Technology in ELT
By DEEPA T VARIYANI (M.A., B.Ed.)
INTRODUCTION
With the integration of technology in educational setting there is a change in learning environment, the focus has shifted to the learner centered approach where there is an assurance of learners’ investment in terms of participation in contrast to traditional approach where teacher dominates the class in which there is a little interaction. It provides a conducive environment which fosters a specific set of attitudes, skills and knowledge. It enhances access to resource of various kinds and offers a chance to reconceptualise the second language and foreign language learning with the task based and project based approach. The technology as the motivator can facilitate the learners’ knowledge about how to use the language appropriately in communicative situation.
Technology’s role in fostering autonomy has been vaunted over the years, with a number of claims made in favor of technology-enhanced language learning. Those claims include that technology, especially multimedia, supports different learning styles; that computers and the Internet provide a wealth of resources to independent learners; and that certain software packages can offer a complete curriculum for language learning. These claims need to be put into the context of learner needs to see how fully they match.
In the last few years the number of teachers using technology has increased markedly and numerous articles have been written about the role of technology in education in the 21st century. Although the potential of the Internet for educational use has not been fully explored, it is obvious that we have entered a new information age in which the links between technology and ELT have already been established.
Until recently, learning has, most of the time, been contained within the geographic limits of the class. Learners have always been working in vitro as it were, to be exposed to the real world only when they left school or university. This was all very theoretical, and many outside instances, especially the enterprise, justifiably blamed the system for being introverted and having too little contact with reality.
This paper aims to study the current scenario of technology in which the trainer or teacher uses it to upgrade oneself about advanced programs and skills to groom the pupils. The objective behind this is to make the technology based learning “learner friendly”. Therefore there are many challenges on both the part. To achieve this objective I have used interview method. The paper discusses the effect of the use of technology on cognition.
A HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY AND LANGUAGE LEARNING
Virtually every type of language teaching has had its own technologies to support it. Language teachers who followed the grammar-translation method (in which the teacher explained grammatical rules and students performed translations) relied on one of the most ubiquitous technologies in education, the blackboard? A perfect vehicle for the one-way transmission of information that method implied. The blackboard was later supplemented by the overhead projector, another excellent medium for the teacher-dominated classroom, as well as by early computer software programs which provided what were known as “drill-and-practice” (or, more pejoratively, “drill-and-kill”) grammatical exercises.
In contrast, the audio-tape was the perfect medium for the audio-lingual method (which emphasized learning through oral repetition). University language classes in the 1970s and ’80s usually included obligatory sessions at the audio lab where students would perform the dreaded repetition drills.
By the late 1970s, the audio-lingual method fell into disrepute, at least in part due to poor results achieved from expensive language laboratories. Whether in the lab or in the classroom, repetitive drills which focused only on language form and ignored communicative meaning achieved poor results.
The 1980s and 1990s have seen a shift toward communicative language teaching, which emphasizes student engagement in authentic, meaningful interaction. Within this general communicative trend, we can note two distinct perspectives, both of which have their implications in terms of how to best integrate technology into the classroom. These can roughly be divided into cognitive approaches and sociocognitive approaches.
Throughout the relatively short history of second language acquisition research there has been clear division and sometimes tension between cognitive and socially oriented approach. Cognitive approach views learner as individuals who process and produce language output. In contrast socially oriented approach sees learner as a part of larger social matrix, affiliated with diverse communities and interacting in dynamic ways with members of this communities. Research in second language acquisition has clearly suggested the need of Comprehensible input in order for second language learning to take place. Perhaps the Single most important role of the second language teacher is to act as a facilitator in providing this intensive input. The major challenge is what happens in the “black box” between input and output. So the input needs to be intensive. Multimedia provides the multiple modalities needed to meet the needs of students with different learning styles and strategies. The aural, visual, tactile and kinesthetic learners have access to a variety of computer-based activities that are well suited to their preferred learning styles. As students perform diverse tasks with the computer, they broaden their repertoire of metacognitive, cognitive, and affective learning strategies. There is less possibility of fossilization using the technology in learning. The reason is immediate feedback is available. The learners are also affected by peer group particularly in the case of shy students. They resist themselves from speaking because they are afraid. But when they do the exercise using computer (?) symbol fills them with sense of achievement and if it is (×) symbol there is nothing to lose as they are not caught by their peers giving wrong answer. In pronunciation practice also it is not a “drill-kill” exercise but it is “drill-fill-deal” exercise as they get the meaning and store- fill it in the secrecy of mind and use-deal in there interaction.
HAS IT REPLACED THE TEACHER?
Technology can do much more within an environment designed to enhance independent learning. Language learners don’t necessarily know how to learn efficiently on their own, so guidance has to come from somewhere. Where learners are also in language classes, independent work can be linked closely to course curriculum. Where learners are working on their own, they will need suggested paths through material as well as language data to work with. Facilitators serve an important role by helping learners assess where they are and understand where they need to go next, helping the learners organize their learning and be motivated to continue. It’s easy to be passive, so learners may need help setting and accomplishing tasks that require production. Facilitators also help organize community, setting up groups, providing logistics for group projects, and making the links between independent study and classroom and home. We can say that it has replaced the “traditional” teacher but not the “teacher” at all.
ADVANTAGES
– Technology can enable the student to feel that they have control of their own learning: it can allow students to shape their learning by encouraging the perception that a culture’s varied media is a collection of resources which the student can be guided through, and that they have choices about the route which they take.
– Network-based instruction can help pupils strengthen their linguistic skills by positively affecting their learning attitude and by helping them build self-instruction strategies and promote their self-confidence.
– Shy or inhibited students can be greatly benefited by individualized, student-centered collaborative learning. High fliers can also realize their full potential without preventing their peers from working at their own pace.
– Today, there are no restraints in, say, a hypermedia dictionary. If you are looking for a word whose meaning is still vague. In the screen devoted to this word, any word that is not understood can be clicked on, opening another article devoted to that word, until another word posing problem is reached, justifying the same investigation, and so forth. You can then “jump back” to the previous “layer”, then back over again to the point where you initiated the search. You can’t do that with a paper dictionary, can you? The use of technology-
– Provides interaction, communicative activities and real audience
– Supplies comprehensible input
– Supports development of cognitive abilities
– Utilizes task-based and problem-solving activities
– Is student-centered and promote students autonomy
– Facilitates focused development of English language skills
– Meets affective needs of students
– Provides appropriate feedback and assessment
DISADVANTAGE
– While productive practice is possible, repetition is easier to automate and so is far more prevalent in both software and online activities. A curricular path that links past with present information and helps learners self-assess is rarely found outside of software, and not frequently in software, either. Very little of what is available in off-the-shelf form develops learners’ metacognitive skills, helping them understand how to learn and how to be reflective learners. Very importantly, ready-made technology solutions rarely provide any engagement with the local community. It is up to facilitators and teachers to make the links between what the learner is doing independently and what is going on in the classroom or the home.
– Other drawbacks exist, as well. A concern frequently expressed in the hypertext literature is that learners can get lost when working through material with hypertext links. Given a wealth of choices, learners can feel overwhelmed and unable to decide what to do. Aimless clicking often results. Repetitive practice or a repetitive interface can be boring. A special risk for ESL children is that they will be plugged into a machine instead of a group in class. They can benefit from language software, certainly, but have other needs as well. Technology can provide too simple a solution. In some cases it can be addictive that hurts the students themselves.
– The possible danger with digital equivalents of the lecture is that the material can lack its own ‘voice’; research has shown that students are motivated to learn when lecturers impart their information enthusiastically and knowledgably. This is clearly more difficult to achieve when dealing with computer-based resources which will be used independently.
– Furthermore, little is known about integrating these new means of learning into an overall plan. In the communication between McClelland and C. Dede (1995), Dede indicated the more powerful technologies, such as artificial intelligence in computers, might promote learning of higher-order cognitive skills that are difficult to access with today’s evaluation procedures and, therefore, the resulting pedagogical gains may be under-valued. Improper use of technologies can affect both the teacher and learner negatively (Office of Technical Assessment, 1995).
CONCLUSION
Computer technology is not a panacea for language teaching; using it demands substantial commitments of time and money and brings no guaranteed results. Yet, when appropriately implemented, new technologies provide the means to help reshape both the content and processes of language education. An appropriate use of new technologies allows for a more thorough integration of language, content, and culture than ever before and provides students with unprecedented opportunities for autonomous learning. Computer technologies not only help teachers and students to transcend linguistic, geographical, and time barriers but also to build bridges between bilingual, ESL, and foreign language programs. The use of new technologies allows students to engage in the types of online communication and research which will be paramount for success in their academic and professional pursuits.
In conclusion, the key to successful use of technology in language teaching lies not in hardware or software but in “humanware”-our human capacity as teachers to plan, design, and implement effective educational activity. Language learning is an act of creativity, imagination, exploration, expression, construction, and profound social and cultural collaboration. If we use computers to fully humanize and enhance this act, rather than to try to automate it, we can help bring out the best that human and machine has to offer. Educational technology has significant potential for improving students’ learning.
** This paper was presented during National Conference on Technology in ELT at CITC – Education Campus Changa in January 2009.
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