SLEZSKÁ UNIVERZITA V OPAVĚ

Filozoficko-přírodovědecká fakulta v Opavě

BAKALÁŘSKÁ PRÁCE

Opava 2021 Luboš Pardus

SLEZSKÁ UNIVERZITA V OPAVĚ

Filozoficko-přírodovědecká fakulta v Opavě

Luboš Pardus

Obor: Angličtina pro školskou praxi

Distance learning for ESL learners at higher secondary Czech

school

Bakalářská práce

Opava 2021 Vedoucí bakalářské práce:

Mgr. Marie Machničová

Prohlášení

Prohlašuji, že jsem tuto bakalářskou práci vypracoval pod vedením vedoucího bakalářské práce

samostatně a uvedl jsem všechny použité prameny a literaturu.

Opava 2021 …………………….

podpis

Poděkování

Chtěl bych poděkovat Mgr. Marii Machničové, která dohlížela na mou bakalářskou práci,

za její vedení a trpělivost. Oceňuji její cenné rady, její komentáře k této práci a její laskavou

pomoc. V neposlední řadě musím poděkovat celé své rodině a přátelům za trpělivost a morální

podporu.

Aknowledgement

I would like to thank Mgr. Marie Machničová, who supervised my bachelor thesis, for her

guidance and patience. I appreciate her valuable advice, her comments on this work and her

kind help. Last but not least, I must thank my whole family and friends for their patience and

moral support.

ABSTRACT

This thesis deals with distance learning in English lessons at secondary school, its pros and cons

during the pandemic when all schools were closed. The aim of this work is to find out activities

used by teachers, forms of communication between all participants, and evaluation of students´

work. Theoretical part presents three intertwining forms: 'e', blended and distance learning and

teaching, their most frequently mentioned pros and cons. It was examined how teachers

perceive the didactic use of ICT in their subject, its structure and presentation in the form of

hypohesis and research questions. For this purpose there was a survey conducted where the

results were analyzed and presented using charts and tables. The experiences,

teachers´recommendations and useful online links are given at the end of the thesis, which could

be used in the normal or even blended school running in the future.

Keywords: distance learning, e-learning, blended learning, communication, learner, teacher

ABSTRAKT

Tato práce se zabývá distanční výukou angličtiny na vybrané střední škole v Pardubicích, jejími

plusy a mínusy v průběhu pandemie v době uzavření všech škol. Cílem práce je zjistit aktivity

využívané učiteli, formy komunikace mezi všemi účastníky a hodnocení práce studentů.

Teoretická část prezentuje tři prolínající se formy: ‘e’, kombinované a distanční učení a

vyučování, jejich nejčastěji zmiňované výhody a nevýhody. Formou hypotéz a výzkumných

otázek bylo prozkoumáno, jak učitelé vnímají didaktické využití ICT ve svém předmětu, jeho

strukturu a prezentaci. Za tímto účelem bylo provedeno dotazníkové šetření, jehož výsledky

byly analyzovány a znázorněny pomocí grafů a tabulek. Na konci práce jsou uvedeny

zkušenosti a doporučení učitelů a užitečné online odkazy, které by mohly být v budoucnu

použity při běžném nebo i kombinovaném provozu škol.

Klíčová slova: distance learning, e-learning, blended learning, komunikace, žák, učitel

Contents Introduction

List of Abbreviations

List of Charts

List of Tables

Introduction

1 From paper to digital; from face-to-face to distance education ................................... 1

1.1 The brief history overview of distance learning ................................................... 1

1.2 Education for the new e-society ........................................................................... 2

1.2.1 General trends in education........................................................................... 3

1.2.2 General concerns ........................................................................................... 5

1.2.3 The future of schools according to World Economic Forum (WEF) ........... 6

1.2.4 The future of schools according to Strategy 2030+ ...................................... 6

1.2.5 Summary of the situation .............................................................................. 7

2 Definitions of the terms – forms of multimedia learning ............................................ 9

2.1 E-learning (EL) .................................................................................................... 9

2.1.1 Advantages of E-learning............................................................................ 10

2.1.2 Disadvantages of E-learning ....................................................................... 10

2.1.3 Summary of E-learning pros and cons ........................................................ 11

2.2 Blended learning (BL) ........................................................................................ 11

2.3 Distance learning (DL) ....................................................................................... 12

2.4 Summary of the situation ................................................................................... 13

3 Activities and skills in DL ......................................................................................... 15

3.1 Intrinsic motivaton and games ........................................................................... 16

3.1.1 Motivation to complete tasks ...................................................................... 17

3.2 Psychological view on learning process ............................................................. 18

3.3 The situation of learning psychology in the Czech Republic ............................. 19

4 Research ..................................................................................................................... 20

4.1 Methodology and the aim of the research .......................................................... 20

4.2 Questionnaire survey .......................................................................................... 21

4.3 Data collection and analysis ............................................................................... 22

4.4 Data from Teachers ............................................................................................ 23

4.5 Data from Learners ............................................................................................. 29

4.6 Activities in DL .................................................................................................. 32

4.6.1 Activities – international E-meetings .......................................................... 34

4.7 Mental hygiene ................................................................................................... 41

4.8 Research summary and recommendation ........................................................... 41

Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 44

Bibliography

List of Appendixes

List of Abbreviations

LMS - learning management system

ICT - information and communiction technology

DVPP - další vzdělávání pedagogických pracovníků (further education of pedagogical

staff)

MOOC - massive open online courses

T.1 - representative teacher of English

EL - E-learning

BL - Blended learning

DL - Distance learning

ML - Mobile learning

Apps - Applications

List of Charts

Chart 1: Number of respondents among students

Chart 2: Learners´s motivation / demotivation about DL

Chart 3: Satisfaction / dissatisfaction of the current situation

List of Tables

Table 1: Comparison of platforms Zoom and MS Teams

Table 2: Synchronous and asynchronous activities practising English language

Table 3: Names of schools and main topics of E-meetings

Introduction

The world is a very different place in 2020 than it was till this strange year. Education has

just reached crucial moment all over the world at the start of a new decade. No one could have

foreseen the unprecedented events of 2020. We are facing a Covid-19 pandemic in the time of

writing this thesis, a reality that has shaken and disrupted all “normal” behavior at the level of

individuals and groups, institutions and countries. This global health pandemic affects everyone,

and is having a huge impact not only on our health, but also on how we teach, learn and do research.

We begin a new decade at a point of genuine and unprecedented crack. It is a time where we have

to question – where we are going, how we are planning the journey, and even if we are able to

move.

This crisis has shown us that we are able to share our ideas and our knowledge, work

together and quicky adapt to the new situation. Exactly how the new hegemons and movers of the

world want and demand of us. However, this requires a higher level of shared ambition and

involment. Czech education system advanced with reforms. This in itself is a remarkable

achievement. Nevertheless, the process was certainly not easy and is still ongoing. Learners,

teachers and education institutions may still face obstacles in their work together. Whatever the

success and failures have been, education system as the whole must naturally face the common

critical reflection.

Learning and teaching is partnership, which means both groups, learners and teachers,

participate in the process of transferring and gaining new information. The aim of this work is to

focus on distance learning at secondary school during Covid-19 pandemic, when all school

institutions were closed. Thesis describes specific methods of learning and teaching via internet –

mainly online, the effectiveness of activities during these processes, pros and cons, what tools and

activities might teachers choose and how to use them effectively in the language system Use of

English.

Thesis is devided into a theoretical and practical part and a total of 4 chapters.

First chapter briefly discuss the history of distance learning, description of the situation in

the today´s digital society, the general trends and concerns, view to the future through the eyes of

non-profit organization WEF and MŠMT Czech Republic.

Second chapter defines the basic definitions of terms, which correspond to different types

of learning and teaching on a distance. The content of this chapter is also a selection of frequently

mentioned pros and cons of E-learning based on the study of available literature.

The third chapter is about activities and skills during distance learning, psychological view

on learning process, and how intrinsic motivation and games can influence the learning process.

The research and its individual phases are in the fourth chapter, as well as its overall

summary and evaluation. Chapter is finished by formulating the conclusions that were reached on

the basis of studies and surveys among teachers and students at the selected Secondary School.

Emphasis is placed on teachers´advice and recommendations for the future, which would help

teachers, but also students to solve study tasks and successfully complete this exceptional school

year.

It is supposed this work will be able to serve as a source of inspiration not only for supporters

of integrating ICT into teaching and learning foreign languages, but also for its critics.

1

THEORETICAL PART

1 From paper to digital; from face-to-face to distance education

There are plenty of benefits of going paperless in schools, from saving time and money, to

saving the environment and enhancing digital literacy. Using less paper is a win for students and

teachers, as well as the wider school community and the whole environment (Brad, C., 2018).

Learning from a distance continues to gain popularity. Teaching and learning are no longer

limited to the classroom or the school day. There are many technologies (mainly internet and its

tools) that can offer a great deal of flexibility in when, where, and how education is distributed.

However, they are not appropriate for all learning and training situations. Face-to-face method of

teaching has its own advantages and hopefully will not be eliminated totally.

1.1 The brief history overview of distance learning

The history of distance education as a new educational opportunity has its roots in various

systems of correspondnce study, which appeared as early as the middle of the nineteenth century in

England and France, later in Germany and Austria-Hungary, and in the early twentieth century also

in the USA. Today, the largest providers of distance education are the British Open University, the

Spanish open university UNED, German FernUniversität, and of course universities from Japan

and USA.

Since the launch of the ICDE (International Council for Distance Education), founded in

1982, the so-called Budapest Platform has been established as a platform for cooperation and

development of distance education in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. This platform

was the basis for the establishment of the pan-European organization EDEN (European Distance

Education Network), which was founded at a conference in Prague in 1991. With this conference,

it is also possible to begin the history of distance education in the Czech Republic (Palán,

Andromedia).

From lectures sent via phonograph, letters, TV and radio broadcast, to degrees delivered in

the digital age, its evolution and its reach is staggering. A more detailed graphic scheme of the

historical development of distance education is given in the Appendix 3.

The distance form of study in the Czech Republic is currenly implemented not only on two

levels as it has been so far (university studies and lifelong learning courses), but also at primary and

secondary schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic and closed schools during the year 2020 and part

of the year 2021.

2

1.2 Education for the new e-society

We live in a modern information and knowledge society, in a world reffered to as the

„eSociety“ (network society). High level complexicity is based on close interlinking. The impact

of the changes resulting from opportunities opened up by telecommunication may be compared to

the world-shattering changes which occured many years ago, with the transformation from an oral

culture to a written one (e-Society, 2021). The fact that we live in a mobile world may be yesterday´s

news. Here are a few statistics from the website Statista about the use of mobile devices that might

still surprise and impress:

• At the time of writing, there are around 10.85 billion mobile phones and tablets

(mobile connections) in use around the world. In other words, there are around 3

billion mobile devices on the planet more than people.

• Almost 70% of the world´s population owns a mobile device (around 5.3 billion

people)

• More than 100 countries have more mobile phones in use than the population of that

country.

• The number of mobile devices in use is currently growing five times faster than the

global population.

• Adults look at their device on average once every six minutes.

• More than 14% of the current world population (more than 1 billion) doesn’t have

access to electricity – resulting in the fact they couldn’t even charge one if they owned

it.

Statista.com predicts that by 2023 this number of mobile device users will increase to 7.33

billion, and the number of mobile devices operating worldwide is expected to reach 17.72 billion

by 2024.

As these statistics show, mobile devices are considered a necessity for most of us today. We

use them for communication, to view and create media such as photos and videos, and even to settle

arguments by quickly searching for the answer on the web. So why they were not used more as part

of everyday teaching? And why is it that many educational institutions ban the use of mobile

devices? Despite their potential, mobile devices often present a dilemma for teachers. On one hand,

we can see how integral they are to everyday life, and recognize that they are powerful multimedia

tools which can really improve our educational tools. On the other hand, we are frequently faced

with media scare stories about the possible downsides of using devices in education and a general

reluctance of educational establishment to allow their use.

Either way, many teachers are already more or less familiar with the term E-learning today,

3

which refers to the use of electronic devices such as computers, smartphones and the internet to

assist education. Learning takes place outside the school classroom, with students and teachers

accessing a website. With the increasing use of mobile devices, we are now also using the term

mobile learning or m-learning, that means learning through the use of mobile devices. The

advantage of m-learning is that it has the ability to bring real life into the class. Most teachers have

turned to technology to improve their lessons. Typical mobile devices – smartphones and tablets

can be everything from a camera to an audio recorder, a word processor and a video-editing suite.

They have easy-to-use operating systems based on touch, gesture and voice, making them simpler

to use than other forms of technology (resource Statista).

Cell Phone usage worldwide, by country: Czech Republic – rank 46, total population 10.5

million, smartphone users 7.1 million, smartphone penetration 67.6%. First in ranking is China,

India and USA, last is Switzerland and Nigeria (resource Bankmycell).

1.2.1 General trends in education

According to Grimus from Austria, almost ten years ago she writes in this spirit: The internet

and computer as universal media are currently being used in all schools and in their subjects, but

above all as a word processing application and for science and professional subjects. Internet and

computer assistance make teaching and learning process more effective and transparent, and they

frequently enable the development of new learning strategies thanks to the opportunities they offer

for simulation and visualization and the integration of topical examples into the learning process.

It has influenced the content of a lesson – new vocabulary items, neologisms, activities in which

students practice composing several presentations, videos, etc., are more and more integral parts. It

has also shaped the way we teach. Without doubt, in these days, in this age any teacher needs to be

internet aware. The internet increasingly dominates students´ lives. Internet has been changing the

ways in which English can be taught and how it is changing the language itself. If we can use a text,

projector, video, CD, etc., why not choose to include the internet into a lesson simlpy for variety?

It can be used as a part of face-to-face language lesson, as a stimulus for a self-study activity or as

a means of communication between distance users. The internet is also a valuable source of

materials, as it allows teachers and learners to find a useful or relevant text from practically any

area of knowledge. For many learners such authentic materials can be truly motivating (Grimus,

2003).

4

The following Internet (ICT) functions are used for learning purposes:

• Collection of information

• Entertainment

• Educational games

• Simulation

• E-communication

• E-cooperation

• Production (presentation)

This list bellow indicates various areas for the use of computers:

• In learning with several programs and applications, the computer does not take on the role

of an information facilitator, nor of a learning medium. Rather the computer provides a tool

that enables learners to focus more closely on problems, to clearly illustrate them and to

find creative ways to solve them.

• Programs to facilitate comprehension: databases, simulation, games, micro worlds and

modeling.

• Internet (world wide web) for the collection of information, construction of knowledge

through selection and evaluation, and representation of knowledge.

• Communication (e-mail, skype, facebook, chat, webinar, forum, podcast) and cooperation.

• Learning and administration programs (e.g. tutorial systems – such as Moodle or Bakaláři,

drill and practice programs).

• Learning platforms (learning with online media – such as Zoom, MS Teams, Google Meet,

etc.).

Already in 2003 Grimus writes: “Nowdays, media literacy is seen as the fruit of self-study

efforts which have been acquired, and as a key competence – requires pedagogical support and is

thus firmly anchored in the syllabus” (Grimus, 2003).

“The COVID-19 pandemic has seen rapid progress in switching to digital learning and

teaching. There will undoubtedly be many lessons to learn from the experience over the past few

months, but it is clear that a big step forward has been taken and even when a full return to normality

is possible, the use of digital technologies will no doubt continue and intensify. The wave of

progress in using digital technologies was forced upon us by the pandemic. In the future, however,

there will be choices to make and questions of cultural adaptation to address. For example, what

5

will be the appropriate role for digital technologies? How should the human learning and teaching

environment relate to the digital environment? How can digital technologies support education?”

This article is from the latest Bologna Process Implementation Report from 2020.

1.2.2 General concerns

As Evan Williams, a co-founder of Twitter, recently put in, “Convenience decides

everything…Convenience seems to make our decisions for us, trumping what we like to imagine

are our true preferences.” What online education offered on top of the programs was primarily

convenience, the convenience of easy learning. Do we clearly realize its impact on the learner and

education in general?, ask Sistek-Chandler and Cynthia Mary in their book Exploring online

learning through synchronous and asynchronous instructional methods. We already have

convenience stores and convenience food but unable to cook – now we are moving fast towards

convenience education (Sistek-Chandler, Cynthia, 2019). Here are the other words from Bill Gates:

the vision is that “people should have the ultimate in convenience. Being able to get the things they

care about on the appropriate device. Young people are attracted to convenience and expediency

provided by today’s technologies. Students choose convenience over hard work of learning” (Gates,

2019). One can think today, that the lure of comfort and an easy way of going about life now

arguably causes more problems than it solves (Sistek-Chandler, Cynthia, 2019).

Hogenova deals in her book with a philosophical concept of ‘time’ from historical context.

She concludes her book with these words: “We miss a deeper education, we miss an understanding

of the ontological basis of our common world, we are drowning in ways how to control the world

mathematically, how to control it constantly, and to control these controls. We want to have

everything pre-ordered, including ourselves, so nations are useless, because the only thing that is

important is ‘growth of Growth’. That´s how we want to live” (2011, p. 198). The author often

mentions and quotes personalities, including visionaries, such as the German philosopher Leibniz.

Among other things, Leibniz is known for his statement “Entrust me with education and I will

change the shape of Europe” (thesis author translation). From the book we can read further words

“…suddenly we find that it is not enough to work honestly, because the evaluation of our work will

always be subject to what will be ordered from the given elite and political force. One will stop

believing in justice. Everything will be made to order, football matches, political events, education,

our joys and sorrows. We are starting to lose ourselves”. This book and the words selected from it

were deliberately chosen because it is believed that they are closely related to the assigned topic

and today´s situation in society. In order for the reader – to form his/her opinion on the fact that it

is necessary to look at certain situations in context, to ask what and why is happening around us,

why we have to live in certain conditions and situation that someone determines for us. Why we

6

have to deal with DL at primary and secondary schools today as well as with massive digitalization

and robotization?

For today´s, modern visionaries, philanthropists and movers of the world, we can mention,

for example, well known names such as Gates, Bezos, Musk, Branson and others who have

interesting speeches, for instance on the TEDx or TED Talks platform for those who want to know

more and in advance what way the world will take in the coming years and how closely these issues

are related with education at schools and beyond.

This and following subchapters seek to highlight possible pitfalls, predictions and visions

for the future not only of education.

1.2.3 The future of schools according to World Economic Forum (WEF)

This chapter tries to follow the previous one with aim to present information which concerns

the so-called vision of organizing the work and social environment in the world until 2030. The text

in the World Economic Forum Report describes what the school of the future should look like,

preparing pupils for existence in the so called 4.0 industrial era.

The last report from January 12, 2021 is called – ‘Schools of the future, with its subtitle

Defining new models of education for the fourth industrial revolution’.

The fact that the WEF likes to talk about the 4th Industrial Revolution is quite

understandable in its focus on the economy. Report also describes the qualities that innovative

schools (in the era of Education 4.0) should have, in two separated areas - learning objectives (4

objectives) and activities (4 activities).

Finally, the WEF report summarizes the need and efforts that should be made to update the

school education system to meet the future needs of pupils. “There is an urgent need to update

education systems to equip children with the skills to navigate the future of work and the future of

societies. The Education 4.0 framework provides a vision for how school systems can be updated

to deliver on children’s future needs. This transformation calls for shifts in learning content to

include both the technical and human-centric skills needed to build growing and inclusive

economies and societies and shifts in learning experiences that more closely mirror the future of

work” (World Economic Forum 2020, 2030Vision).

1.2.4 The future of schools according to Strategy 2030+

MŠMT ČR (The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic) also

worked on the same concept, in the same spirit, prepared a document entitled Strategy 2030+. It is

a document of the educational policy of the Czech Republic until 2030+ and was approved on

October 19, 2020 by the Government of the Czech Republic. It is a key document for the

7

development of the educational system of the Czech Republic in the decade 2020 - 2030+. The aim

is to modernize the Czech educational system in the field of regional education, hobby and non-

formal education and lifelong learning, prepare it for new challenges and at the same time solve the

problems that persist in Czech education. The task of the Strategy 2030+ is to set the direction of

education development and investment priorities for the next ten years (MŠMT, Strategie 2030+).

Document contains two strategic objectives:

• Focus education more on acquiring the competencies needed for active civic,

professional and personal life.

• Reduce inequalities in access to quality education and enable the maximal

development of the potential of children, pupils and students.

Document further contains five strategic lines:

• Changing of the content, methods and evaluation of education

• Equal access to quality education

• Support for dedagogical staff

• Increasing professional capacity, trust and mutual cooperation

• Increasing funding and ensuring its stability

The cornerstones of the 2030+ Strategy have been laid, every experience, support and help

will be good.

1.2.5 Summary of the situation

From above mentioned we can try to predict, derive and ask other questions. We can also

try to ask from the perspective of today’s schools and our researched secondary vocational school.

And what about inability to use the simple things of everyday life? We can use complicated things.

We are quite experts at computers and electronics, and complex laboratory equipment. Why do we

have trouble with water faucets, to replace the bulb, light switches, make a fire in the stove or pitch

a tent? How come we can work and fix a very expensive complex computer installation, but not

our washing machine, gas boiler or child´s toy? The real culprit is – impractibility, no-skills,

constant development and changes, robotization. And millions of people feel themselves to be

mechanically inept. It is time for change. Really is? In which way? How many times have we

already asked ourselves this question? Each period of time and each generation strugless with

something new.

When we as teachers have to ask our learners today to try out English in reading, listening,

speaking or writing by computers or mobile devices, we are asking them to take a degree of risk

8

and experimentation. In these days we need to adopt the same approach to ‘e’ and ‘m’-learning.

Trying new things, experimenting with apps, using the technology ourselves is the best way to gain

the confidnece and skills required to successfully integrate whether ‘e’ or ‘m’-learning into our

lessons. Mobile devices as educational tools can help to break down boundaries, in our case, the

walls of the classroom. Students (individuals born in the new millennium) are very familiar with

mobile technology and have a strong attachment to their own devices, which they use on daily basis

to perform a range of functions. For instance, students may enjoy taking photos and have a large

collection of photos that teachers can use for several tasks and as a good stimulus for speaking.

They can also record their own and other speeches, share them with others or send them to the

teacher. Mobile technologies can be used to improve 21st century skills. These skills (creativity,

critical thinking, communication, collaboration, digital literacy), can all be developed in student-

centred, dynamic and motivating ways.

9

2 Definitions of the terms – forms of multimedia learning

This chapter introduces the reader with the initial terminology and information related to the

general concept of E-learning. First, the genereal definitions of the individual forms will be

described, advantages and disadvantages of EL and on the end an overall view of the situation.

2.1 E-learning (EL)

E-learning (further only EL) - is one of the successfully used didactic elements and technical

means that are used to support distance education, the so-called guided self-study, in which learners

and teachers are physically separated for most of the study process. It is one of the forms of

multimedia support, and there is an endless amount of definitions of this term that has evolved over

time, just as technologies and approaches to them are still evolving. For an overview, I give a few

concepts of this definition.

Zounek in his publication states that a key topic in the field of EL in his conception is

teaching and learning, which is not limited by traditional educational institutions (2016, p. 34). He

adds: “In our view, e-learning includes both theory and research, as well as any educational process

with varying degree of intentionality in which digital technologies are used. The way in which

digital technology (ICT) tools are used and the availability of teaching materials depend mainly on

educational goals and content, character of the educational environment, ethical principles, needs

and possibilities of all actors in the educational process” (2016, p. 34-35).

Reimannová in her book encounters a strong terminological inconsistency (2011, p. 14),

where she very detailed describes the definitions of other experts on this issue, such as Barešová,

Horton, 2003; Bureš a Olševicová, Eger, 2004; Mechlová, Šeďová, Švaříček, Bednaříková,

Zlámalová, Kopecký, Svatoš, Pavlíková, Černochová, Demunter, Masie, 2006; Vališová, 2007 and

many others. (A relatively large number of publications on this topic appeared on the Czech scene

in the years 2005 to 2007, when schools introduced EL to a greater extent, mainly due to enthusiasm

for the potential of modern technologies.) Reimannová aptly uses Bertrand's quotations (2011, p.

16). If we analyze the word e-learning from a linguistic point of view, then the term 'e' includes all

information and communication technologies in a very broad sense as “everything that our activities

can rely on, whatever it is tools, devices, aids, machines, procedures, methods or a program obtained

through the systematic application of scientific knowledge in order to solve practical problems”

(Bertrand, 1998, p. 89).

Čapek comments EL as: “E-learning education is implemented by using IT, usually using

the Internet (whatever it´s name is: elearning, e-learning, eLearning, E-learning, Elearning or Web-

10

based training or webinar). EL is advantageous for several reasons and also has its many negatives.

The authors of various publications on this issue agree that the most significant negative feature of

EL is the lack of a living teacher (or tutor, coach, instructor) and the associated impossibility of

rapid feedback, psychological reaction (whether in the context of praise, gesture, humorous

responses or inducing a suitable atmosphere and so on)” (2015, p. 190). More about his and other

authors´views of advantages and disadvantages shown in the next chapter.

Everyone looks at his/her interpretation with his/her own eyes. The definition of EL

therefore varies according to the authors' focus, either on the side of the emphasis on the

technological side of EL or on the pedagogically and didactically oriented concept.

2.1.1 Advantages of E-learning

The term E-learning (EL) mentioned here and in the whole thesis describes our given

situation and main topic, that is distance learning (DL). None of the authors defines the advantages

and disadvantages of distance learning as such.

Some pros and cons according to Čapek (2015, p. 190-192):

Čapek, just like other authors, puts the word flexibility first (tailor-made for anyone, with

anyone, from anywhere, any time). Continues with expressions such as accessibility (user's time

possibilities); lower costs (technical, personnel, and other financial); greater possibility of

knowledge testing (students have the opportunity safely test their knowledge after completing

individual educational steps, the results are evaluated by software application); higher level of

interactivity (information is not provided in text form only); minimizing stress during final tests

(contact with other people, more relaxed during testing); increasing knowledge of information

technology (EL as such is supported and supports the latest information and communication

technologies).

2.1.2 Disadvantages of E-learning

Also another mentioned authors in this thesis often include the same following

disadvantages as Čapek does:

Dependence on technology (users need to have permanent access to certain hardware and

software) – (author perceives this is as an inevitable requirement rather than a disadvantage); not

suitable for each subject and for certain types of students; voluntary principle (everyone's own

motivation and self-discipline is important); lack of interactivity (EL provides a much less

interactive method of education than traditional education, is impersonal, brings to education often

a sense of futility and isolation, which includes oversaturation with electronic messages, lack of

human communication and physical contact, lack of inspiration and immediate response, unclear

11

or ambiguous system instructions and technical problems, and these aspects hinder effective

education and demotivate users); negative impact on health status of users (we have to spend a lot

of time sitting at the computer and staring at the monitor, which has a negative effect on human

health, such as problems with the spine, visual impairment, but also general mental overload);

significant delays between messages (email communication, discussion forums and similar

asynchronous services, which have a negative effect on the speed of agreement and this can lead to

frustration of learner (another side) who is waiting for an answer (2015, p. 190-192).

2.1.3 Summary of E-learning pros and cons

Zounek presents pros and cons of EL as a topic for reflection, he goes deeper in this direction,

presents a very well-structured overview of pros and cons divided into several categories, which

simultaneously represent several views on the possibilities and limits of EL. He allows to each

reader to find his/her own point of view or think about alternatives in the relevant school and also

out-of-school sector. Among others, he emphasizes, that “considerations of possible gains and

losses in the implementation of EL should be carried out sufficiently in advance and effectively in

a certain pedagogical situation” (2016, p. 230). And adds, “…in some cases, it is also clear that no

technology can replace the specifics and benefits of full-time teaching, training, practice or direct

experience” (2016, p. 231). His words seem to be more than actual today.

Furthermore, Zounek draws attention to the issue of taking over other people's experience

in connection with the assessment and implementation of EL in a specific situation. He recommends

being very careful when studying foreign books, which relate this issue of advantages and

disadvantages to one's own (educational and cultural) tradition and also to the geographical (we

would also mention today – and also to the pandemic) situation. In huge countries such as the USA,

Canada or Australia, but also Japan, distance education has a long and well-established tradition.

The benefits clearly resulting from them may not be completely relevant in our country, or could

lead to wrong judgments and conclusions (2016, p. 231).

The speed and overall effectiveness of communication can also be affected by the fact how

the communicating sides know and trust each other. Mutual respect and trust between learners and

teachers should be cultivated. Zounek uses the word ‘spying’ by the teacher, or a certain loss of

privacy.

2.2 Blended learning (BL)

Zounek´s definition is “a combination of online and traditional teaching” (2016, p. 38).

Again, he in his work lists other authors who deal in detail with considerations about BL (further

only BL), such as: Battezzati, Eger, 2004; Bialawski, Metcalf, 2005; Graham, Kopecký, 2006;

12

Littlejohn, Pegler, 2007. BL as a concept has been around for over twenty years. However, with the

rise of digital transformation, the concept has evolved.

Briefly and aptly states the definition Graham: “Blended learning systems combine face-to-

face instruction with computer-mediated instruction” (2006, p. 5). According to Graham the term

BL or so-called hybrid courses can be understood in a broader sense as the use of various media,

methods, strategies and procedures in teaching or in a narrower sense as a mixture of elements of

direct / contact / (full-time) teaching with elements of computer and network mediated indirect /

contactless / distributed (distance) teaching (2006, p. 4). BL can therefore be translated as mixed

education, in which full-time forms and methods of teaching are combined or perhaps rather

intertwined with EL or elements of distance education.

Graham shows and predicts in his sketch that we will face majority of blended systems in

the future (2006, p. 6).

From this information and claims we can draw conclusions. EL has had an interesting impact

on the learning environment. Although it represents tremendous potential in the way it could

revolutionize learning and development, it has rapidly evolved into concept of BL which, like its

name suggests, blends online learning with traditional methods of learning and development. BL is

part of the ongoing evolution of two typical learning environments. On the one hand, we have the

traditional face-to-face learning environment that has been around for centuries. On the other hand,

we have distributed learning environments that have begun to grow and expand in exponential ways

as new technologies have expand the possibilities for distributed communication and interaction.

From mentioned above, we can dare to say that the story of BL will never be finished – like

all learning journeys it is a continual process of discovery.

2.3 Distance learning (DL)

Maněna in his publication states, that the basis is self-study and specially processed content

of study (in printed or electronic form). The content of the study is not always made up of classic

textbooks, scripts, handouts, but it is a methodicall material (mostly today it is a quality multimedia

material – video tutorials, audio recordings, internet links), which allows students to understand the

curriculum without daily contact with the teacher. Their study is conditioned by a certain plan,

which they should fulfill through self-study with the support of an educational organization (LMS,

such as for example Bakaláři or Moodle). Students' performance is continuously monitored (e.g. by

means of tasks or tests), a teacher-tutor is available to students. Self-study forms the basis, but can

be supplemented as needed by contact – full-time teaching (meeting with a tutor), which can be

mandatory or optional. The number of meetings (tutorials) depends on the content of the curriculum

13

and the level of students (2015, p. 27). Communication between teachers and students takes place,

for example, by Email, Chat, Skype, ICQ, Facebook. But only having a computer and software does

not necessarily mean being technologically literate and ready for everything. Learning how to

incorporate virtual reality games, webcams, video conferencing and platforms such as Zoom, MS

Teams, Twitter, Instagram, Google G Suite, Chat Rooms, YouTube and others is encouraged.

According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English from 1995, term distance

learning means “a method of study, that involves watching television programmes and sending

work to teachers per mail instead of going to a school” (1995, p. 395).

When we talk about the combined form (‘kombinovaná forma’) of study in the Czech

context, it is exclusively university form, formerly also used the term ‘correspondence course’

(“dálková forma studia” or “dálkové studium”). This means that the student is in direct contact

with the teacher, but to a lesser extent than in the full-time form. As an example I can mention my

study of English at the university, where in the full-time form the given subject has a range of XX

hours (e.g. 2 hours a week for 13 weeks) and in the combined form it is XX hours (e.g. 2 meetings

with the teacher) with the support of an EL course / Moodle LMS, where various study materials,

handouts, assignments and so on are concentrated. Some fields of study can only be studied in

present form, some can be studied in combined form as well, as the second possibility.

2.4 Summary of the situation

According to the above mentioned, we cannot therefore clearly claim that there are generally

valid advantages or disadvantages of EL. On the contrary, it can be very disadvantageous

mechanically take over patterns that work in a different context, in another country (Zounek, 2016,

p. 231).

In the Czech Republic, the situation was very specific in spring 2020, all primary and

secondary schools, also families were not prepared for government-mandated and regulated

distance learning. All the participants were thrown into the water.

Most of the authors include EL as the fundamental advantage almost unlimited access to

information, knowledge or education. In connection with mass digitalization - the rapid

development of computer networks, especially the internet and mobile technologies, MOOCs, it is

not surprising. However, learners can sometimes feel lost in the vast amount of data and information

that might be sometimes not quite clear or disordered on the internet.

With the introduction of EL, the style of communication changes, the roles of teachers and

pupils change, the view of evaluation changes, analysis of pupils' needs appear, lesson plans and

teaching goals are created to attract and engage students in the activity as never before. The speed

14

and overall effectiveness of communication can be affected by the fact in what way the

communicating sides know and trust each other.

While Čapek describes pros and cons rather as such a guru, a protector of learners, who

looks at the EL process from their position, on the other hand Zounek acquaints the reader with

three perspectives – from the learner, teacher and from the provider (institution) side and at the

same time his facts are based on examples of research findings from 2010. Zounek devotes a total

of 17 pages (230 – 247) to the chapter ‘Positives and negatives of the use of digital technologies in

education’.

Generally, there are many ways in which EL can develop above mentioned 21st century

skills. It´s particularly suited to:

• Project work (learners can work anywhere and collaborate online outside the

classroom, they can research information on the internet, can work together to create

magazines, dictionaries, e-books, videos, then use their mobile devices to present

their ideas online or in person).

• Learning to deal with a wealth of information and deciding what is correct and what

isn´t helps learners to develop their critical thinking skills.

• Through choosing effective search terms, evaluating materials, they learn making

decissions, how to adapt, process and use the information they find, determine how

useful they are.

• Connection through messaging – learners can chat, ask questions, discuss ideas,

share their media work via website application such as photos, during a lesson.

(Genenal popular apps are WhatsApp, Skype, Kik, Facebook, Messenger, Twitter,

Instagram, Viber, Snapchat and others.)

• Ability to evaluate information and socially engage with it (skills needed on both an

individual and social level to deal with digital tools – known as digital literacy, using

audio, video, images, etc. to create something new).

15

3 Activities and skills in DL

The introduction of technologies in a foreign language can be used primarily to develop

digital competence, to support creativity and flexibility of teaching. In today's pandemic, there is a

huge amount of applications, activities, online platforms or online learning environments.

Problematic are requirements for time and preparation, efficiency, context and level of use.

For example, proven eTwinning projects can be used to save time. Representative teacher 1 has

experience from an international eTwinning course with such projects in Lithuania 4 years ago.

And tries to apply her experience in the current distance learning. (This topic is further described

in the chapter 4.6.1 Activities – international E-meetings.)

The choice of applications and activities depends on the digital possibilities, ie on the

content of teaching, the possibilities of the teacher and the needs of the pupils. So what can be well

used. There are applications / platforms that allow students to be tested directly at any stage during

a video conference. For example, the Kahoot! is very widespread and popular at schools, same case

is our monitored school. (Among other things, this application had its place in teaching even before

the transition to distance learning.)

Kahoot!

Isabella Vick describes this application in great detail in her webinar called EDU webinar

Kahoot! for distance leraning. Kahoot is suitable, for example, for creating tests for grammar, mastering vocabulary or for

repeating the certain points of a new topic. Kahoot not only offers fun gamification of learning, but

can also be used as a tool to evaluate students and measure their progress. Teachers and learners

can use pre-made games or create their own Kahoots.

It is worth noting that the free available version of Kahoot offers fewer options. There is a

quiz creation available, but the option of streaming (online lessons) this tool offers only in a paid

extension. The great thing is that now in the period of DL, these possibilities have been made

available to everyone, even those who don´t pay extra benefits. At the same time, it is possible to

perform a huge database of quizzes and tests from other users, for free. (Conditions for the

availability of full versions of various applications may have changed during the year, as have

government regulations.) Materials are searched according to language, subject, type of user (pupil

/ teacher / regular user).

So what specific benefits and gadgets to teaching does Kahoot offer? Thanks to this

application, any content interpretation can be interspersed with different activities. Content

interpretation can work in much the same way as when using a PowerPoint presentation in regular

16

classes. Images, maps, graphs, links, videos and text can be inserted into individual Kahoot slides.

The main advantage is that the interpretation can be complemented by interactive tasks. It

is possible to insert quiz questions, open, yes-no, comparisons, etc. into Kahoot. Compared to

classic presentations, this bonus brings a number of advantages, keeps the attention of all students,

and provides the teacher feedback about attention and the level of knowledge. The evaluation and

statistical success of learners can always be downloaded in an Excel spreadsheet after completion.

Not only the percentage of learners´ success is shown, but also the questions that made a problem

to the learners.

Kahoot slides can be used in a video conference as a stream - broadcast live lesson. (If the

teacher doesn´t want to meet the learners at a certain lesson, s/he can send / share the link as a

challenge. Learners go through the presentation independently, complete the tasks and the teacher

can later evaluate their success.) An undeniable benefit is also that this application is attractive for

students and is very popular among them. Another concrete practical online activities and

applications will be described in chapter 4.6.

3.1 Intrinsic motivaton and games

Why teaching grammar through games actually works so well? Intrinsic motivation may

also give some insight into this problematic. It refers to the internal factors that encourage us to do

something. Průcha charactrises intrinsic motivation as follows: “It is created by the characteristics

of the individual himself, such as personal perception, the structure of his personal values, goals

and desires” (2020, s. 94).

Sieglová in her book describes – in addition to the fact that motivation plays a key role in

education, older learners and adults need to see a personal reason for learning. To truly motivate a

person intrinsically, one must understand their individual needs and values. The

learners´perspectives need to be invited, and their natural desire for self-direction, responsibility,

achievement and self-actualization must be acknowledged. Learners need to be trusted and given

autonomy. Didactic activities and games are typically used to open a new lesson or are applied

before introducing a new subject. Focus on intrinsic motivation works by activating knowledge,

feelings, sentiments, impressions, emotions, opinions, or reflections and they link those with the

given topic. These activities celebrate creativity, competition, curiosity, and freedom in thinking

and acting. Activating techniques engage mainly productive communication skills through

speaking during brainstorming, discussion, and idea presenting sessions or through writing while

participants record ideas, notes or prepare short presentations (2019, p. 81 – 83).

Most young learners will not internally decide that they want to learn grammar. They don't

17

yet understand the concepts of why it's important to know proper grammar, so these external factors

won't affect them much either. Instead, intrinsic motivation can encourage them to play games. If

these games are good then they will be learning while they are playing. Older and more mature

students can be more guided and motivated by the vision of how to apply in real life, in further

study or in the labor market. But not all games are going to work to teach the students language

skills. If the game is simply for fun and not linked to educational goals it may not be the best use

of our time. However, it is possible to have a fun education game. First, teacher should find out the

certain game activity. Some good recommendations from other colleagues, schools and even from

learners-selves may be very helpful. Teacher should think about several questions before use it in

practice:

• What skills does the activity practice?

• Does the difficulty level of the game connect with the learners´ ability level?

• What specific vocabulary or grammar will this activity practice?

• Do the learners like it?

We all middle-aged (generation Y) may remember when we were in school, sitting at a desk,

writing, correcting and rewriting sentences to learn the proper use of grammar. The dreaded

grammar tests were a nightmare. Well, while some people may still teach grammar in this method,

there is a movement towards teaching grammar with games. It is possible today more than ever

before. Teaching grammar through games will still be as effective, if not more effective, as will

teaching by repetitive writing and transcribing. These methods and techniques are directly offered

and can be also used in this global survival mode, current temporary DL in this frantic time. They

will certainly find their users in the standard operation of schools and beyond them in the future as

well.

3.1.1 Motivation to complete tasks

Among other things in this thesis, we can look at the motivation from the learners´perspective

and try to find out why so many students finish secondary Czech school with a low level of English.

A number of learners and teachers were interviewed and their suggestions for change to the teaching

methods are here mentioned.

There seem to be a variety of reasons why our school learners fail to reach a good level of

spoken English. The main problem seems to be the fact that teachers appear to place so much

significance on grammar. Learners appear to know a lot about grammar but can´t actually speak

with much confidence. What learners complain about most is that lessons are boring with too many

grammar excercises and gapfills.

18

What steps can be taken to improve the situation? What teachers should try and need to do

is to place more emphasis on developing the listening and mainly speaking ability of learners in

real life situations. They need to introduce greater variety into their teaching and use more role-

plays, drama, cooperation in teams and so on. They should use as much authentic material as

possible: newspaper and magazine articles, songs, extracts from films etc. But what is most offered

to students in today's distance learning is real-time online communication with their peers. This can

further create stronger and friendly ties that students will use in the future when looking for a job

at home and abroad.

There are serious problems with the way that English is taught in our schools last couple of

years, leading to low motivation on the part of students. We want to believe that it is the way English

teachers are trained that needs to be changed, with more emphasis on preparing students to use

English in practical situations rather than approaching it as another academic subject.

3.2 Psychological view on learning process

Průcha in his book points to the current situation of learning psychology, where he mentions,

among other things, the fact that it is not at all easy to orient oneself in the current psychology of

learning, which has developed widely in the world and especially in the USA. According to him,

this is due to two circumstances (2020, p. 38):

• A great variety of theories and paradigms on which the explanation of individual

types of learning is based.

• Huge cumulation of research findings about learning processes.

Průcha acquaints the reader with various theories of learning and their contributions to

pedagogy and didactics in a very interesting, clear way. He mentions, among other things, Bloom's

psychodidactic theory of learning. Bloom developed a concept of learning called ‘mastery

learning’. The main principles of this theory of learning are (2020, p. 42):

• Mastery as a set of knowledge or skills at school is theoretically possible for all

students;

• if they have suitable conditions for this, namely the way of teaching optimally

shaped for the individual subject and the amount of time that the subject for learning

needs.

The reader can read more about this theory and its further benefits in the book Modern

Pedagogy (Průcha 2017). Although this concept is unfortunately a difficult theory to implement in

the practice of ordinary Czech school, it should at least motivate teachers to try to create the best

19

possible learning conditions for their students and give them enough time, work with them as much

as possible and vary the tasks.

Sieglová in her book also mentions Bloom's taxonomy of educational goals and adds

Klooster´s name and his attitude to critical thinking. Briefly, Sieglová´s words on critical thinking,

cooperative learning, and educational goals could be further summarized as follows: from simple

to complex, from abstract to concrete and with the subsequent possibility of practical use (2019, p.

23). After all, this theory has long been held by the teacher of nations J. A. Comenius. Sieglová

adds: “To support learning, it is crucial to organize teaching so that it resembles the natural social

environment as closely as possible” (2019, p. 23).

3.3 The situation of learning psychology in the Czech Republic

Průcha states in his book: “Unlike the situation abroad, the state of psychology of learning

in our country is backward, underdeveloped, doesn´t have an organized infrastructure. In recent

years, we lack basic monographs about the psychology of learning, or so called ‘new sciences’.

Some partial research and surveys are conducted on the issues of intergenerational learning, self-

directed learning, learning styles, text learning, language learning, or learning process research with

subtitle from formal education to informal learning” (2020, p. 51).

Průch's book is aimed at a wide range of readers, students, teachers and researchers. Průcha's

book is aimed at a wide range of readers, students, teachers and researchers. It accompanies the

reader with a psychological reflection on various aspects of learning in today's modern times, where

it emphasizes not only the classical theoretical concepts of learning, but also current problems in

educational practice. He puts the concept of learning in psychological, social and holistic health

contexts.

In the same way, Zounek describes in a similar way auto-regulated learning within E-

learning, which reflects current pedagogical and technological trends in a balanced way.

20

PRACTICAL PART

The aim of the bachelor thesis is to find answers to the questions that arose from the

extraordinary situation in the spring 2020, when schools and out-of-school facilities were closed

due to a pandemic. Until this time, distance education in the Czech Republic was known practically

only at universities. At primary and secondary schools, it became a reality almost overnight. During

this time, teachers had to communicate only with students and their parents on a distance. They

used various teaching materials and methods of online communication.

4 Research

The practical part deals with methodology, analysis and summary of the research. This topic

has been choosen because is very live. I felt the need to become acquainted with a relatively new,

but not so unknown phenomenon, which is talked and written about everywhere in these days. I

knew very little about this topic before thesis writing and it was the starting and driving engine to

learn more about it. The case study as a methodology design has been chosen for its objectivity,

which stems from real life, from the experiences, attitudes, opinons and feelings of students and

teachers; what is currently happening not only in front of computer monitors, but also outside of

them. It was a great opportunity to look into the lives of people who are becoming a bit of pioneers

in the field of DL at secondary schools. I believe this current topic will find its way to its readers

and will be further developed and explored.

4.1 Methodology and the aim of the research

Methodology design according to authors (Hendl, 2005, p. 115, 321 – 333) and (Švaříček,

Šeďová, 2007, p. 96 – 111). The following research methods and techniques were chosen to achieve

the goal of the thesis:

• Study of professional literature

• Questionnaire for teachers and students with closed and open questions

• Interviews with the representative teacher of English

• Observation of online teaching and comparison of theory and practice

I did the research among English language teachers and students of the Secondary Medical

School in Pardubice in the period of time winter 2020 – spring 2021. There is only a small

percentage of male students and male teachers at this school.

21

The subject of the research were the following main research questions, which this work will

try to answer:

• What methods, teaching materials, activities, assessment methods and communication

methods do teachers use in DL at the time of school closure?

• What are the experiences, pros, cons, advantages, disadvantages of DL from the point

of view of students and teachers?

• What are the teachers' recommendations for possible streamlining of DL, their tips and

tricks?

• Which of these experiences would be appropriate to use in the normal operation of

schools in the future?

This work will try to answer the following two hypotheses:

H1: English teachers are able to set criteria for DL so that teaching is effective,

attractive, and temporary appropriate replacement for full-time teaching until return to

schools.

H2: Despite theoretical and practical benefits of DL and the huge effort to motivate

learners, we suppose that more than 40% of learners and teachers want to return to

schools.

As the main areas and outputs of this work were considered:

• Analyze DL and find out how teachers think about the didactic use of ICT in their

subjects and how they think about their temporary online teaching.

• To acquaint readers with an unusual situation in teaching, to inspire, motivate future

teachers and students, how to use not only digital literacy and related innovative forms

of teaching, but also how adapt teaching to new situations.

• Show teaching tools and students' work.

4.2 Questionnaire survey

Questionnaire is a set of pre-prepared and carefully formulated questions, which are

thoughtfully arranged and to which the interviewee (respondent) answers in writing. Here is

definition of the term ‘research questions’ according to Švaříček, Šeďová: “Research questions

form the core of a research project. They fulfill two basic functions: they help to focus research so

that it provides results in accordance with the set goals, and they also show the way to conduct

research.

22

They represent a further narrowing and concretization of the research problem” (2007, p. 69).

In my bachelor thesis I did mixed research, both quantitative and qualitative. In quantitative

research, I used the technique of a questionnaire. I created two questionnaires with closed and open

questions in the web application Google Forms with 13 questions each. Six questions are always

open. The reason for including open questions was to get useful information, suggestions and

recommendations from both sides. I wanted to give teachers and students space to express their

opinions, so not bind them only with a yes / no / other scale. I was asked by the T1 to prepare the

questionnaire for students in the Czech language. So I created both questionnaires only in the Czech

language. Prepared questionnaires - separately for teachers and students, were sent per email to the

representative teacher of English (further only T1) to be filled. These were then forwarded to

teachers and students. The aim was to create questionnaires with clear questions, which will allow

the respondents on one hand simple, on the other hand expectedly creative, useful answers. The

questionnaires are attached in Appendix 1 and 2. In the research I used the technique of online

teaching observations and online meetings and emails with T1.

4.3 Data collection and analysis

In agreement with the school management and the T1, I addressed my questionnaires to

English language teachers and learners at the Secondary School in Pardubice. The research was

based on the voluntary participation of respondents through online questionnaires. Data collection

was realised from January to April. A total of 83 completed questionnaires were returned to me, 80

from students and 3 from teachers. The school has a total of about 260 students and approx 65

teachers, of which 5 are English teachers. The school has also another external staff. Number of

students´answers according to individual years: 18 from the first year, 23 from the second, 22 from

the third and 13 from the fourth year. Four learners didn´t answer the question. The following chart

1 shows the number of respondents from individual four years of school.

Chart 1: Number of respondents among students:

1823 22

13

1. y. 2. y. 3. y. 4. y.

23

In the course of the work, I decided to extend a relatively small representative sample from

teachers with interviews, in the form of telephone calls and emails with T1. T1 was the only teacher

who provided me with valuable information beyond the questionnaire.

In this chapter I present results of the research. The data obtained from questionnaires,

interviews and emails are processed in the form of statements made by students and teachers, some

of them are shown in charts or tables. I answer the basic research questions and hypothesis which

were set in the introduction of the practical part.

4.4 Data from Teachers

A questionnaire survey on my first research question for teachers “What methods, teaching

materials, assessment methods and communication methods do you use in DL at the time of school

closure”? All three interviewed teachers identically mentioned MS Teams as the main way of

communication and as the most favourite platform for general e-teaching of English language. It is

also used by most other teachers at school. For mass mediation of information for learners and

parents the school uses SOL (School OnLine). The Zoom platform is also well used during E-

meetings.

At the beginning of the general school closure, most teachers expected that all students

would take part in DL. However, according to teachers, this didn´t happen.

T1: “In the school classroom we often work in pairs, groups, we move around the

classroom, we communicate across the classroom, I try to move English a little. None of this took

place at our school at the beginning of DL. No online activity in which students communicate in

groups. Even not all students came to the regular online meetings regularly. Over the time, things

got better in Teams, but from each group not everybody got involved. Whether the students

mentioned major or minor technical problems with computers, the Internet connection, or did not

fully understand the purpose and meaning of this teaching (or the purpose and meaning were not

sufficiently explained to them). DL was even optional for some temporary time, not compulsory.

So I looked for other options and ways.”

The following table 1 shows a practical comparison, often mentioned pros and cons of two

most used platforms Zoom and MS Teams, mostly for general communication and for synchronous

teaching. Data source: WebSetNet.net.

24

Table 1: Comparison of platforms Zoom and MS Teams

Enthusiastic DL teacher

How can we characterize and highlight the role, approach of the teacher who still manages

DL, is popular with students, is not boring? What makes this modern, innovative teacher better who

might be a few steps ahead of other colleagues? Here is a little story. I will try to characterize an

English teacher in couple of points who excels in ideas. This teacher (T1) didn´t expect the

immediate involvement of all students at the beginning. Started inventing activities that work in

full-time teaching in groups. Was looking for ways, innovative approaches. More or less

coincidentally was approached by the "Nice-to-emeet-you" project, founded by a Polish teacher via

the Facebook platform, where foreign teachers can contact each other. After that T1 organized and

arranged all necessary things. Students had the opportunity to meet at least virtually with students

from abroad and enrich themselves with knowledge of the given country and other interesting topics

in the online environment MS Teams or Zoom. T1 tried to share these ideas with other colleagues,

but they didn´t show such enthusiasm and interest. T1 didn´t want to have everything under control

alone and gave her students more freedom to try to control themselves and take this responsibility

seriously. With a smile and without stress. Students could be the initiators of the selection of topics

for these joint meetings. They could create and consult their prepared topics in form of digital

Zoom (in English) MS Teams (in Czech)

+Suitable also for larger lectures, meetings,

up to 100 participants

+Suitable also for larger lectures, meetings,

up to several thousands of participants

+Possibility to set a virtual background in the

room

+The license for it is directly in the long-term

licenses from Microsoft, which the school has

-Chat and files are deleted after the meeting + Chats and files remain after the end of the

meeting (because of chat-based workspace)

-With link from meeting provider only + It is also suitable for chat between individuals and

for consultations (it is not necessary to create a link)

-Time limit 40 minutes (for basic members, worse

quality than licenced version)

-Falls during larger meeting

-Limited storage -Unable to mute users

-There may be a security risk (hackers) - More frequent audio interruptions

-Students with a cell phone mention worse

connectivity than with a PC

-Students with a cell phone mention worse

connectivity than with a PC

Tool category: Web and Video Conferencing Tool category: Group Chat and Notifications

Provider China, original author Eric Yuan Provider USA, developer Microsoft Corporation

25

presentations in the suitable application. Most creative and engaged learners into these meetings

became a certificate, shown in Appendix 5.

T1 is aware of the importance of self-reflection and the necessary, preferably regular

mentoring with a colleague, with whom she shares and discusses new ideas and experiences. T1

has the advantage, her husband is also a teacher of Geography and PE at the same school and they

complement and support each other very well. We can dare to say that online teaching is a kind of

imaginary mirror, depicting the personality of the teacher, his / her teaching qualities, which should

to some extent reflect the set school strategy and the functioning of the school.

Activities

In the questionnare teachers mentioned these internet sources – applications, activities:

Kahoot!, YouTubeVideos, Learning Apps, Pixton, Animaker, Quizlet, Lyrics Training,

LiveWorkSheets, Google Escape Games, Wordwall, and Jeopardy. Each activity is more or less

specific in a certain way. These activities are new for teachers, they fill some of their English lessons

with them. Only after some time will they find out what suits them and what does not, what is

suitable for a certain class and level and what is not. Teachers just try and use all available materials

and sources, including traditional textbooks and worksheets. Textbooks and worksheets mainly for

explanation of the new necessary grammar.

Platforms Zoom and MS Teams are mainly used and prefered for meetings with students

from another schools to practice and improve mainly the phonology and discourse – listening and

speaking, communication skills. Students can hear different dialects, can ask and answer various

questions, have a great chance to talk and are also grateful for it. These activities are the most

popular among students due to the approach of the T1.

Learning Apps is an interesting, very complex and prefered online application for creating

interactive exercises (sorting, quizzes, adding, matching pairs, picture description, word guessing,

memory cards, pexeso, cloze test…). The application also includes other tools - voting, chat,

calendar, laptop, pinboard. Very similar and complex one is appliation Wordwall.

Some of these above mentioned activities are shown in the following table 2 chronologically

according to the degree of popularity, usability and time disposition of each certain lesson.

26

Activity/Applicati

on/Platform

Vocabulary Grammar Listening Discourse Digital

Skills

Zoom, Teams: ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Kahoot!: ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Learning Apps: ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Lyrics Training: ✓ ✓ ✓

Pixton: ✓ ✓

Animaker: ✓ ✓ ✓

Google tools: ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Wordwall: ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Table 2: Synchronous and asynchronous activities practising English language

Selected useful and recommended applications – online activities with their online links are further

listed in Appendix 7.

Readers will learn more about the concrete online activities in chapter 4.6 of the practical part.

Games

Most children and young learners enjoy playing games, whether on a computer or on their

mobile devices, at home or outdoors, anywhere and anytime, and generaly many teachers want and

try to use games and liven up their English classes, depends on situation, level and character of the

learners. Teachers can take advantage of this enthusiasm by creating some useful language-related

games. (Normally, they should follow a set curriculum, and have approximately only two teaching

hours a week for one class. A textbook or syllabus is always a huge help to a teacher. Having and

using a textbook is a time-saver.) As a starting point, we can ask learners to choose a game they are

currently playing or have played recently. A teacher can ask them to work in groups and explain

their games to each other, so they can discuss each other´s contributions and saying if they would

recommend them. A teacher should encourage learners to ask each other questions about how the

games work to make sure they all understand. With these activities they learn making

recommendations, giving instructions or advice, mention various previous events, argue etc.

During my school practice at primary school in 2019, there was the opportunity to observe

English lessons directly in the classrooms among learners from the 4th to the 9th class. I can confirm

that games have been widely used. They have a purpose beyond the production of correct speech,

and are examples of the most preferable communicative activities. Grammar games help children

not only gain knowledge but be able to apply and use that learning. Learners are often more

motivated to play games than they are to do deskwork. Games are motivating for the learners.

27

Especially those that are funny and challenging are highly motivating. Probably the best reason to

use games is that the use of such activities both increases the cooperation and competition in the

class. Indeed they can be used to add excitement through competition or to create bonding between

the learners, and between the learners and teacher.

The significant difference is that under normal circumstances, learners are free to use space

during games, while in front of the computers they sit rather passively and watch a few points on

the screen.

Games provide a safe, fun outlet for competitive urges and help keep students from

becoming too exam focused and be stressed. Role-play games, reenactments and murder mysteries,

where students have to improvise and play outsie their everyday lives, create changeable situations

that encourage flexible thinking in all students. Those who struggle with test anxiety often attein

new levels of fluency in these games because the goal is not to get a good score but to find out ‘who

did it’ or to achieve some goal, such as bargaining with other groups for items they need to fulfil a

game´s objective.

Potential of online teaching

The answers to the third question “What potential do you see in online, mixed (blended)

teaching, which of these experiences would be appropriate to use in the normal running of schools

in the future?” are a bit more diverse, here are examples: “The potential is in the motivatioanal

spirit; students are used to technology, but technical possibilities at school falter, the problem is

usually the poor quality of computer technology and internet connection. But certainly better

blended teaching than just only online teaching as it is so far. There is a possibility to contact native

speakers or other ESL teachers from abroad, but the best contact is direct one. Usage for long-term

sick students and maintenance of newly acquired computer skills by both pupils and teachers.”

From above mentioned follows that blended learning seems to be some solution to the

problem of teaching English.

Motivation

There is obvious frustation in the answers to the fourth question “Do you feel a gradual loss

of motivation and social ties in DL”? T1 answers: “That's the other side of the thing. Yes, learners

are already tired and everything is so mediated that some of them can lose and do lose discipline. I

perceive a huge loss of motivation even by "gifted" students, loss of attention is another thing that

often appears, social contact is lacking for everyone. It is not a good long-term teaching tool.’The

loss of motivation didn´t show itself in the first half of the year, but with the following months the

fatigue and laxity of some students, including the lack of social ties, is especially noticeable by the

28

first year learners who did not manage to get acquainted. However, DL offers a lot of possibilities

which are far from being used, mainly due to the fact that the cameras do not have to be switched

on.”

We can assume that students’ low motivation to learn can have many reasons. It is often

caused by a lack of patterns in families and inadequate housing, which does not provide children a

sufficiently peaceful environment for home preparation. At other times, various school and out-of-

school clubs, organizations and various forms of tutoring help to solve this problem, which,

however, were not possible to use in the given pandemic situation.

Volunteering

Quite interesting was the answer to the question whether some students got involved in any

volunteer work during the school closures. T1 answers: “Only a few individuals (graduates) help

out in medical facilities voluntarily, now mainly to avoid didactic tests during graduation exams.

Some students are active in DofE programme (Duke of Edinburgh´s Award) and some have even

achieved a bronze placement in the past.” We can only agree that such creative, voluntary activities

make sense. They support the comprehensive development of abilities and skills through long-term

and regular activities in real life and situations, not just in virtual life at the computer. It´s open to

all backgrounds, cultures and abilities. Let's hope that we will soon meet again many enthusiastic

people in similar, already traditional hobby clubs in our country, such as scout, falcon, tremping or

the increasingly popular international school exchanges.

Assessment

Assessment is based on working in online classes, tests in MS Teams and oral examinations

online with a camera. Verbal evaluation predominates.

Communication

Another question tries to find out what proportion of students maintain online

communication with their teachers and in what ways is contact maintained with students who are

not online from various reasons. Teachers guess that 90% of students communicate via MS Teams

environment, the rest after agreement with parents communicates via email.

General teachers´ evaluation of DL

From the summary question “How do you generally evaluate the complexity of distance

learning compared to standard full-time teaching (in terms of time, mental demands ...)”?, we learn

the following: DL is very demanding - mentally and physically (long sessions at the PC), it is very

time consuming, it is not possible to do all necessary activities within the system Use of English.

DL no longer entertains not only students but also teachers.

29

To the next question, whether teachers participate in DVPP programs or other educational

or career courses, teachers answered in the same way - they do not participate in any. They

occasionally attend interestingly described webinars or trainings. And they add, “the sense will

become apparent only after their completion. They don´t always meet expectations.”

4.5 Data from Learners

General view and experience with DL

A questionnaire survey on my first research question for Learners “What is your opinion -

how do you experience and how do you evaluate distance learning in general”? From eighty

answers to this question, the minuses clearly predominate. But it is necessary to mention that at the

beginning (first couple of months) the learners liked the new form, it was something completely

new for everyone, but the initial enthusiasm quickly waned. After the initial euphoria in the sense

of more time for everything, not have to commute, being able to sleep longer, not always have to

be online or without an active camera, etc., students began to feel deficiencies in the subject matter,

misunderstanding, inability to fully concentrate and motivate in self-study, shorter time to complete

tests, and the resulting stress and dissatisfaction from all these things. Those who participate and

mainly those who will participate the school practice, think that they will be in big troubles.

Learners’ general statements: some subjects simply cannot be taught online, lack of practical

skills for graduation exam, of course various technical problems, loss of privacy at home, some

even mention children's dependence on the Internet, among the pros is the great admiration of their

English teacher that she is still doing well. (On the other hand, teachers noted that some ‘non

technical’ students mentioned tech problems all the time so that they would not have to be so

involved in teaching.) Most students want to go back to school to see their peers and teachers as

soon as possible. Some individuals have already signed petitions circulating on social networks for

the reopening of schools, institutions, playgrounds etc., as well as teachers and the general public

did.

Feedbacks

When I asked whether learners receive feedback from teachers on most of their tasks and

homework and in what form, most of them (almost 100%) answered unanimously that they usually

did, sometimes in words, sometimes in writing, rarely by a mark.

Time consum

Another question concerned school obligations, whether they consume more or less time

than in traditional full-time teaching, and whether the learners are limited in their professional

practice. In average, learners report that school responsibilities take more time. They have to learn

30

more about professional practice, as they have gaps from last year, they can't try and train some

activities and skills they will need in professional practice in the next school year.

Improvement of DL

Another question was to clarify whether students see any possibility in improving access to

DL: “In your opinion, what would all the participants - school management, teachers and you now

really need to make DL better, easier (until normal condition and full-time teaching)?” Learners

answered: “Understanding us students that we are not robots and that we also try and do what we

can. I guess we all need some motivation to keep using that DL. Both students and teachers are

definitely tired of all of this, as DL is more complicated. It would be best go back to school, no one

has been enjoying this for a long time.”

The answers to this question included other statements and terms such as: patience, drop

stress, training for some teachers, fewer tasks or more time to complete them. The answers to

several questions in questionnaire show a strong desire to return to school.

Feelings and performance self-evaluation

With another question I wanted to find out how the learners feel during online English

lessons and how they evaluate their performance themselves. “How do you feel about teaching

English online and how do you evaluate your performance”? There has always been, is and will be

a difference in levels, abilities among students. The following answers were quite varied and

indicate great diversity and rich self-reflection of students. Here is one great example: “This is the

best in my school life, we are in small groups according to our level of English, finally we can

"normally" talk in English without "slower" students. I'm not an English champion, sometimes I

help myself with a translator or something like that, but English is great. We have an amazing, I

repeat amazing teacher, who also arranges various video conferences with students from other

countries. It's divine. It's a pity that not everyone shares my opinion and then they cough it up. But

I love English. What the teacher does for us is very valuable to me.”

Generally learners feel very well in English lessons, they evaluae the positive attitude of

their teacher and the activities they practice in the lessons. They are very grateful for speaking

opportunities. Some state they have even improved their English. I think that the great effort and

work of the English T1 many times mentioned costs so many positives. Even from other statements,

it is more than obvious that there are not many other, innovative, passionate and lively teachers at

this school.

31

The following 2 indicators about motivation and teaching form preferences are in charts 2

and 3.

Motivation

Chart 2: Learners´ motivation / demotivation about DL

From the answers to this question, it is clear that students consider disturbances and stimuli

from the environment to be very demotivating, over 42% of respondents. 30% of respondetns report

a lack of understanding of the subject matter as a handicap. Learners who had problems with time

management, meeting deadlines were 13%, associated with the word procrastination. Other

obstacles and problems were often mentioned by students´: lack of privacy in the family, various

technical problems (especially at the beginning of DL), illness and mental problems in the family.

disturbances and stimuli from the

environment42%

misunderstanding of teaching

30%

failure to meet deadlines

13%

others15%

32

Teaching form preference

Chart 3: Satisfaction / dissatisfaction of the current situation

It is clear from the answers that most students are looking forward to go back to school. This

is also more than evident from answers to other questions. Some have become accustomed to the

regime and would like something in between, because there are obviously some students who don´t

have such problems with time management, self-autonomy and can afford to organize more leisure

activities or even volunteering.

Self – autonomy and self – education

The issue of self-autonomy and self-education can seem very difficult for some secondary

learners (mainly for lower classes, immature learners) and could be associated with inner

motivation and the necessary self-discipline. Individual self-study can be a disadvantage for some

students because they need to be managed and guided, as well as limited by time constraints, they

miss direct pressure and contact from the teacher they have become accustomed to during their

years at school, and initial external motivation fades very quickly. On the other hand for some

smarter students with better abilities seems to be DL form as an advantage, they feel their self-

potential. Parents role models and family support also have a major impact on success.

4.6 Activities in DL

Practical topics and online activities based on them are described in this chapter and are

focused on all language skills and competencies practiced in today´s DL.

As mentioned in the theoretical part, skills and competencies like creativity, critical

go back to school53%

continue in DiL8%

something in between -sometimes

physically to school, sometimes

DiL39%

33

thinking, communication, collaboration, digital literacy, can all be developed in student-centred

motivating ways.

Generally it could be practical and useful to ask learners which messanger app they use most

and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of it in teaching and learning English.

According to website Statista, with over two million online apps available (not all of them

are available for all devices), it is perhaps unsuprising that, although they open up a world of

opportunities, teachers may have felt overwhelmed, mainly at the beginning of a pandemic

situation, and it was difficult for them to know where to start. Common questions were:

• How to create an active, collaborative classroom online?

• How to help students with that loss of face-to-face collaboration and connection, and

transfer this experience to an online environment?

• What are good apps for English language learning?

• How to recognize they are the right level?

• Which learning apps do learners really like?

• Will these apps help learners learn comparatively well or even more effectively than

using traditional classroom tools?

There are plenty of things we can ask learners to do with their mobile devices using the most

basic features and apps that they are already likely to be familiar with. As T1 foreshadowed in the

previous chapter – less is sometimes more, beware of using too many different apps. Teachers

should know what they want to achieve with each app they use, and how it will contribute to more

effective learning. Since there are millions of apps and not all are available for all devices, this

thesis names only some most used apps and concentrates instead more on types of activity.

However, some apps will be recommended as a starting point or because of their widespread use in

education.

Broadly speaking, we can divide apps for the language class into two categories: those which

offer automated language practice and those which enable users to create things. The first tend to

be apps for practising grammar or vocabulary, which give an automated response as to whether one

has done something correctly or not. Creative apps allow learners to make things using the

language, such as an e-book, poster, magazine, or video. Both have their place in language learning,

but overuse of automated apps may lead to demotivation among learners.

According to the research data from learners and teachers, the most mentioned and

preferable applications or websites used mainly for individual works (home assignments) are:

www.helpforenglish.cz, and www.duolingo.com.

34

4.6.1 Activities – international E-meetings

We can also call this activity as interaction, simulation or stage game, all in one. This

multifaceted and all-encompassing online activity, with its intention, reflects the topic of cultural

differentiation and cultural cooperation. It teaches students about the possibilities of cooperation,

ways of negotiating, acting in conflict situations and about problems, topics that may arise when

cultures meet with different customs, traditions or taboos. Learners learn terms such as culture,

customs, holidays, fests, traditions, geography, history, landmarks, taboos, etc. At the same time,

they deepen their communication skills, ability to work in a group and also creativity or skills by

making various props, collages and other aids. These meetings are the core content of all online

English lessons at the monitored school, which the teacher actively and in-depth devotes herself to.

Communication platforms Zoom and MS Teams are used for these lessons. Some platforms

automatically upload the audio file to the cloud storage or has its own storage space where the file

will be easily accessible to learners. The search and preparation phase for E-meetings is described

in chapter 4.4 with the subtitle Enthusiastic DL teacher.

T1 doesn´t divide the teaching into separate parts, as is classically divided in the textbooks

(e.g. reading, listening, vocabulary, word study, use of english, writing, grammar, speaking and

pronunciation). Doesn´t use typical more or less unattractive excercises as in the majority of the

textbooks (gap filling, multiple choice, rewrite the sentence, chose the right letter / word / answer,

or add the missing one etc.). Doesn´t use a large number of applications, for which the vast majority

require complex registration or payment of fees. Uses mainly the Kahoot! application to test,

practice and recapture new information, knowledge and insights. This online application can

replace a lot of activities that are in classic textbooks. What´s more, learners can create the content

(tests, quizzes, etc.) themselves.

As a guest, I participated in a total of six such E-meetings over the three months. They took

place via Zoom or MS Teams, 40 to 70 minutes each. At each meeting, both schools had a topic

prepared in advance in the form of presentations, which were further discussed in breakout rooms.

The meeting was always accompanied by the game Kahoot. The main guide of the meeting was

always T1.

For clarity, I present a table with the names of partner schools and the main topics of E-

meetings and further are presented concrete examples of activities within E-meetings.

35

School Main topic

Fatma Emin Kutvar Anadolu Lisesi, Turkey International Women´s Day

St. Mark´s School, New Delhi, India Our school, Eating out, Habits

Sec. Technical School, Poznan, Poland Czech-Polish education system, Ideal teacher

Centro de Educación Continua y a Distincia

UAEH, Pachuta, Mexico

Habits, Fests, Tongue twisters

Sec. Technical School, Poznan, Poland Eating habits, Menu creation

Fatma Emin Kutvar Anadolu Lisesi, Turkey Most important person in your life

Table 3: Names of schools and main topics of E-meetings

Here are concrete examples of activities within E-meetings.

Presentations

This is exactly what most English lessons at the monitored school are about at the time of

closed schools.

Generally a presentation transmit information from a speaker to an audience. It is a suitable

tool in language learning mainly for upper intermediate and advanced learners (2nd, 3rd and 4th

graduation year). It is engaging for learners and they practise key skills. Digital presentations

present new opportunities for creating and learning, as learners have the freedom to express

themselves through different combinations of digital media. Learners learn to introduce, inform,

motivate, build goodwill, or present a new idea/product, stimulate listeners´ imagination. Last but

not least, it is a good fun, enjoyment, it offers to the listeners valuable information and new

knowledge.

Topic example: Food, Meals, Eating out, Menu creation

Learners should make a presentation with visual material in Power Point, and so prepare for

the upcoming internatioanal E-meeting via MS Teams or more preferable Zoom platform, it

depends on agreement of both schools. The T1 always tries to show the learners new procedures

clearly first, demonstrates them during online lesson. After that assigns them to create a new task

on a certain agreed topic, for which they have a certain time space until the next online lesson.

Learners´ attention is usually focused on specific language area or they can feel free to

choose whatever area or style they like (as inspiration can be a film-trailer, a book, holiday, first

school practice, driving school, zoo visit, journey to school, menu or favourite recipe, etc.). The last

mentioned topic is the case of our monitored school. Czech learners created with Polish learners

the concrete presentation called “Czech and Polish traditional cuisine and menu creation” in Power

Point. Learners do cooperate, exchange ideas, argue with each other via preferable social media.

36

A teacher step by step explains basic information and conditions to the learners in these

words first: A well-mastered presentation should be a presentation in learners´ own words with a

possible reading of some passages. The purpose should not be exhaustive information, but a

selection of the most important facts. You can use several sources of information, which must

always be listed. Your presentation should include: introductory motivation of your audience

(peers), the use of visual material - pictures, clarification of technical, unknown or foreign terms, a

final summary and provide space for questions and discussion. Try to use speech cards with main

points instead of reading from paper. Try to imagine this is some kind of discussion, opinions

exchange and should take place between you and your peers. Please, be ready to have your cameras

on.

Generally unattractive, monotonous reading is inappropriate, such as a ‘report’ in the case

of a full-time teaching at school.

Topic example: Tongue Twisters

As one of the sub-topics during the meetings, T1 includes tongue twisters, rather as a quick

warm-up and entertainment activity. T1 searches for tongue twisters containing sounds that learners

have difficulty with or just for liven up English lesson and sends them to the learners to practise

saying them to each other during online lesson in breakout rooms. Learners also teach their foreign

peers Czech equivalents and vice versa.

Acccording to learners from other secondary school, teachers ask them for example to check

their pronunciation using voice recognition on their device to see if the tongue twister appears

correctly on screen. As a follow up, learners can make recordings on the messaging app or

smartphones. They can re-record until they are happy with their recording, they can share it with

their teacher, peers, anybody they want. Then they announce the winner of the competition together.

Function, a teacher is able to:

Fold groups effectively if possible, moderate, summarize what has been said, tries to

highlight interesting moments and “throws a thread” (translation of the author) for further reactions

as an inspicient in the theater. Also monitors the time of the presentation. Tries to recapitulate and

formulate general or specific conclusions at the end of the discussion activities. Tries to stimulate

further activity and curiosity in the learners and purposefully, humorously, spontaneously

encourages them to further mutual cooperation beyond the teaching lessons. Trains them to present

their ideas clearly. Advices them to practice speaking in front of an audience (with cameras on) and

under pressure. Reminds them at the same time that a lot of discussions and speeches are frequently

37

recorded in the real professional and career life. Stresses that even for short presentations, rehearsal

of content and timing is essential. Challenges them to self-corret to achieve objectivity and precision

in what they are saying (presenting).

From the survey – observations during the E-meetings, it was clear that T1 was very

successful in this targeted strategy and lot of learners formed new friendships with each other and

promised each other a personal visit in their hometowns and schools.

Assessment:

We should always try to assess what has been produced, so the language correction can be

secundar in case of DL, but not less important. If we assess more language and less the creative

form, we may demotivate learners and make them less likely to engage with future projects.

Tip for teachers:

Learners usually follow the pace set by teachers. In such contexts, if learners don´t

understand a language presentation, they are likely to fall behind and lose motivation. One way to

solve this is by creating short recording of things such as language presentations or help videos,

which the teacher can then share with learners to watch after lessons if necessary to help them keep

up. Screen recordings can be paused and repeated, allowing learners to easily watch them whenever

they need to. They can also be helpful when learners were absent from the lesson.

Explain to your students that one of the main purposes of presentaions in general is to

become active listeners and develop the ability to acknowledge the opponents´arguments. Good

idea is to tell them that changing opinions if convinced by the counter arguments is not a sign of

weakness but a demonstration of intellect, fair play, and excellence. Prepare your graduation

students in diplomacy. Teach them assertive but polite language.

Function, learners are able to:

Greet; introduce; begin conversation with foreigners; agree and disagree; describe people

and things; express feelings; discuss; compare; ask for, react to and give personal information;

exchange opinions; persuade; predict; invite; make suggestions and offers; write a simple narrative;

manage conversation etc.

Advantages:

1. Mutual learning gives to the learners an important role in education. It leads to the

support of their responsibility, and it motivates, among other things. Awareness of

education as a wealth and self-property.

38

2. Relationships, student cohesions and other components of the teaching climate are

improving.

3. Such a teaching climate makes better even the role of the teacher, who is thus in the

welcome role of a mere moderator of the activity, and teacher´s power recedes into the

background.

4. Learners speak at the same level of communication, better understand to each other than

the often complex speech of a teacher full of technical expressions and personal

interests.

5. Learners know and use various mnemonic aids, feints, simplifications and abbreviations

that the teacher doesn´t know or has long forgotten.

6. This mutual learning reinforces the individual approach and often automatically

differentiates the difficulty in a mutually learning group.

7. With a good method and strategy, all or the vast majority of students are involved, even

with cameras on.

Disadvantages:

A teacher is not the smartest person in the world, because has no space for his/her

“wise” interpretation.

Texting

In order to save time and use fewer characters, youth and many people in general use

‘textspeak’. T1 explains the difference between abbreviations, acronyms, and emoticons (emojis).

T1 prepares and searches for some terms online and finds translations of what´s in common use in

these days. T1 gives learners some examples first and asks them to say or guess what they mean.

Then puts learners into teams (breakout rooms – usually group of 4). T1 says and shows examples

in interactiv program (Power Point, Google tools) and tells learners that the first team to type the

correct meaning in the chat room will win a point. T1 repeats it with other items. The team with

most of the points wins. To follow up, T1 asks learners to text further examples for others to guess.

Here are some common, well known examples among learners.

Abbreviations (shortcuts):

B4N - by for now TBH - to be honest

BFF - best friends forever ASAP - as soon as possible

CU 2moro - see you tomorrow ICYMI - in case you missed it

NP - no problem IMO - in my opinion

BRB - be right back IK - I know

39

Acronyms (an abbreviation that is spoken as a single word):

AIDS, QANTAS, SABENA

A teacher explains and remembers to the learners: We use the when reffering to the abbreviations

like the EU, the USA, the UN, but not with acronyms like UNESCO, UNICEF, OPEC, NAFTA,

CELTA, TEFL, TESOL etc.

Abbreviations made up of initial letters, like EU, USA, are spoken with the stress on the last letter.

Many frequently used abbreviations may be written with or without full stops: i.e. or ie, a.m. or am,

p.m. or pm, U.S.A. or USA.

Nowdays people may spend more time typing on device than writing with a pen or pencil.

While the skill of handwriting remains important, text messaging is another way or writing that can

be used to motivate or rather to amuse the learners.

Writing tasks

Notice / short story / email / chat message / formal or informal letter. T1 challenges learners

to plan and type (write by hand) their own story or diary during the pandemic time as a form of

writing assignment.

Topic example: My quarantine diary

Within the revision of past tenses the learners already know, the T1 assigns the learners to

write a short story, email, message, formal or informal letter. Alternatively, they write about a

certain topic (for example, ‘Once upon a time’, ‘My quarantine diary’, etc.) Second mentioned topic

as a one of writing tasks is shown as an example in Appendix 6.

The goal of assigning this task is to practice the correct use of times in the context.

Furthermore, the teacher tries to find out the feelings and attitudes of learners. By this task is at

least a little possible to gain insight into their perception of DL. Students also get acquainted with

a new creative application first and try to practice their digital skills.

Kahoot!

Kahoot works almost exclusively with a multiple choice format with a maximum of four

answer options, as well as a few variants of tasks, such as word sorting. It works on practically the

same principle as a PowerPoint presentation. It can be a suitable complement to any interpretation

of the curriculum. Images, maps, graphs, links, videos and text can be inserted into individual

Kahoot slides. The course of the activity itself is conceived as a game, where all connected players

are shown one question at a time, which is answered by pressing one of the colors on the screen of

40

their smartphone or PC. The winner team is the one who answers not only correctly, but also faster.

Kahoot has got some really interesting game-based learning features and teacher can make

some settings. For example players can get points depending on how quickly they answer the

questions. It is possible to limit the time learners have to answer the questions. So at the

beginning of the game teacher can give the learners 20 seconds to answer the question but

towards the end only 10 seconds. At the end of each question Kahoot always shows who the top

learners are in a league table. There is even a commentary on who is improving.

Generally when T1 works with Kahoot, she always gets her students to work in teams. It

makes the activity collaborative, learners can share ideas.

The Kahoot platform allows to share presentations with each other and with colleagues.

It is obvious that each teacher teaches differently, but when sharing with colleagues, it is possible

to create a duplicate of the material and adjust it to ones needs.

Kahoot will probably not replace popular methods and organizational forms of full-time

study. However, teachers believe that even after returning to the schools, it can become an

attractive addition to teaching.

Another creative tasks

There are several apps for creating and sharing own e-books (e.g. Book Creator). One can

add photos, text, audio and the e-book can be saved as a PDF or in a format that is readable on

different e-readers (e.g. Kindle from Amazon). Making their own materials involves learners

working together to find their own real-world contexts for target words. By discussing, describing,

practising and recording their words, they make the vocabulary more meaningful and more

memorable. Their finished work will give them a sense of pride and achievement, and also

something tangible to show to their friends and family.

Topic example: Photo collage

Acccording to learners and information from other secondary schools, teachers give their

students freedom and let them actively and critically create what they enjoy. For example, when

they do something, go somewhere and take pictures of what they do and see. Then they share them

on social networks and present their experiences in class groups. Smartphone camera is probably

the most popular feature of mobile devices. Paper pictures have long been an aid in language

teaching. Nowdays, learners like to show their devices full of pictures, which can be used for both

language production and digital skills work. By asking learners to take photos outside class to use

in lessons, teachers allow them to bring their own lives into the classroom, personalizing materials

and making tasks more intrinsically motivating.

41

Another recommended activities and tools from the general public: Podcasting, Audio

recordings, YouTube video creation, QR codes, etc.

In short, encouraging and boosting self-confidence through various activities (not only

digital ones) is the key to successful language learning.

A widely used systems (LMS) for school administration and communication with parents

and students called Bakaláři and Moodle enable the classic assignment of homework and other

numerous functions, which can also be used during the normal operation of the school.

4.7 Mental hygiene

Not only teachers and learners train the brain by training memory. At school, learners learn

poems, songs, phrases, irregular verbs, listed words, part of speech, types of pronouns, numerals,

grammatical connections, etc. At home they play games (more computer than classic board ones),

solve crossword puzzles, riddles, they must remember tasks from their parents, shopping list or

various passwords, numbers and access codes. It is very important to compensate these static,

passive activities with physical activity, to get out of the "comfort zone" of the home and to get rid

of all electronic and digital devices. Here are some tips:

• Posture – sitting at a desk all day is not a good idea and it´s beneficial to have breaks

and change positions.

• Lie flat on the floor with knees bent and head supported. Try and stand on your hands

or on your head.

• Relax for couple of minutes and allow the spine to re-align.

• Jogging – running, which is sometimes combined by brisk walking (training of the

heart, lungs and at the same time oxygenation of the brain).

• Be mindful, not have mind full.

• Do something good for someone else.

• Happines isn´t about getting what you want all the time. It´s about loving what you

have and beeing grateful for it.

4.8 Research summary and recommendation

After comparing theory and practice, I came to the conclusion that the ongoing DL at schools,

its tools, teaching methods and strategies used is influenced by the role of the teacher and his/her

teaching style. As the teaching form changes, so do the roles of teachers and students. It is believed

that there is not only one separate instruction, procedure or method that would take into account in

all respects, all the wishes and ideas that a certain teaching group or individual teachers bring to

42

teaching. However, these factors can significantly affect the specific preparation for teaching,

planning of lessons and the design of the lesson.

The findings of the survey show that DL is time-consuming and organizationally demanding

not only for the teacher who prepares, manages and evaluates teaching, but also for learners,

especially in the field of their study habits and skills, which many of them still cultivate from

transition of primary to secondary school. At the same time, it contributes greatly to the

development of students' autonomy. In thesis were mapped the views of teachers and leraners on

how they practically and emotionally perceive DL since spring 2020 till nowdays. I found that both

sides views on the new form of teaching were initially neutral and positive, with signs of concern

and expectation, mainly because of enthusiasm for something new, unusual. It was a big challenge

for everyone. Teachers were looking for new activities, materials and teaching aids. Innovative and

far-sighted, proacive T1 led learners to write a diary as a part of their writing skills, from which

was possible gain some insight into their perception of DL.

H1: We can therefore confirm the first hypothesis - teachers set their criteria for DL, they

tried to be as efficient as possible and used the available options and tools with quite positive

feedback from the learners.

H2: We can also confirm the second hypothesis - the initial enthusiasm of students for the

new type of teaching was replaced by some skepticism and after about a year lasting DL we find

that negative feelings and attitudes predominate (these may be related to problems in the social and

psychological level of students and their families, and communication and cooperation between

teachers at school). Learners and also teachers want to return to school as soon as possible for

standard full-time teaching. According to their answers, for some the integration of ICT into

teaching is not a fundamental problem, they form a natural part of their lives, they have stopped

paying attention to them and their integration into teaching is not a special feature. Perhaps even

this model fits them well and they feel like a fish in water. However, this is only a very small

percentage of individuals.

With the hypotheses, also main four research questions given at the beginning of the

practical part were answered. The activities and examples presented in this work have been verified

in practice and T1 and learners have a positive experience with them.

We can dare to say that most schools (at least every primary and secondary school) had been

looking for a critical time for a way to prepare for the alternative DL, when learners could not attend

school. We can say that being prepared for DL does not only mean providing the necessary technical

equipment and choosing a suitable platform. It is also necessary to provide teachers with suitable

conditions for getting acquainted with the necessary approaches, tools and their practical use in

43

teaching. Each school responded to the new situation as best as it could. And this was also the case

of our researched school.

During the year-long distance learning, numerous new international friendships have

developed between students. It is obvious that learners are motivated mainly by desire to be able to

speak with foreigners, by awareness of their development, the possibility of better employment in

the future, desire to succeed and complete studies, and of course, last but not least, by better mark.

In English lessons the elements like personality of teacher, atmosphere in lesson, speaking,

listening and appreciation during the lessons have strong position and can be seen as a sources of

motivation. That means these are the factors the learners enjoy in English lessons. Teachers should

with a balanced degree concentrate on revision and amusement in classes. Work in groups, pair

work, taking notes, searching for information, using smartphones and classmates’ help are the

elements which are and should be further improved in English lessons.

The experience and recommendations of teachers and students provide the following

summary: Teachers should focus on team work - breakout rooms, on maximizing attention in class

also by faster students working on a mobile phone or computer and expanding their knowledge

without waiting for others; insist on the use of cameras; assign homework via online platforms;

choose quality videos; not use so many complicated applications; maintain digital skills; be

inventive and optimistic. However, they should be aware that less is sometimes more, not

overwhelm with tasks and homework. Despite some attractive tasks and teaching materials, the

motivation to perform decreases due to the length of DL. As a compromise, blended learning seems

like a good solution to the problem of transitional, emergency distance English learning and

teaching in these days, when face-to-face or professionall, well structured distance education is not

exactly possible.

Regular, informal meetings with students and teachers is something that needs support and

enthusiasm. Will teachers and students care about them? It is believed that teachers will try to find

common ground and improve mutual cooperation. Most processes are about personalization and of

course cooperation, character, positive thinking, abilities, approach to work.

It may also be easy to get caught up in the stereotype of online teaching, where teachers use

the same approaches and styles every day, week, over and over again, just as they do in full-time

form, no matter how creative. Therefore, teachers should actively look for new educational

opportunities and challenges - it is, among other things, about changing the habits associated with

the learning of others and one's own learning. Let them find these opportunities in discovering

possibilities that can take them further and reveal their hidden potential, which they didn´t know

about yet. If they help their students discover theirs, it will be the best they can give them.

44

Conclusion

At the moment, the pandemic situation lasting more than a year has intensified the

pedagogical debate over whether online teaching is an equivalent educational form as a full-time

form. DL has numerous representatives at universities, on the other hand, it is very much opposed

by the older generation of teachers, especially those who teach humanities and arts, and secondary

vocational school teachers, who have great problems and dilemma in providing adequate teaching

and practice in manual disciplines and services, and in the opinion of the general public, many of

these teachers have from DL horror scenarios. According to them, online teaching is completely

inadequate and unsatisfactory, which of course has a retroactive effect on students, their mood,

feelings and perception of a whole online teaching as such. The fact is that still lot of teachers were

themselves not exposed to ICT-related instruction when they attended primary and secondary

school, or even an university, presents a considerable obstacle in the integration of the new learning

culture in addition to the hierarchical structure of the educational scene.

With the new e-society come other new multimedia elements that are reflected in learning

processes and work processes. This requires didactic and organizational changes which are based

on opportunities to make use of the digital media for learning. Time and place independent learning

becomes possible with simultaneous supervision by teachers.

There is a growing demand for virtual learning scenarios to be made available in teaching

training and further vocational training – teachers see themselves with increasing frequency in the

role of teacher and learner at the same time. Models for these forms of learning which necessiate

more autonomous learning, individual time management and new forms of cooperative learning

need further research and development.

To sum up, it is supposed that integrating ICTs into education is becoming nowdays so

natural and common and hopefuly in future it will not be necessary to alter learning anymore and

teachers will get from learning through E-learning all the way round to blended learning, and

happily return back to learning.

Bibliography

Bologna Process Implementation Report 2020. [Online] Available at:

https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/nationalpolicies/eurydice/sites/eurydice/files/ehea_bologna_2020.pdf

[Accessed February 9, 2021].

Book Creator. [Online] Available at: https//bookcreator.com [Accessesd May 2, 2021].

Brad, C. The four benefits for schools going from paper to digital. Webside School Bag. [Online]

Available at: https://www.moqproducts.com.au/skoolbag/blog/benefits-of-going-paperless-in-

schools/ [Accessed February 17, 2021].

Čapek, R., 2015. Moderní didaktika. Praha: Grada. ISBN 978-80-247-3450-7

eSociety, 19th International Conference. [Online] Available at: https://www.esociety-conf.org/

[Acceessed March 30, 2021].

Graham, C.R., Bonk, C.J., 2006. The Handbook of Blended Learning: Global Perspectives, Local

Designs. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer. ISBN 0-7879-7758-6

Grimus, M. 2003. E-Learning, e-Teaching, e-Education. Ein Aspekt einer neuen Lernkultur. Brno:

Paido

Hendl, J., 2005. Kvalitativní výzkum: základní metody a aplikace. Praha: Portál. ISBN 80-7367-

040-2

Hogennová, A., 2011. Čas jako problém. Praha: L. Marek. ISBN 978-80-87127-43-8

Maněna, V. a kol., 2015. Moderně s Moodlem: Jak využít e-learning ve svůj prospěch. Praha: Edice

CZ.NIC. ISBN 978-80-905802-7-5

MŠMT, Strategie vzělávací politiky ČR do roku 2030+. [Online] Available at:

https://www.msmt.cz/file/54104/ [Accessed April 15, 2021].

Palán, Z. Dějiny distančního vzdělávání, [Online] Available at: www.

andromedia.cz/andragogicky-slovnik/dejiny-distancniho-vzdelavani [Accessed March 15, 2021].

Podcasting. [Online] Available at: https://www.podcasts.com [Accessed May 2, 2021].

Popelářová, M. Jak zvládnout výuku po uzavření škol: typy na online aplikace. [Online] Available

at: https://perpetuum.cz/2020/03/jak-zvladnout-vyuku-po-uzavreni-skol-tipy-na-online-aplikace/

[Accessesd May 2, 2021].

Průcha, J., 2020. Psychologie učení: teoretické a výzkumné poznatky pro edukační praxi. 1. vyd.,

Praha: Grada. ISBN 978-80-271-2853-2

Reimannová, I., 2011. Blended learning ve výuce obchodní angličtiny. Univerzita Pardubice,

Fakulta filozofická. ISBN 978-80-7395-347-8

Schools of the future - Defining new models of education for the fourth industrial revolution, World

Economic Forum 2020 : 2030Vision. [Online] Available at:

https://www.weforum.org/projects/frontier-2030 [Accessed March 12, 2021].

Sistek-Chandler, Cynthia M. Exploring Online Learning Through Synchronous and Asynchronous

Instructional Methods. National Uni, USA, 2019. [Online] Available at:

https://books.google.cz/books?id=7ZrfDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=cs&source=gbs_ge

_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed March 4, 2021].

Statistics:

[Online] https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-phones-are-in-the-world [Accessesd May

2, 2021].

[Online] https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/

[Accessesd May 2, 2021].

Švaříček, R., Šeďová, K. a kol., 2007. Kvalitativní výzkum v pedagogických vědách. Praha: Portál.

ISBN 978-80-7367-313-0

Vick, I. EDU webinar Kahoot! for distance learning. [Online]

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYuGwp_wBDo [Accessed June 5, 2021].

Ziková, B. Jak se učit jazyky online? – 5 osvědčených typů. [Online] Available at:

https://perpetuum.cz/2020/05/jak-se-ucit-jazyky-online-5-osvedcenych-tipu/ [Accessesd May 2,

2021].

Zoom vs Microsoft Teams vs Google Meet: Jaká je nejlepší služba pro videokonference?

WebSetNet [Online] Available at: https://websetnet.net/cs/zoom-vs-microsoft-teams-vs-google-

meet-whats-the-best-video-conferencing-service/ [Accessesd April 25, 2021].

Zounek, J., Juhaňák, L., Staudková, H. a Poláček J., 2016. E-learning. Učení (se) s digitálními

technologiemi. Praha: Wolters Kluwer ČR, a.s. ISBN 978-80-7552-217-7

List of Appendixes

Appendix 1: Dotazník pro studenty

Appendix 2: Dotazník pro učitele

Appendix 3: Distance learning: a history of flexibility

Appendix 4: Printscreen of Zoom and MS Teams E-meetings with school from India and

Mexico

Appendix 5: International Project ‘Nice to e-meet you!’

Appendix 6: Student´s Quarantine Diary – handwritten and in digital form

Appendix 7: Generally recommended and used application programs and activities, with

internet links

Appendix 1:

Dotazník pro žáky

Téma: Distanční výuka anglického jazyka na střední škole v ČR

Prosíme o vyplnění tohoto dotazníku, který slouží k zmapování situace distanční výuky

angličtiny na vaší škole.

1. Jaký máš názor - jak prožíváš a jak celkově hodnotíš distanční výuku (DiV)?

2. Překvapilo tě něco, měl/měla jsi s něčím problém v DiV? (technika, připojení, organizace

času, jiné)

3. Je podle tebe něco vyloženě demotivující na DiV?

a) vyrušování a podněty z okolí

b) nepochopení výuky

c) nezvládání termínů

d) jiné

4. Co ti vyhovuje a co ne při výuce na dálku?

5. Probíráte učivo rychleji/pomaleji než běžně ve škole; můžete se v některých tématech

dozvědět více, než by se stihlo ve škole?

6. K většině svých úkolů od učitelů získáváš zpětnou informaci, jak jsi je zvládl? (známkou

nebo slovně?)

7. Školní povinnosti ti zabírají méně/více času než při klasické prezenční výuce? Limituje tě

něčím DiV při vykonávání odborné praxe?

8. Jak se cítíš při online výuce AJ a jak hodnotíš svůj výkon?

9. Pokud by to situace bezpečně umožňovala, chtěl/a by jsi?

a) návrat do škloy

b) pokračovat v distančním vzdělávání

c) něco mezi - občas fyzicky do školy, občas výuku na dálku

10. Využíváš kontaktů (online setkání, meetingů, webinářů...) se studenty z jiných

škol či organizací?

11. Co by podle tvého názoru všichni účastníci - vedení školy, učitelé i ty nyní reálně

potřebovali k tomu, aby se vám DiV realizovala lépe, snáze? (do doby než přijde normální

stav a prezenční výuka)

12. Jaká je tvoje nejoblíbenějš, nejpoužívanější webová stránka nebo aplikace za účelem DiV

angličtiny? Používáš ji i za normálního provozu školy?

13. Ve kterém ročníku studuješ?

Appendix 2:

Dotazník pro učitele

Téma: Distanční výuka anglického jazyka na střední škole v ČR

Prosíme o vyplnění tohoto dotazníku, který slouží k zmapování situace distanční výuky

angličtiny na vaší škole.

1. Jaké metody, výukové materiály, způsoby hodnocení a způsoby komunikace používají

učitelé při výuce na dálku v době uzavření škol? (aplikace, platformy, nástroje, LMS)

2. Které z těchto zkušeností by bylo vhodné využívat i nadále v rámci běžného provozu škol?

3. Jaký potenciál vidíte v online, smíšené (hybridní) výuce do budoucna? (hledisko personální

- potenciál učitelů, morální, zdravotní, možnosti technické, finanční...)

4. Vidíte v DiV postupnou ztrátu motivace a sociální vyzby? Pokud můžete, prosím odpověď

více rozvést.

5. Je škola v nějakém národním nebo mezinárodním online programu (dříve pojem družba,

nebo e-Twinning)? Jak ho škola / studenti využívají?

6. Na jakých prioritách v rámci DiV se učitelé dohodli? Nebo je vedení školy určilo?

7. Má vedení školy, respektive učitelé představu o řešení situace, kdy žáci budou po návratu

do školy na rozdílné úrovni (s ohledem na různou míru zapojení do DiV)?

8. Účastníte se DVPP programů nebo jiných kurzů? Pomáhají vám ve vašem kariérním růstu,

jsou využitelné v praxi?

9. Jaký podíl studentů udržuje online komunikaci se svými učiteli a jakými způsoby je

udržován kontakt s žáky, kteří z různých důvodů online nejsou?

10. Zapojili se někteří studenti do nějaké dobrovolnické činnosti v průběhu uzavření škol?

11. Jak celkově hodnotíte náročnost výuky na dálku oproti standartní prezenční výuce (z

hlediska času, mentální náročnosti...)?

12. Jaká je Vaše nejoblíbenějš, nejpoužívanější webová stránka nebo aplikace za účelem DiV

angličtiny? Používáte ji i za normálního provozu školy?

13. Jaký předmět vyučujete?

Appendix 3: Distance learning: a history of flexibility

Appendix 4: Printscreen of Zoom and MS Teams online E-meetings with

school from India and Mexico

Appendix 5: International Project ‘Nice to e-meet you!’ (certificates for most

engaged learners into international meetings were given)

Appendix 6: Student´s Qurantine Diary – handwritten and in digital form

Since March, the government has introduced further new and more stringent measures against the

spread of covid-19. Kindergartens and the first classes of primary schools were closed again. My younger sister also goes to the first grade, so she has been in online classes since the beginning of March. In the morning my mother learns with her, in the afternoon I do homework with her.

Sometimes it's very difficult because it doesn't hold attention, but I enjoy tutoring, so I like to do it.

Another measure was the closure of the boundaries of districts and municipalities. I thought I wouldn't

mind and I would last three weeks, but after the first week I felt a certain "lack of freedom". I am a very active person, so I still do sports or participate in various projects. It never occurred to me that I couldn't leave town, but I had to respect the rules.

Appendix 7: Generally recommended and used application programs and

activities, with internet links

Worksheets https://en.islcollective.com/login

Reading, Listening,

Grammar

https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/

Kahoot! https://kahoot.com

Songs https://lyricstraining.com/

For asynchronous

learning, for individual

work

https://agendaweb.org/

https://www.helpforenglish.cz/

https://www.duolingo.com

https://www.allthingsgrammar.com/