Emergent Multilinguals Learning Languages with the iPad app iTEO

This presentation showed the results of a small-scale study led by Ass. Prof. Claudine Kirsch that investigated language learning in primary schools in Luxembourg and the ways in which this process is mediated by peers and the iPad app iTEO. This study draws its data from the larger longitudinal qualitative research project iTEO (2013–2017) and is based on 10 hours of audio and video-recordings. The participants were 6–7-year-olds learning German and French. The presentation focused on the ways in which the emergent multilingual primary school children scaffold each other’s learning of French while collaboratively producing oral texts on iTEO. The findings show that the children’s language learning was mediated by peers, the task and the app. The children used a range of learning and teaching strategies while completing tasks framed by their teacher. iTEO and the task together mobilised the children’s resources, encouraged autonomy and promoted discussion about language. The presentation linked the results with the other projects during the COST DigitLitey meeting. For example, the link was made with the work with robots in early childhood education and the use of Cubetto, a robot toy teaching kids code and programming and encouraging collaboration and storytelling. The presentation was followed by a discussion on the use of digital tools in early childhood education settings.

Keywords: The iPad app, iTEO, peers, language learning, mediation, primary school

Source: Kirsch, C. & Bes Izuel, A. (2016). Emergent multilinguals learning languages with the IPad app iTEO: a study in primary schools in Luxembourg, The Language Learning Journal, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2016.1258721
This work was funded by the University of Luxembourg under Grant PUL R-AGR-0222; Ministry of National Education, Childhood and Youth under SCRIPT.