TeachingEnglish
IT literacies
Submitted by Duncan M on 10 January, 2009 - 14:47
As well as English, maths and the students' first language, IT literacy is said to be one of the key 4 literacies for success in the 21st century. If this is the case, should we be including IT literacy within our language lessons?
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It's no surprise that although such a high percentage of teachers think this area is important, still only a relatively small number are taking on the task of combining this into their teaching. My own efforts in this area have mainly been focused on helping students to see how they can use online resources to help develop their language skills through the Daily English Activities that I write.
I would be interested to hear what other teachers are doing to help their students develop their digital literacies.
Best
Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
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Apart from the obvious online English sites, I have integrated IT in as many ways as possible to not only teach English but to create situations whereby the students can learn by themselves.
Every new class I have create their own website (wiki - www.pbwiki.com is good). They plan and create content, have meetings, allocate roles and do all the work via the wiki online vidicasts or by reading the help pages. There is a multitude of language work but it's secondary to the main task and students have great fun while learning something new.
I also use Microsoft Moviemaker to create adverts or promotions for events. Again the class do all the work and at the end they produce some high quality films or adverts which they can take home or upload to their wiki.
We all do class surveys but why not use one of the many statistical analysis packages to analyse the data? As well as my class, I was taught by one student in the class last year how to use one package - we had a combined learning experience.
I never worry about teaching students new IT skills. In my experience, all I have to do is expose them to a new programme, website or software package and they'll do the rest themselves. We are kidding ourselves if we think we can teach IT to youngsters of today - they are well ahead. All we need to do is facilitate their learning in an English environment and as a teacher, take the risks that we ask of our students.
Although I voted yes, I am not sure how extensively IT can be used in teaching a foreign language. I am aware that IT is used as a platform, medium or a means to help to speak and listen to once speech, but it hardly can teach a language. One of the most popular names in this industry is Linguaphone. I'm sure they have the statistics to prove the success of their model.
In this context i'm not referring to the Linguaphone way of teaching. I'm referring to the use of IT to help one teach to speak a foreign language to communicate. Firstly there is the first language interference, followed by the need for constant usage. Without usage the learning process will be made all that more difficult. Finally there is the motivation, i.e. main reason for learning and the driving forces behind the individual; especially since learning of a language is rule (grammar) based to a great extent. Moreover the importance of observing and listening cannot be downplayed.
Hence while I agree that IT should be used more extensively, I'm not sure how this can be done.
Cheers
I think IT literacy is very important. Many workers in the UK do not have basic IT literacy skills and this is costing businesses in the country millions of working hours every week. Employees who do have a base of IT knowledge are being put upon to help out colleagues with IT problems and this is wasting hours of possible productive work time. I have given English lessons to many migrant workers and I always include basic IT literacy within my lessons by using the computer as a tool.
I think IT literacy is very important. Many workers in the UK do not have basic IT literacy skills and this is costing businesses in the country millions of working hours every week. Employees who do have a base of IT knowledge are being put upon to help out colleagues with IT problems and this is wasting hours of possible productive work time. I have given English lessons to many migrant workers and I always include basic IT literacy within my lessons by using the computer as a tool.
Excellent points!
I cannot follow this argument. Should we also be including maths in our language lessons because it's one of the other 4 key literacies? Innumeracy is easily as big a problem as lack of IT literacy.
TE Team
The idea of including Maths in English lessons is an interesting one although I would suggest it would perhaps be the other way round and that English should be included in Maths lessons.
This is part of the idea of the CLIL methodology which is currently becoming more and more prominent in the world of EFL. For further information on using English to teach Maths or English to teach first aid have a look at these articles on CLIL:
A brief definition:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/knowledge-wiki/clil
A brief introduction:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/transform/teachers/specialist-areas/clil
My own feeling is that teaching computer literacy works particularly well in EFL classrooms because it is something we use as a natural extension to our language teaching anyway and also because the language of computer literacy is already almost exclusively English.
I agree with what Duncan has to say on this subject, but at the same time, I am left pondering the thought of learning English as a second language, by some students.
This is due the fact that most if not all computers are designed to correct in the American English, as opposed to what I might term Correct English, eg:- colour - against -color, both which appear in the English dictionary, but would confuse most foreign students.
Then again there is the Colloquial side of the English language, (another side of the coin so to speak), how could this be taught without causing further confusion to the student, for they will indeed come across this colloquial language outside the perimeters of the classroom or computer.
A challenging world we live in as Teachers and or Tutors, which often returns to bite the hand that fed it.
There are then the older students both English & Foreign, in my case Australian who were denied the completion of their education due to circumstances, from the War years, as I was back home in England, I left school at the age of 13 1/2yrs: in order to work to eke out a living for my widowed Mother, but still that was long ago and is irrelevant to this method of learning.
I do however still agree with what Duncan has to say.
Nickolas O'Tein