Let’s learn English with the Interactive Whiteboard!
Sabrina Campregher
Free University of Bolzano (Italy)
sabrina.campregher@gmail.com
Abstract
With the development of a multicultural and multilingual society which we live in has opened new
scenarios and challenges within the educational field as language learning has become not only a
need, but also a necessity to keep in touch with the whole world.
School has the important role of teaching students languages while adopting the most efficient
methodologies.
Nowadays, the use of technology is considered essential to improve the teaching and learning
process. The recent introduction of the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) in schools has prompted
teachers to find the most successful strategies to use this new tool to enhance the students’ language
learning process.
The answer to this requirement is the project named “Impariamo l’inglese con la LIM” (Let’s learn
English with the IWB). This project addresses teachers’ needs for providing teaching and learning
material for the IWB. This material contains a CD-ROM and a book. The CD-ROM provides a wide
range of interactive activities presented at three levels of difficulties, which develop receptive and
productive skills. The book includes worksheets correlated to the interactive activities contained in the
CD-ROM which can be used by students working alone, in couples or in groups . The book displays
also methodological suggestions, which help teachers to plan motivating and effective lessons.
The aim of this project is to probe a new way of teaching where technology such as the IWB is
integrated into the teaching-learning process.
Impariamo l’inglese con la LIM has recently been published by an Italian publisher well-known for its
educational books collection.
1. Introduction
Living in a multicultural society means dealing with people from all around the world. Within this
scenario, language learning becomes not only important, but also a necessity as it allows to know and
learn in contexts that go beyond the country boundaries. As reported in the Italian National Guidelines
for the School Curriculum (2007), school is called to train the future citizens of the world, or students
who possess language skills necessary to be able to communicate and interact with people from
different nationalities.
Over the years, in the field of languages learning, have followed different approaches and
methodologies due to influences exercised by lingual theories and the recent spread of new
technologies in the educational context. Today, the presence of the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) in
school requires a change of the traditional teaching strategies. Its interactive and multimedia nature
makes it an innovative tool that can meet the different learning styles and multiple intelligences
coexisting in every group class. However, the only presence of this new tool does not ensure better
learning. The point is how to integrate the IWB to enhance language learning.
The project Impariamo l’inglese con la LIM (Let’s learn English with the IWB) has been designed with
the aim to respond to this question. It provides the methodology to turn a class into a learning
environment and teaching aids, which satisfy the A1 standards of the Common European Framework
of Reference for Languages and the Italian National Guidelines for the primary school.
2. The book
Teaching is not based on the intuition or good will of the teacher, but it is founded on the instructional
design. For this reason, the book presents a series of teaching methodologies that allows teachers to
use the kit in the classroom in a natural and effective way. Furthermore, the book suggests how to
establish a suitable atmosphere for cooperative learning, presenting different types of group, with their
advantages and disadvantages, and providing practical tips on how to form groups and assign roles to
members.
The classroom setting is essential to achieve the set language objectives, for this reason different
setting are presented, such as the cooperative classroom setting which is described though the
arrangement of students around tables and the location of groups in the classroom.
Particular attention is paid to the lesson design as a lesson planner is provided. The lesson planner
helps teachers to focus on lesson stages and gives specific methodological tips to meet the four skills:
reading, writing, listening and speaking.
The kit has been designed with an inclusive view, therefore, all the proposed activities can be carried
out by the whole class and not just by those who are at the board. For this reason, each topic is
developed through a series of activities that are addressed both on the CD-ROM as well as in the
book. To engage and involve all students, the teacher has 94 worksheets which report the exercises
displayed on the CD-ROM. According to the students’ needs the worksheets can be used also
independently from the IWB.
In order to undertake the proposed activities in the classroom, the teacher can refer to the chapters in
which they are given suggestions about methodology, setting and the lesson plan, which can help to
address the specific activities to consolidate each skill.
3. The CD-ROM
The kit was design to reach the A1 standards of the Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages and the Italian National Guidelines for the Curriculum. The decision to set up the kit on
these two references is based on the belief that the language learned in primary school contributes
largely to the development of the language skills of children who will become the future citizens of the
world.
For this reason the CD-ROM contains 12 topics, divided into semantic fields, which are usually
addressed in the first three years of the primary school, such as colors, food, school items, etc (Fig. 1).
All the topics and activities are presented by the bridge character Martin, a cute koala living in
Australia with his friends: a dingo, a kangaroo, an emu, a wombat and a platypus. The decision to use
a bridge character came about to involve better students in the learning process: Martin, in fact, is
their age and lives their own experiences. In this way, the English language learning takes a back seat
in the eyes of students, as it becomes a tool to communicate and socialize, just as Martin and his
friends do.
Each topic is developed through a wide range of vocabulary and one or more communication
structures since all the activities are discussed with reference to the communicative approach, which
emphasizes that the purpose of language learning is the communicative competence, such as:
vocabulary; morphosyntactic rules; rules of communicative interaction (eg. start and end a
conversation); knowledge of how to use and respond to different functions or speech acts such as
requests, thanks, invitations, etc..; and the use of language appropriate to the context and situation.
Figure 1: topics
Source: Campregher S., (2012). Impariamo l’inglese con la LIM 1, Trento, Erickson, p.26.
Each topic is addressed through three instruments:
1. Picture Dictionary: it’s an interactive dictionary where each content (vocabulary and language
structures) of the argument is presented by the lemma, an image and a track. Though the Picture
Dictionary, students can learn the spelling, the meaning and the pronunciation of each vocabulary.
The teacher can use this tool to introduce the contents or as a scaffolding in case of need during
the activities as it is possible to access to this tool before or during the activity. Moreover, in order
to create a personal/class picture dictionary, the CD-ROM contains the flash-cards of all the words
used in the activities.
2. Activities: specific to each of the four skills. All activities are divided into three levels of difficulty:
easy, medium and hard. In this way, teacher has the opportunity to involve all pupils in the same
activity, individualizing their contribution according to their abilities and needs.
The data contained in the exercises change whenever accessing to the software, creating a
potentially unlimited number of activities;
3. Customize activities: teacher has the opportunity to create their own activities by customizing a
template designed specifically to develop exercises which develop the four skills:
- Reading: teacher writes vocabulary into empty boxes and students have to draw the meanings in
the boxes;
- Writing: teacher draws or pastes a picture in the boxes and the students have to write the
vocabulary under the boxes;
- Listening: teacher pronounces the names of the pictures represented in the boxes and asks the
student to recognize and indicate them among those present;
- Speaking: teacher prepares the images to be included in the boxes and denoted by a number,
then ask the students to say the name of the image mentioned.
The activities that the teacher creates personally can be used to:
- address the issue as skills prior assessment;
- monitor the learning progress of the acquisition of the target language;
- evaluate the skills learned.
4. Conclusion
The kit Let’s learn the English with the IWB has been designed so that the activities projected on the
board can be carried out simultaneously by the students sitting at their tables. In this way, the teacher
has the possibility to involve all the students and keep their attention and concentration, managing the
whole class. Customization and the worksheets within the same activity help to involve the class in the
learning process. Customization, in fact, allows the teacher to create exercises that meet the needs of
students and their interests, without being bound to the topics in the software. The worksheets can be
used either in synergy with the software, or separately, if needed. The integrated use of the book and
the CD-ROM allows students to work together, discussing in groups and creating an atmosphere of
conversation and dialogue. Too often the work "on the board" is likely to result a direct dialogue
between teacher and student, causing a split with the rest of the class, which is likely to become
distracted and thus losing an opportunity to review, study and sharing.
References
[1] Campregher S., (2012). Impariamo l’inglese con la LIM 1, Trento, Erickson.
[2] Campregher S., (2012). Impariamo l’inglese con la LIM 1: attività per il primo biennio della scuola
primaria. Difficoltà di apprendimento, 17/4, 611-622, Trento, Erickson.
[3] Council of Europe, (2001). The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
[4] Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, (2007). Indicazioni per il curriculo per la scuola dell’infanzia e
per il primo ciclo di istruzione.