Use of the Internet in Foreign Language Learning - Report Example

Use of internet in foreign language learning – Summary Page The internet has made an entry into every field of life and the same goes with learning foreign languages. Right from the 1960’s, computers have been used to enable students to learn languages. In the 1990’s we saw the rise of multimedia and the Internet, and this has enabled new features to be introduced into foreign language learning through the internet. It’s been noted that Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and Technology Enhanced Language Learning (TELL), both have aided language teaching and learning through their ability to introduce new strategies in the process of language learning. The purpose of this research is to give some insight into how technology can and should be used, in the arena of foreign language learning. Research helps to bring about the ideas that students and teachers have about how useful or the extent to which they are using IT as a means of aiding foreign language learning. The answers that come from the research conducted may not be definitive in nature but they help us to understand the role that technology plays in the area of education and also the role that it should play. In the following paper, which is basically a research on the use of computers and the internet as a medium of learning foreign languages, we look into how useful IT has been as a means of aiding a learner in foreign languages. We also look into the drawbacks of IT and have published some results derived through questionnaires filled-up by teachers and students on the use of the internet and computer as a medium of learning. Description of the Dissertation The dissertation is an analysis on how well computers and the internet work, as a medium of instruction and as a tool for learning foreign language. In this context the information covered by the research looks into the history of the usage of CALL in learning. The history of CALL is marked by improvements with the Communicative CALL being better than the Behaviorist CALL and the Integrative CALL an improvement over the Communicative CALL. This introspect is necessary to bring out how computers have shaped over time, to provide more interactive language learning features to the learners. The disadvantage of the CALL system of learning is also brought out in the research. Though CALL is very useful to a student who wants to learn a foreign language, it teachers feel that learning and practicing grammar rules of a foreign language by using fill-in-the-blank exercises, does not really help a learner to produce grammatically correct sentences. Another opinion is that CALL suffers from rigidity in the light of the complexities of a natural language. The advantages and the drawbacks of the CALL system have been brought out in equal light and the drawbacks only serve to indicate the area where improvements are required in CALL. The dissertation moves on to bring out the usefulness of the internet as a medium of learning. In bringing this out a description and the usefulness of the internet is given. This serves as a means to understand about the internet. The different aspects of the internet such as e-mails, World Wide Web, bulletin board and newsgroups are described and their usage pertaining to foreign language learning is given in detail. This part of the research is very through, since it does not just consider one aspect of the internet such as the www or e-mails which are the ones used most frequently, it also looks into the usage of bulletin boards and newsgroups in foreign language learning. The drawbacks felt by students and teachers in using the internet are described. When the lines are busy, it takes time for students to access information or browse the Net and this can be very annoying. The teacher who is teaching the foreign language may find it difficult to implement the Internet in the language classroom. Training them to use the internet may not be very cost-effective for the school. Equity issues may also present difficulties when attempting to implement such technology in the classroom; rural and inner-city schools may find it less affordable. All these points make the use of the internet as a medium of learning rather discouraging for both language teachers and students. The research was undertaken to find out the use and application of the Internet in foreign language classrooms. The aim of the research has been to determine the following: The percentage of schools, colleges and teachers, who use the Internet, as a medium of teaching a foreign language. ( based on their sample data). The internet facilities which are most commonly used in the classroom. How motivated do students and teachers feel towards learning with the Internet? Does it motivate and encourage them and do they find it a toll which is easy to use? What are the hindrances they feel in its usage? Is the internet really an effective form of teaching and can it replace traditional learning? How effective the Internet is in improving different language skills such as speaking, writing, listening and reading in the process of learning a foreign language? The method used to collect information is questionnaires, because they can bring a bigger sample than any other method. As such they have succeeded in collecting data from the questionnaires sent, which were filled up by students and teachers. The intention of the research, which is to find to what extent the internet is useful as a medium of instruction has been accomplished. Use of Literature or Data Sources The research is based on existing literatures which investigate how useful computers and the internet are in teaching foreign language. The writer Warschauer is oft mentioned, for example, he is stated as giving PLATO as the best example of a tutorial system. Such references come from his book ‘Computers and language learning: An overview.’ Singhal is another writer who is referred in the dissertation. His description of the internet gives a clear understanding about the powers of the internet. He talks about the internet as a powerful technological tool which has pervaded all aspects of the educational, business, and economic sectors. These comments are from the site http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/Articles/Singhal-Internet-html. References are also made to Warschauer on this idea of the internet. According to Warschauer, the internet has helped language learners to directly, inexpensively and conveniently communicate with other learners and speakers of the target language from school, home or work Through references with the above writers, the dissertation brings out the usefulness of the internet in the area of foreign language teaching. Ideas on how useful computers and the internet can be are backed-up by the ideas given by the above mentioned writers. The disadvantages posed by technology are also discussed in the dissertation and once again reference is made to writers to reinforce these concepts. Armstrong and Yetter-Vassot are mentioned as stating that they believe the learning and practicing grammar rules of a foreign language just by fill-in-the-blank exercises does not do much to improve a speaker’s ability to produce grammatically appropriate utterances. Research methods and Approach The research being undertaken is one which is quantitative in nature. The research methods used was questionnaires, because they provided a bigger sample than any other method. Initially when the research team had sent out their questionnaires to some thirty schools in the U.K., the response was poor. Only one school returned the questionnaires filled by both teachers and pupils and three other schools sent back questionnaires filled only by teachers who wanted to give their opinion about learning a language using the Internet. However, the research team has gotten over this impediment by looking for information on schools in the internet. They then sent questionnaire to the schools which came across on their net search. This time response was good with about 11 secondary schools in the United Kingdom sending in filled up questionnaires from 64 students and 14 teachers. In this way they were able to complete the objective of the research, which is to determine the effectiveness of I.T in teaching foreign language. Thus the problems encountered in collecting data are clearly enumerated in the passages. In the research what they concluded was that the internet was an interesting form of learning a foreign language. It definitely made language learning more effective than traditional methods. Students did feel more motivated because they used the internet to learn the foreign language. On the other hand the research also found out about the drawbacks encountered by the students and teachers. The internet did take time to load and the sites available over the internet are in a different language, which they could not fully comprehend. Some students felt that internet learning reduced the time spent in practicing speaking and that at times when students searched the net, they did not always get the information they needed. Conclusions In the research following are the important conclusions drawn from the answers given by students and teachers through the questionnaires: About 70% of the students surveyed prefer to learn a foreign language with Internet compared to some 30%, who would rather learn the language the traditional way. Among the students surveyed, 54% found learning a language using the internet a whole lot easier, than using traditional methods. Strangely enough about 34% students felts that the internet moderately motivated them to learn, with only 9% stating that it really motivated them to learn the foreign language. In the spheres of writing, vocabulary, grammar and comprehension, more than half of students feel that the Internet helps writing a little, 54% of students agree that the internet helps adequately to improve vocabulary and reading, 41% of students felts that grammar could be well-learnt through the Internet, 38% of students felt that Internet helps to improve pronunciation while it is in terms of comprehensive that the parentages dropped with only 16% of students stating that the internet helps in comprehension. Students felt the biggest advantage offered by the internet to them is that it enabled them to access a variety of resources. It motivated them to learn the language and it made the language also fun to learn. About 37% of students felts that the internet was a good tool for timid learners to learn the language. Amongst the teachers surveyed all the teachers felts that the internet was a tool which highly motivated and encouraged students to learn a foreign language. About 36% of teachers believed that the internet helps adequately in writing, 29% teacher’s felts that the internet helped in listening comprehension, while only 14% of teachers felt that the internet helps in improving speaking. About 43% of the teachers believed that the internet is adequately effective in improving pronunciation. About 65% of teachers surveyed felt that they preferred to teach with Internet as compared to about 21% who felt they preferred to teach using traditional methods of teaching and 14% said they preferred both methods. The teacher who preferred to use traditional methods of teaching a foreign language felt so because it is more focused and moreover, they have not enough experience with new technologies. Most teachers indicate that motivation and fun factor for students is the main advantage for them to make use of the Internet in the classroom. Easy access to a large variety of resources, experience in the target culture and more opportunities to timid students are also considered important advantages provided by internet learning. Though using the internet did have is drawbacks, yet, r the Internet offers such tremendous possibilities that teachers cannot ignore it and foreign language professionals in general have always been in the forefront of the adoption of new technology. Evaluation of the dissertation This dissertation on ‘The Internet and Foreign language Learning’ provides much information on the feelings of teachers and students on the use of computers and the internets a medium of learning a foreign language. The main strengths of the essay are its narrative form, which is simple and very precise. Data collected as part of the research is clearly given in the form of graphs, indicating that the dissertation’s conclusions are based on real facts. The methods of research used are the questionnaire, which bring in more information that other survey methods. Adequate referencing is made to other literature to indicate that the research was not just based on the results of the questionnaire, but it also took into account the insights of other who have looked into this matter. The weakness of the essay is that there is a point of meandering in the context of the use of the internet as a medium of learning a foreign language. The usefulness of the internet and the drawback of the internet are mentioned again and again. They can just be put into a separate heading once. A real-life example of a student benefiting very much through the use of the internet as a medium of learning could have been brought out here. Similarly, a real life example of a student facing difficulties using the internet to learn could have been brought out as well. Though the graphs are clear, they appear too large and need to be reduced in size to make the overall appearance good. References Bush., D., Michael, 1996, Technology-Enhanced Language Learning Singhal, Meena., The Internet and Foreign Language Education: Benefits and Challenges Read More