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.