Edutainment in teaching foreign language to generation Z students

Андрієнко Тетяна Петрівна, доктор філологічних наук, Київський міжнародний університет

EDUTAINMENT У ВИКЛАДАННІ ІНОЗЕМНОЇ МОВИ ДЛЯ СТУДЕНТІВ ПОКОЛІННЯ Z

Стаття розкриває суть нових викликів, які постають перед викладачем іноземної мови у класі зі студентами покоління Z. Також у статті розглядаються мобільні додатки, які допоможуть подолати дані виклики в процесі ігрового навчання. Покоління Z наразі є єдиним поколінням, яке вважається “цифровими аборигенами”, що народилися в епоху безлімітного доступу до інтернету. Покоління Z не відділяє реального життя від життя в соцмережах, а тому воно дуже відрізняється від студентів попередніх поколінь, зокрема сприйняттям інформації, поведінкою, підходом до навчання. Так, вони люблять експериментувати, надають перевагу візуальному навчанню, є хорошими командними гравцями, вправні в багатозадачності, обирають ігрове навчання з-поміж інших форм, оскільки швидко втомлюються фокусувати свою увагу на одному й тому ж завданні. Зважаючи на це, викладач мусить підлаштовувати навчальний процес у викладанні іноземної мови так, щоб задовільнити вимоги нового покоління Z у навчанні. Зокрема, застосування додатків Kahoot!, Socrative, Pole Everywhere, Quizlet, відео ресурсів з Youtube та Instagram, ведення власного блогу суттєво допоможе зламати стіну непорозуміння між поколінням Z та викладачем на уроці іноземної мови, а також покращить засвоєння вивченого матеріалу.

Ключові слова: іноземна мова, покоління Z, ігрове навчання, цифрова грамотність, Kahoot!

The main text

Generation Z is the demographic cohort succeeding the Millennials (or Generation Y) and preceding Generation Alpha. Over the past 7 decades sociologists have defined 4 generations: Baby Boomers (the years of birth 1946-1964; in 2020 they must be 56-74 years old), Gen X (the years of birth 1965-1985; in 2020 they must be 35-55), Millennials or Gen Y (the years of birth 1986-1995; in 2020 they must be 25-34), Gen Z (the years of birth 1996- present; in 2020 they must be 0-24) [15].

Generation Z (Gen Z) has been recognized as the generation with the most trendsetting technology and is classified as the digital natives [6]. They are with so-called digital DNA because they cope perfectly with different technologies. Their lifestyles online and offline are almost the same because they are always connected. This generation has been living with laptops and the internet almost since their births that's why they consider information and communication as important parts of their life. They are good at multitasking, they can chat, text, watch and read while eating [3]. They know that they can find any answer they need with the help of Google and they can talk to any person with the help of their gadgets.

Since all generations differ a lot in their ways of world perception, once baby boomers had to understand how to teach Gen Xers, nowadays modern teachers need to find methods to reach Gen Zers as well. As for Generation Z students, they want to know the importance and practical use of the knowledge they get.

Before the arrival of technology, Baby Boomers and Gen Xers coped with single-tasking, were able to concentrate over a protracted period. As new technologies roll around, Millennials and Gen Z are good at multi-tasking and can effectively navigate multiple input streams [15].

Moreover, Gen Zs have shorter attention spans, are uncomfortable with boredom, visually preferred, curious, impatient, interactive and hands-on, love challenge, success trough strategy. So there can be the following challenges which EFL teachers usually face while teaching Generation Z, such as: contending with shorter concentration spans, not being comfortable with monotony, reacting to brutal urgency of the moment, working out visually-based lessons and activities for students, opening up possibilities “for interactive and hands-on learning experiences, adding challenge and elements of curiosity to classroom instruction, guiding students toward success through strategies” [15].

As for the Generation Z students, they like to try out something new while learning. They prefer to learn in practice using new technologies rather than being given vague instructions from books. Students can intuitively use a wide range of technologies. They tend to mess around with the latest electronic gadgets which they use to study, to explore unknown worlds, to acquaint themselves with new friends.

They reveal their creativity on social networks. They are good at learning new tools and applications. If they don't know something or stumble at something first of all they address rather to Google or Wikipedia than to their teacher. And the EFL teacher should take it into consideration and remember that he/she is not the final authority and the only resource of information in the classroom as it was in previous times.

While the range of accessible technologies is constantly changing, the Generation Z falls in line as quickly as any changes appear. They use different Internet platforms to get in touch with their friends all over the world in order to improve their speaking skills. They even have possibility to choose FL instructor from any country via Internet. As these students can use interactive experiences out of college and in any corner of the world, they need to be motivated, attracted, and engaged in the classroom, so teachers should opt for different visual effects while teaching foreign languages.

Generation Z students are perfect team players. In addition, they favor horizontal working relationships and ignore hierarchical ones. That's why they like working in groups. It's better to create a supportive atmosphere with teamwork in the classroom. During their work, students demonstrate team spirit, so stronger students always support the weaker ones and help them with their learning. In such a way they learn by getting knowledge from each other. Generation Z students don't mind exchange their experiences within the group. So the work in groups while learning EFL is preferable.

They have short concentration spans and while being good at multi-tasking. It's rather difficult to make them work on the same thing for long periods of time, they would be probably overwhelmed and even frustrated. On the contrary Gen Zers will certainly enjoy the activities being able to cope with several tasks simultaneously, because it's easy for them to shift attention from one exercice to another. teaching generation student lesson

Edutainment is a good way to cope with some challenges that arise while teaching Generation Z. This term is derived from education and entertainment and means entertaining education or educational entertainment. It implies socializing the audience by embedding lessons in any known way of entertainment: films, TV shows, computer games, music, multimedia software, websites, etc. These students appreciate studying using interactive methods combining fun activities and games [14].

So FL teachers should use more new technological tools in their teaching and accommodate their teaching strategies to the needs of their students. They should enable students to give feedback. It's a good idea to start a class blog and think of reasons how students can use it. EFL Teacher should bring movies into the class and make the students review them. It's a good idea to make students discuss their findings in the classroom. FL teachers can incorporate pictures, sounds, video from YouTube and Instagram into all the teaching activities. It would be better to enable students to have listening, speaking and writing activities at the same time.

A FL teacher can let students record and upload their presentations on a social media platform. It will give the opportunity to arrange online communication by bringing foreign cultures and different countries together.

At the same time, FL teachers should not abandon traditional teaching methods, as they consist a valuable experience and a quality basis for further work and improvement [14]. That only means that the traditional methods of teaching FL should be updated and improved by new technologies.

Despite that we should admit that the notion of traditional literacy has been transformed into a new literacy practice, known as digital literacy, in which people simultaneously draw on different resources, or modes, to consume and produce information (including textual, visual, audio, and/or gestural modes) and that literacy can be enhanced in EFL classroom via new information technologies.

The use of educational game or video games can support the development of students' cognitive, motivational, emotional and social outlook [8, p. 1--12; 12, p. 192-197]. There is a difference between learning based on games, which means “a pedagogical approach in which games are used to achieve educational outcomes through incidental learning, and gamification techniques, an integration of game elements in non-gaming systems, which engage students and improve the experiential nature of active, intentional learning” [7, p. 155-170].

Although gamification is not cutting edge in education, the technologies with the help of which it is supported have been evolving [4, p. 1-16]. Early use of gamification in education was called to improve SRSs (student response systems) [16, p. 217-227]. In most cases SRSs are applied to show multiple-choice questions to give possibilities for students to answer quizzes in classrooms [10, p. 57-60].

As gamification has become wide-spread in the learning, there has been a significant pregress from student response systems such as “Poll Everywhere” and “iClicker” to more modern GSRSs (game-based student response systems) such as Socrative and Kahoot! [9, p. 151-158; 16, p. 217-227].

Game-based student response systems are a very good example of a gamification approach that combines game principles and student response systems tools in order to support engagement, motivation, learning in general, and fun in the classroom. The application of game-based student response systems in the form of gamification let students activate their previously acquired knowledge and assess them while they are playing and learning a new material [9, p. 151-158].

Game-based student response systems promote “students' attention, motivation, engagement and enjoyment beyond traditional methods” [1, p. 429-438]. They enhance autonomy in the studying as well because students may use these systems on their gadgets. Furthermore, game-based student response systems provide better class attendance [2, p. 9-20], as for an individual level, they motivate students who usually do not take part in class discussions [16, p. 217-227]. Moreover, teachers consider game-based student response systems to be effective teaching instruments in favoring personalization of learning [16, p. 217-227]. In such a way, FL teachers have a good reason to incorporate gamification into their teaching as a way to transform education into edutainment.

So, on the one hand, in the EFL classroom, teachers face the challenge to help their students develop the necessary reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in their foreign language, on the other hand, they also face the challenge to provide learners with meaningful and authentic opportunities to apply and practice such skills in the classroom as they lack direct contact with the foreign culture. Technology, including digital literacy, can increase students' contact with the foreign culture and language. However, since not every teacher is familiar with the technological tools that the students utilize to communicate across different platforms, it can be a challenging task for FL educators to provide classroom instruction that draws on these digital resources to meet students' language learning needs [11].

Such teaching mobile applications for language learning as Kahoot!, Socrative, Pole Everywhere, Quizlet have been considered practically useful and have shown them increasingly motivating for Gen Zers. The use of such mobile apps can improve collaboration and cooperation among students, because a great advantage is that Gen Zers are online 24/7 and take their gadgets wherever they go. Therefore, teachers should inspire their students being connected in collaborative world in order to make their learning meaningful and relevant [5]. By involving Gen Zers in activities which let them be content creators, “teachers can embrace students' participation and support them to take more responsibility in their own learning” [13].

So in order to adapt to the reality of Gen Zs in FL classroom there should be new ways to change teaching style, methods, class routines, curriculum and relationships, as well as new information technologies should be applied.

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