How does Technology enhance language learning?

All humans are born into a world which is surrounded by other living creatures. And all of them have different abilities to survive through hard conditions. During these hard conditions, communication with the others is the key. As being a human, we also need to acquire language not for just surviving but also keeping pace with the modern world and getting socialize.  

Many animals have ability to efficaciously communicate with one another but as we can see humans are communicating with one another in a more unique way. According to Noam Chomsky ‘ We’re all born with an innate understanding of the way language works.’. For example, when a baby is born, he/she has not learned any words  and cant’even babbling yet but they  still have a sense of understanding and acquring the language they are exposed to. 

In the early modern world, only the elite or rich class of the society could get chance to engaged in language learning. As the time passes by, language learning has become more accessible and also required new items and tools in the classroom environment. Teaching materials in the past and now show us how we developed and improved ourselves by different methods and techniques. There had been  just examples of pronunciation of the words which told by the teacher ,after a while examples of pronunciation were  provided by radios, cassette players, tapes and then televisions. Thanks to these devices, learners had chance to hear words not just in the classroom environment or during a conversiton with others but anytime and anywhere he or she wishes to hear it. Or even though there were just letters for writing then telegraphs were used by the people who could afford and then it had become more affordible by more people. Even in the early stages of technology, it is clear that technologhy played an very important role for learners and continued to evolving.  

By technology’s entrance into our lives, so many things can be done in an easier way. From laundry to games, from social connectivity to making memories last forever and language learning and so many other things. The use of technology provides lots of tools and authentic materials that can be accomplished. When a teacher use these modern world materials , students can have an classroom environment which may help them to learn lots of new experiences and practice what they have learned before. Also while using these materials, students may have a chance to interact with other students and improve themselves in terms of skills like speaking or listening. 

 

Technology creates a better learning environment than traditional classroom environment. With projections , students can have access to audiovisual tools such as a video related to class or visuals on the slides. Use of different materials in the classroom help arouse students’ interest for lessons and get more motivation. As students’ interest for lessons , teachers’ attitude towards materials is also important. If the teacher do not keep pace with technology then probably gonna be a teacher who stands behind the fences. A teacher who knows how to use technology and use it effectively in classroms probably going to meet students’ expectations and make them have more fun throughout the whole lesson. Especially in today’s world , most of the classes have capacity to use this newer technology. Instead of blackboards now classrooms have white boards with or without interaction and you can write on them with board markers in different colors. As an EdTech staff said in 2018 ‘In a technology-driven learning environment, flexible classroom spaces where connected devices, audiovisual tools, and purposeful furniture are integrated facilitate positive engagement of students and the mix of independent, small-group, and whole-class learning that is now viewed as essential to student success.’ which means in a way, if we want our students to be successful then we should provide them true setting with new technology materials for their meaningful learning process. Because the technology we have makes the lines between classroom and real world blurry. Consequently, students who experience classroom environment also get used to real life which is also another reason why they can be more successful. 

Technologhy increases students’ opportunity to interaction with natives and other language learners which is also an another feature makes learning easier in terms of communicating with native speakers. Being exposed to native language helps acquiring the target language with all skills , foremost speaking and listening. Also there are apps for language learners that learners can write letters as online messages through these apps and send them to their native friends on those platforms. Or with apps like ‘Cambly’ which learners can do video calls and talk with native teachers which is also an another way improving pronunciation and self-confidence. During those video calls, learners can ask questions, practice making sentences, develop their pronunciations and get feedback immediately. The phrase ‘practice leads perfection’ shows us that it’s a truth as the 4 main  skills (reading,listening, speaking and writing) of a language base on practicing. And during those video call lessons under the guidance of teachers, students have chance to get immediate error correction and learn from their mistakes.  

Thanks to technology, while surfing on the internet and websites, people can find whatever they want ; people can look for recipes , latest news , online courses or  articles etc.  Also learners can get information about the language they want to learn, whenever or wherever they want. Technology is a great chance to learn more not about just the target language but also its culture. With virtual maps learners can travel around the streets or the most touristic places so they can get more familiar with the country they want to speak its language, Or learners can watch any kind of videos on different websites. There are also lots of blog posts that learners can get more detailed information about the language they want to learn . And as mentioned before, by using apps which is made for language learning , learners can access lots of sources and study by on their own or support of a teacher.  

Even assignments do not have to be controlled in the classrooms , they can be checked and given feedback via some certain apps that for designed to  constitute a platform between the teacher and the students . ‘In the past, teaching situations and teaching tools comprised pictures, texts and then radios, cassettes, television and language laboratories were replaced by multimedia tools, interactive videos, and artificial intelligence applications ‘(Suryana, I., Asrianto., & Murwantono, D. 2020), augmented reality (Koral, E., Bozkurt, A., & Taşkıran, A. 2015). A Teachers can give assignments and determine a deadline for students instead of giving them photocopies. There is no trouble like losing the photocopies that teacher give or tearing it by mistake ,so the online platforms are more reliable for submitting assignments. Not just for one hour or a day , students also can be more flexible about the time they gonna spend on it as the students can do their assignments / homeworks at home, classroom, on train or on bus , it doesn’t matter ; learners can do and submit their assignments any time they are available ( if the deadline did not pass ) . An another benefit of using technology in the classrooms is through the use of technology ,teachers can better motivate their students and can design games or activities or use different materials which designed before by other people. ‘The use of technology has changed the methods from teacher-centered to learner-centered ones. Teachers should be facilitators and guide their learners’ learning and this change is very useful for learners to increase their learning’ (Riasati, Allahyar, & Tan, 2012) . Instead of the traditional teaching methods, studens can learn effectively on the apps or websites that created for learning language or any kind of course which learners want to learn.  

 

It is clear that technology has changed so many things in our lives from past to present. And ’The application of technology has considerably changed English teaching methods. It provides so many alternatives as making teaching interesting and more productive in terms of advancement’ (Patel, 2013). Learning with games , enhances language learning experience and creates a better environment for learners. Instead of early modern time language learning materials , new online apps ,that can be downloaded and can be used without internet connection , give learners chance to experience learning not just in classrooms but also other places . And learning with games is more memorable for students. Like playing any kind of games , they can play speacial activities ,exercises or matching games. And after that they immediately can learn what they answered or chose from the options also they can access what was the true answer and why was that answer. And now , they can even reach the answer not just in a written way but also as a video by the teachers.  

When a teacher gives a task , there should be a grading stage for the assignments as well. Well, it can be done in so many ways, espacially today. In early modern world, there were no so many options. Teacher could read and check the anwers or make exams by speaking with students. And the grading was done by teacher himself. But in today’s world, through the use of technology, teachers can determine the true answers on programmes as manuel and then control the grades, finally can give feedbacks to students . With this system , students have access to their results and if there is , they can see their feedbacks given by their teachers which is a very important thing during learning and acquring a language . For grading , there are so many educational platforms for teacher-centered instructions. By using these technologic platforms , teachers can increase the student involvement . When the students take responsibility throughout their learning process and get involved, they make the communication more meaningful, thus learning become more persistent. 

Using technology helps learners develop their listening skills on their own. Listening is one of the hardest skills for language learners. There were not too many options for improving listening skill before .But now, thanks to technology there are so many chocies that have ever become accessible. For instance , podcasts on some apps or websites give perfect opportunities to acquire listening skills. So as to have perfect pronunciation , language learners should listen the target language as much as they can. By hearing the native speakers , learners tend to pronunce the words correctly and make wrong sentences as grammatical or semantical fewer. Beside podcasts, learners can also reach their favourite songs ( their favourite songs on target language they want to learn ) with the lyrics. It is a great opportunity to learn new vocabularies and phrases which mostly used in daily life. ‘With the great development of technology, videos are widely used in education as they improve teaching activities ‘(Clark, 2013). Heinich, Molenda , Russell and Smaldino (2002) . Or while watching a video on youtube or on a different platform , there is a feature which is called ‘subtitle’ that users of those platforms can use. With this feature , learners can read the things said on the video. As it is simultaneous , it helps learners see what they miss while watching the video and what they could not hear. 

Technology has an important place in terms of acquiring reading skills. With different sources for reading that technology has brought into our lives , language learners who want to practice by reading can reach lots of different platforms that offer reading materials . Learners can follow new as online and while reading they can also learn about what’s going on in the world . If the learners are not interested in daily news , then they can have access to thousands of topics on different blog accounts. From science to history, from geography to biology they can be informed about every topic they want . Also learners themselves can sign in blog accounts and then they can create posts while also practicing writing. The another platform which may be used for improving reading skills is articles and essays that written by professionals. Like the first one , learners can search topics according to their interests but if they want to be more specific and professional toward their branches, they may prefer to use articles etc. While reading learners can develop their repartory of vocabulary. They may highlight the most used words and phrases then look for those words on online dictionaries or translates without needing carrying a dictionary with themselves all the time.  

Since the technologhy was introduced to the humanity, lots of changes has happened in our lives which effect us in a good or bad ways . But , in terms of language learning , we can say that technology has made learning easier for all of the language learners . If people know how to use new technologic materials in the best way , I’m sure that they will be thankful to technology and its bringings. As a person who is trying to acquire different languages , I am using some apps (Duolingo for Spanish and French, Busuu for Spanish, Edx for taking a course about sociology etc.) as well. Well, when we look back to past , we clearly can see how we developed through the time , but can we see how we are going to develop in the future? 

Bibliography 

https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2672639 
http://ijreeonline.com/files/site1/user_files_68bcd6/mohammadrezaahmadi-A-10-25-4-4989b1d.pdf 
https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/953464  
https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/the-benefits-new-technology-language-learning  
https://www.actfl.org/news/the-role-of-technology-in-language-learning#:~:text=Role%20of%20Technology%20for%20Learners&text=Through%20the%20purposeful%20use%20of,speakers%20of%20the%20target%20language.  

 

 

  

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