Materials and technology in English language teaching - Assignment Example

? Materials and Technology in English Language Teaching Materials and Technology in English Language Teaching For many of us, the lure of computers is a powerful one. Nonetheless, many of us also refrain from using computers for fear of failure. We want to hone computer skills, but lie scared to make the effort because we lack those very skills. A majority of us, especially in the field of learning, are caught in this modern tug-of-war. In reference to the study at hand, the role of computer assisted language learning has undergone a drastic change over the years. Technology and ideas relevant to it as well as other implementations have continuously changed rapidly. This renders it difficult to provide a definitive picture of CALL in the market, mostly in the web. CALL refers to Computer Assisted Language Learning. It has been in existence since the 1960s, however, the focus as indicated, revolves around its existence and involvement in the market, over the last 15 years. One arm of Applied Linguistics has been gaining in popularity in the past 10 years. A number of scholars have provided us with now well-established definitions. For Levy, CALL is the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning. Beatty refers to CALL as any process in which a learner uses a computer and, as a result, ends up improving his or her language. This encompasses a broad spectrum of current practices in teaching and learning at the computer, whilst Egbert states that CALL is learners learning language in any context with, through computer technologies. As noted, alternative acronyms to CALL emerged in recognition of the rise of the Internet (Bush 2007) proposed Technology Enhanced Language Learning (TELL), which emphasizes the technology the computer provides rather than the computer itself. Web-enhanced Language Learning (WELL) lay coined to refer to the Internet as a medium for instruction, whilst Warschauer and (Kern 2000) proposed Network-based Language Learning (NBLL), which stresses computers connected to one another with human-to-human communication as the focus. Most importantly, these definitions and acronyms have at their core the notion of students working on a desktop or laptop computer, usually in order to consciously practice or learn a language. With the computer at the core and applications usually centered on consciously practicing languages, it is not difficult to see how these alternative acronyms effectively became no more than offshoots of CALL, as they did not challenge its defining characteristics. The significance of the English language for all students when using computers outside of their studies is clear to see from the response to Q2. A tiny 3.3% indicated that they use only L1, compared to a massive combined 86.6% who use both L1 and L2. A further 8.1 per cent reported using only English. We have already noted that responses to Q3 included a number of websites and it was references to Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia, which dominated the replies. Comments from the qualitative data provided more detailed insights, into the significance of English for these particular students. In view of an example, I like games in English. It is easy to understand a game in English and a TF uses computers mostly in English and if she does not understand. I can guess and if I don’t know I search online dictionary Longdo, it’s pretty good, it’s easy to use’. However, the dominance of the English language on the internet can also make it difficult for some students as exemplified by a comment from an EF. Sometimes it is a problem because we do not understand some words and we feel confused. Language pedagogy over the past 25 years has seen a significant shift from teacher- to learner-centered approaches and the notion lies frequently realized in SACs, which have now become an essential feature for many providers. A SAC here refers to the physical location where they make both paper-based materials (PbMs) and CbMs available for students to use in order to study English. It is worth noting, however, that different centers use different terminology, and in this particular study, KMUTT uses the term Self Access Learning Centre whilst ZU uses Learning Enhancement Centre. Another frequently used term is Language Resource Centre. For the purposes of this paper, henceforth we shall use the term SAC as this is most commonly and consistently used in the literature. Typically, SACs stock a range of materials, but it is CbMs such as the internet, MS Office and other dedicated language learning software materials, which tend to dominate. CbMs is a term, which, in a language pedagogy context, was first coined by Jarvis in his study of how English as a foreign language providers at British universities make use of computer applications in language teaching and learning both in and outside the classroom. With regard to the contemporary classroom, language skills face a different kind of integration. Nevertheless, much of the research on learning of the second language and teaching has built on separating the skills. They face separation as single objects of interest. CALL too have adapted and facilitated the same, as it lies relative to professional development. In this section, we look at some of the options in using computers to assist learning students develop literacy, oral skills, as well as the fundamental knowledge of the language. The post-CALL era has given rise to Human Language Technologies, which comprises a majority of the areas of development as well as research, which lay their ultimate focus on the use of technology to facilitate communication. This applies mostly in societies relative to multilingual information. This aspect relates directly to the professional development realized, at that particular time. Human language technologies, abbreviated as HLT, comprises of sections of activity in the departments of the European Commission (Beatty, 2003) From the findings, this study agrees with Counts’ work in that- there is a strong indication that student choices and learner autonomy have a significant influence on student motivation. This means that teachers should create a learning environment that fosters critical thinking as a pedagogical tool of enhancing student motivation and active participation. For example, teachers should design learning activities and materials, which provoke students’ interest, to actively engage with the task according to their preferred topics, if possible, given the minimum exposure of ESL outside the classroom such as South African rural public schools and French speaking countries like Togo. However, it is also important to note that reading and discussion materials should 71 provoke students’ interest by focusing on themes that students are likely to encounter outside the class such as movies, television programs and celebrities, rather than concentrating on topics that limit students’ learning outside the classroom. This study finds that a positive atmosphere, teacher’s role, and positive feedback contribute immensely to the overall motivation of students. These motivational techniques suggest that learning is a continuous and diverse process through which regular positive classroom interaction nurtures classroom discourse, which is vital for construction and development of ESL knowledge. These motivational techniques empower students with social and academic skills such as communicative competence, confidence, and self-perception for ESL learning. This means that they advocate equal learning opportunities for all students. For these reasons, students will be able to transform knowledge into valuable real-life, ESL communication skills. Despite the fact that teacher training for CALL dates back to the 1980s, over the last couple of years, it has remained as a noticeable subfield within CALL because of further experience of professional development. A special issue of Language Learning & Technology in 2002 offered the first collection devoted to this topic. In the year 2005, Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium facilitated the establishment of a distinct interest group for education. A similar group faced inauguration at the Euro CALL conference in 2008. The post-CALL era has continued to offer all the various forms in terms of the development of the professional society to clients all over the world (Warschauer, 2000) The research methodology employs both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The former is used to explore the measurement and analysis of casual relationships between variables, not processes whilst the latter allows for a focus on processes and meanings that are not rigorously examined or measured in terms of quantity, amount, intensity, or frequency. The quantitative element involved asking closed-ended questions via a paper-based questionnaire, which was piloted and amended as required. The appendix documents the questionnaire used, and, for the purpose of convenience, the fully collated data has remained added. In total, 123 students lay surveyed in this way (Nunan, 2003). Because CALL is a new and multidisciplinary discipline in nature, there exists among certain members of the CALL community the feeling that some of the research done lacks the appropriate theoretical foundations and/or the scientific rigorousness found in other disciplines. In an attempt to build a common background, some researchers would propose to incorporate the methods used in their disciplines of choice. Although this is certainly a straightforward way to provide some coherence to the field, we cannot allow it to prevent contributions from people that share different points-of-view. Because CALL has a strong applied nature, it is particularly pertinent to integrate practitioners into the scientific debate (Aggarwal, 2003). With the importance of English as a world language and the changes that come with the National Education Act, plus the challenges that revolve around new technology, what follows will discuss the English language teaching and learning scenario. In relation to IT, teachers both in schools and in universities lie trained to write e-learning courses. The Internet lies commonly used in universities. Many university English courses require students to work on their own using computer programs both homemade and commercial. The committee in place to plan for the development of the English curriculum in Thai universities has assigned one university to produce web materials to lie used as part of the English remedial course. Now, the Promotion of Science and Technology Association has set up a committee to design a web-based program in teaching English for Science and Technology (Aggarwal, 2003). In matters, concerning the practice of receptive skills, the establishment, and development of learning is evident. Another area that instructors pointed out as problematic to classroom dynamics is integrating the practice of receptive skills, which include reading and listening into their lesson plans. Due to individual differences, these types of activities compromise the pace of the lesson. However, they pointed out that exercises dealing with receptive skills are very important to 378 Luiz Amaral the overall process of learning a foreign language. Without the appropriate input, students may never manage to build up the appropriate cognitive apparatus necessary to be proficient users of the target language (Fox, 2001). The term Computer Assisted Language Learning became established in language education in the early 1980s (Chapelle, 2001). Arguably, practitioners and researchers in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages have been at the forefront of innovation, theory, and practice. (Levy 2007) comments, within the field of computers in Education. This was especially within humanities computing, it is the teachers in the area of English as a Foreign Language, which have been in the vanguard. TESOL has done much to shape the direction of CALL; the acronym has served as a useful frame of reference. Priory, CALL reflected a field that lay heavily based on programmed instruction and on the behaviorist premises of language learning. The discipline has of course come a long way since then, with a combination of education theory and technology being the two interrelated primary drivers of change. Language education theory has moved away from what Stern (2003) usefully characterizes as pedagogically audiolingualism, psychologically behaviorism and linguistically structuralism towards recognizing the significance of social constructivism that emerged out of Vygotsky’s work (Nunan, 2003). The various applications of word processing for developing writing skills have remained documented for the benefit of all users. Computer assisted Language Learning resource books devote a chapter to it. Online teaching is becoming more and more popular. Similarly, teachers, who only teach face to face, and may integrate the World Wide Web in some way into their courses. In blended learning solution, universities have long supported face-to-face teaching with virtual learning environments. It is relatively easy to realize the fact that, computers have continued to mediate the world of communication. The World Wide Web on the other hand, has through those years, facilitated the most effective approach to incorporating technology. At the end, the class that went to the computer achieved better. This was not only in writing, but also in reading. This was a surprise as it was a writing drill. Normally, one would have expected the writing to improve rather well, but in this case, reading also showed a sizeable gain (Cameron, 2009). The situation of teaching English as a foreign language is different from the situation of teaching English as a mother tongue or as a first language. Therefore, the use of CALL will be different according to the context where it lies in use. The state of CALL in developed countries will somewhat be different from the state of CALL in developing countries and the third world countries. It is evident that, in the majority of the cases, it is next to impossible to implement e learning in the way it is, at European universities or US. The approach remains adapted to the environment in question if at all it is to be a success. The successful integration of CALL lies also, on teacher training. Technology without teachers cannot create a good environment for language learning. However, teacher training in using technology is not enough. Teacher training ought to be done in two related directions: (a) using technology such as operating computer programs, and other applications; and (b) applying technology effectively for language learning. Teachers ought to have exposure to the latest trends in ELT methodologies and approaches (Corbett, 2003). With the conclusion that CALL programs have continued to bear utmost effectiveness for the learning of language, there rises a problem. The individual learner who used the program gets to take over the role of the arriving student. It is possible by interacting with imitations of people that after their creation and appearance in clips, respond to what lies told to them. If the simulations replicate the responses correctly, then the student consequently set off to do various other things. In cases where the responses offered were incorrect, the program would thus take corrective action by showing examples or breaking down the intended task into relatively small sections (Leaky, 2011). The findings are evident on the fact that, there lies a mixed picture of the usage of CBMs on a different course types and it would seem that there is no direct correlation between course and software types. It is clear that computers form a significant part of delivery on many courses, but appear and remain underused on some. We have noted several illogical inconsistencies and this suggests that decisions about what to use lay based on a pragmatic compromise. This includes the compromises between pedagogical value, knowledge of practitioners expected to deliver these courses and practical constraints such as rooms, timetables, etc. Providers within the identified constraints make decisions but the attitudes and opinions of decision-makers are one key aspect, and it is to this, final element of the survey that we now turn (Britton, 1970). This study offers me advantageous and rich knowledge for my future practice as an ESL teacher and aspiring researcher in South Africa in addressing my learners’ needs and limitations such as inadequate exposure of ESL outside the classroom and learning materials especially in rural public schools. This study empowers me with the knowledge to involve students in the negotiation and design of learning activities, which address the priory mentioned limitations in public schools so that they could expand their ESL learning in and outside class. Furthermore, this research helps me to understand the importance of the active involvement of students in adapting and designing learning materials and activities; for this process, I will also be learning a great deal from my students. Rather than simply being the transmitter of knowledge, I would become the developer of knowledge (Warschauer, 1995). The computers reinforcing practice of language form and rules reveals further what lies in expectation, through the post-CALL era. Instructors stated that in their classes, they do not like to spend time in activities that ought to reinforce grammar patterns. They say that, this type of activity can be problematic because it reduces the pace of the lesson. Individual differences make it impossible to have all students do the same grammar exercises in exactly the same time. The practice stage is the one that shows the best possibilities of interaction between the classroom activities and automated exercises. Instructors would like such exercises to include activities that help students incorporate new vocabulary into their practice (Leaky, 2011). While in exercise, for remedial work, formal learning lies in incorporation with substantial positive attributes. This is whereby, students start producing sentences that make no sense in the target language. This may be because of structural errors related to topics that ought to have lie covered and gone through priory. Such topics include inaccurate morphology, wrong word order, inappropriateness of functional words, misuse of tenses, etc. As a result, instructors face a difficult dilemma of stopping and addressing the problem or trying to keep the communicative goal of the activity. Computers could consequently help minimize such problems, by reviewing previously presented structures (Fox, 2001). The study has provided a number of useful, relevant insights into current trends and issues. Above all perhaps, it has demonstrated that learners in L1 contexts make use of CbMs not only through conscious learning, but also as a rich source of authentic material, which arguably facilitates unconscious acquisition. They bring English, the dominant language of technology, into their everyday lives in numerous ways; such a trend is clearly likely to lie continued with other mobile devices. This suggests new issues and opportunities for developing autonomy amongst NNS, the majority of whom, like the participants in this study, learn and acquire the English language in their home country, and with historically unprecedented access to CbMs, which help, to varying degrees, in their endeavors (Warschauer, 1995). However, as we have seen, the recent studies cited above have now begun to examine student practices and perceptions when working on a range of CbMs in less controlled situations, but surprisingly such work has remained unconducted in countries where the vast majority of students actually learn the English language, that is, in their native country. The studies by Jarvis and his colleagues lay all conducted in the UK amongst NNS studying English whose exposure to a variety of forms of English, which include face-to-face everyday contact beyond both the classroom and the SAC, was unlimited. This contrasts with the experience of most overseas learners whose access to English outside the classroom is frequently restricted to CbMs in general and internet-based interaction in particular, as well as some CbMs which have been specifically purchased by the institution and are usually available through SACs or a library. 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