Summary #4

CL596 TESOL Program

Chapter 12: Developing Language-Learning Materials with Technology

By Gary Motteram

Summarized by Mohammed S. Alkhamali

Technology and Language Learning

The author starts the chapter with emphasizing that exams direct the activities in the classroom. This can be seen in neglecting of teaching spoken language though it exists in the textbook. Therefore, the belief of using technology in classroom to supply authentic language is increased.

What are the opportunities presented by new technology?

Interactive websites, web2.0, help many people to be creative as they can design and run websites more easily. That also helps both teachers and learners to create and use variety of language-learning materials. Localizing and mediating such materials became in hands of teachers. In case of schools, where there no internet access, materials on CDs/DVDs or downloaded materials, elsewhere, can be used.

Tasks and exercises

The author uses the distinction between task and exercise, which is made by Ellis in chapter 9, to judge how different technologies are implemented and what roles they take. He discusses the use of Hot Potatoes suite as source of form-focused language use exercises. The mentioned source helps teachers to create exercises to practice unique aspects of grammar and vocabulary development. This enhances teachers' autonomy in dealing with parts of curriculum that need direct intervention. Such types of exercises are usually used in exams. They can also be used, kept, localized and updated. They also provide learners with important digital literacy skills of using new technologies. Creating materials using Hot Potatoes is not easy for average teachers, as it requires using authoring tools. Some of the materials need payment.

Authentic texts

The author gives some example of sites that provide authentic texts such as Wikipedia and Youtube. These texts can be used as the basis of the lessons. Such texts help advance language learners to explore new topics.

Authentic tasks

Softwares, such as blog and skype, help learners in producing and practicing language in different forms. They also help learners to communicate and fulfill their social needs. In terms of cooperative learning, these softwares help in promoting such learning in and out of the classroom.

Spoken English

Learners are encouraged to communicate verbally with their peer all over the world using such technologies. These technologies can be used to develop a resource for language learning and to be used as a basis for language learning at a distance. Recorded materials, podcast for audios and vodcast/vidcast for videos, show a great increase on the web.

How can we design materials using new technology?

Having a framework for any activity helps in saving effort and time. The author suggests using ACTIONS model by Bates (1995) in analyzing whether we should use a particular technology or not.

-         Access: How accessible is a particular technology for learners? How flexible is it for a particular target group?

-         Costs: What is the cost structure? What is the unit cost per learner?

-         Teaching and learning: What kinds of learning are needed? What instructional approaches will best meet these needs? What are the best technologies for supporting this teaching and learning?

-         Interactivity: What kind of interaction does this technology enable? How easy is it to use?

-         Organizational issues: What are the organisational requirements, and the barriers to be removed, before this technology can be used successfully?

-         Novelty: How new is the technology?

-         Speed: How quickly can courses be mounted in this technology? How quickly can materials be changed?

Worked examples: starting with simple materials

Using simple materials ensures that these materials are not expensive, available in place and meet the learner/the teachers educational realities. The author evaluated two examples of using materials one in Hong Kong and the other in Sri Lanka using ACTIONS model.

Places Criteria	Hong Kong	Sri Lanka
Access	Materials needed to be found on the web	The teachers and the learners bring materials they had into the class
Cost	Cost was low since the teachers share computers.	The materials were already there.
Teaching and learning	Active instructional approaches encourage learners to engage in real life tasks.
Interactivity	The technologies are easy to be used and allow considerable interactivity.
Organizational issues	Though computers are not available to every students, using materials still possible either in the teacher's room or at home.
Novelty	The used technologies are not new. They are easily available.
Speed	Developing such materials takes no time. They can be used in different class.

Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs)

the author mentioned some advantages of this technology such as

-         It allows the teachers to manipulate materials directly.

-         It comes with software that allows the teachers to create their own lessons.

-         The teachers can utilizes any piece of software on the attached computer to the IWB.

The criticism of IWB related to its encouragement of teacher-centered teaching. Expensive to be provided into all classes. The teachers need to get training on using them.

Blog VS VLE

Back the ACTIONS model, the author compares between the blog and Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) as following:

Technology Criteria	Blog	VLE
Access	Both allow flexible access and can be used via mobile.
Cost	Not expensive. Using them by the learners require access to multiple computers.
Teaching and learning	Such technologies motivate learners and add to their experiences.
Interactivity	Easy to be used. The degree of interactivity depends on the included tasks.
Organizational issues	Using appropriate tasks can help language teachers in getting to the computer room.
Novelty	Both are not new. Many teachers used them in their classes.
Speed	Materials take a long time to be produced but can be changed and updated very quickly.

Reflection on this chapter

The author provides a good deal of information about developing language-learning materials with technology. The most important thing, in my opinion, was the ACTIONS model as a framework of judging the appropriate of using technology. The chapter could be more effective if the author were considering some aspects as following:

-         Avoid talking about technologies that are expensive, as IWBs, and concentrate on ones that can be provided by the teachers.

-         Give more attention to the use of technologies that motivate cooperative and self learning such as webquest.

-         Show more studies in terms of the literacy of the new technology use in materials development.

-         Use podcast/vidcast via mobile or any applications that could be downloaded on mobile due to the easiness  of using it.