Specialization Course

Lic. Martín Ulises Aparicio

November 2009

Use of Technology in the ESL/EFL Classroom

What is Technology?
 What is ICT?
 Information and communication
technologies (ICT) is an umbrella term that
covers all technical means for processing
and communicating information.
 While this technically encompasses pre-digital
technologies, including paper-based writing, it is
most often used to describe digital
technologies including methods for
communication (communication protocols,
transmission techniques, communications
equipment, media,) as well as techniques for
storing and processing information
(computing, data storage, etc.)
http://lakegeneva.middle.groupfusion.net/modules/cms/
pages.phtml?pageid=11745
Web Resources:
- WebQuest-ThinkQuest
- Podcast: Odeo, GoEar,
Podsonoro, lastFM.
- Colective Blogs
- e-portafolios
- Rubrics
- Chat
- Forums
- Virtual classroom: Ninehub - Xelearning, Oogie
site
- Specialized Sites: yapper,
esl_lab,
- Flicker, Stockphoto (photos) - Picture editor on line:
- Youtube: BlipTV, Vimeo,
Mediva
- EduGoogle, Gmap,
Googlesites,
- Slidecasts: Slideshare.net, - Webdesign: Sequitar,
Scribd.com,
- Time line: Dipity.com,
- Storage: dropbox
- Videoconference: Webex,
- Survey: encuestafacil.com
- Brainstorming: Bubble.com
- Create video from pictures:
Animoto
Software: Theory:
- Cmaptools, - Parallel Text and
Mind_Manager Critical Thinking
- Gimp - Reflective Journal and
- Audicity - Metacognition
- Skype - TIC teaching for
(videoconference) English
- Hotpotato, LIM - Informational Society
- Blended Learning
- Comic stripgenerator - Technological
- Goanimate standards for
- Snag-it, XnView 1.96.5 teacher, students,
administrators
pixer, Viary, - Web 2.0 Resources
Pixenate. - CALL
- Tutorials: Winkz - Content-Based
Instruction
Komposer, Rhubar. - Inquiry Methods
- Video Editor: Kino, - ESL/EFL Methodology
eXe,
- Reproductor: VLC,
- Create videos: Monkey
Jam
Teachers’ Roles and ICT
 The digital age challenges teachers to
use technology in ways that facilitate
language learning.  ESL/EFL teachers
must decide how—and how not—to use
technology in the classroom.
Purpose of Technology
 It is becoming easier to equip students with
technology. Bits (binary digits) can be used
productively or unproductively in the ESL/EFL
classroom. 
 ESL/EFL teachers should achieve “bit literacy”
(Hurst, 2007) because it would allow them to reclaim
their classroom from any technology that interferes
with English Language Teaching. 
 Technical skills are no substitute for language skills.
ESL/EFL students are empowered when teachers
harness new technology in ways that promote
language learning.
Warning about technology
 There are no tech-miracles waiting for
teachers when they go shopping for an
ESL/EFL class. 
 New technology can turn out to be a
valuable resource or a disappointing failure. 
 Teachers should not let the novelty of
technology replace its real purpose in the
ESL/EFL classroom.  That purpose should be
decided by ESL/EFL teachers, not by
manufacturers of technology or publishers of
software.
Productive Use of Technology
 There are three strategies ESL/EFL
teachers can follow to ensure that
technology fits their needs.  
 First, investigate new media to see if it
is suitable for classroom use.  
 Then identify how new media changes
TESOL. 
 Finally, set English Language
Teaching objectives before selecting
any tools of technology.
Investigate New Media
 Colaric and Jonassen list three faulty
assumptions that can entangle instruction in the
Web:

 That the World Wide Web is a vast library that

can be used to convey knowledge.  
 That searching and finding information on the
Web equals learning.
 That hyperlinking is good instruction. (Bates,
2003, p. 198)
 Too much focus on the Web obscures the
deeper processes of learning ESL/EFL. 
Sometimes teachers should “let the bits go”
(Hurst, 2007, p. 167).
Identify How New Media Changes TESOL
Scale, Pace and Pattern
 Once ESL/EFL teachers identify the predecessor
media within a new medium, they have a better
grasp of how to implement the new medium, or if it
should be implemented at all.
 PowerPoint did not pioneer the display of large print
on a screen, but its bullet-point lists changed the
pattern of print used on overhead projectors (OHP)
from complete sentences into chunks that are
formatted to appear and disappear quickly. 
 E-mail introduced a rapid pace of message delivery,
and E-mail’s scale has changed the delivery by
allowing students and teachers to send to many
contacts at once. The pace of text-messaging is
speedier than e-mail, but the pattern of text-
messaging shorthand hardly resembles English.
Set the Objectives before Selecting the Technology.
Technology Contributes to Specific English Language
Teaching Objectives  
 Setting English Language Teaching objectives before
selecting the technology safeguards the objectives.  
 For instance, identifying main ideas, listening for
details, or giving opinions are three objectives that
might work with a podcast, but English Language
Teaching objectives should not be compromised to fit
technology. 
 Making students listen to a podcast just because it is
a new medium diminishes any English Language
Teaching objective added as an afterthought. 
 Podcasts can allow students to share their opinions to
a large audience using web based applications.
The Objective:
English Language
Teaching or
Technology?
 Effort, time and money can be invested or
wasted in technology. 
 Some ESL\EFL text books are sold to instructors
with advertisements that promote gratuitous
assistance, such as online programs, student
websites, and online handbooks.
 Does all this technological assistance accomplish
the teacher’s objective or has technological
assistance become the objective?  
 References
 The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XIV, No. 7, July 2008
http://iteslj.org/ http://iteslj.org/Articles/Morgan-Technology.html

 Ellis, R. and Basturkmen, H. and Loewen, S.   (2001).  Preemptive

Focus on Form in the ESL Classroom.   TESOL Quarterly.  35 (3),
407-432. Retrieved May 2,  2008 from
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tesol/tq/2001/00000035/0000

 Hurst, M.  (2007).  Bit Literacy.  New York: Good Experience, Inc. 
      
 Levinson, P.  (1999).  digital McLuhan.  London:  Routledge. 

 McLuhan, E and Zingrone, F.  (1995).  Essential McLuhan.  New

York: BasicBooks.

 Morgan, M.  (2008).  ESL Students See the Point of PowerPoint. 

Essential Teacher: Compleat Links. 5 (1).  Retrieved June 30,  2008
from http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID
=319&DID=10652
Vocabulary
 en⋅com⋅pass –verb (used with object), to form a circle
about; encircle; surround, to enclose; envelop, to
include comprehensively.
 Harness: to bring under conditions for effective use;
gain control over for a particular end: to harness water
power; to harness the energy of the sun.
 Hyperlink: hy⋅per⋅link /haɪ pərlɪŋk/ to create
hyperlinks in or to: an extensively hyperlinked
document.
 Predecessor: (prɛd əsɛs ər)
