Reasons for usage of Modern Technologies

There are two kinds of reasons for using computer technology in English. First there are the benefits to teachers and students from including computer technology in any learning area. Research and practice suggest that, appropriately implemented, network-based technology can contribute significantly to:

Experiential Learning

The World Wide Web makes it possible for students to tackle a huge amount of human experience. In such a way, they can learn by doing things themselves. They become the creators not just the receivers of knowledge. As the way information is presented is not linear, users develop thinking skills and choose what to explore.

Motivation

Computers are most popular among students either because they are associated with fun and games or because they are considered to be fashionable. Student motivation is therefore increased, especially whenever a variety of activities are offered, which make them feel more independent.

Enhanced Student Achievement

Network-based instruction can help pupils strengthen their linguistic skills by positively affecting their learning attitude and by helping them build self-instruction strategies and promote their self-confidence.

Authentic Materials for Study

All students can use various resources of authentic reading materials either at school or from their home. Those materials can be accessed 24 hours a day at a relatively low cost.

Greater Interaction

Random access to Web pages breaks the linear flow of instruction. By sending E-mail and joining newsgroups, EFL students can communicate with people they have never met. They can also interact with their own classmates. Furthermore, some Internet activities give students positive and negative feedback by automatically correcting their on-line exercises.

Individualization

Shy or inhibited students can be greatly benefited by individualized, student-centered collaborative learning. High fliers can also realize their full potential without preventing their peers from working at their own pace.

Independence from a Single Source of Information

Although students can still use their books, they are given the chance to escape from canned knowledge and discover thousands of information sources. As a result, their education fulfils the need for interdisciplinary learning in a multicultural world.

Global Understanding

A foreign language is studied in a cultural context. In a world where the use of the Internet becomes more and more widespread, an English Language teacher's duty is to facilitate student's access to the web and make them feel citizens of a global classroom, practicing communication on a global level.

For students technology can:

• be very motivational
• be the source of a significant amount of reading material
• be fun - and when it's fun you learn!
• help students to produce excellent published work

For teachers technology can:

Firstly, allow easy production, storage and retrieval of prepared materials such as certificates and work required sheets; contribute to communication with other teachers help teachers to find information; easily assist good teaching but not replace it! Secondly, there are the challenges and opportunities presented by computer technology that make it an increasingly important part of English in particular. These include:

• the emergence of new kinds of texts and the consequent need to teach students to create and use these texts effectively;
• changing social practices associated with communicating via computers and the consequent need to teach students how to make judgments about appropriate use of different avenues of communication;
• the pervasiveness and power of texts created through computer technology and the consequent need to teach students to be critical readers and viewers of such texts.