Educational Technology in
Teaching Foreign Languages at Universities
Zuzana Rebičová
Department of languages, FEM SUA in Nitra
The information and communication technologies have become an inseparable
and inevitable part of our life. A continuous
development of society and changes on the market are also reflected in higher education. The increasing number of university educated
professionals focuses on modern educational forms and methods out of which
electronic education belongs to the most important. Its use has a motivating effect on students because it differs
from traditional form of teaching.
The paper aims to describe the effectiveness of the use
of modern technologies and e-learning in teaching foreign languages.
Key words: information and
communication technologies, electronic education, the Internet, modern
technologies, computer
Introduction
The ongoing scientific and technical progress brings
us new possibilities for using different technologies for various areas of
social life. Electronic education offers a wide range of uses of advanced information
systems and technologies.
Educational technology is a systematic and organized
process of applying modern technology to improve the quality of education. It
is a systematic way of conceptualizing the execution and evaluation of the
educational process (learning and teaching and help with the application of
modern educational teaching techniques). It includes instructional materials,
methods and organization of work and relationships (Potkonjak-Pijanović,
1996).
There are different opinions among teachers in the
field of social and technical sciences. Therefore, the application of
educational technology requires knowledge from several areas: pedagogy,
psychology, didactics, computer sciences, informatics …. Because of this
diversity, there are also different perceptions of educational technology,
where every author defines the concept of educational technology according to
their needs.
Educational technology has three domains of use:
-
technology as a
tutor (computer gives instructions and guides the user),
-
technology as a
teaching tool and,
-
technology as a learning
tool. (Stošić, 2015, p. 111)
Electronic education
The programmed instruction was founded in 1954 by an
American psychologist B. F. Skinner. Theories of programmed instruction were
based on behaviourism as a direction in psychology,
especially in the USA. Behaviourists believe that behaviour can be studied without thinking on psychological
mental states. To study behaviour means looking for
connections between stimuli and reactions of organism. Thorndike’s laws of
learning are very important here:
a)
practice law – the repetition of act strengthens connections between a stimulus and
a response
b)
effect law – the strengthening of connections which are accompanied by a state of
satisfaction (Petlák,
1997, p. 199)
In a similar way like Petlák,
Turek (2008, p. 419) also dealt with Skinner’s
programmed instruction, according to whom Skinner’s principle of programmed
instruction lies in the division of the curriculum into successive, logically
interrelated steps:
1.
principle of small steps – curriculum is presented in very small parts, one step is composed of
interpretation, question and response,
2.
principle of an active learner’s response – learner has to be active in learning,
3.
principle of immediate feedback – learner knows if his response is correct or
incorrect,
4.
principle of individualisation – learner can proceed according to his own abilities
and consideration,
5.
principle of evaluation and improvement – analysis and evaluation of learner’s response.
Petlák (1997,
p. 201) in already mentioned work followed Turek and
suggests that each step should be composed of 3 parts:
1. stimulus from
the computer – presentation of
information, interpretation of the curriculum and the task
2. reaction of the
learner – he must solve the task, the author of the programme must solve possible reactions of the learner
(correct, incorrect, no response)
3. response of the
computer to learner’s reaction – verbal
comments to the reaction (correct, error, inaccurately)
Programmed instruction as Petlák
(1997, p. 201) points out recognizes 3 main types of programmes:
1.
linear – the
creator is B. F. Skinner, student learns effectively if
he gradually acquires a very small amount of knowledge,
Scheme 1: Linear
programme by Skinner
|
|
ONE STEP |
(Petlák, 1997, p. 201)
2.
branched – the
creator is N. A. Crowder, student has to learn and understand
the subject, he is forced to think about it,
3.
mixed – the combination of linear and branched programme.
As indicated by Turek (2008, p. 421), the first beginnings and construction
of teaching machines is attributed to American S. L. Pressey,
who designed them to best students. But these machines were very expensive and
they were spoiled very often.
Teaching machines:
informants –
interpretation of the curriculum,
examiners – testing and
evaluation of students,
repetitors – repetition of the curriculum,
trainers – training of
psychomotor skills,
universal machines –
performed more functions simultaneously, interpretation + testing,
adaptive machines – adapt
the pace of learning to individual possibilities and abilities of students.
Disagreements between Pressey
and Skinner were described in the work “Všeobecná didaktika“ from 1997 by Petlák. In it he writes that Pressey
differed from Skinner, because Skinner refused error in learning and Pressey accepts it. He argues that students should learn
about the correctness or incorrectness of their responses and if they make
mistakes they should know the correct response. Pressey’s
programme is called linear programme with multiple choice of
responses. Learning progresses linearly, step by step, following the main
branch. Learning progresses linearly, step by step, following the main branch.
Scheme 2: Linear programme
with multiple choice of responses
|
ONE STEP RESPONSES |
(Petlák, 1997, p. 202)
In the 80’s of the 20th century, the
arrival of computers gets into the centre of
attention, when the first 8-bit microcomputers began to expand. The book “Virtuálna kolaborácia
a e-learning“ by Kozík
(2006) familiarizes us with the history of the introduction and use of
computers in Slovakia, where he states that the development of computers in
Slovakia, has started since 1985. In the second half of 80’s, the first 16/bit
personal computers were placed on the market. At that time in education, with
the global development of cybernetics and artificial intelligence, it came to
the improvement of teaching and the use of teaching machines. The computer
started to be used as a learning and examining
machine. Some theories claimed, that a computer could
partially replace a teacher. In the early 90’s, the Internet started to provide
a new service, e-mail. The start and development of this new service launched
the growth of electronic information on the Internet in the form of web pages.
Not only hardware (technical equipment of computer) and software (programmed
equipment of computer) began to improve, but also the types of communication
technologies.
Continuous progress of science and technology brings
the use of many technologies which have still been improving. Eger (2010)
argues that the e-learning improved due to further innovations in the field of
technology and by gradual improvement of methodology from pedagogical point of
view. Educational portals were established and e-learning was increasingly
applied at universities.
Warschauer (1999, p. 4) dealt with Internet issue and
points out that nowadays the Internet is the most important current development
affecting reading and writing. It “has
developed within 3 decades into a mass information and communications medium
and affected business, education and entertainment. Computer-mediated communication
combines several features and they together form powerful new medium of human
interaction. The online environment allows text-based interaction. It brings
two main functions into one medium. We can communicate and interpret experience
by meaning”.
Furthermore, he highlights the positives of the
Internet. “The Internet is more exclusive
than other media (television, radio, newspaper) due to the cost, education and
language requirements necessary to access it. It is more diversified than other
media. By creating more channels for global communication and
a need for a lingua franca, the Internet strengthens the dominance of English
as a global language” (Warschauer,
1999, p. 9).
Conclusion
Electronic education (e-learning) belongs to the most
modern way of teaching foreign languages based on the Internet. It enables easier
information retrieval, resources and offers a wide range of application.
E-learning has been constantly improving thanks to still new and new
innovations in the technological field. Information and communication theories
enable sense perception and compared to traditional forms of education, they
achieve a higher effect in the students’ learning process. The availability of
electronic and web-enabling technologies also influences the way we view the
learning strategies of the future. Multimedia teaching as a result of the
technical development of computers is a component that combines information and
communication technologies with study courses.
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