Dissertation Assignment Sample

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Introduction 

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The purpose of this dissertation is to identify the role of Technology and its positive and negative impacts on the process of language development among children with English as an additional language. The investigation will be accomplished considering "An exploration of how technology may affect the language development of children with EAL (English as an additional language)". Technology is one of the crucial and emerging aspects of the current modern world and it has integration in each industry and field. The integration of Technology in language development among children with EAL has significant characteristics to Explorer and learning the creative and enjoyable atmosphere for improving the personal and professional development of individuals since childhood. The Technology has capabilities to provide better language development efficiency among children in the classroom and help them interact actively. Additionally, there are several challenges are associated with the language development process through technology that is also required to explore correctly (Westhisi and Setiasih, 2018). The research methodology to conduct the investigation on the respective topic will be the combination of the primary and secondary methods of data collection and analysis. There will be only a secondary method that will be used. It is through this that there can be proper in-depth research that can be conducted. A literature review will be conducted that will have a number of sub-sections present in order to make sure that the objectives have been achieved. The results from data collection and analysis will be discussed as per the thematic approach to reach a final conclusion for supporting valiant audiences and recommending the best use of technology in language development among children with EAL (Snyder, 2019).

Aims: To explore the use of how technology have an impact on children up to 5 years

Objectives: 

• To determine the influence technology has on children language development especially those with English as an additional language in early years.
• To analyse impact the pandemic has had on EAL language development.
• To explore practitioner’s roles in supporting language development for EAL children.

Methodology

The use of a research methodology is known to be using a set of tools, techniques and procedure so that relevant data can be attained. This is an utmost important part of the research as it highlights the type of data that will be collected and how it will be analysed. It also takes into account the type of sampling that would be used so that the reliability of the research can be looked at. The methodology section of the research helps to point out the validity of the whole research and also represent the ethical dilemmas which can be faced (Szente, 2020).

Research Approach

The first area of methodology that is going to be looked at is what type of research approach is going to be used. There are 2 main types of research approaches that are used with are deductive and inductive approach and both of them are opposite of each other. The deductive approach is where a theory or a hypothesis is already present and further data is collected in order to either support it or against it. On the other hand, an inductive approach takes on a completely new topic through which a new theory is developed and objectives are made for supporting the theory that has been made (Hignett and McDermott, 2015).

This specific research will involve that the use of the inductive approach be used. The research that is being carried out will use the observation method as there will be various patterns that will be tracked down. The inductive approach is also known for identification of the patterns that are present in a study can be compared in order to breakdown the data. The data will also be considered to be valid as the research would have observed all of it by themselves and only from adequate sources is the data collected (Liu, 2016). 

Research Method

There are three methods that can be used for a research which are qualitative methodology, quantitative methodology and mixed methodology. The qualitative methodology involves that data is collected in the form of words rather than statistics. This area of the method is involved in making sure that there is a thorough in-depth review that will take place. The strategies that are used in such a method are conduction of literature reviews and interviews as well as questionnaires but it should be kept in mind that here the questions are open-ended as only theoretical data is to be collected. The quantitative method focuses on collected data in the form of statistics. This type of method is used where there is a large amount of data that is to be collected and there are a lot of numbers that are involved here (Moraga et al., 2020). The strategy that is used in such a method is through questionnaires, surveys and reports of organisations such as annual reports. The questions that are developed here are closed ended. The mixed methodology would involve that both aspects of the qualitative and quantitative methodologies are used (Lovarelli and Bacenetti, 2017).

The use of the qualitative strategy would be used within this specific research. This is because it would help researcher to gain a better understanding of how technology has impacted the development of children with EAL. The objectives which have been identified would be thoroughly researched so that a clear understanding of the topic at hand can be developed. The other reason that such a method has been chosen is that it is time effective as well as cost effective (Hignett and McDermott, 2015). This will be further explained in the next section where data collection strategy will be pointed out.

Data Collection

There are two types of data collection strategies being primary data collection and secondary data collection. Primary data is when there is raw data that is collected from the market. This data is not published or found anywhere in the market hence it is the first time that the data has been collected and analysed (Lovarelli and Bacenetti, 2017). Secondary data collection involves reviewing of the data that is already present in the market. The data has been collected by a scholar whom has posted it on a valid library where it can be retrieved from. The method that such data can be collected from are annual reports, journals, news articles and even public reports.

For this research the use of secondary data collection is going to be done. There will be various journal articles that will be taken and in-depth review is going to occur (Snyder, 2019). The journal being taken will be from the years 2015-2022 because data behind these years would be insufficient as the use of technology in education is starting to rise. The articles will be taken from Google Scholar as there would be validity that could be proven here. There are also certain key words that will be used so that the objectives can be achieved:

• Technology in education
• Technology in EAL
• Impact of technology in EAL
• Pandemic impact on EAL

Data Analysis

For the secondary data collection that is being done in the research and for analysing the journals that will be taken the use of thematic analysis will be used. This type of analysis will make sure that the journals will be thoroughly analysed. There will be a specific keywords that would be searched so that in order to develop effective research that can be done.

Literature Review

Introduction 

This section of the report will provide the review of existing literature and journal articles associated with the use of technology in early year education. In this section, different themes are discussed such as impact of technology on early year education, impact of technology on English learning among children as well as the role of technology during the teaching practices for the practitioners. 

Technology Impact on Early Year education

The use of technology is becoming prominent with each passing year and its dominance is increasing. It is important for such to be looked at because technology has become an important part in daily lifestyle and the education sector seems to have been also affected by the use of technology. It seems that adoption of technology in the education sector has provided new ways that knowledge can be imparted for example use of smartboards have been used in order to develop effective skills for children. Early year education, children under the age of 5 years, have also seen an increase in technology hence both benefits and drawbacks have been looked at. 

Authors Ihmeideh and Alkhawaldeh, (2017) have shown that both parents and teachers of early year children have shown their interest in seeing how technology plays a role in shaping the culture of children at a young age. There was a questionnaire method that was used in this research in which teachers and parents of children were asked the questions. The results had shown that the teacher and parents have different perceptions on the technology to be looked at. The parent perception helped to see that children help to learn faster and better for different skills to be looked at. On the other hand teachers have a hard time to use technology and having proper skills to be developed accordingly (Hignett and McDermott, 2015). 

Author Ingleby, (2015) has also shown that the implementation of technological innovation has helped to provide a better education for children. It is a necessary area to be looked because through technology there can be new activities that can be implemented. There will be better education that can be provided as certain skills will be provided to children so that they can have an adequate feature. There can be innovative activities that can be provided to the children which were not present before hence helping to clear out how effective of a tool technology is for children for greater achievement to be looked at. There are even news article that agree with the factor that technology can help to provide adequate amount of knowledge to children. STEM learning is one of the large concepts that is present in the education sector and it is due to this that there can be better outline for further knowledge to be looked at. STEM learning is one of UKs largest education providing programing and adding technology to it helps to increase the skills for students so that they can face various challenges in their life later on. It can also be seen that the level of social interaction can also be increased along with emotional development. Both of these concepts are important for a child as it seems that through this that further development in a child’s behavior can be expected. 

Influence technology has on children EAL

According to authors Oxley and De Cat, (2021) it seems that children whom are present in England and have English as second language have a hard time in achieving high grades in all subjects. This is because all of the subjects are being taught in English and if students are not able to comprehend such a language then it can cause them to understand less of what is being taught. The research carried out the intervention method in which screen of 25 intervetions was done. These interventions also involved the core concept of technology as it was seen that the use of technology provided a greater chance of increase in the EAL learning. The findings in the research have shown that the use of technology will enhance the learner’s ability to use update English accordingly. 

Authors Ahmadi and Reza, (2018) have further shed light on this topic as they have shown the importance of having technology for helping to learn a language. The article further goes on to explain that the use of technology by teachers has helped them to adopt various activities that can be used for development of various skills for children. The method that has been used to collect data is secondary through which various literatures have been analysed. The findings in the article have highlighted that language teachers should use technology in order to enhance the skills of children. The use of technology will help to keep the children attentive and there will be a more attentive that can be held accordingly. This shows that EAL learners would have an increased interactivity with the technology so that there can be better learning of the language. 

In the research that has been done by Westhisi and Setiasih, (2018) it has been seen that using proper technologies had helped there to be literacy development in teaching English. By conducting a literature review for data collection it has been seen that it is through technology that there can be an increase in amusement that can be provided. It seems that children at a young age need amusement in their learning activities through which there can be better education provided. The article shows that it is hard to capture the attention of children and the use of technology can be done in order to develop an effective curriculum there has to be addition of technology done. The discussion section of the article has shown that the phonics method in literacy development is a necessary concept to be looked at. It seems that learning English as a second language must use sounds through which there can be further development to be made. Hence, the use of phonem-graphem technology there can be literacy development that can be looked at. This specific article helps to show that the use of technology in the early years helps to provide a more adequate method for not only providing normal knowledge but also increase technology knowledge amount them. The teachers that are present also need to increase their technology so that providing knowledge to the children can be done effectively. Hence, in order to provide literacy for children the teachers have to upgrade their skills as well. 

Author ?lter, (2015) has also shown in their research that technology does seem to have an affect language learning on an early age. By the conduction of a qualitative study in which there was a questionnaire that was used for which 10 participants were selected. All of these participants were from the primary school hence there could have been better outline of what could have been the various areas for better attainment of the work to be established. The findings have shown the various types of technologies that can be used in the education sector. There are a number of technology based games that are used along with cartoon films can help for development of the English Language. This is because the children were learning from the experiences that they living through would help them to increase the level of knowledge to be looked at. Technology has also allowed that the use of social websites have also increased and if there is further interaction that is attained hence causing better language exchange to become. It is through such technology that the learners have identified that it is easy to learn the English language and also increasing their cultural awareness to be looked at. 

Yildiz, (2021) has also shown that the use of technology is crucial for language to be learnt and teachers can better adopt for facilitating language to be learnt. This article is different from the others that have been presented as it highlights the use of computer aided software to be used in teaching children. The method that was used to collect data was consisted of an in-depth interview in which 10 students were used as participants. The use of the CALL software was done here as it helped to make sure that the language being learnt can become an effective part of the curriculum and also provides various media outputs to help better the knowledge process. It is through this that there can be better outline of the key areas that are to be used. 

Practitioner’s roles in using technology for development of EAL children

It seems that the use of technology has helped to show that there would be effective knowledge that can be grasped by children and the learning of the English Language can be highly considered but the fact remains on looking at the perception of the teachers are they are the ones that will be using the technology effectively in the education sector. Authors Thuy and Qalati, (2020) have shown in their research on seeing the integration of ICT has affected the teachers. The use of a questionnaire method had been used and a total number of 1050 respondents were taken into account. The findings within the research have shown that though using technology might be effective for increasing the knowledge for EAL children but there are concerns for the teachers. The findings have shown that have proper technical knowledge, qualification and collaboration with the technology is not as easy task. One of the key challenges that has been shown is teachers seem to be having a hard time to keep up with the technologies that are being used. This is because the level of innovation that is occurring in technologies is causing there to be new skills that have to be adopted accordingly. 

Authors Spiteri and Chang Rundgren, (2020) have also shown that teachers need to increase their skills accordingly with the new technology that is being introduced. The same had been pointed out in the above mentioned article but the difference is that instead of expecting teachers to have skills to be present it seems that there would have to be training that needs to be provided by them and also proper guidelines have to be presented. There has been a literature review that has been carried out for collection of data. The results in the findings have shown that there would be effective training that need to be provided to the teachers so that their knowledge about the technology being used would be used accordingly. It is through this that influencing factors can be identified through which there can be proper guidelines identified. This is necessary to be looked at because it seems that there would be better outline the rules and regulations that need to be followed. There will be a relevant guide that can be present for the teachers which can help them to plan on how English can be taught to the students.

Impact the pandemic has had on EAL language development

The pandemic has had a huge impact on every single industry in the business environment and it has also impacted the education industry also. It seems that changes in the teaching method has been done as the attending of classes is being in technology which was zoom video classes. It was a necessary for there to be technology inclusion done as it helped students to achieve education during the pandemic. The pandemic had bought a lockdown on the world due to which schools had closed down. In order to keep on imparting knowledge to the students it seemed that there had to be proper steps taken. English as an additional language has also suffered here, especially the early years, because it seemed that children are not being able to learn the language (Szente, 2020). 

One area that should be understood that it is due to globalisation that schools are having an increasing diverse number of students that have been added. According to authors Pascal and Bertram, (2021) seems that there are families that have children whom learn English as a second language and the spoken language at home is different. Not being able to attend school and have a social interaction in English can limit the amount of how it can be spoken. Peers can helpful for making sure that speaking in English is done as if students at a young are highly likely to take on a language at such a young age. There were 58 children that were taken for the study and the observation method was used here. These children were from different ethnicities and races so that there could be better analysis achieved. The findings showed that children are not happy at home because the educational environment provided at the schools was more joyful than that at home. The reconnection of friends is needed to be done as the pandemic has caused there to be less seeing of friends to be looked at. 

Authors Egbert, (2020) has also shown that during the pandemic has caused an increase in difficulties to increase the learning of English on children. It seems that the use of technology during the pandemic has increased and helped for further development of EAL. However it seems that there are some families that do not have a high speed internet connection hence they are not able to have a proper education level for them. 

Discussion

Before looking at the various patterns that are being presented in the literature review, it should be recognised that due to globalisation the increase in diversity in schools is rising. The early year classes seem to be having students whom first language is not English hence they need to take English as Second Language classes. It is necessary as it seems that there has to be proper outline of how to make such happen. Since the industry 4.0 is about to come in the environment hence it is bound to effect such an area. This helps to clear out the factor that the use of technology for such students is eminent to be used hence it impact needs to be discussed.

One of the pattern that can be seen in research is that technology does indeed seem to be proving as a beneficial factor for EAL students. One of the benefits is that there is a better interactive experience which is being achieved by the students. It seems that students learn a language faster when they are experiencing it first-hand (). This has been agreed by ?lter, (2015) as they have mentioned in their studies that there could be better learning done of the English as the use of technology provides a better experience. It is through the class and technology interactive experience that there can be better social understanding that can be achieved. It is through this that there can be understanding of seeing what the interests that can be looked at for the child are. In a news article that was published by Day nurseries UK showed that children learn from their experience and providing and effective experience beforehand is a necessary factor (Spanswick, 2016). Instead of having an unbalanced early development being done, the use of technology helps there to be adequate learning strategies implemented according to the students’ needs and current standard. Another benefit that can be highlighted from the literature review is that it is through technology that a better learning environment is created for the children. It seems that having a better learning environment is necessary for young children as they will be able to participate better in it. The concept that can be developed here is that the use of technology such as smart boards can help to attain the attention of the students accordingly. There is a more flexible learning environment that is present due to the introduction of technology as it seems that through this there can be students working in a collaborative manner. Students whom have English as a second language and those who have it as mother tongue will be working together hence given confidence to EAL children. The flexibility can also be in developing a proper curriculum for EAL children so that while learning all of the other subject focus can be put on them learning English the most (Wanner and Palmer, 2015). This is because the use of the English language is being done in all of the other subjects and in order to make sure that an effective grade as well as knowledge is received there needs to be proper understanding of English. 

There were a number of technologies that have been looked at on the literature review. The use of videogames and cartoon videos is considered to be an effective way to increase the learning of English in early year students. In a study that was conducted it was seen that there were a number of children that were playing videogames and students aged from 3-5 years were around 35% (Clement, 2021). Gaming among children has gained an abundance of crowd and it seems that the use of such a technology into the teaching area for EAL has proven to be effective. The use of teaching games can be implemented into the education environment that can help early age students to gain further development in the English Language. There are a number of video games that are present in the market which are specially made only for learning the English language and some of them are Fable, Pictionary and Hangman (Lovarelli and Bacenetti, 2017). All of such games can help to increase the interest level of students hence creating a better outline of the various skills that can be adopted. This has been further agreed upon by a news article from UK as it seems that CNN has shown that video games have helped to increase communication and literacy amongst children (Elassar, 2020). From this it can be seen that the use of technology through video games, presented in class can help students that are present in EAL learn the language quicker. 

The use of education software is also a key area that has been highlighted in the literature review as its use in the education sector can help there to be proper understanding of how to manage the curriculum. Rosetta Stone is probably one of the most used software that is present in schools for English learning. This is one of the software that is especially designed for EAL learning (Szente, 2020). The use of a software in education helps to learn a language through patters instead of focus on making the children memorize the words. Using this in the school premises allows there to be better knowledge passed down of students who want to learn English so that there can be better amount of work to be developed (Barr, 2018). Each one of the students would have a personal activity present for them as the learning pace for every student might be different. 

All of this comes down to the fact of seeing how the student’s behaviour is changed regarding addition of technology in EAL. Students seem to like such technology as the level of interaction that is present here is highly compatible because there are a number of activities that are present through such technology that can provide better activites to be looked at. The level of engagement for students in EAL is important to be looked at because it is through this that there can be adequate knowledge attained and also further development in the use of skills that can be acquired by learning the language (Kontovourki et al., 2017). The curriculum is also an important part that needs to be taken into account while the addition of technology should be looked at. This is necessary to be looked at because it seems that through this there can be better outline of the various areas in order to manage the technologies that can be looked at.  

Teachers Attitude

Another behavioural aspect that has been mentioned in the literature review is that teachers have a hard time to comply with technology. There are a number of skills that need to be presented in order to control the technology that is being presented. This is necessary as it shows that without having a clear understanding of the type of technology that is being used, teachers would not be able to provide adequate knowledge to the students. Without this, there would not be any learning that could be done here hence making sure that EAL learns are not easily used in the curriculum. Hence, training for teachers is necessary to be provided. Authors Spiteri and Chang Rundgren, (2020) have also shown in their research that training for teachers to use technology being provided in the education sector so that clear skills can be looked at. 

The aspect of having a guidance policy developed is a necessary aspect to be looked at. It is through this that the teachers can follow a proper direction through which there can be knowledge provided. The skills that are needed by them would be looked at here so that honing of such skills can be done. The teacher needs to understand what the different technologies that are present and which one of them would be best for the EAL students. This helps to look at what can be the different areas for connection that can be made with the students so that they are not only memorizing the English language but also provide a better learning experience through which students learn through the experience that they are set in. All of the activities that are being planned can be now added in the curriculum as it is through this that understanding of what type of technology can be used. 

Teachers need to understand that the technology being implemented is for their sake as it would help them to be more flexible as well as time consuming. There would be better resources that can be used by the teachers as it is through this they would be providing a higher level of knowledge accordingly (Spiteri and Chang Rundgren, 2020). 

Negative effect of pandemic on EAL

The pandemic was a huge hit on the economy as it seems that there were a number of changes that were caused due to this. The education sector had also taken a huge hit because it had to change its way of teaching. The lockdown that was imposed in UK has students to participate in online classes and it seems that students whom had English as a second language were not able to cope up with such a factor. It has been mentioned by Pascal and Bertram, (2021) as it seems that children whom are at home and have English as a second language has caused there this to be a further challenging factor. At home such children are speaking their mother tongue due to which they have little to learn about English. Even though there are zoom classes that are present and helping students to attend classes as mentioned by author Szente, (2020), but it is not the same as the learning environment has changed.

The use of technology has made sure that there could be adequate knowledge provided but it seems that using it in school and at home have different effects. In the school there are teachers that are present that can help students to understand the technology that is being used but at home there is not a learning environment that is present. This is a huge risk that is being looked at because it is due to this that EAL students will not be able to gain an effective outline of having a greater perception to be conducted. It seems that the use of the technology such as use of software or videogames but without the proper guidance of the teachers this would not be adequate enough (Lovarelli and Bacenetti, 2017).

From this it can be comprehended that COVID 19 has had a huge negative impact on EAL students. They are not able to receive the various skills that are needed for improving their English language or even proper guidance. Both the teachers and parents would not be able to provide the school environment at home hence causing there to be further challenges to arise.

The discussion has provided a key are that needs to be looked which is to see how the implementation of technology can take place in EAL. Though it might be a benefit for the students that are present EAL but it seems that teachers have a hard time to complete it effectively. The benefit of technology is that it cannot only be used in the classrooms but also the use of it can be done at home. But the idea here is that teachers would need to guide students on how to use such a technology at school first before making them use it at home. The other key area that is present here is that early year children seem to be highly involved in the use of technology at home and if this is further implemented into the schools then it seems that there can be better achievement made. Learning English is not easy for young children because it seems that they already are speaking another language at home and then learning a new one would cause there to be further challenges to be faced (Szente, 2020). 

Conclusion

The research has provided a clear outline on what can be the impact of technology on language development of EAL. This is necessary to be looked at because technology has taken over the market by a storm and there are a number of benefits that can be looked at. Technology has proven to be effective for EAL children as it seems that they are able to grasp on to the knowledge and instead of memorizing the language they would be learning through the experience. This shows that the interaction of technology in such an area is highly interactive and beneficial for EAL students (Spiteri and Chang Rundgren, 2020). 

Limitations

One of the limitations that is present with this research is that only early years children have been identified. On the contrary it seems that the adoption of having a large age group or even comparing 2 age groups would have provided better outline of the impact that the technology has. It is not always that young children are learning English as an additional language as there are also teenagers that have to learn English as such an age. This could have shown the impact level of technology adequately.

Another limitation is that there was only one source of data method collection and data strategy that was used. The use of primary data collection was done then it could have been compared on what other authors had written and what the current scenario in the market was. This would have helped to develop a more interactive research.