English through ICT: Chances and Challenges

English through ICT: Chances and Challenges
by Rohana R. Wasala

Information technology (IT) refers to the theory and practice relating to the use of computers to store and analyse information. IT asserts its powerful and vital presence in all the significant spheres of human activity today. Since communication has become an essential part of this technology it is now usually called information and communication technology (ICT). Its advent in the field of education is not unique because it is hard to imagine any field of action that doesn’t use the computer in one way or another. ICT as applied to education may be informally defined as the body of assumptions or theories, and practical principles about using the computer to store, and analyse data for the purpose of teaching/learning; or more simply, it can be taken to mean the ways in which teachers and learners utilize the computer programmes (software) already available in their teaching and learning activities.

ICT education is advancing apace in Sri Lanka with the government making a concerted effort in this connection. President Mahinda Rajapakse launched the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) programme of the Ministry of Education on December 10th at Temple Trees by giving out laptop computers to over 400 primary school children selected from all provinces of the country. This programme is partly funded by the World Bank. ICT has already been introduced as a technical subject for the GCE O/L. It has been estimated that computer literacy in the country is growing at a rate of 15% annually at present.

For the majority of the world’s nations English is the lingua franca of ICT, and it is especially so for us Sri Lankans. ICT comes to us packaged in English. On account of this we see a strong correlation between ICT and English language teaching and learning. This has been recognized by the government, which declared this year (2009) as the Year of English and IT last February. A knowledge of English is a boon to students of ICT. In this respect, we are in most propitious circumstances. For one thing, our two hundred year association with English, in the past as the language of colonial administration, but now mainly as a utilitarian tool, has left a pervasive legacy of persistent English influence in the vital sectors of national life such as education, business, administration, the judiciary, etc.. Then there is the re-emerging popular awareness of its enhanced role in the country’s overall development. These are among the main factors that provide a stimulating environment for learning English. Just as a knowledge of English will facilitate the acquisition of ICT skills a knowledge of ICT can prove an invaluable source of help to students of English, because ICT can be easily applied to the teaching and learning of the language.

ICT and English are kindred subjects in another sense: English is as much a technology of communication as ICT. A technology represents a set of skills. While ICT has its unique manoeuvres and mechanisms, English as a language has its skills and subskills. This similarity between the two subjects would imply a similar approach to their learning: to learn these subjects, one must practice using them, rather than learn about them, for the simple reason that you master skills only by practising them, not by merely reading or speaking about them.

Many teachers view the prospect of using ICT in their teaching with some trepidation. Such fear is understandable in view of a number of factors. Unlike young children adults are anxious about running the risk of looking foolish; and again unlike the former they are usually slow on the uptake when it comes to learning how to handle new concepts and technologies such as computer. Then, some teachers may feel hampered by a lack of English. Without English free access to ICT would not be as easy as it naturally is to someone who knows the language. At the same time, the idea of ICT may leave some teachers cold because they just don’t feel inspired enough to change accustomed ways of doing things. It may even be that some teachers tell themselves: "Why bother to force on these rural kids something that is too sophisticated, and too modern for them! Doesn’t the country need farmers and soldiers as well as doctors and engineers?" (But the truth is that, in the increasingly knowledge-based society of today, to succeed in their jobs farmers and soldiers need ICT as much as doctors and engineers do.)

I need not dwell on this theme too long, because the harmfulness of such negative attitudes both for the individual and the society should be clear to anyone who’s interested in education. Various regimes after Independence brought about epochal changes in the national interest, some of these in the field of education. Yet, the country as a whole has never enjoyed the full benefits of such changes because their authors’ genuine attempts somehow failed to inspire the those at the grassroots level to fulfil their part in earnest. Plans which are formulated at the top may be perfect, but their efficacy depends on how well they are implemented in the field.

ICT use in teaching, after all, is not such a forbidding proposition, and its introduction into the mainstream of instruction in an institution is not too impractical an innovation either. This is because, for one thing, today’s computers are so fine-tuned as to be extremely efficient and user-friendly; for another, at the initial stages of any programme of incorporating ICT into the school curriculum only some limited use of the new technology will be necessary; and it will not incur much expenditure in terms of resources to retrofit a section of any school for this purpose. Further, given the fact that already over 80% of the country’s households have electricity, English teaching and other educational programmes via TV and Internet can be utilized even by students of those remote rural districts, who have up until now received perfunctory attention from the authorities. Equality of opportunity should not be a mere slogan any longer.

Experienced teachers know that the most effective way to learn a language is for the learners to secure the three contributory conditions of massive exposure to that language, extensive participation in communicating through it in meaningful contexts, and development of language awareness. (Language awareness means the ability to think rationally and analytically about the particular language as it is used by those competent in it, and to discover independently facts about how it works. Teachers can set exercises to enable students to enhance their language awareness.)

The incorporation of ICT into English teaching is a good way to provide for these three crucial factors. Numerous activities such as browsing through the Internet, online chatting, playing games, corresponding via email, word processing, creating own web sites, etc. will open up opportunities for active participation in interactive communication as well as exposure, plus a stimulus for sorting things out through unaided exploration. The application of technology will also promote language skill integration (i.e. combining the four basic language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing when teaching a language to reflect the way it is actually used in the world outside the classroom).

ICT use will be a motivation and morale booster among the students, giving them a sense of belonging with the rest of the outside society where the computer is an indispensable tool, and information technology a common medium like telephony. Young people embrace new trends with enthusiasm. What a boon it should be for them if learning came in the form of indulging in fun and fashion!

Learning with ICT is essentially learner-centred. It also encourages collaboration and cooperation among students. They can enjoy a chance to communicate and interact not only with their immediate colleagues, but also with their counterparts in other regions of the country, and even in other countries of the world. Further, students can research topics of their choice consulting the best authorities on the relevant subjects. This will be an opportunity for students to integrate English learning with the study of other subjects, a process which will be doubly beneficial for them. As Professor Peter D. John (Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol) (2004) says, ICT supports four key components of learning, viz., active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback, and connection to real-world experts.

Peter D. John further points out that the use of computers enhances knowledge building and thinking skills, as well as collaboration and communication levels, and that by using technology well in the classroom teachers can help their students to become more effective citizens. He also refers to Gregoire et al (1996) who provide the following theoretical perspectives apropos the use of technologies in teaching:

1. New technologies can stimulate the development of intellectual skills,

2. New technologies contribute to the ways of gaining knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and

3. New technologies spur spontaneous interest more than traditional approaches.

4. Students using new technologies concentrate more than students in traditional settings.

(Ref. Professor P.D. John: www.interactiveeducation.ac.uk)

Teachers also derive important benefits from ICT use. One of these is that ICT enables them to produce and store for later easy retrieval such routinely required sheets and templates as mark-sheets, progress assessments, forms for certificates, and so on. In Sri Lanka many schools, especially those in urban areas, have large numbers of students in each class, and naturally impose a heavy demand on the teachers’ time when handling the ‘paper work’ involving filling in numerous forms, totalizing marks, calculating averages, percentages, standard deviations, and other statistical data, writing comments, certifying, signing, and attending to endless administrative routines. So the use of technology can save much of the English teachers’ time, and proportionately increase the time available for interaction with their pupils, and with other teachers. ICT helps them to easily update and enhance their knowledge. The need to keep abreast of new developments in order to avoid being found wanting in the classroom if challenged by pupils who enjoy access to the same sources of information is a fine stimulant for teachers.

English language teaching with ICT has these advantages and more. Apart from the need to save young children from falling prey to cyberspace crime such as pornography in different forms, opportunities to cheat offered at a price as a service, various forms of misinformation, subversive literature, and the rest, it confronts us with as many challenges as opportunities. These relate to, among other things, ICT’s implications for cultural norms of our society governing the relationship between teachers and pupils, for the survival of traditional pedagogical assumptions and attitudes, for social conventions associated with computer communication, and the resulting need to instruct the students on how to use relevant avenues of communication.

With the birth of computer communication the concept of literacy has begun to mean something significantly more complex than what its traditional definition as the ability to encode and decode meaning using graphic symbols (i.e., writing and reading respectively) would imply. Today literacy includes not only the ability to read and write multimodal texts, but also the ability to understand the technical aspect of the operation, reception, and production of such texts.

At the beginning we may expect ICT to play a limited role in the English language teaching system, but this should appropriately expand in time. Some snags are inevitable, though. Changes in education, like those in any other sphere, will naturally come up against some resistance from established institutional structures, rigid bureaucratic requirements , and entrenched attitudes, predispositions, and preoccupations on the part of the professional hierarchy, though none of them will deny the importance of accepting the new technology.

As the concept of the centrality of learner initiative in instructional systems finds more accommodation, the role of the computer in education will be increasingly appreciated. This does not mean that there will or should be a corresponding diminution of the importance of the teacher. A machine, however efficient, cannot replace the human being in an essentially human activity like teaching a language. The teacher will always remain nonexpendable.

The principle of learner-centred instruction should be interpreted to recognize the major role that the teacher has in it. Neither complete dependence on the teacher as in traditional educational setups nor absolute independence is thought to benefit the learner. A middle course in which the teacher is careful not to obstruct learner initiative seems the best. In such a scenario the new technology will prove an extremely collaborative partner for both the learner and the teacher.