Masaryk University Brno

MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

FINAL THESIS

BRNO 2014

Mgr. Radka Šebesta Čížková Masaryk University

Faculty of Education

Department of English Language and Literature

Reading and Writing in English Lessons

Via Postcrossing

Final Thesis

Brno 2014

Supervisor: Author:

Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková Mgr. Radka Šebesta Čížková

Prohlášení

Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.

Souhlasím, aby práce byla uložena na Masarykově univerzitě v Brně v knihovně Pedagogické fakulty a zpřístupněna ke studijním účelům.

Declaration

I declare that I wrote this final thesis on my own and I used only the sources listed in the bibliography.

I agree with the placing of this thesis in the library of the Faculty of Education at the Masaryk University and with the access for academic purposes.

Brno 1. 8. 2014 Mgr. Radka Šebesta Číţková

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Naděţda Vojtková for her kind help, valuable advice and comments as well as for her encouragement and support through the whole work on my thesis.

I would also like to thank my pupils who willingly took part in the project.

I would like to thank my husband and the whole family for their patience and supporive approach regarding my thesis.

Radka Šebesta Číţková Abstract:

This final thesis focuses on language teaching methodology and it researches students‟ attitudes to reading and writing in English. The theoretical part provides some valuable facts that confirm the importance of reading and writing in language learning. It also deals with enhancing students‟ motivation in these areas and it emphasizes the importance of giving feedback on students‟ activities. In the practical part, I introduce Postcrossing project, the way in which I worked with the project and its other possible use in more detail. In my action research I analyze two questionnaires which are focused on students‟ attitudes to reading, writing and out- of-school activities in the first questionnaire, and on practical experience with Postcrossing project in the expanding questionnaire. The results of my research should confirm or refute my assumptions about reading and writing before the research and they should show students‟ attitudes to out-of-school activities, namely to Postcrossing project itself.

Key words:

Reading, writing, motivation, feedback, out-of-school activities, Postcrossing project.

Anotace:

Tato závěrečná práce má metodický charakter a zabývá se postojem ţáků ke čtení a psaní v hodinách anglického jazyka. Teoretická část poskytuje jistá fakta, která potvrzují důleţitost čtení a psaní ve výuce cizího jazyka. Tato část závěrečné práce se také zabývá podněcováním motivace ke čtení a psaní a důleţitostí poskytovat zpětnou vazbu ţákům v těchto aktivitách. V praktické části je představen projekt Postcrossing, způsob, jakým jsem s ním pracovala, jakoţto i další moţné způsoby vyuţítí tohoto projektu ve výuce. Můj akční výzkum analyzuje dva dotazníky, z nichţ první se zabývá postojem studentů ke čtení a psaní v anglickém jazyce a k mimoškolním aktivitám. Druhý (rozšiřující) dotazník pak zkoumá praktickou zkušenost ţáků s projektem Postcrossing. Výsledky výzkumu by měly potvrdit či vyvrátit mé předpoklady týkající se postoje studentů ke čtení a psaní v anglickém jazyce, a dále pak jejich vztahu k mimoškolním aktivitám, zejména k projektu samotnému.

Klíčová slova:

Čtení, psaní, motivace, zpětná vazba, mimoškolní aktivity, projekt Postcrossing.

Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………10

I. THEORETICAL PART……………………………………………...... 12

1. Reading………………………………………………………………...12 1.1 The purpose of reading……………………………………….....12 1.2 How we read……………………………………………………13 1.3 Intensive reading………………………………………………..13 1.3.1 Non-linguistic response to the text………..…………….14 1.3.2 Linguistic response to the text…………………………..15 1.4 Extensive reading……………………………………………….16 1.4.1 Choosing the authentic text……………………………..16 1.4.2 The purpose of the text chosen………………………….17 1.4.3 Materials………………………………………………...17 2. Writing…………………………..……………………………………..19 2.1 The process of writing…………………………………………..19 2.2 Why and what we write…………………………………………20 2.3 Teaching writing………………………………………………..20 2.3.1 Presenting the task and writing process………………...21 2.3.1.1 Pre-writing activities…………………………21 2.3.1.2 While-writing activities……………………...22 2.3.1.3 Post-writing activities…...…………………...22 2.4 Writing in class…………………………………………………22 2.4.1 Brainstorming…………………………………………...23 2.4.2 Text-starts……………………………………………….23 2.4.3 Fast writing……………………………………………...24 3. Giving feedback………………………………………………………..25 3.1 Giving feedback on reading…………………………………….25 3.2 Responses to writing……………………………………………26 3.3 Forms of feedback………………………………………………27

4. Motivation……………………………………………………………...28 4.1 Different kinds of motivation…………………………………...28 4.2 Motivation for reading and writing……………………………..29

II. PRACTICAL PART………………………………………………………...30 1. School profile…………………………………………………………..30 2. Class profile……………………………………………………………32 3. Postcrossing Project…………………………………………………...33 3.1 What is Postcrossing?...... 33 3.2 How does it work?...... 33 3.3 Why to use Postcrossing at school?...... 34 3.4 Postcrossing in English classes…………………………………34 4. My assumptions before the project…………………………………..39 5. Aims of the research…………………………………………………..40 6. Research methodology and organization…………………………….41 7. Research interpretation……………………………………………….42 8. Further use of Postcrossing in the lessons…………………………...45 9. Conclusion……………………………………………………………..48

Resumé……………………………………………………………………………...49

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...51

Appendices…………………………………………………………………………..53 Appendix 1: First (innitial) questionnaire for students Appendix 2: Second (expanding) questionnaire for students Appendix 3: The analysis of results with tables and graphs Appendix 4: Teacher‟s diary - Postcrossing project Appendix 5: First Postcrossing wallboard Appendix 6: An example of Postcrossing profile Appendix 7: Short introduction of Postcrossing for students Appendix 8: New Postcrossing wallboard Appendix 9: Participants of Postcrossing project Appendix 10: Examples of postcards received Appendix 11: An example of letter written by the 7th grader Appendix 12: What students think about being a member of Postcrossing

Introduction

The final thesis deals with the issue of reading and writing in learning English. These two skills are essential not only in second language acquisition but also in our daily lives. Both of them are time demanding which means that they cannot be trained only in the lessons. I would like to focus on benefits of these skills in the theoretical part and introduce Postcrossing Project, which focuses on reading and writing, in the practical part. During my teaching practice, I have observed that reading and writing skills are not very much practiced at upper-primary school. Reading abilities, such as correct pronunciation or intonation and stress are trained well, but reading as a kind of communicative activity is not presented very successfully. Students often do not uderstand what they read, they feel lost if they do not understand some of vocabulary in the sentence, most of them cannot predict or guess the meaning. Reading is presented as a 'technique' not as a 'skill of communication'. Modern teachers should be able to show their students that reading can be pleasure and fun, but teachers have to use efficient methods for generating their students‟ motivation. Approach to writing is very similar to reading. Writing is usually used as a tool for doing grammar exercises and training correct spelling of vocabulary. Writing in a creative way almost does not exist at primary school and lots of students have problems to create a sentence without a pattern given. They are not pushed to think, they just do the exercises. In my thesis I would like to prove the importace of developing reading and writing skills at primary school and propose possible ways of motivation for children. I will also introduce some non-traditional ways of giving feedback to reading and writing. The theory will be compared with the practice in the practical part of the thesis. Practical part deals mostly with Postcrossing Project which I have found as a useful tool for developing students‟ motivation for reading and creative writing. I would like to analyse and comment on the results and deficiencies which have occured in the research. I would like to propose possible ways how to use the Postcrossing Project at language teaching. The aim of the thesis is to show that training reading and writing has also other benefits apart from the improvement in these two areas. Using alternative

10 methods in teaching these skills is, as well as good motivation and giving feedback, good way of enriching teaching and learning English and make it fun both for students and teachers.

I. Theoretical part

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." Benjamin Franklin

1. Reading

Reading is a part of our everyday life. We need reading to get information or we can just read for our pleasure. In Postcrossing project, which is going to be described in practical part in more detail, we always combine reading for pleasure with learning something new. This is an undoubted advantage of this project which can be successfully used in enhancing motivation for reading in English lessons. That is why I am going to investigate the theory of teaching reading first. For purposes of this chapter, "reading means reading and understanding" (Ur 138). This fact is essential, and both for teachers and learners it is very important to mind that reading skill is not only reading written symbols but also decoding the message. For the purpose of reading at a good level, we use various types of reading activities. As teachers, we can divide these activities into two big groups: school reading activities and out-of-school reading activities. In the following subchapters, I would like to describe both reading activities used at school and out of school. For my purpose I will also use terms 'intensive reading' and 'extensive reading' which are going to be explained in the following subchapters.

1.1 The purpose of reading

Why do we read? There are two main reasons for reading:

a) Reading for information b) Reading for pleasure (Grellet 4).

Both reading for information and reading for pleasure have their place in our lives and for both of them we use differet ways of reading. In my opinion, reading for information is the most important for our everyday life. We have to read many

12 different texts in this point of view, such as various instructions, directions, rules and regulations, specialized articles, timetables, recipes, maps, statistics and others that we need for our living or work. On the other hand, I would say that reading for pleasure can be seen as 'follow up kind of activity' in the area of reading. We do not need it crucially but it brings us happiness and pleasure. To conclude this division of reading purposes, we can say that reading for information is often connected with intensive reading whreas extensive reading is connected with reading for pleasure.

1.2 How we read

As I have mentioned above, we use different ways of reading for different texts. These ways of reading differ in the purpose why we read and what we need the information from the text for. The main ways of reading are:

a) Skimming: we quickly go over the text to get a general idea what it is about. b) Scanning: quick reading through the text to find specific information. c) Extensive reading: reading for pleasure, texts are usually longer, the purpose is general understanding of the text and follow the fluency. d) Intensive reading: involves focusing on accuracy and training reading subskills. Texts are usually shorter and we often search for a specific information (Grellet 4).

1.3 Intensive reading

Intensive reading consists of various types of activities focused on extending our reading skill and its subskills. As it was mentioned above, reading means understanding the information from the text. For relevant understanding we also need to train reading subskills which cover our everyday work with the texts. It means that we need to:

understand the content understand the function of the text find a concrete information summarize the text or take notes

follow the instructions in chronological sequence link the sentences and ideas predict what will follow connect the text with the pictures or other items (Grellet 12).

Most of intensive reading activities are trained at school in language learning. We normally do not meet such exercises or texts in normal life but they help us with better understanding of the texts we have to read every day. In the following part I will shortly describe the best known types of intensive reading exercises. According to Grellet (1981) teachers can check learners‟ understanding of the text in two ways:

1) Non-linguistic response to the text 2) Linguistic response to the text.

1.3.1 Non-linguistic response to the text

This group of exercises deals mostly with the reading activity in connection with the tasks such as gap filling, ordering or matching. The best known types of the tasks are described in Grellet‟s Developing reading skills (1981):

Ordering and sequencing of the pictures: This exercise shows students‟ understanding of the text and their ability to imagine the information in their minds.

Comparing texts and pictures: The activity in which students compare and contrast information from the text to the pictures.

Matching: In matching students take information from the text and contrast them to the diagrams, maps or pictures. It helps students to find the main idea of the text.

Using illustrations: Illustrations and pictures refering to the text help learners to uderstand either what is the text about or specific detais .

Completing a document: By completing or making a diagram students prove

their understanding of the text. The text needs deteiled reading to follow the accuracy.

Mapping it out: Similar activity to previous one. Students read the text and then draw a route on the map, label things in the picture or draw what has been described. This activity involves deeper looking for details in the text.

Using the information in the text: Students naturally follow the information from the text, such as following the recipe or instructions, answering questions in the quiz or solving a problem. In this activity students need to involve their ability to deduce and compare ideas.

Jigsaw reading: This kind of exercise helps students to understand the organization of the text and how the individual parts of the text are related to each other. The relationship between the parts of the text are represented by relations in information and students have to pay attention on the links mentioned in the text (Grellet 130 – 185).

1.3.2 Linguistic response to the text

This group is more difficult to deal with because it needs not only reader's understanding but also his own production as a response to the text. Here follows Grellet's division of the tasks appropriate for this group:

Reorganizing the information: In this task students put the information in the chronological order according to the text or fill in the table with the information from the text. This kind of exercise needs paying students‟ constant attention on the text and reading it in detail.

Comparing several texts: Students compare and contrast two or more texts containing the same topic. They search for similarities and differences in the information given.

Completing a document: Students search for specific information in the text to complete the document, fill in the card, diary or another text.

Question types: We use various types of questions reffering to the text to

check readers‟ understanding. The best known we can use are factual questions, multiple choice questions, true or false statements, can you tell?, find the reason (Who?, When?, Why?), find the link-word (right word, opposite), complete the summary, find the errors, sentence building, open questions, and many others.

Asking questions is the most frequent technique how to draw students‟ attention to the text but we should not forget for other techniques, as well. If we use questions too often and omit other techniques our students can get bored very easily.

Study skills: Study skills contain summarizing and note-taking. Students search for main idea and main points of the text and summarize the most important information (Grellet 186 – 238).

Other authors present different reading activities with different organization of them, see also Ur (1991) or Scrivener (2005), but I can state that they, more or less, cover the same topics as Grellet (1981) whose division seems to me the best organized and the most complex.

1.4 Extensive reading

Extensive reading, which is also called reading for pleasure is usually understood as reading for advanced learners. But it is not necessarily true. For good motivation we should use extensive reading activities with lower language students, as well. More skilled learners can use extensive reading as a part of free time activity with a good sense of free use of English language, whereas with less skilled ones extensive reading activities are used for achieving better results in reading itself.

1.4.1 Choosing the authentic text

"With less proficient learners, we usually use simplified texts in order to make them appropriate in level for our learners; and tasks also may not represent any kind of real-life reading purpose" (Ur 150). In the second part of the quoting, I would not agree with Ur who claims that in the lower stage using authentic texts might be frustrating and demotivating. In my opinion, and according to my experience,

16 reading authentic materials is always motivating for language learners at any stage. Of course, it is necessary to choose the text sensibly so that our students would be able to cope with it and use it in a productive way. The topic which is interesting for learners will always work much better than the theme which is completely unfamiliar to our students. Possible tasks should correspond with the age of learners and their cognitive development and language abilities. Other techniques used for better understanding the text are helpful, such as scaffolding, which is the sensible way how to help less competent students to understand. Scaffolding can be hidden in the tasks or teacher can use this technique in post-reading activities by using conversation-oiling questions or asking brief questions (Scrivener 162).

1.4.2 The purpose of the text chosen

As language teachers we should always have the idea why we chose the concrete text, what its purpose is and what should our students achieve after using this text. It means that not only careful choice of materials but also the use of relevant tasks is necessary for achieving our aims in extensive reading tasks.

1.4.3 Materials

For extensive reading we can use any possible materials which are seen all around us. The materials can be divided into two groups: traditional and less traditional ones.

a) Traditional materials are:

books (authentic or graded ones, e-books) magazines (authentic or students‟ ones) newspapers articles.

b) With non-traditional materials we have wider choice of them both as for the level and the topic. They can include:

the Internet

17 letters and postcards cartoon comics leaflets posters adverts recipes timetables instructions lists.

2. Writing

"Writing means sharing. It‘s part of the human condition to want to share things - thoughts, ideas, opinions." Paulo Coelho

Writing is seen as one of the most difficult skills. Nowadays, a lot of students have problems to express themselves just in words and if you add the phenomena of correct spelling, surroundings and others, some students find it almost impossible to set a goal. Postcrossing offers an opportunity for everybody. Both lower-leveled students and those who struggle with writing can feel confident in writing postcards via Postcrossing because it offers space for development of writing to all students‟ levels and abilities. That is why I consider it important to look into teaching writing in more detail. In this chaper I am going to deal with the nature and purpose of writing, its process and difficulties. Writing is probably the most difficult skill in language learning. Among other language skills (reading, listening and speaking) it has its specific role. It is one of productive skills (the other one is speaking) which means that language learner has to play an active role in it. He has to produce his own response to the text or cues given to prove that he is able to respond to the task and transmit the message.

2.1 The process of writing

"When we write, we use graphic symbols: that is, letters or combinations of letters which relate to the sounds we make when we speak" (Byrne 1). It means that the writer has to arrange graphic symbols according to the rules given to create the words which can furthermore be arranged to form sentences and then the larger text. Both Hedge (1988) and Byrne (1988) agree that writing is usually more planned process than a spontaneous activity. It contents not only the final succesfull piece of work but also the process of planning, organizing, composing and revising. It takes much more time than the other language skills before achieving the final piece and it also includes many language subskills in one work, such as:

being aware of grammar vocabulary bank accurate spelling and punctuation using proper sentence structures, stylistics rules and the conventions of layout linking ideas and information (Hedge 8).

2.2 Why and what we write

The purpose of writing is obvious; usually, we write for a reader (a message of any kind, such as a letter, a recipe, an instruction, a book, etc.) or for ourselvels (a shopping list, study notes and others). For the reason, that reader is someone who is not present, we sometimes do not know who we are writing for. It means that if we want to communicate successfully (transfer the message), we have to be aware of writing rules (Byrne 1-2). In teaching writing, we should always involve the tasks which are realistic in two ways:

a) the level of the task must be both challenging and achievable b) the purpose of writing should be realistic, it should have a practical value; our students should not write only for writing itself but for an audience, which is always much more motivating.

2.3 Teaching writing

According to Ur (103) "language proficiency can be defined in terms of accuracy and fluency". When we teach grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation we tend to be accuracy-oriented. This means that we focus on appropriate use of vocabulary or grammar and acceptable pronunciation of the sound. On the other hand, when teaching four language skills – speaking, reading, writing and listening (The 4 Language Skills par. 1), we are more interested in receiving and conveying message (Ur 103-104). On the whole, teaching language skills tend to follow the fluency because we concentrate on the content the most.

Teaching writing is difficult both for teachers and students. In writing tasks teachers should not correct all grammar and spelling mistakes, they should focus on the message instead. We should show the students that writing is a form of communication and if the message is understandable in spite of grammar or spelling mistakes, writing task should be accepted as succesfully completed (Byrne 29). This approach to writing is focused on purpose and fluency, and it is normally seen in the real life as a reason for writing. Other two approaches to writing are focused both on text where we teach students how to construct and organise paragraphs, and on accuracy where we tend to correct all the mistakes. Focus on accuracy and text is not so natural part of writing but it is necessary for understanding how the text works and which way is the best for conveying message successfully.

2.3.1 Presenting the task and writing process

For successful process of composing, teacher‟s presentation of the task is very important. First of all, he has to think about the topic and the purpose of the task, that is obvious, but he also needs to find an appropriate way of motivation for all the students. The motivation is usually the most difficult part of writing for teachers. On the other hand, motivated students follow the process of writing which lead to successful piece of written work much more enthusiastically. If they are encouraged to do all the pre-, while- and post-writing activities, they usually finish their work with success.

2.3.1.1 Pre-writing activities

Pre-writing activities are used before students start with their writing itself. Their purpose is to motivate students for writing, introduce the topic, extend the vocabulary and learn the phrases which can be used in their works. These contain brainstorming activity where all students or groups of students introduce all the ideas which cross their minds, including sub-topics, vocabulary or phrases. Students usually draw so-called mind maps which help them with the next step of pre-writing activities, summarizing their ideas.

Summarizing (sorting and ordering) ideas is usually an individual task where students have time to choose the ideas from mind maps suitable for their writing. The last step of pre-writing activities is to make an overall plan of the work. The structure, the style and any specific requirements of written piece are planned here (Scrivener 194-195).

2.3.1.2 While-writing activities

Writing itself should always start with writing a draft, which is the first attempt that is advised to be feedbacked by teacher. Teacher can correct possible mistakes in the text and check if the ideas of writer and the compositions of the work are understandable for reader as well. Then the second (third) draft is written and checked both by teacher or/and peer student (peer correction), and possibly edited. Final version follows after the revision. This version is corrected and marked by teacher. Except from the mark it should also contain feedback with advice how to correct possible mistakes. We should not forget that not only pointing out mistakes but also positive feedback is very important for one‟s motivation. In the end, we also advise to rewrite the final version after teacher‟s correction (Hedge 9-12).

2.3.1.3 Post-writing activities

A lot of teachers neglect post-writing activities which can be demotivating for their students. As it was mentioned above, the purpose of writing belongs to important parts of writing process. Writing only for writing loses the connection to reality because of absence of audience. That means that we are expected to prepare writing task that is going to touch reality in some way, e.g. to write a postcard (letter) which is going to be sent, an invitiation for a party which is going to happen or an essay that is going to be read to an audience. If our students see that the purpose of their writing is fulfilled they feel much more motivated for doing their best.

2.4 Writing in class

Students often feel uncertain when they are given a topic and they are supposed to write a piece of work. Scrivener (2005) suggests several activities, described below in more detail, which can help students to deal with their task. The most important for beginning writing are 'ideas for generating ideas', such as brainstorming, text starts and fast writing.

2.4.1 Brainstorming

Well lead brainstorming is, in my opinion, the best way how to start with any topic. Sometimes students can be confused because the topic is not very familiar to them and they feel lost with no idea. Sometimes they have too many ideas but they quickly run out of their minds and are lost forever. Sometimes students have potentionally good ideas but they reject them too soon because they find them stupid or useless. Brainstorming is a way how to open your mind and let the ideas to flow out. I have mentioned that brainstorming must be well lead. It means that teacher should write the main topic in the middle of the board and he should notice and write all the ideas offered by students. It is important to write the ideas, not only to remember them because you can never remember all of them. Written ideas are visible for everyone and at the end of the activity "everybody should have something they can make use of" (Scrivener 197). Another important part of brainstorming is that neither teacher or students are allowed to comment other one‟s ideas during the activity. Discussion or comments can follow afterwards, the best way is to offer discussion in groups.

2.4.2 Text-starts

For students who are afraid that they must be imaginative in their writing are ideal so called 'text-starts'. A lot of writing in real life is based on reading and studying materials, summarizing them, writing notes or responsing to them. Text- starts develop one„s reading and writing skills and provide support for writers. They work very easily: on the base of some text, you write your own text, response, commentary, letter, etc. It means that students first study original text

23 which functions like information support or stucture model and then they feel much more comfortable to write their own piece of work.

2.4.3 Fast writing

"It‟s a surprisingly useful task" (Scrivener 199). Some students are afraid of 'blank page' in front of them, they do not know how to start, many ideas cross their minds but they are not able to catch them. Fast writing can eliminate this problem, if it is practiced well. The rules are obvious: students have a piece of blank paper and a pen. They are supposed to start writing and not stop before time limit given by teacher (usually from five to ten minutes). They can write single words, sentences or justu rubbish but not stop and read what they have written. Shey should not be afraid of grammar or spelling mistakes. In the end, among the rubbish they can find useful ideas as starting points for their next writing.

3. Giving feedback

The difference between giving feedback and giving marks is obvious. "The process of marking, with its traditional focus on error-correction by the teacher" (Hedge 10), when we assess student‟s doing as a whole, we spot the mistakes and evaluate how much of the task given has been done correctly, then we sum up the mistakes and grade students with a mark, has been labelled as 'oldfashioned' in many schools. Giving feedback involves much more than just judging students‟ doing; it focuses not only on mistakes but also on parts which deserve to be praised. Spotting mistakes but also giving advice how to deal with them is as important as praising a piece of work that we find interesting. Well given teacher‟s feedback is the best motivation for all students. Postcrossing project offers many forms of feedback for its participants. If you read one‟s profile and write a nice postcard to a member, he can express his pleasure by e-mail, which is a common reaction that the member has received and read your postcard. Another positive feedback is when students are able to find mistakes in one‟s writing. Students can read their postcards to each other and consider other one‟s expressions. Feedback which is not tangible but many students agree that it exists is that they get better not only in reading and writing but also in other areas of English language, as well as in other subjects, such as Geography or History. Feedback in Postcrossing is everywhere, it is just up to each member to catch the feeling.

3.1 Giving feedback on reading

Teachers usually do not have to give any special feedback on reading because students can assess themselves here easily. In intensive reading exercises, students normally fill in the gaps, put the text in correct order or answer the questions to the text. These kinds of exercises involve the fact that one can do them or not, and that is usually registered by students themselves. Teacher can give them feedback on the process only and advise them how to set a goal. Extensive reading does not need feedback at all because it is reading for pleasure and the pleasure is the feedback itself here.

Moreover, we should mind that "people read at different speeds and in different ways" (Scrivener 184), which means that feedback must be very individual here. Both in intensive and extensive reading, teachers can involve those tasks that show reader‟s understanding of the text, and are interesting for the reader himself as well. Such kinds of alternative exercises are e. g. keeping reader‟s diary, drawing picture of the scene, creating new dialogue between characters, redesigning the cover of the book and writing a blurb on the back cover etc. (Scrivener 190-191). According to my experience, circle feedback given by students to other students works here pretty well, but it is always better to start with these kinds of activities as soon as possible.

3.2 Responses to writing

Giving feedback on writing is, as compared to reading, much more difficult. Teachers have to make a choice what should be feedback mainly on (language, content, organization), and they have to decide if all the mistakes should be corrected and in what way. Hedge and Ur agree that we should correct language mistakes that affect meaning (content) and those which are very basic (Hedge 8-11, Ur 170-172). It means that the purpose of written piece is to convey the message; if this assumption is fulfilled it is up to us (teachers) how much we want to correct in other areas. As well as with reading, we can try some of the alternatives in giving feedback on writing. Before writing, it is always very useful to agree with students what we are going to correct, how, and what will happen afterwards (e. g. marking, rewriting the work, group correction etc.) (Scrivener 203). Some of the alternative ways of giving feedback is correcting only one type of the mistakes (e. g. errors, spelling, word order), writing a letter in reply, pair, group or chain correction, using correcting codes (but students must be familiar with the codes and understand them!). We can use mistakes to create a dictation or a quiz, and if the written piece contains too many errors we can write nothing and discuss it with the whole class. To sum up, feedback should give students clear information about their work. We should not forget positive feedback (motivation) and give them advice on how to correct part(s) which seem to be confusing for reader.

3.3 Forms of feedback

In my teaching I use various forms of feedback but I always insist on its usefulness, transparency and simplicity. With younger students or if the work is of a simple kind I use emoticons. If the work demands more comments I use written form which seems to me easier to follow for students than oral form of feedback. Sometimes only facial expressions or body language are enough as a simple feedback on students‟ doing. Giving peer feedback is also very valuable as well as general comments to the class without addressing (Providing feedback to students). I have tried many forms of feedback, both traditional marking and alternative ones, and I must say that alternative forms are very useful but only for well motivated students who want to do their best. If your student is not motivated or/and lazy, marking him is better way for you to keep your teacher‟s optimism and the enthusiasm for other work. In other words, if teacher makes an effort to comment one‟s work, his advice should be followed. If a student is not continually willing to read your feedback, writing other ones is not, in my opinion and according to my experience, worth your time. In such a case, teacher must look for other ways how to arouse student‟s interest to devevelop his language abilities.

4. Motivation

Motivation includes "internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested (…) [in] subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal" (Motivation). This rather abstract term can be explained easier, from the perspective of teachers, with the term 'motivated learner'. Motivated learner is somebody who is willing to "invest effort in learning activities and to progress" (Ur 274). I strongly agree with Ur according to whom I have summarized characteristics of motivated learners:

learner is willing to tackle tasks, he is demanding challenges and is not frustrated or discouraged by his failure, learner invests high effort in learning, he is ambitious and demands top grades, he is confident in his success and he promotes his own positive self-image (Ur 275).

Motivation in Postcrossing project is closely connected with feedback. Because students have a lot of feedback there, also their motivation to read one‟s profile and subsequently to write an interesting postcard rises up after previous positive feedback. Participants can obtain also constructive feedback, e.g. if a receiver does not understand their English. Anyway, it is always motivating and it enhances students‟ effort to get better.

4.1 Different kinds of motivation

Number of factors are involved in second language acquisition and motivation definitely belongs among them. What many teachers detected during their practice is that we cannot motivate all the learners in the same way. The kind of motivation which is suitable to one learner can be absolutely inefficient to another one. This phenomenon is connected with the way how we learn. Howard Gardner proposed his model of the theory of multiple intelligences in his book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983). He categorized learners according to seven abilities meeting specific criteria: linguistic, logical–mathematical, musical, bodily–

28 kinesthetic, spatial, interpersonal and intrapersonal (Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences and Education). Gardner‟s categories of learner are connected mainly with learning style but, in my opinion, identifying oneself into one of his categories help much with learners‟ motivation. Learners do not feel frustrated by their failures because they can find that by using different learning style they can succeed. "Another distinction, perhaps more useful for teachers, is that between 'intrinsic' (…) and 'extrinsic' [motivation]" (Ur 276). Intrinsic motivation comes from inside of an individual, it is a motivation by internal factors involving one‟s autonomy, interest and enjoyment. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is derived from external impulses, it requires continual outer stimulation and control of a supervisor, including positive or negative incentives - rewards of threats. The value of intrinsic motivation is much higher because it is connected with learner‟s enjoyment, whereas with extrinsic motivation learners work only for good marks, for a reward or to please others (Motivations of Gifted Children).

4.2 Motivation for reading and writing

Reading and writing process takes a lot of time which means that students have to work on them not only at school but also out of school. Both reading and writing need a lot of intrinsic motivation because they involve a lot of individual work and self-control. They are time-demanding, counted not only for hours but for months. Reading and writing need long-time motivation and the support of others (family, friends, teachers), and these are, in today‟s quick-living and according to my experience, almost impossible to reach. Focusing on students who really want to set their goal, we should start with realistic tasks and then follow the strategy of scaffolding. Working on reading and writing process is like a game of domino: what has been built before affects every our next step. Students often feel frustrated by lack of vocabulary or too many of grammar rules (Appendix 3). Teacher‟s job is to convince them that they are able to set their goal if they do their best. Good beginning and one of the strategies involving high motivation for developing one‟s writing and reading is Postcrossing Project which I find very useful and interesting for my students, and which is going to be introduced in the next chapter.

II. Practical part

"There is creative reading as well as creative writing." Ralph Waldo Emerson

In this part of my final thesis I am going to introduce Postcrossing Project, the school where I have used it and reactions and experience of students who have been involved in it. The aim of my action research is to verify whether reading and writing in English can be fun if you choose an interesting activity and if your students are motivated by the task.

1. School profile

Dambořice Primary School where Postcrossing Project has been carried out is a village school with approximately 150 students and 12 teachers. Many students attending this school come from the village itself, but because it is so called 'catchment primary school' also a lot of students from nearby villages are educated here. As a result of the fact that Dambořice Primary School is a village school, there are not many behavior problems typical for large towns. Teachers and students know each other well and teachers are interested in students‟ activities which contributes to positive atmosphere at school. Dambořice Primary School has nine grades with 18 students in each class in average. Students are educated according to the educational programme called Máš na to! (You Can Do It!). Pupils with specific learning difficulties are integrated into the learning process and they are taught according to the individual learning plans. Teachers use methods of creative teaching and learning, a lot of practical work is involved in the lessons which allows students to use their theoretical knowledge in practice. The school is very well technically equipped and it has its own school grounds for learning purpose. Teachers and students are very active and the school is involved in many projects supported by European Union. English has been taught from the third to the ninth grade and it covers three lessons per week for each grade. I would appreciate if the number of lessons could increase in last two grades from three to four lessons a week because I can see that my students miss the activities developing their communicative skills. That is why I

30 have offered to students of the seventh, eighth and ninth grade the Lesson of Conversation in English. Students who have been attending these lessons increasingly developed their communicative skills. These students have also been involved in Postcrossing Project. I have been teaching English at this school for five years and I normally teach at upper primary levels (from the sixth to ninth grade). Three years ago I started to teach the fifth graders and in the next year I am going to teach also in the fourth grade. I appreciate that I can teach my students as soon as possible because it helps me to develop our relationship, I can see their development and I can guess how to motivate individuals.

2. Class profile

As I have mentioned above there is not too much space for individual development of communicative skills. In spite of the fact that The Framework Educational Programme says that language and language communication is developed mainly for the purpose of communication (Národní Ústav Pro Vzdělávání), the reality still differs at many schools. Moreover, students at village schools are not as well motivated for language learning, as students at town schools, which is related to the environment in which they grow. The result is, that mainly grammar and vocabulary is taught at many schools instead of communication skills. That is why I have involved my 'conversation group' consisting of six students into the project. In the group, there are four seventh-graders, one eight-grader and one ninth- grader (five girls and one boy together). Apart from Postcrossing project we have done many other activities developing mainly oral communication. The class consists of mixed ages and the difference in abilities between the seventh and ninth graders was really visible at the beginning. First, younger learners were a little shy to speak in front of their older friends because they could see that they were not so good and they missed the vocabulary. At the end of the school year, everybody was chatting naturally to each other and they were able to share their feelings and ideas because they got rid of the constant self-control in grammar use. As for Postcrossing Project I was really surprised how my group was willing to try new things and take part in the project. I was a little afraid of money support from their parents for the stamps but this concern proved to be unfounded. During the school year when we were creating Postcrossing wallboard I was happy to hear from other students that they have joined Postcrossing as well, or were going to do it. Many of them also asked me to tell them more in English lesson and now, they are looking forward to next school year to join our conversation group.

3. Postcrossing Project

"Sending and receiving unexpected postcards from random person is one of the greatest things in my life. We don't know each other, but I read so many great stories of life and about their places. So great. " Yangki, Indonesia, the user of Postcrossing

3.1 What is Postcrossing?

Postcrossing is a worldwide project which uses both the phenomenon of the Internet and sending real postcards by mail. The website was created by Paulo Magalhães, Berlin, Germany (originally from Portugal) and on 14th July 2005 it was opened to everyone for free. The success of the project has grown up increasingly; after 2 years, 8 months and 28 days, Postcrossing reached its first milion of exchanged postcards and up to 8th June 2014, 24 million of postcards has been exchanged. Nowadays, the founder of Poscrossing project works with the team of six co- workers (volunteers coming from all around the world) who help him with running of the webside. Up to these days, Postcrossing has 482,162 registered users in 212 different countries (Mental String RSS, Postcrossing History, The Team, User Stats).

3.2 How does it work?

The main idea of Postcrossing project is "to connect people across the world through postcards, independent of their location, age, gender, race or beliefs" (Postcrossing History). If you want to become a member of the project, you will register on the webpage, create your profile and request an address from the webside. You can have up to five postcards travelling at a single time. When you receive your postcard, you register it in the system and you can request another address. The idea is, that "if you send a postcard, you will receive one back" (About Postcrossing in English). It

33 means that except from other elements, there is also involved the element of surprise of getting a postcard from anywhere on the world – that is an amazing moment for any user!

3.3 Why to use Postcrossing at school?

As it was mentioned above, reading and writing are time demanding activities. It means that to be good at reading and writing, students have to practice them also out of school. Students have to be well motivated to do these activities. The motivation for reading and writing is obvious: students have to know why they should read and what the purpose of their writing is. To sum up, in a reading task there must be something that can catch their attention and/or there must be information they can need or use later. A writing task must be realistic. Writing needs the audience. If student‟s writing does not fulfill its purpose which is 'to be read', student‟s motivation to produce a written piece declines. Using Postcrossing at school as motivation for students who can feel that they cannot find the purpose of reading or writing in other tasks is one of the possible ways. Postcrossing contains many motivational factors, such as audience, realistic task, getting new information from different areas, practicing of communication, and others. Postcrossing can be used both with lower-leveled students and those who struggle with writing. The fact is, that everybody is able to write a postcard and it is only up to you how easy/difficult you want to make it. Also students who do not have difficulties with writing can find more motivation in Postcrossing than in other writing tasks thanks to real human factor that is involved.

3.4 Postcrossing in English classes

In this chapter, I would like to describe, how I introduced Postcrossing project to my students, which activities I used, how I motivated the students and gave them feedback. I would also like to show both positives and negatives of preparing such a project and the results of 8 months of our effort. At the beginning, I wrote the list of necessary steps which I tried to follow during the project. I made our time plan and during the months I wrote notes about the project (Appendix 4).

When I decided to involve Postcrossing project into my lessons, first, I asked my students if they knew about Postcrossing. Nobody knew so we started with group activity where students (after short brainstorming) should introduce their ideas what it could be. When we consulted all the possible ideas, students agreed that Postcrossing must be something connected with post, writing postcards or letters and having a penfriend. My second step was to show students my own postcards which I have written or received. They were very keen on seeing and reading them. Students were very surprised that it was possible to have postcards written by a member from Japan, Indonesia or Brasil. When they enjoyed enough my postcards, they started to ask me how this project works. It was the third step to show them Postcrossing webpage and also their first homework: to read about Postcrossing project on the web and search the Internet for other infromation. It was quite hard homework for them because most of students from the group were seventh graders who were not used to using the Internet in such a way and reading all the information in English. The next lesson, we started with pair work where students shared what they have found in pairs, then the ideas were consulted with all the group. This time, it was one of the last chatting in Czech. Speaking in Czech was allowed because I wanted all the students to understand well the Postcrossing rules. I must say that despite the fact that this howework was not easy for them, nobody used the translator to deal with the task and all students found a lot. When we put together all that we found about Postcrossing I asked the group to imagine that they should introduce themselves to a stranger. Students were asked to write (in pairs, then individually) interesting information about themselves, containing their personal information, hobbies, their likes and dislikes and others. They could also add information about postcards which they find interesting (e.g. animal postcards, postcards with architecture, film stars, cartoons, etc.) and why. Then they tried the peer correction, they exchanged their texts, and after the correction, some of them admitted that it was quite difficult for them to write so complex infomation about themselves. What they really liked was the peer correction but correcting their friend‟s writing sometimes evoked loud discussions. Then I showed students my Postcrossing profile (Appendix 6) on the web and their second homework was to create their own profile inspired by writing task which

35 they did in the lesson. They should send me their works by an e-mail, I checked them, corrected the errors and adviced them how to correct their slips, and then they could upload their finished profiles on the web. The next step was to teach students how to request an address from the system. Each of them tried to request two addresses and the third homework was to read the profiles of participants whose addresses they have requested. I emphasized my students that before writing a postcard, it is always necessary to read the profile. Without reading it, they would not know information about the person who they are going to write to, and their writing could miss some necessary facts. Reading the profile also helps the writer to decide what he is going to write about and which type of postcard is preferred by the member of Postcrossing. In this stage, after finishing their third homework, I asked my students how they feel about their reading and writing. Most of them answered me now, that writing was easier for them than reading. They agreed that in reading they have to think a lot about meaning because in one‟s profile they can see a lot of unknown expressions, whereas writing about themselves in their profile was not so difficult. It was not surprising for me, because many of them were not used to reading sentences with unfamiliar words. Just one thing should be noted: students did not realize at all that at the beginning they claimed the opposite, writing seemed more difficult to them first. After reading profiles, we agreed in the whole group speaking activity what should be written on the postcard and students tried to write their first postcard (Appendix 5). Their first sample should be written on the piece of paper of the same size as the postcard was. Students soon realized that they had many ideas but the space on the postcard was limited. So our next task was to learn how to squeeze the thoughts to be able to express a lot in a little space. This seemed impossible to three students so after few weeks of writing postcards they started to write letters instead (Appendix 11). They explained to me that they loved writing so much that they enjoyed writing longer letters more than postcards. On the other hand, one of the students really enjoys thinking how to write a lot in a little space, and I must say that she is a real master in it now. She started to use abbreviations and other shortening expressions that she could see on other postcards or found on the Internet. After writing their first sample postcards, students tried peer correction again and they were giving feedback to each other. Trying this for few lessons, students

36 learned how to help each other and I could start to function only as an observer. Then, students were prepared to send their postcards and wait for reactions from the other side of the world. Waiting was not long and after a week the first postcard was delivered to Russia. After few weeks also other postcards found their addressees and students obtained their feedbacks by e-mails from those who they wrote to. Then, students‟ other job was to learn how to respond to those e-mails. They learned there how to be polite and which expressions were/were not suitable. Students eagerly shared the e- mails with each other, proud that the addressee enjoyed their postcard. Now, because the first postcards were delivered, it was time to wait for those postcards which should be delivered to us. The first postcard (Appendix 5) came after twelve days and it was from the Neatherlands. Other postcards (Appendix 10) were coming during the following days and each of them excited students as well as the first one did. I am happy that even after seven months of being 'postcrossers' my students enjoy their postcards with the same enthusiasm as at the beginning of the project. During the weeks and months, my students started to be more and more independent in writing their postcards. They needed less of my support and help with correcting their mistakes in writing postcards, and this part of Postcrossing became one of the out-of-class activities which was accepted with great pleasure. If writing became favourite out-of-class activity, reading and sharing postcards which have been coming from all over the world, remained popular school activity, which climaxed with making our new big Postcrossing wallboard with all postcards (Appendix 8). Except from postcards, there is also a big map with little flags that mark the countries where the postcards come from. Every student can read and enjoy the postcards because the wallboard is available to everybody in the school corridor. After four months of sending and receiving postcards, I asked students again my question what they prefer - reading or writing postcards. The answers differed but the result was that they loved both writing postcards because they could write about themselves and their town, and reading because it was thrilling to receive a postcard from other side of the world and read about distant countries. The purpose of this project was to introduce Postcrossing to all the students, no matter if they wanted to become a member or not. Students who were involved in

37 the project (Appendix 9) claimed that they enjoyed it a lot (Appendix 12) and during the school year also other students apart from my group started to be interested in the project. Postcrossing can be used in many other ways and some of them are going to be described in one of the next chapters.

4. My assumptions before the project

I developed several assumptions before my research. I supposed that students‟ attitudes to reading and writing in English would be rather negative. In spite of the fact, I presumed that they would preffer reading to writing. I deduced that reading would be easier for students because they could guess the meaning despite the fact, that they did not understand the whole sentence. I assumed that writing would be the least favourite activity in language learning because of the difficulties with different sentence structure and proper use of vocabulary. I presumed that only a small percentage of students had ever heard of Postcrossing project. I speculated that students noted positive effect of out-of-school activities on their language development, but I thought that more than half of them was not willing to do them or were not interested. I thought that all the students who had been involved in Postcrossing project would enjoy it. I assumed that majority of respondents could feel their development in communicative skills, I predicted that half of them would also record their improvement in other areas of language learning, such as improvemement in grammar or wider range of vocabulary.

5. Aims of the research

There were six aims of my research which should be fulfilled:

1) To investigate students‟ attitudes to reading in English. 2) To investigate studenst‟ attitudes to writing in English. 3) To investigate students‟ attitudes to Postcrossing Project. 4) To investigate other uses of Postcrossing Project at language teaching. 5) To investigate students‟ willingness to participate in out-of-school activities that can extend their communicative skills. 6) To investigate whether Postcrossing enhances students‟ motivation to read and write in English.

The research was carried out in Dambořice Primary School. The selected sample was represented by seventh – ninth graders. I have been teaching English at the school for five years. Via my research, I wanted to analyse students‟ needs, and use the results for further activities connected with Postcrossing project.

6. Research methodology and organization

The research was carried out in Dambořice Primary School. It was research with an intentionally selected sample which represented learners from seventh, eighth and ninth grade. I would like to introduce one of possible alternative attitudes to reading and writing at primary school; an efficient method of motivation for reading and writing in English with its positive impact in all areas of language learning. My research consists of two questionnaires answered by two different groups of respondents. The first questionnaire was submitted to all the students from seventh, eighth and ninth grade of the school. This questionnaire consists of eleven questions; seven of them were supposed to be answered by all respondents, four of them should be answered only by respondents who know about Postcrossing project. Out of eleven questions, six of them were close ended questions with one possible answer, three of them were close ended qestions with one to three possible answers, and two questions were open ended ones (Appendix 1). In this group of respondents, all of the students present at the school that day were asked to fill in the questionnaire. The second part of the research was also carried out in the form of a questionnaire. The second sample represent students who have been involved in Postcrossing project, these students were also present in the first sample. The expanding questionnaire consists of eleven open ended questions focused on practical experience with the project (Appendix 2).

7. Research interpretation

In this part, I would like to interpret and think about the most important and interesting facts arising from my action research. I would also like to confirm or refute my assumptions before the project, find the reasons for these results and offer possible solutions. My first four assumptions were connected with reading and writing. First, I supposed that students‟ attitude to reading and writing was rather negative. In question No 4 in the first questionnaire, in 22,33% of anwers students state that they like reading and translating but only 5,83% of them like reading and writing. It follows that reading is much more favourite activity that writing, which confirms my second assumption. On contrary, my third assumption was not confirmed. Many students have problems in reading because of unknown vocabulary and their ability to guess the meaning of the sentence is rather low. In question No 5, where students mark their least favourite activities, both reading with translating and reading with writing obtain 17,14% of negative votes. Looking at it in detail, when students explain why they do not like the concrete activity, we can see that writing definitely belongs among the least favourite ones. Students describe writing as a boring activity which they do not like because they are not good at it. It means that also my fourth assumption was confirmed, because I supposed that students found writing difficult because of lack of vocabulary and difficulties with sentence structure. Much more positive attitude to writing can be seen in question No 8 in the second questionnaire. We can note there that the attitude to writing has changed and students started to feel more confident in writing when they got better thanks to the practice. To conclude these results, for my teaching it means to focus on writing activities, make them interesting and allow to set a goal to wide range of levels in the class. Involving graded exercises can help to motivate students of different levels. The use of scaffolding activities in writing would help students to follow up their abilities. In reading, I would think about using sentences with unknown words to enhance students‟ ability to guess the meaning. Speaking about Postcrossing, I presumed that only a small number of students had ever heard about the project. In question No 7 in the innitial questionnaire,

51,11% of respondents claim that they have never heard about Postcrossing. Second half of respondets answer that they know the project or heard about it. The respondents also mention that the sources of information about Postcrossing are either English lessons or school friends. Nobody labeled the Internet as a source of information. The question about Postcrossing was set at the beginning of my project and I hope that now everybody from the 7th graders to 9th graders can imagine what the purpose of the project is. Postcrossing belongs to out-of-school activities. I speculated that students noted positive affect of these kinds of activites on their school results but were not willing to do them. In question No 9 in the first questionnaire 18,18% of the respondents claim that Postcrossing could not help them with English. The same number of respondents state that thay would not appreciate, if the school supported such a project. In question No 8 we can see that only a small number of students realize that in Postcrossing they can upgrade also other areas, not only reading and writing. Speaking to my students, I have researched that they did not realize that many interesting out-of-school activities developing their English existed. Students tell me that they find these activities boring and they do not want to even try them because they think that such activities do not have place in their free time. Speaking mainly about boys, they mention that PC games are their only out-of-school activity where there is English involved. They find positive that new vocabulary is learned and practiced there. My opinion is that these games do not bring them the knowledge they think they do. During my lessons I have found that vocabulary from those games and its Czech meaning is not well learned because students just guess the meaning and do not check it at all. From these results I have learned that out-of-school activities must be introduced to my students in more detail. I have researched that most of students are not interested in out-of-school activities because they do not realize their positive impact on their English, which refutes my former assumption. The challenge for me is to find possible ways how to introduce different out-of-school activities to students of different levels. I have to find out which activities would be suitable for individual students, their individual interests and needs. I think that I could begin with a research that would show me information about items mentioned above and then I can present the individuals a suitable out-of-school activity. I also think that doing

43 these activities must be controlled at the beginning and, which is obvious, well motivated and feedbacked. One of the aims of my research was to investigate students‟ attitudes to Postcrossing project. My assumption was that students involved in the project would enjoy it. According to the expanding questionnaire and speaking to my students involved in the project, I can state that all of them enjoy being a member of Postcrossing. In question No 11 in the second questionnaire, but also according to students‟ anwers in questions No 8, 9 and 10, we can see that students find Postcrossing not only interesting but also helpful in many areas of English language. The answeres in question No 10 are very useful for my further work with Postcrossing because one of the aims of the research was to investigate whether Postcrossing could enhance students‟ motivation to read and write. The answers to this question show that definitely yes. These results confirm my assumptions about the advantages of this out-of-school activity and I am happy that also my students can see their progress. Moreover, students state that other knowledge is developed, such as art, architecture, geography, mathematics or history. I find this aspect highly positive and I think that these findings should be accepted in further use of Postcrossing project at our school. I would like to involve the project into other school subjects and, with kind help and support of my colleagues, develop the opportunities that this project offers.

8. Further use of Postcrossing in the lessons

In my school project, I focused on the use of Postcrossing with small group of motivated students who worked mostly individualy. Not all the activities that I tried would be possible to use in the same way with the whole class because of number of students and their different motivation. In writing postcards with the whole class, I would divide the students into small groups that could cooperate. Each group could have different task and at the end they could put them together. Another possibility would be to set the same task to all groups and after fingishing it, teacher could encourage students to compare and contrast their results. This could help to students‟ cooperation and support their ability to accept other one‟s ideas. Writing could be also focused on improving individual mistakes or used for widening vocabulary of individual students. I could imagine reading postcards as a part of warm up activities in the lessons, as well as the main part of the lesson. We could use reading in different ways with different aims, some of possible activities are described in the following text. In reading, we can just read and translate the postcards, but we can also try to cut out some words and ask students to reconstruct the message. We can unjumble the sentences and students will put them in the correct order. We can mix the contents of two postcards and the task would be to split them again. Teacher might replace some vocabulary with incorrect expressions and students must find the mistakes. In the original postcards, students can search for misspellt words or read the postcard, remember the information and retell the content. Writing offers many opportunities. Students can copy unknown words and try to use them in new context. Teacher may cut out parts of the sentences and students will try to finish them. Students can make complex and coumpound sentences out of simple ones. Children could widen the information from the postcards or write a letter on reply. An interesting activity is also replacing original words with students‟ own expressions. Then, students can compare their new texts and consider the best use of vocabulary. Very useful but more difficult acitivity is so called grammar dictation: teacher reads the postcard, students listen and make short notes, then, individually, in pairs or small groups they try to reconstruct the content to be as much similar to the original version as possible.

In my thesis, I am introducing Postcrossing project and its purpose only in one way. But we should not omit also other areas of language learning, because the use of Postcrossing is much more wider than it is visible for the first sight. Students can practice pronunciation of unknown vocabulary, or word and sentence stress with the authentic text. Teacher can widen this activity with the request to read the postcards in different voices (like old woman, little child or busy lady). Teacher can record students reading the postcards, they can listen to their reading and try the peer correction of pronunciation. Listening to other one‟s reading aloud helps students to mind their own mistakes in pronunciation. Teacher can play students parts of their recorded reading and they must find the postcard which has been read. Teacher can also play just the first part of the sentence and students can try to finish it orally. Grammar and correct use of vocabulary can be practiced by observing different postcards and contrasting their contents. Students can learn how to check whether the sentence is correct or not with the help of dictionary or grammar rules. New vocabulary can be learned easily from the context of the postcard. Various didactic games can be played with the postcards, as well as role playing and other amusing types of exercises. The range of activities depends on individual teacher‟s flexibility and students‟ motivation to follow teacher‟s ideas. The use of Postcrossing in English lessons is wide but I can imagine that the project could be used in all the subjects, it only depends on teachers‟ imagination and willingness to try new and nontraditional ways of teaching. Postcrossing offers the opportunity of content-based teaching that belongs to modern approaches in teaching in these days. In the following text, I am going to describe some of possible activities in different lessons but the list of them can be much wider.

Geography The use in Geography is obvious. Students can search for the places in the map, find information about the countries or cities on the Internet, speak about inhabitants and their habits. They can compare and contrast similarities and differences of individual countries in present days.

History Students can learn about all countries, history and development of their inhabitants. They can compare and contrast similarities and differences of individual countries during the history. They can learn which countries were joined together, split or were in the war conflict.

Biology Students can see the dependence of the existence of animals and plants on the climat. They can research which animals and plants appear on continents and in individual countries.

Art Various art techniques can be used for copying pictures from the postcards. Postcards offer different art styles from cartoon to architecture so the use is wide. Students can also use postcards for other art techniques from easy ones to more demanding.

Mathematics Different graphs and tables can show the density of inhabitants, students can compare and contrast the number of men, women and children in the countries, various ethniques and many others. They can observe time zones or just count the postcards coming from different countries.

Religious studies Students can learn about individual religions.

Music Students can listen and learn national anthems of different countries.

Chemistry The existence of chemical substances in different countries can be observed.

9. Conclusion

In my research, I have found out that students‟ attitudes to out-of-school activities is rather skeptical because they do not realize that these activities develop their language skills. Moreover, most of them do not know these activities or are not able to choose suitable activity that would help them with their needs and would be amusing at the same time. I have realized that teachers must pay more attention to out-of-school activities in lessons and motivate students to be involved in them. This, of course, needs to give big support to students who feel confused by lots of information, and give all students feedback on their out-of-school activities. I have investigated that Postcrossing project brought many positives to my students, such as progress in all areas of English, mainly in productive skills. Students got rid of their fear of writing and in speaking they feel much more confident. They also noticed the progress in using grammar and vocabulary, as well as other development in areas which are not closely connected to English. On this basis, I have developed some other possibilities in the use of Postcrossing project at school. In the research, majority of respondents involved in the project claimed that Postcrossing enhanced their motivation either to read or write (or both). Students naturally started to look for other out-of-school activities and the autonomy of these students grew up.

Resumé

In this final thesis, I deal with problems of students‟ attitude to reading and writing in English. I focused on enhancing students‟ motivation to read and write using out-of-school activities, especially the Postcrossing project. In the theoretical part, I tried to provide the facts confirming that reading and writing are very important parts of language learning. I described various types of reading and writing activities, and I also focused on importance of motivation and giving feedback on students‟ activities. In the practical part of my thesis, I introduced Postcrossing project, I described in which way I used it with a sample group of my students, and I proposed other possible ways of the use of the project, both in English lessons and other school subjects. In my action research, I analysed the needs of students from 7th to 9th grade in the area of reading and writing, and I researched their attitude to out-of- school activities, especially to Postcrossing. The results of my research confirmed the benefits of Postcrossing project and they contributed to the findings that out-of- school activities must be introduced to students with more care.

Ve své závěrečné práci se zabývám problematikou postoje studentů ke čtení a psaní v anglickém jazyce. Podrobně jsem se zaměřila na to, jak zvýšit motivaci ţáků ve čtení a psaní s vyuţitím mimoškolních aktivit, zvláště pak se zaměřením na Postcrossing. V teoretické části jsem se pokusila poskytnout fakta, která potvrzují, ţe čtení a psaní jsou významnou součástí výuky cizího jazyka. Podrobněji jsem popsala rozličné aktivity související se čtením a psaním v anglickém jazyce, a dále jsem se zaměřila na význam motivace a poskytování zpětné vazby studentům. V praktické části jsem detailněji představila projekt Postcrossing a způsob, jak jsem jej vyuţívala ve zkušební výuce v hodinách konverzace. Následně jsem navrhla další moţné vyuţití tohoto projektu, a to jak v hodinách anglického jazyka, tak i v jiných předmětech. Ve svém akčním výzkumu jsem analyzovala potřeby studentů sedmého aţ devátého ročníku v oblasti čtení a psaní. Zkoumala jsem také jejich postoj k mimoškolním aktivitám, zvláště pak k projektu Postcrossing. Výsledky mého výzkumu potvrdily přínos tohoto projektu a přispěly ke zjištění, ţe

49 mimoškolním aktivitám souvisejícím s výukou angličtiny je nutné věnovat větší pozornost.

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Appendices

Appendix 1: First (innitial) questionnaire for students Čtení a psaní v hodinách anglického jazyka dotazník k závěrečné práci

Milí žáci, věnujte, prosím, několik minut vyplnění tohoto průzkumného dotazníku, který se týká Vašeho vztahu k anglickému jazyku a aktivit v tomto předmětu. Získané informace budou využity v závěrečné práci, která se týká vzájemné souvislosti mezi čtením a psaním v anglickém jazyce.

1) Jsem … (vyber jednu možnost)

dívka chlapec

2) Chodím do … (vyber jednu možnost)

7. třídy ZŠ 8. třídy ZŠ 9. třídy ZŠ

3) Anglický jazyk … (vyber jednu možnost)

patří mezi mé oblíbené předměty nepatří mezi mé oblíbené předměty, ale nevadí mi mě nebaví nemám rád/a

4) V anglickém jazyce mě nejvíce baví … (vyber max. 3 odpovědi)

čtení a překládání textu; např. čtení a překlad příběhů v učebnici čtení a psaní; např. čtení textu v učebnici a psaní klíčových slov a poté vět gramatická cvičení; např. pracovní listy na doplňování časů

konverzační aktivity; např. kdyţ si píšeme “key words” a pak s nimi ústně tvoříme věty, nebo kdyţ si o něčem povídáme anglicky ve dvojicích, skupinách, společně didaktické hry (hry, při kterých se něco naučím, něco si procvičím); např.”Lines”, “Circle games”, “Bingo”, “Fly game” a jiné poslechové aktivity; např. poslouchání příběhů z učebnice nebo písniček ostatní

5) V angličtině mě nebaví… (vyber max. 3 odpovědi)

čtení a překládání textu čtení a psaní gramatická cvičení konverzační aktivity didaktické hry poslechové aktivity ostatní

6) Zdůvodni, prosím, svou odpověď z otázky č. 5 ………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………….………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… 7) O projektu Postcrossing … (vyber jednu možnost)

jsem nikdy neslyšel/a jsem se dozvěděl/a ve škole jsem se dozvěděl/a na internetu jsem slyšel/a od kamarádů ostatní

8) Postcrossing se mi zdá zajímavý/není zajímavý, protože ... (doplň podle sebe, neodpovídej, pokud jsi v otázce č. 7 zvolil/a první odpověď)

………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………….………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………

9) Myslím, že díky Postcrossingu si můžu zábavnou formou procvičit angličtinu … (neodpovídej, pokud jsi v otázce č. 7 zvolil/a první odpověď, vyber jednu možnost)

ano ne

10) Myslím, že díky Postcrossingu si procvičím … (neodpovídej, pokud jsi v otázce č. 7 zvolil/a první odpověď, vyber max. 3 odpovědi)

psaní v anglickém jazyce čtení v anglickém jazyce a překlad textu anglickou gramatiku komunikační dovednosti; např. ţe se dovedu představit a na omezeném prostoru dokáţu napsat zajímavé informace o sobě a místě, kde ţiju odstranění chyb v pravopise slovíček i v gramatice; např. opravím si své chyby a pro příště si je zapamatuji a uţ neudělám ostatní

11) Líbilo by se mi, kdyby naše škola podporovala tento projekt mezi žáky (např. v hodinách anglického jazyka nebo v kroužku, zaplacením dopisních známek, představením projektu rodičům, umístěním nástěnky s tímto projektem do vestibulu školy, apod.) (neodpovídej, pokud jsi v otázce č. 7 zvolil/a první odpověď, vyber jednu možnost)

ano ne

Chtěl/a bys ještě něco dodat? ………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………….………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………

Děkuji za pravdivé vyplnění dotazníku.

Vytvořila Mgr. Radka Šebesta Čížková

Appendix 2: Second (expanding) questionnaire for students

JMÉNO: TŘÍDA:

Toto je rozšiřující dotazník pro žáky, kteří se před šesti měsíci zapojili do projektu Postcrossing.

Milý účastníku projektu, napiš prosím svoje odpovědi co nejpřesněji. Děkuji Ti za vyplnění.

1. Jak často posíláš/dostáváš pohlednice v rámci projektu Postcrossing?

2. Z jakých zemí nejčastěji dostáváš pohlednice a do jakých zemí je obvykle posíláš?

3. Byl/a jsi v kontaktu s účastníkem země, kterou jsi neznal/a nebo jsi nevěděl/a, kde leţí? Vyhledal/a sis ji na mapě?

4. Zaujala Tě nějaká země tak, ţe bys ji chtěl/a navštívit?

5. Jsi ve stálém kontaktu s některým účastníkem projektu Postcrossing nebo by ses s ním chtěl/a seznámit?

6. Jaké pohlednice se ti ne/líbí?

7. Co na pohlednice obvykle píšeš? Měníš nějak obsah? Přidáváš někdy k pohlednici „bonus“ (např. drobné mince, pohlednici „na přání“ apod.)?

8. Co děláš raději – píšeš pohlednice nebo je čteš? Zdůvodni svoji odpověď.

9. Co myslíš, ţe ti projekt Postcrossing dal? Zlepšil/a ses v něčem v angličtině nebo v jiné oblasti? V čem?

10. Motivoval tě Postcrossing k tomu, abys více četl/a nebo psal/a v anglickém jazyce?

11. Komu a proč bys doporučil/a se do projektu Postcrossing zapojit?

Vytvořila Mgr. Radka Šebesta Čížková

Appendix 3: The analysis of results with tables and graphs

For research data analysis PC programme MS Word and Google Forms Application were used. All the analyzed data were summarized in tables with relative frequency. The absolute frequency of all the questions was displayed through pie graphs (one answer was possible) and bar graphs (1 – 3 possible answers). In the group of respondents, 45 students from the seventh, eighth and ninth grade were asked to fill in the first questionnaire with the rate of the return of 45 questionnaires (100%). As for the second questionnaire, 6 students involved in Postcrossing Project were asked to answer expanding questions, and all of the questionnaires were submitted. All the students being present at school that day were asked to fill in the innitial on-line questionnaire during the lessons with the kind help of my colleagues. The second questionnaire was filled in individually during the lesson of conversation. For the final analysis, 45 innitial questionnaires and 6 expanding questionnaires were used, none of the questionnaires was excluded.

Innitial (first) questionnaire:

Question 1: Are you a girl or a boy?

Table 1: Respondents‟ sex

1 STUDENTS RELATIVE FREQUENCY Girl 25 55,56% Boy 20 44,44% TOTAL 45 100,00%

Out of total number of 45 respondents, 25 respondents (55,56%) are girls and 20 respondents (44,44%) are boys.

Figure 1: Respondent‟s sex

Question 2: What class do you attend?

Table 2: Division of the respondents into grades

2 STUDENTS RELATIVE FREQUENCY 7th grade 16 35,56% 8 th grade 9 20,00% 9 th grade 20 44,44% TOTAL 45 100,00%

Out of the total number of 45 respondents, 20 respondents (44,44%) attend the 9th grade, 16 respondents (35,56%) attend the 7 th grade, and 9 respondents (20,00%) attend the 8th grade.

Figure 2: Division of the respondents into grades

Question 3: What is your attitude to English language?

Table 3: Students‟ attitude to English language

3 STUDENTS RELATIVE FREQUENCY

It is my favourite subject 22 48,89% English is good but not my 18 40,00% favourite subject It is boring 2 4,44% I do not like it 3 6,67% TOTAL 45 100,00%

Out of the total number of 45 respondents, English is favourite subject for 22 students (48,89)%, 18 students (40,00%) like it but it is not their favourite one, 3 respondents (6,67%) do not like it, and 2 respondents (4,44%) find English boring.

Figure 3: Students‟ attitude to English language

Question 4: What are your favourite activities in English lessons? (more than 1 answer is possible)

Table 4: Students‟ favourite activities in English lessons

4 ANSWERS RELATIVE FREQUENCY

Reading and translating 23 22,33% Reading and writing 6 5,83% Grammar exercises 16 15,53% Conversation and 15 14,56% communicative activities Didactic games 22 21,36% Listening 17 16,51% Other 4 3,88% TOTAL 103 100,00%

Out of total number of 103 answers, in 23 answers (22,33%) students prefer reading and translating. In 22 of all the answers (21,36%) respondents prefer playing didactic games. In 17 of all the answers (16,51%) respondents state that they like listening. Out of all the answers, in 16 answers (15,53%) students consider grammar exercises the most interesting activity in the lesson. In 15 of all the answers (14,56%) respondents find conversation and communicative activities the most useful. Only in

6 answers out of all (5,83%) students find reading and writing being interesting activity. In 4 of all the answers (3,88%) students consider other activities amusing.

Figure 4: Students‟ favourite activities in English lessons

Question 5: What activities are not interesting for you? (more than 1 answer is possible)

Table 5: Students‟ least favourite activities in English lessons

5 ANSWERS RELATIVE FREQUENCY

Reading and translating 12 17,14% Reading and writing 12 17,14% Grammar exercises 17 24,29% Conversation and 8 11,43% communicative activities Didactic games 7 10,00% Listening 8 11,43% Other 6 8,57% TOTAL 70 100,00%

Out of the total number of 70 answers, in 17 answers (24,29%) respondents state that their least favourite activity in English lessons is doing grammar exercises. In 12 of all the answers (17,14%) respondents answer that they do not like reading and writing activities. Similarly, in 12 of all the answers (17,14%) respondents note that they would not prefer reading and translating in English lessons. Out of the total number of 70 answers, 8 respondents (11,43%) assume that they do not like listening activities. Identically, in 8 of all the answers (11,43%) students mention that their least favourite activity is conversation and other communicative activities. Out of all the answers, in 7 answers (10,00%) respondents state that they would not prefer didactic games. In 6 of all the answers (8,57%) respondents mention other activities as the least amusing.

Figure 5: Students‟ least favourite activities in English lessons

Question 6: Can you explain your answer in question No 5?

Respondents who answer that they do not like listening state that it is horrible because they usually do not uderstand because of the speed of listening. Respondents anwer seven times that they do not like didactic games. They find them boring or they have difficulties with participation because they do not know vocabulary. Some of the respondents do not find them interesting because they easily do not like English.

Respondents who do not like conversation and communicative activities state that it is because they are not good at them. One respondent answers that conversation is waste of time because everybody is just speaking and nothing is practiced. Despite the fact that respondents should explain what they do not like, a lot of them mention that they enjoy conversation and communicative activities. Doing grammar exercises is the least favourite activity among students. A lot of them find grammar exercises important but very boring. Two respondents answer that they are bored because they do not need to practice. Majority of students claim that they do not like grammar exercises because they do not understand the grammar or the task or both. They find grammar rules too difficult and they think that there is too many of them. Respondents who do not like writing note that it is boring activity. They consider writing unnecessary because they claim that they write too much in other subjects. Two respondents do not like writing because they are not good at it. 17 percent of respondents claim that they do not like reading. Almost nobody explained this answer, probable explanation is that in questionnaire reading was always mentioned in connection with translating or writing. One respondent explains that he does not like reading because he has problems to orientate in the text. Respondents who choose option 'other' explain that they like everything about English.

Question 7: What do you know about Postcrossing project?

Table 7: What students know about Postcrossing project

7 STUDENTS RELATIVE FREQUENCY

I have never heard about it 23 51,11% I heard about it in the lessons 14 31,11% I know about it from the Internet 0 0,00% I heard about it from my friends 5 11,11% Other 3 6,67% TOTAL 45 100,00%

Out of the total number of 45 respondents, 23 respondents (51,11%) answer that they have never heard about Postcrossing project. 14 of all the students (31,11%) respond that they heard about the project in the lessons. 5 respondents (11,11%) state that they heard about it from their friends. 3 of all the respondents (6,67%) claim that they heard about Postcrossing project from other sources. Out of the total number of 45 respondents, 0 respondent (0,00%) mentions that he knows about the project from the Internet.

Figure 7: What students know about Postcrossing project

Question 8: What is/is not interesting about Postcrossing project?

Out of the total number of 22 respondents, 17 respondents state that Postcrossing is interesting. Half of these respondents (8) think that interesting thing about Postcrossing is that you can write a postcard in English, so you practice English out of school and you use it for communication. Second half of these respondents (9) note that Postcrossing is thrilling because you write to an unknown person and you can receive postcards from all over the world. Three respondents think that Postcrossing could be interesting but they do not know a lot about it. One respondent anwers that Postcrossing is definitely boring because he has never heard about it.

One respondent of all finds Postcrossing stupid.

Question 9: Do you think that Postcrossing project can help you to get better in English?

Table 9: Respondents‟ attitude to getting better in English via Postcrossing

7 STUDENTS RELATIVE FREQUENCY

Yes 18 81,82% No 4 18,18% TOTAL 22 100,00%

Out of the total number of 22 respondents, 18 respondents (81,82%) answer that you can get better in English via Postcrossing. 4 of all the respondents (18,18%) claim that Postcrossing does not help you with English.

Figure 9: Respondents‟ attitude to getting better in English via Postcrossing

Question 10: Which areas can be practiced using Postcrossing?

Table 10: Respondents‟ opinion on what is practiced using Postcrossing

10 ANSWERS RELATIVE FREQUENCY

Writing 16 25,40% Reading 12 19,05%

Grammar 11 17,46% Communicative skills 17 26,98% Elimination of errors in grammar 5 7,94% and vocabulary Other 2 3,17% TOTAL 63 100,00%

Out of the total number of 63 answers, in 17 answers (26,98%) respondents presume that using Postcrossing has positive influence on students‟ communicative skills. In 16 of all the answers (25,40%) respondents claim that Postcrossing is good for their writing skills. Out of all the answers, in 12 answers (19,05%) respondents state that reading abilities are influenced by Postcrossing. In 11 of all the answers (17,46%) respondents mention positive impact of Postcrossing on their grammar knowledge. In 5 of all the answers (7,94%) students note that by using Postcrossing their errors in grammar and vocabulary are eliminated. Out of the total number of 63 answers, in 2 answers (3,17%) respondents consider also other positive impact on their knowledge.

Figure 10: Respondents‟ opinion on what is practiced using Postcrossing

Question 11: Would you like if our school could support Postcrossing project?

Table 11: Respondents‟ opinion on supporting Postcrossing project at school

11 STUDENTS RELATIVE FREQUENCY

Yes 18 81,82% No 4 18,18% TOTAL 22 100,00%

Out of the total number of 22 respondents, 18 respondents (81,82%) state that supporting Postcrossing project at school is a good idea. 4 of all the respondents answer that they do not like the idea of supporting Postcrossing at school.

Figure 11: Respondents‟ opinion on supporting Postcrossing project at school

Second (expanding) questionnaire:

Question 1: How often do you send/receive postcards via Postcrossing?

Tereza from the 8th grade states that she sends postcards almost every day. It means that she also receives postcards so often because these two phenomena are dependent on each other. Erika from the 9 th grade explains that she does not have any regular system – she writes and sends postcards when she has money, time and when she is in a mood to write. Dominika from the 7th grade notes that she sends and receives postcards one or two times a month. Tomáš from the 7th grade mentions that he sends postcards once in two weeks. Adéla from the 7th grade grade explains that now she has problems with sending postcards. First she used to send them a lot, but some of her postcards have not been delivered so she cannot send postcards at the moment, and she has to wait for the deadline of delivering which is 50 days for a postcard. Then she can send postcards again. Magdalena from the 7 th grade considers that she does not have any regular system – she writes a postcard always when she receives one.

Question 2: To which countries do you usually send postcards and from which ones do you often get them?

Five of all the respondents claim that they receive the biggest number of postcards from Russia. Three respondents of all state that they receive lots of postcards from members from Germany. Erika adds that she has also a lot of postcards from Netherlands, Belarus and Taiwan. As for sending postcards, four respondents agree that they send a lot of postcards to Germany and Russia and other eastern countries.

Two respondents state that they send postcards all over the world but the contact with western countries is rather rare.

Question 3: Have you ever been in contact with a member of Postcrossing whose country you did not know? If yes, did you find the country on the map?

Most of respondents claim that they have never received a postcard from an unknown country. Only Tomáš mentions that he has this experience. Erika adds that if she received a postcard from western country, she would probably need a map to identify it.

Question 4: Would you like to visit some country which cought your attention thanks to Postcrossing?

Three respondents answer that the USA cought their attention. Erika mentions that she has been affected by Postcrossing in a desire to visit Russia, Hungary, Belgium and Netherlands. Hongkong in China cought Adéla‟s attention. Tereza claims that all of the countries are interesting but her favourite one is Japan.

Question 5: Are you in permanent contact with a member of Postcrossing? If no, would you like to?

Half of respondents answer that they were in longer contact with a member of Postcrossing. All of them mention that this contact finished after two or three months. Tereza is in permanent contact with the member from Russia. Dominika and Magdalena note that they have never had an opportunity to be in longer contact with a member of the project. Adéla wishes to be in contact with a member from China.

Question 6: Which postcards do you like? Which ones you do not?

Almost all respondents state that they do not like brief postcards just with greetings. Erika does not prefer modern postcards and Tereza does not like advertising postcards. Half of respondents claim that they prefer postcards with lots of text, information about the country, the city or about the sender. Erika says that she prefers old fashioned postcards, Dominika likes colorful ones and Tereza loves all of her postcards.

Question 7: What do you usually write on postcards? Do you change the content? Do you sometimes add "bonus" to your postcard?

All of the respondents mention that they write information about themselves, their hobbies, town and country they live in. Erika and Tereza note that they read the person‟s profile first and then they write about their common interests. Respondents also mention that they sometimes write interesting information about the postcard itself. Dominika, Erika and Adéla prefer writing letters because they have more space to express themselves. Five respondents answer that they change what they write on the postcard. Dominika adds that she writes Christmas postcards on Christmas as a bonus. Adéla and Tomáš send Czech coins with their postcards.

Question 8: What do you prefer – reading or writing postcards? Why?

Four respondents of all mention that they like both reading and writing postcards, but two of them add that they slightly prefer writing them. Magdalena mentions that it is because she can 'tell the world' about her little village. Erika says that despite the fact she likes both, she prefers writing a little because of the brief postcards where there is nothing to read.

Adéla adds that both is fine because with writing she can practice grammar and with reading she gets new information about the country and also new vocabulary. Tomáš and Dominika prefer reading postcards. Tomáš mentions that he likes when he learns something new from the postcard. Dominika answers that she is just happy that new postcard has come.

Question 9: Why do you think that Postcrossing is good for your learning?

Tomáš notes that he is better in English, particularly in grammar. Tereza thinks that she is better in speaking. Erika mentions that her level of English is still the same but she learned a lot about other countries. Adéla also anwers that she learned about other countries. She thinks that she is getting better in English. Magdalena notes that she learned new vocabulary, particularly the colloquial ones that are not learned at school. Dominika states that she can feel her progress both in grammar and in communication. She adds that now she is more confident in speaking.

Question 10: Did Postcrossing enhance your motivation to read or write? How?

Almost all respondents state that Postcrossing enhanced their motivation to read or write. Tereza and Erika mention that they write short stories in English for themselves. Tereza adds that she also reads books in English. Dominika claims that she has always liked reading in English but now she reads even more. Her parents buy her English books on Christmas. Magdalena and Adéla like writing short messages in English to each other.

Question 11: Would you recommend Postcrossing to any of your friends?

Erika states that she would recommend Postcrossing to friends who are interested. She thinks that it is nonsense to recommend it to somebody who hates English. Dominika also thinks that it is good for everybody who likes English. Tomáš thinks that Postcrossing is good for people who mastered English, and for those who have enough time to write postcards or letters. Magdalena would recommend Postcrossing to people who want to travell around the world and need English for communication. Adéla claims that Postcrossing is good for people who can speak English and for those who like having a pen friend. Tereza thinks that Postcrossing is good for everybody.

Appendix 4: Teacher‟s diary - Postcrossing project

Představit projekt Postcrossing říjen Ok, úvod se povedl, (skupinové aktivity, brainstorming), nástěnka je příliš malá. vytvořit první motivační nástěnku (!) Ţáci vyhledávají informace o listopad Ok, z původních 15 Postcrossingu na internetu (individual zájemců o Postcrossing work, HW, sharing) vydrţelo 8 . Ţáci si tvoří profil na webu a losují si listopad, Technické potíţe první uţivatele, které budou prosinec s vytvářením některých kontaktovat (pouze 1 aţ 2 uţivatele!) profilů, ale zvládnuto. Zjištěno, ţe je lepší losovat více pohlednic najednou, aby nám neodcházely všechny do Ruska . Pozn.: zbylo 6 statečných. Ţáci se učí napsat pohlednici prosinec, Tohle dělá potíţe, ţáci si (omezený prostor!, brainstorming – co leden neustále chodí pro radu na pohlednici napsat, vhodné s textem na kousku papíru oslovení, rozloučení), naučit ţáky . Nakonec jsme také vyuţívat peer correction, konzultovat zvládli. Zpočátku mnoho s nimi první pokusy, neopravovat chyb ve větné struktuře. všechny chyby (na něco si musí přijít Stále zapomínají podmět. sami!) Naučit ţáky registrovat pohlednici, leden Ok. Ţáci, kterým chodí napsat děkovný e-mail, nahrát pohlednice domů a ne do pohlednici na profil. Nezapomeň školy, je poctivě přinášejí. kopírovat a shromaţďovat pohlednice!!! Ve výtvarné výchově vytvořit novou únor, březen Úmorné, zvláště umístit nástěnku – 9.tř., řešit umístění nové novou nástěnku, ale nástěnky! (p.řed.) ZVLÁDNUTO! Druhý dotazník k Postcrossingu, duben – do Dotazník ok, nápady vyuţít nápady ţáků na nástěnku, konce roku poznamenány, budoucí promyslet další pouţití (kolegové) vyuţití domluveno v zeměpise a matematice.

Appendix 5: First Postcrossing wallboard

The first wallboard

Our first postcards

Appendix 6: An example of Postcrossing profile

Appendix 7: Short introduction of Postcrossing to students

Appendix 8: New Postcrossing wallboard

New (Present) Postcrossing wallboard

From the wallboard

The map with flags marking where the postcards come from

Appendix 9: Participants of Postcrossing project

Appendix 10: Examples of postcards received

Appendix 11: An example of letter written by the 7th grader

Appendix 12: What students think about being a member of Postcrossing