TECHNOLOGY IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Technology in the Foreign Language Classroom

Sydney Gennuso

Towson University
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Research Question:
1) How does the incorporation of technology impact students’ learning of a foreign language?

Thesis Statement: With the incorporation of flipped learning, blended learning, and mobile
technologies in the foreign language classroom, teachers are able to promote differentiation and
individualized learning in their classrooms, which leads to positive student achievement.

Mobile technologies and the effect on Flipped/blended learning and the effect on
language learning language learning

- Students are more engaged, performed better, or had less behavior

- Students with less foreign language content knowledge problems in flipped classrooms due to being more confident with the
can face cognitive overload using virtual reality to learn content from studying it the night before (Hao, 2015).
a foreign language (Hao, 2015). - Students were more positive and cognitive results were increased with
the use of games and simulations during classroom instruction (Lin &
- Students that used mobile technology had a more Lan, 2015).
positive perception of learning a language outside of the - The use of in class technology (videos, songs, etc.) showed an increase
classroom (Shaykina & Minin, 2018). of students using those forms of tech at home to learn beyond the
- 67% of students preferred doing homework from classroom (Lai, 2014).
- Flipped classrooms allow students to take in more content at home, while
mobile devices because they could complete it on the go they get more practice and communication skills in class (Shaykina &
(Shaykina & Minin, 2018). Minin, 2018).
- Students can control their own learning outside of the - Students creativity increases with the inclusion of Web 2.0 tools in the
classroom with mobile tech (Karaaslan et all, 2014). classroom (Domalewska, 2014).
- Different forms of technology in the classroom is important for effective
- Students recording their voices to practice at home on learning (Wen et all, 2014),
their phones improved their grammar (Baleghizadeh & - Students that used a multimedia collaborative writing app in groups
Oladrastam, 2010). reported better writing scores than those students that did not use an app
- Students are more eager to speak when they have (Yun et all, 2014).
- The inclusion of virtual learning environments increases student
been assigned a mobile task that reviews vocabulary participation, reduces anxiety, and allows students to be more
at home the night before (Shaykina & Minin, 2018). creative (Lin & Lan, 2015).

Differentiation using technology in

Teachers’ attitudes towards
foreign language classrooms
technology in the classroom

- Multimedia use is replacing traditional textbooks in - Students need a teacher to guide them through tech-
order to engage auditory learners (Izquierdo et all, based/student-led learning (Hao, 2015).
2017). - Teachers that promote the use of technology in the classroom
- Teachers can use technology to help students identify increased the number of students that wanted to use those
what works for them and what doesn’t, which allows resources outside of the classroom. Resources include radio
both parties to take control of their individualized stations, YouTube, and various mobile phone applications
learning (Lai, 2014). (Lai, 2014).
- Using tablets allows students to type out answers and - Students that had teachers use technology in the classroom,
write out answers with a stylus to promote and were assigned homework assignments using technology,
memorization (Van Hove et all, 2017). were more confident in learning a foreign language (Lai,
2014).
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Abstract

This research involves looking at how effective technology is when teachers use it to

teach students a foreign language. Some programs allow students to only use technology when

learning a foreign language, which does not produce positive results with language acquisition

among students. The goal of this research paper is to show that when a teacher incorporates

technology but does not rely on technology to teach the students the entire time, into their

classroom, that teachers are able to promote differentiation and individualized learning in their

classrooms, which leads to positive student achievement. This paper will provide you with an

overview of how incorporating technology into a foreign language classroom can affect students

and what is necessary in order for teachers to be successful in teaching a foreign language with

the aid of technology.

Introduction

During my career as a Baltimore County Public School teacher, I learned that a Passport

Program is being enforced in certain elementary schools for grades four and five. The Passport

program offers only one day of face-to-face instruction between 30-50 minutes a week, depending

on the grade level, while the rest of the week students are teaching themselves the language on

their county issued devices if their regular instruction teacher gives them that time to study the

language on their devices. Throughout the years that I have taught, those students involved in the

Passport programs that are now enrolled where I teach, I have discovered that they are less

proficient in the language than the students that did not participate in the Passport programs. I

struggle teaching these students, who were able to jump from the Passport program in the fifth

grade to Spanish 2 in the sixth grade because the county believed that these students had sufficient
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learning to move them to Spanish 2, even though most of the learning was completed on their

devices and not in a face-to-face environment.

Though I agree with Baltimore County Public Schools that learning a language is best when

young, I also believe that students need teachers to help keep them on the right, structured learning

path in order to learn a second language. I do not believe that young students, nor anyone, can

learn a new language by themselves through a computer or mobile device. I worry that these

students that are being passed to the next level, will lack the necessary grammar, listening, and

speaking skills we all need in order to show proficiency in a language. A student that has no prior

knowledge of the language must learn basic reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills from a

teacher to be successful in their second language acquisition in order to show production of the

target language, yet Baltimore County Public Schools is becoming more and more reliant on

technology-based learning with the incorporation of 1:1 devices. The Office of World Languages

even states in Department Head meetings that elementary students that take the Passport Program

may not be able to produce much of the language until high school, which could mean that the

student suffers through years of struggling before being able to properly acquire the target

language being learned because their formative years of learning the language was learned mostly

on their own through their 1:1 devices. In order for Foreign Language teaching to be effective, a

teacher must teach the students and use technology to support their learning acquisition.

More and more foreign language classrooms around the world are incorporating different

forms of technology to provide students a new and exciting way to learn a language. However,

many teachers’ lack professional development and prior knowledge on the equipment to facilitate

technology incorporation in the classroom (Izquierdo et all, 2017). Those teachers that are

properly trained and support their students to use technology in and outside of the classroom, show
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an increase of student achievement (Lai 2014). Throughout this research review, I am to answer

the following question:

How can the incorporation of technology impact students’ learning of a

foreign language?

With the incorporation of flipped learning, blended learning, and mobile technologies in

the foreign language classroom, teachers are able to promote differentiation and individualized

learning in their classrooms, which leads to positive student achievement.

Flipped and Blended Learning

Different forms of technology in the classroom is important for effective learning (Wen

et all, 2014). Many teachers are choosing to incorporate technology into their classroom by

using the blended and/or flipped approaches to learning.

With flipped classrooms, teachers assign students a topic and the students use technology

(videos, web articles, etc.) to learn about that topic at home. With flipped classrooms, students

are more engaged, perform better on academic tasks, or have less behavior problems due to

being more confident with the content from studying it the night before (Hao, 2015). (Hao,

2015). Flipped classrooms are a great solution to time management as well. In addition, flipped

classrooms permit students to take in more content at home while they get more practice with

their verbal and written communication skills in class (Shaykina & Minin, 2018).

In contrast to the flipped classroom approach, a blended learning approach allows

teachers to mix traditional face-to-face teaching with the incorporation of technology into their

lessons. Teachers that mix technology into their lessons help increase the creativity levels of

their students (Domalewska, 2014). The use of in-class multimedia collaborative writing apps
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produces an increase of writing scores among students (Yun et all, 2014). Instructors that use

online games and simulations to assist in helping students learn a foreign language have more

positive students that have higher cognitive functioning than those instructors that do not

incorporate those forms of technology due to increased creativity of the students (Lin & Lan,

2015).

Mobile Technologies

With teachers promoting the use of mobile technology inside and outside of the

classroom, students can control their own learning outside of the classroom with mobile

technology (Karaaslan et all, 2014). In a recent study of 100 undergraduate second language

learning students, 67% prefer doing homework from mobile devices because they are able to

complete it on the go (Skaykina & Minin, 2018). Students that record their voices to practice at

home on their phones improve their grammar and communication skills (Baleghizadeh &

Oladrastam, 2010).

With teachers promoting mobile technologies to their students, those students that use

mobile technologies have a more positive perception of learning a language outside of the

classroom. Students are also more eager to speak when they have been assigned a mobile task

that reviews vocabulary at home the night before because they have practiced and understand the

vocabulary (Shaykina & Minin, 2018), thus creating a positive classroom environment.

On the other hand, when permitting students to learn on their own outside of the

classroom, we must ensure that the students know their ability limits. Students with less foreign

language content knowledge and that are given a task without teacher-led instruction, student can

face cognitive overload when they use Virtual Reality to learn a foreign language (Hao, 2015).

Also, research shows that the inclusion of virtual learning environments into a live classroom
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environment increases student participation, reduces anxiety, and allows students to be more

creative due to students being able to work at their own pace (Lin & Lan, 2015).

Differentiation with Technology in the Foreign Language Classroom

Technology can help play a large role in differentiation and individualized learning.

Teachers can use technology to help students identify what works for them and what doesn’t,

which allows both parties to take control of individualized learning (Lai, 2014).

One example of technology encouraging teachers to differentiate is the use of tablets in

everyday classrooms. Tablets can help students who are unable to write by allowing them to

type out their answers, though students that can write can use a stylus with their tablet to write

down their notes and to help promote memorization (Van Hove et all, 2017). Another instance

of differentiation using technology in the foreign language classroom is that multimedia use,

which is the use of videos, web articles, songs, etc., is replacing traditional textbooks in order to

promote learning among the diverse learners in every classroom.

Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Technology in the Foreign Language Classroom

With the growing implementation of technology in foreign language classrooms, teachers

must remember that technology is only an aide to help promote language learning among

students. Students need a teacher to guide them through technology-based tasks instead of

relying on the students to teach themselves how to use the technology (Hao, 2015).

When teachers help students and continue to embrace and promote the use of technology

in the classroom, more students want to use the resources that their teachers use in class beyond

the classroom environment. For example, students that hear a song in a lesson from YouTube

often search different songs from that artist in order to get more familiar with that artist and their
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language use. Some other examples of technology-based resources include YouTube videos,

radio stations, and various mobile phone applications (Lai, 2014). Students are also more

confident in learning a foreign language when their teachers show eagerness to the incorporation

of technology in the classroom (Lai, 2014). When teachers show positivity towards learning a

foreign language with the aid of technology in the classroom, their students want to learn how to

accomplish tasks in the target language.

Vision for Change

In order to convey to teachers that integrating technology into the foreign language

classroom support their students in learning a foreign language, I have created a four-part

professional development opportunity that focuses on incorporating a specific web 2.0 tool for

four out of the five different modes of communication of foreign language classes, which are

interpretive reading, interpretive listening, presentational writing, and presentational speaking. I

am not focusing on the interpersonal task, because those tasks are meant to be spontaneous

conversations among students for a specific amount of time. Each day of the four-day workshop

will be approximately 90 minutes long and each lesson is very student-centered with various

hands-on activities. I have created four detailed lesson plans that outline what specific web 2.0

tool will be presented and how teachers can incorporate that tool into their own lessons.

For day one of my professional development workshop, I will focus on interpretive

reading tasks and the web 2.0 technology tool TumbleBooks. I have a detailed lesson plan on

how I plan to motivate foreign language teachers into using this tool into their own foreign

language classrooms in order to promote success in learning a foreign language with their

students.
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Teacher: Sydney Gennuso

Date: 11/12/18

Subject / grade level: World Language teachers

Materials:
• Laptops
• TumbleBooks (interpretive listening tool)
http://asp.tumblebooks.com/Home.aspx?categoryID=13

• Padlet (for questions, comments, or concerns throughout the professional development

opportunity)
• Poll Everywhere
• PD Evaluation Survey

Essential Standards and Clarifying Objectives

• Presentational Communication: Learners present information, concepts, and ideas to inform,
explain, persuade, and narrate on a variety of topics using appropriate media and adapting to
various audiences of listeners, readers, or viewers.

Lesson objective(s):
• Students will be able to implement TumbleBooks, a reading web 2.0 tool, in a lesson.
• Students will be able to create a comprehension check quiz in order to check for their students’
understandings when reading a story using TumbleBooks.
Differentiation strategies to meet diverse learner needs:
• The professional development opportunity will be presented through visuals, orally, and with
hands-on activities in order to meet the various needs of the learners.

ENGAGEMENT (15 minutes)

• Describe how the teacher will capture students’ interest.
• Teachers will answer the Poll Everywhere question “What web 2.0 tools do you use in your
classroom for interpretive reading tasks?” The answers will form a word cloud where the most
popular answers are larger than the least popular answers. (5 minutes)
• What kind of questions/activities should the students ask themselves after the
engagement?
• How do you use these technologies in your classroom?
Teachers will discuss in small groups (5 minutes)
We will then discuss together as a large group the various answers (5 minutes)
EXPLORATION (10 minutes)
• Describe what hands-on/minds-on activities students will be doing.
Teachers will go to http://asp.tumblebooks.com/Home.aspx?categoryID=13 , sign-up for a free account,
and browse the content on the website (10 minutes).

• List “big idea” conceptual questions the teacher will use to encourage and/or focus
students’ exploration
The big idea question will be “How would you use TumbleBooks in your classroom?”

EXPLANATION (20 minutes)

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• Student explanations should precede introduction of terms or explanations by the

teacher. What questions or techniques will the teacher use to help students connect their
exploration to the concept under examination?
After browsing the content on TumbleBooks, what could you use this web 2.0 tool for?
Teachers will discuss in a small group (5 minutes)
Teachers will discuss in a large group with instructor (5 minutes)
• List higher order thinking questions which teachers will use to solicit student
explanations and help them to justify their explanations.
How would you use TumbleBooks in your classroom in order to promote a blended learning
environment? What activities can you do with your students using Tumblebooks?
Teachers will discuss as a small group (5 minutes)
Teachers will discuss as a large group (5 minutes)

ELABORATION (23 minutes)

• Describe how students will develop a more sophisticated understanding of the concept.
The instructor will let the teachers know that TumbleBooks is a reading tool for teachers with their
students in order to promote reading and reading comprehension. TumbleBooks offers French and
Spanish books meaning that World Languages teachers are able to use this tool in their classrooms.
The instructor will also implement a tour of the website in order to explain the positives of using this tool
for interpretive reading tasks (10 minutes)
Teachers will watch the following introduction video about TumbleBooks https://youtu.be/31Ztq7gkSos
(3 minute)
The instructor will show examples of how EdPuzzle can be used to promote student engagement and
achievement in the foreign language classroom. (10 minutes)

• How is this knowledge applied in our daily lives?

Teachers will be able to use this Web 2.0 tools in their classrooms in order to increase student
engagement and achievement for learning a foreign language.
EVALUATION (30 minutes)
• How will students demonstrate that they have achieved the lesson objective?
Teachers will choose a story from TumbleBooks and create a comprehension quiz for their
students. (20 minutes)
• This should be embedded throughout the lesson as well as at the end of the lesson
Teachers will complete a survey on how effective the professional development opportunity
was, what questions they still have regarding TumbleBooks, a web 2.0 tool, and whether they
would implement that tool into their lessons and why. (10 minutes)

For day two of my professional development workshop, I will focus on interpretive

listening tasks and the web 2.0 technology tool EdPuzzle. I have a detailed lesson plan on how I

plan to motivate foreign language teachers into using this tool into their own foreign language

classrooms in order to promote success in learning a foreign language with their students.

Teacher: Sydney Gennuso

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Date: 11/12/18

Subject / grade level: World Language teachers

Materials:
• Laptops
• EdPuzzle (interpretive listening tool) → https://edpuzzle.com/
• Padlet → https://padlet.com/sgennuso/dokvlam8j1al (for questions, comments, or concerns
throughout the professional development opportunity)
• Poll Everywhere → https://PollEv.com/free_text_polls/R6ECHT0lcrC64LJ/web
• PD Evaluation Survey

Essential Standards and Clarifying Objectives

• Presentational Communication: Learners present information, concepts, and ideas to inform,
explain, persuade, and narrate on a variety of topics using appropriate media and adapting to
various audiences of listeners, readers, or viewers.

Lesson objective(s):
• Students will be able to implement EdPuzzle, a video web 2.0 tool, in a lesson.
• Students will be able to create an adapted video using EdPuzzle.
Differentiation strategies to meet diverse learner needs:
• The professional development opportunity will be presented through visuals, orally, and with
hands-on activities in order to meet the various needs of the learners.

ENGAGEMENT (15 minutes)

• Describe how the teacher will capture students’ interest.
• Teachers will answer the Poll Everywhere question “What web 2.0 tools do you use in your
classroom for interpretive listening tasks?” The answers will form a word cloud where the most
popular answers are larger than the least popular answers. (5 minutes)
• What kind of questions/activities should the students ask themselves after the
engagement?
• How do you use these technologies in your classroom?
Teachers will discuss in small groups (5 minutes)
We will then discuss together as a large group the various answers (5 minutes)
EXPLORATION (10 minutes)
• Describe what hands-on/minds-on activities students will be doing.
Teachers will go to https://edpuzzle.com/ , sign-up for a free account, and browse the content on the
website (10 minutes).

• List “big idea” conceptual questions the teacher will use to encourage and/or focus
students’ exploration
The big idea question will be “How would you use EdPuzzle in your classroom?”

EXPLANATION (20 minutes)

• Student explanations should precede introduction of terms or explanations by the
teacher. What questions or techniques will the teacher use to help students connect their
exploration to the concept under examination?
After browsing the content on EdPuzzle, what could you use this web 2.0 tool for?
Teachers will discuss in a small group (5 minutes)
Teachers will discuss in a large group with instructor (5 minutes)
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• List higher order thinking questions which teachers will use to solicit student
explanations and help them to justify their explanations.
How would you use EdPuzzle in your classroom in order to promote a blended learning
environment? What activities can you do with your students using EdPuzzle?
Teachers will discuss as a small group (5 minutes)
Teachers will discuss as a large group (5 minutes)

ELABORATION (22 minutes)

• Describe how students will develop a more sophisticated understanding of the concept.
The instructor will let the teachers know that EdPuzzle is a video tool for teachers to use in order to
create voice overs during videos, add audio notes to videos, crop videos to show only essential clips,
and create comprehension checks during videos for their students in order to become more successful
in the content. The instructor will also implement a tour of the website in order to explain the positives of
using this tool for interpretive listening tasks (10 minutes)
Teachers will watch the following introduction video about Edpuzzle https://youtu.be/iTQpvkQdQOw
(2 minute)
The instructor will show examples of how EdPuzzle can be used to promote student engagement and
achievement in the foreign language classroom. (10 minutes)

• How is this knowledge applied in our daily lives?

Teachers will be able to use this Web 2.0 tools in their classrooms in order to increase student
engagement and achievement for learning a foreign language.
EVALUATION (30 minutes)
• How will students demonstrate that they have achieved the lesson objective?
Teachers will create an adapted video by either using the cropping function, voice over function,
audio notes function, or quiz function on EdPuzzle in order to use during an interpretive listening
task in their classroom. (20 minutes)
• This should be embedded throughout the lesson as well as at the end of the lesson
Teachers will complete a survey on how effective the professional development opportunity
was, what questions they still have regarding EdPuzzle, a web 2.0 tool, and whether they would
implement that tool into their lessons and why. (10 minutes)

For day three, I will focus on presentational writing tasks and the web 2.0 technology tool

StoryBird. I have a detailed lesson plan on how I plan to motivate foreign language teachers into

using this tool into their own foreign language classrooms in order to promote success in

learning a foreign language with their students.

Teacher: Sydney Gennuso

Date: 11/12/18

Subject / grade level: World Language teachers

Materials:
TECHNOLOGY IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
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• Laptops
• Storybird (writing tool) → https://storybird.com/
• Padlet → https://padlet.com/sgennuso/dokvlam8j1al (for questions, comments, or concerns
throughout the professional development opportunity)
• Poll Everywhere → https://PollEv.com/free_text_polls/R6ECHT0lcrC64LJ/web
• PD Evaluation Survey

Essential Standards and Clarifying Objectives

• Presentational Communication: Learners present information, concepts, and ideas to inform,
explain, persuade, and narrate on a variety of topics using appropriate media and adapting to
various audiences of listeners, readers, or viewers.

Lesson objective(s):
• Students will be able to implement StoryBird, a presentational speaking web 2.0 tool, in a
lesson.
• Students will be able to respond to write a story using StoryBird.
Differentiation strategies to meet diverse learner needs:
• The professional development opportunity will be presented through visuals, orally, and with
hands-on activities in order to meet the various needs of the learners.

ENGAGEMENT (15 minutes)

• Describe how the teacher will capture students’ interest.
• Teachers will answer the Poll Everywhere question “What web 2.0 tools do you use in your
classroom for presentational writing tasks?” The answers will form a word cloud where the most
popular answers are larger than the least popular answers. (5 minutes)
• What kind of questions/activities should the students ask themselves after the
engagement?
• How do you use these technologies in your classroom?
Teachers will discuss in small groups (5 minutes)
We will then discuss together as a large group the various answers (5 minutes)
EXPLORATION (10 minutes)
• Describe what hands-on/minds-on activities students will be doing.
Teachers will go to https://storybird.com/, click “Read”, and choose a story that interests them to read
(10 minutes).

• List “big idea” conceptual questions the teacher will use to encourage and/or focus
students’ exploration
The big idea question will be “How would you use Storybird in your classroom?”

EXPLANATION (20 minutes)

• Student explanations should precede introduction of terms or explanations by the
teacher. What questions or techniques will the teacher use to help students connect their
exploration to the concept under examination?
After reading a story on Storybird, what is Storybird?
Teachers will discuss in a small group (5 minutes)
Teachers will discuss in a large group with instructor (5 minutes)
• List higher order thinking questions which teachers will use to solicit student
explanations and help them to justify their explanations.
How would you use Storybird in your classroom? What activities can you do with your students
using Storybird?
TECHNOLOGY IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
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Teachers will discuss as a small group (5 minutes)

Teachers will discuss as a large group (5 minutes)

ELABORATION (21 minutes)

• Describe how students will develop a more sophisticated understanding of the concept.
The instructor will let the teachers know that Storybird is a writing tool for teachers/students to use to
create stories. The instructor will also implement a tour of the website in order to explain the positives of
using this tool for presentational writing tasks (10 minutes)
Teachers will watch the following introduction video about Storybird https://youtu.be/UaT918sazxk (1
minute)
The instructor will show examples of how Storybird can be used to promote student engagement and
achievement in the foreign language classroom. (10 minutes)

• How is this knowledge applied in our daily lives?

Teachers will be able to use this Web 2.0 tools in their classrooms in order to increase student
engagement and achievement for learning a foreign language.
EVALUATION (35 minutes)
• How will students demonstrate that they have achieved the lesson objective?
Teachers will pick between creating a Storybird story book, chapter book, or poem in order to
answer “How will you use StoryBird in your classroom? (15 minutes)
Teachers will then share in small groups. (10 minutes)
• This should be embedded throughout the lesson as well as at the end of the lesson
Teachers will complete a survey on how effective the professional development opportunity
was, what questions they still have regarding StoryBird, a web 2.0 tool, and whether they would
implement that tool into their lessons and why. (10 minutes)

For day four, I will focus on presentational speaking tasks and the web 2.0 technology

tool FlipGrid. I have a detailed lesson plan on how I plan to motivate foreign language teachers

into using this tool into their own foreign language classrooms in order to promote success in

learning a foreign language with their students.

Teachers: Sydney Gennuso

Date: 11/19/18

Subject / grade level: World Languages

Materials:
• 1:1 technology to include built in recording device
• FlipGrid → https://flipgrid.com/
• Padlet (for questions, comments, or concerns throughout the professional development
opportunity)
• Poll Everywhere
• PD Evaluation Survey
TECHNOLOGY IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
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Essential Standards and Clarifying Objectives

Presentational Communication: Learners present information, concepts, and ideas to inform, explain,
persuade, and narrate on a variety of topics using appropriate media and adapting to various audiences
of listeners, readers, or viewers.
Lesson objective(s):
• Students will be able to implement FlipGrid, a presentational speaking web 2.0 tool, in a lesson.
• Students will be able to respond to an oral prompt on the FlipGrid website/application

Differentiation strategies to meet diverse learner needs:

Tips can be created in Flipgrid in order to reword the questions or elaborate on the question being asked
for students with delayed processing.

ENGAGEMENT (Total: 10 minutes)

Describe how the teacher will capture students’ interest. (10 minutes)
Option 1 - Students will explore Flipgrid in order to give a short introduction about themselves and
discuss how they would use it in their classroom.

What kind of questions/activities should the students ask themselves after the engagement?
Question to think about:
1. How would you incorporate technology into a classroom in order to promote presentational
speaking tasks?
EXPLORATION (10 minutes)
Describe what hands-on/minds-on activities students will be doing.
1. What are presentational speaking tasks?
1. Students will discuss the question in pairs or small groups (5 minutes)
2. Students will then use the flip grid in order to record the answer to the question (5
minutes)

List “big idea” conceptual questions the teacher will use to encourage and/or focus students’ exploration
1. How can Flipgrid be used to for presentational speaking tasks?
2. What other web 2.0 tools can be used for presentational speaking tasks?
EXPLANATION (20 minutes)
Student explanations should precede introduction of terms or explanations by the teacher. What
questions or techniques will the teacher use to help students connect their exploration to the
concept under examination?
Students will answer the question in pairs or small groups:
How can Flipgrid be used to promote content pedagogy? (5 minutes). We will then discuss the
answers as a group (5 minutes).
List higher order thinking questions which teachers will use to solicit student explanations and
help them to justify their explanations.
What other web 2.0 tools can be used for presentational speaking tasks? How would you use them?
Students will discuss this question in pairs or small groups (5 minutes).
We will then discuss the answers as a class (5 minutes).
ELABORATION (20 minutes)
Describe how students will develop a more sophisticated understanding of the concept.
How can FlipGrid be used in a World Language classroom?
Teacher will go through a tutorial on how FlipGrid can be used in a World Language
classroom. Students will be using Flipgrid in order to better understand how it can be used in a WL
classroom. (5 minutes)
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How can you incorporate technology into a presentational speaking task in order to create a blended
classroom?
The teacher will discuss how to incorporate web 2.0 tools/other forms of technology in order to create a
blended classroom (10 minutes). Teacher will ask for different examples of web 2.0 tech tools and
how they would incorporate them in their classrooms during presentational speaking tasks (5 minutes).

What vocabulary will be introduced and how will it connect to students’ observations?
The term Web 2.0 tools will be used throughout this portion of the lesson. Students must know that
Web 2.0 technology is a tech tool that allows people to share information or materials to others.

How is this knowledge applied in our daily lives?

Web 2.0 technology tools are used in teachers’ classrooms daily. There is a general focus on
incorporating technology into the classroom in order to increase student engagement and student
achievement. Teachers often have to make the decision on what technology to use in order promote
what they are teaching.
EVALUATION (30 minutes)
How will students demonstrate that they have achieved the lesson objective? This should be
embedded throughout the lesson as well as at the end of the lesson.
Students will create a Flipgrid in order to answer the following question:
How would you incorporate FlipGrid into your foreign language classroom for students to complete a
presentational speaking task? (20 minutes)

Teachers will complete a survey on how effective the professional development opportunity was, what
questions they still have regarding FlipGrid, a web 2.0 tool, and whether they would implement that tool
into their lessons and why. (10 minutes)

Depending on the popularity of the professional development opportunity, I would like to

hold more opportunities that focus on even more web 2.0 tools in order to get foreign language

teachers excited in creating a blended learning environment to promote student engagement and

achievement and help students be successful in learning a foreign language.

Conclusion

The above research shows that the incorporation of technology into foreign language

classrooms can positively impact students’ learning of a second language. When teachers

promote the use of technology to aid in the learning of a foreign language, students demonstrate

positive cognitive learning outcomes, students show an increase of confidence in both learning a

foreign language and using technology, students show a decrease of behavior problems, students
TECHNOLOGY IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
17

can individualize their learning inside and outside of the classroom, and teachers are able to

provide differentiated instruction among all students in the classroom with the use of different

modes of technology.

I would like for my classroom to become a more blended learning environment in order

for my students to be more successful in learning a foreign language. In order to do this, I need

to be more positive in incorporating technology into my classroom in order to promote learning a

foreign language, which in turn would create a blended classroom environment where students

not only learn from me but are using technology in order to continue learning what I have been

teaching them. This promotes student achievement and decreases negative behaviors from

students because they are engaged in learning a foreign language in a different way, using

multimedia technology.

In addition to promoting technology in my classroom, I would like to promote the

incorporation of technology into foreign language classrooms among my peers/colleagues. In

order to do this, I should contact the Office of World Languages and ask questions on how often

they see teachers use technology in their classrooms, what types of technology they use, and if

students are successful in producing the language after using technology. With this information,

I can try and implement my vision for change professional development opportunity for

Baltimore County Public Schools world languages teachers in order to get teachers excited on

implementing more technology into their classrooms in order to increase student achievement.

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