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Technology-enhanced-gadgets in the Teaching of English as a Foreign

Language to Very Young Learners. Ideas on Implementation

Article  in  Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences · October 2016

DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.10.070

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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 232 (2016) 507 – 513

International Conference on Teaching and Learning English as an Additional Language,

GlobELT 2016, 14-17 April 2016, Antalya, Turkey

Technology-Enhanced-Gadgets in the Teaching of English as a

Foreign Language to Very Young Learners. Ideas on
Implementation
Nathaly Gonzalez-Acevedoa,*
a
PhD program in Education and Research Group on Plurilingual Interaction and Teaching. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Facultat de Ciències de l’Educació, Edifici G, Barcelona 08193, Spain

Abstract

This research1 is based on sociocultural authentic inquiry research (Konstatinos, 2015) and action research methodology. An early-
years teacher of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) explores technology-enhanced-gadgets that can be of use to teach meaningful
lessons to very young children. The paper aims to outline theoretical uses of technology-enhanced-gadgets in the teaching of EFL
to very young learners. It describes possible uses of technology grounded on the importance given to media competence and new
literacies (The New London Group, 1996) in 21st century societies, in which children are digital natives (Prensky, 2001). As such,
children show a multimedial and multimodal preference for learning. Given such preference and the envisioning of a technology-
mediated prosumer society (Kotler, 1986) learning content, including in ESL, has to be adapted to new dynamics. The findings
show a variety of uses for technology-enhanced-gadgets (e.g. ipads, robots…) (Burnet, 2010; Guth & Helm, 2012; Hill, 2010;
Lynch & Redpath, 2014) that are appropriate for very young children and that promise to engage students in the learning of EFL
while creating an interactive environment and developing autonomy. The conclusions suggest that the use of technology-enhanced-
gadgets can aid in the creation of attractive and cooperative lessons that promote meaningful learning.
© 2016
© 2016TheTheAuthors.
Authors.Published
Publishedbyby Elsevier
Elsevier Ltd.Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of GlobELT 2016.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of GlobELT 2016
Keywords: Very young children; technology-enhanced-gadgets; digital natives and new learning dynamics; technology-mediated learning

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +34-618-624262.

E-mail address: nathaly-gonzalez-acevedo@outlook.com

1877-0428 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of GlobELT 2016
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.10.070
508 Nathaly Gonzalez-Acevedo / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 232 (2016) 507 – 513

1. Introduction

The inclusion of technology and its continuous advances have leaked into society changing the way people interacts
with technology itself and through technology. Such changes have taken part of the education community to rethink
terms like literacy or what being literate, in our present time, means (The New London Group, 1996). Formal education
has been long arguing about the uses and the consequences of technology in the classroom (Cassany, 2011), although,
the inclusion of technology in the classroom is still scarce. There are different perspectives on the reasons behind such
scenery, some point to the teachers’ beliefs (Aubrey and Dahl, 2014; Nikolopoulou and Gialamas, 2015; Yurt and
Cevher-Kalburan, 2011), some to the curriculum and the administration (Çivik, Ünüvar and Soylu, 2015; Pérez-
Rodríguez and Delgado-Ponce 2012), and some argue that technology should be cautiously used (Cassany, 2011).
Whichever the reasons, technology does not have a solid presence in classrooms or curriculums nowadays which
differs from the presence of technology in society. Early Years settings share the same situation in terms of technology
inclusion. There is a scarce presence of it in such settings as a pedagogical tool for teaching and learning in formal
education. Such, is still an area that lacks research as studies around the use of technology in Early Years settings for
the teaching and learning are still limited. Significant literature on this area, such as Lankshear and Knobel, a meta-
narrative carried out in 2003, have found that research around very young children and new technologies were small.
Furthermore, years later Burnet (2010), still concluded that there was a need of studies around technology and early
childhood, arguing that assumptions around Early Years education needed to be evaluated. The background for Early
Years and technology in education can be summarized as an area that lacks research and that is still poorly explored
by teachers and researchers.
On the other hand, the teaching and learning of foreign languages has found in technology a great aid. It is well
known that input, in terms of quantity and quality, is key in the learning of a foreign language no matter the age.
Technology offers resources and tools that amplify and diversify the input received by learners in a foreign language
learning situation. It also proves to engage learners, specially very young learners, that find the interaction with
technology appealing (Prensky, 2001a; 2001b) and it proves to be a resource that can be set as a resource of
autonomous use making different grouping arrangements, in a classroom, possible.
This paper aims to outline theoretical uses of technology-enhanced-gadgets in the teaching of English as a foreign
language (EFL) to very young learners. It describes the theoretical framework that supports the inclusion of technology
use, as a 21st century basic skill, in teaching and learning settings. As well as describing the possible theoretical uses
of technology grounded on the importance given to media competence and new literacies (The New London Group,
1996) in 21st century societies, in which children are considered digital natives (Prensky, 2001a; 2001b) and, as such,
show a multimedial and multimodal preference for learning. This paper is based on a sociocultural authentic inquiry
research (Konstatinos, 2015) carried out through an action research methodology. The research, in its first cycle of
action at the time this paper was written, has taken place in a preschool classroom. An early year’s teacher of EFL
explores technology-enhanced-gadgets that can be of use to teach meaningful lessons outlining theoretical uses of
technology-enhanced-gadgets in the teaching of EFL to very young learners by presenting examples present in current
studies and literature by adapting such to the Early Years settings’ needs.

2. Theoretical Background

The presence of technology in society is significant, it can be said that nowadays citizens live in a technology-
mediated society. Such mediation requires society to interact with technology symbols and gadgets and for such
interaction people needs to be “literate” in terms of technology. This situation is not new; however, authors have been
discussing the importance of technology inclusion in society and have envisioned the skills and knowledge that this
new scene would require citizens to acquire. As early as 1986, Kotler adapted Toffler’s (1981) “prosumer” term
coining a concept that envisioned an active society in which the new role of citizens was not only to consume but to
produce products through technology. A dual use of technology that is the base of today’s use of technology,
connectivity and information and communication technology (ICT). The concerns in relation to education and
technology aroused in scholars who foresaw a paradigm change in a near future. In 1996, The New London Group
met for the first time to discuss literacy pedagogy and the changes society was facing due to the inclusion of
technology, globalization and sociocultural diversity. The group, of ten academics, were concerned about the need of
 Nathaly Gonzalez-Acevedo / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 232 (2016) 507 – 513 509

the pedagogy of literacy to adapt to the new literacies and answer the requirements of such new multimodal and
multimedia literacy. As a result, in 1996, the group published “Pedagogy of Multiliteracies” describing the
characteristics and the requirements of the new literacies by taking into account society changes and adapting
accordingly. Nonetheless, the general concerns did not only focused on pedagogies or theories some, like Prenksy,
focused on the change of the new generations. Prensky (2001a; 2001b), coined the term “digital natives” and “digital
immigrants” in reference to the new generations and the society they live in. The author described children that needed
the interaction with technology and that were lost and demotivated when learning through a passive methodology.
New generations that could surf through technology as natives and that needed the speed and the multi-modality of
new technologies. Furthermore, the change of interaction with information and the new ways of learning is due to the
change information access itself has, and is, going through. Along these lines, Bauman (2003), differentiates between
“liquid” and “solid information”. Liquid being the information that can be accessed through technology and that has
a fluid, volatile and changing character and solid the information on print based format. It is a great way of portraying
not only how information access has changed but how information access has also changed the production limitations.
In the technology-mediated society the production, reproduction and transformation of information is not restricted to
published works but to anyone with access to basic technology resources which includes a great part of the society
being “prosumers”. Related to information and access, Benito-Ruiz (2009), described the term “infoxication” to refer
to the intoxication of information given the fluid access to a great amount of information in relatively no time and
with little resources. The concerns of the scholars in relation to the skills needed in the 21st century grew, and still
grow, as the technology mediated society changes the way to interact with information, people, learning and
technology. As a consequence a wide range of terms, as media literacy, digital literacy, and information literacy
(Kurbanoglu, Grassian, Mizrachi, Catts, and Špiranec, 2013), appeared evidencing such concerns. Interest on how
children learned in formal and informal settings also grew and comparisons between generations started to arouse in
the relevant literature. Cope and Kalantsis (2009), for example, described new generations that demanded to be actors
and players instead of mere audiences or spectators and thus describing methodologies in schools that proved to be
no longer engaging or apt for the upcoming children. Children that would become adults in a technology-mediated
society and that need to learn how to interact with symbols and how to critically use technology. In this sense, Prensky
(2009), described a “homo sapiens digital” or a “digital human” and stated that people could be “wiser” (than not
“smarter”) with the use of technology and that it implies that citizens that are technology literate would be in a better
position than those that are not. Implications that echo on formal education’s need to change.

3. Research Methodology

Research is key in the development of new theories in education. Given the technological revolution research has
become essential in the development of pedagogies and methodologies to introduce technology in a meaningful way,
especially, in the Early Years education. However, research of very young learners learning and teaching is a very
delicate matter given the frailty of such tender ages. This framework addresses the Teacher-Researcher role in an
sensible authentic inquiry research that is adequate to the Early Years stage characteristics. Based on new approaches
to teaching and learning inquiry, this research framework has adapted the concept of “authentic inquiry research”, as
outlined by Alexakos (2015), to the teaching and learning research at very young ages. Therefore, its connotation
sensible which manifests the frailty of very young children and supports the option of minimum direct intervention to
what children’s concerns. Grounded on Vygotsky’s (1978) Sociocultural Theory, this research framework
epistemology understands learning and development as socially co-constructed by the child and its relation to its social
and cultural context. As Vygotsky claimed, “The internalization of socially rooted and historically developed activities
is the distinguishing feature of human psychology” (57). Learning and development should then be understood as
rooted in individuals’ social and cultural engagement with and within a context. Regarding research in education,
sociocultural research highlights that social and cultural aspects need to be integrated as main aspects of learning and
development. Experiences, history, and culture of children, as well as the context in which this all takes place, cannot
be ignored (Torres-Velasquez, 2000). Sociocultural research epistemology understands knowledge and learning as
context-cultural-historical framed and thus recognizes learning as co-constructed by the individual and its
relationships. The process of learning, inside or outside a classroom, can then be described as a transmission, a
510 Nathaly Gonzalez-Acevedo / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 232 (2016) 507 – 513

construction, a transaction and a transformation process between individuals through a relationship (Steiner and Mahn,
1996). Therefore, learning is grounded on specific, to each individual, context that provides the means and the meaning
to the learning that a child constructs. The context should then be acknowledged as part of a variable in teaching and
learning that influences the child’s learning and development.
This research exposes that useful and transferrable researches provide authentic data. Thus, this research axiology
considers that the nature of reality is multiple as it is constructed by individuals and their relationships. Each
classroom, and each year group, is a specific context in which different children, grouped as a whole, co-construct
knowledge and develop through the relationships that occur in that specific context. Therefore, the reality of a given
group is never the same as the reality of another given group even if they share the same characteristics.
Teachers are part of that reality and are considered a reliable source of data. The role of teacher-researchers is
considered key to research inquiry as they, seen as part of that relationship and context, guarantee minimum changes,
derived from research, in a group’s dynamic by reducing the intervention and maintaining the level of authenticity
during research. On the same line, the axiology underpinning this research framework advocates for a sensible data
compilation. Observation and data recording cannot be invasive or alien to children. It needs to be set within the
context routines and dynamics and guarantee that the teacher-researcher respects its main role as a teacher and not
favors solely its role of researcher. The data compiled needs to be derived from sensible designs that prioritize the
teaching and learning dynamics above the research itself.
The method used in this research is action research. A cyclic research characterized by stages that allow the study
to adapt and progress along the study itself. The defined stages are: selection of focus; clarification of theories; data
compilation; data analysis; results report and informed action process (Sagor, 2000). The current paper is the result of
the data compilation stage in which educated planning has been taken and thus allows the researcher to share the
theories, and examples of action in this case, that have been used for the purpose of the research’s main aim. Thus the
ideas on implementation that this paper outlines are part of the theory research and the adaptation is designed by the
researcher as a reliable source that is part of the specific reality being studied.

4. Conclusions

The criteria used to design and spot meaningful uses of technology-enhanced gadgets is based on the criteria
outlined by Ferres and Piscitelli in 2012. A guideline rooted in an important five-year study that took place in Spain
which main aim was to assess the media competence level of the citizens. It was financed by the Catalan Audiovisual
Council (CAC) and the Ministry of Education to assess the level of media competence in the country’s citizens in
which 50 renowned Spanish and foreign experts in Media Literacy have contributed to the 2007 first proposal outlined
by the authors. The criteria was consequently revised in 2012 and is the criteria used as theoretical background for the
design of activities mediated by technology-enhanced gadgets.
The criteria defines six dimensions: languages; technology; interaction processes; production and dissemination
processes; ideology and values, and aesthetic. Each dimension has its indicators and two different areas of work;
production of messages and interaction with messages. The aim is to describe all the areas of knowledge and skills
that empower individuals to produce and interact critically with media therefore developing media literacy. So it is a
guideline for media literacy.
The use of this criteria responds to the need of designing activities that not only use technology-enhanced gadgets
but that by such inclusion of technology develop media literacy from very young ages and not just the so called
initiation or introduction to ICT. Therefore, the use of technology-enhanced gadgets would be aiding in the
development of transdisciplinary skills, media literacy, while proving to be effective and engaging tools in the teaching
and learning of EFL in early years´ settings.
The literature points to a wide range of activities that can be adapted to the teaching and learning of EFL to very
young learners. The ideas on implementation are examples that current literature presents covering a wide range of
different gadgets and types of implementation that are adapted to EFL teaching and learning. Mavers (2007), presents
a study in which a very young girl interacts with a computer by sending and receiving e-mails from her uncle. Such
practice can be easily recreated in an EFL classroom. The only gadget needed is a computer, an addressee and access
to an e-mail account. Children can send an e-mail to a teacher, a relative or a fantasy character like Father Christmas.
This activity engages children in the use of English as means of communication and it requires them to use their
 Nathaly Gonzalez-Acevedo / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 232 (2016) 507 – 513 511

communicative skills and to focus on vocabulary and language structure. A similar research was described by Cohen
(2005), in which children engaged in an international collaborative activity, through email exchange, with children in
different countries. The gadget needed is a computer and an email address and a contact. This activity responds to a
project-based learning activity. The exchange can be set as part of the inquiry and English as the language of
communication and source of information. Very young learners are curious and will engage easily in an activity to
inquire about almost any topic.
A similar study, a project-based communicative activity, is described by Guth & Helm (2010), through the use of
telecollaboration. Telecollaboration can be designed to communicate in English, as a foreign language, with people
outside the classroom with the aim to exchange ideas, culture or to develop a project together. “Skype”, a free video
chat tablet or computer program, has a web page in which teachers can communicate in order to find appropriate age
and language matches for their needs. In such platform, the learning of EFL is very common at all ages including very
young learners. Dooly (2010; 2011) and Dooly and Saddler (2013) have carried different studies, with children, in
relation to collaboration and the teaching and learning of EFL. In the same line “e-twining”, another online platform,
can be used to create project-based language learning activities.
Campbell and Mechling (2009), describe the use of Interactive whiteboards (“Smartboards”) to support children
with instruction. The “Smartboard” was used to enhance letter sounds instruction in small groups of children with
disabilities. The same can be adapted for children to play independently in small groups. A “power point” or
“Smartboard” tool can be used to create a multimodal activity including touching, listening and looking a certain
word, sound, vocabulary and be set as a small group corner creating a flexible lesson in terms of children grouping.
The interactive whiteboard is a gadget that almost all classrooms have and its dimensions are perfect for a small group
of children autonomous work. There are web pages specialized in children’s games that, by becoming tactile through
the projection in an interactive whiteboard, are very suitable for very young learners of EFL.
More concerned with the new literacies skills is the study designed by Hill (2010). The researcher describes how
teacher-researchers worked multimodal texts, in a computer, by designing a task in which students needed to create a
story using the computer or the tablet taking pictures or drawing and then adding sound or recorded voice. The result
was a task that was not only designed to work story sequence, which is a language curriculum content, but to learn
multimodal language skills focusing on designing multimodal texts as a product. Such research shows how children
can discover how to become “prosumers” while covering the curriculum contents. Very young children will happily
engage in retelling their favorite story using their drawings and their own recorded voice, creating a multimodal and
multimedia text, using tablets, cameras, video-recorders or computers as resources. Repetitive structure stories are
great for this activity as very young learners don’t need to learn by heart very difficult structures.
Along the same line of multimedia texts activities, Lynch and Redpath (2014), present their study by describing
how preschool teachers use iPad to create activities to support literacy learning in the classroom. A section of the
study describes a great example of teaching and learning English to very young learners using iPads in a collaborative
project. The example studies a teacher that decides to create an interactive book of sounds (sounds and letters being
the main literacy curriculum target of the stage). Each child draws, on the iPad, a sound (letter) and the picture of a
word that begins with that sound (letter). The whole class creates a book with all the letters and then they share it with
the principal and their families. It is a simple, creative and meaningful activity that only requires a tablet or computer
as a resource. In the teaching of EFL it can be adapted to vocabulary, sight words or structures. The use of iPads as
resources in the classroom, especially to promote literacy skills, appears to be a frequently used tool. The studies, still
scarce in terms of technology and Early Years settings, show and increased interest in the use of such resources in the
classroom. Other studies that have researched along these lines, with very young learners, are Flewitt, Messer and
Kucirkova (2014) and Kucirkova, Messer, Sheehy and Fernández-Panadero (2014).
However, the use of technology-enhanced gadgets in the classroom is always relegated to the access to such
gadgets. Although, education communities are placing some of the budget on technology there are still schools and
educational settings that have a very poor, in terms of ICT, equipment supply. The research of Wohlwend (2009)
studies how pretend play in the Early Years can help children acquire media skills without any real supplies. The study
described how children that did not have access to technology-enhanced gadgets, in the classroom, pretended to have
such gadgets by using what they had at hand. The very young learners used toys, like banana toys, to imitate the
function of a cellphone in order to communicate with a family member. The study also revealed how children, by
512 Nathaly Gonzalez-Acevedo / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 232 (2016) 507 – 513

cutting and coloring pieces of papers, created computers and children’s tablets using their imagination and knowledge.
This study is a great example of how the use of pretend technology-enhanced-gadgets in the teaching and learning of
EFL can be of use if there is no access to equipment. The lack of resources can be used as part of the activity learning
objective in the EFL learning target. Teachers can design activities that include the creation of pretend-technology-
enhanced gadgets and create play situations that imitate real uses of such pretend gadgets.
The use of technology-enhanced-gadgets, even if they are pretend-gadgets, can aid in the creation of attractive and
cooperative lessons that promote meaningful learning. The learning targets can be easily reached by using technology
as a tool and media competence as a transdisciplinary objective. It must not be obviated that the future that awaits the
very young learners of today will be highly technologically-mediated and being literate in such area would be a basic
skill in tomorrow’s world.

Acknowledgements

I have received the support of the project ‘Knowledge for Network-based Education, Cognition & Teaching
(KONECT)’ financed by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad: Proyectos I+D del Programa Estatal de Fomento
de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia (EDU2013-43932-P)

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