The peculiarities of multimedia applications in teaching language sam sifl

THE PECULIARITIES OF MULTIMEDIA APPLICATIONS IN TEACHING LANGUAGE

Sam SIFL

Sattorova F.E.
Abstract

The efficiency of teaching and learning can be obtained through multimedia applications which are important to accelerate life-long memorization of chosen material. Using technology helps to create authentic atmosphere to develop learner’s linguistic competence and it alters the role of teacher in the digital classroom. This piece of work displays the significant role of multimedia applications in language pedagogy.

Technological development is advancing at high speed and it acquires instant updating the knowledge of educators. Due to this requirement the teachers have to apply computer technologies in their teaching which are vital to equip language pedagogy with essential tools. Development in multimedia applications demands to implement materials with the help of text, audio, graphic and animation in the digital classrooms to be transferred to learners through electronic or digital manipulated means. In order to satisfy this requirement of language teachers need to be creative and skillful with technology which sometimes involves interaction. The term interaction is a key factor of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) that is firmly grounded negotiation of meaning, task-based learning, project-based learning or collaboration. In other words, collaborative interactions are the vital pedagogical medium in engaging students in learning a target language actively. For this reason experienced classroom teachers look for any opportunities for their students who are in pursuit of second or foreign language competence.

What is language competence?

Language competence contemplates three areas of linguistics which are form, meaning and use. These subsystems are very important to communicate successfully and the teachers’ tasks are to create various contexts for learners to improve their language capability. One mediator of language teachers is multimedia applications that challenge students in acquiring all skills. Besides, there are several merits of multimedia applications for educational purposes:

1. 
   Certain crucial points can be highlighted in the text.
   
2. 
   Videos and other records can be added.
   
3. 
   Visualizations of your topic make your lessons more intriguing.
   
4. 
   Valid and reliable tasks can be designed.
   
5. 
   Guarantee of flexible learning.
   
6. 
   Updating information instantaneously.
   

Although the term of multimedia applications sounds easy, implementing it efficiently can cause some challenges. Realizing these difficulties foreign language teachers should organize every multimedia element purposefully which have all existed before. Through multimedia applications teachers can create different visual aids which are new powerful tools and effective in engaging learners to the given material. It facilitates educational process through supplying teaching with necessary information for further understanding. Multimedia applications for educational purposes comprise six main elements which are texts, images, audio, video, animations and user control.

According to some language teachers Computer mediated communication tools can be divided into two subgroups:

1. 
   First-generation tools which are widely used by Internet users;
   
2. 
   Second-generation tools that can be described with the examples of blogs and wikis.
   

The first generation tools include e-mail, electronic mailing lists, voice boards which are crucial to post text, image or record. The importance of these elements is revealed in the following way:

Language teachers are always in pursuit for more helpful ways to appeal learners’ interest to their lesson and to mount up their results according to their objectives. People can learn easier from words and pictures or images than from words alone. That’s why educational multimedia applications are in great demand to transfer and highlight important points only which is more valuable and students can associate the information with image and it activates heir attention on learning material rather than on printing monotone paper in black letters. Students often break down their focus when they are ordered to understand and remember new information that is far apart. Therefore, when the chosen content is presented with the combination of words and pictures simultaneously, the learning outcome is more effective. It can be justified with the experience of teachers that consider the importance of the usage of multimedia applications and they contemplate it as a guaranteed way to involve students more actively in the classroom. Besides, various photos and pictures are more crucial objects for the visual language learners who can remember something new easily by connecting new notion to the colorful image. Most English teachers design their lesson materials with such vivid pphotographs, artworks and drawings. Thirdly, for auditory learners various records can be utilized to emphasize on certain points and enables teachers to demonstrate a pile of information immediately rather than use black printed learning recourses. Audio allows students to use their imagination without being biased, so it will greatly increase the learning outcome. Fourthly, video can be used to present the information beyond the scope of the ordinary lecture room such as medical operations as authentic or real-life situations tasks (one of the main criteria of CLT). The use of video to deliver information can be very powerful and immediately, it allows teachers or lecturers to highlight certain key points or tell the students what are going to do next and understand the real life situation. Fifthly, animation is used to demonstrate an idea or illustrate a concept; an object that appears blurry in video can be presented clearly in animation because it can view the changes of the object over time. Lastly, user control uses to provide students with the option to skip particular parts of the multimedia application and allow them to navigate other areas of that program. All of the elements are combined to provide a platform for students to maximize the effectiveness of educational purposes.

The second generation tools comprise elements that can be both read or reacted at user’s own pace. They are blogs and wikis and no teacher can refuse their effectiveness to develop learner’s motivation. Blogs does not require any special knowledge and students can design their text, graphic or other multimedia objects how they wish. Wikis are also very important tool but differ from blogs with the feature that involve at least two people. In other words, wikis are group product and any member can modify, add or rearrange multimedia elements which are logged by earlier contributions. It allows users to do collaborative writing or some project works and share them with all members one example of these is Moodle which language learners use to ask questions each other and share new information.

After examining the elements of multimedia the teacher’s and students’ roles must be defined in digital classroom. According to Robert J.Blake teachers are instructors and “Students have ample opportunities to focus their attention on gaps in their inter-language, direct the flow of their own learning on an equal footing with that of the teacher, and carry out intensive practice of these new structures both in writing and in speech with the real expectation of adding them to their growing L2 grammar. At the intermediate and advanced levels, classroom activities can be complemented by collaborations as well” [2;67] .

In teaching foreign languages Uzbekistan teachers are carrying out a lot of changes through applying multimedia applications purposefully and it requires from teachers not only to know a foreign language fluently but to be technological competent to conduct more fruitful lessons. It makes better the results of teaching by transforming new, actual linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences to the learners. In that, multimedia applications are source of visual aids which have a lot of advantages to teach new information or topics. Approaching from perspectives of language teaching principles, these various cutting-age tools can be effective, lively, ever-lasting and intriguing.

REFERENCES

1. 
   Fatimah Puteh & Siti Shuhaida Shukor. (2009). The Integration Of Multimedia Elements In Classroom Teaching Among TESL Teacher-Trainees. 1-6.
   
2. 
   Robert J.Blake. “Brave new digital classroom. Technology and Foreign language learning”. Georgetown University Press. Washington, D.C.189 p.s.
   
3. 
   Stemler, L. K. (1997). Educational Characteristics of Multimedia: A Literature Review. 339-359.
   
4. 
   Vaughan, T. (2010). Multimedia Making It Work, 8^th Edition. McGraw Hill