Abstract:

Classroom Response Systems (clickers) are becoming increasingly commonplace in educational settings, especially in the so-called sciences classrooms (e.g., Fies and Marshall, 2006). Surprisingly, the use of clickers is not as widespread in foreign and second language education (e.g., Kabak and Cardoso, 2009). One of the goals of this study is to address this gap in the literature. The presentation will start with an introduction to clickers and their raison d’être. This will be followed by a discussion of a case study conducted in an ESL secondary classroom in Montreal, which measured learners’ perception of the use of clickers and how it contributed to learning. Overall, the results are consistent with the consensus that students perceive clickers as a positive addition to their classes, as their use: increases participation and the general enjoyment of classes (e.g., Caldwell, 2007), contributes to learning (e.g., Bluff, 2009), fosters interactions (e.g., Mazur, 1997), and allows learners to assess their performance in relation to that of their peers (Bluff, 2007). The presentation will end with a discussion of a set of pedagogically-sound and tested ideas on how to implement clickers in an ESL learning environment.

Keywords:

Clickers, Classroom Response Systems, peer-teaching, motivation, CALL, computer-assisted language teaching.