A New Way to Design English Homework to Improve Pupils Oral English Through Making Electronic

A New Way to Design English Homework to Improve Pupils’ Oral English through Making Electronic Books in Elementary School

Introduction

It is a common phenomenon that the assignment of oral homework for elementary school pupils is the same old routine of reading after the tape and reciting the text. It is difficult for teachers to assess whether students have practiced reading or whether they can use the language properly in oral speaking. Due to the lack of creativity, variety and assessment of oral English homework, students become less and less interested in practising oral English and thus it may result in speaking poor English after six years of English learning. However, the advent and common use of multimedia technology and the internet provides us with opportunities in finding new ways to design English homework to improve students’ oral English.

Literature Research on What Experts Have Done both at Home and Abroad

In China, "Standards for Compulsory Education English Curriculum" attaches great importance to reasonable development and utilization of curriculum resources. It also puts forward that the development of computer and network technology has created favorable conditions for students' individualized study and autonomous learning, and also provides students with new learning model to meet the needs of the information age. The Foreign Language Teaching Committee of the Chinese Education Society has set up a project for the nation’s "twelfth five-year plan", that is, "the research on primary school English curriculum network homework in new curriculum standards". The research direction of this project is on how to make use of the online learning technology to promote the students' ability of autonomous learning, to increase students’ interest in learning, to enhance students’ learning efficiency, and to improve teachers' teaching efficiency and teaching quality.

In America, a proposal on how to assign homework, put forward by Harris Cooper, Professor of psychology at Columbia University in Missouri, and his research team, has been adopted by the administrative Department of Education. The proposal includes these recommendations: homework should consist of a must-do part and an alternative part; the content of homework should be the beneficial supplement of the classroom teaching; homework should be focused on the practice of simple skills or the integration of the skills mastered. After doing the research work, I realize that, in an era of information technology, the form of homework should go beyond paper assignments so as to cultivate students' ability. Since many experts already support that the form of homework should go beyond paper, I think the form of oral English homework also need to integrate with information technology. Therefore, I find out that making electronic books is a new way to design oral English homework for elementary school pupils. And I will describe my findings in more details later in this paper.

Theoretical Foundations

Multiple Intelligences Gardner (1993) proposed a view of natural human talents that is labeled the “Multiple Intelligences Model.” This model is one of a variety of learning style models that have been proposed into General education and have subsequently been applied to language education. Howard Gardner initially formulated a list of seven intelligences. His listing was provisional. The first two have been typically valued in schools; the next three are usually associated with the arts; and the final two are what Howard Gardner called ‘personal intelligences’ (Gardner 1999: 41-43). Linguistic intelligence involves sensitivity to spoken and written language, the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish certain goals. This intelligence includes the ability to effectively use language to express oneself rhetorically or poetically; and language as a means to remember information. Writers, poets, lawyers and speakers are among those that Howard Gardner sees as having high linguistic intelligence. Logical-mathematical intelligence consists of the capacity to analyze problems logically, carry out mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically. In Howard Gardner’s words, it entails the ability to detect patterns, reason deductively and think logically. This intelligence is most often associated with scientific and mathematical thinking. Musical intelligence involves skill in the performance, composition, and appreciation of musical patterns. It encompasses the capacity to recognize and compose musical pitches, tones, and rhythms. According to Howard Gardner musical intelligence runs in an almost structural parallel to linguistic intelligence. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence entails the potential of using one’s whole body or parts of the body to solve problems. It is the ability to use mental abilities to coordinate bodily movements. Howard Gardner sees mental and physical activity as related. Spatial intelligence involves the potential to recognize and use the patterns of wide space and more confined areas. Interpersonal intelligence is concerned with the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people. It allows people to work effectively with others. Educators, salespeople, religious and political leaders and counselors all need a well-developed interpersonal intelligence. Intrapersonal intelligence entails the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one’s feelings, fears and motivations. In Howard Gardner’s view it involves having an effective working model of ourselves, and to be able to use such information to regulate our lives. In Frames of Mind Howard Gardner treated the personal intelligences ‘as a piece’. Because of their close association in most cultures, they are often linked together. However, he still argues that it makes sense to think of two forms of personal intelligence. Gardner claimed that the seven intelligences rarely operate independently. They are used at the same time and tend to complement each other as people develop skills or solve problems. According to this theory, different student has different learning style. When designing homework for students, teachers must give students chances to present their homework in different ways to meet their different learning styles.

Zone of Proximal Development Vygotsky (1978) maintained that a child follows the adult's example and gradually develops the ability to do certain tasks without help or assistance. He called the difference between what a child can do with help and what he or she can do without guidance the "zone of proximal development" (ZPD). In accordance with this theory, we can see that if the homework we give to the students is too easy, we can’t provide broader development space for the students. Also, seeing no progress has been made, students might lose their interests in learning one day. Therefore, it is valuable and important to give students homework that is a little challenging for them. Task-based Language Learning Task-based language learning focuses on the use of authentic language and on asking students to do meaningful tasks using the target language. Assessment is primarily based on task outcome rather than on accuracy of prescribed language forms. This makes Task Based Language Learning especially popular for developing target language fluency and student confidence. It is an approach which offers students material which they have to actively engage in the processing of in order to achieve a goal or complete a task. Much like regular tasks that we perform everyday such as making the tea, writing an essay, talking to someone on the phone, TBLT seeks to develop students’ interlanguage through providing a task and then using language to solve it. In short, TBLT is an approach which seeks to allow students to work somewhat at their own pace and within their own level and area of interest to process and restructure their interlanguage. It moves away from a prescribed developmental sequence and introduces learner freedom and autonomy into the learning process. Making electronic books as oral English homework, which I will describe later in my paper, is an ideal form of task.

According to the theoretical foundations, the following are the principles that I adhere to in designing oral English homework for my students. The first is to respect individual difference and provide enough chances for each student to exercise their abilities; the second is to give students a task to finish because learning by doing is the best way to learn; the third is to encourage students to explore and meet challenges by themselves while providing them with enough support.

My Solutions

Based on my reflections on the research and the theoretical foundations, I started to ask my students to make electronic books as their oral homework one year ago. I will explain what an electronic book is and how I have used it with my elementary students.

Definition of Electronic Books Electronic books are stories that students create by themselves based on the sentence patterns they have learned from the textbook and the story should be presented via Power Point software with pictures and verbal sound of each sentence. The students can choose to download pictures from the internet or draw pictures by themselves and record their own voices for the narration.

Characteristics of Electronic Books 1. Creative To finish this homework, students need to use their imagination to create a story by using the sentence patterns they have learned in the text books. What’s more, in order to make this electronic book vivid, it is supposed to have both pictures and sounds of the story. Therefore, students need to dub their voices for the story in the Power Point before it is presented. This means they need to integrate the information technology with this oral English homework. In this way, students can be very creative by adding different sounds, music and pictures. Once a very creative boy told me that he downloaded all his classmates’ electronic books and read all stories with great interests. After finishing reading, he was impressed by all his classmates’ vivid ways of presenting their stories. He got inspiration from others’ books. Therefore, he decided to paint clay figurines and then take pictures of these figures to illustrate for his story. 2. Easy to assess The traditional oral English homework is always reading after the tape which is hard for teachers to assess. Before using the method of making electronic books, I used to ask students to my office to recite the text in front of me one by one during the break, which I think it is very time consuming and the noise of their reading will easily annoy other teachers who are preparing lessons in the office. Considering the limitation of time and space, I have to give up this traditional way of assessment of oral English homework. However, through making electronic books, students can send their electronic books to me through the Internet via QQ, an instant messaging system which is very popular in China. In this way, I can just save them all in my computer. Therefore, I can read and listen to their stories in my office whenever I have time. What’s more, I can give feedback to my students via the internet too, which I think is quicker and more convenient for my students too. 3. Efficient and convenient to share resources Since I receive all the students’ electronic books via the internet and have them all in my computers, therefore, whenever I find an excellent electronic book that students have made, I will quickly post it on the Q group of this class so that everybody in this class can read it and get inspiration from others’ ideas. I think this is one of the most efficient ways of learning. Students learn faster and more efficiently by reading others’ work. Once a student’s mother told me that after reading others’ electronic books, she and her daughter got lots of inspirations and then they decided to make another electronic book.

Steps of Making Electronic Books 1. Require students to practise reading the text book and recite the text Practice makes perfect. I require my students to read the text book and imitate after the tape first to form pure pronunciation and natural intonation. Then they recite the text. Only when they can recite the text, they can use the language freely. 2. Provide students with a summary of sentence patterns or phrases of a certain theme before creating the story For example, before giving assignment to students of creating a story of “No School today, I want to…” after learning the story of Unit 3 of Success With English Book IV, I will provide them a summary of verb phrases and expressions they have learned. It is like this: Phrases and expressions that you might use for your story go to the park/bakery/bookstore/swimming pool/playground ride my bike/fly a kite/skip ropes/play balls/buy some books/watch TV Will you….?/No problem./ Sure./Not today./No, no more games./I said no./ I’m reading… This summary is especially useful for those who are still struggling. 3. Create the story with parents When students are required to finish this electronic book with their parents, they need to discuss with parents about the theme of the story first; then, during the process of making the electronic book, they can ask for technical support from them. Getting parents’ involvement in students’ homework provides a way for parents to know what their children are learning in school and also provides a way for students to learn some skills from their parents. 4. Use pictures to present the story and dub the words for the story This is the most creative part of making this electronic book which requires students’ multiple intelligences. Students may draw or download pictures from the Internet to illustrate his/her story. They design their books to present their story in a certain way and dub the words for the story. They can also add background music for the story.

My Findings

Having implemented this assignment into teaching for almost a year, I find that making electronic books has tremendous significance. 1. Making the Electronic Book has triggered students’ interests in learning English After having my students make electronic books twice, I found their interests in learning English have been triggered. In order to present an impressive story, they practice reading very hard before they dub for their own story so that they can speak English naturally. Every time they sent their books to me, they asked immediately how I felt about their books. 2. Making the Electronic Book has helped students obtain a sense of accomplishment Each electronic book is a piece of unique work that is full of each student’s imagination and creativity. They express their understanding of the language and emotions through this book. Most of the students’ parents told me that their children obtain the sense of accomplishment after finishing the task. They feel especially proud of themselves if their works were posted on the Q group. 3. Making the Electronic Book has spurred students’ creation potential Following are examples of the stories on the same topic of “No School Today”, but created by different second-grade elementary school pupils: Story of Student 1 Kitty: Mum, will you take me to the farm. I want to catch a mouse. Mum cat: Not today, I want to go the bakery. Kitty: Dad, dad, please, please, will you take me to the farm. I want to catch a mouse. Dad cat: Not today, I am watching TV. Kitty: Grandpa, grandpa, will you take me to the farm. I want to catch a mouse. Grandpa cat: No problem. Let’s go. Kitty: Hurry up. Grandpa, go, go, go. Oh, no. It is closed. Look, grandpa, I catch two rabbits. Granma: Very good. Story of Student 2 Amy: No school today. I want to ride my bike. Dad, please, please, will you take me to the park? Dad: No, not today. I am going to the bookstore. Amy: Sister, sister. Will you take me to the park? I want to ride my bike. Sister: No, not today. I am watching TV. Amy: Mum, mum. Will you take me to the park? I want to ride my bike. Mum: OK, let’s go! Amy: It’s fun. Amy: I’m tired now. I want to go home. Mum: No problem. Amy: Good night, mum. Mum: Good night, baby. From the words of these stories, you can see how creative they are. In their eletronic books, different students use different intonations to express their feelings, and illustrate their stroies by total different styles of pictures and background music. From all the stories I have collected, I can see 45 students have 45 different stories. Every student tries their best to use their imaginations to create a story. Kids and stories belong together like wind in a kite. A good story can make their imaginations soar, whether they hear one or tell one. That story can help them make sense of their world, show them that right can triumph over wrong, or just keep their minds open to wonder. 4. Making the Electronic Book has helped build intimate Parent-Child Relationships I reviewed research on parental involvement in children's homework (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2001). The review focused on understanding why parents become involved in their children's homework, what strategies they employ, and how involvement contributes to student learning. Getting parents involved in this homework has these benefits:1) letting parents know what the child is learning; 2) giving children some technical support when needed; 3) helping to build intimate Parent-Child Relationships. Every time when I receive my students’ electronic books via the QQ, both my students and their parents will tell me some interesting stories happened when making the book together. Sometimes, students might use their parents, sisters, brothers, grandparents’ pictures to act as one of the characters of their story. They even invited them to dub the words for that character. They said they enjoyed the time learning together and had great fun by making the electronic books together.

Conclusion

In conclusion, making electronic books as an oral English homework for elementary school students is an effective way to help students to improve their oral English. In this activity, the most important thing is not how beautiful or impressive an electronic book is, but the process of making it. This assignment gives the students a better understanding of the importance and meaning of practising reading the texts from the textbook. The assignment helps to enhance students’ interests in learning English, to improve their skills in speaking English, to develop their abilities in innovative thinking, and to stimulate students’ potentials in creativity. Last but not the least, it also helps to promote the intimate relationship between parents and children.

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