Teachers? Reflective Journal Analysis of iPad Based Language Learning through the Activity Theory Framework

Tsoghik Grigoryan ()
Additional contact information
Tsoghik Grigoryan: Higher Colleges of Technology

No 8009160, Proceedings of Teaching and Education Conferences from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences

Abstract: This is an experimental study of an iPad based language learning in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) context. A tertiary level college in the UAE went paperless in 2012 and implemented iPads for its Foundations Program, eliminating paper and pen teaching-learning methods from the classroom. The innovation brought up challenges in the technical and methodological fields, as well as in language learning ways, skills and practices. The aim of this study was to find the emerging themes of the teachers? reflective journals in the evaluation of their lessons and diagnosis of problems throughout the two-phase experiment. The data sources that informed this study were: soft copies of four teachers? weekly written reflections in phase one, which lasted for four weeks, and soft copies of two teachers? weekly written reflections in phase two which lasted for another four weeks. So, four teachers teaching four groups for four weeks wrote sixteen journals in phase one, and two teachers teaching two groups for another four weeks wrote eight journals in phase two. By the end of the experiment the teachers produced twenty-four reflective journals, which this study looked at through the Activity Theory framework. The results showed that today?s ?digital natives?, who were elementary level Emirati language learners, demonstrated a strong preference and motivation for using iPads for their everyday language learning.

Keywords: Paperless learning; iPad; reflective journals; EFL; Activity Theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2018-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 6th Teaching & Education Conference, Vienna, Nov 2018, pages 23-44

Downloads: (external link)
https://iises.net/proceedings/6th-teaching-educati ... =80&iid=003&rid=9160 First version, 2018

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sek:itepro:8009160

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Proceedings of Teaching and Education Conferences from International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Klara Cermakova ().