In the modern world, English language is international, it is spoken by 1.5 billion people in various countries of our world and approximately the same number of people are in the process of learning it. Currently, the English language is necessary not only for rapid career growth, but also for study, travel, communication with friends, broadening one’s horizons and just for a full life. The process of teaching a foreign language is currently in constant development. In place of established methods, completely new approaches, tools and technologies are available that can improve the quality and effectiveness of training, the motivation for studying and ensure the optimization of the educational process.
How to increase the motivation of today’s students to learn English? The modern generation of students differs from the previous ones in that it grows in the era of the electronization of information resources and the digital boom. Students prefer electronic and audio books over paper, they are increasingly located on the expanses of cognitive resources of the Internet than in high schools and city libraries. And, it becomes obvious that the usual teaching methods aimed at transferring the volume of knowledge are insufficient for the motivation and interest of such students. In the circumstances, it is necessary to use an activity approach that allows you to simulate life situations, develop a penchant for self-learning, personal self-determination, motivation for cognitive activity among students, etc. To attract and retain the attention of students who are accustomed to the digital information space are capable of the same electronic means that they use every day.
One of these devices that is close in level of suggestiveness with smartphones, tablets, laptops, personal computers is an interactive whiteboard. This is a touch screen connected to a computer, the image from which transfers the projector to the board. The surface of the board is very sensitive and allows you to use the pen to write on it, make corrections and adjustments, make notes and comments with color, save class materials for future use and editing. A microscope, a document camera, a digital camera or a video camera can be connected to a computer, and, as a result, to an interactive whiteboard. And with all the displayed materials you can work productively right during the lesson [1].
As practice shows, working with an interactive whiteboard increases the level of perception of the material. Despite the fact that the student audience came out of childhood, however, it is very responsive to game forms of training and the use of a variety of technical innovations. Due to the various forms of information transfer – visual, sound and tactile, there is a great influence and impact on the student, which form associative connections that contribute to better assimilation of the material.
The objective of the study
In view of this, the purpose of this article is to consider and study a variety of techniques and highly effective methods of working with an interactive whiteboard to improve the quality of assimilation of material and interest among students in English classes at a technical university.
Material and research methods
In our article, we use such research methods as abstracting, observing, describing, and analyzing the literature. The listed methods apply to both empirical and theoretical ones and allow us to fully explore the use of an interactive whiteboard in English lessons at a technical university.
Research results and discussion
With a help of the interactive whiteboard, students feel themselves in an interactive space familiar to them, which undoubtedly encourages them to want to speak or comment on what they hear, seen in the same way as they do on various social networks. Despite the fact that students belong to adolescence, game forms of training, various technical innovations are always perceived with interest in English classes. In addition, an interactive whiteboard can help weaker students in the subject, but who have good computer skills, become more confident, active and motivated in the learning process among students who are knowledgeable in English.
Interactive whiteboard is a convenient and popular tool for the teacher, the use of which makes the lesson not only rich and effective, but also more interesting, allowing you to take the work to a higher level. However, along with numerous examples of the successful use of an interactive whiteboard at a technical university, there are examples of inefficient work with it. Unfortunately, many teachers see in the blackboard primarily a device that replaces the projector screen, allows you to control the display of images standing at the blackboard – with your finger or an electronic marker, that is, basically use an interactive whiteboard to show presentations. Which is undoubtedly convenient, but the value of these features is low. To this day, in educational institutions, a very small percentage of teachers use this modern tool to the full extent of its capabilities. The software supplied with the interactive whiteboard has a rich arsenal of functions with which you can efficiently work with various objects on the board. One of the advantages of using an interactive whiteboard in English classes is to increase the motivation of students of technical specialties and more effective teaching of a foreign language [2].
In English classes, not always students of technical universities take the initiative, generate ideas or want to actively talk and speak with each other or with a teacher in a foreign language, because in many cases they are prevented from revealing such personal qualities as timidity, restraint, lack of initiative and isolation. In such cases, the interactive whiteboard helps the teacher to use various modes of work, such as individual, paired or group, and also helps to implement the principles of communicative activity, feedback, visualization, systematicity and presentation of material. Simple exercises such as speech warm-ups, role-playing games, and dialogs cause students to laugh, which in turn creates a favorable psychological climate in English classes and helps to remove unnecessary tension, constraint, and various other language barriers that prevent them from learning English
It is known that using the interactive whiteboard you can perform the following operations:
– display on the board pre-prepared control tasks, questions, various visual information (graphs, charts, reproductions of paintings, drawings, photographs, tables, charts), videos, electronic textbooks, programs, presentations;
– make notes and notes on the displayed images;
– create diagrams, figures, tables;
– quickly make changes to teaching materials and class notes right in the class, depending on changing circumstances.
Among other important functions of the interactive whiteboard: handwriting recognition, magnification of the necessary fragment (“magnifying glass”), laser pointer, with which you can draw students’ attention to especially important points.
Special advantages are possessed by an interactive board for teaching English. Pre-prepared thematic texts, teaching and verification exercises, illustrations, audio and video materials serve as a support for introducing or activating the lesson material, repeating and fixing speech models and grammatical structures, improving reading and perception of foreign language speech by ear, control and self-control of knowledge. SMART Notebook software comes with the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. It allows you to create records that can include various types of information (texts, videos, diagrams, tables, signs, figures). The software has the following features:
1) When explaining grammatical material (for example: compiling various types of sentences), the use of multi-colored pencils helps to highlight the main thing, to focus on the use of the desired form of the semantic verb and the location of the auxiliary in the sentence.
2) On the screen, you can capture the train of thought, fix the order of work and, if necessary, have the opportunity to return to the beginning of the presentation or the more complex aspect of the lesson material (for example: the topic “The difference in use and education of the times” Simple “and” Progressive”).
3) The “drag and drop” function allows you to move pictures and words when performing tasks such as “pick up a couple”, “make a combination”, “correlate” (unlike PowerPoint presentations, where all objects are placed in their places during creation, further cannot be changed arbitrarily).
4) On one slide, you can place several frames of this lesson and follow the train of thought.
5) All the material of the lesson with the interactive whiteboard can be saved in the recording, and the teacher does not need to re-write and create everything [3].
The program has a large collection of ready-made thematic pictures, which can also be used in the lessons of introduction, consolidation, activation and control of all types of speech activity of students.
A variety of styles and communication, and teaching within the lesson, the use of multimedia interactive technologies – all this items enrich the content of the lesson, accelerate the pace of teaching and increase interest in learning English. The interactive board can be used at various stages of English lesson and when studying several types of speech activity: during phonetic and speech exercises, introducing and practicing vocabulary and speech models, activating of the grammatical material, learning spelling and perceiving foreign speech in listening.
When teaching of reading, such techniques like “Correspondence Establishment”, “Restoring the deformed text”, “Text with omissions”, “Highlighting the necessary information” are used.
Communicative value in teaching of speaking is given to the tasks “Unfinished sentence”, “Correlation of remarks in dialogue”, “Establishment of correspondences”. Useful in creating such tasks is flash-animation, so then ready-made schemes can be found on the Internet and fill them up with the necessary thematic material.
For introduction of the lexical material, the most effective are such techniques as: “Distribution into groups”, “Remove unnecessary items”, “Comparison”, “Filling in the gaps”. In order to develop these tasks, the cloning function is used, which allows to increase the number of identical objects. On their material base it is possible not only to introduce new lexical units, but also to train the formulation of the question, the compilation of the statement, the organization of the speech situation, which contributes to the development of communicative skills.
Audio recordings made by native speakers, a convenient interface, and a game form allow the student to be interested in and achieve certain results when learning perception and understanding of foreign speech by ear. Within analyzing the possibilities of software shells, when working with audio and video materials it should be noted that the process of listening and viewing is continuous in the Notebook software shell. The “Lynx4” software shell allows you to stop, repeat, return to the right moment, which facilitates the process of perception and understanding of foreign language speech and provides more opportunities for working with fragments of audio text and video film. On an interactive whiteboard, you can capture video images and reflect them statically so that you can discuss and add your comments to them.
When teaching of written speech and spelling, the most effective tasks are “Filling in the gaps”, “Restoring the deformed text”, “Text with omissions”. The tools like “Shutter” function allows quickly and efficiently organize control and the “Transparency” function can highlight the correct options become a great useful aid.
As known for a long time that thanks to the organs of vision, a person perceives 80 % of information, 15 % through the organs of hearing and another 5 % through the sense of smell, taste and touch. For example, when learning a pronunciation, students can not only listen to the pronunciation of words by native English speakers and the teacher, but also monitor the work of the speech apparatus, thanks to the technical ability of the interactive whiteboard to display the face of a person who is articulating individual sounds, words and phrases. Also during the practices of listening and watching students can stop for a pause by themselves, repeat a missed phrase or return to it for replay again, which greatly facilitates students of a technical university to perceive and study the proposed material by the teacher. As practice shows, students remember better when they see, hear the proposed information and can “touch” it when they reproduce something by themselves (write, draw, sing, etc.), and use it in practice too. For example, when they listen to songs and then they sing them in karaoke mode [3].
The teacher can use such practices as “Find errors in the dialogs of your classmates”, “Choose the correct option according to what you heard”, “Fill in the gaps in the text” in the listening classes while checking the knowledge of the material in English.
There are many training programs designed specifically for working with the interactive whiteboard, such as English 7, Food and Meals, Enjoy Listening and Playing. They allow to conduct phonetic and speech exercises, introduce and practice grammatical and lexical material, teach understanding of English speech by ear and spelling of English words.
The interactive whiteboard provides valuable assistance in the active perception of information, it makes learning vivid and memorable, and also forms an emotionally positive attitude to the subject, provides a rich opportunity for the development of its intellectual and creative abilities, allows to independently acquire new knowledge, instills the ability to work with various sources information. Working on the topic “Technological ... process”, students mark directly on the diagram the main equipment that is located in this workshop or plant, after which they work with materials that using in this production process and as a result make up the full cycle of the production process performance. The results can be saved and the work on the “Technological process” can be continued in the next lesson [4].
When discussing technological discoveries and inventions of recent centuries, you can display their images, as well as photographs of inventors and scientists who invented them. Further, you can diversify the lesson by asking students to compare inventions with the name of the inventor with the date of invention, place, etc.
As mentioned above, working with an interactive whiteboard contributes to the development of the creative potential of students, as well as the ability to work in a team. Due to the ability to access the Internet, the interactive whiteboard has the “Search” function, all the necessary information can be found directly during the lesson. As a rule, using an interactive whiteboard you can organize a “brainstorming”, a “round table”, trainings, micro-conferences. Such work with the multimedia capabilities of the interactive whiteboard develops the ability to orientate in the socio-cultural aspects of people’s livelihoods, helps to find similarities and differences in the traditions and culture of their country and the country of the language being studied, to respect and value them.
Since working with an interactive whiteboard is excitingly and simply, it becomes easier for students of technical universities to study. Even the most “problematic” students find new opportunities for self-expression, the quiet become active and begin to think creatively, the noisy students direct their energy to work. In such cases, the general rules for working in groups (pairs) are important:
– support each other, despite different points of view;
– listen carefully to each member of the group;
– do not interrupt the speaker;
– speak briefly and clearly so that everyone has time to speak out;
– rejecting the proposed idea, do it politely and do not forget to offer an alternative;
– It is an honor to speak on behalf of the group, since you are an authorized member of the entire group [5].
It should not be forgotten that the active introduction of the latest presented technologies can also produce a negative result, since the strong impact provided by these technologies can lead, firstly, to a deterioration in the psychophysiological health of students and, secondly, to a replacement of students’ imagination and creative thoughts, that so-called “comic thinking.” Interactive technologies should motivate and arouse creative interest, and not capture and manipulate. This is the special role of pedagogical and didactic approaches in the use of interactive technologies in education [6].
Disadvantages of using interactive whiteboards.
1. Interactive whiteboards are much more expensive than standard whiteboards or a projector with a screen.
2. The surface of the interactive whiteboards can be damaged, replacing the damaged surface is also a very expensive service (such a repair may be equal to buying a new board).
3. The image transmitted to the surface of the interactive whiteboard may be closed by shadow of a person near the whiteboard.
4. Portable interactive whiteboards (and projectors) should be more protected from theft, damage, etc. Also, when using portable boards, at each transfer to a new place, the board must be adjusted (calibrated).
5. If remote access is allowed to the interactive whiteboard, some users may send an unwanted message or picture to the screen.
6. Design flaws of electronic markers. They are thick, the image lags behind the movements even after calibration, it is very difficult and inconvenient to write with them.
7. Lack or inaccessibility of software.
8. The time required to prepare the lesson is very high.
9. The need to temporarily limit working with an interactive whiteboard in the lesson due to the need to comply with sanitary standards.
The ease of use of these devices and the variety of resources captivates students more than traditional classes. However, teachers often have to spend a lot of time searching for the necessary materials, which is a time-consuming process involving serious and additional work in electronic form. Also one of the main problems which teachers facing around the world is the insufficient preparation of teachers for working with an interactive whiteboard. Working with an interactive whiteboard requires from the teacher to improve constantly his skills in working with rapidly growing computer technologies, to study the necessary instructions for using whiteboards, which demonstrate how this modern equipment can be used in English classes. Not every teacher is ready to spend his personal time in order to improve the process of teaching English in technical universities [7]. Therefore, from the universities it is necessary to provide support to teachers who are actively mastering various courses, training seminars, online videos, teaching aids. Therefore, so that any teacher who is interested in using an interactive whiteboard in their classes can find a way to get knowledge how to work with it.
Conclusions or summary. Therefore the use of an interactive whiteboard in foreign language lessons develop students’ creative and mental activity, enhance their linguistic and communicative competence, create better conditions for mastering speaking and listening skills in English. All this items leads to an increase in the efficiency of assimilation of the studied material.
In conclusion, we note that the use of an interactive whiteboard correspond to the method of perceiving information that distinguish a new generation of students who have a much higher need for visual information and visual stimulation. According to research by psychologists, people remember only 20 % of what they see, 30 % of what they hear, 50 % of what they see and hear, and 80 % of what they see, hear and do at the same time. Based on these data, can be said that the use of interactive technologies improve significantly the quality of students’ knowledge [8].
Having studied the possibilities of interactive whiteboards, conducted a survey among teachers and students of a technical university, we came to the following conclusions:
– Interactive whiteboard is very effective in the educational process. With its help, it is easier to interest the student, and the teacher can cover a larger volume of educational material.
– The multifunctionality of the interactive whiteboard facilitates the work of both the teacher and the student.
– Despite some disadvantages, its use leads to the development of education, with the use of increasingly new technologies.
However, remember that an interactive whiteboard is not a magical tool that can solve all problems. This whiteboard can never completely replace the teacher. Any lesson in English using an interactive whiteboard should have a clear plan and structure, to achieve goals and objectives. Ultimately, it will depend on the quality preparation for the lesson and the creative imagination of the teacher how effectively all the capabilities of this smart equipment will be used.
Библиографическая ссылка
Tskhay N.L., Zhdanova E.A. THE USE OF INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSES AT TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY // European Journal of Natural History. – 2020. – № 3. – С. 24-28;URL: https://world-science.ru/ru/article/view?id=34080 (дата обращения: 19.04.2024).