Technology to Support Classroom Speaking

For the three teacher participants, technology centred on the computer. They considered the computer as having the potential to prepare their students to speak in the classroom. A restricted view of technology as including only computers was reflected by T1 who considered their potential in connecting to the Internet. This restricted view of technology was shared by all teachers in this case study. T1 explained,

as a team we had sort of talked about the fact that this could be useful for our students, just a different way of learning, learning through a different medium. We just thought, yeah, this would help them particularly for their speaking, preparation for speaking. (Teacher One/Interview One)

Furthermore, T1 perceived the use of a computer as replacing face-to-face interaction. She considered the computer as enabling students to interact with each other in an online environment and through group work. However, this view did not suggest that she understood how interaction might support language learning within the face-to-face spoken context as discussed in Chapter Three section 3.3.2 in the review of the related literature.

T1’s view of interaction thus reflected an incomplete understanding about the nature of second/foreign language learning. Discussing the notes students had made (based on their reading of a text and listening to a related audio recording of a lecture or dialogue) on a topic during classroom based lessons, did not ensure that they were able to post ideas about it in the form of text in the online forum to be shared, and later used to support classroom based speaking presentations. The teacher needed to encourage interaction in the classroom. Students needed to be supported to interact with their peers and the teacher about the content and the language used in the text to enable them to notice their own gaps and adjust their

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language to develop their learning. T1 thus, lacked deep understanding of the nature of language learning as was obvious in the following quote,

I guess for me it will mean learning without the face-to-face interaction in the classroom but learning via the computer, but having the interactions all via the computer, so you can interact with other students, the teacher. The classroom I guess is the computer….I guess when I was thinking about using technology here, students interacting with each other, discussing a topic, putting their ideas down in note form, or writing paragraphs, responding to each other, interaction with the teacher... . (Teacher

One/Interview One)

T2 believed that computers support students’ independent learning. She explained,

To me it means that students are not so bound to the classroom environment, that they can access information and access activities from their own homes or from computer labs or whatever and learn in their own time and under their own steam without a teacher standing over their shoulder. (Teacher Two/Interview One)

T3 also considered technology to mean the “computer”. In her view, having computers was important to lift the profile of the English language programme and to enhance course delivery. Furthermore, her view was that, as the students enrolling in the programme came from countries that were technologically advanced, they were accustomed to technology. She believed that these students expected technology to be used in the classroom and that they could be better engaged during classroom learning activities through its use. She observed,

….students come from technologically advanced countries and they’re impressed with the quality of teaching but they’re not very impressed with the lack of technology here. People are changing, the new people coming through, the young people, they’re different. They’ve grown up with iPods, computers. They’re used to a lot more attractive things in life, they’re used to more colour and movement and simply sitting in a classroom with a whiteboard isn’t quite enough anymore. And, also we can teach them so much like we can engage them so much better just by having the teaching a little bit more exciting, a little bit more interactive, a little bit more colour.

(Teacher Three/Interview One)

T3’s views about the potential of using the computer in the language programme appeared to reflect a common misconception that the presence of technology in the classroom ensures that students are engaged in their learning. In fact, the existence of technology in learning environments does not guarantee that students

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are be engaged in classroom learning or are be motivated to learn because they are familiar with it.

In summary, all three teachers in this Case Study One understood technology as involving only the computer, and this is an important finding. This incomplete understanding of technology appeared to have also influenced T1 and T2 to believe that the computer could replace classroom interaction, and for T3 to consider the computer as a necessary part of the language programme because students were familiar with it. Their limited understanding of technology suggested that they considered online and classroom-fronted teaching as interchangeable contexts for learning and that the capability of the computer determined classroom pedagogy. Their view that classroom interaction could be replaced with the computer indicated their lack of awareness about the nature of second/foreign language learning. Both these latter issues are addressed in the subsequent chapter.