Page 106 - Pedagoška vizija / A Pedagogical Vision

Anja Pirih and Silva Bratož

dently at home, so the teacher had to achieve these goals through materials
alone.
The right level of difficulty and progression from receptive to productive
skills were also highlighted in the discussions as well as questionnaires. Stu-
dents stressed how essential it is to design activities that are not too diffi-
cult for independent work but also not so easy that it discourages participa-
tion.Theymentionednot presentingtoo manynewwords,startingwith easy
tasks and slowly moving towards more difficult exercises. They explained
how much thought they put into designing activities that would be based
on students’ existing EFL skills, which would enable independent work with
the materials, for example using only spoken instructions and listening tasks
before 3rd grade because pupils at that level do not know how to read in
English yet.
Another principle that a few students focused on was contextualizing the
target language, especially providing enough context when teaching new
vocabulary. One of them mentioned contextualizing new language to estab-
lish a clear link with real-life situations which would persuade pupils of the
usefulness of the acquired knowledge.
While the majority of participants showed an in-depth understanding of
TEYL teaching principles, a few failed to connect the task of creating an
MTL with the theoretical foundations discussed in their TEYL courses and
focused only on the technical aspect of designing tasks for asynchronous
online learning. This resonates with the results of previous studies (Jay and
Johnson 2002; Körkkö, Kyrö-Ämmälä, and Turunen 2016) which showed that
through the reflective practice process, student teachers may develop the
competence to link theoretical knowledge with teaching practice to vary-
ing degrees. Some students are able to effectively and critically reflect on
applying teaching principles, while others are not able to go beyond the
descriptive level or reflect on that aspect at all.
In the answers to the survey question regarding the potential of an MTL
format, the participants stressed its usefulness for language consolidation
and revision, student motivation, and differentiation. The majority of them
reported they could easily use the lessons in class to consolidate knowledge
or for revision purposes; some mentioned also using it for independent stu-
dent work at home. They found it very useful for absent learners who miss
lessons to get the opportunity to practice the newly learnt language through
an MTL as often as they wish. Another theme that was frequently cited was
motivation. Quite a few participants perceived MTLs as an ideal format to
motivate pupils for EFL learning since the lessons consist of animations and

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