Materials and technology in English language teaching Assignment

Materials and technology in English language teaching - Assignment Example Materials and Technology in English Language Teaching Technology and ideas relevant to it as well as other implementations have continuously changed rapidly. This renders it difficult to provide a definitive picture of CALL in the market, mostly in the web. CALL refers to Computer Assisted Language Learning. It has been in existence since the 1960s, however, the focus as indicated, revolves around its existence and involvement in the market, over the last 15 years. One arm of Applied Linguistics has been gaining in popularity in the past 10 years. A number of scholars have provided us with now well-established definitions. For Levy, CALL is the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning. Beatty refers to CALL as any process in which a learner uses a computer and, as a result, ends up improving his or her language. This encompasses a broad spectrum of current practices in teaching and learning at the computer, whilst Egbert states that CALL is learners learning language in any context with, thr ough computer technologies.  As noted, alternative acronyms to CALL emerged in recognition of the rise of the Internet proposed Technology Enhanced Language Learning, which emphasizes the technology the computer provides rather than the computer itself. Web-enhanced Language Learning lay coined to refer to the Internet as a medium for instruction, whilst Warschauer and (Kern 2000) proposed Network-based Language Learning, which stresses computers connected to one another with human-to-human communication as the focus. Most importantly, these definitions and acronyms have at their core the notion of students working on a desktop or laptop computer, usually in order to consciously practice or learn a language. With the computer at the core and applications usually centered on consciously practicing languages, it is not difficult to see how these alternative acronyms effectively became no more than offshoots of CALL, as they did not challenge its defining characteristics. The signifi cance of the English language for all students when using computers outside of their studies is clear to see from the response to Q2. A tiny 3.3% indicated that they use only L1, compared to a massive combined 86.6% who use both L1 and L2. A further 8.1 per cent reported using only English. We have already noted that responses to Q3 included a number of websites and it was references to Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia, which dominated the replies. Comments from the qualitative data provided more detailed insights, into the significance of English for these particular students. In view of an example, I like games in English. It is easy to understand a game in English and a TF uses computers mostly in English and if she does not understand. I can guess and if I don’t know I search online dictionary Longdo, it’s pretty good, it’s easy to use’. However, the dominance of the English language on the internet can also make it difficult for some students as exempl ified by a comment from an EF. Sometimes it is a problem because we do not understand some words and we feel confused. Language pedagogy over the past 25 years has seen a significant shift from teacher- to learner-centered approaches and the notion lies frequently realized in SACs, which have now become an essential feature for many providers. A SAC here refers to the physical location where they make both paper-based materials (PbMs) and CbMs available for