Tell @ ELI

Technology Enhanced Language Learning at the English Language Institute

Making CALL Interactive

Issue 8, Spring 2005
TELL ELI Archives

What is Effective Use of Technology?
By Raymond Cepko

            What drives the use of technology in the classroom: the technology or the lesson? This is a question that many of us ask ourselves, but for which there is not always a clear answer. The amount of technology available and the applications for its use are greater than ever before. At times, I am not always sure that when I am using, new sources it is benefiting Second Language Acquisition (SLA). TO determine whether or not it is, I always ask myself one important question. How is the introduction of this kind of technology better than what I am currently using in the classroom? To answer this question, I base my use of technology on the intended audience, students in a particular course, and the type of task objective that I have for the class.

For example, in teaching my Level IV Culture class about the Martin Luther King I Have a Dream speech, I asked myself if it was better to use written text, audio, or audio and video to get across the full meaning- emotional, rhetorical, and cultural, of what MLK was trying to articulate. The text itself may have been good enough if the goal was just to teach the class about rhetorical structures, but it was not enough to get the students to understand the full context of what he was emotionally conveying, his tone. Tone is sometimes difficult for non-native English speakers to pick up while reading because they are already hindered by a limited knowledge of American historic and cultural background and have a limited vocabulary. I asked myself if the text was enough for a native speaker to fully understand the tone. The answer I came up with was, 'No!' I have read and heard the speech on many occasions, but the intensity of the written words was not comparable to the intensity of the speech when I listened to it. Did a video help me to understand the tone of the speech better? In retrospect, seeing the emotions of the mass of people witnessing the speech as well as the emotions on the face of MLK did not make the speech more memorable for me because the memory was of his words and his speaking style and not his actions or the audiences reactions. Yes, it may be true that his actions and those of his audience were important in some respect; for example, if I were focusing on the cultural diversity of the audience, the video would have supported that point. However, when I asked myself if using audio detracted from the lesson that I had for the class, I answered 'No!'. Therefore, I chose to have the students first read the speech on their own and think about tone. After that, I had the students read along a second time as they heard the speech in MLK's own words to help reinforce the intensity of what the words meant and the tone that he used. It was, therefore, a good way to help the students make a connection to how tone could be shown in the written word as well as in the spoken word.

On the other hand, the same does not hold true of an academic lecture given at the university level. If I want to teach a student how to take notes in an academic lecture, I feel that it is important to include the visual cues to note-taking that cannot be perceived in an audio version. Let's face it: how many of us have sat through an academic lecture without looking at visual input to help us know what the lecturer finds important for us to learn? Much of the input, taken down in note form, comes from overheads, the blackboard or whiteboards, or other such visual cues such as body language. For this reason, I have found it valuable to use online lectures that incorporate both audio and visual cues in my Academic Interactions IV class to help my students to become better note takers. The body language of a lecturer as well as other visual cues are as important in an EAP course as
listening for audio cues is.

One lecture that I like to use in particular for this class is the introductory lecture by Prof. Walter Lewin of MIT. The topic of the lecture, electromagnetism, is in itself rather complex; nonetheless, he makes the lecture understandable for non-native speakers who are unfamiliar with the topic. Because of his rather impressive lecture style, the viewer can tell within the first five minutes that he gives clear visual clues when he is switching topics, going on a tangent, or providing important information that requires the student to take notes. I generally have the students view approximately the first 15 minutes of the presentation; however, most of them have continued far beyond this point before I stop them because it is an interesting lecture to watch. When asked to analyze his presentation style and rate their comprehension of the lecture, the students tend to react in a positive manner. I have found that a majority of the students with even a minimal amount of knowledge of the subject area have found this lecture very comprehensible and felt comfortable taking notes compared with a similar lecture of the same length and complexity from the book that we are currently using, which is supplemented with audio only.

The question then becomes what type of input (text, audio, or audio visual) will better enhance language learning. In short, the answer is that it varies depending on the students in the class and the goal that is expected for the lesson. Technology can be a 'gap' filler or become an integral part of a lesson. When using technology in the classroom, I have found that it is important to first ask myself why I am using it and what outcome I am expecting from it, and only then do I ask myself how I will adapt the technology for my instructional purposes. It is better to adapt the technology to the class than the the class to the technology.

Web sites used:

I Have a Dream Speech from: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm

Electricity and Magnetism Lectures by Prof. Walter Lewin from: http://web.mit.edu/smcs/8.02/