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:
- Motivation towards the use of technology
- Motivation towards English language learning
- English vocabulary acquisition
- Parental involvement
Category 1: Motivation towards the use of technology
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
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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.
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