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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 175 – 181

7th International Conference on Intercultural Education “Education, Health and ICT for a
Transcultural World”, EDUHEM 2016, 15-17 June 2016, Almeria, Spain

ICT in Teaching a Foreign Language in High School

Albina Bilyalova*
Kazan (Volga region) Federal University, Kazan, 420008, Russia

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the importance of ICT usage in teaching foreign languages in universities and the
development of practical recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of foreign language teaching using ICT.
The paper summarizes the most effective types of ICT for the development of linguistic and communication competence of
students: PowerPoint presentation, correspondence by e-mail, training programs on CD-ROM, internet resources in teaching of
foreign languages. In the study the full description of the above mentioned types of ICT is given.
© 2017
© 2016TheTheAuthors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier Ltd.Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016.
Keywords: : ICT (information and communication technologies); teaching and learning foreign languages

1. Introduction

The current stage of development of the society puts in front of the Russian education system a number of
fundamentally new problems which are caused by the political, socio-economic, philosophical and other factors.
Among them we should highlight the need to improve the quality and accessibility of education, increase academic
mobility, integration into the world of scientific and educational space, creating educational systems optimal in
economic terms, improving the university corporatism and strengthen the links between the different levels of
education.
One of the effective ways to solve these problems is the informatization of education. Improving of means of
communication has led to significant progress in the exchange of information. The emergence of new information
technologies associated with the development of computer equipment and telecommunications networks has made it

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +7 917 273 41 44; fax: +0-000-000-0000 .

E-mail address: abill71@mail.ru

1877-0428 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2017.02.060
176 Albina Bilyalova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 175 – 181

possible to create a qualitatively new information and educational environment as the basis for development and
improvement of the education system.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) are of key importance at all levels of the educational system.
At each stage of cognitive activity, research and practical applications in all branches of knowledge ICT perform both
the functions of tools and objects of knowledge. Consequently, ICT innovations not only provide a revolutionary
development in this branch of knowledge, but also have a direct impact on the scientific and technological progress in
all areas of society. Thus, information and communication technologies are a class of innovative technologies for the
rapid accumulation of intellectual and economic potential of strategic resources, ensuring sustainable development of
society. This paper discusses the opportunities of ICT, the ways of their realization in the Russian system of higher
education training on an example of a discipline "Foreign language".
Scientists have different approaches to the definition of ICT concepts. In the scientific literature can be found the
following terminology: "IT training", "computer-based training technology", "new information technologies in
education" or "NIT Education", "multimedia educational technology", etc. This indicates that the essence of ICT
concepts, used in education is still not well established.
We can see that, speaking of ICT, in some cases, scientists point to a specific research area, in other - on a particular
way of dealing with information. At the same time, the analysis of the literature on the investigated problem allows us
to speak about the complex of knowledge, the ways and means to work with information resources, and about technical
resources, which scientists have linked with the technological chain, ensuring the accumulation, storage, classification,
output and distribution of information (Kayser, 2009; Lyubova, Bilyalova, Evgrafova, 2014; McKenzie, 2000;
Russell1997,Sorin 2005). A lot of works deal with the question of using technology in teaching English (Dudeney,
1985; Wright, 2008; Hartoyo, 2008). Some scholars have noted that the widespread use of identified technologies can
significantly increase the effectiveness of active learning methods to all forms of organization of educational process
in the study of a foreign language, namely: practical, individual lessons, during independent work (Nadolskaya, 2014).
Other scientists have considered the use of ICT as a means of increasing motivation, commitment to the systematic
study of a foreign language, which allows to obtain quick results in learning a foreign language (Wheeler, 2001). The
use of ICT in the educational process directed to the full immersion of students in the language environment that
contributes to the formation and development of their communicative competence, the part of which is the socio-
cultural competence. It equips learners with digital age literacy, inventive thinking, creative thinking, higher-order
thinking, effective communication, and high productivity (Tinio, 2002).
Based on interpretations of scientists T.A. Lavina, I.V. Robert and others (Lavina,2014; Robert,1994) let us give
our own definition of the ICT, which will be viewed as a set of methods and techniques designed to collect, organize,
store, process, transmit and present the information which enlarge the socio-cultural knowledge of students and
provides them with a socio-cultural competence.

2. Methodology

The study was conducted in 2 stages. The first stage is the study of the problem of the use ICT in teaching foreign
languages, based on the literature on methodology, psychology, educational theory and practice; also it includes
identification of specific ICT requirements, which ensure the development of linguistic and communication
competence and increase the interest and motivation of students. The second stage included the analysis and synthesis
of experimental work on the use of ICT on the lessons of a foreign language, assessment of ICT as a means of
improving the efficiency of the process of teaching a foreign language. The experimental work was done on the basis
of Elabuga Institute of Kazan Federal University.
The group of the second year students of the Philology Department were chosen randomly to be the sample of the
study. The total number of the students was 50. The students of this group were appointed randomly into two groups;
the control group which had (25) students, and the other experimental group which had (25) students. All the students
included in this study had the same learning experience and used the same text books. Students during the second term
were selected to achieve the purpose of this study. The second term is the important stage in which students' language
proficiency is an indicator of their language competence.
 Albina Bilyalova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 175 – 181 177

In order to achieve the purpose of the study, the researcher developed a set of research instruments: Reading
Comprehension Test and Grammar Test. Both Tests consisted of 17 multiple choice questions. Students were given
fifty minutes to answer the questions. Test items had choices, only one of which was correct.

3. The potential of ICT in creating the foreign language competence of students of universities when learning
a foreign language

One of the effective ways to improve the quality of teaching foreign languages is the informatization of education.
The use of ICT in learning a foreign language helps to intensify and personalize learning, promotes interest in the
subject, makes it possible to avoid subjective assessment. In addition, the ICT contribute to overcoming the
psychological barrier of students to the use of a foreign language as a means of communication.
It should be noted that ICT is both a material supply means and the controlling means. New technologies make it
possible to individualize the learning process in the pace and depth of the course. Such differentiated approach gives
a great positive, because it creates the conditions for the success of every student, causing the students' positive
emotions, and thus affects their learning motivation.
In contrast to conventional techniques while using interactive forms of teaching a student itself becomes the main
acting figure and itself opens the way to assimilate knowledge. The teacher in this situation acts as an active assistant,
and his main function is to organize and promote the learning process.
Thus, the following digital resources can be effectively used at foreign language lessons: Power Point presentation
(PP), tests, training programs on CD-ROM, online tutorials, educational Internet resources. In our opinion, multimedia
presentations, e-learning software and educational Internet resources are of great educational potential, the description
of which we shall discuss in detail.
Here we should emphasize that each teacher applying ICT on foreign language lessons, should be aware that any
educational technology should meet the following methodological requirements:
x conceptuality: the scientific concept that includes psychological and socio-pedagogical substantiation of the
achievement of educational goals;
x consistency: the presence of all characteristics of the system (the logic of the process, interrelation of all its parts,
integrity);
x efficiency: ensuring results that match educational standards;
x flexibility: the ability of variations in the content to ensure comfort and freedom of interaction between the
teacher and students with the specific pedagogical reality;
x dynamics: the possibility of development or transformation of technology;
x reproducibility: the possibility of the use of technology by other teachers in this educational institution or in
others.

As a result, a comprehensive study found that the most effective for the development of linguistic and
communication competence of students are the following types of ICT: PowerPoint presentation, correspondence by
e-mail, training programs on CD-ROM and internet resources.

3.1. Multimedia presentation (MMP)

According to the analysis of modern methods of teaching foreign languages in Russian Universities we can state
that presentations are widely used by teachers of high school for teaching foreign languages. They are convenient for
both teachers and students. Original teaching materials of presentations captivate, motivate, and direct students in a
successful outcome. Educational potential of MMPs can be effectively used at the lessons of foreign languages for the
implementation of visual support while speech training.
The PP (Power Point) program and its product (MMP) have a number of properties that distinguish them from
traditional means of representation clarity. These include interactivity (the ability to change and make the necessary
changes to the same presentation); multimedia (the use of complex effects for information representation such as text,
sound, graphics, animation, video one of the technical means); comprehensive reporting (the ability to control the
178 Albina Bilyalova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 175 – 181

presentation in different modes: linear, animation, using hyperlinks); readability (semantic completeness of individual
slides or groups of slides); software compatibility (ability to use objects from other programs, such as MS Office
applications).
The present study indicates that at lessons of foreign language educational presentations are mainly used. They
differ in the types of speech activity (reading, writing, speaking or listening); on aspects of speech (when teaching
vocabulary, grammar or phonetics); in type of supports (meaningful, semantic, verbal, pictures). Using PowerPoint
the learning process facilitates the use of different kinds of language and speech exercises: imitative, substitute,
transformation, reproduction.
Thus, we can say that PowerPoint program allows the teacher to create high-quality learning materials for specific
learning tasks.

3.2. Correspondence by e-mail

Communication in virtual reality by means of e-mail can be used for mastering intercultural competence on the
lessons of foreign language, i.e. to establishment friendly correspondence. By means of it students will develop their
vocabulary, both active and passive, which reflects a certain stage of development of the culture, social and political
structure of the native speakers society.
The international exchange of letters can be done at any language level. In addition to the establishment of friendly
contacts and studying, thus, culture of the studied language, e-mail has its advantages over paper letters: it is faster,
easier and cheaper.
To find partners by correspondence for the students you can do the following. First, refer a relevant enquiry to
TESL-L (computer-assisted language learning sub-branch listserv@cunyvm.cuny.edu) or TESLK-12
(listserv@cunyvm.cuny.edu). Second, contact the list-server for intercultural relations (Intercultural E-Mail Classroom
Connections), which establish correspondence with different objectives: to carry out joint projects, discuss pressing
issues, debate between whole classes.
E-mail is probably the most popular and important Internet service. 20 million people communicate through email
daily. Almost every Internet user has an email address. You can send texts, graphics, programs, multimedia files by
E-mail. It’s worth noting that the first distance courses were entirely built on referrals and assignments by E-mail. The
student, after completing the task, send the results to the teacher by E-mail that is far faster. Today there are few
courses that are built without E-mail, because it remains a vital ancillary service.

3.3. Training programs on CD-ROM

At the present moment the teacher has quite a lot of educational computer programs, both domestic and authentic.
In front of a teacher using a computer program for learning, the problem of their integration in the educational process
arises. Nowadays there are a number of textbooks that have training programs on CD-ROM. These programs are fully
correspond to the concept of the textbook, to a thematic and unit scheduling, so it makes it easier to incorporate
multimedia components in each lesson. These applications are a convenient and effective way of independent work of
students at home.
Each of these training programs has certain goals to work with grammar, vocabulary, reading, phonetics and
requires the student and the teacher elementary computer skills. The same can be said about the testing program
recorded on the CD. Today, there is a variety of similar programs for different levels of English, from beginner level
with the games, comics, songs, poems, etc. to advanced level, such as exam preparation FCE or TOEFL type. The
most common programs can be called useful to work in the university: "Living English "," Bridge to English ", "All
clear", "BBC Learning English", etc. Such programs contain a great number of speech exercises, exercises to practice
pronunciation, grammar exercises, activities and games to practice spelling. The topics of the units make it easy to
integrate the course into the learning process. For example, the course “Bridge to English I” is a basic English language
course, which consists of 20 lessons. Each lesson contains vocabulary in English and Russian languages, dialogues
and grammar in Russian. Each lesson has a different theme and includes plenty of exercises that can be used both for
training and control of knowledge of students.
 Albina Bilyalova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 175 – 181 179

The use of computer training programs has many advantages over traditional methods of teaching. Their potential
is that they allow to train different types of speech activity and conjoin them in different combinations; to help to
understand linguistic phenomena; to form linguistic abilities, create communicative situations; to improve speech and
language skills; and also provide the possibility of accounting leading representative system; realization of individual
approach and intensification of independent work of the student; enhance cognitive activity, motivation and quality of
students ' knowledge.

3.4. Internet recourses in teaching foreign languages

According to Seljan, Berger, Dovedan (2004), the Internet and the World Wide Web have provided an incredible
language learning applications, offering a wide variety of educational programs, resources, software, journals,
organizations, software tutorials including all types of exercises for grammar drills, vocabulary, listening and
pronunciations exercises, games, electronic dictionaries, etc. The possibility of using the Internet resource is huge. Let
us dwell on the methodological aspects of the use of Internet services in the educational process. Internet provides a
unique opportunity for students to use authentic texts, listen and communicate with native speakers, i.e. it creates a
natural language environment. But how to take advantage of it? The main objective of learning a foreign language is
the formation of the communicative competence, all other goals (educational, pedagogical, developing) are realized
in the process of implementation of the main goal. Communicative competence in the modern sense of the word
involves the formation of the capacity for intercultural interaction. Internet resources can be extremely beneficial in
this field.
The Possibilities of the Internet:
x The teacher can choose in advance authentic reading materials on the subject matter of the oral speech;
x it is possible to record audio information (speech of political or public figures, interesting reports of native speakers
on various topics);
x to hold an oral discussion of the received e-mail letters from project partners;
x to perform first in groups a discussion, a dispute on a particular problem of the information obtained from Internet
resources, and then organize a general discussion of it in the entire class;
x to conduct linguistic analysis of certain communications, whether oral or written utterances of native speakers, e.g.
idioms, proverbs, sayings, neologisms reflecting the specificity of functioning of language in the culture of the
people;
x to use at least partially the artistic works of authors of the country of the target language received from the virtual
library;
x to use the electronic grammar books and lexical reference books, dictionaries, reference books of cross-cultural
nature, the materials of distance learning courses, available for inclusion in a lesson. It is particularly interesting to
use the Internet when working on a project. This allows to create at the lesson of foreign language research creative
atmosphere where every student is involved in an active cognitive process on the basis of the methodology of
cooperation.

But the Internet is used in teaching languages not only as an information support, but for communication (a
conversation in real time – chat , correspondence – e-mail) that creates a natural language environment. The
participation of students in teleconferencing, chat rooms, which are attended by students from different countries of
the world is very interesting and useful opportunity for new contacts and real-life conversation practice. In those
discussions, conversations, "free talk" there is not only the exchange of information on a particular issue, but familiarity
with some elements of another culture.
Another type of work is the use of Internet resources in the form of tests for the control of lexical and grammatical
skills. For example, the site www.exams.ru offers information about various international examinations in English,
different practice tests.
Thus, the use of Internet resources in teaching a foreign language gives the possibility of constant improvement of
training materials, increases the level of motivation in learning a foreign language. Educational technology is not yet
learned. You can only set the guidelines for it possible use. The creative potential of the teachers will tell the scope of
180 Albina Bilyalova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 175 – 181

the search, and professionalism will give an impulse for interesting finds and decisions. Now everyone understands
that the Internet possesses enormous information capabilities and equally impressive service. The Internet creates a
unique opportunity for foreign language learners to use authentic texts, listen to and communicate with native speakers.
Using information resources of the Internet, integrating them into the educational process is helpful in solving
variety of didactic problems at the lesson:

x to form skills and abilities of reading, directly using materials of different degree of complexity;
x to improve the ability of listening on the basis of authentic sound texts from a network the Internet;
x to develop the vocabulary, both active and passive, by words of the modern foreign language reflecting a certain
stage of development of the culture, social and political structure of society;
x to get acquainted with cultural knowledge including speech etiquette, especially speech behaviour of various people
in terms of communication, culture, and traditions of the country of the studied language.

4. Data analysis

To ensure the equivalence of the two groups before starting the study, a pre-test was applied. Table (1) shows the
results:

Table 1. Results of pre-test of the equivalence of the two groups

Group students Mean score (reading skills) Mean score (grammar skills)
PRE-TEST control 25 4.1 3.8
experiment 25 4.0 3.9

Table (1) shows that there were no statistically significant differences between the experimental and control group
at the pre-test of reading comprehension and pre-test of grammar skills. This means that the control group and the
experimental group were equivalent before starting the study.
During the second term students of the experimental group were taught a foreign language using ICT, students of
control group were taught a foreign language without using ICT. Are there significant differences in the students'
reading comprehension and grammar skills due to the strategy of teaching with the help of ICT? To answer this
question mean score in the post tests were calculated. Table (2) presents the results in comparison.

Table 2. Results of using ICT in teaching a foreign language for Each Group (Control and Experiment)
Group Test (reading skills) students Mean score
Control Pre Pre 25 4.1
Post Post 25 4.2
Experimental Pre Pre 25 4.0
Post Post 25 4.5
Test (grammar skills)
Control Pre Pre 25 3.8
Post Post 25 3.9
Experimental Pre Pre 25 3.9
Post Post 25 4.6

Table (2) shows the mean scores of the two groups (Control and Experimental) in the pre Reading Comprehension
Test were (4.1) and (4.0) respectively while in the post test were (4.2) and (4.5) respectively; in the pre Grammar Test
were (3.8) and (3.9) respectively while in the post test were (43.9) and (4.6) respectively. This means that the students'
reading comprehension and grammar skills scores in experimental group were improved in the post test because of the
use of ICT.
 Albina Bilyalova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 175 – 181 181

Thus, the study investigated the effectiveness of using ICT in teaching a foreign language in high school. The results
showed that there were statistically significant differences in students reading comprehension and grammar skills due
to the strategy of teaching (teaching using ICT and teaching without using ICT) in favor of the ICT-teaching strategy.
The results showed that using ICT at the lessons of foreign languages might have contributed to the improvement of
students' achievement in reading comprehension and in grammar. Students might have the opportunity to receive
information from different resources, share their knowledge and skills in an appropriate manner and interact more
effectively.

5. Conclusion

The importance of the use of ICT in the formation of linguistic competence of students of universities in learning
foreign language is argued and proven in practice. Conducted pedagogical experiment showed that the use of ICT has
a positive impact on the quality of teaching a foreign language. Finally, the study demonstrated that the integration of
ICT in the process of teaching a foreign language makes it more dynamic, information-intensive, helps efficiently
organize the learning process, increases the efficiency of formation of communicative competence, provides a positive
motivation of learning and cognitive activity of students, facilitates the activation of independent work of students.
On the basis of the foregoing, it can be argued that the use of ICT is a promising direction in foreign language teaching
and needs further study.

Acknowledgements

The work is performed according to the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal
University.

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