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The Creation of Online Mini-Takeaway Lessons as a Reflective Instrument in Teacher Education

interactive exercises that need to be visually appealing and user-friendly, and
include learning with ICT, which young learners like. One of the participants
explained: ‘I think that we could really get closer to our pupils by using ac-
tivities and animations on computers and in this way change the way we
usually teach in classrooms.’ In addition, they thought MTLs are different and
innovative and raise the learners’ self-esteem by enabling independent work
without the help, but also interference, of adults. These results show the par-
ticipants’ awareness of the importance of motivation in language teaching.
They recognized the innovative potential of the instrument for raising pupils’
language learning motivation and the value of including active independent
learning in their teaching. A significant number of participants also cited dif-
ferentiation as an area in which MTLs can be valuable. They noted that the
format is especially useful for weaker learners as they can go through the
activities at their own pace, do them multiple times, and listen to the instruc-
tions more than once. They clearly recognized that learners have different
needs and that it was necessary for them to differentiate activities so as to
cater for different levels.
Related to that, some participants mentioned the option of flipped learn-
ing, where ‘I would present the topic in this way, so I would give them this
PPT, to work with it at home and then we would talk about it the next lesson
at school, [and] there would be more time for language production.’
We can conclude that creating the MTL encouraged the majority of the
participants to actively reflect on the teaching principles that they acquired
during their TEYL courses.

Challenges Linked to TEYL in Asynchronous Online Mode
The second question focused on the students’ perceptions of the main chal-
lenges linked to TEYL in asynchronous online mode. When asked about the
main challenges of creating the MTL, some of the participants limited their
answers to descriptions of practical solutions at the activity-design level,
such as how to create animations, modify instructions, record sound, or cre-
ate clear slides. Several students, however, saw the challenges in encour-
aging ‘authentic communication,’ ‘active participation of pupils,’ and using
‘gestures as scaffolding strategies,’ thus linking the challenges to teaching
principles. Through the analysis of the collected data we thus identified the
following common themes: using scaffolding strategies, giving instructions,
simulating authentic communication, giving feedback, time management,
and finding suitable content and exercises.
One of the most frequently cited challenges that the students experienced

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