Benefits of ICTs in foreign language teaching and learning

Swapna Kumar and Maija Tammelin

INTRODUCTION

The importance of foreign language

teaching and learning has long been

recognized and acknowledged in

multicultural Europe. Rapid advances in

the development of ICTs (Information

and Communication Technologies) have

simultaneously been seen to offer new

opportunities for enhancing the quality

and effectiveness of language teaching

and learning. Although technology is

increasingly becoming prevalent in

everyday life, education, work, and other

sectors, a number of educational

institutions across Europe have been

perceived as either lagging behind in fully

recognizing these opportunities or

struggling with the challenges of

implementing ICTs.

OVERVIEW

In the last decade, changing conceptions

of learning and rapid technological

advances have been accompanied by

changes in language teaching and

learning. Language classrooms are

increasingly turning into blended

learning environments that focus on

active learning. It is commonly known

that active learning advances the learning

process and thus raises the quality of the

language learning experience. Blended

language learning uses multiple teaching

and guiding methods by combining face-

to-face sessions with online activities and

utilizing a mix of technology-based

materials. The growing use of ICTs in

blended language learning environments

has changed the face of language teaching

and learning in a beneficial way and will

continue to do so along with future

technological innovations.

BENEFITS OF ICTs IN FOREIGN

LANGUAGE TEACHING AND

LEARNING

Jonassen et al. (1999) show how ICTs benefit

ELT:

Provide language learners with

opportunities to use the target

language in meaningful ways, in

authentic contexts.

Provide an easy access to learning

sources to the language learner.

Provide opportunities for cooperation

and collaboration among peers.

Provide language teachers with tools

to enhance their teaching practices

and let them improve their

professional performance.

Take into account different learning

styles different learners’ needs and

interests.

MAIN RESOURCES

Newspapers online

Historical Newspapers

ProQuest historical newspapers (1831-1999)

ProQuest historical black (1911-2003)

Illionois titles: -Northen illions (1840-1968)

-Central illions (1831-1975)

-Southern illions(1818-1929)

Current Newspapers

1. New York times (USA)

2. The Guardian (United Kingdom)

3. The Washington post (USA)

4. El mundo (Spain)

5. Corriere della sera(Italy)

6. Le monde (France)

7. The Toronto star (Canada)

8. The New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)

9. The times of India (India)

10. El universal (Mexico)…

Podcasts

It’s a digital medium consisting of an episode series

of audio, video, pdf…

The word is a neologism derived from “broadcast”

and pod from !pod.

1993-First computer - radio talk to interviews

properly

2001- Applian technologies of San Francisco,

California introduced Replay AV which would scan

a radio publishers site and copy them directly to a

PC’s hard disk

Webcasts

It is a media presentation distributed over the

internet, using streaming media technology to

distribute contents using audio and image.

1995 This resource was created by Michael Darft

and David Pakman members of Apple computers.

It can be used to: Commercial presentations

Transmission of seminars

Web conferences…

Video clips

It is a small section of a larger video presentation. A

series of video frames are run in succession to

produce a short, animated video. This compilation of

video frames results in a videoclip.

1920 Oskar Fischinger began to record small films

which images try to adapt to music, jazz specially.

1930-1940 Arose talkies and this was opened in

Hollywood.

1981 MTV is created as the first transmission

program of videoclips

1990 Videoclips were improved notoriously and

these were addressed to all the population.

Website

A set of interconnected webpages, usually including

a homepage, generally located on the same server,

and prepared and maintained as a collection of

information by a person, group or organization.

The first Website was created in 1990 by the British

physicist Tim Berners Lee

Types of websites:

Blog

Celebrity website Community site

Forum website

Government Site

School site…

Skype

It’s a computer program that can be used to make

free voice calls over the internet to anyone else who

is also using skype.

2003 Skype software was founded by Janus Friss

from Denmark and Niklas Zenntrom from Sweden

2005 Skype entered into an agreement with the

Polish web portal one

2011 Microsoft corporation acquired skype

communications

Wikis

A wiki is a collection of web documents

written collaboratively.

Wikis dated from 1994, when Ward

Cunningham gave them the name

“wikiwikiweb”

Types of wikis:

Wikipedia

Appropedia

Citizendium

Lyric wiki…