Eda Üstünel, Mehmet Abi, Gurbet Sarıman, Güncel Sarıman, Onur Karasoy, Mugla, Turkey

ABSTRACT

Together with the latest technological developments in computer, mobile devices, sensors and smart applications and software it is now possible to find innovative solutions to the problems that traditional education bears. Among recent innovative developments, Near Field Communication (NFC) Technology which enables contactless practices comes forward.

This study which was carried out with fifteen participants from twelve different countries was designed as a piloting stage of the main project, which was funded by “Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University (MSKU) Scientific Research Projects (BAP) Office” and aimed at discovering the applicability of NFC technology to Turkish as a Foreign Language teaching environments by means of mobile devices. The study also investigated students’ perceptions about using NFC technology in learning a foreign language.

In the scope of this study, NFC-capable posters which linked the devices to the online system when activated were prepared. Then a database consisting of the images related to the topic ‘breakfast’ was formed and uploaded to the online system. To collect data Mobile Device Use Survey and semi-structured interview were used. The findings from these sources were analyzed and it was found out that although the system which utilized NFC technology for language learning looks promising in terms of vocabulary learning and may put forward some solutions, web based online system may be time consuming and may not be appropriate to use in daily life. Therefore, for the main study it was thought that developing mobile application for the activities may be more convenient in terms of usability and efficiency.

Key Words: NFC, Near Field Communication, Vocabulary Learning, Smart Posters, NFC Posters, mLearning and language learning, context-aware systems.

Mehmet ABİ* (Muğla, Turkey)

Eda ÜSTÜNEL ** (Muğla, Turkey)

New technological developments and innovative approaches to education challenge the traditional form of education. Therefore, researchers look for new ways of giving education which will enable anytime and anywhere education possible. Near Field Communication (NFC) technology which is relatively new is gaining popularity and is being applied to many fields. In this respect, this study aims at finding innovative ways of integrating technology in language classrooms. Within the scope of current study an NFC-enabled system was developed by using mobile devices and smart posters.

Edita Hornáčková Klapicová (Trnava, Slovakia)

The present paper is part of an ethnic research project carried out in a multi-ethnic community in Lower Austria. One of the ways to access the community in order to study some of its cultural and linguistic aspects was through teaching English to the youngest members of the community, i.e. 3 to 6 year-old children, who attend the local kindergarten. Coming from families with different ethnic background and mother tongues, the children used German as lingua franca in kindergarten. During their English lessons, however, the English language was used exclusively as the language of communication. The aim of this paper is to show some of the teaching techniques and classroom activities through which the foreign language, i.e. English was taught to this group of preschoolers in a natural way and with effective results.