This talk presents the results of the first task cycle of the action research project 'EMMa'. The study explores the opportunities and challenges of communicative and interactive approaches to learning and teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in digital learning environments in the young language learners classroom.
Digitalisation remains to be one of the hot and much debated topics in these days and continues to receive a significant amount of attention in teaching and learning foreign languages (Luetge & Merse 2021). Already young learners need both - foreign language skills and media competences - to participate in the digitalised global discourse. Thereby, digital media and materials are of great interest, but equally noteworthy are the teaching scenarios in which they are implemented. Appropriate classroom tasks and activities are needed to fully exploit the learning potential of digital media and materials. Nevertheless, research is still scare on how to best implement and use digital media and materials to develop beginners' foreign language and media competences. Tasks and activities need to developed and undergo empirical verification. The action research (Burns 2010) project 'EMMa' investigates how tasks and activities may structure, guide and support the development of foreign language competences in digital learning environments. Over a period of five months different data (lessons video recordings, students' products, questionnaires) was gathered in a German primary EFL classroom to provide evidence-based insights into digitally supported EFL lessons. The data were analysed using Qualitative Content Analysis (Mayring & Fenzl, 2019) and the Critical Incident Technique (Gruenewald 2012) to determine how digital materials and media can be used communicatively and in a way that supports foreign language learning and teaching processes. From these outcomes consequences – for further research as well as communicative and interactive approaches to learning and teaching foreign languages – will be presented and discussed.
Bibliography
Burns, Anne (2010): Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching. A Guide for Practitioners. New York: Routledge.
Gruenewald, Andreas (2012): Foerderung interkultureller Kompetenz durch Lernaufgaben. In: FLUL. 41/1. P. 54-71.
Luetge, Christiane / Merse, Thorsten (eds.) (2021): Digital Teaching and Learning: Perspectives for English Language Education. Tuebingen: Narr.
Mayring, Philipp / Fenzl, Thomas (2019): Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. In: Baur, Nina / Blasius, Joerg (eds.): Handbuch Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. P. 633-647.
