Week 12

‘E book’ honestly this particular words did scares me at first coz it sounds so hi-tech that I wouldn't even think of producing one. But when Pn foziah told us a bit more about what e book really is I would say its possible for me to produce an interesting piece of it meant for primary school children. In fact the samples showed earlier gave me some insight o how I can practice the skills of audio editing as well as picture editing that I’ve learnt before.

The combination of good pictures and sounds are very important to come out with a good interesting e book. The ‘navigation’ tool in the e-book on the other hand will enable us to move to the ‘next slide’ and return to the ‘previous slide’ in an easier way.

Some elements of an effective e book that would appeal to children:
1) A theme to the story
2) Setting (time and place)
3) Plot that shows the conflict, climax and resolution
4) Characterization
5) Navigational tools to make sure the slides can work properly (can go to next slide and previous slide)
6) Pictures must be clear cut and colourful, no different shades or shadows.
7) Sound to accompany the e-book reading.

If you’ve notice, those elements have got something to do with stories. Yes! The use of stories in teaching young language learner! Its best to insert that elements in the e book because its obvious that stories are a wonderful way to teach young learners English as they provide contexts which children can relate to and which motivate and excite them. In addition storybooks provide invaluable visual and linguistic support for both young learners and primary school teachers.

Children love storybooks in their own language and with teacher guidance they can use the reading, picture interpretation and creative skills they already use in their first language along with their cross-curricular knowledge and have a very positive learning experience.

Storybooks are obviously not the same as storytelling where you don't necessarily use an actual book. This puts more pressure on the teacher and provides less visual support for the learners. So everybody… future teacher out there, start to think of the most creative way in your teaching style and of course it should be something outside of the box! Good luck!! ;D