Technology-enhanced Language Learning for Digital Natives

Year 2017, Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 97 - 111, 01.12.2017

Deren Başak Akman Yeşilel

Abstract

Using technology in classrooms has many advantages
especially as students become increasingly digitally literate in recent years.
Young learners live their life through technology. “They are web generations
and they are hungry for more” (Dale, 2014, p.1). This case has led to an
increasing focus on using technology in schools and a need for developing
computer skills. Pupils are so enthusiastic about using a variety of
technologies in their daily life that it is essential to embed their enthusiasm
into the language classroom. For that reason, language teachers have started to
use different technological tools and software to enhance their instruction.
They have begun to use projectors, interactive whiteboards, tablets and the
Internet. They have started to use power point presentations to introduce a
topic or explain a grammar point, use authentic texts from the Internet to
improve reading/listening skills, apply online vocabulary quizzes or assign
projects to the learners. They have changed the way they teach English by
making use of these tools. These technological tools also allow teachers to
extend classroom communication outside the walls of the classroom, thus,
provide learning lifelong. There is a huge variety of available web sources
that can be used by both teachers and learners to improve language learning
experience. Yet, it is essential for language teachers to guide learners to use
these web-based instructional tools to learn and practice English language
skills. The purpose of this study is to introduce some of these web-based
technologies, especially the ones appropriate for young learners to improve
different language skills and to explain their benefits in developing language
skills.

Keywords

technology-enhanced language learning (tell), digital native, ; web-based technology, young learner

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