English and American children’s literature based global citizenship education using video conferencing: Analyzing learners' perceptions and implications on primary English education

Abstract

This study conducted English and American children’s literature based global citizenship education using video conferencing technology. By doing so, the researchers aimed to investigate the learners’ production traits, the formation process of global citizenship and learners’ perceptions. To accomplish the purpose, the researchers chose three topics related to global citizenship education and four books containing those themes. Learners’ reflection journal writings, transcribed oral presentation data, and pre- and post-survey results of learners’ global citizenship were collected and analyzed. The results were as follows. First, learners were found to react to the literature upon their prior experiences and knowledge. Also, they use language as a mediating tool to activate their thinking skills, rather than as a learning object. While participating the activities, learners’ oral and written production were found to be unbalanced. Second, learners global citizenship were developed based on four stages: emotional empathy, hope for the problem solving and change, an application to their lives, and the practice of social solidarity actions. Lastly, based on the results, the effective ways to apply English and American children’s literature based global citizenship education using video conferencing on primary English education were sought.