AEXALEVI Convention 2018

Creative coding in ELT: can our students design videogames?

Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science since it helps foster problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. Steve Jobs claimed that “Everybody in the country should learn how to program a computer... because it teaches you how to think”. There is no need to be an expert or to start big in order to program, the only need is to be willing to accept challenges! This presentation will offer you different ideas on how to develop computational thinking. By engaging students in experiential tasks which enhance higher order skills while developing their language and digital skills, students develop the necessary strategies to succeed in the 21st century. We will explore how language, technology and content can be integrated effectively in authentic tasks which require students to develop critical thinking. Students are engaged in real realistic activities, such as the ones experts carry out, and the final goal is a meaningful one: to design their own videogames.

Materials Developed to Teach Literature, History and Language (Part 1)

Most materials developed for Language Teaching aim at achieving communicative competence, which is needed to succeed in a globalised world. As a result, materials and resources often appear to be limited to “conduct transactions and perform occupational tasks in the world outside the classroom” (Pulverness, 1999: 33). This type of commercial global material flourishes in the market, offering what is considered to be useful language for communicative purposes.

Pulverness (1999, 2007) and Ferradas (2003) state that Literature has often been neglected in ELT due to the emphasis laid on this functional or “referential language” in coursebooks, i.e.: “language which communicates at one level” (McRae, 1991: 3, in Ferradas, 2003: 406). These practices seem to disregard the potential literature has to offer “representational language”, which McRae (1991:3) defines as language whose meaning engages the imagination and interpretation of the learner in order to be decoded, going beyond the referential level. (In Ferradas, 2003: 407). Widdowson (1997:116) highlights the importance of literature as it “develops in learners an awareness of how literature functions as discourse and so to give them some access to the means of interpretation” (In Ferradas, 2003: 407).

The main reason to design materials aimed at using literature to contribute to cultural awareness through content taught within a CLIL approach was the fact that ELT has enough materials aimed at teaching functional language, but it lacks resources which integrate language and content such as literature, history and culture.

Approach to developing the materials

The development of these materials has followed humanistic and social-constructivist approaches, as they both focus on the needs of the learner.

Williams and Burden (1997: 30) acknowledge that humanistic approaches emphasize the vitality of the inner world of the learner, placing thoughts, feelings and emotions at the centre of human development. The authors claim that all human beings have a “natural potential for learning”, i.e. learning will take place if the content involved is perceived to be of personal relevance, and if it requires active participation including both feelings and cognition. The authors add that personalisation and differentiation are crucial. The former encompasses the idea that every learning experience should help learners develop a sense of personal identity, whereas the latter implies that the individual learners’ needs should be identified and targeted. As Hamacheck (1977:149) describes it: “Humanistic education starts with the idea that students are different, and it strives to help students become more like themselves and less like each other” (in Williams and Burden, 1997: 36)

In addition, Williams and Burden (1997: 43) point out that, from a social interactionist point of view, children are immersed in a social world and learning takes place through interactions with other people. Thornbury claims that through those interactions teachers provide sources of input and feedback which are crucial for language acquisition to take place in the classroom (2006: 225). When interaction takes place, learning can be adjusted to the needs of the child in order to help him/her become more competent (Cameron, 2001: 8). This was defined by Bruner (1983, in Tomlinson, 2013: 183) as scaffolding, i.e. temporary interactional support given to learners while their language system is developing, in order to perform a task at a level that might be beyond their current competence.