Sumario: | Information and communication technologies have played
an important role when designing and implementing contextualised
materials in the EFL class. Thus, technology
has become an accessible resource for teachers to combine
teaching with technology as a complementary tool in the
EFL classroom. This article aims at describing the results of
a qualitative action research study carried out in a private
school in Bogotá, Colombia, to analyse the impact of contextualised
digital EFL materials (virtual lessons focused
on vlogs) on 17 fourth graders’ EFL speaking in a blended
learning environment. Data was collected through students
artifacts, teacher’s journal, voice recorded interviews, and
a survey, which allowed me to come up with significant
findings. The results evinced that students are more engaged
in the learning of English when they are motivated
through the use of contextualised materials developed by
the teacher-researcher, involving technology. Furthermore,
when students created their own vlogs focused on their
own personal realities and preferences as children, their
self-confidence increased and their production in EFL improved.
Likewise, digital contextualised materials showed
a rewarding impact on students’ EFL learning since they
could speak about their personal and everyday life contexts
by establishing a link between home and school; an aspect
that is not addressed in conventional EFL materials that
centred on cultural aspects of English-speaking countries.
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