Journal+Docs


 * Researching is so important for teachers to do. It is often too easy to get comfortable and somewhat "stuck" in your own classroom, but in order to keep the classroom fresh and innovative it is important to constantly notice what people are doing and thinking outside our classroom. Researching for these two articles definitely reminded me of that. So read below, and be refreshed :) **

Can Technology Teach? For those who are eager to learn a foreign language but do not have the time or money to attend classes, online interactive technology such as //Rosetta Stone// seem to be the perfect option, but there are controversies over their productivity. According to Pete Sharma, language teaching technology has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, for grammar practice online games have proven very productive. Students prefer the stimulating games to boring worksheets and both measure the same knowledge. For vocabulary, Sharma discusses the benefit of online translators as review; however, most students use translators as a crutch rather than an aid which typically produces poor work. The biggest discrepancy I noticed was the skills aspect of language acquisition. Receptive skills, listening and reading, are easy to practice with online tools however production skills, writing and speaking, require a more interactive approach that technology just cannot virtually replicate. Overall, it seems the ideal language learner would have both technology and classroom experience, but this “blended” concept is usually difficult to define.  I believe that nothing can replace a teacher, not even the greatest technology in the world. However, there are some really amazing resources out there that paired with an instructor will greatly help a student’s language acquisition. Just the ease of global communication greatly justifies technology in the classroom because learning in a foreign language classroom includes much more than just the grammar and vocabulary but it’s a different culture which is so much easier to grasp when you can make that culture real and relevant to the students. With Skype or other online communications a student who before was not financially capable of traveling to a different country now has that opportunity. So are interactive language learning technologies an even exchange for classroom learning, absolutely not. But can they be helpful, absolutely.

Sharma, Pete. "Controversies in using technology in language teaching." //Teaching English//. BBC, 08 Apr 2009. Web. 16 Sep 2011. .