Language preparatory school students’ use of modern technologies to study English

Abstract

Providing language students with creative and effective language learning environments so that they can gain communicative competence is of great importance. Therefore, integration of technology into language learning has become much more valuable where the target language is taught as a foreign language, allowing learners to expose themselves more to the target language and it helps create natural environments for language learning. It is clear that today’s young learners are really keen on using technology. However, there is an argument going out about if there is a change in methods of teaching and learning a foreign language in terms of satisfying the needs of these “digital natives” and there is not much information about this issue at tertiary level language teaching and learning in Turkish context. Thus, the aim of this study is to address this gap and find out the most efficient and / or popular technologies used by learners to promote the development of language skills. Having this aim in mind, a small scale research was carried out among English language prep school students at a state university in Turkey. The results indicated that using modern technologies to study English is not very popular among the students and they are not aware of most of the strategies they can use. Another significant result is that the students need guiding to integrate ICT in their studies. Therefore, teachers themselves have to have the required skills to work with modern technologies to integrate ICT more into education settings.

Keywords

• use of technologies
• development of language skills
• language learning environments

References

1. Aiken, L. R. (1997). Questionnaires and inventories: Surveying opinions and assessing personality. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2. Bailey, K. M. (2005). Practical English Language Teaching: Speaking. New York: McGraw-Hill.
3. Balaban Salı, J. (2012). Verilerin Toplanması. İçinde Sosyal Bilimlerde Nicel Araştırma Yöntemleri.In Ali Şimşek (Ed.). Eskişehir: AÖF Yayınları.
4. Ball, D. L. , Thames, M. H. & Phelps, G. (2008). Content knowledge for teaching: What makes it special? Journal of Teacher Education. 59(5), 389-407.
5. Banditvilai, B. (2016 ), Enhancing Students’ Language Skills through Blended Learning. Electronic Journal of e-Learnng, 14(3), 220-229.
6. Bellhouse, D.R. (2014). Systematic Sampling Methods. In Wiley Stats Ref: Statistics Reference Online; New York, NY, USA; John Wiley & Sons,
7. Ben-David Kolikant, Y. (2009). Digital students in a book-oriented school: Students’ perceptions of school and the usability of digital technology in schools. Educational Technology & Society, 12(2), 131-143.
8. Ben-David Kolikant, Y. (2010). Digital natives, better learners? Students’ beliefs about how the Internet influenced their ability to learn. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(6), 1384-1391.

9. Brown, D & Warschuer, M. (2006) From the University to the Elementary Classroom: Students’ Experiences in Learning to Integrate Technology in Instruction. Journal of Technology and Education, 14(3), 599-621.
10. Chapelle, C. A. (2009). The Relationship between Second Language Acquisitions Theory and Computer-Assisted Language Learning. The Modern Language Journal, 93, 731-753.
11. Corrin, L., Lockyer, L. & Bennett, S. (2010). Technological diversity: an investigation of students’ technology use in everyday life and academic study. Learning, Media, and Technology, 35(4), 387-401, DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2010.531024
12. Crook, C. & Harrison, C. (2008). Web 2.0 Technologies for Learning at Key Stages 3 and 4: Summary report. Coventry, UK: Becta report.
13. Elmas, R. & Geban, Ö. (2012). Web 2.0 tools for 21st century teachers. International Online Journal of Educational Sciences, 4(1), 243-254.
14. Gilakjani, A. P. (2016). The Relationship between Information and Communication Technologies and Foreign Language Teaching and Learning. Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods (MJLTM), 6(4), 67-77.
15. Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching (4th ed.). Pearson; Longman.
16. Helsper, E. J., Dutton, W. & Gerber, M. (2009). To Be a Network Society: A Cross-National Perspective on the Internet in Britain. Oxford Internet Institute, Research Report No. 17.
17. Hubbard, P. (2013). Making a Case for Learner Training in Technology Enhanced Language Learning Environments. CALICO Journal, 30(2), 163-178.
18. Kennedy, G., Judd, T., Dalgarnot, B. & Waycott, J. (2010). Beyond natives and immigrants: exploring types of net generations students. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26 (5), 332–343.
19. Kvavik, R. (2005). Convenience, communications and control: How students use technology. In, D. G. Oblinger & J. L. Oblinger (Eds.) Educating the net generation, an educause e-book publication (pp.7.1-7.20).
20. Lai, C. (2013). A Framework for Developing Self-Directed Technology Use for Language Learning. Language Learning & Technology, 17(2), 100-122.
21. Lee, C., Yeung, A. S. & Ip, T. (2016). Use of computer technology for English language learning: do learning styles, gender, and age matter? Computer Assisted Language Learning, 29(5), 1035-1051.
22. Lee, K. W., Thang, S. M., Tan, C. K., Ng, S. I., Yoon, S. J., Chua, Y. W.,and Shelly Shirlenna, N. (2014). Investigating the ICT needs of ‘Digital Natives’ in the learning of English in a public university in East Malaysia. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 118, 242-250.
23. Luckin, R., Clark, W., Graber, R., Logan, K., Mee, A. & Oliver, M. (2009). Do Web 2.0 tools really open the door to learning? Practices, perceptions and profiles of 11-16-year-old students. Learning, Media and Technology, 34(2), 87-104. DOI: 10.1080/17439880902921949
24. Lunenburg, F. C. & Ornstein, A.C. (2004) Educational Administration: Concepts and Practices. (4th ed.), Wadsworth, USA.
25. Manca, S. & Ranieri, M. (2016). Facebook and the others. Potentials and obstacles of Social Media for teaching in higher education. Computers and Education, 95, 216-230.
26. Margaryan, A., Littlejohn, A. & Vojt, G. (2011). Are digital natives a myth or reality? University students’ use of digital technologies. Computers & Education, 56(2), 429-440.
27. Mısır, H. (2018). Digital literacies and interactive multimedia-enhanced tools for language teaching and learning. International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET), 5(3), 514-523.
28. Muslaini, F., Kristina, D. & Sutomo, N. (2019). A Preliminary Study of EFL Reading Android Application Development. International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET), 6(1), 151-168.
29. Nachoua, H. (2012). Computer-Assisted Language Learning for Improving Students’ Listening Skill. Social and behavioral Sciences, 69, 1150-1159.
30. Nor, N. M. & Rashid, R. A. (2018). A review of theoretical perspectives on language learning and acquisition. Journal of Social Sciences, 39, 161-167.
31. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.
32. Rahamat , R. B., Shah, P. M., Din, R. B. & Aziz, J. B. A. (2017). Students’ Readiness and Perceptions towards Using Mobile Technologies for Learning the English Language Literature. The English Teacher, XL, 69-84.
33. Sarıçoban, A., Tosuncuoğlu, İ & Kırmızı, Ö. (2019). A technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) assessment of pre-service EFL teachers learning to teach English as a foreign language, Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 15(3), 1122-1138. Doi: 10.17263/jlls.631552
34. Shaw, L. H. & Gant, L. M. (2002). Users divided? Exploring the gender gap in internet use. Cyber Psychology & Behavior, 5(6), 517-527.
35. Shishkovskaya, J., Bakalo, D. & Grigoryev, A. (2015). EFL Teaching in the E-Learning Environment: Updated Principles and Methods. Social and Behavioral Sciences 206, 99-204.
36. Tapscott, D. (1998). Growing up digital: The rise of the net generation. New York: McGraw-Hill.
37. Tapscott, D. (1999). Educating the Net Generation. Educational Leadership, 56(5), 6-11.
38. Tay, L. Y., Lim, S. K., Lim, C. P. & Koh, J. H. L. (2012). Pedagogical approaches for ICT integration into primary school English and mathematics: A Singapore case study. Australasian Journal of Education Technology, 28(4), 740-754.
39. Teo, T. (2006). Attitudes toward computers: A study of post-secondary students in Singapore. Interactive Learning Environments, 14(1), 17-24.
40. Wang, B. T., Teng, C. W. & Chen, H. T. (2015). Using iPad to Facilitate English Vocabulary Learning. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 5(2), 100-104.
41. Winke, P. & Goertler, S. (2008). Did we forget someone? Students’ computer access and literacy for CALL. CALICO Journal, 25(3), 482-509.
42. Zainuddin, Z. & Perera, C. J.(2018). Supporting students’ self-directed learning in the flipped classroom through the LMS TES BlendSpace. On the Horizon, 26(4), 281-290.