Technology in language teaching.

Technology is becoming increasingly important in both our personal and professional lives, and our learners are using technologies more and more.

At present the main attention is given to perfection of the educational level, search of the new forms and methods of teaching, introduction of new pedagogical technologies, creation of new methodological complexes in Kazakhstan education system. Consideration of the problem of application new innovative pedagogical technologies, including informational (computer) technologies FLT process is especially important.

Computer-based materials for language teaching, often referred to as CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning), appeared in the early 1980. Early Call programs typically required learners to respond to stimuli on the computer screen and to carry out tasks such as filling in, gapped texts, matching sentences halves and doing multiple-choice activities. Probably one of the best-known early CALL activities is that of text reconstruction, where an entire text is blanked out and the learner recreates it by typing in words. For all of these activities the computer then offers the learner feedback, ranging from simply pointing out whether the answer is correct or incorrect to providing more sophisticated feedback, such as showing why the learner is mistaken and offering remedial activities. The CALL approach is one that is still found on many published CD-ROMs for language teaching.

Computer Linguadidactics is a new area of science which is going for problems of teaching foreign languages with the help of computer. The problems of Computer Linguadidactics are also studied in linguamethodological and didactic aspects (works of R.G. Piotrovskyi, A.V. Zubov, E.N. Nosenko, M.M. Kenning, etc.)

As access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) had become more widespread, so CALL has moved beyond the use of computer programs to embrace the use of the Internet and web-based tools. The term TELL (Technology Enhanced Language Learning) appeared in the 1990s, in response to the growing possibilities offered by the Internet and communication technology.

We see that our main aim is to convince teacher in the need and efficiency of using innovative (pedagogical and informational) technologies of the education. For this purpose, it is important to determine the priorities in the field of these technologies taking into account the aims of the education, as well as interests of individual’s development.

The use of technology in the classroom is becoming increasingly important and it will become a normal part of ELT practice in the coming years. There are many reasons for this:

· Internet access is becoming increasingly available to learners;

· Younger learners are growing up with technology;

· English, as an international language, is being used in technologically mediated contexts;

· Internet provides us with authentic tasks and materials, with published materials such as course books and resource books for teachers;

· Internet offers excellent opportunities for collaboration and communication between learners;

· provides us with authentic tasks and materials;

· Technology offers new ways for practicing language, using a range of ICT tools learners may practice in all of four language skills – speaking, listening, writing and reading.

According to Polat E.S. among varied directions in new pedagogical technologies the most adequate to the aims of the education are: cooperative learning, project method, multilevel education, case study, individual and differentiated approach to education, abilities of reflection, which are realized in all the enumerated above technologies.

New pedagogical technologies, which are considered and any others, that are used at present or only arising in minds of scientists are inconceivable without broad using of new informational technologies and in the first place, computer technologies.

 

Project method.

Project work is one of the essential methods for any teacher, experienced or not, who is looking for method that develops students' confidence in using English in the real world, the world outside the classroom. Because consciously or unconsciously, students bring the outside world into the classroom, but they may not always have the opportunity to activate what they know and use it in the outside world. So that project work takes the experience of the classroom out into the world and provides an opportunity for informal learning. The potential benefit for students is clear: they are working on a topic of interest to them and using language for a specific purpose, with a particular aim in mind. Also through project work in English class, learners will be encouraged to develop their intellectual, motor (physical), and social skills. Project work offered learners an opportunity to take a certain responsibility for their own learning, encouraging them to set their own objectives in terms of what they wanted and needed to learn.

Project work is student-centered and driven by the need to create an end-product. However, it is the route to achieving this end-product that makes project work so worthwhile. The route to the end-product brings opportunities for students to develop their confidence and independence and to work together in a real-world environment by collaborating on a task which they have defined for themselves and which has not been externally imposed.

. In this lecture we look at the basic skill set needed for effective use of the Internet with your students and take a closer look at the process for introducing the Internet into your teaching.

Using websites is one of the easiest and least stressful ways of getting started with technology in the classroom. There is a large and constantly expanding collection of resources on the web, at a variety of levels and covering an amazing array of topics. You can choose from authentic (written for Internet surfers in general), sources or ELT-specific sites (made be, and for, teachers), monolingual or multilingual sites, sites with multimedia, or just simple text, for those on slower connections.

The web is a source of content which can be used as a window on the wider world outside your class, and is – of course – a readily available collection of authentic material. As such, it is a much larger repository of content than would previously have been readily available to you and your students.

Perhaps one of the best tips we can give you at this point is to work as a team with other teachers in your centre. Everybody has their favorite websites, and plenty of teachers will, at the same point, have used websites in class, or taken material from the web and adapted it for teaching purposes. Take the time to share sources of content with other teachers and organize regular get-together where you sit down and discuss what you have found on the Internet and how you have used it in class. Collaboration like this can help to reduce the time you spend searching for good materials and the time spent preparing activities or making worksheets. Just as the Internet is becoming more of a collaborative medium, so should your use of it in your teaching.

 

2. E-mail is one of the most used and useful Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools around today. E-mail, a form of asynchronous computer-mediated communication, has been called "the mother of all Internet applications". Since the evolution of networks, computers can offer foreign language learners more than drills: "they can be a medium of real communication in the target language, including composing and exchanging messages with other students in the classroom or around the world". Indeed, FL teachers are just beginning to sense the impact this medium is having on their profession, through the careful examination and creative integration of this tool into their classes.

3. Chat has enormous potential to link students around the world, in real time. There are different types of educational chat that one can set up with learners. One way of classifying educational chats suggested by practicing teacher Daphne Gonzales:

- Free topic chat;

- Collaborative, task-oriented chat;

- Informative or academic chats;

- Practice chats.

4. E-learning refers to learning that takes place using technology such as Internet. There are several terms associated with e-learning:

• Distance learning
• Open learning (the more open a distance course is, the more autonomy the learner has)
• Online learning (online learning is a facet (аспект) of e-learning)
• Blended learning (is a mixture of online and face-to-face course delivery).

Although the label "distance learning" could be applied to any situation where students are learning at remote sites, the term is normally restricted to teaching via satellite or long-distance telecommunication technology. One author defines distance learning as "an educational process in which a significant proportion of the teaching is conducted by someone removed in space and/or time from the learner" (Perraton, 1980, p.10). Two-way communication between teacher and student can take place through writing, television phone-in programs, two-way video, or telephone (Davis, 1988). The label "distance learning" is catchy, but, unfortunately, easily over interpreted. Most systems to which this label is applied are simply one-way broadcasting stations that transmit audio and video signals to students at one or more remote sites. However, other systems are available that provide two-way audio, and, in some cases, even two-way video between the teacher and the students.

Distance learning technologies present many new options for teaching foreign languages that will further expand the range of instructional techniques in the same way that language labs, television, and computers have augmented the standard classroom. It is important in reviewing these distance learning options to distinguish among their various levels of capability as these systems place different constraints on the instructional process. For instance, one-way, presentation-only systems have been criticized as providing nothing more than a video distribution system that could be replicated by mailing video tapes to students. The lack of immediate two-way interaction that characterizes many distance education programs seems contrary to the aims of foreign language teaching. However, with this interaction appropriately used, distance technologies can support the goals of foreign language pedagogy. Instructional strategies that encourage student-teacher and student-student dialogue and learner autonomy in distance learning situations must be incorporated into instruction (Davis, 1988).

The strongest argument for distance education is its potential to provide instruction to students who, because of distance, time, or financial constraints, do not have access to traditional learning opportunities or specialized courses (Davis, 1988). Distance learning courses have been developed to provide equal access to an educational opportunity for schools, especially rural ones that have to operate with a limited curriculum and staff (Wohlert, 1989). The objective is to provide courses in foreign languages to schools where it would not otherwise be possible for students to study them. The potential for providing instruction in the less commonly taught languages is particularly enhanced by distance technology. In many cases, the guiding principle is for distance learning courses not to become permanent, but to serve as a stepping stone to hiring a regular classroom instructor by laying the basis for a viable language program, especially in the less commonly taught languages (Kataoka, 1987).

The success of distance learning in developing students' foreign language skills depends on the ability of the instructional program to provide language learning in face-to-face settings. This capability can now be provided through two-way satellite communications that allow teachers to communicate with students at each site and to provide the interaction needed for development of second language skills.

 

 

Recommended literature

1. БимИ.Л. Некоторые актуальные проблемы современного обучения иностранным языкам//Иностранные языки в школе.-2001., №4., с.5-8.

2. Бим И. Л. Личностно‑ориентированный подход–основная стратегия обновления школы // Иностранные языки в школе. -2002. -№2. с. 11-15.

3. Зимняя И. А., Сахарова Т. Е. Проектная методика обучения английскому языку // Иностранные языки в школе. -1991. -№3. с. 9-13.

4. Полат Е. С. Новые педагогические и информационные технологии в системе образования, М.: Асадема, 2005,268 с.

5. Hutchinson Tom. Introduction to Project Work., Oxford University Press, 1991, 23 p.

Questions for self-control

1. What is technology?

2. What are the types of computer-based activities you can do with your learners?

3. What are the types of pedagogical technologies in FLT?

4. How informational technologies can be used in and outside the classroom?

5. How can a typical project be produced?

6. In what way is the project method effective?

7. What are the types of project work in FLT?

8. Can you give some examples of project work?

9. What are the stages of project work in FLT?

10. What are advantages and disadvantages of using project work in FLT?

11. Why should teachers use technology?

12. Are there any possibilities of using e – mail in our conditions?

13. What are the pedagogical benefits of using e –mail in FLT? What other pedagogical benefits of e–mail can you name?

14. What are advantages and difficulties of usage e – mail in FLT process? What are the ways of solving the problems?

15. What are the reasons of professional success and failures in organization of lessons applying Internet in our conditions?

16. Are there any solutions to the problems mentioned above? What can you suggest?

17. How can distance learning provide for developing foreign language skills?

Lecture № 9

Practical lessons

Plan

1. Theories of Communication

2. Modeling

1) Theories of Communication

Communication is an exchange of information, ideas, thoughts (S-S) Communication is regarded from different points of view: informational, communicative-cognitive, lingua-cultural. In Modern Methodology the term “communication” is interpreted as socio-psychological system of interpersonal and social-cultural relations between people which helps them to understand “grammar of life”(Ovchinninov). The functions of Communication are as follows, according to Lomov B. F:

1) communicative- informational

2) communicative-regulatory

3) communicative-affective

M. Holidays (Language as social semiotic) speaks of 7 functions: informational, regulatory, interactive instrumental, evristic, imaginatory, emotional.

Andreeva considers 3 aspects of Communication: communicative, interactive and perceptual which are reviled simultaneously. Verbal communication has characteristics: dynamic, personal, oriented, organized, informative, contactable, and structural. The structural unit of Communication is communicative act, the functional unit- communicative task. Communication happens in situations. Situation is a form of organization of teaching process. By situation we understand a system of conditions; situations may be verbal, nonverbal, problem. The structure of a situation:

1) Exposition

2) Characteristics of the interlocutors, including their social-cultural aspect, social status;

3) Communicative task (intention)

 

2) Modeling

In the theory of communication there exist different types of modeling communication. By model we understand a particular way of doing something (Macmillan English Dictionary). The term “modeling” is widely used in Modern science to denote.

1. modeling as a method of cognition, research

2. modeling as an instrument to know new information about objects in order to change them and get better results;

3. modeling as an instrument of the theoretical investigation.

What can we model? Nowadays we can model:

1) the whole system of FL Education in order to work-out educational theory and practice;

2) the process of acquisition of a FL

3) a system of teaching FL (Tinishtikbaeva)

4) communication, professional communication;

5) situations of communication in its different spheres;

6) intercultural communication and its components

7) specialty

8) communicative competence

The theory of contextual (or context-based) FL teaching was created and supported by Verbitsky, Smolkin, Slamgalieva, Kulibaeva D.N. By contextual FL teaching we understand FLT in the context of students’ future professional activity which helps to:

- intensify students’ activity;

- make the process more creative

- to form students’ cognitive and professional motives, and interests;

- to create typical situations of professional communication, including problematic situations

- to teach communicative-competence

Communicative competence is a functional language ability which has the following characteristics:

a) it is of dynamic character;

b) it is of implicit character;

c) it is of complex character, which means that C. C. is not purely linguistic phenomenon, it includes psychological and socio-logical and anthropological components

d) it is of linguacultural character

e) it is of relative character which means that the final level of competence is relative

The structure of the Communicative competence: Language competence, socio-cultural competence, discourse competence, strategic competence, speech competence.

 

Comparative Levels Chart

 

A1 Breakthrough

Use a very narrow range of language, adequate for basic needs and simple situations. Does not really have sufficient language to cope with normal day-to-day, real-life communication, but basic communication is possible with opportunities for assistance. Uses short, often inaccurately and inappropriately worded messages, with constant lapses in fluency.

 

A2 Waystage

Uses a limited range of language, sufficient for simple practical needs. (=900 words). In more exacting situations, there are frequent problems in accuracy, fluency, appropriacy and organization, so that normal communications and comprehension frequently break down or are difficult to keep going.

 

B1 Threshold

Uses limited range of the language more or less independently and effectively in all familiar situations. Has sufficient language for practical every day use. Rather frequent difficulties with accuracy and appropriacy in speech. (=1800 words).

 

B2 Vantage

Uses the language independently and effectively in all familiar and moderately difficult situations. Rather frequent lapses in accuracy, fluency, appropriacy and organization but usually succeeds in communicating and comprehending general message.