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Intrinsic motivation: As students become engaged with each other in speech acts of fulfillment and self-actualization, their deepest drivers are satisfied. And as they more fully appreciate their own competence to use language, they can develop a system of self-reward.
Strategic investment: Interaction requires the use of strategic language competence both to make certain decisions on how to say or write or interpret language, and to make repairs when communication pathways are blocked. The spontaneity of interactive discourse requires judicious use of numerous strategies for production and comprehension.
Willingness to communicate: Interaction requires an attitude on the part of the learner that says, “I want to reach out to others and communicate”. This willingness to communicate further implies the risk of failing to produce intended meaning, of failing to interpret intended meaning (on the part of someone else), of being laughed at, of being shunned or rejected. The rewards, of course, are great and worth the risks.
LECTURE 16: Using Information Technologies in teaching foreign languages (4 hours)
Plan:
The use of films in foreign language teaching
The use of computers in foreign language teaching
Internet and digital technologies and their effect in teaching
General recommendations for DT use in teaching
Nobody would deny that it would be more effective to use the Information Technologies during the teaching process. We can get access to remote lands and far-away people on our TV or computer screen. Giving visual messages a place in the foreign language curriculum is an interesting and entertaining way to enhance the learner's command of the target language; and the messages available through film offer a refreshing change of routine in the classroom.
Until recently, the use of films in foreign language teaching has been down-played because teachers felt they were time-consuming and too difficult to tackle. Yet, with the spread of video equipment and audiovisual resources into educational institutions, the use of films is becoming more common. Teachers used audiovisual resources including video and audio tape recorders. Good films can serve as a valuable pedagogical aid, both for classroom use and self-study. The ultimate goal is to arouse sensitivity in the learner and to provide a stimulus to stretch his/her imagination and creativity.
The power of films as a medium is acknowledged by all. It can be exploited in a number of ways. One possible use of film in the language program is to promote new ideas and expand the learner's horizons. In a content-based syllabus, for instance, a particular film can be used to vividly illustrate situations which are unfamiliar or inaccessible and provide the learner with a stimulus which serves as a springboard for further discussion of an issue. Besides, film is an excellent medium for the explicit teaching of syntactic, morphological, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of the foreign language. This goes hand in hand with motivational purposes, since learning objectives are achieved through the performance of different tasks. Another advantage is that language structures and lexical items are used in communicative situations, and propositional messages are fleshed out with quasi-authentic realism. There is also a wealth of non-linguistic and cultural information that can be exploited and focused on with appropriate assignments. Also films can lead into a discussion of psychological and social questions.
When choosing a film, decisions on subject matter should be based on well-thought-out criteria since it may go beyond the learner's linguistic and conceptual competence and may not be in keeping with his/her needs and interests. It can be based on thematic content to reinforce and consolidate topics treated within the language syllabus, such as discrimination, moral issues, mass media, ecology, education, and work, or to illustrate language functions and grammatical patterns in real use. Selection should be very careful especially with respect to accent since some problems may arise. The students' age and psychological maturity must be taken into consideration when making a choice, and care should be taken so as not to offend the learner's sensitivity. If these factors are overlooked, we may run the risk of having the learner get only a superficial interpretation, missing the underlying message. The duration of the film is another aspect to be kept in mind.
As in all aspects of learning, it is essential for the learner to integrate past knowledge with new information, extrapolating from what he has gained from viewing the film. The learner can be asked to write summaries to reconstruct the macro structure of the story and see it as a whole. Learners can also write movie reviews giving their opinions about the film. One interesting task is to rate several films using objective criteria identified by the students themselves.
Dramatization of a scene from a film can be quite motivating, especially for those learners with histrionic talents and an adventurous spirit. While doing research about the director or leading characters of a film (and writing a biography) can be implemented with low-level learners, research on big issues can be encouraged with more advanced groups.
Until very recently, using computers in teaching English was not part of the core curriculum at most teacher training institutions, so it is safe to say that the vast majority of teachers active today received no formal training in this field. But technology has become a part of our everyday life to such an extent that there is no excuse for not including it in our teaching, especially if it makes teaching and learning more convenient and effective. It is also true that some teachers do not use technology in their lessons because they do not feel comfortable in this field. They are afraid that if they make mistakes, their students will respect them less as the traditional teacher role does not allow the teacher to show any weaknesses or inexperience.
At the same time, the overwhelming majority of teachers accepts that computers do have a place in teaching, but still only a very small percentage of them actually use computers in their lessons. Their reason for this is that they have no experience in this field and would require training to get started. While working with language learners teachers have to solve this problem and provide all the assistance needed, they must realize that they are also responsible for their own professional development. The Internet offers so much material that the sheer volume of resources can in itself become a problem. But you only have to start - you can deal with the problem of selection later when you see what is available.
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