Educational technology- primary school
M. Omidi Shal; B. Bandali; Mahmood Abolghasemi; S. Saadati
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Reading and writing, in addition to being considered as the human necessities for today life, are one of the pillars of literacy and basic skills in education and learning. One of the goals of the literacy is to develop and strengthen the reading and writing skills of students. ...
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Background and Objectives: Reading and writing, in addition to being considered as the human necessities for today life, are one of the pillars of literacy and basic skills in education and learning. One of the goals of the literacy is to develop and strengthen the reading and writing skills of students. However, some national and international studies have shown the weakness of Iranian students in these two skills. In addition, weakness in reading and writing causes problems in understanding other subjects as well. Therefore, due to the important role of reading and writing skills in the learning and academic progress of students, as well as the need to investigate the factors affecting the academic performance and the efficiency of the educational system, the investigation of this issue was considered in this research. Given the components of reading and writing skills, as well as inefficient teaching methods resulting in this failure, one of the activities that can play an effective role in solving the problem is storytelling. With the development of technology in different fields, digital storytelling has also been used in education. Previous research revealed the positive effect of using traditional and digital stories in teaching different subjects, competencies and skills among learners, but no comparison was made between them. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to compare the effect of two teaching methods based on digital and traditional storytelling on the reading and writing skills of first-grade primary school students.Methods: This was an applied study carried out with quantitative approach and quasi-experimental design. A sample of 50 students of the first grade of an all-boys primary public school in Rasht, Iran in the academic year of 2022-2023 were selected through convenience sampling method to participate in this research. They were assigned to experimental and control groups. Five letters of the first primary Persian Literacy were taught in the experimental group by presenting a digital story. In the control group, the same letters were taught through the same stories in a traditional way by the teacher. The stories were approved by educational experts and first grade school teachers as well. After teaching each letter, both groups took part in a test developed by the team leader of first grade teachers district 1 of education department in Rasht. The validity of the tests was confirmed by educational experts and elementary teachers. To ensure reliability, the measurement process was repeated for five letters of the Persian alphabet, all research processes were documented and the subjects' normal conditions were maintained in the evaluation process. The data were analyzed via inferential statistics methods including Anderson-Darling test, the Mann-Whitney U test and independent samples t-test.Findings: Results showed that the mean scores of both groups in all tests were similarly above the theoretical mean and no significant difference was found considering the performance of the two groups.Conclusion: Considering the capabilities that storytelling has in improving learning outcomes, it can be said that using stories, both in traditional and digital form, can be used as an effective method in teaching Persian and improving the reading and writing skills of primary school students. Also, accuracy in educational design and appropriate learning activities can enrich the use of traditional and digital stories in the education process.
Machine-translation
V. Mirzaeian
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Although an increasing number of studies have addressed the benefits of using Machine Translation (MT) for language learning, there are other studies pointing out the disadvantages of using this technology in language learning. The general attitude in language teaching societies ...
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Background and Objectives: Although an increasing number of studies have addressed the benefits of using Machine Translation (MT) for language learning, there are other studies pointing out the disadvantages of using this technology in language learning. The general attitude in language teaching societies is the avoidance of translation – traditional form and/or electronic – for language learning. Therefore, the present study examines the application of this technology in language learning to conclude whether the use of this technology is generally useful for language learning or not.Method: One hundred articles on the impact of MT on language learning, published between 2000 and 2020, have been reviewed. To select these articles, important keywords were identified, searched in important databases and then manually by checking important journals in the field of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). In this research, two methods of scientific review and meta-analysis have been used to analyze the data. In the first stage, statistical information such as number of participants, languages taught, language pairs used, variables, and language skills were extracted; and in the second stage, meta-analysis of the impact of this technology on language learning was performed. Twelve studies were selected for meta-analysis and a random model was used to follow the meta-analysis framework. Due to the small size of the samples, the G-hedge coefficient employed was based on Cohen.Findings: The results indicated that most MT studies emphasized that MT was a useful tool for language learning. However, careful examination also revealed that learners had mixed views on the use of MT for language learning. These findings raise a variety of perspectives and concerns, and while MT can increase the results of writing in a foreign language by reducing lexical errors, it may not ultimately lead to language learning. The present study identified the lack of correct educational scenarios for implementing MT in language learning. Since the mere use of tools does not guarantee learning, language teachers must first understand the nature of MT and then try to find appropriate ways to use MT with their learners. Because previous research has shown that various factors affect the quality of MT output, teachers should consider these factors. In addition, diversity among learners is itself an important issue that needs to be addressed. However, instructional design should not be limited to ways to effectively use MT in language assignments, but should look for ways to foster long-term language learning. As there is little research on this topic, more research examining the long-term effects of MT on language learning is also needed. In addition to instructional design, there are other important issues that teachers need to deal with.Conclusion: When MT becomes very accurate, instructors may encounter students' lack of motivation to learn languages. In addition, as MT becomes more prevalent, both in everyday life and in educational settings, learners may not find the use of MT immoral, and MT may become a necessity in the language learning culture in the near future. In this regard, instructors should provide students with clear guidelines on ethical considerations regarding the use of MT.
