Ho Chi Minh City Open University

Graduate School

97 Vo Van Tan, District 3, HCMC, Vietnam

ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET AND REPORT DIPTESOL

Name of Student: TRNG ANH TUN

Student Number: 1791401110085

Email Address: tuanta.tdip017@ou.edu.vn

Name of Coursework Subject:

Teaching Practice

Title of This Item of Work:

Applying Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

into English Teaching at Luong The Vinh High School.

Name of Lecturer: NGUYN HONG TUN

Due Date: November 18th 2017

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP:

I certify that the above assignment is our original work; it is based on my own
research. All sources used by me have been documented. No other persons work
has been used without due acknowledgement. This piece of work has not
previously been submitted for assessment in this or any other subject or course at
this University or elsewhere.

Date: November 18th 2017 Signature:

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 My Teaching Innovation: Applying Information and Communications Technology

(ICT) into English Teaching at Luong The Vinh High School.

I. Introduction

Gone are the days when students had to bring loads of books and dictionaries to the class. With

the advent of computers and mobile devices as well as the ubiquity of the Internet, the way

students learn has changed. Today, they learn not only from teachers at school or from their

parents and peers: the Internet is a vast sea of knowledge which can be accessed with just a few

clicks. Moreover, the trend of globalization has put greater emphasis on the need for online

communication skills, especially ones that use English (Warschauer, 2000). However, the

current Vietnamese high school English curriculum, which was introduced in 2006, puts little

emphasis on the integration of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) into the

process of teaching and learning. Since the promotion of ICT in schools in 2008, there have

been several problems concerning the use of ICT in teaching English in high schools. This

paper seeks to identify some major hindrances to the use of ICT in the context of Luong The

Vinh High School (LTVHS) in Dong Nai Province and to offer some strategies as well as a

plan to evaluate the effectiveness of those strategies.

II. The implementation of ICT in Vietnamese highschool EFL curriculum

1. Defining ICT

In the field of English language teaching, ICT refers to the use of computer-based devices such

as desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and internet-based services and software including

email, websites, and social networking sites to facilitate the process of teaching and learning

(Davies & Hewer, 2012).

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2. The benefits of ICT on EFL

There has been much research on the benefits of ICT in the EFL classroom. ICT can enhance

learners English language learning by allowing them to access information in multiple forms

via multimedia, visuals, models, and simulations, by providing chances for them to develop

and optimize their language output, by using publishing programs to display their ideas, or by

using web-cams to store their speaking presentations (Marzban, 2011). According to Houcine

(2011), with the help of ICT, teachers can easily adapt the teaching materials according to

circumstances, learners needs and response. Moreover, ICT provides access to authentic

materials on the web, which make the lesson more interesting and enhance students

engagement.

The application of ICT can also foster communication between students and their peers

(Padurean & Margan, 2009; Rozgiene, Medevedeva, & Streakov, 2008). Students can

exchange information in real-time, take part in forum discussions, work in teams on different

projects, exchange blogs and comments, search for information, etc. By using the authentic

material on the web, students will have a greater insight into the culture of the target country

whose language is being studied.

3. ICT in the curriculum

The number of Internet user in Vietnam has risen dramatically, from 200,000 people (0.3% of

the population) in 2000 to more than 49,000,000 people (51.5 % of the population) in 2016

(Internet World Stats, 2017). Having realized the importance of ICT in education, the Ministry

of Education and Training (MOET) issued the directive 55/2008/CT-BGDT for all schools

nationwide to foster the use of ICT in teaching and learning. The school years 2008-2009 were

named The years of ICT (MOET, 2008).

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While the 2006 National Curriculum does not mention the use of ICT in teaching, the 2012

Pilot Curriculum has highlighted the application of ICT in the following ways:

- The use of electronic materials is encouraged wherever possible

- Teachers have to help students on choosing appropriate electronic materials, and

- Teachers have to use appropriate materials available to aid their teaching (MOET, 2012).

Additionally, two Globalization and Localization in Computer-Assisted Language Learning

(GloCALL) conferences were hosted in Vietnam in 2007 and 2013, and an agreement with

Intel on promoting the use of ICT in language teaching was signed in 2012. These are the first

step to set the National Foreign Language Project 2020 in motion. Moreover, workshops and

training classes are regularly held to familiarize teachers with modern ICT software.

4. Factors influencing ICT implementation

Despite the aforementioned benefits, the current use of ICT in Vietnamese high schools in

general, and in LTVHS in particular, is still limited and ineffective due to several reasons.

- Firstly, the cost of computers and other equipment may be too high for some schools,

especially those in rural areas. Moreover, some software such as Windows and Microsoft Word

has to be purchased. In addition, many students in those areas do not have their own computer

to participate in ICT activities when they are at home.

- Secondly, many teachers find it difficult to use advanced CLT tools such as Moodle,

iMindmap, Hot Potatoes, audio editing software, etc. Dang (2012) also found out that most

teachers tend to stick to using PowerPoint to teach the lesson. As a result, the lesson is limited

to one-way content delivery.

- Thirdly, in many schools, teachers have to follow the curriculum set by MOET. The widely-

used 2006 English Curriculum focuses mainly on face-to- face interactions in conventional

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classrooms, and assessment is conducted through paper-and- pencil tests that are vocabulary-

and grammar-based.

- Last but not least, it is believed that ICT increases workloads for teachers. According to Dang

(2012), designing and tailoring contents to suit students needs requires tremendous effort from

the teachers. Moreover, assessing students online interaction is much more difficult and time-

consuming than conventional ways.

4. The context of Luong The Vinh High School (LTVHS)

The IT infrastructure at LTVHS has been upgraded to meet the demands of Information and

ICT application in teaching and learning, and a Moodle-based online learning system has been

set up. Moreover, the class size is limited to approximately 25 students to ensure that each

student can work on their own in the computer lab. As these students live in the city, they tend

to have more access to the Internet, which will facilitate online learning. Teachers are strongly

encouraged to choose and adapt extra online materials for their students. Students are also

required to take part in online activities such as doing extra reading and listening

comprehension, joining discussion forums, and making peer correction. Online learning is a

helpful supplement to the limited classroom time (three 45-minute sessions per week).

III. Some proposed strategies

1. ICT and new skills for teachers

These advances in technology have transformed teachers role of a lecturer into a commentator,

an organizer and enabler (Sinko & Lehtinen, 1999). As a result, they need to be equipped with

adequate ICT skills to apply in their teaching. These skills are represented by Hampel and

Stickler (2005) in Figure 1.

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 Figure 1. ICT skills pyramid for language teachers (Hampel & Stickler, 2005, p. 317)

To get started, I the teacher need to have some basic ICT competence such as knowing how

to use the computer, the Internet and being able to troubleshoot in case of technical problems.

Next, knowing how to use the specific software in my teaching, like adding contents to a

Moodle course or creating a quiz with Hot Potatoes, is necessary. One level up, I have to be

aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the software that I am using, and to find ways to

compensate the weaknesses. Next, I should build and maintain a good rapport with my students,

as well as a good relationship among students. This is the cornerstone of the next level: good

rapport will facilitate and enhance communicative activities and create meaningful interaction

(Canale & Swain, 1980). The next level of skills requires me to pick the appropriate authentic

materials from the Internet and creatively modify them to suit the learners and the learning

context. On the highest level, when I have mastered all the necessary skills, I will develop my

own ICT teaching style from my knowledge and experience. In addition to developing skills, I

will also take part in ICT knowledge-sharing communities such as VietCALL in order to

sharpen my experience, as well as to share the teaching contents among teachers, which can

save a substantial amount of time on designing ICT materials from scratch.

Egbert, Paulus, and Nakamichi (2002) finds that after attending the ICT workshops, teachers

improved their ICT skills, gained confidence with technology, and agreed that teacher

development workshops influenced their attitudes toward technology positively.

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Hu and McGrath (2011) concludes that this evolving use of ICT for EFL puts teachers under

tremendous pressure. They are not only expected to effectively implement ICTs, including

digital devices and mobile technologies, into their teaching within the classroom and

communicate online with students outside of the classroom, but also to radically transform the

way they interact into an entirely student-centered pedagogy that promotes learner autonomy

and creativity.

2. Integrating ICT into teaching at LTVHS

Firstly, in order to minimize the equipment cost, my school will choose second-hand or

refurbished computers, as most ICT software do not require state-of-the-art hardware. Free and

open-source software for language learning is also widely available, including OpenOffice for

creating texts and presentations, Audacity for audio recording and editing, etc.

Another approach, suggested by Sangani (2013) is called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).

In this approach, students are encouraged to bring their own portable computers, tablets or

smartphones to the class to access the lesson, which can ease the strains on school facilities.

However, the lesson contents have to be adaptable, which means that they can be displayed

correctly on different devices. Therefore, the employment of a centralized Learning

Management System (LMS) is a good option. Daniels (2008) and Robertson (2008) notes that

Moodle is a powerful and exible LMS for managing, presenting and distributing learning

contents. The HTML5 programming language used in Moodle ensure its adaptability across

multiple devices. Moreover, since Moodle is an open-source system, teachers can modify and

fine-tune it to suit their situations. Moodle may be used to supplement our high school

textbooks with more activities authentic materials. With Moodle, students can view

PowerPoint presentations and multimedia (audio and video clips) contents, and take quizzes.

Students can also join in discussion forums and write their own blogs on Moodle. Chirimbu

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and Tafazoli (2013) suggests that these two activities provide learners with a healthy

environment to communicate with each other. Additionally, teachers can monitor students

interaction on the system in order to keep track of their progress.

Secondly, teacher training programs as well as ICT training workshops should focus on the

aforementioned ICT skills. In addition, high school curriculum should put more emphasis on

the use of ICT in classrooms. Moreover, there should be a comprehensive guideline on how to

apply ICT into the lesson. Additionally, textbook designers should consider the ubiquity of the

World Wide Web, and complement printed textbooks with a variety of web-based contents,

which may be downloadable or used interactively online. These contents may be used as a

whole class activity or for independent learning (McDonough, Shaw, & Masuhara, 2013). They

will also serve as a role model for teachers who wants to create and adapt ICT materials to aid

their teaching. Furthermore, teaching online communicative skills such as writing blogs and

emails, exchanging information on forum and social network sites, etc. should become an

integral part of the high school English curriculum.

In reality, LTVHS has successfully established a Moodle-based LMS, which facilitates the

process of assigning homework to students and assessing students performance continuously.

The online test and students grades are presented in Figure 2 and Figure 3.

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 Figure 2. The online test

Figure 3. Moodles gradebook

3. Plans to evaluate the proposed strategies

To examine the effectiveness of the strategies mentioned, firstly, students participation and

interaction in the classroom should be recorded and monitored. An LMS such as Moodle can

store students written work, voice recording, what they have discussed in the forum, their

scores in the online quizzes and the mistakes that they make. These data can later be analysed

in order to check the suitability of the materials. Moreover, teachers can collect students

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feedback using the survey module in Moodle or Google Forms, as suggested by Daniels (2008)

and Travis (2010). Secondly, peer observations among teachers can be conducted, and

constructive comments should be given to address any problem arising. Finally, curriculum

designers, policy makers and stakeholders need to establish an ICT forum, where teachers and

express their opinions and share their teaching experience. It is hoped that through this forum,

the use of ICT in English teaching will be fine-tuned to suit the expectations of the society.

IV. Conclusion

In recapitulation, this paper has, to some extent, cast some light on the integration of ICT in to

EFL teaching at LTVHS. Teachers, curriculum designers, policy makers as well as students

need to keep themselves up-to-date with the technologies and their applications in order to

ensure an effective implementation of ICT in teaching and learning English.

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