The Effectiveness of Computer Applications in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition - Report Example

? The Effectiveness of Computer Applications in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition The Effectiveness of Computer Applications in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition The topic of the interview was: The Effectiveness of Computer Applications in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition. It was intended to find out how effective the use of computer packages to teach ESL students was, in helping them to acquire new vocabulary. The subject of the interview is an ESL teacher who has taught English to foreign students for over fifteen years, and has seen the transition from non-computer-based to computer-based ESL teaching. The interview was carried out in his small office, and the subject was asked ten questions to which he responded comprehensively. Interview responses The subject expressed his passion for teaching language especially to ESL students because as he put it, “teaching someone a new language is as good as creating a new life. “You see them change over time and you can’t help but be delighted”. When asked whether he uses computer software to teach English, his response was affirmative and he said that computer software makes a good part of his teaching. This was followed by a follow-up question. Have you always used computer software in the language vocabulary acquisition for ESL students? His response was: when I began teaching English to ESL students, there was no computer software to offer second language acquisition and teaching was mainly done using one to one communication with the students and also by the use of books. However, as computers became more popular, the use of computers to teach language became very popular too, and there have been numerous computer nuggets that were designed to help ESL students to learn English vocabulary very efficiently. This software can be classified into two classes, those designed to be used by ESL students who are learning on their own; and those designed to be used in conjunction with the teacher. This software started becoming available and popular in early 2000s and was not popular in the 90s (Peterson, 2009). I only started to use it later after I had been teaching English for a number of years to ESL students. Follow up question: do you see any positive difference between now that you are using the software and when you were not using software to teach ESL students? He responded to this follow up question by saying that there were positive and negative consequences of using computer application for language vocabulary acquisition. The use of computer applications by students and especially ESL students to learn new vocabulary is helpful because the computer applications that the students use make it easy for the students to access information in a more convenient way. However, this will depend on whether the student is conversant in the use of computer in general. If the student is not very savvy with regard to the use of computers, using these applications will not help very much in making the student learn vocabulary, but will only make it harder. The subject was indicating that computer packages can be used to increase the efficiency by the students to learn new vocabulary, but this can only happen if the students are computer savvy. He added that in most cases, ESL students are also not computer literate, and this causes a big challenge in getting them to use the computer application to learn new vocabulary. The next question was: why would computer software be useful in helping the students be able to acquire language acquisition? This question was asked in order for the subject to demonstrate why he thinks that the use of software can be useful in some cases to help the ESL students to learn new language vocabulary. His response was: “With the use of computers, it is much easier to browse through the information because computers work very fast. When a student is using a computer application to learn the meaning of a new word, he is able to browse the database and get a number of important aspects of a new vocabulary. Not only can the students easily get the vocabulary related to this work, but the student can easily learn the pronunciation of the word so easily”. This, the subject said was unlike the use of printed books that are not able to provide a verbal pronunciation of a word. He said this was just one example, but there are advantages that the use of software can have in the acquisition of new vocabulary. Some of these applications are very well designed to create an environment that allows for a human like interaction between the computer and the user. “This makes the computer like a human teacher”. The other fact is that the student is never shy or embarrassed to ask the computer anything unlike in a situation where the student may be having a problem with a certain word or phrase but be too embarrassed to ask the teacher. I asked the subject whether he thought all computer software available today is effective in helping ESL students to learn new language. His response to this question was that not all computer applications are efficient in helping students to learn new vocabulary, because some are poorly designed and quite superficial. He added, “The efficiency of a computer application will be dependent on how the computer application is designed to help the students to interact with the computer and get information in an organic way”. The next question was: what do you think is the difference between the use of old system and the present popular computer-based system to help ESL learn new language efficiently? The subject responded by saying that computers provide an easy way for the student to interact with a system that is as good as a human being, and the student is at freedom to ask as much information from the computer as possible. The subject also pointed out that in some cases, using a computer application can be fun and that some of these applications are designed to be like games that are enjoyable to play. He added, “this makes language acquisition fun for the students and acts as motivation as opposed to where the student would be in a one to one session with a teacher or use a printed text which would make it hard for the student to enjoy learning.” Conclusion According to the subject, the application of computer packages increases the efficiency with which ESL students learn English vocabulary, but this is determined by a number of factors. These factors include but not limited to whether the student is computer literate, how well the software is designed to help in interacting with the students, and whether the computer application being used is designed to be fun. One thing that came out during the interview was the fact that the use of computer application to teach or learn new languages was here to stay and should be explored even more to see how this can be improved. As more people become computer literate and are able to use computers efficiently and with ease, the use of computer software to teach a number of courses and especially in language acquisition will continue to be more effective. Reference Peterson, A. (2009). Using of Computer Applications in Second Language Learning. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Publishers. Appendix 1: Demographics Age: 45 Gender: Male Ethnicity: Caucasian Professional: ESL teacher Appendix 2: Interview questions 1. How long have you taught English to ESL students? 2. Do you use computer software to aid you in the help in Language Vocabulary Acquisition in your class? 3. If yes, have you always used computer software in the language vocabulary acquisition for ESL students? 4. If no, why don’t you use computer software to teach language vocabulary acquisition? 5. Do you believe that computer software increases the ability of the students to be able to acquire new language more efficiently? 6. If so, why would computer software be useful in helping the students be able to acquire language acquisition? 7. Do you think all computer software available today are effective in helping ESL students to learn new language? 8. What would make a computer software package effective in helping the ESL student to learn new language? 9. How does computer software help ESL students in language vocabulary acquisition and how is that different from using paper based books? 10. What do you think is the difference between the use of old system and the present popular computer based system to help ESL learn new language efficiently? Read More