Learning Foreign Languages with Scratch

Special information

Step by step overview

Students become familiar with the process of writing the stories in a foreign language, then they learn how to introduce and build the characters/sprites. Subsequently, they have to draw the plot and develop the story and the dialogue between the characters. Making the characters interact stimulates the taste for dialogue and improves conversational skills.

Furthermore, the students learn about the structure of the story and try to put it in place. Students will identify in the story the exposition phase, the initial incident, the rising action, the climax, the conflict and the moral of the story.

The exposition phase establishes the context and is the first in the story. It is followed by the initial incident, the rising action, the conflict between the antagonist characters. The climax, the falling action, and, in the end, the moral of the story are all also identified in the written story.

When each student from the team receives a copy of the story in the foreign language, some words or phrases may be unfamiliar. They may wish to look up the words in the dictionary or need help in learning grammar.

The creativity of the students is reflected also in the graphical design of backgrounds, but also in designing the costumes of the sprites.

The imagination of the children can be noticed in the way they build up the background of the scenes of the story. The story may become interesting and attractive if students can animate the sprites. The degree of animation will vary depending on the Scratch skills of the user.

Typical stories illustrated in Scratch by the students have roots in our national folklore, but also in modern stories that owe much to the globalization phenomenon (via mass-media and various books of foreign authors).

Hopefully these kind of activities may also trigger the appetite for reading within these young students.

Tips to make the workshop go smoothly

The complexity of this activity can vary. It could be a straightforward story implemented in Scratch as a simple activity. It would be very good if before engaging in this activity the students understand and practise with several Scratch blocks. Several important blocks, used many times in Scratch activities are: “move”, “go to”, “say”, “switch costume to”, “switch backdrop to” and “when green flag is clicked”. Students who are at a beginner level can add backgrounds, which can switch each 3-4 seconds. They can also add music. The text of the story could be added on the backgrounds as a vector image format. At a more complex level, students may add interactions between sprites, or between sprites and backgrounds by means of sending “messages”. Whenever a sprite must accomplish certain actions, it would be sent a message, that can be received by one sprite or all of them. The animation of the story is an activity that involves using more Scratch blocks and figuring relations between sprites. Before starting this activity with the children, a lesson in which children explore and practise the work actions would be useful.

Sometimes we must use variables and write actions for certain events. It would be a very good idea to break up the lesson in 3-4 sections and work in groups of 3-4 students. The teamwork can create 3-4 projects in one account, a project for each member in the group. The teacher can set up the names of certain messages that a sprite will send when an action is going to execute. Each of the teams receives the name of the action and writes actions for that event.

Extensions and challenges

A future extension of creating an animated foreign language activity can be accomplished by adding interactivity to some parts of the story. So, someone who views the movie of the animated story can choose the end of the story or certain actions along the story.

Other activities implemented in Scratch for learning a foreign language may include “Listen and Point”, “Connect the letters”, “Drag and drop – Put the words/images on the right place” exercises. The scope of the lessons may also be displayed.

The listening part practices the vocabulary that students must assimilate. One possible exercise would be that children place the images for the new words on the screen, record the pronunciation for each word and then place a simple animation for that word. In this way, students exercise not only computer skills, but also use the new words, writing them or recording their pronunciation. Besides that, each word is associated with an image which will help the student to memorise the new words.

The “Match the words with the description/ pictures” can be animated, so the activity may become very entertaining. The students may divide their workspace between 2 columns. For example, if they want to realize the activity for the “Animals” unit, on one column they write the animals name and on the other one they write the description. The students must match an animal with its corresponding description. When this happens, a picture or an animation of the identified animal may show.

Another interesting activity would be “Connect the letters” game. The students can find words from a given vocabulary/ theme by connecting the letters. The letters may be written on 3-4 columns. In order, from each column they select a certain group of letters. If the combination of the letters is good, then the word is shown and also a picture of it. If it isn’t a good combination, then the student may choose to start the game again from the beginning.

Sources of additional information

• Scratch programming platform, available at http://scratch.mit.edu
• Scratch international programming trial – http://www.nonformal.ro/en/content/script
• International Hour of Code initiative, available at http://hourofcode.com
• The Scratch Club of Romania - http://scratch.infobits.ro/