I think that the best way to improve the usage of those resources is trying to create some kind of competition-related prizes (eg: badges, medals). If you perceive that your class is competitive you can decide about scores between grades (some of them are not so competitive and play only by scores could not be interesting).

The aim is to identify where lies the trade-off between challenge and stimulation to avoid that their willingness to participate fell down.

Thank you Dr. Alexander Brasil for giving a particular picture of using the mentioned resources to enhancing the learning process.

Best Regards,

I think that the teacher is the key word for including digital/ software program to help promoting students' contextual vocabulary as well as reading comprehension skills. The teacher can prepare interesting well chosen digital materials that can attract students' attention and arouse fun. Running dialogues, discussions, answering questions related to the used materials, and forming competitive groups to complete tasks online outside the classroom will promote students' skills.

In the digital age, many students are addicted to their mobile devices, so using digital technology helps them focus on the task at hand. Whether it be vocabulary, reading or a game, they are focused if it requires use of a mobile device (smartphone or tablet). Digital resources should be interesting and motivating to students, such as Quizlet for vocabulary and XReading for reading comprehension. They are both excellent tools for students to do at home and in the classroom as a review. Quizlet has various activities and some are class or group related so students work together in teams in a race to review new vocabulary though gamification(Quizlet Live). XReading has a large library of digital graded readers at various levels for students to choose from. It also has online comprehensive quizzes for students to take. This resource allows students to have discussions with classmates about their books and take comprehensive quizzes online. Most importantly for students, they are interesting, motivating and interactive tools.

I believe forming student groups and asking them to find digital resources that interest them would initiate greater interest in them. The whole class can then do what has been chosen by each group. This will give students some control over the content of their learning where teacher only determines the broad content area of the lesson, e.g. if teacher wants students to find grammar activities on tenses, students can look them up or it could be reading comprehension. Students will choose passages on topics that interest them.