ICT in Language Learning

Integrating technology into secondary English language teaching - Summary

English language teaching takes places during the school day, at school either funded by
state or privately financed, and after school in language academies, where learners are sent by
their parents for additional English classes, usually to reinforce the English being learned at
school, or to help the learners prepare for specific examination. In recent years, there are
tremendous growth of ICT. Like European, many teachers interest using ICT. US also has
developed National Educational Technology Plan for transforming education through technology.
Educational and Technology have a tightly intertwined future. This development also gives many
benefits like successful in teaching.

Training in ICT skills is one of the important criteria need to be considered in implementing
ICT integration in teaching and learning of English. Teachers are trained to use computers to
support learning. The results obtained can be used to determine whether or not technology has
a major impact on achievement. Web 2.0 is a social web that allow for some degree of content
creation and communication, and it is ideal for language learning.

One of example of Web 2.0 is blog. Using blog, teacher can share journal in publish
information about a course, share information, culture and many other things. Another example
is wiki. Wiki is a popular online publishing and collaborative web space used by secondary school
teacher and learners. It allows users to create and edit the content without any knowledge of
web design. It is similar to the blog, but it has more flexible structure and good for project work.
Podcast is another example of development of web 2.0. It is audio or video files that are broadcast
via the internet and can be downloaded and listened to on a computer or mobile device.

Aside from web 2.0 more traditional uses of ICT continue too. Jewell points out that may
stand alone applications such as processing and presentation software (For example: power
point) can be used effectively by secondary school learners to improve their language skill through
research and by sharing their finding in oral presentations which also provides real world context
and technological skill and enable students to develop confidence in their language abilities.

Digital literacy is the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a
wide range of sources when it is presented via computers. In one thing is certain to be literate in
the 21 century requires a more multimodal approaches because multimodality is more pervasive,
diverse, and important today than ever before. Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) is one
of the most interesting emerging types of technology enhanced learning, especially now that
mobile devices are carried by more and more people every day and it has evolved from a simple
voice device to a multimedia communications tool capable to download, upload, data, etc. It has
spread out over the world as the high technology. It is important to be used in secondary
education. It can be implicated to the students of learning language.
ICT in Language Learning

Technology and adult language teaching – Summary

The starting point of adult learning are the learner and their reality. According to Lindeman
(1926), “Every adult person finds himself in specific situations with respect to his work, his
recreation, his family life, his community life – situations which call for adjustments… Subject
matter is brought into the situation, is put to work, when needed”.

Adult learners are able to relate materials and tasks to their past and current experiences
through new opportunities and lived experience that will help them to reflect as individuals.
Mezirow (1997) explained that adult learners’ able to focus on practical, short-term objectives
faster. However, we must not make too many assumptions that all adult language learners are
equally purposeful and directed. We also have to understand that on the whole, language learning
is relatively small part of multi-faceted adult lives.

Institutional perspectives on the role of technology in particular subject teaching are

influential in teacher decision-making. Institutional drivers might mean that teachers find
themselves able to be more or less autonomous in their decision-making around approach,
materials and means, including use of technology (Mumtaz, 2001).

One of the principles of adult learning is adults will bring not only expectations, but beliefs
and learning preferences to the classroom. Knowles’ original work on andragogy (1973) was
different with pedagogy. The concept of andragogy is as below;

■ the adult learner as moving towards independence and the teacher’s role as one which
scaffolds a transition to self-direction
■ the adult learner’s life experience as a resource and a point of reference for learner-centred
activity
■ the adult learner’s readiness to learn and awareness of themselves as learners
■ the learner’s orientation to learning, that is the adult learner knows why he/she is learning and
the goals they aim for.
ICT in Language Learning

Technology-integrated English for Specific Purposes lessons: real-life language,

tasks, and tools for professionals - Summary
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has a long history and has become increasingly popular
since the 1960s. The definitions of ESP have changed over time but different definitions have
existed side by side. Initially, teachers often thought that in ESP courses, teaching specific
vocabulary was their task and some people described ESP as simply being the teaching of English
for any purpose that could be specified. Others, however, were more precise, describing it as the
teaching of English used in academic studies or the teaching of English for vocational or
professional purposes.’

There are many benefits of using technology in ESP such as:

1. Provides interaction and communicative activities representative of specific professional

or academic environments.

2. Fosters understanding of the socio-cultural aspects of the language as practiced in

various fields and professions.

3. Provides comprehensible field-specific input and facilitates student production.

4. Provides sheltering strategies for language development and content-specific

understanding (modelling, bridging to students’ background experiences, contextualising,
metacognitive activities, etc.).

There are many different technologies that are successfully used in ESP courses from the
traditional tape recorder or CD player, to interactive whiteboards, ICT, Web 2.0 tools, mobile
technologies and 3D virtual environments. Another example is Skype which use voice-over
internet protocol (VoIP) services that allow users to make telephone or video calls and conduct
group conferences using their computer.

Internet is become very important in ESP. It provides abundance of authentic material

(texts, audio, videos, etc.) and information on many topics, the tools and possibilities for
communication, and platforms that allow sharing of ideas and knowledge. One way the benefit
of Internet is it has changed how languages are learned is that it allows learners to immerse
themselves in the target language and community easily. Students can also use the internet for
self-study purposes without the need for a teacher. They can choose the materials and which
direction to go and do anything at their own pace. It is in line with constructivist learning theory
and enables learners to become autonomous.

Blended learning approach is one of the approaches that can be used in ESP. It is a
mixture or combination of face-to-face and online learning and of synchronous (e.g. Skype, video
conferencing rooms) and asynchronous (e.g. discussion groups, blogs, learning management
systems) communication tools. This approach offers many benefits to teachers and students. For
example, it allows teachers to create highly specialised courses, which would be difficult to
arrange in a face-to-face class due to the low number of students, Teachers can also offer self-
access materials online, or supplement the coursebook with extra authentic materials that are
more relevant to their students It can help learners in developing ‘autonomy, out-of-class
learning, self-assessment, individualization’.

However, there are some drawbacks/challenges of using technology in ESP such as;

■ issues of accessibility, availability and reliability of the technology

■ the need for one-off and ongoing teacher and learner training
■ varying levels of tech-savviness of teachers and learners
■ time and resources needed to create technology-integrated courses
■ the need for new ways of managing classes in which technology is used, including how to deal
with technical problems during lessons
■ having to adapt to the changing roles of teachers as well as learners, particularly in online
courses, etc.