USING TECHNOLOGY IN ELT CLASSROOM

TECHNOLOGY IN ELT CLASSROOM

Prof. J.Dinesh Kumar

Introduction:

The availability of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in educational settings offers the chance to reconceptualize the second language classroom as a learning environment with the new quality of communicative and intercultural learning. If teachers are adequately prepared to handle the difficult task of incorporating ICT into the classroom, then these new environments have the potential for language encounters beyond the classroom, for enhanced access to a wide variety of resources, and for the communicative use of the Task-based learning. The influence of technology in education is a widespread phenomenon. Within English language teaching, the rapid development of Information and communication technology (ICT) prompts changes in the ways and methods of teaching and preparing students for continuous learning and effective use of the language to communicate with people from various parts of the globe. Providing various types and forms of information – from sound, video, images and animation – technology quadruples the possibility of language learning. Using ICT as a mode of delivery will not automatically improve student learning. IT in itself cannot transform ELT classrooms, but embedded within constructivist pedagogy, it can be used by the informed and confident teacher to boost English language learning outcomes significantly.

Need for New Knowledge Base for Teacher Education:

Access to computers in educational settings has increased steadily during the last ten years, but what should be considered appropriate education and training of teachers for computer-supported learning environments remains a major issue in the field of English language learning and teaching. As the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education’s (NCATE) Task Force on Technology and teacher education has put it, “classroom teachers hold the key to effective use of technology to improve learning’. In spite of huge resources that have been mobilized both to equip schools with technology and for language teacher education, very little is known about the effectiveness of these programs when it comes to improving language education in schools and colleges.

Enhanced Access to Resources of Various Kinds:

The traditional textbook will not lose its significance in ICT-supported classrooms. For the first time, however, learners have unlimited access to a wide range of resources and target language texts. Therefore, they can play a decisive role as active agents in co-creating a rich learning environment when contributing texts they have gathered themselves to supplement the textbook or open new topics according to their interests and needs. In this way they might seize opportunities for overt negotiation about the classroom curriculum and become responsible members of the classroom community by being accountable for the learning content.

The major challenge here is how the enhanced access to texts becomes knowledge to be used by students. They not only need to learn how to formulate questions for searching the web, how to evaluate resources, and how to make choices, but also, as Widdowson(1990) pointed out, how to actively transform such findings into coherent texts of their own. Learners will take full authorial responsibility for such transformational work if their contributions are relevant for an audience, be it members of their classroom community or of some other ICT-supported context.

 From a teacher’s point of view, this again raises the issue of supporting autonomous learning context, i.e., appropriate content needs to be explored and meaningful tasks have to be developed that frame the use of resources and the production of learner texts.

Setting of the ICT-supported Classroom:

Setting is important in at least three ways. Firstly, a noticeable trait of ICT-supported classrooms is that their potential to use language and language contacts cannot be unlocked within the confines of teacher-centered methods. Rather, they require cooperative learning formats and project work. This requirement entails not only effective modes of division of labour, such as more pair and group work, but also the taking on of teaching functions by the learners. This poses major challenges for the teacher not only in terms of his or her ability to initiate, manage, and monitor group processes but also because learners require pedagogically motivated interventions, strategy and media training, and teacher-led phases that foreground content and present procedures. The second dimension of setting refers to the physical learning space: the way it is equipped with hardware and software; the way it can be used for cooperative learning; and the way it is connected to other learning spaces within the institution and beyond, in the community and the students’ homes. Thirdly, setting means the institutional specifics of a given context that have a major impact on the success of cross-institutional projects.

Learner Roles in ICT-supported Classroom:

If learners are to benefit from the potential of ICT-supported environments for cross-institutional communication, for the use and production of multimedia texts, and for the co-construction of the environment itself, interactive formats allowing for a negotiated curriculum have to be initiated.(Breen and Littlejohn,2000)

Enhanced Learner Motivation in ICT-supported Classroom:

Research by Ames(1992) has shown that one type of motivation goal reached by using ICT is the ‘performance goal’. Ames has also shown that ‘tasks that involve variety and diversity are more likely to facilitate an interest in learning’. Motivation theories have also recognized the effects of the locus of control of the learner. The extent to which learners see events as being under their personal control will also affect their attitude towards ICT. Increased motivation through perceived value of an activity might lead to:

·         A greater interest and involvement in learning

·         Greater self-esteem

·         Determination to achieve specific task

·         Trying to do better than one’s peers

·         Achieving more control over one’s own learning.

However, the need for teacher intervention is essential to avoid leaving the technology to control the lessons. The teacher needs to see the real effect ICT materials have on the learning process. Furthermore, there should be an appropriate balance between hands-on and other work and the motivational aspects of using ICT will be effective only with appropriate planning and guidance from the teacher. It is clear by now that some basic principles have to be respected if students are to remain motivated:

·         Check beforehand that the network and software are working

·         Always consider pupils’ previous ICT experience

·         Always introduce the purpose and objectives of the lesson

·         Match the task to their abilities, ensuring that it is adequately challenging but not too difficult

·         Monitor their work to ensure that they remain on task

·         Allow enough time at the end to review the pupils’ progress

Development of Computer Assisted Language Learning:

In terms of the wider picture of language teaching and learning, it is sometimes easy to forget that computers have been available as a resource in language teaching for little more than twenty years. During this relatively short time, there has been a dramatic change in the number of options open to language teachers and learners. Initially, computers were mainly used as sophisticated typewriters, allowing learners to write and to correct and amend easily and effectively. Some basic interactive software was available in the early years, but this was generally restricted to the type of exercise found in grammar practice books with the added feature of a sound to indicate a correct or incorrect answer.

The real advance in the use of computers in language teaching came with the transition from floppy-disc to compact discs (CDs) as the basic form of software, the proliferation of e-mail as a means of communication and, most importantly, with the arrival of the Internet as a widely available resource. Today there is a vast array of language teaching material available on CD ROM or DVD, ranging from self-study materials to supplement published course-books, to ESP(English For Specific Purposes)-based courses and culture-based materials. Many learners of English have access to e-mail and the Internet at home as well as at school and this presents teachers with a range of useful options in terms of setting writing tasks, communicating with learners by e-mail, giving learners research tasks and setting up project work based on researching the Internet. Where previously such tasks would have involved a great deal of letter writing on the part of both teacher and learners, on the one hand, and a potentially time-consuming visit to the local library on the other, they can now be accomplished quickly and easily without the learner ever having to leave his or her PC.

Although many learners seem to be much more familiar with the use of computers than a lot of teachers appear to be, there is still plenty of scope for some input in class related to computers. Basic terminology is a good starting point and a useful exercise. Similarly, there may be some value in teaching the meta-language of word processing (e.g. copy, cut, paste, insert), writing e-mails (e.g. reply, forward, delete) and surfing the Internet (e.g. search, link, key-word and so on).

Computer-assisted language learning

CALL originates from CAI (Computer-Accelerated Instruction), a term that was first viewed as an aid for teachers. The philosophy of CALL puts a strong emphasis on student-centered lessons that allow the learners to learn on their own using structured and/or unstructured interactive lessons. These lessons carry 2 important features: bidirectional (interactive) learning and individualized learning. CALL is not a method. It is a tool that helps teachers to facilitate language learning process. CALL can be used to reinforce what has been learned in the classrooms. It can also be used as remedial to help learners with limited language proficiency.
The design of CALL lessons generally takes into consideration principles of language pedagogy, which may be derived from learning theories (behaviorist, cognitive, and constructivist) and second language learning such as Krashen's Monitor Theory.
Others may call CALL an approach to teaching and learning foreign languages whereby the computer and computer-based resources such as the Internet are used to present, reinforce and assess material to be learned. CALL can be made independent of the Internet. It can stand alone for example in a CDROM format. Depending on its design and objectives, it may include a substantial interactive element especially when CALL is integrated in web-based format. It may include the search for and the investigation of applications in language teaching and learning. Except for self-study software, CALL is meant to supplement face-to-face language instruction, not replace it.
CALL has also been known by several other terms such as technology-enhanced language learning (TELL), computer-assisted language instruction (CALI) and computer-aided language learning but the field is the same. Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) is a subset of both Mobile Learning (m-learning) and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL).
Computers have been used for language teaching ever since the 1960s. This 40-year period can be divided into three main stages: behaviorist CALL, communicative CALL, and integrative CALL. Each stage corresponds to a certain level of technology and certain pedagogical theories. The reasons for using Computer-assisted Language Learning include: (a) experiential learning, (b) motivation, (c) enhance student achievement, (d) authentic materials for study, (e) greater interaction, (f) individualization, (g) independence from a single source of information, and (h) global understanding. The barriers inhibiting the practice of Computer-assisted Language Learning can be classified in the following common categories: (a) financial barriers, (b) availability of computer hardware and software, (c) technical and theoretical knowledge, and (d) acceptance of the technology.

History

CALL’s origins and development trace back to the 1960’s (Delcloque 2000). Since the early days CALL has developed into a symbiotic relationship between the development of technology and pedagogy.
Warschauer (1996) divided the development of CALL into three phases: Behavioristic CALL, Communicative CALL and Integrative CALL (Multimedia and the Internet). Bax (2003) perceived the three phases as Restricted, Open and Integrated - and there have been several other attempts to categorize the history of CALL.
Behavioristic CALL is defined by the then-dominant behavioristic theories of learning of Skinner as well as the technological limitations of computers from the 1960’s to the early 1980’s. Up to the late 1970’s, CALL was confined to universities where programs were developed on big mainframe computers, like the PLATO project, initiated at the University of Illinois in 1960. Because repeated exposure to material was considered to be beneficial or even essential, computers were considered ideal for this aspect of learning as the machines did not get bored or impatient with learners and the computer could present material to the student as his/her own pace and even adapt the drills to the level of the student. Hence, CALL programs of this era presented a stimulus to which the learner provided a response. At first, both could be done only through text. The computer would analyze errors and give feedback. More sophisticated programs would react to students’ mistakes by branching to help screens and remedial activities. While such programs and their underlying pedagogy still exist today, to a large part behavioristic approaches to language learning have been rejected and the increasing sophistication of computer technology has lead CALL to other possibilities.
Communicative CALL is based on the communicative approach that became prominent in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. In the communicative approach, the focus is on using the language rather than analysis of the language, teaching grammar implicitly. It also allowed for originality and flexibility in student output of language. It also correlates with the arrival of the PC, making computing much widely available resulting in a boom in the development of software for language learning. The first CALL software in this phase still provided skill practice but not in a drill format, for example, paced reading, text reconstruction and language games but computer remained the tutor. In this phase, however, computers provided context for students to use the language, such as asking for directions to a place. However, criticisms of this approach include using the computer in an ad hoc and disconnected manner for more marginal rather than the central aims of language teaching. It usually taught skills such as reading and listening in a compartmentalized way, even if not in a drill fashion.
Integrative/explorative CALL, starting from the 1990’s, tries to address these criticisms by integrating the teaching of language skills into tasks or projects to provide direction and coherence. It also coincides with the development of multimedia technology (providing text, graphics, sound and animation) as well as computer-mediated communication. CALL in this period saw a definitive shift of use of computer for drill and tutorial purposes (computer as a finite authoritative base for a specific task) to a medium for extending education beyond the classroom and reorganizing instruction. Multimedia CALL started with interactive laser videodiscs such as “Montevidisco” (Schneider & Bennion 1984) and “A la rencontre de Philippe” (Fuerstenberg 1993, all of which were simulations of situations where the learner played a key role. These programs later were transferred to CD-ROMs, and new RPGs such as Who is Oscar Lake? made their appearance in a range of different languages.
In multimedia programs, listening is combined with seeing, just like in the real world. Students also control the pace and the path of the interaction. Interaction is in the foreground but many CALL programs also provide links to explanations simultaneously. An example of this is Dustin’s simulation of a foreign student’s arrival in the USA. Programs like this led also to what is called explorative CALL.
More recent research in CALL has favored a learner-centered explorative approach, where students are encouraged to try different possible solutions to a problem, for example the use of concordance programs. This approach is also described as data-driven learning (DDL), a term coined by Tim Johns.

Theoretical basis for CALL instruction design

Computers have become so widespread in schools and homes and their uses have expanded so dramatically that the majority of language teachers now think about the implications. Technology brings about changes in the teaching methodologies of foreign language unless they are used simply to automate fill-in-the-gap exercises. The use of the computer in and of itself does not constitute a teaching method, but rather the computer forces pedagogy to think in new ways to exploit the computers benefits and work around its limitations.  To exploit computers’ potential we need language teaching specialists who can promote a complementary relationship between computer technology and appropriate pedagogic programs.
A number of pedagogical approaches have developed in the computer age, including the communicative and integrative/experimentative approaches outlined above in the History of CALL. Others include constructivism, whole language theory and sociocultural theory although they are not exclusively theories of language learning. With constructivism, students are active participants in a task in which they “construct” new knowledge based on experience in order to incorporate new ideas into their already-established schema of knowledge. Whole language theory postulates that language learning (either native or second language) moves from the whole to the part; rather than building sub-skills like grammar to lead toward higher abilities like reading comprehension, whole language insists the opposite is the way we really learn to use language. Students learn grammar and other sub-skills by making intelligent guesses bases on the input they have experienced. It also promotes that the four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) are interrelated. Sociocultural theory states that learning is a process of becoming part of a desired community and learning that communities rules of behavior.
What most of these approaches have in common is taking the central focus away from the teacher as conveyor of knowledge to giving students learning experiences that are as realistic as possible where they play a central role. Also, these approaches tend to emphasize fluency over accuracy to allow students to take risks in using more student-centered activities and to cooperate, rather than compete. The computer provides opportunity for students to be less dependent on a teacher and have more freedom to experiment on their own with natural language in natural or semi-natural settings.

Role changes for teachers and students

Although the integration of CALL into a foreign language program can lead to great anxiety among language teachers,  researchers consistently claim that CALL changes, sometimes radically, the role of the teacher but does not eliminate the need for a teacher altogether. Instead of handing down knowledge to students and being the center of students’ attention, teachers become guides as they construct the activities students are to do and help them as students complete the assigned tasks. In other words, instead of being directly involved in students’ construction of the language, the teacher interacts with students primarily to facilitate difficulties in using the target language (grammar, vocabulary, etc.) that arise when interacting with the computer and/or other people.
Elimination of a strong teacher presence has been shown to lead to larger quantity and better quality of communication such as more fluidity, more use of complex sentences and more sharing of students’ personal selves. However, teacher presence is still very important to students when doing CALL activities. Teachers should be familiar enough with the resources to be used to anticipate technical problems and limitations. Students need the reassuring and motivating presence of a teacher in CALL environments. Not only are they needed during the initial learning curve, they are needed to conduct review sessions to reinforce what was learned. Encouraging students to participate and offering praise are deemed important by students. Most students report preferring to do work in a lab with a teacher’s or tutor’s presence rather than completely on their own.
Students, too, need to adjust their expectations of their participation in the class in order to use CALL effectively. Rather than passively absorbing information, learners must negotiate meaning and assimilate new information through interaction and collaboration with someone other than the teacher, be that person a classmate or someone outside of the classroom entirely. Learners must also learn to interpret new information and experiences on their own terms. However, because the use of technology redistributes teachers’ and classmates’ attentions, less-able students can become more active participants in the class because class interaction is not limited to that directed by the teacher.  Moreover more shy students can feel free in their own students'-centered environment. This will raise their self-esteem and their knowledge will be improving. If students are performing collaborative project they will do their best to perform it within set time limits.

Use of CALL for the four skills

A number of studies have been done concerning how the use of CALL affects the development of language learners’ four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Most report significant gains in reading and listening and most CALL programs are geared toward these receptive skills because of the current state of computer technology. However, most reading and listening software is based on drills. Gains in writing skills have not been as impressive as computers cannot assess this well.
However, using current CALL technology, even with its current limitations, for the development of speaking abilities has gained much attention. There has been some success in using CALL, in particular computer-mediated communication, to help speaking skills closely linked to “communicative competence” (ability to engage in meaningful conversation in the target language) and provide controlled interactive speaking practice outside the classroom. Using chat has been shown to help students routinize certain often-used expressions to promote the development of automatic structure that help develop speaking skills. This is true even if the chat is purely textual. The use of videoconferencing give not only immediacy when communicating with a real person but also visual cues, such as facial expressions, making such communication more authentic.
However, when it comes to using the computer not as a medium of communication (with other people) but as something to interact with verbally in a direct manner, the current computer technology’s limitations are their clearest. Right now, there are two fairly successful applications of automatic speech recognition (ASR) (or speech processing technology) where the computer “understands” the spoken words of the learner. The foremost is pronunciation training. Learners read sentences on the screen and the computer gives feedback as to the accuracy of the utterance, usually in the form of visual sound waves.
Self access language learning centers or independent learning centres have emerged partially independently, and partially in response to these issues. In self-access learning, the focus is on developing learner autonomy through varying degrees of self-directed learning, as opposed to (or as a complement to) classroom learning. In most centres, learners access materials and manage their learning independently, but have access to staff for help. Many self-access centres are heavy users of technology and an increasing number of them are now offering online self-access learning opportunities. Some centres have developed novel ways of supporting language learning outside the context of the language classroom (also called 'language support') by developing software to monitor students' self-directed learning and by offering online support from teachers.
Center managers and support staff need to have new roles defined for them to support students’ efforts at self-directed learning. In fact, a new job description has emerged recently, that of a “language advisor”^.

Advantages of CALL:

Motivation

Generally speaking, the use of technology inside or outside the classroom tends to make the class more interesting. However, certain design issues affect just how interesting the particular tool creates motivation. One way a program or activity can promote motivation in students is by personalizing information, for example by integrating the student’s name or familiar contexts as part of the program or task. Others include having animate objects on the screen, providing practice activities that incorporate challenges and curiosity and providing a context (real-world or fantasy) that is not directly language-oriented.
One quantifiable benefit to increased motivation is that students tend to spend more time on tasks when on the computer. More time is frequently cited as a factor in achievement.

Adapting learning to the student

Computers can give a new role to teaching materials. Without computers, students cannot really influence the linear progression of the class content but computers can adapt to the student. Adapting to the student usually means that the student controls the pace of the learning but also means that students can make choices in what and how to learn, skipping unnecessary items or doing remedial work on difficult concepts. Such control makes students feel more competent in their learning. Students tend to prefer exercises where they have control over content, such as branching stories, adventures, puzzles or logic problems. With these, the computer has the role of providing attractive context for the use of language rather than directly providing the language the student needs.

Authenticity

“Authenticity” in language learning means the opportunity to interact in one or more of the four skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking) by using or producing texts meant for an audience in the target language, not the classroom. With real communication acts, rather than teacher-contrived ones, students feel empowered and less afraid to contact others. Students believe they learn faster and better with computer-mediated communication. Also, students learn more about culture in such an environment. In networked computer environments, students have a conscious feeling of being members of a real community. In situations where all are learners of a foreign language, there is also a feeling of equality. In these situations students feel less stressed and more confident in a language learning situation, in part because surface errors do not matter so much. This works best with synchronous CMC (e.g. chats) as there is immediate feedback but email exchanges have been shown to provide most of the same benefits in motivation and student affect.

Critical thinking skills

Use of computer technology in classrooms is generally reported to improve self-concept and mastery of basic skills, more student-centered learning and engagement in the learning process, more active processing resulting in higher-order thinking skills and better recall, gain confidence in directing their own learning. This is true for both language and non-language classrooms.

Problems and criticisms of CALL instruction

The impact of CALL in foreign language education has been modest. Several reasons can be attributed to this.
The first is the limitations of the technology, both in its ability and availability. First of all, there is the problem with cost and the simple availability of technological resources such as the Internet (either non-existent as can be the case in many developing countries or lack of bandwidth, as can be the case just about anywhere).  However, the limitations that current computer technology has can be problematic as well. While computer technology has improved greatly in the last three decades, demands placed on CALL have grown even more so. One major goal is to have computers with which students can have true, human-like interaction, esp. for speaking practice; however, the technology is far from that point. Not to mention that if the computer cannot evaluate a learner’s speech exactly, it is almost no use at all.
However, most of the problems that appear in the literature on CALL have more to do with teacher expectations and apprehensions about what computers can do for the language learner and teacher. Teachers and administrators tend to either think computers are worthless or even harmful, or can do far more than they are really capable of.
Reluctance on part of teachers can come from lack of understanding and even fear of technology. Often CALL is not implemented unless it is required even if training is offered to teachers. One reason for this is that from the 1960’s to the 1980’s, computer technology was limited mostly for the sciences, creating a real and psychological distance for language teaching.  Language teachers can be more comfortable with textbooks because it is what they are used do, and there is the idea that the use of computers threatens traditional literacy skills since such are heavily tied to books.  These stem in part because there is a significant generation gap between teachers (many of whom did not grow up with computers) and students (who did grow up with them).
Also, teachers may resist because CALL activities can be more difficult to evaluate than more traditional exercises. For example, most teachers feel strongly that a completed fill-in textbook “proves” learning. While students seem may be motivated by exercises like branching stories, adventures, puzzles or logic, these activities provide little in the way of systematic evaluation of progress.
Most teachers lack the time or training to create CALL-based assignments, leading to reliance on commercially-published sources, whether such are pedagogically sound or not.
However, the most crucial factor that can lead to the failure of CALL, or the use of any technology in language education is not the failure of the technology, but rather the failure to invest adequately in teacher and the lack of imagination to take advantage of the technology's flexibility. Graham Davies states that too often, technology is seen as a panacea, especially by administrators, and the human component necessary to make it beneficial is ignored. Under these circumstances, he argues, "it is probably better to dispense with technology altogether".