![]() ![]() This has obvious implications for younger children who are learning English. ![]() Interestingly, the children also reported that they needed to pay special attention to their oral presentations, ensuring that they were both clear and interesting to their peers.Īs part of a recent promotion of ‘picture book reading’ in Taiwan, Jane Chien at the National Taipei University of Education has been using video conferencing to support schools and teachers in their delivery of this initiative.Īccording to Jane, in Taiwan there has not always been a culture of high-quality English picture book sharing between parents and children, because, of course, home reading is mostly done in Mandarin.Īdditionally, many teachers expressed their need to have a shared platform on which picture book reading activities and worksheets may be readily available to them and where more innovative teaching activities can be shared. Children also developed a keener interest in global issues, as well as stating a desire to find out more about Australia. Australian presentation followed by a question and answer session.Įach class used the VC whiteboard facilities to show a PowerPoint, aiding the flow of their presentations.ĭuring follow-up discussion, the Kitarissei children mostly communicated in Japanese – a Japanese interpreter present in the Australian classroom subsequently translated this during the sessions.Įvaluations that have been conducted so far show that the confidence and motivational level of the Kitarissei children rose from the experience of using authentic oral language with the native speakers from the Australian schools.Japanese children did a presentation followed by a question and answer session.Greetings and introductions from both schools.In preparation, both classes researched a topic of interest to share with each other during the Polycom VC sessions these included environmental and nutritional themes. The focus of the work was to develop oral competency for the Japanese children as well as sharing cultural experiences. ![]() In the pilot project, Year 6 children from Kitarissei Elementary School visited Mie University for video conferencing sessions with children in Australia. This has posed significant challenges for schools and teachers, not least because many teachers lack the necessary oral competency to deliver lessons through English as well as providing effective speaking models for their students.Īt Mie University, Nagata Shigefumi, a researcher in the field of social studies and Hiroko Arao, a researcher in English education, formulated a four-year international school linking project to facilitate learning between local students and peers from schools in other countries. ![]() There are many free solutions available, such as Skype, ooVoo, iChat and FaceTime or Flash Meeting.ĭeveloping spoken language skills and cultural understanding Recently, Japan has made the teaching of English compulsory in all its elementary schools. Whilst excellent VC results can be achieved with professional equipment, great results can be obtained with a simple web camera, microphone and reliable internet connection. VC can also bring specialist English teachers into classrooms for direct teaching as well as modelling good practice for the mainstream teacher. In certain situations this can be one of the few methods available for exposing learners to native English speakers and for facilitating cultural exchanges. Video conferencing (VC) continues to be a highly efficient way of inviting visitors into classrooms and for enabling learners to collaborate with each other at distance. ![]()
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