Padlet as a Tool to Teach Vocabulary

Considering the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers all around the world had to implement technologies to promote learning through online classes. Many difficulties manifested during remote classes such as lack of internet connection, not having proper facilities to study or learn, and, students' absence of participation and motivation. 

Now, referring to teaching English as a Foreign Language, classrooms were moved to "Zoom" or "Meet" video conference apps, this change led to look up for the use of more creative and didactic tools to teach vocabulary, and grammar, and foster a balanced literacy. In this sense, teachers have to get trained in the usage of ICTs in order to adjust their knowledge and methodologies according to the presented challenge. That need raised awareness of several digital applications that can be used both in online courses and also in in-person teaching. According to, Hsu et. al quoted Beltrán (2019) suggests: "Nowadays, there is a significant number of tools and online applications that support collaborative learning but their adoption in classroom courses is still in its early stages" (p. 202). Nowadays, diverse digital tools are being implemented in classrooms to make learning more interactive and engaging.

Mainly, a very useful and interactive tool to be inserted in classrooms is Padlet. Padlet has a dynamic interface that can be modified depending on the teacher's goals and motivations. Through Padlet, teachers, and students can interact by uploading different tasks and materials such as audio and video recordings, images, and files, and adding links to websites; connected to the content studied in class.

Some advantages of implementing Padlet in an EFL classroom are: 

• Promotes collaborative and interactive learning.
• Enhance students' participation and commitment. 
• Fosters all the materials implemented in classes allowing students to check them whenever they want or need them. 

Considering the advantages provided above, you can use Padlet to upload different materials implemented in your classes. If you want to teach vocabulary, recording videos or audio files are options you can consider to help your students' learning process. Furthermore, it is important to recognize that this tool can have some limitations for students such as not being attractive to students. To avoid this issue, students' voices need to be considered in the design and selection of materials they want to work with. Subsequently, students need to be taught how to use Padlet and learn about its characteristics and elements. If teachers and students develop active communication, both will benefit from the implementation of the interactive tool. 

Watch the following tutorial to see how Padlet works: