For teaching alphabet from A to Z, computer-related words whose pictures can be made, can be used to begin language learning in pre-school or grade one. Now computer and and other digital devices with key boards being common in social life, it becomes relevant to teach English through commuter vocabulary," said Dr Kishore, whose paper "Inclusion of Computer Related Sight Vocabulary for Learning Alphabet in Grade One: Action Research to Contextualize Alphabet Learning" for the conference "The Impact of Social Changes on English Language & Literature: An Overview of 100 Years" held at Lingaya's University in Faridabad in 2014. The reference of the paper is also available at Google Scholar [1].
Abstract
Keeping in view the changed situation in the urban primary schools with the introduction of computers and smart classrooms, an action research was undertaken to teach alphabet by including the sight vocabulary related to technological devices. Four clap rhymes and additional flash cards were created to create sight vocabulary of 52 existing pictures and 26 new iconic visuals related to computers and cell-phones. For action research that lasted for six days, one day was devoted to rhymes and five other days for sight vocabulary of five or six letters related words per day. The new words included in the sight vocabulary were as follows: Abacus; Bluetooth; CPU; DVD; Email; Floppy; Game-port; Hard-disk; Iphone; Joystick; Keyboard; Laptop; Modem; Nero; Orkut; Printer; Q-cable; Ram; Server; Twitter; UPS; Vista; Webcam; XP; Youtube; Zorpia. A recall test on children (N=25, age= 5-6 years, MSE group, urban) for random ten picture-to-word matching showed 80 X 80 performance indicating the effectiveness of the intervention. Implication of the action research is that the sight-vocabulary should be contextualized every time the technological environment changes. The outcome of the action research was the creation of knowledge product in the form of flash cards and new clap rhymes.Educational innovations for language learning need to keep to keep pace with technological revolutions.
Keywords: Clap rhymes; computer iconic visuals; English instruction; sight vocabulary
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