iTeach: Blog Orsolya Reinbold-Matyas

Resursele educaționale deschise - Utilizarea eficientă la orele de limba engleză

Orsolya Reinbold-Matyas — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 19:47:31 +0300

În contextul actual, în care educația digitală capătă un rol tot mai important, profesorii sunt provocați să-și diversifice metodele de predare, utilizând resurse moderne, interactive și accesibile. Resursele Educaționale Deschise (RED) devin astfel un instrument valoros în procesul de predare-învățare, mai ales la discipline precum limba engleză, unde comunicarea, creativitatea și expunerea la contexte autentice sunt esențiale. Utilizarea eficientă a RED-urilor contribuie la dezvoltarea competențelor lingvistice, digitale și interculturale ale elevilor, într-un mod dinamic și relevant.

Ce sunt RED-urile?
Resursele Educaționale Deschise sunt materiale de învățare disponibile online, gratuite și reutilizabile, care pot fi adaptate și integrate în lecții. Ele pot include: lecții interactive, videoclipuri, exerciții, fișe de lucru, aplicații sau jocuri educaționale. Conform UNESCO (2002), RED-urile sunt „materiale de învățare, predare și cercetare aflate în domeniul public sau lansate sub o licență deschisă care permite accesul gratuit, utilizarea, adaptarea și redistribuirea”.

Avantajele utilizării RED-urilor la ora de limba engleză
    1. Expunerea la limba vie și autentică
Platforme precum British Council, BBC Learning English sau ESL Library oferă conținut audio-video bazat pe engleza nativă, în contexte reale.
    2. Creșterea motivației elevilor
RED-urile sunt adesea interactive (jocuri, teste, animații) și oferă feedback imediat, ceea ce sporește implicarea elevilor și dorința de a învăța.
    3. Adaptabilitate la nivelul clasei
Materialele pot fi selectate și ajustate în funcție de nivelul lingvistic, stilul de învățare și ritmul fiecărui elev.
    4. Dezvoltarea competențelor digitale
Integrarea RED-urilor în activitatea didactică încurajează utilizarea responsabilă a tehnologiei, o componentă importantă a cetățeniei digitale.

Exemple de utilizare eficientă a RED-urilor
    • British Council – LearnEnglish Teens
Oferă lecții video, exerciții de vocabular, gramatică și înțelegere a textului. De exemplu, un videoclip despre Past Simple poate fi urmat de o activitate de scriere creativă bazată pe verbe din lecție.
    • Kahoot / Quizlet
Pot fi utilizate pentru recapitulări gamificate, iar seturile create pot fi partajate cu elevii pentru studiu individual.
    • Canva
Elevii pot crea infografice pe teme precum „Healthy Habits” sau „Daily Routine”, exersând astfel vocabularul și structurile gramaticale.
    • VoiceThread / Flip
Platforme pentru înregistrări audio-video, unde elevii pot răspunde la întrebări, realiza prezentări sau conversații simulate, dezvoltând abilitățile de vorbire.

Provocări și soluții
    • Lipsa accesului tehnologic poate fi gestionată prin organizarea activităților în perechi sau grupuri, folosind resursele disponibile la clasă.
    • Suprainformarea digitală poate fi evitată prin selectarea atentă a materialelor și integrarea acestora într-un plan clar și coerent.
    • Adaptarea conținutului necesită timp, dar contribuie la personalizarea învățării și la eficientizarea procesului educațional.

Bibliografie
    1. UNESCO (2002). Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries.
    2. Wiley, D. (2007). On the Sustainability of Open Educational Resource Initiatives in Higher Education. OECD.
    3. Hilton, J. (2016). Open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions. Educational Technology Research and Development.
    4. British Council – Teaching English. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk
    5. OER Commons. https://www.oercommons.org
    6. ESL Library. https://www.esllibrary.com
    7. RedEdu.ro – Rețeaua RED din România. https://red.edu.ro

ICEBREAKERS

Orsolya Reinbold-Matyas — Mon, 15 May 2023 12:37:16 +0300

• Interview
Time: 10-12 minutes
Age group: 14+
Participants have three minutes to find out as much interesting facts as possible about the group members. After the time is up, participants speak in turns and say what they found out about the other participants.

• Evolution (Amoeba, Monkey, Human or Egg, Chicken, Dinosaur)
Time: 10 minutes
Age group: 10+
Participants move around in the classroom, acting as if they were amoebas. When the teacher calls STOP, participants form pairs and start to play Rock, Paper, Scissor. The participants who win two in a row evolve into Monkeys and start to move around as Monkeys. When the teacher calls STOPS, Amoebas pair with Amoebas, Monkeys pair with Monkeys. Monkey winners evolve to Humans, etc. The game is over when all participants become Humans.

• What am I?
Time: 10 minutes
Age group: 10+
Participants are divided into two groups. The members of one group each receive a post-it paper and they have to draw an animal/plant/object on it, then stick it on the forehead of somebody in the other group. The participants with the stickers on their forehead have to move around and ask information about what is on the drawing. Example: Am I an animal? Am I big? Am I dangerous? The other participants have to answer, without naming the drawing.

• Find your Family
Time: 5-10 minutes
Age group: 10+
The teacher prepares little cards with family names on them. The names have to be chosen according to a topic. Example: Mr. Frog, Mrs. Frog, baby Frog, Frog girl, Frog boy. The participants pick a card and they have to act out their name. Participants who act similarly have to move close to each other to form a family. The game is over when each family is reunited.

• Whispers
Time: 10 minutes
Age group: 6+
Divide the class into groups of 8 to 10. Each group stands in line, one behind the other. The teacher prepares messages (short/long sentences) on scraps of paper. The participant standing in front of each line picks one message, and whispers it to the participant behind him, repeat this until the message reaches the end of the line. The last person in the line repeats the message out load for the whole group to hear. The message is compared with the original message from the paper.
Follow-up activity: discuss why the messages were changed and make a list of effective verbal communication strategies, to achieve a better result.

• Simon Says
Time: 10-15 minutes
Age group: 6+
This is a popular children’s game, but it is an effective icebreaker, too. The teacher plays the role of Simon and orders the participants to do various activities. Each instruction starts by saying “Simon says”. In case some participants do an activity when the leader did not say “Simon says”, they are eliminated. Participants can also act as Simons, then the teacher becomes participant.

• Stop
Time: 10-20 minutes
Age: 6+
The participants form a circle. The teacher names someone to be number one, than each even number goes behind an odd number. The teacher or a participant stands in the middle, walks in the circle slowly and winks to someone in the circle. Whoever sees the wink has to step forward. The participants standing in the back are supposed to look down, and only watch if the participants in front of them moves his legs to step forward. If he catches him, they remain on their position, but if he manages to step forward, he becomes the next leader in the circle, the person who was at the back steps in the inner circle, the leader from the middle goes behind, in the outer circle.

• Party invitation
Time: 20-30 minutes
Age: 12+
The teacher explains that he is preparing a party and everyone is invited, with one condition. It is up to the teacher to choose a rule. For example, only those people can participate at the party, who can name a vegetable. They start by saying “Hi, I’m going to the party and I will bring with me a tomato”. The teacher decides who can go to the party. The teacher can invent a new rule for those who did not know what to say in the first round, so the game can go on until everyone is invited to the party.

• Stop the music
Time: 15-20 minutes
Age group: 12+
The participants move or dance freely in the room, while music is played at the background. The teacher stops the music and the participants receive a task. For example: “Count in English for 10 seconds” or “Ask as many participants to go for a pizza with you as you can, in 10 seconds”. The teacher starts the music again, the participants walk around until the teacher stops the music again.

• Only questions
Time: 20-25 minutes
Age: 14+
The participants are divided into two teams. Each team forms a line, the participants stand one behind the other. The two teams face each other. The rule is to communicate using only questions. The teacher announces the topic and the first person in each team has to ask something from the person standing in front of the other team. When one of them does not what to ask next, he goes to the back of the line, and the person who stood behind him continues with the questions.

Study - Types of oral fluency activities

Orsolya Reinbold-Matyas — Sun, 11 Sep 2016 14:48:15 +0300

Of the four skills, speaking seems to be the most important, after all we ask people, “Do you speak English/Spanish/German?”. Classroom activities that help to develop learners’ ability to express themselves effectively through speech would seem to be an essential component of any language course. But what do we mean by a ‘successful’ speaking activity:
- good choice of words?
- accurate grammar?
- fluency?
Characteristics of successful speaking activity:
1. Learners talk a lot: the time allowed is filled with learner talk
2. Participation is even: the discussion is not dominated by one or two learners, they all have the chance to speak.
3. Motivation is high: learners are eager to express their feelings and ideas because the topic is motivating and attractive.
4. Language is on an acceptable level: learners express themselves in a language that is relevant, accurate and on an acceptable level.
What about correction? Most teachers agree that correction inhibits the learner or breaks the flow of the activity. It is best to take notes and discuss them at the end of the task. The teacher may even teach the theoretic aspect of some typical errors.
It is very important how the teacher organizes group-work. In order for all learners to participate fairly equally the teacher has to give each member of the group specific roles and check occasionally whether they achieved the target. It is also a good idea to limit the time each learner can speak, because some learners tend to speak more and also deviate from the topic.
It is not enough to make learners speak. Listening is also very important. Speakers need feedback that motivates them and also makes them realize what mistakes they had made. Speakers become listeners and listeners become speakers. It is the case of presentations, because many teacher complain about learners not paying attention to the presenter. Teachers in such situation should work on presentation techniques and skills. I good idea is to let the class choose the topic, so that they become engaged during a presentation and they feel free to ask questions and activate the entire presentation.
It can be very frustrating for learners not to be able to express themselves in the target language. One solution is to do as much free speaking activities as possible and encourage learners to make meanings from the language they have. They can also use mimics, body talk and other ways of making themselves understood. Fellow learners may jump in and help others, because there is hardly any group of learners that are not mixed level. Some learners have a wider vocabulary then others, some have good grammar skills.

Type of activities:

1. Ranking: learners rank qualities/ideas on a particular topic and explain their choice. This is free talking and gives the learners opportunity to express their own ideas and feelings.

2. Conflicting opinions: learners discuss two conflicting opinions about the same topic in groups, come up with a list of pros and cons, and then try to convince the other group that their opinion is valuable.

No matter the type of activities, whether they are task-based or topic-based speaking activities, the aim is to engage learners in speaking freely, as naturally as possible and try not to inhibit them with regular corrections. Teachers have to be observers and only intervene when is absolutely necessary. The key to successful speaking is topic. The topic has to be interesting, suitable for the age of the learners and according to their interests.

Utilizarea noilor tehnologii in cadrul orelor de limba engleza

Orsolya Reinbold-Matyas — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 10:25:55 +0300

Mi-am propus ca în noul an școlar să utilizez cât mai mult noile tehnologii în activitățile mele didactice.

Sunt profesoara de engleză și mă confrunt în fiecare an cu aceeași problemă: timpurile verbale. Elevii foarte rar sau în multe cazuri niciodată nu vorbesc limba engleză în afara orelor de curs. De aceea folosesc incorect timpurile verbale.

Pentru a remedia această problemă, m-am gândit ca la fiecare lecție în care elevii învață un nou timp verbal, să foloesc noile tehnologii și metodele învățate la cursul IntelTeach.

O activitate pe care o propun este legată de învățarea timpului viitor simplu în limba engleză. Elevii lucrează pe grupe pentru realizarea proiectului. Grupele pot alege din diferite teme propuse de profesor, dar pot să își prezinte și ei propunerile.

Grupa 1: Realizarea unei prognoze meteo cu ajutorul unui aparat foto/video. Elevii folosesc viitorul simplu pentru a descrie cum va fi vremea în ziua/zilele următoare.

Grupa 2: Alegerea a 3-4 fenomene meteo (ex.:tornade, furtuni, uragan), documentare asupra acestora și realizarea unor slide-uri (prezentare) cu informațiile cele mai interesante despre ele

Grupa 3: Elevii urmăresc timp de o săptămână vremea, notează temperaturi, fenomene meteorologice etc. și realizează o prezentare despre cele observate, folosind diagrame, tabele etc. Pe baza măsurătorilor făcute prognozează vremea săptămânii care urmează.

Temele propuse urmăresc implicarea cât mai multă a elevilor, antrenarea lor la folosirea calculatorului în mod util pentru documentare, colaborare și realizarea de produse (foto, video, prezentări slide-uri, diagrame etc.). Elevii sunt încurajați să colaboreze pentru a eficientiza munca de grup, profesorul având doar rolul de îndrumător, sfătuitor.

Utilizarea noilor tehnologii in orele de limba engleza

Orsolya Reinbold-Matyas — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 22:13:22 +0300

Mi-am propus ca în noul an școlar să utilizez cât mai mult noile tehnologii în activitățile mele didactice.

Pentru a remedia această problemă, m-am gândit ca la fiecare lecție în care elevii învață un nou timp verbal, să foloesc noile tehnologii și metodele învățate la cursul IntelTeach.

Grupa 1: Realizarea unei prognoze meteo cu ajutorul unui aparat foto/video. Elevii folosesc viitorul simplu pentru a descrie cum va fi vremea în ziua/zilele următoare.

Grupa 2: Alegerea a 3-4 fenomene meteo (ex.:tornade, furtuni, uragan), documentare asupra acestora și realizarea unor slide-uri (prezentare) cu informațiile cele mai interesante despre ele