Integrating Computational Thinking into English Dialogue Learning through Graphical Programming Tool

Abstract

Developing students' Computational Thinking (CT), which is an essential problem-solving skill for people living in the 21st century, becomes an outstanding purpose of promoting engineering education in K-12 classrooms. In this paper, CT is represented through the graphical programming language Scratch according to the three-dimensional CT framework proposed by Brennan and Resnick [1]. This project aims to explore the classroom effect of using graphical programming tool in learning English dialogue and investigate how to improve the integration of CT into English education with the elements of programming. To achieve these objectives, a qualitative method was adopted to collect data through class observations, programming projects, and semi-structured interviews. Nine primary students (n = 9) were the targeted participants, who attended extra-curricular lessons for computer programming using Scratch at their school in Hong Kong. The preliminary results show that the introduction of CT into English dialogue learning through graphical programming language can motivate primary school students to study English dialogue. To better connect CT with English education via graphical programming tools, students and the teacher in the group under study suggested making computers interact with people autonomically, designing games in graphical programming environments to encourage English learning, keeping the balance of students' graphical programming language learning skill and their English language skill, and adopting graphical programming language as a tool to finish the summative English language assignments.