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.

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.