Using Technology in Teaching

Ministry of Education ELT General Supervision وزارة التربية التوجيه الفني العام للغة الإنجليزية Using Technology in Teaching Prepared by: Mr. AbdelazizAdnani Farwaniya ELT Supervision

Introduction • Teaching English with Technology will be helpful for teachers, teacher trainers, course designers and directors of studies involved in teaching English as a foreign language. • How ? • It will help those who have little or no experience in ICT tools or how to use them in the classroom. • It will also help those with more experience in the application of ICT to teaching.

Technology in language teaching Computer-based materials for language teaching, often referred to as CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning), appeared in the early 1980s. Early CALL programs required learners to carry out tasks such as: • filling in gapped texts, matching sentence halves • doing multiple-choice activities. • text reconstruction, where an entire text is blanked out and the learner recreates it by typing in words.

ELT General Supervision Implementing ICT in the Classroom The term TELL (Technology Enhanced Language Learning) appeared in the 1960s, in response to the growing possibilities offered by the Internet and communications technology. Although the use of ICT by language teachers is still not widespread, the use of technology in the classroom is becoming increasingly important.

ELT General Supervision Using websites in the classroom You can use web pages in the classroom in a variety of ways: • as printed pages, with no computers: ( in places where there may be limited access to the Internet) • with one computer with an Internet connection: ( This can be enhanced by connecting the computer to a data projector or even an interactive whiteboard.) • in a computer lab with a set of networked and connected computers: ( incorporate Internet content into your regular teaching.)

ELT General Supervision Planning lessons using the Internet To plan your lesson using the Internet, you need to make a note of the particular pages you want your learners to work on. • You can use the Favorites option in Internet Explorer. • You can use bookmarks in Firefox to log web addresses for later use. • You can adapt your lesson plans to make greater use of the Internet than we are suggesting here.

Using email with Learners Reading and writing emails either in or outside class time gives a learner more exposure to the target language. • Advantages: 1- Interaction is ‘real’ in the sense that learners are writing to real people. 2- Using a ‘real’ medium. 3- Learners contact and interact with people from different other cultures. 4- Technology is relatively simple to use.

ELT General Supervision Internet-based project work • Why do Internet-based projects work? In the context of doing project work, the Internet can be thought of as an enormous encyclopedia because it gives our learners quick access to a wealth of information which they can use to carry out their project tasks.

ELT General Supervision Social software Blogs, wikis and podcasts are all examples of social software, computer tools. • A blog is essentially a web page with regular diary or journal entries. The term is short for web log. • A podcast is an audio and/or video file that is ‘broadcast’ via the Internet and can be downloaded to a computer.

ELT General Supervision Blogs in language teaching Blogs used in education are known as edublogs. • Edublogscover a wide range of topics related to education. An edublog can be set up and used by a teacher, by individual learners or by a class.

ELT General Supervision Interactive whiteboards An interactive whiteboard (IWB) is made interactive’ by being linked to a computer which uses special IWB software. The three essential components needed to use an IWB are: • the whiteboard itself, • a computer which has IWB software installed • a data projector (or ‘beamer’) which projects the image from the computer screen onto the whiteboard.

ELT General Supervision Using IWBs with learners IWBs are particularly effective for presentation stages in a lesson: • The teacher can have learners all looking at and concentrating on the screen at the same time. • They can be particularly useful for the modelling of language, for example the pronunciation of words or phrases. • They can be used in conjunction with PowerPoint for presentations.

ELT General Supervision Conclusion Whatever our experience with technology may be, we must ensure that equal access is available to all students, and that our teaching and our students learning is enhanced. It is far too easy to be impressed by the technology, to the point of forgetting that perhaps a more traditional approach might work better.

Using Technology in Teaching