WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

Rationale

Our VLRC is targeted at learners aged between 9-10 years. Their proficiency level is described as A2 according to the CEFR. These learners can understand and follow instructions in the lessons and express themselves using an acceptable grammatical sentence construction.  They respond well to praise and are highly motivated by grades. The way input is presented affects notably their interest and motivation towards the topics. Cognitively speaking, these students are building grammar concepts and L1 transfer is sometimes present. Their weaknesses include weak vocabulary and reading comprehension when solving math tasks.

Consequently, a VLRC will be created to help these learners improve their reading comprehension and increase their vocabulary.   This VLRC will be Asynchronous “on line”, where it is organized and led by the teacher, priming interaction with the learners or between learners for team work and discussion groups (Paquette, 2002).  Accordingly, the objectives of this VLRC will be:

• Focus on students’ needs to learn vocabulary that they will use in math and problem solving questions, having students practice on reading comprehension and enhance their communicative skills.

• Further their knowledge on topics seen in class as well as prepare them for future topics.

• Foster autonomy as leaners will have the opportunity to set their own goals and time in order to work on the activities that have been set for them.

• Provide learners with a training that allows them to develop ICT skills. As stated by Chambers (2004), “The use of ICT should have an impact beyond the language classroom, as students not only  develop linguistic and sociocultural expertise, but also acquire ICT- related skills ” (p. 10).