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11THE USE OF ICT IN THE ENGLISH CLASS Muhtashamova P.Z.
Muhtashamova Parvina Zahitovna - teacher, DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED SCIENCES 2, 2-ENGLISH FACULTY, UZBEKISTAN STATE WORLD LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY, TASHKENT, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: the aim of this paper is to describe an experience using different ICTs in an ESP class and to analyze the advantages and drawbacks of using these tools in this particular context. Keywords: ACT, multimedia, blog, process, technology, integration, graphics.
Introduction
No doubt may be cast on the fact that globalization, together with the development and fast spread of the new information and communication technologies (NICTs) have caused significant social, economic and educational changes all over the world. The impact of the digital wave has influenced a fully integral part of our lives integrating the digital technologies to our routines at high speed. Studying and managing a foreign language in this new context is a way of meeting a need in order to be apt and gain access to education and employment possibilities rather than being just a mere pleasing pastime to cater for leisure time, (Ellis, 2003; Graddol, 2006).
In the field of education, the introduction of the ICTs has brought about a paradigm shift in the teaching-learning process. Nowadays, our students are harnessing the new technologies and thus they learn in a new manner: they create knowledge rather than memorize and repeat content. Within this new digital environment, we, teachers, must provide our students with lessons where the outside world of emerging technologies is bridged to the classroom and act as guides. Learners should feel that they can have an online identity in networking spaces in order to increase opportunities for learning, to foster collaboration, motivation and knowledge-sharing.
The aim of this paper is to describe an experience using different ICTs in an ESP class that paved the way for the creation of an educational blog with a variety of multimedia materials, and to analyse the advantages and drawbacks of using these tools in this particular context.
Background information
The experience was carried out with a small group of adult students (aged 30 to 55) who work as administrative or technical staff at the School of Astronomical and Geophysical Sciences belonging to the National University of La Plata, Argentina. They all shared the same mother tongue (Spanish) and English level (A2). The course lasted four months with two-hour classes being delivered once a week. The material used included a selection of units from New English File Elementary (Oxford) as well as some additional online material.
All students knew how to use the word processor and send emails and some of them were familiar to a little extent with the use of other tools available on the web (blogs, picture or video editors, google docs and social networking sites); however, they were all very enthusiastic about incorporating new ICTs in the classroom, as they had never used these instruments in an educational environment.
As regards evaluation, the course focused on formative assessment, that is, assessment for learning rather than on assessment of learning (tests and examinations) (Black, Harrison, Lee, Bethan & Dylan, 2005). Therefore, at the beginning of the course students were informed that no final exam would be administered. The ongoing assessment would be based on the different tasks learners would have to perform, some of which would incorporate the use of ICTs, and they were also told that, by the end of the course, a blog would be created and they would have to post one of the texts (oral and/or written) they had created dealing with some of the topics covered in the course (personal information, description of places, historical events). Permanent oral and/or written feedback was given to students during the course. This was possible because there were only 10 students.
ICTs used in the English class
As stated, one of the goals set for this course was the creation of an educational blog in which learners could present their works. Therefore, the first step to introduce the new technologies in the classroom was to show students examples of blogs so that they became familiar with their use and characteristics. In this way, the students could see posts similar to the ones they would have to produce, analyse content, form and discuss what themes and topics could be imitated for their own presentations. In this activity, the students were capable to see in advance that when a person posts something, the message gains a highly meaningful communicative effect. Other students respond to the posts and links to other posts may also be created, the so-called threads.
As the course progressed, the students gradually became acquainted with other online resources that they were likely to use to prepare their posts for the blog: googles docs (now called Google Drive), e-portfolio, Glogster, Fodey, Letterpop. All these tools form part of what is now called WEB 3.0 which is the third stage of the web evolution. Its aim is to improve the e-learning experience using new technologies and interfaces. Collaborative learning, more personalized interactivity, more live manipulation of content are favoured within synchronous and asynchronous modes (Lapatas & Stefanidakis, 2010).
We will now provide a brief theoretical background that supports the implementation of these WEB 3.0 tools and describe how we used them in the course.
Google Docs
This service works as a document editor that allows learners to work individually or collaboratively. One of its valuable characteristics is that both the teacher and the students keep track of the changes introduced in a text. (Torres, 2012), a feature that was well in keeping with our interest in assessment for learning. As most of the students in our course already had a gmail account and the editor is quite simple to use, we thought this could be an appropriate instrument to introduce collaborative work.
The learners worked with this tool both individually, sharing the document only with the teacher, and in pairs to write texts containing personal information (introductions, hobbies, the family, job, etc.), letters and short narratives.
We agree on the fact that feedback to the learner is an essential aspect of formative assessment (Black et al. 2005). Therefore, the works written by the students were not marked immediately; instead, mistakes were highlighted and comments were made to help students identify the kind of error; for example, tense, punctuation, verb, etc. If the solution to the mistake made was beyond the proficiency level of the learners, a complete version of how to express the intended idea was provided by the teacher and, if necessary, explained orally in class. Comments also aimed at guiding students on how to improve their weaknesses (for example, 'revise form of simple present') and they also included positive feedback such as 'good organization of ideas' or 'well done, you have correctly identified and solved punctuation mistakes!'. A final mark was awarded only once the written work was passed, which meant that students sometimes had to write two, three or more drafts of the different activities.
E-portfolio
A formative portfolio (Torres, 2012) was used with all the written texts produced by the students, even those that were not going to be included in the blog.
The idea of creating printed-mode portfolios dates back to the mid-1980s especially in areas like art and communication. Then, they gained importance in higher education during the 1990s. It was then when the electronic and digital portfolios appeared. According to Barrett (2001), an electronic portfolio is defined as the compilation of portfolio items stored in electronic formats such as audio-visual, graphical, or text (Barrett, 2001). Pearl and Leon Paulson (1991) created a metaphor for portfolios as a tool to construct meaning and they stated that the portfolio is a laboratory where students can construct meaning from their accumulated experience. They also pointed out that: "A portfolio tells a story. It is the story of knowing. Knowing about things... Knowing oneself... Knowing an audience... Portfolios are students' own stories of what they know, why they believe they know it, and why others should be of the same opinion. A portfolio is opinion backed by fact. Students prove what they know with samples of their work." (Paulson & Paulson, 1991, p.5).
The material comprising the e-portfolios included the texts that the students had been writing in google docs.
Glogster, Fodey, Letterpop
Before the end of the course, the learners were requested to revise their portfolios, select the items they liked best from all the activities that they had uploaded and chose one to post in the blog. In google docs, the students had only used plain text. Hence, in order to make their postings more attractive, the following tools were shown so that they could ornament their texts: Glogster (http://www.glogster.com/), which allows to create posters; Fodey (http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp), which is used to generate newspaper clips; Letterpop (http://letterpop.com/), which provides templates to publish newsletters.
Finally, the students generated a final version of their written texts using these tools and chose a catchy title for their productions. These final pieces of work were not marked, as we were not evaluating how proficient students were in the use of these new instruments: instead, they received feedback through comments made face-to face, which contributed to increase the learners' motivation.
Conclusion
Even though technology in language teaching has been around for centuries (if we consider the blackboard as such, for instance), it is true that the early 1980s signalled a radical change with the introduction of computer-based materials for teaching languages (Dudeney & Hockly, 2008).
The fast increase in the use of ICTs has most evidently had a tremendous impact on the way teaching and learning take place. The implementation of such technologies in and outside the classroom has fostered the
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organization of educational environments where students are encouraged to become not only more independent but also more responsible for their learning processes, thus contributing to learner autonomy, as Benson (2001) points out.
This paper has demonstrated with pedagogical reasons, how new technologies can be integrated into a curriculum to support learning and it has also shown how positively the learners responded to the challenge of incorporating ICTs to encourage autonomy and to improve their grammar, cooperative teaming, interpersonal and digital skills. We, as e-teachers, became active users and confident e-facilitators with high readiness for innovation. Instead of dispensing our knowledge, we set up e-practices, arranged for access to appropriate web resources, and created the scaffolded support that helped students achieve their aim in a more independent way. We constantly mentored our students' performance with a stimulating attitude in order to shield the pressures and stress that were sometimes caused by the manipulation of technology.
References
1. Barrett H.C. (2001). Electronic portfolios. In educational technology and encyclopedia. Retrieved on January 18, 2013 from http://electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/encyclopediaentry.htm/ (date of access: 20/05/2019).
2. Benson P. (2001). Teaching and Researching Autonomy in Language Learning. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
3. Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Bethan, M. & Dylan, W. (2005). Assessment for Learning: Putting It into Practice. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
4. Blogs in Education. Retrieved on January 11, 2013 from http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/ (date of access: 20.05.2019).
