Longread as a tool of the edutainment technology implementation in teaching extensive reading in a foreign language

Abstract

The article considers Longread as a tool for implementing the Edutainment technology in the theory and practice of teaching extensive reading in EFL classes. Taking into account the purpose and objectives of the study, we formulate the definitions of the terms Edutainment and Longread, typologize their components, provide their creation algorithms and offer methodological recommendations for conducting classes based on the Edutainment technology. The article describes a model of teaching reading with the help of Longreads. The research findings confirm that teaching to read Longreads fits into the concept of the Edutainment technology and aims at developing skills of working with large amounts of information. This approach may contribute to the formation of students’ linguistic and communicative competencies, as well as to the development of a sustainable motivation to learn a foreign language. We choose a theoretical analysis of scientific literature, a content analysis of pedagogical literature, questionnaires, experiment, mathematical data processing, analyses of personal empirical experience of teaching foreign languages as the leading methods of the research. The scientific and practical evidence, presented in this article, may inspire EFL teachers to adopt the model of teaching extensive reading with the help of Longreads for their students’ and their own benefit.