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The Role of ICT in EFL Teaching

An action research project with young learners in theCzech Republic

Neil Kisby

fut04ure07stars@yahoo.com

www.geocities.com/fut04ure07stars

INTRODUCTION

A common problem for EFL teachers is whether to take the trouble toincorporate ICT into their teaching. Many teachers are afraid of failure forarious reasons. !ill the class be "noisy#$ !ill they stay on task or take

eery opportunity to go o% sur&ng the Internet$ !ill they en'oy the tasksyou set$ !ill the hardware facilities operate as they should$ !hat willhappen if the Internet crashes$ Can I manage without the IT teacher beingaround$ !ill my students really bene&t from the use of ICT in the longterm or is it 'ust playing around( wasting time$ Can I assess what mystudents do and how$ This action research attempts to answer some ofthese )uestions and to e*plore the problem of introducing ICT into EFLlessons. It particularly seeks to determine the role of ICT in creating amore motiating enironment for young EFL learners. +ery impressie listof )uestions , are you thinking of doing a doctorate in this &eld$

1. AI!

To analyse and e*amine the e%ect of using CALL materials which Ihae created.

To discoer whether the use of my CALL materials enhances pupils-motiation.

To e*amine how E/ pupils react to the regular use of ICT in EFLlessons.

To inestigate how to further deelop these CALL materials optimally.

To e*amine whether the use of the materials leads to real language

improement. If so( what skills are improed and to what e*tent isthe language learning process restricted$

To proe that an e*tra lesson of EFL per week should be deoted tothe use of ICT.0/12 in academic language( we don-t "proe#anything any more , we 'ust show, demonstrate, indicate, suggest(etc. 3olitical correctness( I guess. Click here and type "proe# intolemma and see how it is used. Line 44456 is instructie78

". #AC$%R&'() REA)I(%

9esearch by Ames 0:66;8 has shown that one type of motiation goalreached by using ICT is the performance goal( which is directed towards

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achieing success in relation to the achieements of one- s colleagues.Ames has also shown that "tasks that inole ariety and diersity aremore likely to facilitate an interest in learning.#Motiation theories hae also recognised the e%ects of the locus of controlof the learner. The e*tent to which learners see eents as being under

their personal control 01lumenfeld :66;8 will also a%ect their attitudetowards ICT.

?reater self@esteem>

pending more time on the learning task>

Trying to do better than one-s peers> and

Achieing more control oer one-s own learning.

9esearch by tory and ullian 0:6=8 supports the idea that pupils usingICT which is structured to proide progressie achieement in sub@tasksare more likely to be motiated to continue their work than when the tasksthemseles are too diBcult. This should be taken into consideration inmaterial design. Materials should enable pupils to achiee progression intheir learning and thereby be continually motiated.According to a study by ?ardner(

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the motiational aspects of using ICT will be e%ectie only withappropriate planning and guidance from the teacher.

*. CLA!!R&& C&(TE+T

*.1 !chool facilitiesThe school is a small state primary@middle school with appro*imately 44pupils aged si* to &fteen. It is located in a small town in outh 1ohemia.

The main foreign language taught is English. ?erman is taught only in Gear6 and as an optional sub'ect( although ?erman as a second foreignlanguage will be introduced into mainstream teaching ne*t year. Mostclasses are not split for language instruction and typical class sies areeighteen to twenty students0that is not too many( is it$8. The school ise)uipped with two computer rooms , one for using local internal programsand the other with computers connected to the Internet. There are twentycomputers in the latter( all e)uipped with headphones.

The school is planning to increase the number of English lessons per weekin Gear een from three to four. hall this e*tra lesson be deoted to ICTfor ELT$

*." etho,ologyHp to now( the use of ICT in ELT has been rather limited. ome teachershae used the Terrasoft ELT software that the school possesses( perhapseen oerused with ery little planning and ery little e%ect on pupils-oerall knowledge0an impressionopinion( surely8. I trust it was a way todo something "for a change# and a time when both pupils and the teacher

could hae a rest from the eeryday classroom enironment. The schoolalso possesses some interactie software packages for younger learners06@::8( which are used occasionally. n the whole( ELT is mostly taughtusing traditional classroom methods. Hp to now( no materials hae beenproduced to accompany te*tbooks or topics used in the ELT curriculum inthe school.

*.* !tu,entsAge::; 0Gear i*8Culture and Language:All students share the same culture and L:.Level:The students are in their third year of ELT study. They hae three

lessons of English a week. They use pen

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-. TE /RE0TE!T

-.1 The Actiitytudents are introduced to the CALL material which I hae created , a

suite of Dot 3otatoes e*ercises to reise and refresh the grammarstructures( ocabulary and topics of Hnits ne to i* of pen

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at answers by themseles. That was true for two out of three of the E/pupils and two other pupils0not many (then8. Many of the studentscommented that the English instructions were not really clear for themand they had to guess what to do or ask if I had not instructed them. Mostof them found Kaws in the cloe e*ercises as it was not clear to them

e*actly what they should &ll in.

4. TE )E!I%(

4.1 &bjectiesThe focus of the lessons was on improing motiation through ICT. 3upilsare gien the chance to work at their own pace and to do tasks that &ttheir own abilities. 3upils should hae eents under their personal controland are gien the opportunity to do tasks that inole ariety anddiersity. 3upils can compare their achieements with those of their peers.Clear goals are proided and students perceie a meaningful reason forengaging in the actiity. The materials are releant to what they haealready learned. ome of the materials proide an up@to@date cross@curricular approach with releance to the real world the pupils lie in. Thereision aspect should iron out di%erences between pupils which haeoccurred during the &rst si* lessons of the te*tbook( gradually bringingthem to a similar leel. Talented pupils are proided with a newenironment that challenges their knowledge and less talented ones aregien the chance to "catch up# by repeating e*ercises which they did notmanage on their &rst attempt( perhaps at home.Ges( this is one of thema'or plusses.

4." Lesson For2at3upils went through the suite of e*ercises according to their own needs abilities( repeating or skipping e*ercises as they re)uired. The teacherproided guidance and instruction where necessary.

4.* aterialsThe materials consisted of a suite of Dot 3otatoes e*ercises to reisegrammar( ocabulary and topics from Hnits ne to i* of pen

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These practised ocabulary with Kashcards( drag and drop actiities or&nding the right e)uialent. Most were based on English@Cech translation.

CrosswordsThese again proided ocabulary and spelling practice on arious topics.

ui actiities

These proided a wider conte*t but also mostly inoled the correct use ofocabulary.

4.4 %roupingsThe actiities were carried out with pupils working indiidually , one pupilper computer.

5. TE /&!T0TE!T

5.1 &bserations

This followed the same procedure as the pre@test but I had only &e pupilsworking on the website at one time so that there was no risk of thegeocities site crashing again. The pupils spent the whole forty@&e minutesession working hard to complete the e*ercises which they had notmanaged preiously. 3upils were concentrated and on@task for the wholetime. I asked them not to guess answers and not to use the how Answersbutton until they had tried their best using the Dint button. bserationsshow that they respected this. As the pupils now knew what was e*pectedin each of the e*ercises( there was no confusion as to what they weresupposed to do.I then e*perimented further by doing the e*ercises in a whole@group

enironment using a beamer. I noticed a signi&cant di%erence in pupilcommitment here. ?ood procedure and obseration. Many pupils simplyswitched o% and let the others do the work( as is all too often the case inthe ordinary ELT classroom situation. This proes that the ICT enironment(where each pupil is in control of what he does( proides much greaterpupil motiation.

5." )rawbac3sThe only drawback is that the geocities site is only able to cope with &eusers at a time for a longer period. This complicated the action researchprocedure.Ges( I can see that. If your lab isn-t networked( it doesn-t takeery long to copy a folder of D3 actiities on to each computer shortlybefore the lesson.

6. )I!C'!!I&( 7 E8AL'ATI&(

The main aim of the pro'ect was to discoer whether the use of the CALLmaterial enhances pupilsN motiation. In my opinion(: the result is thatstudents are positiely motiated by this kind of actiity. 3upils werecommitted and the amount of time spent on@task in the lesson was muchhigher than in the ordinary classroom enironment. After a little e*tra

guidance( E/ pupils found the e*ercises stimulating and rewarding. All1My observations lead me to believe

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pupils seemed to take pride in their achieements. It was ery pleasing tosee pupils hard at work een in the knowledge that they wouldnNt begetting a mark for it. I am coninced that an e*tra lesson of EFL per weekshould be deoted to the use of ICT.My main reserations are2

It is time@consuming to produce such materials and keep them up todate so that the pupils hae new challenges and can progress intoe*ercises constantly o%ering reision of new ocabulary( grammarand other topics.

The language learning process is restricted and much of the materialis the drill and practice type. I am not coninced that such e*erciseslead to real actie L; improement and they do not inolecommunication skills at all. The real long@term e%ect of this kind ofpractice will hae to be further inestigated.

It is also clear that the e*ercises hae to be further deeloped with

an emphasis on )uality and releance rather than )uantity.

9. C&(CL'!I&(!

Although the Dot 3otatoes actiities proed to be a great success( it isclear that some basic principles hae to be respected if students are toremain motiated2

Check beforehand that the network and software are working>

Always consider pupilsN preious ICT e*perience>

Always introduce the purpose and ob'ecties of the lesson>

Match the task to their abilities( ensuring that it is ade)uatelychallenging but not too diBcult>

Monitor their work to ensure that they remain on task>

Allow enough time at the end to reiew the pupilsN progress.

The action research on the use of Dot 3otatoes in ELT is of a ery short@term nature. !ill pupils remain motiated if they are fed Dot 3otatoeseery single week of the school year$ !ill they not become tired andfrustrated of the monotonous character of the e*ercises$ Furthermore( Dot3otatoes proide little opportunity for pupils to compare their knowledgewith the real world and to identify a releance and importance to their

school work.ne of the ma'or motiation factors was comparison of results with peers.In the future( it may be necessary to gie marks for pupilsN work or at leastpublish a kind of league table with their results. This may help to keep upthis kind of motiation as pupils need to see that their e%orts are not goingunnoticed.It is clear that if the e*tra lesson of English in Gear een is to bededicated to ICT for ELT( the course cannot merely consist of Dot 3otatoese*ercises but must also include other types of ICT actiities. !eb)uests orOeebooks will bring a more cross@curricular( up@to@date real@world element

into the lessons. !ord processing actiities will promote actiecommunication skills. Multimedia packages will initiate essential listening

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