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ICT in Teaching a Foreign Language in High School
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 175 – 181
7th International Conference on Intercultural Education “Education, Health and ICT for a Transcultural World”, EDUHEM 2016, 15-17 June 2016, Almeria, Spain
ICT in Teaching a Foreign Language in High School Albina Bilyalova* Kazan (Volga region) Federal University, Kazan, 420008, Russia
Abstract The purpose of the study is to evaluate the importance of ICT usage in teaching foreign languages in universities and the development of practical recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of foreign language teaching using ICT. The paper summarizes the most effective types of ICT for the development of linguistic and communication competence of students: PowerPoint presentation, correspondence by e-mail, training programs on CD-ROM, internet resources in teaching of foreign languages. In the study the full description of the above mentioned types of ICT is given. © 2017 2016The TheAuthors. Authors. Published by Elsevier © Published by Elsevier Ltd.Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. Keywords: : ICT (information and communication technologies); teaching and learning foreign languages
1. Introduction The current stage of development of the society puts in front of the Russian education system a number of fundamentally new problems which are caused by the political, socio-economic, philosophical and other factors. Among them we should highlight the need to improve the quality and accessibility of education, increase academic mobility, integration into the world of scientific and educational space, creating educational systems optimal in economic terms, improving the university corporatism and strengthen the links between the different levels of education. One of the effective ways to solve these problems is the informatization of education. Improving of means of communication has led to significant progress in the exchange of information. The emergence of new information technologies associated with the development of computer equipment and telecommunications networks has made it
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +7 917 273 41 44; fax: +0-000-000-0000 . E-mail address: [email protected]
1877-0428 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2017.02.060
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Albina Bilyalova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 175 – 181
possible to create a qualitatively new information and educational environment as the basis for development and improvement of the education system. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are of key importance at all levels of the educational system. At each stage of cognitive activity, research and practical applications in all branches of knowledge ICT perform both the functions of tools and objects of knowledge. Consequently, ICT innovations not only provide a revolutionary development in this branch of knowledge, but also have a direct impact on the scientific and technological progress in all areas of society. Thus, information and communication technologies are a class of innovative technologies for the rapid accumulation of intellectual and economic potential of strategic resources, ensuring sustainable development of society. This paper discusses the opportunities of ICT, the ways of their realization in the Russian system of higher education training on an example of a discipline "Foreign language". Scientists have different approaches to the definition of ICT concepts. In the scientific literature can be found the following terminology: "IT training", "computer-based training technology", "new information technologies in education" or "NIT Education", "multimedia educational technology", etc. This indicates that the essence of ICT concepts, used in education is still not well established. We can see that, speaking of ICT, in some cases, scientists point to a specific research area, in other - on a particular way of dealing with information. At the same time, the analysis of the literature on the investigated problem allows us to speak about the complex of knowledge, the ways and means to work with information resources, and about technical resources, which scientists have linked with the technological chain, ensuring the accumulation, storage, classification, output and distribution of information (Kayser, 2009; Lyubova, Bilyalova, Evgrafova, 2014; McKenzie, 2000; Russell1997,Sorin 2005). A lot of works deal with the question of using technology in teaching English (Dudeney, 1985; Wright, 2008; Hartoyo, 2008). Some scholars have noted that the widespread use of identified technologies can significantly increase the effectiveness of active learning methods to all forms of organization of educational process in the study of a foreign language, namely: practical, individual lessons, during independent work (Nadolskaya, 2014). Other scientists have considered the use of ICT as a means of increasing motivation, commitment to the systematic study of a foreign language, which allows to obtain quick results in learning a foreign language (Wheeler, 2001). The use of ICT in the educational process directed to the full immersion of students in the language environment that contributes to the formation and development of their communicative competence, the part of which is the sociocultural competence. It equips learners with digital age literacy, inventive thinking, creative thinking, higher-order thinking, effective communication, and high productivity (Tinio, 2002). Based on interpretations of scientists T.A. Lavina, I.V. Robert and others (Lavina,2014; Robert,1994) let us give our own definition of the ICT, which will be viewed as a set of methods and techniques designed to collect, organize, store, process, transmit and present the information which enlarge the socio-cultural knowledge of students and provides them with a socio-cultural competence. 2. Methodology The study was conducted in 2 stages. The first stage is the study of the problem of the use ICT in teaching foreign languages, based on the literature on methodology, psychology, educational theory and practice; also it includes identification of specific ICT requirements, which ensure the development of linguistic and communication competence and increase the interest and motivation of students. The second stage included the analysis and synthesis of experimental work on the use of ICT on the lessons of a foreign language, assessment of ICT as a means of improving the efficiency of the process of teaching a foreign language. The experimental work was done on the basis of Elabuga Institute of Kazan Federal University. The group of the second year students of the Philology Department were chosen randomly to be the sample of the study. The total number of the students was 50. The students of this group were appointed randomly into two groups; the control group which had (25) students, and the other experimental group which had (25) students. All the students included in this study had the same learning experience and used the same text books. Students during the second term were selected to achieve the purpose of this study. The second term is the important stage in which students' language proficiency is an indicator of their language competence.
Albina Bilyalova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 175 – 181
In order to achieve the purpose of the study, the researcher developed a set of research instruments: Reading Comprehension Test and Grammar Test. Both Tests consisted of 17 multiple choice questions. Students were given fifty minutes to answer the questions. Test items had choices, only one of which was correct. 3. The potential of ICT in creating the foreign language competence of students of universities when learning a foreign language One of the effective ways to improve the quality of teaching foreign languages is the informatization of education. The use of ICT in learning a foreign language helps to intensify and personalize learning, promotes interest in the subject, makes it possible to avoid subjective assessment. In addition, the ICT contribute to overcoming the psychological barrier of students to the use of a foreign language as a means of communication. It should be noted that ICT is both a material supply means and the controlling means. New technologies make it possible to individualize the learning process in the pace and depth of the course. Such differentiated approach gives a great positive, because it creates the conditions for the success of every student, causing the students' positive emotions, and thus affects their learning motivation. In contrast to conventional techniques while using interactive forms of teaching a student itself becomes the main acting figure and itself opens the way to assimilate knowledge. The teacher in this situation acts as an active assistant, and his main function is to organize and promote the learning process. Thus, the following digital resources can be effectively used at foreign language lessons: Power Point presentation (PP), tests, training programs on CD-ROM, online tutorials, educational Internet resources. In our opinion, multimedia presentations, e-learning software and educational Internet resources are of great educational potential, the description of which we shall discuss in detail. Here we should emphasize that each teacher applying ICT on foreign language lessons, should be aware that any educational technology should meet the following methodological requirements: x conceptuality: the scientific concept that includes psychological and socio-pedagogical substantiation of the achievement of educational goals; x consistency: the presence of all characteristics of the system (the logic of the process, interrelation of all its parts, integrity); x efficiency: ensuring results that match educational standards; x flexibility: the ability of variations in the content to ensure comfort and freedom of interaction between the teacher and students with the specific pedagogical reality; x dynamics: the possibility of development or transformation of technology; x reproducibility: the possibility of the use of technology by other teachers in this educational institution or in others. As a result, a comprehensive study found that the most effective for the development of linguistic and communication competence of students are the following types of ICT: PowerPoint presentation, correspondence by e-mail, training programs on CD-ROM and internet resources. 3.1. Multimedia presentation (MMP) According to the analysis of modern methods of teaching foreign languages in Russian Universities we can state that presentations are widely used by teachers of high school for teaching foreign languages. They are convenient for both teachers and students. Original teaching materials of presentations captivate, motivate, and direct students in a successful outcome. Educational potential of MMPs can be effectively used at the lessons of foreign languages for the implementation of visual support while speech training. The PP (Power Point) program and its product (MMP) have a number of properties that distinguish them from traditional means of representation clarity. These include interactivity (the ability to change and make the necessary changes to the same presentation); multimedia (the use of complex effects for information representation such as text, sound, graphics, animation, video one of the technical means); comprehensive reporting (the ability to control the
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presentation in different modes: linear, animation, using hyperlinks); readability (semantic completeness of individual slides or groups of slides); software compatibility (ability to use objects from other programs, such as MS Office applications). The present study indicates that at lessons of foreign language educational presentations are mainly used. They differ in the types of speech activity (reading, writing, speaking or listening); on aspects of speech (when teaching vocabulary, grammar or phonetics); in type of supports (meaningful, semantic, verbal, pictures). Using PowerPoint the learning process facilitates the use of different kinds of language and speech exercises: imitative, substitute, transformation, reproduction. Thus, we can say that PowerPoint program allows the teacher to create high-quality learning materials for specific learning tasks. 3.2. Correspondence by e-mail Communication in virtual reality by means of e-mail can be used for mastering intercultural competence on the lessons of foreign language, i.e. to establishment friendly correspondence. By means of it students will develop their vocabulary, both active and passive, which reflects a certain stage of development of the culture, social and political structure of the native speakers society. The international exchange of letters can be done at any language level. In addition to the establishment of friendly contacts and studying, thus, culture of the studied language, e-mail has its advantages over paper letters: it is faster, easier and cheaper. To find partners by correspondence for the students you can do the following. First, refer a relevant enquiry to TESL-L (computer-assisted language learning sub-branch [email protected]) or TESLK-12 ([email protected]). Second, contact the list-server for intercultural relations (Intercultural E-Mail Classroom Connections), which establish correspondence with different objectives: to carry out joint projects, discuss pressing issues, debate between whole classes. E-mail is probably the most popular and important Internet service. 20 million people communicate through email daily. Almost every Internet user has an email address. You can send texts, graphics, programs, multimedia files by E-mail. It’s worth noting that the first distance courses were entirely built on referrals and assignments by E-mail. The student, after completing the task, send the results to the teacher by E-mail that is far faster. Today there are few courses that are built without E-mail, because it remains a vital ancillary service. 3.3. Training programs on CD-ROM At the present moment the teacher has quite a lot of educational computer programs, both domestic and authentic. In front of a teacher using a computer program for learning, the problem of their integration in the educational process arises. Nowadays there are a number of textbooks that have training programs on CD-ROM. These programs are fully correspond to the concept of the textbook, to a thematic and unit scheduling, so it makes it easier to incorporate multimedia components in each lesson. These applications are a convenient and effective way of independent work of students at home. Each of these training programs has certain goals to work with grammar, vocabulary, reading, phonetics and requires the student and the teacher elementary computer skills. The same can be said about the testing program recorded on the CD. Today, there is a variety of similar programs for different levels of English, from beginner level with the games, comics, songs, poems, etc. to advanced level, such as exam preparation FCE or TOEFL type. The most common programs can be called useful to work in the university: "Living English "," Bridge to English ", "All clear", "BBC Learning English", etc. Such programs contain a great number of speech exercises, exercises to practice pronunciation, grammar exercises, activities and games to practice spelling. The topics of the units make it easy to integrate the course into the learning process. For example, the course “Bridge to English I” is a basic English language course, which consists of 20 lessons. Each lesson contains vocabulary in English and Russian languages, dialogues and grammar in Russian. Each lesson has a different theme and includes plenty of exercises that can be used both for training and control of knowledge of students.
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The use of computer training programs has many advantages over traditional methods of teaching. Their potential is that they allow to train different types of speech activity and conjoin them in different combinations; to help to understand linguistic phenomena; to form linguistic abilities, create communicative situations; to improve speech and language skills; and also provide the possibility of accounting leading representative system; realization of individual approach and intensification of independent work of the student; enhance cognitive activity, motivation and quality of students ' knowledge. 3.4. Internet recourses in teaching foreign languages According to Seljan, Berger, Dovedan (2004), the Internet and the World Wide Web have provided an incredible language learning applications, offering a wide variety of educational programs, resources, software, journals, organizations, software tutorials including all types of exercises for grammar drills, vocabulary, listening and pronunciations exercises, games, electronic dictionaries, etc. The possibility of using the Internet resource is huge. Let us dwell on the methodological aspects of the use of Internet services in the educational process. Internet provides a unique opportunity for students to use authentic texts, listen and communicate with native speakers, i.e. it creates a natural language environment. But how to take advantage of it? The main objective of learning a foreign language is the formation of the communicative competence, all other goals (educational, pedagogical, developing) are realized in the process of implementation of the main goal. Communicative competence in the modern sense of the word involves the formation of the capacity for intercultural interaction. Internet resources can be extremely beneficial in this field. The Possibilities of the Internet: x The teacher can choose in advance authentic reading materials on the subject matter of the oral speech; x it is possible to record audio information (speech of political or public figures, interesting reports of native speakers on various topics); x to hold an oral discussion of the received e-mail letters from project partners; x to perform first in groups a discussion, a dispute on a particular problem of the information obtained from Internet resources, and then organize a general discussion of it in the entire class; x to conduct linguistic analysis of certain communications, whether oral or written utterances of native speakers, e.g. idioms, proverbs, sayings, neologisms reflecting the specificity of functioning of language in the culture of the people; x to use at least partially the artistic works of authors of the country of the target language received from the virtual library; x to use the electronic grammar books and lexical reference books, dictionaries, reference books of cross-cultural nature, the materials of distance learning courses, available for inclusion in a lesson. It is particularly interesting to use the Internet when working on a project. This allows to create at the lesson of foreign language research creative atmosphere where every student is involved in an active cognitive process on the basis of the methodology of cooperation. But the Internet is used in teaching languages not only as an information support, but for communication (a conversation in real time – chat , correspondence – e-mail) that creates a natural language environment. The participation of students in teleconferencing, chat rooms, which are attended by students from different countries of the world is very interesting and useful opportunity for new contacts and real-life conversation practice. In those discussions, conversations, "free talk" there is not only the exchange of information on a particular issue, but familiarity with some elements of another culture. Another type of work is the use of Internet resources in the form of tests for the control of lexical and grammatical skills. For example, the site www.exams.ru offers information about various international examinations in English, different practice tests. Thus, the use of Internet resources in teaching a foreign language gives the possibility of constant improvement of training materials, increases the level of motivation in learning a foreign language. Educational technology is not yet learned. You can only set the guidelines for it possible use. The creative potential of the teachers will tell the scope of
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the search, and professionalism will give an impulse for interesting finds and decisions. Now everyone understands that the Internet possesses enormous information capabilities and equally impressive service. The Internet creates a unique opportunity for foreign language learners to use authentic texts, listen to and communicate with native speakers. Using information resources of the Internet, integrating them into the educational process is helpful in solving variety of didactic problems at the lesson: x to form skills and abilities of reading, directly using materials of different degree of complexity; x to improve the ability of listening on the basis of authentic sound texts from a network the Internet; x to develop the vocabulary, both active and passive, by words of the modern foreign language reflecting a certain stage of development of the culture, social and political structure of society; x to get acquainted with cultural knowledge including speech etiquette, especially speech behaviour of various people in terms of communication, culture, and traditions of the country of the studied language. 4. Data analysis To ensure the equivalence of the two groups before starting the study, a pre-test was applied. Table (1) shows the results: Table 1. Results of pre-test of the equivalence of the two groups
PRE-TEST
Group
students
Mean score (reading skills)
Mean score (grammar skills)
control
25
4.1
3.8
experiment
25
4.0
3.9
Table (1) shows that there were no statistically significant differences between the experimental and control group at the pre-test of reading comprehension and pre-test of grammar skills. This means that the control group and the experimental group were equivalent before starting the study. During the second term students of the experimental group were taught a foreign language using ICT, students of control group were taught a foreign language without using ICT. Are there significant differences in the students' reading comprehension and grammar skills due to the strategy of teaching with the help of ICT? To answer this question mean score in the post tests were calculated. Table (2) presents the results in comparison. Table 2. Results of using ICT in teaching a foreign language for Each Group (Control and Experiment) Group
Test (reading skills)
students
Mean score
Control
Pre
Pre
25
4.1
Post
Post
25
4.2
Pre
Pre
25
4.0
Post
Post
25
4.5
Experimental
Test (grammar skills) Control
Experimental
Pre
Pre
25
3.8
Post
Post
25
3.9
Pre
Pre
25
3.9
Post
Post
25
4.6
Table (2) shows the mean scores of the two groups (Control and Experimental) in the pre Reading Comprehension Test were (4.1) and (4.0) respectively while in the post test were (4.2) and (4.5) respectively; in the pre Grammar Test were (3.8) and (3.9) respectively while in the post test were (43.9) and (4.6) respectively. This means that the students' reading comprehension and grammar skills scores in experimental group were improved in the post test because of the use of ICT.
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Thus, the study investigated the effectiveness of using ICT in teaching a foreign language in high school. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences in students reading comprehension and grammar skills due to the strategy of teaching (teaching using ICT and teaching without using ICT) in favor of the ICT-teaching strategy. The results showed that using ICT at the lessons of foreign languages might have contributed to the improvement of students' achievement in reading comprehension and in grammar. Students might have the opportunity to receive information from different resources, share their knowledge and skills in an appropriate manner and interact more effectively. 5. Conclusion The importance of the use of ICT in the formation of linguistic competence of students of universities in learning foreign language is argued and proven in practice. Conducted pedagogical experiment showed that the use of ICT has a positive impact on the quality of teaching a foreign language. Finally, the study demonstrated that the integration of ICT in the process of teaching a foreign language makes it more dynamic, information-intensive, helps efficiently organize the learning process, increases the efficiency of formation of communicative competence, provides a positive motivation of learning and cognitive activity of students, facilitates the activation of independent work of students. On the basis of the foregoing, it can be argued that the use of ICT is a promising direction in foreign language teaching and needs further study. Acknowledgements The work is performed according to the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University. References Dudeney, G. (2008). How to Teach English with Technology. Pearson Longman. Hartoyo (2008). Individual Differences in Computer-Assisted Language Learning. Semarang: Pelita Insani Semarang. Kayser, A. (2009). Creating Meaningful Web Pages: A Project-Based Course. Available in: http://www.ido.rudn.ru/nfpk/ikt/vved.html. Lavina, T. A. (2014). Formirovanie kompetentnosti uchitelja v oblasti informacionnyh i kommunikacionnyh technologij v uslovijah vvedenija prikladnogo pedagogicheskogo bakalavriata. [Creating the competence of teachers in information and communication technologies in the context of implementation of applied teaching undergraduate]. Sovremennye problemy nauki i obrazovanija, 6. Available in: http://www.science-education.ru/120-16433. Lyubova T.V., Bilyalova A.A., Evgrafova O.G. (2014) Grammatical and communicative method – a new approach in the practice of teaching foreign languages. Asian Social Science. 10 (21), 261-266. McKenzie, C. (2000). Homepages. Built-in Motivation. English Teaching Forum. № 1, 34–37. Nadol'skaja, Ju. A. (2014) Mul'timedijnye uchebnye programmy kak sredstvo aktivizacii uchebnoj dejatel'nosti studentov pri izuchenii nemeckogo jazyka kak vtorogo inostrannogo. [Multimedia training programs as a means of activization of educational activity of students at studying of German language as a second language] Mezhdunarodnyj jelektronnyj zhurnal "Obrazovatel'nye tehnologii i obshhestvo (Educational Technology & Society). Т. 17., № 1, 347–358. Available in: http://ifets.ieee.org/russian/periodical/journal.html. Robert, I. V. (1994). Sovremennye informacionnye tehnologii v obrazovanii: didakticheskie problemy, perspektivy ispol'zovanija. [Modern information technologies in education: didactic problems, prospects of use]. Moscow: Shkola-Press. Russell, M. (1997) Testing Writing on Computers: An Experiment Comparing Student Performance on Tests Conducted via Computer and via Paper-and-Pencil. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 3 (5). Seljan, S., Berger, N., Dovedan, Z. (2004). Computer-assisted language learning. Sorin, R. (2005) Webfolio – Using Electronic Portfolios in Preservice Teacher Education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education. 30(1) Available in : http://www.ajte.education.ecu.edu.ua/issues/PDF/ThirtyOne/Sorin Tinio, V. L. (2002). Survey of ICT Utilization in Philippine Public High Schools. Wheeler, S. (2001). Information and communication technologies and the changing role of the teacher. Journal of Educational Media, 26 (1), 717. Wright, M. (1985) Science, Computers and Education. London: Harper Education Series
ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 175 – 181
7th International Conference on Intercultural Education “Education, Health and ICT for a Transcultural World”, EDUHEM 2016, 15-17 June 2016, Almeria, Spain
ICT in Teaching a Foreign Language in High School Albina Bilyalova* Kazan (Volga region) Federal University, Kazan, 420008, Russia
Abstract The purpose of the study is to evaluate the importance of ICT usage in teaching foreign languages in universities and the development of practical recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of foreign language teaching using ICT. The paper summarizes the most effective types of ICT for the development of linguistic and communication competence of students: PowerPoint presentation, correspondence by e-mail, training programs on CD-ROM, internet resources in teaching of foreign languages. In the study the full description of the above mentioned types of ICT is given. © 2017 2016The TheAuthors. Authors. Published by Elsevier © Published by Elsevier Ltd.Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. Keywords: : ICT (information and communication technologies); teaching and learning foreign languages
1. Introduction The current stage of development of the society puts in front of the Russian education system a number of fundamentally new problems which are caused by the political, socio-economic, philosophical and other factors. Among them we should highlight the need to improve the quality and accessibility of education, increase academic mobility, integration into the world of scientific and educational space, creating educational systems optimal in economic terms, improving the university corporatism and strengthen the links between the different levels of education. One of the effective ways to solve these problems is the informatization of education. Improving of means of communication has led to significant progress in the exchange of information. The emergence of new information technologies associated with the development of computer equipment and telecommunications networks has made it
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +7 917 273 41 44; fax: +0-000-000-0000 . E-mail address: [email protected]
1877-0428 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of EDUHEM 2016. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2017.02.060
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Albina Bilyalova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 175 – 181
possible to create a qualitatively new information and educational environment as the basis for development and improvement of the education system. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are of key importance at all levels of the educational system. At each stage of cognitive activity, research and practical applications in all branches of knowledge ICT perform both the functions of tools and objects of knowledge. Consequently, ICT innovations not only provide a revolutionary development in this branch of knowledge, but also have a direct impact on the scientific and technological progress in all areas of society. Thus, information and communication technologies are a class of innovative technologies for the rapid accumulation of intellectual and economic potential of strategic resources, ensuring sustainable development of society. This paper discusses the opportunities of ICT, the ways of their realization in the Russian system of higher education training on an example of a discipline "Foreign language". Scientists have different approaches to the definition of ICT concepts. In the scientific literature can be found the following terminology: "IT training", "computer-based training technology", "new information technologies in education" or "NIT Education", "multimedia educational technology", etc. This indicates that the essence of ICT concepts, used in education is still not well established. We can see that, speaking of ICT, in some cases, scientists point to a specific research area, in other - on a particular way of dealing with information. At the same time, the analysis of the literature on the investigated problem allows us to speak about the complex of knowledge, the ways and means to work with information resources, and about technical resources, which scientists have linked with the technological chain, ensuring the accumulation, storage, classification, output and distribution of information (Kayser, 2009; Lyubova, Bilyalova, Evgrafova, 2014; McKenzie, 2000; Russell1997,Sorin 2005). A lot of works deal with the question of using technology in teaching English (Dudeney, 1985; Wright, 2008; Hartoyo, 2008). Some scholars have noted that the widespread use of identified technologies can significantly increase the effectiveness of active learning methods to all forms of organization of educational process in the study of a foreign language, namely: practical, individual lessons, during independent work (Nadolskaya, 2014). Other scientists have considered the use of ICT as a means of increasing motivation, commitment to the systematic study of a foreign language, which allows to obtain quick results in learning a foreign language (Wheeler, 2001). The use of ICT in the educational process directed to the full immersion of students in the language environment that contributes to the formation and development of their communicative competence, the part of which is the sociocultural competence. It equips learners with digital age literacy, inventive thinking, creative thinking, higher-order thinking, effective communication, and high productivity (Tinio, 2002). Based on interpretations of scientists T.A. Lavina, I.V. Robert and others (Lavina,2014; Robert,1994) let us give our own definition of the ICT, which will be viewed as a set of methods and techniques designed to collect, organize, store, process, transmit and present the information which enlarge the socio-cultural knowledge of students and provides them with a socio-cultural competence. 2. Methodology The study was conducted in 2 stages. The first stage is the study of the problem of the use ICT in teaching foreign languages, based on the literature on methodology, psychology, educational theory and practice; also it includes identification of specific ICT requirements, which ensure the development of linguistic and communication competence and increase the interest and motivation of students. The second stage included the analysis and synthesis of experimental work on the use of ICT on the lessons of a foreign language, assessment of ICT as a means of improving the efficiency of the process of teaching a foreign language. The experimental work was done on the basis of Elabuga Institute of Kazan Federal University. The group of the second year students of the Philology Department were chosen randomly to be the sample of the study. The total number of the students was 50. The students of this group were appointed randomly into two groups; the control group which had (25) students, and the other experimental group which had (25) students. All the students included in this study had the same learning experience and used the same text books. Students during the second term were selected to achieve the purpose of this study. The second term is the important stage in which students' language proficiency is an indicator of their language competence.
Albina Bilyalova / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 237 (2017) 175 – 181
In order to achieve the purpose of the study, the researcher developed a set of research instruments: Reading Comprehension Test and Grammar Test. Both Tests consisted of 17 multiple choice questions. Students were given fifty minutes to answer the questions. Test items had choices, only one of which was correct. 3. The potential of ICT in creating the foreign language competence of students of universities when learning a foreign language One of the effective ways to improve the quality of teaching foreign languages is the informatization of education. The use of ICT in learning a foreign language helps to intensify and personalize learning, promotes interest in the subject, makes it possible to avoid subjective assessment. In addition, the ICT contribute to overcoming the psychological barrier of students to the use of a foreign language as a means of communication. It should be noted that ICT is both a material supply means and the controlling means. New technologies make it possible to individualize the learning process in the pace and depth of the course. Such differentiated approach gives a great positive, because it creates the conditions for the success of every student, causing the students' positive emotions, and thus affects their learning motivation. In contrast to conventional techniques while using interactive forms of teaching a student itself becomes the main acting figure and itself opens the way to assimilate knowledge. The teacher in this situation acts as an active assistant, and his main function is to organize and promote the learning process. Thus, the following digital resources can be effectively used at foreign language lessons: Power Point presentation (PP), tests, training programs on CD-ROM, online tutorials, educational Internet resources. In our opinion, multimedia presentations, e-learning software and educational Internet resources are of great educational potential, the description of which we shall discuss in detail. Here we should emphasize that each teacher applying ICT on foreign language lessons, should be aware that any educational technology should meet the following methodological requirements: x conceptuality: the scientific concept that includes psychological and socio-pedagogical substantiation of the achievement of educational goals; x consistency: the presence of all characteristics of the system (the logic of the process, interrelation of all its parts, integrity); x efficiency: ensuring results that match educational standards; x flexibility: the ability of variations in the content to ensure comfort and freedom of interaction between the teacher and students with the specific pedagogical reality; x dynamics: the possibility of development or transformation of technology; x reproducibility: the possibility of the use of technology by other teachers in this educational institution or in others. As a result, a comprehensive study found that the most effective for the development of linguistic and communication competence of students are the following types of ICT: PowerPoint presentation, correspondence by e-mail, training programs on CD-ROM and internet resources. 3.1. Multimedia presentation (MMP) According to the analysis of modern methods of teaching foreign languages in Russian Universities we can state that presentations are widely used by teachers of high school for teaching foreign languages. They are convenient for both teachers and students. Original teaching materials of presentations captivate, motivate, and direct students in a successful outcome. Educational potential of MMPs can be effectively used at the lessons of foreign languages for the implementation of visual support while speech training. The PP (Power Point) program and its product (MMP) have a number of properties that distinguish them from traditional means of representation clarity. These include interactivity (the ability to change and make the necessary changes to the same presentation); multimedia (the use of complex effects for information representation such as text, sound, graphics, animation, video one of the technical means); comprehensive reporting (the ability to control the
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presentation in different modes: linear, animation, using hyperlinks); readability (semantic completeness of individual slides or groups of slides); software compatibility (ability to use objects from other programs, such as MS Office applications). The present study indicates that at lessons of foreign language educational presentations are mainly used. They differ in the types of speech activity (reading, writing, speaking or listening); on aspects of speech (when teaching vocabulary, grammar or phonetics); in type of supports (meaningful, semantic, verbal, pictures). Using PowerPoint the learning process facilitates the use of different kinds of language and speech exercises: imitative, substitute, transformation, reproduction. Thus, we can say that PowerPoint program allows the teacher to create high-quality learning materials for specific learning tasks. 3.2. Correspondence by e-mail Communication in virtual reality by means of e-mail can be used for mastering intercultural competence on the lessons of foreign language, i.e. to establishment friendly correspondence. By means of it students will develop their vocabulary, both active and passive, which reflects a certain stage of development of the culture, social and political structure of the native speakers society. The international exchange of letters can be done at any language level. In addition to the establishment of friendly contacts and studying, thus, culture of the studied language, e-mail has its advantages over paper letters: it is faster, easier and cheaper. To find partners by correspondence for the students you can do the following. First, refer a relevant enquiry to TESL-L (computer-assisted language learning sub-branch [email protected]) or TESLK-12 ([email protected]). Second, contact the list-server for intercultural relations (Intercultural E-Mail Classroom Connections), which establish correspondence with different objectives: to carry out joint projects, discuss pressing issues, debate between whole classes. E-mail is probably the most popular and important Internet service. 20 million people communicate through email daily. Almost every Internet user has an email address. You can send texts, graphics, programs, multimedia files by E-mail. It’s worth noting that the first distance courses were entirely built on referrals and assignments by E-mail. The student, after completing the task, send the results to the teacher by E-mail that is far faster. Today there are few courses that are built without E-mail, because it remains a vital ancillary service. 3.3. Training programs on CD-ROM At the present moment the teacher has quite a lot of educational computer programs, both domestic and authentic. In front of a teacher using a computer program for learning, the problem of their integration in the educational process arises. Nowadays there are a number of textbooks that have training programs on CD-ROM. These programs are fully correspond to the concept of the textbook, to a thematic and unit scheduling, so it makes it easier to incorporate multimedia components in each lesson. These applications are a convenient and effective way of independent work of students at home. Each of these training programs has certain goals to work with grammar, vocabulary, reading, phonetics and requires the student and the teacher elementary computer skills. The same can be said about the testing program recorded on the CD. Today, there is a variety of similar programs for different levels of English, from beginner level with the games, comics, songs, poems, etc. to advanced level, such as exam preparation FCE or TOEFL type. The most common programs can be called useful to work in the university: "Living English "," Bridge to English ", "All clear", "BBC Learning English", etc. Such programs contain a great number of speech exercises, exercises to practice pronunciation, grammar exercises, activities and games to practice spelling. The topics of the units make it easy to integrate the course into the learning process. For example, the course “Bridge to English I” is a basic English language course, which consists of 20 lessons. Each lesson contains vocabulary in English and Russian languages, dialogues and grammar in Russian. Each lesson has a different theme and includes plenty of exercises that can be used both for training and control of knowledge of students.
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The use of computer training programs has many advantages over traditional methods of teaching. Their potential is that they allow to train different types of speech activity and conjoin them in different combinations; to help to understand linguistic phenomena; to form linguistic abilities, create communicative situations; to improve speech and language skills; and also provide the possibility of accounting leading representative system; realization of individual approach and intensification of independent work of the student; enhance cognitive activity, motivation and quality of students ' knowledge. 3.4. Internet recourses in teaching foreign languages According to Seljan, Berger, Dovedan (2004), the Internet and the World Wide Web have provided an incredible language learning applications, offering a wide variety of educational programs, resources, software, journals, organizations, software tutorials including all types of exercises for grammar drills, vocabulary, listening and pronunciations exercises, games, electronic dictionaries, etc. The possibility of using the Internet resource is huge. Let us dwell on the methodological aspects of the use of Internet services in the educational process. Internet provides a unique opportunity for students to use authentic texts, listen and communicate with native speakers, i.e. it creates a natural language environment. But how to take advantage of it? The main objective of learning a foreign language is the formation of the communicative competence, all other goals (educational, pedagogical, developing) are realized in the process of implementation of the main goal. Communicative competence in the modern sense of the word involves the formation of the capacity for intercultural interaction. Internet resources can be extremely beneficial in this field. The Possibilities of the Internet: x The teacher can choose in advance authentic reading materials on the subject matter of the oral speech; x it is possible to record audio information (speech of political or public figures, interesting reports of native speakers on various topics); x to hold an oral discussion of the received e-mail letters from project partners; x to perform first in groups a discussion, a dispute on a particular problem of the information obtained from Internet resources, and then organize a general discussion of it in the entire class; x to conduct linguistic analysis of certain communications, whether oral or written utterances of native speakers, e.g. idioms, proverbs, sayings, neologisms reflecting the specificity of functioning of language in the culture of the people; x to use at least partially the artistic works of authors of the country of the target language received from the virtual library; x to use the electronic grammar books and lexical reference books, dictionaries, reference books of cross-cultural nature, the materials of distance learning courses, available for inclusion in a lesson. It is particularly interesting to use the Internet when working on a project. This allows to create at the lesson of foreign language research creative atmosphere where every student is involved in an active cognitive process on the basis of the methodology of cooperation. But the Internet is used in teaching languages not only as an information support, but for communication (a conversation in real time – chat , correspondence – e-mail) that creates a natural language environment. The participation of students in teleconferencing, chat rooms, which are attended by students from different countries of the world is very interesting and useful opportunity for new contacts and real-life conversation practice. In those discussions, conversations, "free talk" there is not only the exchange of information on a particular issue, but familiarity with some elements of another culture. Another type of work is the use of Internet resources in the form of tests for the control of lexical and grammatical skills. For example, the site www.exams.ru offers information about various international examinations in English, different practice tests. Thus, the use of Internet resources in teaching a foreign language gives the possibility of constant improvement of training materials, increases the level of motivation in learning a foreign language. Educational technology is not yet learned. You can only set the guidelines for it possible use. The creative potential of the teachers will tell the scope of
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the search, and professionalism will give an impulse for interesting finds and decisions. Now everyone understands that the Internet possesses enormous information capabilities and equally impressive service. The Internet creates a unique opportunity for foreign language learners to use authentic texts, listen to and communicate with native speakers. Using information resources of the Internet, integrating them into the educational process is helpful in solving variety of didactic problems at the lesson: x to form skills and abilities of reading, directly using materials of different degree of complexity; x to improve the ability of listening on the basis of authentic sound texts from a network the Internet; x to develop the vocabulary, both active and passive, by words of the modern foreign language reflecting a certain stage of development of the culture, social and political structure of society; x to get acquainted with cultural knowledge including speech etiquette, especially speech behaviour of various people in terms of communication, culture, and traditions of the country of the studied language. 4. Data analysis To ensure the equivalence of the two groups before starting the study, a pre-test was applied. Table (1) shows the results: Table 1. Results of pre-test of the equivalence of the two groups
PRE-TEST
Group
students
Mean score (reading skills)
Mean score (grammar skills)
control
25
4.1
3.8
experiment
25
4.0
3.9
Table (1) shows that there were no statistically significant differences between the experimental and control group at the pre-test of reading comprehension and pre-test of grammar skills. This means that the control group and the experimental group were equivalent before starting the study. During the second term students of the experimental group were taught a foreign language using ICT, students of control group were taught a foreign language without using ICT. Are there significant differences in the students' reading comprehension and grammar skills due to the strategy of teaching with the help of ICT? To answer this question mean score in the post tests were calculated. Table (2) presents the results in comparison. Table 2. Results of using ICT in teaching a foreign language for Each Group (Control and Experiment) Group
Test (reading skills)
students
Mean score
Control
Pre
Pre
25
4.1
Post
Post
25
4.2
Pre
Pre
25
4.0
Post
Post
25
4.5
Experimental
Test (grammar skills) Control
Experimental
Pre
Pre
25
3.8
Post
Post
25
3.9
Pre
Pre
25
3.9
Post
Post
25
4.6
Table (2) shows the mean scores of the two groups (Control and Experimental) in the pre Reading Comprehension Test were (4.1) and (4.0) respectively while in the post test were (4.2) and (4.5) respectively; in the pre Grammar Test were (3.8) and (3.9) respectively while in the post test were (43.9) and (4.6) respectively. This means that the students' reading comprehension and grammar skills scores in experimental group were improved in the post test because of the use of ICT.
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Thus, the study investigated the effectiveness of using ICT in teaching a foreign language in high school. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences in students reading comprehension and grammar skills due to the strategy of teaching (teaching using ICT and teaching without using ICT) in favor of the ICT-teaching strategy. The results showed that using ICT at the lessons of foreign languages might have contributed to the improvement of students' achievement in reading comprehension and in grammar. Students might have the opportunity to receive information from different resources, share their knowledge and skills in an appropriate manner and interact more effectively. 5. Conclusion The importance of the use of ICT in the formation of linguistic competence of students of universities in learning foreign language is argued and proven in practice. Conducted pedagogical experiment showed that the use of ICT has a positive impact on the quality of teaching a foreign language. Finally, the study demonstrated that the integration of ICT in the process of teaching a foreign language makes it more dynamic, information-intensive, helps efficiently organize the learning process, increases the efficiency of formation of communicative competence, provides a positive motivation of learning and cognitive activity of students, facilitates the activation of independent work of students. On the basis of the foregoing, it can be argued that the use of ICT is a promising direction in foreign language teaching and needs further study. Acknowledgements The work is performed according to the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University. References Dudeney, G. (2008). How to Teach English with Technology. Pearson Longman. Hartoyo (2008). Individual Differences in Computer-Assisted Language Learning. Semarang: Pelita Insani Semarang. Kayser, A. (2009). Creating Meaningful Web Pages: A Project-Based Course. Available in: http://www.ido.rudn.ru/nfpk/ikt/vved.html. Lavina, T. A. (2014). Formirovanie kompetentnosti uchitelja v oblasti informacionnyh i kommunikacionnyh technologij v uslovijah vvedenija prikladnogo pedagogicheskogo bakalavriata. [Creating the competence of teachers in information and communication technologies in the context of implementation of applied teaching undergraduate]. Sovremennye problemy nauki i obrazovanija, 6. Available in: http://www.science-education.ru/120-16433. Lyubova T.V., Bilyalova A.A., Evgrafova O.G. (2014) Grammatical and communicative method – a new approach in the practice of teaching foreign languages. Asian Social Science. 10 (21), 261-266. McKenzie, C. (2000). Homepages. Built-in Motivation. English Teaching Forum. № 1, 34–37. Nadol'skaja, Ju. A. (2014) Mul'timedijnye uchebnye programmy kak sredstvo aktivizacii uchebnoj dejatel'nosti studentov pri izuchenii nemeckogo jazyka kak vtorogo inostrannogo. [Multimedia training programs as a means of activization of educational activity of students at studying of German language as a second language] Mezhdunarodnyj jelektronnyj zhurnal "Obrazovatel'nye tehnologii i obshhestvo (Educational Technology & Society). Т. 17., № 1, 347–358. Available in: http://ifets.ieee.org/russian/periodical/journal.html. Robert, I. V. (1994). Sovremennye informacionnye tehnologii v obrazovanii: didakticheskie problemy, perspektivy ispol'zovanija. [Modern information technologies in education: didactic problems, prospects of use]. Moscow: Shkola-Press. Russell, M. (1997) Testing Writing on Computers: An Experiment Comparing Student Performance on Tests Conducted via Computer and via Paper-and-Pencil. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 3 (5). Seljan, S., Berger, N., Dovedan, Z. (2004). Computer-assisted language learning. Sorin, R. (2005) Webfolio – Using Electronic Portfolios in Preservice Teacher Education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education. 30(1) Available in : http://www.ajte.education.ecu.edu.ua/issues/PDF/ThirtyOne/Sorin Tinio, V. L. (2002). Survey of ICT Utilization in Philippine Public High Schools. Wheeler, S. (2001). Information and communication technologies and the changing role of the teacher. Journal of Educational Media, 26 (1), 717. Wright, M. (1985) Science, Computers and Education. London: Harper Education Series