How to Implement ICT in an EFL Context: From Theory to Practice

Monir Ganjalikhani Hakemi, Iran

Monir Hakemi is an M.A. student of Teaching English in Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan, Kerman. She has taught English for seven years now mostly in academic fields such as IELTS and TOEFL and very successful at teaching conversational skills. She is immensely keen on watching movies, painting, finding out about new English books and reading books in her spare time. E-mail: m.hakemi@stu.vru.ac.ir

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Introduction
Theoretical background
Examples
Conclusions
References

Introduction

Along with the rising popularity of the World Wide Web, email, and multimedia, it is not unusual that employing information and communication technology (ICT) in educational settings or classrooms is a 1990s phenomenon. ICT can contribute to universal access to education, equity in education, delivery of quality learning and teaching, teachers’ professional development and more efficient education management and administration. UNESCO takes a holistic and comprehensive approach to promoting ICT in education. Access, inclusion and quality are among the main challenges they can address.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) stands for new multimedia technologies, including computer software, CD-ROM, the internet, mobile phone, radio, television and film; as well it embraces internet-based Project work, e-mail, chat, blogs, podcasts, and so forth. A glance at the long journey of employing ICT in education endorses the fact that the primary goal of using technology in the classroom has always been, and still is, enhancement of learner-centered pedagogical environment (Romeo, 2006).

A large number of studies have been carried out to investigate the role of ICT and its effect on better language learning. Some studies endorse the positive effects of employing technology in classroom and demonstrate that it enhances students’ enthusiasm and achievement. Cox (1999) reports that students should believe ICT could help them in their long-term future. Moreover, ICT promotes learners’ computer literacy, increases their cultural awareness and strengthens their social identity in the target culture. Also, Lee (2000) points out that the web provides learners with authentic materials and cultural information in target language. On the other hand, some researchers point to some emerging problems with ICT in EFL context which are listed below:

• High expenses,
• Insufficient time allocation,
• Lack of technical support,
• Teachers’ inconfidence in their few skills on the new technologies,
• Parents’ doubts and fears about the using a large amount of ICT.

TESOL Technology Standards Framework (2008) mentions ‘available technologies’ such as:

• High-speed internet access is not available everywhere,
• Not all educational settings are equipped with computer laboratories.

The value of ICT in education could be evaluated based upon some underlying assumptions regarding what constitutes quality and ICT’s ideal place in education. To this end, official policies focused on two contributing factors to the role of ICT in education. First, schools have to be digitalized in order not to fall behind with the rest of the world; second, schools must follow a radical progressive pedagogy in line with the most efficient employment of ICT which in turn promotes learner-centered learning situation through their access to a plethora of sources of information via the technology. It has been noted that the new pedagogical setting is more emphasizing the development of the student’s’21st century skills’ which includes their being able to process information, recognize problems and look for the best strategy to resolve them.

On the other hand, the trends in the literature have turned their attention towards the role of teacher, his beliefs and attitudes regarding the integration of technology in educational settings and pointed out that it is the instructor who plays a dominant role over what actually takes place in the classroom. Besides, there should be a close connection between the pedagogical curriculum and the use of ICT in classroom whereby the instructor’s role is to make a balance between these elements especially in an EFL context. The diagram below illustrates the instructors’ position at the interface between three contextual factors which are mutually influencing each other (Lund, 2004).

Diagram 1: illustration of the position of teacher between three fields

Theoretical background

“(…) the quality of a theory is determined by the state of development of the particular discipline. The early stages of a science must be dominated by empirical work, that is, the accumulation and classification of data. That is why (…) much of educational research is descriptive. Only as a discipline matures can an adequate body of theory be developed” (Cohen & Manion, 1994): 16.

Theoretical basis of the current study deals with the nature of instructor’s activities and practices engaged in pedagogical setting which reflects a pedagogical orientation. Pedagogical traits embedded in EFL teacher’s ICT use could be categorized into three schools of thought including:

• Behaviorism;
• Cognitivism; and
• Constructivism.

Each of these schools of thought is not a single unified theory distinct from each other, but rather they are related by a common set of underlying assumptions. Behaviorist learning theory is concerned with the relationship between stimulus and response and immediate consequences either to reinforce correct behavior or to repress incorrect responses to an educational stimulus. Based on this learning theory, the goal of education is, for students to acquire skills of discrimination (recalling facts), generalization (defining and illustrating concepts), association (applying explanations), and chaining (automatically performing a specified procedure). (…) behavioristic pedagogical technologies focus on factual and recipe-like procedures.

Behavioristic educational ICTs

Regarding educational ICT, behavioristic educational theories are associated with drill-and-practice activities such as web-based or subject specific software which focus out-of-context competencies. Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) which focuses on mastery of skills and content through repetition and reinforcement is also considered as a behavioristic usage of ICT in educational settings. It has been argued that 85% of educational software employed at schools are behavioristic and have harmful effects on learning.

Cognitivist educational ICTs

Cognitivist learning theories deal with mental constructs and building blocks of knowledge based on pre-existing relationships. Successful learning is dependent not only on what the teacher presents, but also on what the student does to process this input, storing and retrieving information organized in memory. Within the field of educational ICT, cognitivist learning theories are mainly associated with applications used to organize, sequence, and structure pupils’ work and that help them assess their own progress. LMS (Learning Management System) and digital portfolios can be said to share properties of a cognitive nature. Colleges and universities use LMSs to deliver online courses or e-learning educational programs. Putting it into a general category, congnitivist ICT deals mainly with assessment and organization.

Constructivist Educational ICTs

The computer is seen in the literature as a cognitive tool that has great potential to support a constructivist form of teaching and learning” (Mueller et al., 2008): 1533. ICTs are basically conductive for constructivist learning activities because of the ease of access to authentic materials and also because it makes feasible the students’ own exploratory uses and engaging in problem-solving activities. The National Research Council of the U.S. defines learner-centered environments as those that “pay careful attention to the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that learners bring with them to the classroom.” The impetus for learner-centered pedagogy derives from constructivism whereby learners ‘construct’ meaning based on prior knowledge and experience (Tinio, 2003). Exploratory uses of the Internet have close links to constructivist theories of learning. Two other prominent ICT activities pertinent to the constructivist learning theory include hypertext and hypermedia. Hypertext refers to links indicated on the computer or website by keywords set in underlined blue type and when highlighted by a pointer device and clicked, takes the reader to the referent; these links are also called hotlinks or hyperlinks.

Bolter (1991) points to the importance of hypertext: ‘electronic text is the first text in which the elements of meaning, of structure, and of visual display are fundamentally unstable’ (p.31). This is considered as one of the merits of hypertext in that the user can rearrange or organize the texts as he wills beyond the traditional linear organization of books. Therefore, learners can sequence their own learning as opposed to the strictly pre-determined sequence of books.

Examples

In the exemplification part of my paper, which is supposed to be the most important part, I have attempted to cite some examples of implementing ICT which are, actually, feasible and practical in an EFL context drawn from personal, first-hand, and practical experience of mine over seven years of teaching English to students pursuing different aims and objectives. It is worth mentioning that suggestions made in the following, works best with small classes of up to ten students who have got some competency in English in order to get the desired results. Classes have to be equipped with wireless connection to the internet and students have to be provided with computers or using their own laptop computers. The goal of instruction is to improve four language skills in line with expanding vocabulary, which serves as a pre-requisite for other skills, with more focus on developing speaking and conversational skills. Catering individual differences and learning styles should be taken into consideration while at the same time challenging the students’ creative thinking with the help of technology.

Hypertext

Students are presented with a topic of approximate interest in each session of the class and the teacher leads them into the discussion by a lot of brainstorming and concept-mapping. Then, they are intrigued to surf the internet and explore the web to find out more about the topic making use of hypertext (exploratory use of the internet); in so doing, they improve their reading skill via the technology after which each student rephrases it to other classmates as a complementary part of the introduced topic to improve their speaking ability. Traditional chalk and talk lessons are taken when appropriate and necessary to clarify some more abstract concepts.

Authentic listening

To my experience, listening is supposed to be the cornerstone of English proficiency among all other skills. To this end, a plethora of listening activities has to be employed in every class session to serve as an authentic source of input based on which other skills would improve at a faster rate. Students are asked to surf the net and download several audio programs one of which is the VOA Special English Reports. This program is a wonderful listening material that offers a wide range of topics pertinent to real life and one of its unprecedented features is that all the topics are informative providing the learners with information in all possible fields of inquiry while raising their cultural awareness. Each session, they are going to listen to the relevant topic of discussion individually using headphones. Individual listening leaves out some of the pitfalls of listening via a tape recorder in that it provides a much better quality, enables them to adjust volume and other sound effects themselves, and it keeps the students more focused throughout the listening time. Consequently, they are going to share with others whichever piece of information they got in a similar way to a jigsaw listening until different parts complement each other.

Telecollaboration

Constructivist educational ICTs stress ‘engaged learning’ or put it another way the rhetoric of engaged learning is constructivist. Constructivist theories shift the teacher-centered pedagogy to a learner-centered one. Engaged learners are collaborative and they are considered as knowledge-building learning communities (Romeo, 2006). ‘Telecollaboration’ is the employment of web-resources and collaboration tools that involves people in different locations. One example of telecollaborative projects is the Voices of Youth developed by UNICEF. This web-project encourages students to share their ideas on some global issues such as human rights, education, child labor, environment, etc., via an electronic discussion forum. Asking the students to engage in such web-projects leads to motivating them more and learning English away from the traditional and somehow the outdated topics in the books. In order to assure they are following this task as a home assignment, they share their views on Voices of Youth in classroom once a week.

Mobile learning

‘Self-access’ or ‘autonomous language learning’ is becoming more prominent day by day and it is evident in mobile technology, namely ‘m-learning’ or mobile learning which is considered as a successful means of ‘anywhere, anytime’ learning (Metcalf II, 2006). M-learning gives opportunities for learning English outside the classroom. A number of studies have focused on the potentiality of mobile phones and text messages for vocabulary learning (Andrews, 2003; Levy & Kennedy, 2005; McNicol, 2005; Norbrook & Scott, 2003; Pincas, 2004; Stockwell, 2007, 2008; Thorton & Houser, 2005). One pedagogical application of text messages that proved really helpful for my M.A. students’ preparation course of Ph.D. examination involved sending 5-7 words each day and asking them to provide the best synonym or definition of the words via the message and subsequently make some sentences and bringing them into the classroom each session. As a matter of fact, it is so difficult for non-English major students to learn and to keep in mind a wide range of vocabulary items and this technique delineated their concern to some extent; meanwhile it elevated their interest and enthusiasm to vocabulary learning.

Email tandem language learning

The last, but not least application of ICT in an EFL context that that is brought forth here embraces ‘Email Tandem Language Learning’. Here, the term tandem is used to refer to “organized language exchanges between two language learners, each of whom wishes to improve his or her proficiency in the other’s native language (L1)” (Appel & Mullen, 2000, p. 291). Email can provide a setting for pre-class activities as a kind of warm-up. Teacher can introduce the topic she is going to cover the following session and students can exchange whatever information or background knowledge they’ve got about the proposed topic via email until the day before the class session. This serves as a lead-in into the activity while at the same time saving the valuable class time. Another interesting pedagogical application of email that comes to my mind at the beginning sessions of training course is to tell the students to present themselves via email to their peers in the classroom. This might include telling a short biography of themselves, their likes and dislikes, abilities, skills, etc. for self-expression and presentation. They can make it more interesting by attaching some of their own photos or pix. It resembles digital portfolios supporting the constructivist application of ICTs. Another application arising out of the previous one is that after students read about their portfolios and figuring about each other’s’ abilities, skills or experiences, then each one of the students can act as an advisor or consultant for other classmates. They can ask questions to get some information about others’ related fields of interests and their peers try to give the best and the most precise and helpful responses. Alongside these processes, there could be an occasional assistance of peers in correcting each other’s linguistic mistakes, suggestions for more appropriate expressions, and helping to comprehend the text.

Conclusions

Attempts to enhance education through ICTs necessitate clearly-defined objectives and guidelines and a thorough commitment of all related sectors from all levels to push the integrated ICT curriculum forward. This educational reform calls for the collaboration of policymakers and planners, educators, education administrators and instructors altogether. Implementing pedagogical ICTs in classroom requires piloting the chosen ICT-based model since different contexts respond differently to the program. At last, the teachers’ beliefs and attitudes towards implementing technology in the classroom plays a crucial role just as Handal (2004) has put it. Henceforth, teacher training and continuous professional development contributes largely to teacher’s internet literacy and competency and consequently to their more willing and efficient use of technology in classroom.

The last word, as teachers and researchers, we shall take into consideration the possibilities of information and computer technology and the ways it may lead to more effective and enjoyable language learning. Reflecting on our best practices and sharing them with others through publication, it is both a noble and satisfying pursuit.

References

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Andrews, R. (2003). Lrn Welsh by txt msg. BBC News World Edition. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/2798701.stm

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