Using Technology in Language Teaching

I have been working in the field of early childhood education for nearly eight years, and I have witnessed changes in classroom setup. Back in 2016, when I started my first job in kindergarten, there was only one laptop and loudspeaker in each class, and we used a mobile phone app to communicate with parents. Gradually, an interactive smartboard was introduced, then a screen-free coding robot and iPads. Apart from the mobile app, other social platforms are also used to communicate with parents, such as Zalo and Facebook. Everyone, including parents, teachers, and students, seems to be more comfortable with the presence of technology tools in the daily school routines. As a teacher teaching very young learners, I can’t deny the benefits of using technology in early childhood classrooms. They include increased student engagement, better teacher differentiation, time saving, and more collaboration among teachers when it comes to sharing teaching resources. However, challenges coexist. For...

How did I feel after the session? Although we already finished the course of Action Research before, I still felt a bit anxious about the tight schedule for the final assignment of our group. However, after listening to other groups presenting their action research project and Ms. Huong's feedbacks, I felt a little bit more confident about the prospect that we could finish in time if we stick to the plan that we agreed upon.  What did I learn? I learnt about how we were expected to write our reports and how our reports would be scored. I found the project checklist very useful too. Everything was very clear thanks to all documents provided by our instructor. I plan to do the same with all tasks/ assignments that I give my students in the future at more simplified version, of course.  I learnt from our own exprerience working on group work assignment  this time that if teachers set clear goals for students and give them necessary tools, students become more responsibl...

 How did I feel? I feel hopeful about the potential of implementing flipped learning in my own classes thanks to the reading materials introducing different types of flipped learning as well as tools and apps for flipped learning implementation. What did I learn? Before learning this module, I though flipped learning equals  role-reversal 2.0 in which students and teachers' roles are flipped. Therefore, it would not be the best to be applied in Kindergarten context. However, after reading all required materials, I realized that t here are different types of flipped learning  and a few of them are applicable in my teaching context such as m icro-flipped classroom, group- based flipped, f aux-Flipped Classroom. Interestingly, I came to realize that I had been using group-based flipped classroom without knowing this is one kind of flipped classroom.  Compared to traditional way of teaching and learning, the roles of teachers and students are significantly different....

  How did I feel after the lesson?  This module is Interesting and useful. There are some ideas regarding PBL (project-based learning) and creating rubrics cited in the reading materials that I am eager to modify and apply in my own teaching contexts. I'm particularly impressed with what the author wrote in the article "Less teaching and more learning". I myself have been doing such mini projects with my very young learners from time to time at smaller scales and of less complexity. However, I haven't successfully strung them together in an organized structures - connnecting the dots and I feel like I need to have a long-term goals for all projects that I will do with our students. In conclusion, the articles intrigued in me a lot of interesting ideas which, hopefully, will be materialized in all my daily practices. What did I learn? In terms of knowledge and skill I have better understanding about PBL as an approach to English teaching in which language is used as a ...

 November 15, 2022 This reflection was supposed to be done on November 12, right after the lesson but I missed the deadline. I'm trying to recall what I have learnt from this model.  Affectively, despite the fact that I was a bit overwhelmed with so many online learning and teaching resourses provided in required reading materials, I'm glad to I know where I'm likely to find what materials that I need. Cognitively, t his model provided me some interesting insights about using digital tools in teaching language.  Firstly, I really like the guideline for how to proceed with writing a technology-enhanced lesson plan because it resonated very well with my opinion about what we, as teachers, should prioritize when it comes to writing lesson plans of any sort - which is students and our teaching contexts. Learning objectives/goals are also very important because they tell us where to insert digital activities and how long our students should spend on those activities and more ...

  How did I feel after the lesson?  Minutes before the lesson starts, I was a bit nervous and lack of confidence because I had not tried to use all tools/ sites introduced in the required reading materials. However, when it came to break-out room, I felt much better thank to the open sharing and discussion of other member in Room 2. I managed to bookmarked all sites introduced by my teamates while listening to each of them present using diiago. I found the break-out room part was very useful for me. However, by the end of the lesson, the feeling of being overwhelmed caught me. I feel like I was behind the others and had to catch up. Ok! Challenge accepted!  "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" - I remined myself :) What did I learn? In terms of knowledge: I now know  Many sources for students to practice speaking, listening and reading. Many of them I have come to know for the first time. My three most favorite sites/ tools are:  Plot Genera...