The world is going digital,don't be left behind.(Abi 2022)
That Learning English is challenging to French students is a fact no teacher would refute.However using students' extra skills to explore new learning methods could be a good way of helping them grab some few,if not all what you aim to teach.I have not explored a quarter of my Level 5 learners' digital skills yet but I am enjoying the latest; Their skills on email writing.The last time we talked about digital contacts at an early stage find it in this article: (https://lahidechou.wixsite.com/elt-techhouse-1/post/early-tech-exposure-to-learners-taking-the-bold-step)
This time, I am dealing with level 5 students who already have an extensive knowledge of mobile phone Apps.Do not get me wrong phones are strictly forbidden in the school where I teach and the learners don't have a perfect mastery of all the email writing stuff.Yet, they can read my emails and reply to me.That is enough for now as far as they use the target language,English.
I have been working with their elder mates (Level 7) using WhatsApp.I enjoy using Whatsapp because of how rich a lessson can be when you use it that is if you know how to explore it.You can watch this demo on how to do a WhatsApp lesson on my Youtube channel (https://youtu.be/6kuRrXJCTW8)
.In this particular class,not everyone has an android phone.Unfortunately, I work only with those who can afford a mobile phone.The aim of this digital contact is to enable them use English in the widest way possible.Getting used to an email setting , downloading images sent via mail and replying to messages in English are skills they also learn in the process.
HOW I PROCEED
I send an email with a task and ask them to send me their answers.Then I read their answers and reply to them with corrections or further questions.We keep in touch twice per week and each time they have a new task with a prompt.In the image below, I want to test their ability to describe so I sent them an image of a market place and asked them to describe the image.Figure 2 is a response given by one of the learners and figure 3 is my reply with further prompts.
I find this method interesting and I hope to explore it with more learners in that class in the future.I also do not wish to repeat what we do in class in such exercises to avoid them being bored.The quest for discovery is what keeps learning interesting and this is only achieved through variety.
Try this with interested students and share feedback in the comment section next time.