following way:

Category 1: Motivation towards the use of technology

Exchanging of background knowledge about important benefit of using technology in the classroom Gordon, T (2007), found in her book that it is the medium’s potential to motivate children and to produce a positive attitude towards learning. Apart from the excitement of novelty caused by the appearance of a new teaching tool, technology build substantial interest by adding variety and bringing new experiences in the classroom. Technology allows the teacher to establish a meaningful context for communicative activities and to encourage students in authentic and realistic experiences that favour the motivation in the learning process.

In conclusion, technology can enhance the acquisition of vocabulary by providing more resources, increasing motivation, adding interactively and variety to classroom procedures, and offering students’ greater opportunities to practice and use the language. It also advances students technical literacy, by preparing them for the challenges of modern world. The technology is another device in the teacher toolbox that can expand and enrich communicative language activities. In the following extract, there is a similar situation of motivation towards the use of technology. Very young children showed their interest to work in the audiovisual room where they can use the interactive white board and the computers. Their attitude and comment is very convinced and appropriate to show the evidence in this category.

(Excerpt No. 2, session 5, module 5: Five senses. Teachers’ journal)

…the student said " vamos a ir al salon del tablero màgico" and the teacher asked "which is that ?" and the students answered " donde jugamos al aula virtual" and the group of students left the classroom and ran as fast as they could to arrive there…


As seen in the bar graph No. 2, parents acknowledge the fact their children were very motivated and interested to work in the modules using the computers. Nonetheless, a few of them were tired and unmotivated. These evidences took us to confirm the evidence that 69% of students were motivatied and 43% were interested to develop the modules using through the use of technology.

Category 2: Motivation towards English Language.



Since children’s reasons for wanting to learn a new language can be varied and it is based on their motivation. Norris (2001) defines motivation as a variable which combined with other factors influences learners’ success. This category and the learners’ desire for interaction with the community and the blended course can support this. Motivation towards English arises in response to the main question since it was one of the effects of working in a blended environment. It indicated the way very young children developed every activity presented in the modules. Students showed an active participation and positive attitudes towards the activities in the modules. The latter is connected to the different attitudes and comments they did during the F2F sections and let us reflect about the positive impact of the second language acquisition.

(Excerpt No. 3, session 6, module 6: Body parts. Teachers’ journal)

Children participated actively in the activity while they were listening to the


song and acting the hocky pocky song. Most of the children were interested


to know the names of their body. They asked " ¿Cómo se dice hombros,


cabeza, estomago, espalda etc..? and the teacher answered each question


and they repeated all what the teacher said...


Category 3: English vocabulary acquisition.




The third category we found was English vocabulary acquisition. With regard to this, we realized that very young learners improved their vocabulary skills and increased the amount of second language words. The comparison between the pre and the post-test may be interpreted to show evidence that children developed in a better way their communicative skills, showing understanding of directions and commands given by the teacher as well as expressing simple sentences and answering questions related to the topics seen in the thematic modules.

As we mentioned above we used the tests before the implementation and post- implementation to gather information about students’ improvement and contrast how much students enriched their vocabulary according every topic in the module they developed. Before the implementation of module 6, we applied a pre-test to know the learners’ knowledge about the topic; but learners did not know any word about body parts. In the graph No. 3 we can see that most of the students learnt the ten words taught during the implementation.


In the teachers’ journal the researchers wrote down some informal meetings with parents who expressed that very young learners have learnt a lot of vocabulary related to the topics seen in the moodle course. Developing every module prompted the improvement of vocabulary as well as enhanced the spontaneous responses of the target vocabulary in very young learners. Vocabulary acquisition and recognition of English words were highest using technology tools in the learning process. The thematic modules included different activities such as readings, songs, videos, games, and worksheets which enagaged them to acquire new vocabulary. It may suggest that very young learners may feel more prepared to face the bilingual process at school and to continue working on learning a language. To conclude the evidences showed that the hybrid course gave them a meaningful experience since they worked in an independent way and they increased their vocabulary.

Category 4: Parents’ involvement



Given that the strategy we followed for this collaborative action research was blended learning, the role of parents guiding and helping very young learners at home was crucial. Very young learners needed guidance and help to turn the computer on, to explore the information following the links in the internet, and to print the worksheets for every activity in every module at home. The parents’ involvement during the process favored the children’s acquisition of the English vocabulary as well as the children’s academic performance in the F2F sections. They participated actively sharing their products and making comments about their experience at home. Based Gonzales, M & Funkhouser, J (1997)The collaborative support from parents at home affect directly in a positive way the success of children’s learning and progress in their life. The parents’ involvement is evidenced in the bar graph which shows the explanation about the people who helped learners at home during the development of the module. It also shows how these people supported their learning process. Most of the people involved were their parents.


The results of the study also suggested that collaborative work (parents-school teachers) and parents’ involvement increased and it had numerous benefits: greater confidence and self-esteem, a better parents-participation in the learning process, and engagement with learning. As the survey shows, this new learning environment gives the opportunity to interact with the whole family and with the technology resources.


Conclusions

Based on the findings presented above, there is still much to understand about the importance of hybrid/virtual learning environments that foster not only the second language learning but also the use of technology in the teaching-learning practice. This chapter has presented the findings of the analysis of data obtained from surveys, journal, tests, and students’ documents. Very young learners showed positive attitudes towards using moodle to enhance the second language acquisition as well as their parents’ commitment in the process. Based on our study we can affirm that a better integration of language teaching through technology into the study plan help to develop second language acquisition in an enjoyable and meaningful way foster autonomy and independent work skills. Since the creation of a blended course and the use of technology increased learners’ motivation to acquire a second language (in this case English), took them to acquire a huge amount of vocabulary according to the thematic modules presented in the hybrid course. This achievement was successfull thanks to the collaborative work parents and teachers did. We can describe it in a mathematical equation:

(M+T)•(BE) PT =M VA

Moodle course plus technology having as a main factor the blended learning in a higher parents and teachers’ support equal to motivation with a higher vocabulary acquisition.



Reference

Auerbach, C. F. & Silverstein L. B. (2003). Qualitative data: an introduction to coding and analysis. New York, NY, USA: NYU Press.



Burns, A. (1999). Collaborative action research for English language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gonzales, M & Funkhouser, J (1997). Family involvement in children Education. U.S. Department of Education.

Norris, J. (2001). Motivation as a Contributing Factor in Second Language Acquisition. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VII, No. 6, June 2001retrieved on March 20/2010 from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Norris-Motivation.html


Selinger, H.W & Shohamy, E. (2004). Second language research methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

We got the 4 chapters

We are working very hard on the fourth chapters of our Action Research. After a meaningful feedback from our tutor we already send the four chapters to her.

1. The introduction
2. The theorethical framework
3. The research design
4. The pedagogical intervention

We continue working on the data analysis chapter and we are having very interesting experiences since we are finding the appropriate evidences to support our findings:-)