ICT supporting early language teaching

Brief description of the project

Key Stage 2 pupils in Enfield LEA are communicating regularly with their French and Italian ‘e-pals’ through a scheme developed by a cross-phase partnership with Middlesex University, Enfield LEA, a link secondary school and four feeder primary schools.

An important aim in devising the cross-phase project was to produce bilingual books, classroom materials, a video and an ICT plan. Pupils talk to their pals using e-mail, they swap video and audio-tapes and the Italian e-pals have now produced a CD-ROM. The ICT and French teachers at Hadley Wood School have worked together closely to link children’s work in ICT and MFL.

See Methodology for details of the project.

Outcomes of the project

• Communication with a real audience gave the children a purpose for learning and raised the levels of enthusiasm and motivation.
• The children worked with increasing confidence and a sense of achievement.

Examples of the joint planning are detailed below.

Methodology

Case study – Year 4

The children of Year 4 were linked with children of the same age group in the school in Italy. Details of the activities planned to cover aspects of the ICT curriculum are as follows:

Unit 4A: Writing for different audiences

‘In this unit children learn that ICT can be used to organise, reorganise, develop and explore ideas and that working with information in this way can aid understanding. It also gives children opportunities to discuss their experiences of using ICT and how it is used in the wider world.’

• Through the sending of e-mails in their own language, the children experienced the use of attachments by sending and receiving files. They also used the address book to store e-mail addresses. In doing so, they accessed the information in the foreign language where they were able to identify key points in an account written by their penfriends.
• The children used their skills in sending e-mails to produce non-narrative texts in English, giving an account of their lives and interests and therefore developing links between the children and schools.
• All areas of technical vocabulary detailed in the curriculum for this unit were used in the production and sending of e-mails.
• Resources used included Microsoft Word, enabling the saved files to be attached.

Unit 4B: Developing images using repeating patterns

‘In this unit children learn to develop visual ideas and to realise these ideas using ICT. Children will use a computer graphics package to explore and experiment with ideas and will amend and modify their work to meet specific requirements.

Children learn to use ICT tools appropriately and will select areas of an image to cut, copy and change. They learn to export their work to other packages and import images from sources such as clip art, scanner and digital camera.

Children will apply what they have learnt in this unit when using ICT to produce pictures, plans and maps in Art, Design and Technology and Geography.’

• The children made Christmas cards for their penfriends using RM Colour Magic and Clip Art. The cards were written with greetings in English and Italian and detailed traditional customs in the two countries.
• Each child prepared a calendar using Colour Magic. This activity gave greater freedom of choice in the selection of the images to be used and gave the children scope for creativity in designing their own. It also gave the children the opportunity to select specific icons from the tool bar.
• The technical vocabulary covered was as follows: ‘cut’, ‘copy’, ‘paste’, ‘save as’, ‘clip art’, ‘open’ and ‘print’ (the children had to select the correct printer).
• Resources used included a computer graphics package (RM Colour Magic) and Clip Art.
• In addition to the above areas of learning, the curriculum was extended to include the preparation of two videos.

Term one

The children prepared role plays in the foreign language, which were then recorded on the video camera and used as a teaching tool to enable the children to evaluate their own performance.

Term two

As a multimedia experience, the children worked in groups to produce non-fiction scripts for a video based on the school. Each group focussed on a different area, e.g. the classroom and learning environment, the playground, the dinner hall, an assembly and an interview with the Head teacher. The children were then given the opportunity to use the video camera to record their section of the video and took it in turns to record their commentary. The Italian school made a similar video. This enabled children in all countries to hear the spoken language. The activity laid the foundation for one aspect of the curriculum for Year 6 (Unit 6A: Multimedia presentation).

Case study – Year 6

Year 6 pupils were linked with pupils of similar age in the school in France and Italy. During the course of the year, the children covered a range of areas in the National Curriculum for ICT. Details are as follows.

Unit 6A: Multimedia presentation

‘In this unit children learn to create a multimedia presentation using text images and sounds. They will be taught to create links between pages and show sensitivity to the needs of their audience.’

All children contributed to a CD-ROM presentation using text images and sound. The CD-ROM covered places of interest in London and used research from the Internet (see Unit 6D), images from the video camera and the use of the digital camera to create still pictures. The children also used a tape recorder to record on-the-spot impressions. The final presentation was sent to the school in Italy and we received a copy of the CD-ROM on Florence made by their teachers and children. The project not only extended the children’s ICT skills but also broadened their knowledge of the architecture and history of London and Florence.

At the assembly held to celebrate the end of the project, the children gave a PowerPoint presentation to the school, parents, visiting teachers from Italy and France and local dignitaries which involved the use of hyperlinks to jump between pages.

Unit 6D: Using the Internet to search large databases and to interpret information

‘In this unit children learn to use large sources of information, such as those found on the Internet. They will use, skim read and take in information to be able to own it for themselves and interpret it with others.’

‘Children will present the researched information in a form suitable to the needs of their audience.’

In researching information on London on the Internet for the CD-ROM, the children fulfilled many of the tasks of this unit. They accessed and read and interpreted suitable information, selecting their own topic and then printed the relevant pages. The information was then shared with others to develop the content of the CD-ROM. The sites chosen included text, pictures and hyperlinks to other websites. In the course of this activity, the children used a search engine to find specific information on London. The children also used dual-language booklets to access the language in the CD-ROM prepared by their partners.

The children used e-mail to write to their penfriends in France. They developed their skills used previously when e-mailing penfriends. The e-mails were written in Word, saved and attached to the e-mail. They used more elaborate fonts, watermarks and Clip Art with more effective text wrapping to show progression.

Technical vocabulary used included: ‘audience’, ‘Internet’, ‘index’ and ‘hyperlink’.

Resources included Internet access, a range of printed information sources from CD-ROM and the Internet (use of the encyclopaedia for research), and word processing.

‘It is important that the teachers search the Internet first for suitable sites.’

It should be stated that the children were not given access to the Internet unless an adult was working with them as outlined in the school’s Internet policy. A letter was sent home to the parents of those children participating, to obtain authorisation to use images of the children on the CD-ROM.

Context

The Comenius programme, with its links with schools in France and Italy, provided a focus for the delivery of many aspects of the ICT curriculum. It fulfilled a major part of the cross-curricular strand in the National Curriculum. The ICT co-ordinator and the project co-ordinator met each term to share plans and to ensure delivery of relevant aspects of the school scheme of work in partnership with the QCA scheme of work. In many cases, the work expanded on the expectations of the QCA document and extended the children’s repertoire of communication skills.