Summary "Use of Technology in English Language Teaching and Learning"

Analysis on Necessity of Aplication of Multimedia Teachnology to  English Teaching

1. To Cultivate Students’ Interest in Study                                                         Use multimedia technology featuring audio, visual animation effects for increase student’s interest and motivation.

2. To Promote Students’ Communication Capacity                                            In-class activities as group discussion, subject discussion, and debates can also offer more opportunities for communication among students, so multimedia technology teaching has uniquely inspired students’ positive thinking and communication skills in social practice.

3. To Widen Students’ Knowledge to Gain an Insightful Understanding to Western Culture.                                                                                          Multimedia Courseware                                                                                           - more plentiful than textbooks -help students to improve their listening ability and learn the western culture.                                                                Grasping information through various channels                                                        - make the students with knowledge.                                                                    - make students actively participate in class discussion and communication

4. To Improve Teaching Effect                                                                                - enrich teaching content and make the best of class time                                   - creates more vivid, visual, authentic environment for English learning, stimulates students’ initiatives

5. To Improve Interaction Between Teacher and Student                                    Using multimedia in context creation creates a good platform for the exchange between teachers and students.

6. Creates a Context for Language teaching                                                          When using multimedia software, teachers can use pictures and images to enrich the content of classes, and also imagine different contexts in the process of producing teaching courseware, Students in the class can use multimedia to understand the class in a clear way.

7. To Provide Flexibility Course Content                                                            Multimedia teaching can be created not only in the classroom, but also after class. Multimedia language teaching can also create a multimedia language environment for the purpose of conducting language teaching.

Problems Arising from Application for Multimedia Technology to English Teaching

1. Major Means Replaced by the Assisting One                                                      If totally dependent on, multimedia devices during teaching, the teachers may be turned into slaves to the multimedia. A lot of teachers are active in multimedia technology application but not proficient enough to handle it confidently.

2. Loss of Speaking Communication                                                                         It can result lack of communication between teachers and students, replacement of teachers’ voice by computer sound, and teachers’ analysis by visual image and students have’ few chances for speaking communication. English class turns to course ware show and students are made viewers rather than the participants.

3. The restriction of Students’ Thinking Potential                                              - Question and answer not demonstrate                                                                    – real time, improve students’ thinking, cultivate their ability to discover and solve problems.                                                                                                 - Neglect instruction of teaching but inspire students to think and strengthen their thinking instead                                                                                               - Cultivate student’s thinking should be major objective in teaching and using multimedia technology and it should not take up the students’ time for thinking, analyzing and exploring question.

4. Abstract Thinking Replaced by Imaginable Thinking                                    At present the decreased students' reading competence has become a major concern for reason that, textual words are replaced by sound and image, handwriting by keyboard input.

Suggestions and Strategies to the Existing Problems

1. The Beauty of Courseware Is not the Sole Pursuit                                         Multimedia, as an instrument for assisting teaching, serves the teachers despite its extraordinary effect, so teaching determines whether to adopt multimedia technology. Otherwise, the teachers were acting as the projectionist, clicking the screen.                                      

2. The Computer Screen can’t substitute the Blackboard                                  Traditional writing on blackboard is concise and teachers can make adjustment and amendment to it if necessary. In practice, they need to enrich the content on the blackboard with emerging of new question raised by the students.

3. Power Point cannot Take the Place of Student’s Thinking and Practices                                                                                                                    PPT courseware cannot take the place of students’ thinking or English communication in simulated circumstance, so teachers need to encourage the students to use their own mind and speak more.

4. Traditional Teaching Instruments and Devices should not be Overlooked                                                                                                               Teachers are supposed to choose appropriate media and instrument based on requirements of teaching and integrate multimedia instrument with traditional.

5. Multimedia Technology should not be Overused                                               In practice, the more unconscious attention the students pay. The more interference of teaching information during transmission, the less the students take from the language materials. Teachers' instructions come into great play, help the student gain basic knowledge as well as language training at classes.