Ensuring Lesson Authenticity, Learners' Collaboration and Engagement in the English Classroom with Nearpod

The teaching of English in second or foreign situations often calls for more intentionality on the part of the teacher so that learners can have more productive learning experience. Apart from the affective factors such as anxiety or boredom that learners may experience in such situations, learning another language often calls for authentic language teaching and learning opportunities that would make learners collaborate with one another in order to produce the language being learnt. This type of wholesome learning experience could be made possible with the use of mobile technologies, which are popular essentialities for both learners and teachers.

The unprecedented rise of mobile technologies such as mobile phones and tablets in recent years have made them potential tools for transforming the teaching and learning processes even in educational settings which had no prior preparation for technology use. 

Against this background, this week, I will be discussing how English teachers can integrate technology in their classroom by creating lesson activities with the use of mobile devices. According to Kearney et al (2021), the use of mobiles can transform teaching and learning by ensuring authenticity, collaboration and personalisation. These three features are affordances of the nearpod, a lesson creator app which is functional on mobiles.

Nearpod is a website, also operating as an app where teachers can stream already prepared lessons for students to join online using their mobile phones. It is a tool which requires that teachers create lessons usually using PowerPoint or Google slides and then integrate some tasks or lesson activities such as polls, matching tasks, quizzes etc. into the lesson content created. Nearpod has a free version tagged the silver tier and as a silver subscriber you have access to the basic features which is enough to create engaging lesson experience for your students. Also you have access to many already prepared lesson activities that can be utilised. Although instructors can display lesson activities from Nearpod via a projector and engage in the verbal demonstration of activities, however, it is best when students participate on the platform by using their mobile devices.

Affordances and Benefits

Authenticity

Nearpod provides teachers the opportunity to provide authentic tasks for learners through the integration of diverse audio-visual elements in the lesson. For instance, teachers can integrate pronunciation videos in the lesson content or videos showing how some  vocabulary are used in their specific context. Learners are able to understand how language works in the real-world. The various tasks students are exposed to on the platform also provides learners with opportunities to use the language in authentic ways and not in abstractions. For instance VR field trip can provide learners with teh authentic resource they need for a writing task. 

Collaboration

Teachers can encourage learners' participatory culture through the collaborative learning community that Nearpod provides. Students can express their ideas and improve their English skills through the collaborative affordance of this app. For instance, the use of Collaborate Board and Openended Question give students authentic ways to discuss and interact with each other so that their communication and collaboration skills can be practiced and improved. In addition, matching Pairs and Drag & Drop help  afford teachers and students more opportunities to evaluate and regulate the learning progress of the lesson. Furthermore, group work can be encouraged as nearpod provides a fun way of learning and reduces any language anxiety that might want to surface. As such the Nearpod platform supports the socio-cultural theory of language learning which describes learning in a social context.

Engagement 

Nearpod is an engaging website as a result of the diverse learning activities it affords learners. features like matching pairs and drag and drop can create a fun activity for students. Time to climb can provide competitions which learners can engage in and the Poll feature also encourage learners' interests in the lesson thereby, preventing boredom.

Challenges

Despite the discussed strengths above, Nearpod is not without some challenges. First, just like other learning website described for the past weeks, Nearpod relies on internet connectivity and availability of devices. As such, it will not work where there is lack of access to high-speed internet. Additionally, Nearpod can be time-consuming and it also requires more organisation as such, teachers have to be deliberate about its usage and understudy how it works while patiently creating lesson content and activities that learners would love.

However, in spite of these challenges, the amazing benefits: lesson authenticity, learner's collaboration and engagement it affords makes it worth being giving a chance in the English classroom. 

I have created a video on how to create lesson content and activities in Nearpod, watch this video below:

Have a go at this Nearpod lesson using this code:75K6C

Image acknowledgement according to order of use

Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay 

Image from nearpod.com

Developing English Fluency through the Speechling App

Unlike writing, spontaneous speech entails the cognitive, affective and pragmatic factors, all of which could affect one's fluency. Apart from thinking about the topic of discussion, which could be academic or not, speakers may have to deal with anxiety, as well as be conscious of the talk context. Fluency, in itself describes the speaker's speech rate or flow of expression and how intelligible his/her ideas are. Hence, fluency is different from accuracy as the former accepts that individuals could make some few grammatical mistakes and have some speech fillers, however, the efficiency with which the imperfections are managed is key.

Nowadays, technology has afforded us with diverse opportunities to help with fluency. Even now, computer-mediated communication  (CMC) has ensured asynchronous (spoken video) and synchronous (writing-talking). For this week, I will be discussing, Speechling, an online speaking tool.

Speechling

Speechling is a speaking app created by Hongyu, and the tool provides opportunities for developing speaking fluency in ten languages (English, French, Spanish, Russia, Korean, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, Germany). 

                                            Speechling Affordances

Structured lesson according to learners' level

The lesson contents are divided into five: foundation, core curriculum, conversations, phrasebook and exam-based (IELTS, TOEFL and TELC) for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners respectively. Therefore, the lesson curriculum are structured accordingly to every learner.

Speaking feature

The study mode feature allows users to practise speaking by reading already prepared sentences, record it, then playback the recorded format and listen to their speech. This gives users as many chances as possible at  practicing speaking.

Listening feature

There is the listening feature which affords users the opportunity to listen to imitate English sentences pronounced by native speakers. Users can practice speaking the sentences as many times as possible before saving.

Complex speaking drills

Aside from listening and repeating already prepared lessons, the app also display some questions and images to which learners respond to. For English learners, this could be pictures of markets, houses or people doing somthing. Learners respond by describing what they see and this helps them to develop complex speaking skills such as, comprehension, pronunciation and fluency.

Types of lesson activities

Lesson activities include dictation, recordings, cards, flashcards, multiple choice quiz etc. All which learners can utilise to practice their speaking skills and develop their fluency.

Feedback feature

Learners can save all recordings to the app and then get it processed and feedback provided for them. To achieve this, the app pairs users with a personal coach once they sign up on the app. The coach listens to recordings made, then gives feedback.

Benefits

Encourages learner autonomy

With the features provided by the speechling app, learners can be encouraged to take more responsibilities for their learning, learn at their own pace and even monitor their learning. Learners can set goals for themselves and complete the full lesson curriculum using the many activities provided on the app's interface.

Affordable

Speechling was created as a non-profit tool for developing speaking fluency in English. The creator, Hongyu, made the app to ensure other language learners do not experience speaking problems like he did while learning other languages, therefore, most of its important features are free to use, even on the phone. 

Limitations

The app could be complex for beginner learners as it does not explicitly reveal language rules for them. However, the limitation superceeds its advantages,which I have summarised below:

• repetions-opportunites to correct mistakes
• connection to native speakers
• Free to use most of its improtant features
• available to utilise on phone

Image credit according to order of use:

Speechling clipings  from www.speechling.com

Speaker image by Peggy Macho on pixabay

Mobile image by ijimaki on pixabay

learner working on laptop image from pixabay