For the past five years, teaching language with
technology like Internet is a fantasy dream for me. I have never thought of the
useful way of Internet beyond finding information, communicating with friends,
networking, reading news, e-books, and articles and using other entertainment
programs. Besides that, Internet is a huge resources bank for me as I always
download various kinds of worksheets and activities. Did I mention teaching
using Internet? Neither had I done that in my life nor had any idea of my
students learning language directly from Internet. For me, the only means of
technology using in the class are CD player, projector and computers with some
learning software.
No one knows what will happen in
the future but one should seek to achieve their dream despite all the barriers.
It is my dream of teaching students to use international language fluently in
their lives. Taking this Webskills course is a rare chance for me and I enjoy
learning new things every week. When I knew about doing a final project with
innovative tools from the course, teaching using Internet was the first thing
that came up in my mind. Thanks to many effective language practice websites, I
could be able to teach my first technology-enhanced lesson as my project this
week. When I first created the technology-enhanced lesson plan in week 4, I
thought using suitable language practice websites can enhance students’
motivation and learning. I included one of the lessons with a different
approach in my lesson plan in this week. The lesson is for practicing
listening, grammar and vocabulary skills based on the context of ‘food and
drinks’ with the use of Internet in the class. My lesson stages are :
Warming-up, Pre-teach vocabulary
game, Pre listening, While listening, Vocabulary exercises and Post listening
Students practiced listening and
vocabulary exercises about ‘Food’ from Randall’s Cyber Listening Lab. http://www.esl-lab.com/snack/snackrd1.htm
Then, they played ‘Hangman’ game
about ‘Food and Drinks’ on Manythings.org
Actually, I wanted to use
projector to do all these activities in the class. Unfortunately, the projector
was not available as it was used for another program. Here I want to tell you
about some difficulties to use projector at my school. We have only one
projector for the whole school and we need to share it among the teachers.It is
quite difficult to set up the laptop and projector in the class too. We need to
inform to the principal for before we use it and most teachers do not know how
to set it up by themselves except computer and music subject teachers. They
have their own classes to teach and cannot always assist to do all the setting.
There is also no professional IT technician in my school. Therefore, most
teachers prefer to use video room instead of using projector. The first part of
the lessons which are warming up and pre-teach vocabulary game was taught in
the class. Then we went to the computer room to practice listening using
Internet. When I talked about learning with Internet, students felt excited and
they wanted to learn eagerly with this new way. It surprised me that nobody asked me any
doubtful questions about learning in this way even though this was their first
time taking the language class in the computer room. They were totally engaged
in the lesson and it was marvelous to see the way all the students enjoy
learning using technology. The students had one computer each but we did not
have headphones. So, I played the listening conversation with one speaker in
front of the room. They did really well for all the activities and they were
talking excitedly about their scores after they submitted. They enjoyed playing
‘Hangman’ game on manythings.org and there were a lot of conversations going on
during this activity.
I found that technology helps
students’ learning in an effective and motivated way and on the other hand, I
experienced some unexpected moments during the lesson at the same time. For
instance, some students at the back of the room sometimes could not hear the listening
conversation very well, one student played the game unrelated with the lesson,
some students did not listen to the instructions once they started using computer,
two computers were not working properly so that two students had to share with
other students. Although I had prepared and checked the condition of all the
computers and made restrictions of using other unrelated software in advance,
the lesson did have some slight flaws. However, I am totally satisfied with my
technology-enhanced lesson as I think a lot of students’ learning happening in
that time. This is one of the best times I see my students highly motivated for
learning language.
It is no doubt that technology is
a great tool to enhance students’ motivation in their learning. I am certain that
technology will always be a part of my lessons in the future when my students
asked, “When shall we do like this again?” after coming back from
the computer room.
