Specializarea: Profesor de Limba Engleză [605564]

UNIVERSITATEA DIN ORADEA
Departamentul pentru Preg ătirea Personalului Didactic
Specializarea: Profesor de Limba Engleză

USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING
READING AND LISTENING

Conducător științific: Conf.Dr. Claudia LEAH

Autor: Anca Andrea MORARU
Unitatea de învățământ:
Școala Gimnazial ă ”Constantin Brâncoveanu ”
Localitatea: Satu Mare
Județul: Satu Mare

– Oradea 2019 –

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ARGUMENT. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………… 3
THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLISH
LANGUAGE IN THE GLOBALIZATION CONTEXT. ………………………….. ……….. 5
CONCEPTUAL DELIMITATIONS – USED TERMS. ………………………….. …………. 7
Chapter 1: PRESENTING TECHNOLOGY. ………………………….. ………………………. 10
1.1. Why to use technology? ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………… 10
1.2. Technology in the present. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………….. 12
1.3. Tomorrow’s literacy. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………………. 13
1.4. Opportunities, Not Apps. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………. 14
1.5. E -Teaching. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………….. 15
1.6. The Interactive WhiteBoard. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………….. 22
1.7. How to get Started with Technology in the Classroom. ………………………….. ………. 23
Chapter 2: THEORETICAL BOUNDARIES IN TEACHING RECEPTIVE
SKILLS. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………. 25
2.1. Receptive Skills – General Aspects. ………………………….. ………………………….. …….. 25
2.2. Teaching Reading. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. … 26
2.2.1. Teaching Readi ng: Problems and Solution. ………………………….. ………………………….. .. 27
2.2.2. Reading Purpose and Reading Comprehension. ………………………….. ……………………… 29
2.2.3. Reading as a Process. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. … 30
2.2.4. Goals and Techniques for Teaching Reading. ………………………….. ………………………… 30
2.3. Teaching Listening. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. . 37
2.3.1. Listening as a process. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. .. 38
2.3.2. Difficulties of listening in language teaching. ………………………….. ………………………… 40
Chapter 3: USING TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING READIN G. ……………………. 44
3.1. Using Technology to Enhance Reading -Comprehension. ………………………….. ……. 46
3.2. Programs Used for Teaching Reading: Mac Reader, StoryBoard, an d Reading
Galaxy. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………. 47
3.3. Technologies That Support Students' Reading Development. ………………………….. 52
Chapter 4: USING TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING LISTEN ING. …………………. 56
4.1. The Role of Technology in Teaching Listening. ………………………….. ………………… 56
4.2. The Listening Process: Importance and Difficulties of Listening i n Language
Learning. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………. 57

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4.3. The Various Impacts of Multimedia Technology in the Development of L2
Listening Skills. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………….. 59
4.4. Listeni ng to Learn Reading. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………… 60
4.5. Listening Activities. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. . 61
4.6. New Technologies in a Literacy Program. ………………………….. ………………………… 66
4.7. Listening to Learn: A Digital Framework Activity. ………………………….. ……………. 68
4.8. Provide Multiple Means of Representation, Expression AND Engagement. ………. 72
Chapter 5: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES IN USING
TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING ENGLISH. ………………………….. ……………………… 75
5.1. The Use of Computer Technology in EFL Classroom. ………………………….. ……….. 77
5.1.1. Computer technology and listening comprehension skill. ………………………….. …………. 77
5.1.2. Computer technology and speaking skill. ………………………….. ………………………….. ….. 78
5.1.3. Computer technology and reading comprehension skill. ………………………….. ………….. 79
5.1.4. Computer technology and writing skill. ………………………….. ………………………….. …….. 79
5.1.5. Computer technology and EFL assessment and testing. ………………………….. …………… 80
5.1.6. Computer technology and learner’s motivation and authonomy. ………………………….. . 81
5.1.7. Advantages of the use of computer technology in EFL instruction. ………………………… 82
5.1.8. Implications for EFL teachers and learners. ………………………….. ………………………….. 83
5.1.9. Conclusion. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………. 83
Chapter 6: PREMISES OF THE PEDAGOGICAL RESEARCH. ……………………. 85
6.1. Technology Enhanced Classroom: An Overview. ………………………….. ………………. 85
6.2. Computers, Internet, IWBS and EFL Reading/Listening. ………………………….. ……. 86
6.3. Traditional vs Technology -Enhanced Reading/Listening Classroom. ……………….. 87
6.4. A Case Study. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………. 91
CONCLUSIONS ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……… 102
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……. 104
APPENDIX . ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………….. 113

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USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING READING AND
LISTENING

ARGUMENT .

In this 21st century, the term “t echnology” is a flag partnership in many domains
including educ ation. This is because technology has become the knowledge transfer
highway in most countries. Technology integration in our days has gone through
innovations and transformed our societies that has totally changed the way people work ,
think and live (Grabe, 2007 ). That’s why , schools and other educational institutions
which are supposed to prepare students to live in “a knowledge society” need to
consider ICT integration in their curriculum .
Integration of Informa tion, Communication, and Technology (ICT) in education
refers to the use of computer -based communication that incorporates into daily
classroom instructional process. In conjunction with preparing students for the current
digital era, teachers are se en as the key players in using ICT in their daily classrooms.
This is due to the capability of ICT in providing dynamic and proactive teaching -learning
environment ( Arnseth & Hatlevik, 2012 ). While, the aim of ICT integration is to
improve and increase the quality, accessibility and cost -efficiency of the delivery of
instruction to students, it also refers to benefits from networking the learning
communities to face the challenges of curren t globalization( Albirini, 2006: 6). Process of
adop tion of ICT is not a single step, but it is ongoing and continuous steps that fully
support teaching and learning and information resources . ICT integration in education
generally means technology .
It could be maintained that the main reasons fo r educational change, or
technology integration, are firstly the demands of the society as to how to produce desired
outcomes that can function well in the changing work life, and the desire to keep
up-to-date with the constant innovations that shape human life . Within the context
of English Language Teaching (ELT) it is believed that technology integration brings
about innovations that make language learning bot h more authentic and meaningful.
Education history is filled with “revolutions” and not always do they get to the
point where they originally intended to be. One of the paradoxes created by our
societies is that we tend to lose faith in education , in that it is going to change
our lives . However, with every attempt toward change, we manifest that we covertly
believe in that power, namely the power of education to change our lives (Cuban,
2001 );and, although slow, the schools tend to adapt themselves to the changing needs
of the day. As the last educational change wave, technology integration is believed
to carry a fruitful potential, the effective practices are rare to find even in the
countries where computer availability in classrooms is at hi gh levels.
In the light of the discussion above, educational change, namely technology
integration, may help increase the potential of the learning for the students, and make the

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teaching easy for the teachers. Specifically, in the field of ELT, the power of
Information Communication Technologies(ICT) cannot be undermined as it offers
solutions for the problems the ELT world has been facing for decades, such as
providing authentic materials to the learners, providing grounds for authentic and
meaningful communication, increased feedback and faster response time, and
increased student motivation and autonomy ( Braul, 2006; Kim, 2004; Salaberry, 2001;
Warschauer & M eskill, 2000) . With hypermedia(The use of data, graphics, text, audio
and video as elements of an extended hypertext system in which all elements are linked
so that the user can move between them at purposefulness .) , learners are provided with
a more authentic learning environment as listening is combined with seeing (Braul,
2006). Besides combining sound and visual aids, the Internet also helps the learners
contextualize the language they have been learning, as it helps make it virtually
possible to access auth entic target culture. He claims that the realia accessed through
the Internet help provide the students with a level of cultural awareness, which can mostly
be acquired through experience abroad.
Therefore, while approaching the topic of technology integration to language
teaching, like other tools, the effective usage depends on the people who use them.
The main aim of this paper is to draw attention on the role of using modern
technology in teaching English as a second language. I would also like to discuss about
different approach es and techniques which can assist English language learners to
improve their learning skills by using technology . There are some notable teching
techniques such as: computer assisted language learning programs, presentation software,
online English langua ge learning web sites, electronic dictionaries, chatting and email
messaging programs, listening CD -players, and learning video -clips.
Startin g from the premise that learners ' access to information grows year after year
due to t he development of technology , I chose this theme for this work. At the same time,
we must keep in mind, as teachers, the skills that our students enrich or develop through
the daily use of at least one of the newest technologies on the market (gadgets,
smartphones, google sites …). Nowadays we live with and by technology, so it is time to
look at ICT as an integral part of education .
I consider that the goal of technology is to make language learning easier and
easier to use, and is used regardless of the age or level of learners, giving teachers the
opportunity to organize their lessons better and to train learners in an attractive way in
their specific activities. A foreign language lesson must become an "adventure of
knowledge" in which the student actively participates, is invol ved in the teaching,
learning and evaluation process so that discipline becomes self -discipline of work and
interest, provided by the satisfaction of cooperation.
The aim of my paper is to present the technology tools I apply to the class for
optimizing t he teaching -learning process and to achieve my proposed goals at the
beginning of each lesson.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLIS H
LANGUAGE IN THE GLOBALIZATION CONTEXT .

“I wish I'd spent as much time learning languages as I spent on fenci ng, dancing,
and bear-baiting”
William Shakespeare

The more I travel, the smaller the world seems. Thanks to globalization, European
Union and constant grow of communication through modern technologies the
international barriers broke down and it is very easy to encounter foreign people, different
cultures or a variety of languages. In spite of this , together with the world, the language
barriers also shrink. The knowledge of at least one foreign language became a need. The
English language became a movement and hand in hand with this movement goes
the world’s education .
Although the English la nguage doesn’t have the biggest number of native speakers
in the world, it has the largest reach of any language spoken today. Both native and
second -language speakers of English are found on every continent, and English has
become the lingua franca in many field s, including business, science, technology, politics
and entertainment . English is the working language of many international organizations,
like NATO and the European Union, and it’s the language of global advertising. It is also
the most -used language of the internet, accounting for more than half of all websites. For
many people, learning En glish is a way to get access to a large number of inform ation,
connections, and opportunities.
People used to view learning l anguages as something very important, however,
definitely not as something that is fun like dancing or fenci ng. It used to be a must and
something one needed to put in a great dea l of effort. Despite this , the situation has
changed and toda y’s strategie s to second language learning include a lot of diverse

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techniques that motivate students and they very often learn the second lang uage without
actually knowing . Therefor e, the interest in teaching and learning foreign languages is
permanently growing. English has become Lingua franca, and the center of attention
not only for resea rchers and scholars but also for teachers and parents. Many European
countries, together with Romania, have lowered the age for foreign language
education in an attempt to increase the effectiveness of the acquisition process.
Globalization can be defined as “the interconnections of global economic,
political, cult ural and environmental processes that continually transform present
conditions” (Steger, 2003, p.7 -8).Within the context of globalization, this topic allows
for a broader understanding of the attitudes regarding the English language and its
function not on ly in Romania, but also in Europe. One major consequence of
globalization is the increased spread and interconnectedness of languages, in particular
the English language ( Crystal, 2000 ).
The urgent need for the education in Romania to meet European standa rds has
been posed. Through a new vision, another approach, by changing the ways of teaching –
learning -evaluation, so that, through an authentic school, the quality of the instructive –
educational process is raised, in order to keep up with the changes arou nd us. The
contemporary society, often called the society of generalized communication, is, more
than ever, an educational society with a focus on the new man, formed in the context of
the last demands of the times we live. The major openings produced in t he
epistemological, cultural and technological sphere require frequent adaptations of the
educational phenomenon, in its dual quality as a factor and consequence of the
development of society. It was said that we train and educate the student for the pre sent,
today things are not the same. The future is through what people understand today; now
we are preparing the future.
Between the European documents with impact and significant implications on the
changes introduced in the Romanian education system, we mention: the Recommendation
of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union on key
competences from the perspective of lifelong learning and the European Qualifications
Framework (EQF). They play the role of major decision -makers to su bstantiate the reform
process of pre -university education in Romania and to be directly associated with the
strategy of permanent education.
Modern education implies interactive teaching and learning methods, and
framework plans should include new educatio n: education for democracy, health
education, environmental education, nutrition education, modern economic and modern
education, etc. To align ourselves with European requirements, the specialists are still
looking for solutions. Either integrated at cros s-curricular level, or introduced as new self –
disciplined disciplines, these new realities will find their place in the Romanian school.
As a modern language teacher, I believe that it is necessary to apply a curriculum that
meets the needs of tomorrow's European citizens .

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CONCEPTUAL DELIMITATIONS – USED TERMS .

Resources: Using technology can bring against traditional classrooms a lot of
resources – information, people, media, and events.
Skills: More and more, work areas include actions in which info rmation
technology has become important.
Collaboration: Email, discussion rooms, and other technologies help to develop
collaborative learning and group communication.
Motivation: Teachers and learners regain vitality and passion for their work as
they develop innovative ideas of learning and thinking.
Personalization: Technology tools help teachers to supply learners with access
to instructi onal materials that better fulfill their learning needs.
Connections : Technology promotes connections at a global le vel and
communica tion in our globalized world .
Access: Technology can provide access to learning/teaching materials that would
otherwise be unavailable due to location, or physical restrictions.
Results : Teachers can expect higher results from learners who have access to
technology tools such as word processing, email, and the Web.
Relationships : Technology can help teachers stimulate mutually support ive
relationships with instructors in the country and create partnerships with school li brarians
and media specialists.
Information Literacy : The 21st century working environment needs more
experienced skills for finding, selecting, testing, manipulating, changing, and sharing
information. Learners and teachers need more training and experience in informati on
literacy. (The Internet is becoming an important source of information and young people
are the greatest users of it with 97% of 12 -18 years olds reporting Net use).
Expectations: Learners and young faculty often have high expectations of access
to, and use of, technology.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT): refers to technologies
and tools that people use to share, distribute, and gather information, and to
communicate with one another through the use of computers and inte rconnected
computer networks (Albirini, 2004). It can be broadly defined as the set of technologies
that enable the collection, storage, processing, and automatic transfer of information, as
well as the ability to access this information remotely by means of electronic, optical,
and/or other technologies (Yurdakul & Çaglayan, 1997).
The phrase “teaching with technology” may bring to mind a variety of images
according to our personal experiences as teachers, learners, or conference participants.
Some of u s might understand this as: using PowerPoint or pupils classroom response
systems in lectures; podcasting lectures; and others ma y think of particular classes
applications, like designing Web -based interactive learning modules and simulations to

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teach s kills and concepts.Because it is natural to believe that the tool is the starting point,
the use of IT tends to be adequate and suitable (i.e., as learning facilitator and productivity
growth) being conditioned by its integration into a careful planning p rocess that takes
into account the multitude of factors involved in the teaching and learning process .
Teaching with Technology has four components : the course content,
technology tools, the teacher and the learner .
The course content is formed by the cogn itive level and the discipline of the
course. The technology tools include technology types and technology uses. The teacher
includes technology skill level, time availability and his/her role as teacher. The learners
include their technology skill level, technology access and learning styles. All of these
components are related to each other and involved in successfully integrating technology
into one's teaching. Each of these components is discussed in more detail below : course
content, the teacher , the learners, technology tools.
Course Content
Teaching with technology is more likely a setting clear goals as we normally do
when we plan a new course. What are our students ’ expectations to learn from the course?
What skills and knowl edge do you want the m to develop by the end of the term? What
teaching strategies (lecture, discussion, group work, case studies, e tc.) will best help
learners achieve these goals? When you have answered to these questions, the choice of
the right technologies and the design of learning activities in order to help learners reach
their goals, and also the usage of t echnology to assess pupils ’ learning can be done
The Teacher
When you have a clear idea of the course goals, learning objectives and ho w you
can use technology to support learner s’ achievement of the goals, you will need to ask
some questions about your personal skills and confidence: 1) How skilled and
experienced are you in us ing technology? 2) D o you have time enough for course
planning and selec ting teachin g strategies that would be suitable to your choices of
technology? and not at least 3) Wh at is your role as a teacher ?
If there is a lack of experience using technology, it is senseful to start slowly with
tools that are already established and easy to use in order to build your confidence and
sustain your pupils ’ learning .
Learners /Students/Pupils
By adopt ing technology tools into your courses, it is a necessity to consider
learners ’ past experience wit h technology, their wishes and access to technology, a nd the
multitude of learning st yles as they bring them to your course.
Technology Tools
Because we have considered the context of te aching and learning, we can look to
an examination of the technolo gy itself. The main issue we all encounter is the need to
understand the possible uses an d functions of an increasingly toolkit of technologies . You
should take into consideration which applications a re suitable for your learners ,
disciplinary learning, course content, and teaching s tyle. Not all tools are alike . Some of
them are better at promoting le arning in specific content but there are others which are

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useful for a large number of disciplines . Certain technology tools are built for specific
instructional target s, while others are more generally applicable . (Barson& Debski.1996)

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Chapter 1 : PRESENTING TECHNOLOGY .

Tech nology is developping with the speed of the light . Imagine when learning is
mixed with technology what wonderful outcomes will be there. Education would be
evolving with the impact of t echnolo gy When student and teacher are hand in hand ,
education would be evolving with the impact of technology . Traditional teaching in a
physical classroom, has remai ned the main type of providing lessons during the centuries.
On the other hand, the regre ss of traditional teaching styles led to the development of
online -learning or multimedia teaching .
Effective teaching based on computer offers powerful, interesting and new way
of providing information to learners. That’s why , for effective teaching wi th new
technology each of us needs to know at least something about technolo gy. Teachers need
to know about the manner in which they can operate and integrate the resources
effectively. Effective teachers maximize the potential of the technology to develop
student’s understanding and growing up their interest to improve subject prof iciency.T o
provide better access for learning and notions clearance, technology can be used valuably.

1.1. Why to use technology ?
Today all the educational institutions maximize the potential of student learning
through the implementation of computational tools. Th ey ensure that not only learners
but teachers must have better access to technology and knowledge of the tools.
Multimedia approach of education like use of devices an d audio -visual tools for a better
under standing of concepts has been set up in almost all the educational institutions. This
factor caused speedy and effective learning and th at might be non -volatile. Nowadays,
the teacher’s role is not limited only to reading books, to make the concepts clear, they
might ref er to internet technology and to share the same with t heir students. That’s why,

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teachers should understand and be informed about the tools. Use of internet tools can be
attractive, fun and pre tty exciting. B y the use of technology a teacher can:
Make the boring lectures more interesting by delivering dynamic presentations
using MS PowerPoint.
Use of internet tools like RSS fee d, virtual world or classroom, w orkgroup tools ,
opens up wide borders of learning . WiZiQi gives teachers and learners the chance to
teach and learn online crossing the barriers of distance, time and cost. By the advocating
videos, a learner ’s interest can be raised up to a particular topic. There are a huge variety
of lectures on edutube, teachertube, etc. that could be seen in connection with it .
Everybody, l earners majority, use internet tools regularly and using IT by a
teacher for educating pupils in a classroom implies that t eachers will be talking to his/ her
students in their language that l eads to wide understanding. L earning something about
these tools is not a bad deal. These tools are cos t effective and might be free t hat come
for a trial run. Most of them can be used to support classroom teaching or distanc e
learning. So it is obvious that these tools go beyond the geographical and physical
barriers to provide learning. Technology opens huge opportunities that could have never
been possible until now. (Dudney,2010)
Our life is surrounded with tech products . The technology has been growing
quickly for quite some time, and has now become an important part of life. It has a great
impact on people of all fields and ages. And, of course, it has impacts on children as well.
As you already know, everything has its positive and negative impacts. Same is the case
with the technology’s impacts on children. For the proper growth of our children , it is
highly necessary for us to have knowledge of positive and negative impacts of technology
on them.
The best “tool” fo r good teaching and learning…is… a good teacher! That teache r
can be a professional trainer …it can be “yourself”… it can be a book … it can be a group
of your colleagues, a film, an audio or it can be… whatever suits you, your learning or
teaching style. W hat technology has done for me, is that it makes everything LOGICAL
and COHERENT.

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Through the technology lens teachers are:
 collaborative… we are collaborating with teachers from around the world
to figure out “this thing”…h ow to best prepare the citiz ens of the future
 amplified… we learn amplified…we can teach amplified…not only to
physical bodies that we happen to share time and space with at the moment…
 reachable… we reach and can be reached whenever we choose to
 networked… we are part of a network…w e are not al one…a network of
colleagues , experts, learners… a network that helps us be fluent in accomplishing
tasks, solving problems, being inspired by ideas, remixing of information
 connected… to information, a personal learning network, an audience,
etc.
 available… we are available to others by our online presence. Unlimited
information, opinions, experiences, expertize from others are available to us
anytime, anywhere in whatever media and platform w e prefer to learn
with/through…
 exposed to multiple learning styles… we are able to differentiate
multiple learning styles by giving students opportunities that allow them to
demonstrate their acquisition in multiple ways…
 exposed to multiple teaching styles … we are extending our own teaching
style by explo ring and experimenting with media and platforms beyond our
normal comfort zone…
 worldwide… we are in contact with people /teachers from around the
world… we ask, receive, share, publish to a worldwide audience

What if we put off our l ens … teaching and lea rning seems monolingual … fuzzy
… unidimensional … not rea ching its full dimensions … for all of us … It has been hard
… We have not always been successf ull in trying to help teachers see beyond the
technology and the logistics of how to use it in order to change the way we teach and
learn. It seems to be the need of keeping t he change /transformation captive in a
“technology bow” in order to have excuses why it can’t happen. It se ems easier to say “I
don’t do comp uters” than “I don’t care to prepare my students for a different futur e than
I am used to, I don’t want to adapt my teaching to their learning needs or I don’t know
how to do it! ” … everything is fine the way it is … it has worked for the past 25 years…!
(Scrivener, 2011 )

1.2. Technology in th e present.
Technology in the classroom is becoming more and more predominant. Tablets
are replacing our textbooks, and we can research just about anything that we want to on

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our smartphones. Social media has become commonplace, and the way we use technolog y
has completely transformed the way we live or lives. Teachers, too, have seen firsthand
the benefits of technology in the classroom. They also recognize the importance of
developing these technological skills in students so they will be prepared to enter the
workforce once they complete their schooling.
The impact that technology has had on today’s schools has been quite significant.
This widespread adoption of technology has completely changed how teachers teach and
students learn. Teachers are learning how to teach with emerging technologies (tablets,
iPads, Smart Boards, digital cameras, computers), while students are using advanced
technology to shape how they learn. By embracing and integrating technology in the
classroom, we are setting our students up for a successful life outside of school. Here are
a few benefits of using it. Studies around the world suggest that teachers must utilize the
technology because technology is what the students understand.
Of all existing technologie s, I would like to t ake particular advantage of is the
internet. The internet is loaded with thousands of interactive web applets. These applets
can be anything from a visualization of a function, to a game that requires pupil s to solve
equations. The possibilities are uncoun table. I want to be able to use these applets in my
classroom to help enhance my students learning. (Castells, 1996 )
I attend to utilizing technology in my classroom. Starting from the internet, to
computers, and smart boards th ese are all technology that I as teacher I look t o use in my
classroom. I want not only to put into practice this technology, but do it in such a way
that it helps my students learn. Technology is a tool at our disposal. If we do not take
advantage of it, then we are not doing our students and even ourselves justice.

1.3. Tomorrow ’s literacy.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which y ou can use to change the
world ” NELSON MANDELA
The widespread availability of devices, such as smartphones and tablets, the
wealth of reading mate rial available on them and their affordances for writing, speaking
and listening has been reflected in a growing number of studies exploring the interplay of
technology and lit eracy over recent decades. Recent studies may be seen to reflect
narratives in which technology is variously seen as a challenge to what has long been
understood as literacy (that is, reading or writing on paper); as a tool to support these
traditional concepts of literacy; or as a way to facilitate newer forms or definitions of
literacy. It is, therefore, useful to consider not only how technology may be seen to
support more traditional formats of reading and writing in the classroom but to anticipate
further debates as the affordances of technology support both newer concepts and
definitions of literacy .
Of huge importance is the exposure of students to information literacy skill sets.
As databases grow and information continues to develop into paperless formats, it is
essential to teach students how to question effectively and effi ciently. In a world full of
information to read, libraries become more and more important. Along with digital and
information liter acy skill sets, it's necessary to promote and encour age a love of reading

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across any formats – offering the facility for an alyzing, questioning, discerning and
synthesizing with other media . (Larnsen& Freeman.1991)
Integrating technology doesn't have to consume your life as a teacher. Actually , if
a little time is spent on, let’s say, Gmail, teachers can eventually save time a nd paper,
while collaborating more effectively with learners . Personally, in my previous
classrooms, I didn’t seek to integrate every free Web t ool. I simply used sites as a
resource. I referenced that resource at the beginning of each new semester and mad e
decisions based on what I was teaching. Ultimately, I focused on the underlying learning
objectives th at I wanted, complete with learners , and found digital tools to compliment or
enhance those skills.

1.4. Opportunities, Not Apps.
For an instructional coaching program to be effective, school leaders need to play
an active role in selecting trained coaches, developing a targeted coaching strategy, and
evaluating whether coaches are having the desired impact on teaching and learning and
not at least find applications that promote and strengthen a variety of skill sets for
students, not just one or two. .At the moment when you're starting out with tech nology
integration, you have to find a focus. Getting caught up in the endless , always expanding
world of w eb 2.0 applications and iPad or Android apps will only confuse your pupils
and frustrate you. Also, look for instructional technology specialists or co aches in your
school for help. All teachers need to u nderstand that it's OK to ask a student s – they kn ow
a lot! (Shields.2010 )
An important use of technology is its capacity to create new opportunities for
curriculum and instruction by bringing real -world problems into the classroom for
students to explore and solve. Technology can help to create an active environment in
which students not only solve problems, but also find their own problems. This approach
to learning is very different from the typical school classrooms, in which students spend
most of their time learning facts from a lecture or text and d oing the problems at the end
of the chapter. So, it's not about how many apps we integrate, but about providing our
students with the best access and opportunities to contemporary learning resources. As
educators, we must prepare our students for their fut ure, not ours.
During my career as a teacher I’ve seen technology change the role of the teacher
almost beyond all recognition. But, there is a question we have to answer: this
transformation from teacher to facilitator of learning is a positive one? Und eniably so,
in my opinion.
Technology places the world in the hands of every learner inside the outer
boundaries/limits of your classroom. As teachers we have to facilitate the use of
technology in order to allow learners the freedom to discover solution s to problems both
independently and collaboratively . We want them to be active learn ers, learners who
have a desire for discovery and knowledge .(Brown,1994)
There are a lot of ways in which technology can be used in the classroom to
involve learners and facilitate exciting, engaging and interesting lessons. If you're not
used to allowing your pupils space to guide their own learning then I can see how this all

15
might seem intimidating; don't let it be. For the majority of teachers it feels unreasonable
to allow our students the space to discover solutions as these might not be the ones that
we want them to find. Permit ting the use of technology in classrooms has freed all of us
from our lesson -plan limits . It feels strange at first but the this type of emancipation is
addictive
Every teacher feels the stresses of getting students through exam courses and
giving them the freedom to w ander is sometimes too much for some to allow . In spite of
this, in my experience allowing the freedom to search a nd disc over the subject with the
help of technology has cultivated a love for my subject.

1.5. E-Teaching.
E-teaching is an innovative teaching strategy using the e -learning
technology to empower both learners and teachers thus providing o pportunities for
superior learning experiences. E-learning and e -teaching systems are involved in
teachers' professional activities and development in several ways: (a) If e -learning/e –
teaching is the technology which supports the process of teachers' l earning of university
courses, the teacher is in the position of e -learner; (b) If e -learning/e -teaching is the
content of the teachers' university curricula in order to be applied in the teaching process,
the teacher switches from the position of e -learne r to the one of e -teacher in blended or
total e -learning systems . (Rosen, 1995) .
As you take the benefits on the opportunity to do something new and using
technology as the tool can open up a cave of treasures that fasteners the attention of the
student an d once you have that it can lead them anywhere . Most students have powerful
devices, primed and ready to go in their pockets – the dreaded mobile phone. Permitting
students to pull out these weapons is a liberating experience for both teacher and student.
Filming a companion assessment or recording a group discussions and uploading to
AudioBoo is yet another way of engaging students.

AudioBoo: Through this tool, you can record and share audio for your students
or anyone else.

EduBlog s: EduBlogs offers a safe and secure place to set up blog s for you and
for your classroom

16

Wikispaces: Helps to s hare lessons, media, and other materials online with your
students, or let them collaborate to build their own educational wiki on Wikispaces.

Skype: Skype is a great tool for keeping in touch with other educators or even
attendi ng meetings online. I t can also help teachers to connect with other classrooms,
even those in other countries.

FunBrain : If you’re looking for a great collection of educational ga mes, look no
further than FunBrain. Here , teachers can take adva ntage of fun tools for reading and
math.

17

Google Education : Google offers a number of wonderful edtech resources for
teachers, including email and videos, lesson plan search collaborative a pps, career
developm ent, and even educational rewards.
Pinterest: You can pin just about any image you find interesting on this site, but
most of the teachers are using it as a place to collect great lesson plans, projects, and
inspirational materials .

Google Docs: With Google Docs, we can create and share documents,
presentation s, or spreadsheets with learners and colleagues as well as well as give
feedback on student -created projects

Evernote: Capture great ideas, photos, recordings, or just about a nything else on
your Evernote account, access it when you want , and keep it organized. It’s a must -have
tool for lesson /activity planning.

18

YouTube: Not all schools allow YouTube, but they don’t take in consideration
that the site contains a wealth o f wonderful learning materials for the classroom. There’s
also a special education -focused channel just for teachers and students.

Google Earth : Starting f rom geography projects to learning about geological
processes, Google Earth can be an incredible and fast way to show students all over the
world.

Twitter: There are a lot of ways in which Twitter can be used in education.
Teachers can connect with other teachers , take part in chats, share their ideas, or even use
it in the classroom interact with their students.

19

SlideShare: With SlideShare, you can upload your presentations, documents, and
videos and share them with stud ents and colleagues. More than that , you can take
advantage of resources that other have uploaded as well.

Dropbox: Helps u s to store, share, and access any kind of data from anywhere
with the easy -to-use and free Dropbox service

Apps. Learning English can be very difficult and dissapointing at times. Apps on
iPads and tablets are great ways for students to practice English and have fun while using
it. For practicing grammar rules, apps like Grammar Up allow students to test th eir
knowledge on specific notions (verbs, prepositions, etc.). The app also keeps account of
students’ progress and allows them to skip questions by sh aking the tablet. Online
colleges offer a list of 16 apps for ESL students.

20
Podcasts . Everybody can listen to podcast s to improve their understanding.
Podcasts can be created in order to practice their English speaking abilities. A free
download of iTunes gives teachers access to a multitude of free podcasts on a variety of
notions . There are a lot of podcasts customized specifically for English language l earners.
Teachers can also help students to create pod casts for giving them chances to practice
their speaking skills. With just a micr ophone and a computer, each learner can create
reports and presentations. Video p odcasts are a captivating alternative for learners and
some classes even have their own YouTube channels .( https://www.apple.com/)
Web Quest s. Web quests are a fun ny way for students to use the Internet in order
to build English proficiency. Students are given a task and rely on their content knowledge
and sense of English language to complete it. Teachers can create their own or visit Web
Quests to access tutorials and databases of pre -created web quests.
Popplet: We c an use Popplet to brainstorm ideas, create mindmaps, share, and
collaborate

Film and Video . Using short and full-length videos is an attractive way to work
on skills like voc abulary and comprehension. Videos help to expose students to the use
of natural Engl ish. Young children really like short cartoons and animated movies, and
older students can learn about daily events through news broadcasts
Pen Pals . Since snail mail is becomi ng a thing of the past, learners can have pen
pals that they email o r write to on a discussion group . Make an arrangement with an
English -speaking class in another st ate or country and have learners write to their pen pal
on a regular basis. This is a great way for them to practice their English writing and
reading comprehension skills, while making friends in the process.

21
Blogging. Class blogs provide great platforms for students to practice their writing
skills. Live Journal, Edublog and Blogger allow you to create your blogs f or free. Because
students find blogging attractive, that it is more of an authenti c writing experience. As a
larger audience typically has access to read posted entries, students tend to put more effort
into their blogs. Tea chers can get student s to write about specific subjects that they find
interesting, or students can provide commentary on current events and social justice
issues. The more they practice their writing skills, the more proficient they become, so
regular blo gging (weekly or daily) is recommended. Blogs also give good opportunities
for family members to see what their children are working on in class! .(Smart Learning
Marketplace,2008)
Prezi – a cloud -based presentation software that has the ability to zoom in and out
to show relative importance of ideas and group concepts together. Prezi is visually
stimulating; a great alternative to Power Point which can feel static.

Storybird – is a collaborative storytelling tool. Students can create short art
inspired s tories that can be share d or printed. Students can improve their writing with
images to bring their stories, poetry, songs, etc. to life!

Web Quests . Web quests are a fun ny way for learners to use the Internet to build
English proficiency. Students are g iven a task and rely on t heir content knowledge and

22
sense of English language to complete it. Teachers can create their own or visit Web
Quests to access tutorials and databases of already created web quests.
Many of today’s technology options allow studen ts to see how well they are doing
compared to the average of all users, it gives them a chance to push harder for themselves
and their education. Many of the programs that encourage learning also issue rewards or
award certificates, which helps to make the lessons fun as well. There are three critical
forms of intelligence that we see in children today: emotional, creative, and instructional.
The traditional classroom environment, which typically encourages lecture -based lessons,
focuses more on the latter option. Standardized tests and similar ranking tools do the
same. When kids have access to technology today, then those who excel outside of the
standard learning setup can still achieve their full potential. (Smart Learning
Marketplace,2008)
Technology al lows children to embrace their curiosity in multiple ways. They can
try new things without embarrassment because their tech access gives them a level of
anonymity. This process allows kids to work, through trial -and error if they wish, to see
if a differen t strategy helps them to learn more effectively.

1.6. The Interactive WhiteBoard.
The IWB is a technology made up of a computer connected to both a projector
and a touch -sensitive board that presents the pictures pr ojected from the com puter, allows
for ch anges, and receives input electronically or by touch. The software for the IWBs
allows a multitude o f activities, including those that can be used without the use of the
IWB (e.g., projecting presentations and short films, writing, and erasing the board) a s
well as activities exclusive to this type of technology.
As example:
1. Highlighting : a clear color that can be placed on top of writing.
2. Hide and reveal: an item located on top of others can be removed.
3. Drag and drop : an item on the board that can move i n various directions .
4. Storage and recall : Unlimited storage and quick recall of material .
5. Animation: Items can be spun, change size, and move in a pre -determined direction .
6. Feedback : When touching a particular item, there is visual or auditory feedback .
The IWB serve as a type of alternative to the teacher as the center of attention and
may enhance cooperative learning in the class, contributing to the development of
autonomous learning and higher order thinking skills.
Teachers consider that the multi -faceted technological presentation (that relates
to a number of senses – hearing, sight, and sometimes even touch, when the student closes
to the board) aids students who have difficulty developing mental images of complicate
notions . (Cuban,2001)

23
Why IWBs are often described as a ‘digital hub’ is because they are able to pull
all of these digital experiences together in the classroom. The logical place to do this is
on a large screen where all learners can see and interact with the media, and where
teacher s can engage learners in discussion and exploration. IWBs are ideal for combining
this digital content in an integrated manner so that, instead of a classroom where text is
written on a blackboard, pictures are shown with an overhead projector, video is wa tched
on a TV, the Internet is explored in the computer lab, and so on, all of these digital assets
are now able to be gathered together and explored by teacher and learner together in a
manner that simply make s more sense.
It doesn’t matter if that means easily showing fragments of video relevant to the
topic being taught, getting learners to record their voices in a podcas t and presenting it to
their companions , exploring the pages of the web together, or for any number of other
uses that simply were not possible before all these r esources went digital. If we accept
the idea that this new digital world is worth making an integral part of our classrooms,
then IWBs make enormous sense. As a large -screen, digital convergence de vice,
accessible to all learne rs, affordable for all schools and easy to adapt to regular classroom
use, this is a technology whose time is right. Teachers will get the most benefit out of an
interactive whiteboard if its use is logically integrated into their every day lesson. While
they may want to use their IWB every minute of the day, the ideal situation is such that
they can access it on demand when they want to use it. (Butler -Pascoe& Wilburg, 2003)

1.7. How to get Started with Technology in the Classroom.
Everyone wants teache rs to use technology in the classroom. But you're busy –
meeting standards, prepping students for tests – and maybe you’re not too fond of
computers, anyway. Never fear – there are easy ways to bring your classroom up -to-date,
technologically.
• Do focus on how technology can aid not hinder student progress
• Don't buy the latest fad product. There has been a temptation for schools to
replace laptops for tablets. This might have been successful for some schools but as good
as tablets are, they aren't read y to replace laptops … yet
• Don't give up. You might try something once and it doesn't work but don't let
that put you off. Try and discover what works best for you and your students. If that
doesn't work then try something else
• Do plan how you're going to use the technology in advance. How is it going to
aid the learning of your students? If it isn't going to aid teaching and learning then you
shouldn't use it
Technology can be a great benefit in ESL classrooms, offering authentic writing
activities and endless resources on grammar instruction, lesson plans and other central
topics. Tablets, computers and e -readers can all be instrumental in learning English,
offering motivating and interactive activities for learners of all ages and teachers can use
technology to teach English in a way that will make lessons more engaging and appealing.

24

25
Chapter 2 : THEORETICAL BOUNDARIES IN TEACHING
RECEPTIVE SKILLS .

2.1. Receptive Skills – General Aspects .
In any language there are four basic skills: productive sk ills – speaking and writing
and receptive skills – reading and listening. All are equally important and when it’s
possible we should try to integrate them into our lessons if we want to have a balanced
approach. Habitually we will want to focus more on one particular skill but it still bring s
others in to create an “integrated” skills lesson .
Listening : The learner hears a new item (sound, word, grammar feature, etc.) .
Speaking: The learner tries to repeat the new item.
Reading : The learner sees the ne w item in written form.
Writing : The learner reproduces the written form of the item.
As far as awareness is eager , it is the most common human characteristic , as with
the birth itself; the child starts receiving various impressions through its senses.
Traditional notion of listening being a passive activity and speaking as the most active,
has become old -fashioned now, since the decoding of the message calls for an active
participation in the communication between the participants.
Brown states “Listening ability lies at the very heart of all growth, from birth
through the years of formal education the better those learning skills are developed, the
more productive our learning efforts ”. (Brown,1987). Unstinted listening to the ‘real’ as
competitor to purp ose-written English is very admissible suited for it demonstrates that
the student’s efforts in the classroom will give forth entangled with bonuses in life in an
English -speaking environment. The materials he /she hears need not of course be only a
repres entation of what is already known.
Another receptive proficiency is reading, a thinking under the temptation of the
printed page and is considered a psycho linguistic complex skill that is to say that it
involves a whole series of auxiliary skills.
On one hand, listening and reading are receptive (but not passive) decoding skills
aiming at understanding; on the other, speaking and writing are productive, encoding
skills. But there is less imbalance and more identity in the thick of them. The launching
of intensified clues and lavish foretoken evidence in target language is well established.
Analyzing varied of the fundamental issues related to reading and listening, I will try to
point out some of the problems associated with the teaching of the se skills and discuss
possible solutions .

26
2.2. Teaching Reading.
All language instructors obligation know that language skills cannot be taught in
a separate way, but are handled simultaneously through the language teaching -learning
process. In this work I wo uld like to deliver about the two receptive skills of degree and
listening. According to my obsolete experience, I find these skills very defiant for young
learners, but essential to master in their learning of the language. Analysing varied of the
element ary problems regarding inkling and listening, I will also try to draw germaneness
on totalitarian problems associated with the teaching of these competences/abilities and
discuss possible corrections with special emphasis on my personal teaching context.
Foreshadowing serves multifaceted purposes .
The purpose in teaching reading is to encourage L2 learners to turn out to be as
skilled lectors as possible in English as their second or foreign language.
Wallace (1992:74) claims that: “ The more fluently and widely the second
language reader reads, the more exposure to the key structures and vocabulary of the
second language he or she gains. ” It is meaningful, but there are a lot of other reasons
which affect reader efficiency and reading comprehension .
People keep on books for a variety of explanation. All and sundry be to
comprehend a text and answer comprehension check questions, to improve language wit,
to achieve wonder and information, , to solve language problems ,to know the instruction
of using a attentive tool, to be customary with a particular country or place,to do grammar
activities, to decode message from a printed document, to get idea from inscription from
any objects etc. So the analysis for data are uncountable . Rivers and Timperley
(1978:187) classifies a not many rationale of reading for L2 students such as: – pains in
touch with friends by accordance or to understand business pamphlets; – possessions
formula on how to carry off some task for our work or daily life -knowing what is
happ ening or has happened (as widespread in newspapers, magazines, reports): -obtaining
information for some purpose or representing we are curious about some topic -knowing
when or where something will take place or what is available and not at least for ple asure
or excitement.
As well the modality in which texts are decoded by the lector s/readers is also a
key matter in reading process . McDonough and Shaw (2003:97) refer to the 'top -down'
and 'bottom -up' strategies working together to achieve comprehensio n. In the top -down
approach readers interact with the text by 'activating knowledge of the world, plus past
experiences expectations and intuitions, to arrive at a meaning of the text' . The bottom
up approach. A s Hockly (2007:89) declares , “ […] starts f rom the individual symbols
(or sounds, in the case of listening), words, grammatical class, sentence structure, and
allows the reader/listener to build up meaning from the constituent parts of the text. ”
Cook (1997:86) explains that 'schemas vary accordin g to cultural norms and individual
expe rience'. It is about what the lector brings to t he text which in turn affects the way
how he/she deals with it, or in Alptekin's (1993:137) words: […] readers make use of
culture -specific schemas in relating inpu t to what they already know and, consequently,
construct the writer’s intended meaning. .” The lectors' world outlook or 's chematic
knowledge', as set forth by Alptekin (1993:136) is: […] an important part of the 'fit'
which exists between people's cu lture-specific cognition and their native language. As
the same writer states, the problem appears when the learners' formal knowledge comes

27
into contact with teaching aid including target -language cultural notions . When there are
no cultural backg round notions and a dearth of understanding of the L2 culture arises ,
so the process of reading b ecomes 'a unavailing, burdensome, and fr ustrating experience'.
According to Wallace (1992 ), L2 readers become more dependent on t he bottom -up
approach. He claims go recompense of their ill -behaved fustian cleverness, they as well
as reason 'a well -known number of contextual aid, as with as inapt unique of the hard –
cover they are decoding are either unknown to them or accessed slowly' (ibid:29) . ).
Centre o f of the principal logic for the liability we try predisposed to is the insensate old
in Engli sh Language Teaching (ELT). As stated by Alptekin (1993:138): 'most reader
writers are bumptious boong speakers', who element of ' chiefly through culture -specif ic
schemas' acquired in 'their own English speaking society'. He into the accord b rightly -lit
promote out it is e conomically motley for publishers to quarters the learner's cultural
skills , as a service to it would wail be fitting for learners in other cu ltures . He also argues,
anyhow , that contexts 'cannot be replicated versions of native sp eaker contexts of use',
and as summarized by Hockly (2007:96), he advocates 'carefully chosen texts' to which
L2 readers can resp ond 'authentically'. Therefore, course books counterfoil a lot of
authentic material.
It doesn’t matter which the problem is, teacher s are fully responsable to stir and
anatomize the meagre that texts have for the L2 learners in their learning of the language
and the way of using them to accomp lish it .

2.2.1 . Teaching Reading: Problems and Solution .
I believe that all instruc tors/teachers should have the feedom to choose materials
for their classroom in order to use them wisely targeted on learners’ needs for reading.
Frequently certain texts may be omitted, due to their irrelevance to the purpose at hand
or lack of time. Lots of adds -on and other selected materials are used by teachers in order
to accomplish the aim of their lessons.” Teachers should supply materials that stimulate
interest and do not have an overfamiliar content” in McDonough and Shaw (2003:99)
vision while , Alptekin proposes to develop “ conceptual bridges between the culturally
familiar and the unfamiliar […] through the use of comparisons as techniques of cross –
cultu ral comprehension or the exploitation of universal concepts of human experience as
reference points for the interpretation of unfamiliar data.”' (1993:141 -142). A very
important thing to put emphasis onto is the variety of learners , taking account of their
knowledge and that some learners have difficulty getting close to any kind of reading
material. So I firmly support pre-reading tasks, as they tend to bring the text closer t o the
reader permitting easier interaction with the content . The pre – reading tasks can start as
discussions of learners' similar experiences of life, as discussions of similar themes in
articles from newspapers, magazines or the In ternet or a questionnaire on an already set
topic . For young learner classroom pre -reading activitie s must keep account of learners’
language ability and moreover, it is about his language acquisition. The way in which
the teacher introduces the reading material , the way in which he/ she presents it to the
learners is the first connection for them. We could say that the learners' first connection
with the reading material is through the eyes of the teacher. As the connection has been
set, the reading activity can start as well as any other activities planned for the text given.

28
An udoubtalble thing is that each skill should be matched to a purpose, as
McDonough and Shaw (2003:95) states 'match reading skill to reading purpose'.
Another important point which should be taken onto consideration is to set clear
tasks for a certain text and not to overdo th e tasks related to the text. Gairns and
Redman's (2003: 170) state that : “set a clear task, set a time limit, clarify the reading
aims, have a clear po licy on vocabulary pre -teaching” . All the tasks we set for a text
depend on what kind of a text we use, if it is a story, a dialogue, an article, a recipe or
a letter, as well as the reading itself, no matter if it is individual reading, group reading or
reading out loud. During my classes I try to use different types of activities such as:
reading for s pecific information, checking comprehension and extract main ideas and
explore the collocations and the lexical sets. The last activity I’ve mentioned is used more
often w hen practising a grammatical structure . But is not enough if we don’t try to connect
it to t he content of the text which permits learners to manipulate not only the grammatical
structure we are focused onto, but to understand the meaning as it is in the given text. The
linking between the reading content to the learners’ experiences of lif e and continuing
with the grammar structures in this context(which by far is more familiar for them) , they
are able to remember the grammatical structure better , and remain the focal point within
the lea rning process. In order to help slow readers, I ofte n put pupils into mixed ability
groups where they take turns reading out loud to each other. Every group have more o r
less the same number of learners as there are paragraphs in a given text . I choose the
texts carefully as they have no more than 4 to 5 paragraphs . Each paragraph is designed
to one learner. He/she must read it out lou d to the rest of the group, start the group
discussion in analysing unknown words or phrases and paraphrase the main idea in the
paragraph. Slower learners feel less frustr ated and participate better. Wallace affirms that
it is important to 'ensure that text, context, and reading task give maximum support to the
second language learner's current linguistic and schematic knowledge' (1992:42 -43). For
those learners , who are language skilful , I usually choose that type of texts so they can
handle them from a critical perspective , texts that have the 'potential to raise issues', as
Wallace (1992:103) suggests. Critical reading breaks the monotony of reading only for
grammar purposes and gives reading a new freshness. 'Automaticity of word recognition',
referred to by Paran (1996:30 ), as well as word meaning, is something I aim for with my
learners .
According to the traditional way of learning/ developing skills the most impo rtant
factor for learning to read in a language is to have access to the literature written in that
language. The reading materials have been extracted from literature whic h is considered
to be the highest form of culture. So the authentic materials are limited to the words of
great authors and for lower level learners they are not suitable. Nowadays traditionally
approach is designed more for the advanced learners who really need to study vocabulary,
grammar or sentence structure , in a more academic styl e.
The communicative approach to language teaching has given teachers a different
understanding of the role of reading in the language classroom and the types of texts that
can be used in instruction. When the goal of instruction is communicative competenc e,
everyday ma terials such as newspaper articles ,train schedules , and travel and tourism
Web sites become appropriate classroom materials, because reading them is one way
communicative competence is developed. Instruction in reading and reading practice thus
become essential parts of language teaching at every level.

29
2.2.2 . Reading Purpose and Reading Comprehension .
Reading serves multifaceted purposes. People read books for a variety of reasons.
They read to comprehend a text and answer comprehension ch eck questions, to do
grammar activities, to solve language problems, to improve language ability, to achieve
pleasure and information, to know the instruction of using a particular tool, to be familiar
with a particular country or place, to decode message from a printed document, to get
idea from inscription from any objects.
Doff (1997: 170) states, “We usually have a purpose in reading: there is something
we want to find out, some information we want to check or clarify, some opinion we want
to match agai nst our own etc.” The reasons and purposes of reading a text differ from
person to person because of their different opinions, backgrounds and experiences and
schemata (Nuttall, 18). . Thus, a same text may be a source of diverse interests depending
on the person concerned. The purpose(s) for reading guide the reader's selection of texts
and determines the appropriate approach to reading comprehension.
For example someone who needs to know whether she can afford to buy from a
particular shop needs to compr ehend the pricing information provided on the labels, but
does not need to recognize the name of every material used for manufacturing each
product . On the other hand a person reading poetry for pleasure needs to recognize the
words the poet uses and the ways they are put together, but does not need to identify main
idea and supporting details. Anyhow, a person who use a scientific article/work in order
to support an opinion needs to know the vocabulary , understand the facts and recognize
ideas that ar e presented as hypotheses.
Good readers according to reading researches:

– Good readers are active readers
– Read extensively
– Good readers construct, revise, and question the meanings they make as they
read.
– Integrate information in the text with ex isting knowledge

30
– Have a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading
– Are always motivate d
– Read for a purpose; reading serves a function .

2.2.3 . Reading as a Process .
Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader an d the text,
resulting in comprehension . The text presents letters , words , sentences and paragraphs
that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills and strategies to determine what
that meaning is.
Reader knowledge , skills and strategies include:
– Linguistic competence – ability to recognize the elements of the writing
system; knowledge of vocabulary and how words are structured into
sentences.
– Discourse competence – knowledge of discourse markers and how they
connect parts of the texts to one anoth er.
– Sociolinguistics competence – knowledge about different types of texts and
their usual structure and content.
– Strategic competence – the ability to use top -down strategies as well as
knowledge of the language.
Reading comprehension is thus much more than decoding. The reason for reading
and the choice of the reading text are the ones which determine skills, strategies that the
reader has to apply in order to achieve comprehension. Reading comprehension results
when the reader knows which skill and str ategies are appropriate for the type of text s, and
understand how to apply them to accomplish the reading purpose . (Day & Bamford ,
1998) .

2.2.4 . Goals and Techniques for Teaching Reading .
According to Education.com the reading process is :
"Steps that most children go through as they read are pre -reading, first reading
(of fiction), re -reading, and extended reading. Process of constructing meaning from
written texts. Complex skill requiring critical and creative thinking processes to pull
together a number of interrelated sources of information."
Reading is the important subject to be taught in the school. In reading –
learning process the student must understand the content of text to get the
information from it. Reading is proc ess to transfer the science from book to brain
from writer to reader, and this information will not be received by the readers if
they did not understand what the content of the text is. Another problem reading to
is lack of vocabulary and also pronunciation.

31
Facing these problems, learners can sustain that English learning is difficult , in
particular the reading skill. The students , generally know from their test result s that
they always failed in the reading text. This matter will out from the goal of
teaching learning. The solution of th ese problems is that the teacher should know
more about approach, method, and strategy in learning English, as the method will
support the teacher way to ma ke his teaching learning more effective.

The Reading Process
In the achievement of this goal, teachers should focus on the process of reading
more than on its product.
Developing students' awareness of the reading process and reading strategies
by aski ng students to think and talk about how they read in their native language.

Allowing students to practice the full repertoire of reading strategies by using
authentic readin g tasks. They encourage learners to read to learn (and have a real purpose
for reading) by giving students some choice of reading material.
When working with reading tasks in class, they show students the strategies
that will work best for the reading purpose and the type of text. They explain how and
why students should use the s trategies.
They have students practice reading strategies in class and ask them to practice
outside of class in their reading assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of
what they're doing while they complete reading assignments.

They enc ourage students to evaluate their comprehension and self -report their
use of strategies. They build comprehension checks into in -class and out -of-class reading
assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular strategies.

They encourag e the development of reading skills and the use of reading
strategies by using the target language to convey instructions and course -related
information in written form: office hours, homework assignments, test content.
They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one task to
another. They explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type
of reading task or with another skill. (Ackersold, 1997; Bernhardt, 1991) .
By raising students' conscious ness of reading as a skill that involves effective
participation , and by teaching in a very clear way reading strategies, teachers help their
students to develop the ability and the confidence to handle communication situ ations
they may encounter outside the classroom. T his is the way in which they give learners the
foundation for communicative competence in the new language.

Reading Strategies
Instruction in reading strategies is not an add -on, but rather an integral part of the
use of reading activities in the langua ge classroom. Teachers can help their students

32
become effective readers by teaching them how to use strategies before, during, and after
reading.
Language instructors are often frustrated by the fact that students do not
automatically transfer the strategi es they use when reading in their native language to
reading in a language they are learning. Instead, they seem to think reading means starting
at the beginning and going word by word, stopping to look up every unknown vocabulary
item, until they reach th e end. When they do this, students are relying exclusively on their
linguistic knowledge. One of the most important functions of the language instructor is
to help students move past this idea. Effective language instructors show students how
they can adju st their reading behavior to deal with a variety of situations, and reading
purposes, They help students develop a set of reading strategies and match appropriate
strategies to each reading situation." Strategies that can help students read more quickly
and effectively include:
Previewing: reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense
of the structure and content of a reading selection
Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about
content and vocabu lary and check comprehension; by using knowledge of the text type
and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure.
Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in
the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up
Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by
restating the information and ideas in the text (http://www.nclrc.org )

Using Authentic Materials
Choosing materials is a difficult task and instructors must be aware of many
aspects before selecting specific material for their students; for example, whether the level
is appropriate, the activities meaningful, or the material helpful for the students to reach
the stated objectives. However, other important elements are not necessarily represented
in textbooks, such as the fact that readings should contain language as it is really used
since students will eventually be exposed to authentic texts (texts not creat ed for teaching
purposes) outside of c1ass. This aspect forms part of the research that has been carried
out in which I have analyzed whether theories or information established by experts are
present (explicitly or implicitly) in the texts available. Much of this material, although
valuable, does not inc1ude a variety of authentic readings which integrate authenticity,
meaningfulness, and students' needs or interests. In this project, 1 have applied
instruments to obtain information about the kinds of text s the university students like and
need to read. The level of the book chosen is also relevant. We must ensure that the level
really suits stud ents' needs. The problem is that textbooks indicate the level that they were
designed for, but many do not provid e a description of what that level actually represents.
For this reason, all exercises and material should be designed using an accepted
framework of reference such as the CEFR (Common European Framework) .
Several authors have approached this topic; I will now refer to the opinion of some
of the authors who favor using authentic texts. According to Grellet and Swaffar .

33
"Authentic texts are vital; they motivate students, offer a real context. transmit the target
language culture, and prepare students to read outside the classroom. Brown also has
stated that "Simplifying. or 'doctoring up' an existing short story or description is therefore
not only unnecessary but also is a disservice to students who are thereby deprived of
original material with its natural redundancy. humor, wit, and other captivating features.
These authors have strong beliefs and defend the use of authentic texts. I must say that I
agree with the authors when they refer to literary texts that were adapted. If vocabulary
is changed to make it simpler, then the effect of what is being transmitted in the text
changes. Many specialists oppose using unauthentic texts and a number of studies show
that using material created for native speakers has its advantages.
If we, as teachers, provide stud ents with interesting and fun texts to read, our
students will enjoy them more and acquire the language as a result. In order to reach
language acquisition, students should be exposed to input and internalize it without even
realizing it. Krashen states in his acquisition theory that "in order to acquire, two
conditions are necessary. The first is comprehensible input containing i + 1 [i represents
the student's current language competence and i + 1 the next level of competence], … and
second, a low or we ak affective f ilter to allow the input 'in'.”
To provide the students with relevant information, both our classes and the
material used must be meaningful. We must always be aware of the fact that if students
are exposed to materials or topics which are not appealing f or them, then effective
reading comprehension, in this case, will not take place. In addition, I would like to
emphasize the meaning of relevance, since it is crucial. What does relevant input mean
exactly? To answer this question I will refe r to Ausubel who explains meaningful
learning.
Meaningful learning … may be described as a process of relating and anchoring
new material to relevant established entities in cognitive structure. As new material enters
the cognitive field, it interacts w ith, and is appropriately subsumed under, a more
inclusive conceptual system. The very fact that material is subsumable, that is, relatable
to stable elements in cognitive structure, accounts for its meaningfulness.
This can be applied to the use of authen tic material. If we choose texts containing
aspects that students can relate to themselves, such as their social context, their feelings,
or the worId they have created and believe they live in, students can find a connection
with the text and reading can become interesting. We must also be aware of the necessity
of keeping the reading activities meaningful as w ell. Ausube l's theory also refers to the
fact that people keep in their long -term memory aspects which are meaningful to them,
but fail to remember at a certain point those which were not significant. SO, if a student
is taught how to skim a text, but does not know why this strategy is used, and the text is
not attractive, the student will probably fail to remember how to skim a text. Providing a
meaningful context is crucial for students to internalize the language, but if rote learning
(learning aspects in isolation) is what occurs in the class, then students are prone to forget
everything that they have learned. For example, if teachers use a text and begin extracting
specific grammar points, the meaning of reading is lost, and students will be focused on
trying to understand the grammar point instead of reading for pleasure and learning to
read.

34
Another aspect to consider when using the material we choose is the diversity of
learning styles that we can observe in the classroom However, there are other proposals
such as that of Feldger and Henriques , who have suggested the following learning
styles: sensing and intuitive, visual and verbal, active an d reflective, sequential and
global, and inductive and deductive leamers.16 Still another model states that there are
seven different categories: visual, aural, verbal, physical, logical, social, and
solitary.There are indeed many differences in these and other models; however, what
must be kept in mind is that we have many students in the class, and each one may have
a slightly different learning style. That is why we need to choose a variety of texts and
teaching methods to approach reading comprehension. "The goal is a balanced teaching
style, in all classes at all levels. Our hypothesis is that language instructors who adapt
their instruction to address both poles of each of the five given dimensions should come
close to providing an optimal learning env ironment for most (if not all) students in a
class. ( IN Richard M. Felder and Eunice R. Henriques. 27)

Reading Aloud
To become lifetime readers, students of all ages need role models who are readers.
By getting excited about books, taking time to read to students, and sharing your interest
in books, you inspire students by showing them the positive effects of reading. The
discussions, memories, and time you spend reading with students can help them gain a
desire to read for pure pleasure.
Reading aloud me ans just that -reading aloud. When we read to students, we take
advantage of the fact that until about the eighth grade, young people have a "listening
level" that significantly surpasses their reading level. When we read aloud to students, we
engage them i n texts that they might not be able to read. In the process, we expand their
imaginations, provide new knowledge, support language acquisition, build vocabulary,
and promote reading as a worthwhile, enjoyable activity. All students, from pre -school
through high school, can benefit from being read to. Listening to a fluent, expressive, and
animated reader can help students make connections between written and spoken
language.
Interactive read – aloud properly delivered incorporate best practices in
literacy education across grade levels. Read -aloud delivered properly enable
students to make predictions or inferences that explain a character's
motivation; understand life from different points of view; c onnect events from
different parts of the story; learn new vocabulary, as well as syntax, semantics,
and prosody; engage in thoughtful discussions and learn metacognition; and
hopefully develop a love for reading. Although successful read -aloud typically last
around twenty -minutes, research has shown that extension activities that include
writing have great benefits.
In the successful classrooms today, teachers must be cognizant of their
students’ academic and emotional levels and seek to engage and motivate students
to learn. This, in turn, instills an ownership for learning in each individual student.
Interactive, dialogic read -aloud, if delivered effecti vely, provide an
opportunity for deeper comprehension and critical thinking because
students become part of the discussion. This builds on and results in knowledge,

35
vocabulary, advanced language development, empathy for others through
understanding diverse cultures and people groups, and develops higher level thinking
and problem solving,
Successful read -aloud actively engage students in literacy and teach students
to use similar strategies and thought processes in order to understand complex
information both in a classroom setting and the world around
them .(https://www.teachervision.com)

Developing Reading Activities
Classroom activities are very important for the development of teaching reading
skills. Teachers should help and encourage the students to read effectively in the class.
To perform the job, teachers have to design effective activities for teaching reading in the
class, because, a successful teaching of reading in the class depends largely on the proper
planning of reading lessons. Teaching techniques should be designed according to the
level of the perception of the students. An experienced and efficient teacher knows well
when a particular technique should be followed and how. However, in the teaching of
reading, there are some tested teaching techniques by recommended experts, and these
techniques can be followed in the classroom.
Grellet (1996:10) states that practising reading in the classroom is ‘a silent
activity’.
He, therefore, suggests that students should not read aloud in the class, because,
“it is an extremely difficult exercise, highly specialized (very few people need to read
aloud in their profession) and it would te nd to give the impression that all texts are to be
read at the same speed.” (Grellet, op. cit.) Moreover, reading aloud tends to prevent the
students from developing ‘efficient reading strategies’.
In order to develop effective reading skills among the stu dents, the teacher should
help the class how to approach a text meaningfully. The following procedure, according
to Grellet (1996: 10 -11), is ‘very helpful’ for the students:
a) Considering the text as a whole, its title, accompanying picture(s) or diagram (s),
the paragraphs, the typeface used, and making guesses about what the text is about, who
wrote it, who it is for, where it appeared, etc.
b) Skimming through the text a first time to see if the learners’ hypotheses were
right and then asking a number o f questions to themselves about the contents of the text.
c) Reading the text again, more slowly and carefully this time, trying to understand
as much as possible and trying to answer the questions asked by the learners themselves.
Williams (1996) has sugg ested that for effective teaching of reading in the
classroom, the lesson should be divided into three consecutive phases. They are pre
reading, while -reading and post -reading phases.
Pre-reading
Pre-reading stage is important because it can ‘whet’ the st udents’ appetites to read.
Greenwood (1998: 15) states that it can provide a “need to read to complete an activity

36
or confirm an idea; and it can persuade the students that as far as perception or hypothesis
is concerned there are no right or wrong answers , only different ones.”
In pre -reading stage, teacher should carefully design the activities that prepare the
students mentally to accept what he/she is going to teach in the next stage. Urquhart and
Weir ( 1998: 184) have suggested some pre -reading activit ies. They are:
1. thinking about the title
2. checking the edition and date of publications
3. reading appendices quickly
4. reading indices quickly
5. reading the abstract carefully
6. reading the preface, the f orward and the blurb carefully.
Aims of this phase, according to Williams (op. cit.), are to introduce and arouse
interest in the topic, to motivate learners by giving a reason for reading and to provide
some language preparation for the text.

While -reading
In the while -reading phase, “Students mu st be taught how to read and respond to
books.” ( Greenwood 1998: 59 ) During this phase students should be involved in
activities which enable them to respond cognitively, emotionally and imaginatively to
imaginative writing.The teacher should conduct some useful activities in this phase for
the better output from the students in the next stage. The activities in this stage should be
designed according to the level and standard of the students . Shahidullah (1995 -96) has
suggested some of the while -reading ac tivities. They are:
1. guessing meaning from context,
2. analysing sentences,
3. surveying text structure,
4. extracting specific information,
5. getting detailed information,
6. answering pre -set questions,
7. matching texts with picture, diagrams etc.,
8. guessing meaning of unfamiliar words,
The while -reading phase is significant. It is the most active stage among the three,
because, proper activities in this phase, according to Williams (1996: 38 ), enable the
students to understand the writer’s purpose, to understand the text structure and to clarify
text content.

37
Post-reading
This stage is designed to evaluate what the teacher has taught in the while -reading
stage. In the post reading stage the teacher may ask the students to know their reaction to
the text, for example, the students may answer whether they have liked and enjoyed it, or
found it useful or not. If the text is found useful, the meaning and content of it may be
extended to the students’ known social phenomena, personal interests and knowle dge or
experience. In short, activities at this stage do not refer directly to the text, but ‘grows
out’ of it.
This stage is also important since this stage is supposed to evaluate and examine
the output of and feedback from the students. In addition to t hat, post -reading phase
enables the students, according to Williams (1996: 39), to consolidate or reflect upon
what has been read and to relate the text to the learners’ own knowledge, interest,
experience or views.

2.3. Teaching Listening .
Listening has always been considered an important skill in language learning. The
Direct, Audio -lingual, Language Acquisition and Interactive Communicative language
All the approaches( The Direct, Audio -lingual, Language Acquisition and Interactive
Communicative langua ge) have emphasized the priority of learning this skill.
Surprisingly, teaching listenin g strategies and techniques have not received an important
place in the English curriculum. As an example , early language teaching methodologists
made reference to re ading and listening as passive skills which are develop ed
automatically through exposure to the oral aspects of language. Because of this, the
listener was always at the passive receiving end of the communication process, Celce –
Murcia and Larsen Freeman (1 991).
Taking into consideration the various steps a listener goes through be fore he
understands the sense of a me ssage and acts upon it, we will realize what difficulties a
learner faces while listening.
When listening to a message, the learner has to di stinguish spoken language from
other sounds , when listening to a message. He/She woul d then have to divide the parts of
speech into words and keep meaningful fragments of the langua ge in the short -term
memory. Anyway , a listener does no t simply record what he hears just like it is. He
interprets it in the light of his preliminary knowledge and his objective for listening. The
listener also determines, according to Brown (1994 ), whether the information should be
retained in short -term or long -term memory. Th e first calls for a quick oral response while
the other is more common while processing information in a lecture.
Just a few of the diffi culties a listener meets are: discrimination among distinctive
sounds, stress, rhythm, and intonation. As well we can note the difference in meaning
between the following examples due to intonation differences:
“The teacher,” said the boy, “is funny .”
The teacher said, “The boy is funny .”

38

The listener has to recognize abbreviated and reduced forms of words, word orde r,
and key words. He has to guess the meaning from the verbal and nonverbal context and
adjust listening strategies to different ki nds of listening purposes. More than this, he has
to use his basic/ past knowledge and experience to make inferences, predic t outcomes
and understand relationships among ideas. All the above shows how complex and active
the listening skill is.
It should be remembered, however, says Harmer (1998 ), that students get better
at listening the more they listen and any help we can giv e students in performing that skill
will help them to be better listeners.

2.3.1 . Listening as a process .
Listening is a special aspect in language learning. It can be categorized
according to the goals: listening for enjoyment, for information , for persuasion, for
perception and for comprehension. We can divide listening for comprehension into three
stages :
1. listening and making no response (following a written text, informal teacher
talk);
2. listening and making short responses (obeying instructions -physical
movement, building models, picture dictation. etc.), true -false exercises, etc.;
3. listening and making longer responses (repetition and dictation,
paraphrasing, answering questions, answering comprehension q uestions on texts,
predictions, filling gaps, summarising, etc.).

The purposes that a listening activity should pursue are providing:
1. general information (understanding of the main points);
2. specific information (understanding of the particular items) ;
3. cultural interest (generally informing about the target language culture);
4. information about people's attitudes and opinions;
5. the organization of ideas ;
6. sequence of events;
7. lexical items (words expressing noise/movement);
8. structural items (their use and mea ning);
9. functional items (their form and use).
There are several basic processes at work in listening. These do not
necessarily occur sequentially; they may occur simultaneously, in rapid succession, or

39
backward and forward as neede d. The listener is not usually conscious of performing
these steps, nor of switching back and forth between them.
The listener:
1. determines a reason for listening
2. takes the raw speech and deposits it in short -term memory;
3. attempts to organize the info rmation by identifying the type of speech event
(conversation, lecture, radio ad) and the function of the message (persuade,
inform, request);
4. predicts information expected to be included in the message;
5. recalls background information (schemata) to help in terpret the message;
6. assigns a meaning to the message;
7. checks that the message has been understood;
8. determines the information to be held in long -term memory;
9. deletes the original form of the message that had been received into short -term
memory (Brown ,1994)
Each of these steps influences the techniques and activities a teacher might
choose to incorporate into instruction in order to assist learners in learning to listen as
well as listening to learn. At the same time, two types of cognitive pro cessing also occur:
bottom -up and top -down processing. Bottom -up processing involves piecing together
the message from the individual sounds, whereas top -down processing involves
prior knowledge possessed by the listener.
"According to the bottom -up model, listeners build understanding by
starting with the smallest units of the acoustic message: individual sounds, or
phonemes. These are then combined into words, which, in turn, togeth er make
up phrases, clauses, and sentences. Finally, individual sentences combine to
create ideas and concepts and relationships between them" (Flowerdew and Miller,
2005:27 -28). In other words, the overall message is built up from phonetic units, which
are placed together like building blocks and constructed into words, phrases and
sentences.
The listener stores the incoming sounds in the order they are heard and uses clues
from within the text, such as his/her l exical knowledge, knowledge of syntactic
structure, and linguistic features such as stress, pauses, and enunciation to recreate the
meaning of what is heard and predict what will follow. Top -down processes on the
other hand utilize "knowledge th at a listener brings to a text" to actively build a
'conceptual framework' for comprehending the text and construct meaning. "Top -down
listening infers meaning from contextual clues and from making links between the
spoken message and various types of prior knowledge which listeners hold inside their
heads”
Both top -down and bottom -up processes are seen to be simultaneous, working
together in an interactive model. Both linguistic information within the text and

40
prior know ledge are used by the listener to form an understanding of what was
heard. This has implications for foreign language listening instruction in that both
top-down and bottom -up processes will need to be taught if learners are to become
competent listeners.

The listening process is divided into 3 stages:
1. pre-listening where the context is established. The teacher creates motivation
and students do some activities with the purpose of preparing them for
what they will hear
2. while-listening, where learners do the mentioned tasks or find answers. There
are two kinds of material and procedure. On the one hand, extensive reading
helps students to acquire vocabulary and grammar and it usually takes place
outside the classroom.
3. they do it for pleasure, so that their knowledge of the language improves
and it makes students better readers.
4. post-listening, the part where students have the opportunity to check their
answers about they have been listening to, to give feedback and
consolidate what they have learnt.

2.3.2 . Difficulties of listening in language teaching.
A great number of students believe that listening is the most difficult skill and they
start to panic when they hear the word “listening”. But on the other hand students,
who learn from what they hear, usually achieve better results at listening. Underwood
argues that students whose mother tongue contains similar or the same intonation and
stress pattern have fewer problems in c omparison with students whose mother tongue
is based on different rhythms (Underwood, 1989 ).

The first thing that learners have to develop is an ability that will enable them to
identify the topic of the conversation and help them to find a relevant re action.

Secondly, learners should also develop an ability to predict the development
of the topic as this ability will help them to prepare a suitable response in advance.

Thirdly, they ought to recognize and also indicate when they do not
understand enough to make a relevant response. Learners have to learn how to cope with
problems of the topic clarification by using expressions such as "excuse me", "pardon" or
"Sorry, I do not understand" or simply by repeating the speak er's words to show that they
are having problems ( Anderson and Lynch, 1998:104 -105).
Foreign language learners need to pay special attention to a number of special
characteristics of spoken language, because they strongly influence the processing
of speech, and can even block the comprehension if they are not attended to.

In other words, they can make the listening process difficult. These factors are:
1. Clustering. In written language we are conditioned to attend to the sente nces
as the basic unit of organization. In spoken language, due to memory

41
limitations, we need to help students to pick out manageable clusters
of words; sometimes foreign language learners will try to retain overly
long co nstituents (a whole sentence or even several sentences), or they
will err in the other direction in trying to attend to every word in an
utterance.
2. Redundancy. Spoken language, unlike most written languages, has a good deal
of redundancy. When we're in a conversation, we can notice the
rephrasing, repetitions, elaborations, and little insertions of "I mean"
and " you know". Such redundancy helps the hearer to process
meaning by offering more time and extra information. L earners can
train themselves to profit from such redundancy by first becoming aware
that not every new sentence or phrase will necessarily contain new
information and by looking for the signals of redundancy.
3. Performance variables. In spoken language, except for planned discourse
(speeches, lectures, etc.), hesitations, false starts, pauses, and
corrections are common, whereas they can easily interfere with
comprehension in foreign language learners.
4. Colloquial language learners who hav e been exposed to standard written
English and/or textbook language sometimes find it surprising and
difficult to deal with colloquial language which appears in both
monologues and dialogues
5. Rate of delivery. Every language learner initially th inks that native speakers
speak too fast! Actually, the number and length of pauses used by a
speaker is more crucial to comprehension than sheer speed
(Richards,1983:219).
6. Stress, rhythm, and intonation. The prosodic features of the English language ar e
very important for comprehension. As English is a stress -timed
language, English speech can be a terror for some learners as
mouthfuls of syllables come spilling out between stress points. Also,
intonation patterns are very significa nt not just for interpreting
straightforward elements such as questions, statements, and emphasis
but for understanding more subtle messages like sarcasm, endearment,
insult, solicitation, praise, etc .
7. Interaction. Unless a language le arner’s objective is exclusively to master
some specialized skill like monitoring radio broadcasts or attending
lectures, interaction will play a large role in listening comprehension.
Students need to understand that good liste ners (in conversation) are
good responders. They know how to negotiate meaning (to give
feedback, to ask for clarification, to maintain a topic) so that the process
of comprehending can be complete rather than be interrupted by
insuffi cient interaction.
Each of the above aspects makes listening difficult and not all the students can
cope with it. The teacher should help them by making this work easier and more
interesting. He/she can help students become effective l isteners by making them
aware of the different kinds of listening, the different purposes for listening, and the
qualities of good listeners (Wolvin and Coakley, 1992).
This is possible on condition that the teacher will take into consideration the
factors which can ensure success in developing students' skills in listening, such as: the

42
content of the material suggested for listening and comprehension: linguistic material for
listening; conditions in which the material is presented..
When the teacher u ses the material which has already been assimilated by
students, c omprehension of the text by the ear can be ensured . In spite of all, this does
not eliminate the difficulties in listening. In order to be able to overcome three kinds
of dif ficulties: phonetic, lexical, and grammatical, learners need practice in listening and
comprehension in the target language .
Because the phonic sys tems of English and Romanian differ greatly, phonetic
difficulties appear The hearer is under the impulse of interpret ing the sounds of a
foreign language as if they were of his own language which usually results
in misunderstanding.
Lexical difficulties are closely connected with the phonetic ones. Lear ners
often misunderstand words because they hear them wrong. For example: Here is a ship.
Here is a sheep. It is a worm. It is warm.
Speaking about g rammatical difficulties we all know that these are mostly
connected with the analytic structure of the English language, and with the extensive
use of infinitive and pa rticiple constructions. More than this , English is rich in
grammatical homonyms, for example: to lie -lie; to ring – ring; -ed as the su ffix of the
Past Simple and the Past Participle.

Another factor which influences comprehension is the content of the material.
When selecting the material for listening, t he following factors should be taken into
consideration:
a. the topic of communication: whether it is wit hin the ability of the students to
understand, and what difficulties students will come across,
b. the type of communication: whether it is a description or a narration.
Description as a type of communication is less emotional and in teresting, that is
why it is difficult for the teacher to arouse students' interest in listening to such a
text. Narration is more interesting for listening. Therefore , this type of
communication needs be used for listen ing comprehension.
The context and students' readiness (intellectual and situational) to understand is
very important. T he narrative progresses plays a great role: whether the passage is
extracted from the beginning of a story, the nucle us of the story, the progress of
the action or, finally, the end of the story. The title of the story may be helpful in
comprehending the m ain idea of the text, too. The simpler the narrative progresses, the
better it is for developing students' skills in listening.
c. form of communication: whether the text is a dialogue or a monologue. The
latter is easier for the learners, therefore, it is preferable for developing students'
ability to listen.
d. the number of times of presenting th e material for listening: whether the
students should listen to the text once, twice, three times or more. Students should be
taught to listen to the text once and this must become a habit. However, they
sometimes can grasp only 50% of the information and even less, so a second
presentation may be helpful. In case the students cannot grasp most of the
information, practice proves that manifold repetitions when hearing do not help
much. It is necessary to help students in comprehension by using a feedback
established through a dialogue between the teacher and the class which takes as
much time as it is required for the repetitive presentation of the material

43

The presence or the absence of the speaker plays an important role in
listening. The most favorable condition is when students can see the speaker as is
the case when the teacher speaks to them in a foreign language. The most
unfavorable cond ition for listening is listening and comprehending a dialogue, when
students cannot see the speakers and do not take part in the conversation
(Machackova, 2009 ).

The voice of the speaker also influences students' comprehension. Students
who get used to the teacher's voice can easily understand him, but often they cannot
understand other people speaking the same language. Consequently, in teaching
listening comprehension the teacher should bear in mind all the difficulti es students
encounter when listening in a foreign language.
These difficulties are of two types :
1. coming from the listeners;
2. caused by the listening material.

The first problem students have involves:
a) making prediction what the speaker talks about ;
b) guessing unknown words or phrases;
c) recognizing points

The second problem involves:
a) unfamiliar topics;
b) different accents;
c) authentic material;
d) colloquial words;
e) speed of speech.

Solutions to the problems.
To facilitate listening tasks and improve the learners' listening skills the
teachers should let them:
1. adopt a positive attitude;
2. be responsive;
3. shut out distractions;
4. listen for the speaker's purpose;
5. look for the signals of what is to come;
6. look for sum maries of what has gone before;
7. evaluate the supporting materials;
8. look for non -verbal clues
Not all the tips mentioned above can be followed a nd not all the problems can be
overcome. Certain features of the message and the speaker, for in stance, are
inevitable. T his does not mean that the teacher can do nothing about them. The
teacher can give the students suitable listening materials, background and
linguistic knowledge, enabling skills, pleasant clas sroom cond itions, and useful
exercises which help them to discover effective listening strategies.

Here are a few helpful ideas suggested by Ur:

44
1. Grade listening materials according to the students’ level, and provide
authent ic materials rather than filtered samples. It is true that natural
speech is hard to grade and it is difficult for students to identify the different
voices and cope with frequent overlaps.
2. Design task -oriented exercises to engage the students’ interest and help them
learn listening skills subconsciously. Listening exercises are most effective if
they are constructed round tasks expressing agreement or disagreement,
taking notes, marking a picture or diagram according to instructi ons, and
answe ring questions.
3. Provide learners with d ifferent kinds of input, like: lectures, films,
anouncements, everyday conversation, radio news, English songs, etc. .
Select ion of short, simple listening texts with little redundancy for lower –
level students and complicated authentic materials with more redund ancy
for advanced learners, p rovide background knowledge and linguistic
knowledge, such as complex sentence structures and colloquial words and
expressions, as needed ( Ur, 1984:25 ). It may very well happen that during
one lesson the teacher may serve as a psychologist, an actor or a singer.

Teaching songs is, undeniably, pleasant and eff ective. For achieving better results
in comprehension the teacher has:
a) to prepare the learner s before listening
b) to show them pictures of characters from the song;
c) to use actions as much as they can to accompany songs so that the listeners can
participate . This will give them extra clues to the meaning of the word s they are listening
to and moreover, it will help them build their confidence,
d) to use the same song again and aga in. Listening is not an easy skill to
achieve, so building the learners' confidence is vital at all stages of language lea rning.
The recognition of the words will motivate them more. This is true not only from a
language point of view but also from a logical point of view. Listening to a song you like
and know is always an enjoyable experience.

To reproduce the language they hear and to listen, the use of songs and chants
in class is meaningful . They can have a chance of sounding natural and they are
working on the sound s, rhythm and intonation.
Songs can be the first step which can be f ollowed by more elaborate
material whi ch will include rephrasing, hesitations and a variety of accents. The
language needs to be comprehensible and the level of difficulty can be controlled
by the selection of the task (Yagang, 1994 ).
The u se of authentic material,like: workplace training videos, audio tapes of
actual workplace exchanges, TV and radio broadcasts also becomes very helpful
for listening.

Chapter 3: USING TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING
READING .

45
Technology play s an important role in facilitating learning. It has facilitated
many effective educational methodologies such as self -directed, independent, and
collaborative learning. It can connect people whom, separated by schedule and location,
might otherwise n ot be able to learn from each other. And it can provide the opportunity
of receiving immediate feedback and assessment, making learning appear comparatively
more achievable than it would without instant feedback.
However, far too few instructors use t echnologies effectively in their courses.

This presents a very important challenge: to enhance the use of technology in
education to achieve greater understanding by the students in physiology. It has been
suggested that those instructors who rely primari ly on traditional teaching methods tend
to be more structured in the classroom and to stress on content over practice in their
courses. It has also been posited that, by comparison, those with a high level of technology
in their teaching may be better at i nstilling students with a desire to learn and the
development of critical thinking skills.

Reading written texts in traditional reading materials like books might be
demotivating for many students. Teaching reading in such circumstances is not easy.
With the emergence of technology and its fast development, teachers have to integrate
technology and the use of computers in teaching reading “It became a must to utilise
technology in education” (Sahin and Alsancak (2011: 34 7). It makes it easy to access
new inf ormation. However, other reasearcher points out some factors that may hinder
the implementation of technology integration in classrooms. These factors can be
extrinsic to teachers or intrinsic to teache rs. External factors include lack of adequate
access, time, training and institutional support while internal factors include teachers’
personal beliefs such as teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and teachers’ willingness to
change and use technology in education practice . Besides, it is highlight ed the
importance of taking into consideration the dynamicity of students and classroom
contexts; therefore, teachers should adapt to the instructional needs for different
conte xts or varying groups of learners by reorganising learning materials and
activities.

Using technological devices like computers and tablets in learning can make it
possible to design and develop learning environments that take the diffe rences
among the individuals into account and that could be modified according to the
personal needs of the users (Brusilovsky, 2003) . Compared to printed material,
computers are preferred by many people because of the accessibility of the inform ation,
the ability to change text to the desired size, ease of organisation, the avoidance of
paper costs, and environmental benefits by the reduction of paper use
Using computers in teaching English can increase learners’ motivatio n,
promote language awareness, stimulate learners’ responses to literary texts and aid
comprehension (Zainal, 2012) .
Teachers should maximise the use of technology and media for instructional
purposes. Technology, particularly the Internet, can enrich materials and help the
students to understand native speakers to improve the foreign language t hey learn . The
Internet is also one of the effective resources for EFL teachers (Chen, 2008) . Some of
the benefits of using the Internet in language teaching and learning include motivating
students and teachers, increasing the participation and interaction of students in the

46
classroom, allowing a deeper integration with the culture of the target language,
and encour aging students to go deeper into the themes under discussion. In line with thi s,
is obvious that online technology allows EFL readers the flexibility to interact with the
text in ways not possible with printed texts only. In spite of these ad vantages,
Spencer (2006) claims that some readers like the scent of the paper and prefer to read
books that they can hold in their hands rather than spending an extended amount
of time looking at a monitor.

3.1. Using Technology to Enhance Reading -Comprehension .
If teachers understand the importance of integrating technology into their lessons
and receive the professional development needed in their fields, they could become
accustomed to using technology tools; therefore, student learning and motivation could
increase. As Kleyn­Kennedy (2006 :43) stated, "Even if teachers are not drawn to
technology, they realize that computers are here to stay, and inevitably, they must resign
themselves to developing sufficient technology skills " .

This study attempted to show that teachers who use technology tools in their
classrooms would improve student learning and motivation. "Today's education system
faces irrelevance unless we bridge the gap between how students live and how they
learn.. .Students will spend their adult lives in a multi -tasking, multifaceted, technology –
driven, diverse, vibrant world -and they must arrive equipped to do so" (Transition in
School, 2000 :48).

International learners often seek to master the new languag e due to a desire
to interact with a new culture and community and to achieve academic success.
Reading is the most important action in an ESL class because it is the bridge to
understanding individual sentences and recognizing most of t he words in the text.
Thus, ESL instructors often ask how to make reading class more collab orative,
communicative, and fun . In fact, students who were good in reading class have better
academic achievement in the rest of their education (Nelson, 2005) . In order to keep ESL
students engaged and interested, experts of ESL agree that computer -assisted
language learning can increase gaining of foreign language skills (. In addition,
technology and new teaching strategies have been found to c ause greater student
satisfaction .
Moreover, the paper investigates different techniques and approaches, which
can assist students in improving their learning skills. In addition, use of various
technology tools will be useful for ESL classes like online English language
learning websites, presentation software, electronic dictionaries, computer language
learning programs, listening CD -players, chatting and email messaging programs, and
learning video -clips.

47
3.2. Programs Used for Teaching Reading: Mac Reader, StoryBoard, and
Reading Galaxy .
In terms of programs and software that can be used for teaching and learning
reading for intermediate -level students, AlKahtani (1999 ) reviewed and examined the
effectiveness of three software programs namely Mac Reader, StoryBoard, and
Reading Galaxy used to design reading activities.

According to AlKahtani, MacReader focused much on sentence and paragraph
structures with six option s in the program including timed -reading, read, pace d reading,
sentence jumble, cloze, and paragraph jumble.

The program is based on one group of exercises that are accessed by two icons
found under the group "MacReader". One of these two icons is a glossary for add ing
vocabulary. Teachers must have a pass word T o access control programs that are used to
author the texts or add to the vocabulary lists , teachers must have a password . The "Notes"
icon accesses students' scores and is available for students as well as for teachers.

Exercises:

1. Read:
This e xercise is previously authored. The teacher can choose the topics and
decide the level of difficulty of texts. The student is assigned a text, prepared by the
teacher or randomly chooses a text that is part of the software. Here, the student reads
through the text and when the first page is finished, two arrows lead to turning the page
to continue the reading until the text is finished. The back arrow allows students to go
back to revise or relate the text parts. The title of the text is shown at the top o f the new
page as: " Current Text "Title…".. The session name ''Read'' is shown at the top left corner
of the program. If students complete the text and click on the right button, a pop up
message asks if they are interested in another exercise. Another feature of this program is
the capability of defining new vocabulary by just clicking on any of them.

2. Timed Reading:
This exercise is for reading speed. Certain topics are provided and students can
choose what interested them the most.

3. Paced Reading:
This exercise enables students to choose the pace that fits their reading ability
using a bar indicating the numbers of words per minute. Another button appears beside
the bar to stop the reading. It will be indicated in the notes that the reader stop ped the
paced reading. As a result, the round will not be counted but canceled. students might
experiment until an appropriate speed is found.

4. Cloze:
This exercise is a reading comprehension exercise, which asks students to
replace missing words. When students select CLOZE from the exercise button, they
should see the dialog box below:

48
Delete one word every HOW MANY?
Enter a number between 2 and 15
(OK) (Cancel)

Student may type a number between 2 and 15 in the dialog box and click ''OK''.
CLOZE exerc ises replace words from the text with numbers. If a student chooses the
number 5, for instance, every fifth word in the text will be replaced with a number. Thus,
the bigger the number, the easier the exercise. To work on the exercise, students will need
to click a number in the text to select it, then will type the missing word. students can
press the 'return' key or click the 'answer' button to check their work. If students need
help, they can click the "Hint" button, which will show three options:
a. By num ber of letters
b. By showing the first letter
c. By definition

5. Sentence Jumble:
This exercise is also for reading comprehension. It automatically mixes up the
sentences from any paragraph a student selects. As with most of this program activities,
the parag raph which is used can be from the software or be prepared by the teacher before
hand. The computer does the jumble of sentences automatically and randomly.

6. Paragraph Jumble:
Paragraph Jumble is a similar exercise to the Sentence Jumble above. It just
handles paragraphs. This exercise requires more advanced students unless the texts are
abridged or chosen from simple language resources.

7. Glossary:
Besides authoring the texts to be used for the exercise, teachers can also add
vocabulary to the progr am using the icon "Glossary" in the program group. This feature
helps teachers customize the program to fit their students' needs. EAP programs could
utilize this feature to serve their goals like teaching their students certain lists of
vocabulary. This f eature adds a great deal to the merits of this program (AlKahtani,1999 )

StoryBoard , a program using cloze passages to develop both language skill and a
linguistic understanding of the language, was mainly concerned with text completion and
vocabulary bui lding and guessing from context. StoryBoard, published by Wida software,
consisted of two programs, one for students and the other for teachers with a main menu
for each program respectively.

Storyboard consists of two programs. The first program is call ed "The student
Program" which is designated for the students' use. The second program is for the teacher
to author the texts and all the relevant functions like the introduction, hints, and help.
Following is a brief description of how these programs work .

1. The student program (sb):
When the student runs the program, a list of titles, which are supposedly prepared
by the teacher or included in the software, appears on the screen entitled: "open file".

49
When a topic is chosen, another screen is displayed showing the introduction for the
chosen topic. The student will then choose one of the following choices:
a. Hide all Words
b. Show given words
c. Cancel

The first choice, displays the text with only squares (representing words) and
circles (for words about which a hint can be provided. All words are hidden but the
punctuation marks. Small windows show the following in the margin of the hidden text:

Last guess ……. Words found ……….. Guess a word: ………

The second choice "Show given Words" shows the t ext with all the words, which
the teacher has decided to show to the students according to the lesson plan. The same
interface will be displayed.

The students write the word in the space provided after clicking the hidden word
to be guessed. Four options are listed vertically on the right of the screen showing:
a. Letter: to know a certain letter after assigning it by the cursor.
b. Word: to know a certain word after choosing it by the cursor.
c. Hint: to know more about a word that is replaced by circles.
d. Text: to show the whole text.

The main Menu:

File, See, Options, Window, and Configure are the items that appear in the main
menu. Under each of those items, the student should find different functions needed to
run the exercise and check results.

Any move that the student makes is saved automatically and could be checked by
the student or the teacher at any time. To review the scores, a student can choose "score"
from "see" in the main menu.

2. The Teacher Program (sbt):
This program is basically for the teach er to author the texts and prepare lessons.
The program allows teachers to do the following:
Text authoring:
Teacher can import authentic material or just type and save them in the program.

Help:
Three help options (help 1, help 2, help 3) are written by the teacher in a way that
fits the lesson topic and purpose.

Given words:
In order to allow some flexibility to the lesson, the teacher may show some words
to the students according to the lesson plan.

Hints.

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The teacher can provide some hints to help students complete the exercises.

The main Menu:
The main menu includes: files, edit, authoring, search, window, and configure.
This menu is different from the student program's menu. The authoring item is the main
difference. student files could be saved and reviewed under the item
"File ".(AlKahtani,1999)

Reading Galaxy had features that allow more interaction, sound, and music
effects. According to the author, Reading Galaxy could be used for “various types of
reading purposes such as vocabulary buildi ng, reading for specific information, and
problem solving” (p. 8). AlKahtani found using these programs to instruct students in
reading very beneficial and effective because the software enabled the teacher to construct
and facilitate the content and helpe d develop students’ reading comprehension and speed.

Reading Comprehension: students construct meaning by interacting with a text,
for example:
a. reading the text to answer multiple choice questions (in Ganymede
Squares Game)
b. reading the text to deter mine the accuracy of alien claims (in To Tale
the Truth Game).
c. reading about authors (alien authors) to answer questions about them
(in Metro Match Game).

Vocabulary Building: students understand new words in context and remembering
them, for example:
a. selecting correct answers (in Ganymede Squares Game).
b. decoding secret phrases (in Stump the Human Game).
c. decoding hidden phrases (in Meteor Match Game).

Reading for detail: students identify supporting information in a text, for example:
a. reading al ien claims first, and then going to the text for the answer (in
To Tale the Truth).
b. reading texts to answer questions (in Beat the Krok).

Literary Appreciation: Students understand and appreciate literary conventions
such as character, setting, and plot, for example:
a. answering questions about characters (in Charlotte's Web in Ganymede
Squares).
b. answering questions about the setting of the Wizard of OZ (in Beat the
Krok).
c. answering questions about the plot of secret of the Andes (in To Tale the
Truth).

Using Context Clues: students use surrounding words and sentences to guess the
meaning of new words, for example:
a. matching answers to clues (in Ganymede Squers).

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b. filling in blanks in hidden phrases (in Beat the Krok)
c. completing secret phrases (in Stump the Human).

Follow Directions: students attend to detail in order to accomplish tasks, for
example:
a. reading and following game instructions (in Ganymede Squares).
b. following audio instructions (in Meteor Match)
c. reading clues (in To Tale the Truth).

Logical Thinking: students use deductive reasoning and inference to understand
meaning, for example:
a. determining the accuracy of alien claims (in To Tale the Truth).
b. figuring out what's wrong with the picture (in Stump the Human).

Though this program is not designed for ESL students, ESL reading teachers can
make use of it with ESL intermediate students. The program can be used for various types
of reading purposes such as vocabulary building, reading for specific information, and
problem solving. It can be also used for listening comprehension where students listen to
a passage read by the computer and then answer questions asked by the computer.
Though this program can tackle these skills, the main purpose of the program is
to develop the reading compr ehension skill in the first place.

In a reading lesson, the Reading Galaxy program can be used as pre -reading,
reading, and post reading activities. For the pre -reading activity, the teacher may need to
connect the computer to an LCD panel to project the text for students. The teacher then
chooses one of the passages that are available among the program options such as the
(Warst of the Wurst ) which has a passage of four episodes. By clicking the buttons Read
Passage and then Voice, the computer will star t reading the text highlighting each
sentence as it reads. students may take notes while listening. The teacher then asks
students to talk about what they understood from the passage using their notes. This would
stimulate students' interest and activate t heir prior knowledge of the content.

For the reading activity, students will have four minutes to skim the four episodes,
one minute for each episode, to find out the main idea. They will be given another 10
minutes to read it again slowly and carefully. The teacher then commands the computer
to test students' comprehension by asking them questions related to the passage they have
been reading. Clicking the button where it reads "BEGIN" can do this.

For the post reading activity, students can play games r elated to the reading
passage. Such activities would facilitate the students' reading and comprehension of a
text. Activities like these can be done from time to time by taking students to the
laboratory or by bringing a portable computer to the classroom connected to an LCD
panel which would allow the class to see the text to be read. students can practice these
activities and other similar activities individually in the lab. The teacher can assign one
of the laboratory computers to be used for this purpo se. (AlKahtani,1999)

52
3.3. Technologies That Support Students' Reading Development .
Audio Books
Educational technologies that support the development of students' reading skills
include audio books, electronic books, online texts, electronic talking books, and
programmed reading instruction.
Audio books can take the frustration out of reading when books are carefully
selected . Students do not have to spend time struggling to figure out words, emotions,
and phrasing. The words are pronounced for them thus i ncreasing the time spent focusing
on the text and increasing comprehension. Struggling readers need to hear how fluent
reading sounds. They need to hear words pronounced in order to be able to include them
into their own vocabularies. Being able to hear t he proper pronunciation of words is one
way that audio books can help the struggling reader.
Audio books allow students to listen to and comprehend books in terms of
vocabulary, phrasing, and expression. Active listening to books on tape can provide a
scaffold that leads to fluent, independent reading. Children can also be introduced to
various types of text and literature that they normally could not or would not be able to
read on their own. Audio books demonstrate how to read with accuracy, intonation, and
pitch because a more experienced reader reads the text. Fluent reading is heard and
internalized. The struggling reader hears expressive reading and is able to better
understand the feelings and emotions of characters, which aids the reader’s
comprehe nsion. (Anderson -Inman & Horney, 1998)
In sum, audio books are efficient and effective tools to support the struggling
reader because they provide the necessary support. While listening to the book on tape,
the learner should be reading along with the voic e on the tape in order to become familiar
with the words. Once the child has listened to the book on tape on several occasions,
paying close attention to the inflection and emphasis on words and phrases, the child
should be able to read the text independen tly. The listener can stop and start the audio
book or recording at will. Fluency is essential for reading comprehension. A major benefit
of using audio books is to assist the reader with fluency and comprehension.

Electronic Books and Online Texts
Electronic books are exploding on the market. They can help the student
struggling with reading by highlighting and reading the text. Many of these books are
entertaining as well as educational. However, that may not be a plus! Lewis (1999)
cautions that wi thout direct supervision students with learning disabilities spend over
65% of their time “playing” with the non reading features of electronic books. While
hearing fun sounds and seeing things move around the screen may be entertaining, they
will not impr ove a child’s ability to read.

A series that avoids these problems is the Start -to-Finish Books from Don
Johnston Incorporated. All of the Start -to-Finish Books tell an excellent story without
games, sounds, or gimmicks. Some of the stories in the series are classics that have been

53
rewritten with high interest, controlled vocabulary, (e.g., Treasure Island, The Red Badge
of Courage). Others are new stories that have been written specifically for the series. All
are very well done and come with a hard copy, tape cassette, and CD. The CD includes
the text in exactly the same arrangement as in the book itself. The Gold Library includes
titles with grade 2 -3 readability, syntax and vocabulary of conversational speech, easily
decodable words and a limited number of ideas per sentence.
The Blue Library includes titles with grade 4 -5 readability, syntax and vocabulary
of more formal English; more ideas introduced into longer sentences with varied sentence
structures. All Start -to-Finish Books feature built –in sca nning for single switch users.
Each Start -to-Finish title includes teacher support materials, guided reading levels, lexile
levels, PDF files of activities that include vocabulary and word study, plot and character
development activities, cloze passage and multiple -choice quizzes and open ended
question for each chapter. Titles cover history, literature, science and nature, mystery and
sports.
Online texts are those that are available on the World Wide Web. With access to
an Internet -connected computer, stu dents can find a wide variety of free online reading
materials including books, plays, short stories, magazines, and reference materials. This
benefit is especially useful for students in schools that have few resources for the
acquisition of new books.

Electronic books and online texts often are equipped with hypermedia —links to
text, data, graphics, audio, or video. As students read the text, they are able to click on
the links to access definitions of words, additional information on concepts, illustr ations,
animations, and video —all of which can increase their understanding of the material.
Research indicated that hypermedia software has positive effects on student learning and
comprehension ( Chin, & Lewis, 1994; Hillinger, 1992 ).

The use of hyperm edia to improve student comprehension of text is likely related
to its ability to respond to the needs of an individual learner for information, which results
in an increased sense of control over the learning environment and higher levels of
intrinsic mo tivation. That is, the interactive features of hypermedia and the users’ control
of their direction within these information environments may explain some of the learning
gains in comprehension .

Electronic Talking Books
Electronic Talking Books – electro nic texts that provide embedded speech .
The term electronic talking books has been coined by researchers to refer to
electronic texts that also provide embedded speech. The speech component offers a
digitized reading of general sections as well as pronunc iations of specific words within
the text; it supports and coaches students as they read the text of the story (Leu, 2000;
McKenna, 1998). Although research is ongoing about the effectiveness of electronic
talking books, there already is much to be said in their favor.

Reinking and Bridwell -Bowles (1966 :321) noted, “Computers, especially those
equipped with devices that produce artificial speech, may provide an effective means for
increasing decoding skill s and reading fluency,” . As well, e lectronic talki ng books
increased motivation to read as well as promoted basic word recognition.

54
According to research, the use of talking books has shown positive results as an
aid to help children improve their comprehension of texts
In addition, children’s decoding skills have been shown to improve with the use
of talking books For older readers, talking books feature glossary entries, explanatory
notes, and simplified rewordings that provide additional background information needed
to understand new concepts in tex ts.
In general, electronic talking books have been found to support reading
instruction by providing background information, extended response actions, play
actions, and explanatory notes. Talking books also show promise of accelerating reading
growth b y offering readers immediate access to a word’s pronunciation, thus easing the
need of the student to rely on context cues to understand new words. They also can be
equipped with a tracking system for troublesome pronunciations; this system can provide
feedback to teachers, enabling them to identify particular categories of words for further
student study.

Audio Recording and Reading Instruction
Wikipedia (2006) stated that the invention of digital sound recording and the
compact disc (CD) in 1982 brough t significant improvements in the durability of
consumer recordings. The CD initiated another massive wave of change in the consumer
music industry, with vinyl records effectively relegated to a small niche of the market by
the mid -1990s. The most recent a nd revolutionary developments in this industry have
been in digital recording, with the invention of purely electronic consumer recording
formats such as the WAV digital music file and the compressed file type, the MP3. This
generated a new type of portabl e solid -state computerized digital audio player, the MP3
player. New technologies such as the Super Audio CD, DVD -A, Blu -ray Disc, and HD
DVD continue to elevate even the higher standards already present in digital audio
storage. This technology has a wide utility range for many associated fields including
“Hi-Fi”, “Professional Audio” , “Internet Radio” and “ Podcasting.”

More recent emerging technology enables easy voice recording functions on the
computer with many computers having built -in or free downl oadable software .
Microphones enable the process of recording voice narration by the simple click of a
button. Once audio is recorded, it can be saved as a digital file and used for diverse
purposes. Digital audio files can be: (a) played back on the compu ter, (b) copied to CDs
and MP3 players, and (c) uploaded to websites as po dcasts . (Anderson -Inman &
Horney, 1998).

Talking Dictionaries
The various talking products such as those from Franklin Electronic Publishers
are especially helpful for students who stumble over new words or larger words as they
are reading. The student types in the trouble word and the talking spell
checker/dictionary/thesaurus will pronounce it. There are a number of these products.
Some of the devices let you enter a word list so t hat the student can scroll through the list;
looking for the word they are unsure of and select the word to hear it spoken. It clarifies
homophones such as too, two, and to. The phonetic spelling correction lets the student
look up a word even if he doesn’ t know how to spell it.

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Reading Pens
A single word scanner can be of great help to an advanced reader who struggles
with large, multi -syllabic or unfamiliar words. A device such as a Reading pen® from
Wiz Com Technologies LTD. can be an excellent tool. I t can be moved across the
unknown word or line of text either from left to right or right to left. It scans the word or
line of text and uses built in optical character recognition (OCR), to pronounce the word
or read the line of text. It provides the defi nition if needed, speaking it on some models.
A thesaurus is also included on some versions. This is not a tool for a young reader, one
who struggles with many words in a passage, or has visual/motor difficulties. However,
it can be a good match for the ri ght student. A similar device, the Quick Link Pen® Elite
from Wiz Com Technologies LTD also speaks entire lines of text. Unlike the Reading
Pens, it stores the scanned text into the pen to be transferred later to a Windows® based
computer. The IRIS Pen™ se ries are pen scanners that transfer scanned text into Windows
or Mac® applications. They are small and lightweight and connect to a computer using a
USB cable. Some versions have text to speech technology .
(https://www.enablemart.com/c -pen-reader -pens)

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Chapter 4: USING TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING
LISTENING .

4.1. The Role of Technology in Teaching Listening .
Listening is the language modality that is used most frequently. It has been
estimated that adults spend almost half their com munication time listening, and
students may receive as much as 90% of their in -school information through
listening to instructors and to one another.
Often, language learners do not recognize the level of effort that goes into
developing listening ability. Far from passively receiving and recording aural input,
listeners actively involve themselves in the interpretation of what they hear, bringing
their own background knowledge and linguistic knowledge to bear on the
information contained in the aural text. Not all listening is the same; casual
greetings, for example, require a different sort of listening capability than do academic
lectures.
Language learning requires intentional listening that employs strategies
for identifying sounds and making meaning from them. Listening involves a sender (a
person, radio, television), a message, and a receiver (the listener). Listeners often must
process messages as they com e, even if they are still processing what they have just heard,
without backtracking or looking ahead. In addition, listeners must cope with the
sender's choice of vocabulary, structure, and rate of delivery.
The complexity of the listening pro cess is magnified in second language contexts,
where the receiver also has incomplete control of the language. Given the importance
of listening in language learning and teaching, it is essential for language teachers to
help their students beco me effective listeners. In the communicative approach to
language teaching, this means modeling listening strategies and providing listening
practice in authentic situations: those that learners are likely to encounter when they
use the language outside the classroom.
The one of the best ways introduce students to listening strategies is to
integrate listening activities into language lessons using multimedia technology. As
multimedia technology (interactive videod isc, CD -ROM, CD -I, etc.) becomes more
accessible to teachers and learners of other languages, its potential as a tool to
enhance listening skills becomes a practical option. Multimedia allows integration
of text, graph ics, audio, and motion video in a range of combinations. The result
is that learners can now interact with textual, aural, and visual media in a wide range of
formats. (online:WordPress.com )
The past two decades have brought to language teaching a nd learning a wide range
of audio -visual technologies. From among these, no single tool for teaching and learning
has had greater impact than the personal computer.
Today, individual learners can, in addition to interacting with computer -generated
text an d graphics, control combinations of analog and digital sound and images.
Arranging these combined media into intelligent, pedagogically -driven material is a
challenge to teachers.

57

Over the years, a wide variety of teaching aid s have been placed at the
disposal of language teachers. Charts, slides, tape -recorders, videos, over head
projectors and many other technological innovations have taken the place of
traditional chalk and board, though not comp letely. Not long ago a language
laboratory was widely used in learning listening as it was tied to the belief that
individual listening practice with audiotape helps build a learner’s ability to
understand and speak the target l anguage. Technology continues to be perceived as an
enhancement to the process of language acquisition. The large -scale infusion of
computers in language instruction programs in the past decade attests to this belief. The
rationale behind what is now growing support for Computer Assisted Language
Learning (CALL) is not unlike earlier enthusiasm for audiotape based technologies.
That is, both media provide individualized access to target language material that the
learner can control and use in a self -study format.
However, expectations for CALL in general, and multimedia in particular
are much higher. The fast and powerful computational capacity, in conjunction with the
orchestrated video, text, and gra phics of today’s multimedia learning systems would
predict more sophisticated paradigms within which students can interact with the
target language and, consequently, more effective learning. Learning a language via
individualized instruction with the computer — especially when audio and video
are involved — is an extremely appealing proposition, one that has sold to many an
administrator in search of instructional perfect solution. (online:WordPress.com)

4.2. The Listening Process : Importance and Difficulties of Listening in
Language Learning .
It has taken many years to give the listening skill the importance it deserves in
second and foreign language learning among the teaching profession. Rivers (1966: 196)
claimed, “ Speaking does not of itself constitute communication unless what is said is
comprehended by another person. Teaching the comprehension of spoken speech is
therefore a primary importance of the communication aim is to be reached”. However,
Morley (1972: 7) notes, “perhaps an assumption that listening is a reflex, a little like
breathing – listening seldom receives overt teaching attention in one ́s native language –
has marked the importance and complexity of listening with understanding in a
non-native language”. Contrary to what everybody thinks about foreign language
learning, listening competence is wider than speaking competence. This is the reason
why; recently, the language teaching profession has brought into focus on listeni ng
comprehension. According to Nunan, (2001:23 ), listening is a six -staged process,
consisting of Hearing, Attending, Understanding, Remembering, Evaluating and
Responding. These stages occur in sequence and rapid succession.

The first one is Hearin g and has to do with the response caused by sound
waves stimulating the sensory receptors of the ear; hearing is the perception of
sound, not necessarily paying attention, you must hear to listen, but yo u need not listen

58
to hear. For this, we have Attention. It refers to a selection that our brain focuses
on. The brain screens stimuli and permits only a select few to come into focus.
The third stage is Understanding , which consists of analyzing the meaning
of what we have heard and understanding symbols we have seen and heard. We
must analyze the stimuli we have perceived. Symbolic stimuli are not only words,
they can be sounds like applause or even sights, like a blue uniform that ha ve symbolic
meanings as well. To do this, we have to stay in the right context and understand
the intended meaning. The meaning attached to these symbols is a function of our
past associations and of the context in which the symbols occur for successful
interpersonal communication: the l istener must understand the intended meaning and
the context assumed by the sender.
After following with the next stage, it is necessary to make a remark: as it has
mentioned previously , the background knowledge is important and people have to take
into account several points: general factual information, local factual information,
socio -cultural knowledge and knowledge of context. With these factors, the information
will be correctly received.

The next st ep, Remembering , is an important Listening process because it means
that an individual, in addition to receiving and interpreting the message, has also added it
to the mind’s storage bank, which means that the informatio n will be remembered in our
mind. But just as our attention is selective, so too is our memory, what is remembered
may be quite different from what was originally heard or seen.
In the penultimate stage , Evaluating , the listener evaluates the mess age that
has been received. It is at this point when active listeners weigh evidence, sort fact from
opinion and determine the presence or absence of bias or prejudice in a message.
The effective listener makes sure that he or she does not begin this activity too soon, as
beginning this stage of the process before a message is completed results in no
longer hearing and attending to the incoming message and, as a result, the Listening
process ceases.

Finally, we have Resp onding , a stage in which, according to the response,
the speaker checks if the message has been received correctly. This stage requires that
the receiver complete the process through verbal or non verbal feedback, because the
speaker has no other way to determine if a message has been received. Therefore,
it is sometimes complicated as we do not have the opportunity to go back and
check comprehension (Nunan: 2001: 25). This table shows the basic stages of the
Listening process and their functions propose d by Nunan.

59

4.3. The Various Impacts of Multimedia Technology in the Development
of L2 Listening Skills.
Listening is the first mode of language acquired by children. Listening
comprehension stands belie ved to be a skill highly integrative and, thus crucial in
acquiring/learning a language, as well as of great help in getting other language skills
(Ramirez -Verdugo, & Belmonte, 2007).

In language teaching, listening seem to be used in referring to a comp lex process
which makes it possible for people to understand a spoken language. Therefore, listening
cannot be taken as only an area of skill in the performance of language, but also
a means so critical, through which the second language (L2 ) becomes acquired . The
significant role of listening in the acquisition of a language is clear to all. In this, as viewed
by some persons, the phase of speaking should stay delayed until the listening
comprehension has finished taking place . The Priority that tends to be stressed here
happens to be that of listening (input), over that of speaking (output). This as well means
that comprehension tends to be much more vital than production, whereby,
communication becomes hindered without it.

Numerous strategies of interacting tend to be involved in the listen ing
comprehension process . With regard to this, there exist a direct relationship between
what seems to be contained in speakers’ minds and the li stening process which
stands to affect the information’s interpretation. Understanding becomes continually
modified as the incoming stimuli tend to interact with the previous inputs including
other existing contextual infor mation .

60

According to Crystal (1997) , using multimedia technology in teaching English as
a foreign language can help to solve some classroom difficulties and can train students to
be autonomous learner s. Other researchers also found that the effect of the computer on
education has influenced the social world. There are many peripheral applications for
computers in the educational domain. Language testing, language research, and school
management, for instance, all offer scopes for computer application.

With comput er technology, Web -based learning has become a common choice in
educati on institutions (Bauer, 2002: 31). Language teachers often use all the media types
that go to make up multimedia in their teaching nowadays. The variety of media such as
text, graphics, audio, and video for delivering content has attracted many instructors and
students to use the Internet fo r distance education . These multimedia components get and
hold learners’ interest, which most people seem to remember more efficiently what they
have experienced rather than what they have just read or listen. Listening has become an
important part of many second or foreign language programs. Celce -Murcia ( 1991)
mentioned that, listening is used far more than any other single language skill in normal
daily life. She further argued that on average we can expect to listen twice as much as we
speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write. Listening skill
developed faster than the other three skills and could affect reading and writ ing abilities
in learning a new language .

4.4. Listening to Learn Reading .
Technology in the classroom improves student motivation, and is a necessity in
the 21st century because reading skills can be increased with the use of technology in the
classroo m. Computer technologies can support traditional literacy skills.
Computer assisted programs (CAP) in basic literacy skills can include playing
games, decision making, purposeful interactions, and scaffolding tools to support
students’ development of phoni cs, phonemic awareness, spelling, comprehension and
vocabulary.
Computer programs that include electronic versions of stories are able to utilize
various multimedia features such as sound, speech, video, animation, and hyper links to
additional resources. Students are able to click on a word and hear how it is pronounced
or receive a definition. These digital supports enable students to experience independent
reading and comprehension. Labbo (2006;203) states that “Electronic forms of text are
less difficul t for students to read, they are more engaging and interactive, and are more
likely to be read completely by young children”.
Technology can be used in a variety of ways to support student learning in the
classroom, Baker (2007 ) reports that the Internet c an be used to reinforce basic reading
skills instruction, some web sites provide various games that work on specific reading
skills, vocabulary, parts of speech, spelling and the alphabet.
These are all great suggestions to motivate and encourage practice in literacy
skills; technology can make repetitive tasks and learning much more interesting for
students. It seems clear based on these findings that teachers need to incorporate

61
technology into their day somehow whether it is used during instruction or f or skill
practice for both. Technology has become too important not to use.

More reading benefits occur from incorporating technology into the classroom, as
Hansen (2008) asserts, that when young students interact with technology in the
classroom. Student s develop an increased vocabulary, comprehension, fluency and
achievement. Interactions with technology in the form of CD -ROM storybooks have
shown to increase comprehension, ability to retell and help create meaning -making
responses, Also, when using CD -ROM storybooks students vocabulary has increased
along with fluency. This idea is a great suggestion for teachers as a way to incorporate
technology into the classroom for the benefit of student learning, while not being as
overwhelming for teachers as othe r forms of technology.

With the ever increasing popularity of technology both in and out of the
classroom, Karchmer (2001:448) reports that literacy “no longer consists solely of
interaction with the one -dimensional written page”. Electronic texts are int eractive. They
include audiovisual aids and are easily connected to related texts and produce different
text structures. Also with the increased use of digital texts, literacy now incorporates the
reality that electronic texts are much different than that of the written text. People need to
be able to navigate through and make sense of a variety of features, while print based
texts are fixed and are confined to the limits of what is writte n on the page in front of
them.

There is no interaction. Lue and Kin zer (2000) assert that multimedia
information sources are replacing information that was previously presented only in
traditional text.
However, they believe that reading traditional text will continue to be important
for two reasons: one, for speed and t wo, for information management.
Karchmer (2001) reports that an important characteristic of electronic text is it
does not follow the traditional linear print when reading from left to right and top to
bottom. Electronic texts allow readers to have a more active role when reading the text.
Users are allowed to choose which links they want to explore and what information is
important to them. This allows students to visit the same web pages, but enables students
to explore and take away different learning e xperiences, permitting greater choices and
increasing student motivation .

4.5. Listening Activities .
According to Harmer (1991:56) there are different activities depending on the
purpose but what is essential is to make students enjoy each activity and de velop interest.
The activities proposed below are only an example to motivate students to listen
to English in the classroom. This section will try to show many different ways of
exploiting listening but we, as teachers, canno t forget that its success requires clear
instructions and explanations in each activity in order to students get a perfect
understanding.

62
It is also convenient to introduce new vocabulary before the listening activity
in order to avoid possible doubts and even explain any grammatical issue they might
have difficulties with.
Finally, to make these activities more effective, they demand feedback. The study
has tried to do as many activities as possible in groups and pairs because the y are a good
method of listening and speaking English and motivating students. It is basically
monitoring the activity carefully and giving specific feedback on each group all
the time, and taking care when students that have a good level are with students
with a lower level, because it is not beneficial for student with a lower level. Students
can feel inferior and demotivated and we want to do the opposite, to make them gain
confidence. It is advisable to not always put the same people in each group, if
teachers rearrange groups and pairs, the class will feel new. In this case, this
group will have some difficulties relating with each other due to their different cultural
backgroun ds, so this is a good method to interchange ideas and express feelings with
different partners. Furthermore, it is suitable to create a confident atmosphere in
order to improve their English language, for this reason, most activities e licit
students to share ideas, opinions and experiences with each other. After doing these
activities with the students interviewed, the response obtained was satisfactory due
to the students ‘participation. Undoubtedly, the best way to organize learners was
in small groups, with a maximum of five students, with the intention of
communicating and all of them can have the same opportunities and not just
answering the questions. Doing that way, all the students can practice English and
develop and put into practice listening and speaking skills.

Activity 1: Interviewing a stranger (live listening)
Skills: predicting, listening for specific information, listening for deta iled
information.
Teachers can bring strangers into the class to talk to the students or be
interviewed by them.
The teacher comments the visitor the student ́s language level, remembering him
that he must take into account the level of English he is going to use with the students but
he has to talk in a natural way. The teacher takes the visitor into the classroom w ithout
telling the students who the visitor is.
In pairs or in groups, they are going to try to guess as much as they can
about the visitor. Based on their guesses, students write questions that they want
to ask the strange r
The visitor is interviewed with the questions the students have written and
during the interview; the teacher encourages them and clarifies things, which are
said that they do not understand.
The teacher will also prompt the stu dents to ask “follow -up” questions, so that if
a student asks “where are you from?” and the visitor says “I am from England” and then
she/he is asked “Where is England?” or “What is England like?” and so on. While the

63
interview is taking place, the students are taking notes and these notes are going
to be the basis for a written follow -up.
The students can write a short essay about the person with the notes they have
taken. The more information they have written, the more compl ete will be their
essays. The students can also discuss the interview with the teacher, asking for
help with any points they are still unclear or they can also role -play similar
interviews amongst the students.
With this activi ty, the students can put into practice listening because they are
listening to a foreign person who visits the school; speaking, because the students have
to ask some questions to the visitor and they can also role -play similar interviews in pairs
or in gr oups and also writing because with the notes taken by the students during
the interview, they are going to write an essay about the person who has come
to the class and has answered all the questions made by the students.

Activity 2: Sorry I am late (getting events in the correct order)
Skills: predicting and listening for gist A popular technique for having students
understand the gist of a story involves the students in listening so that they can put
pictur es in order in which they hear them. In the following example, students look at the
following pictures:
In pairs or groups, the students have to think what is happening in each picture.
Then, the teacher will confirm or deny their predictions. Students ar e told that they are
going to listen to a tape/CD and that they should pu t the pictures in the correct
chronological order (which is not the same as the order of what they hear). This is what
is on the tape/CD:

64

The students check their answers with their partners and if it is necessary, they
can listen again to ensure that they have the correct sequence (B, A, D, C). The teacher
can get students to listen it again in order to take notes of phrases of interest such as
those that Stuar t uses to express regret or apology (sorry, I am late; I woke up
late; I am afraid…). Once the listening has finished, the class can role -play similar sc enes
to that they have listened.

Activity 3: Telephone messages (taking messages)

Skills: predicting and list ening for specific information

65
Apart from the typical tapes/CDs, which accompany the textbooks, the teacher
can create his/her own material. In this case, the teacher is going to record a tape
with the help of so me friends.
First, the teacher asks the students the kind of short messages people might
leave for members of their family when they take phone calls while they are out. The
messages can be quite simple, for example: Students are going t o listen three phone
conversations in which the callers leave messages for people who are not in. they are
told that Mrs. Galloway has three daughters: Lyn (19), Eryn (17) and Kate (13). They are
all out at the cinema, but three of their friends ring up and leave messages. The students
have to write the messages which Mrs. Galloway leaves for her daughters.’
This is what students hear:
Mrs. Galloway: Hello
Adam: Hello. Is Lyn there?
Mrs. Galloway: No, she is out at the moment. Who i s that?
Adam: This is Adam. Do you know when she will be back?
Mrs. Galloway: About ten, I think. Can I give her a message?
Adam: No..Yes. Can you tell her Adam rang?
Mrs. Galloway: Sure, Adam.
Adam: Thanks. Bye.

Mrs. Galloway: Hello
Ruth: Can I speak to Eryn?
Mrs. Galloway: Is that Ruth?
Ruth: Yes. Hello
Mrs. Galloway. Is Eryn there?
Mrs. Galloway: No, Ruth, sorry. She is at the cinema with her sisters .
Ruth: Oh. Well, could you ask her to bring my copy of “Romeo and Juliet”
to college tomorrow?
Mrs. Galloway: Your copy?
Ruth: Yes, she borrowed it
Mrs. Galloway: So, you want her to take it tomorrow? To college?
Ruth: Yes. That is. Thanks. Bye
Mrs. Galloway: Oh…Bye.

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Mrs. Galloway: Hello
Jane Metcalfe: Can I speak to Kate?
Mrs. Gal loway: I am afraid she is not here. Can I take a message?
Jane Metcalfe: Yes, please. This is Jane Metcalfe, the drama teacher. Can you tell
Kate that the next rehearsal is at three -thirty on Friday?
Mrs. Galloway: The next rehearsal?
Jane Metcalfe: Yes, for the school play
Mrs. Galloway: Kate is in a play?
Jane Metcalfe: Yes. Didn ́t she tell you?
Mrs. Galloway: No… I mean yes, of course she did
Jane Metcalfe: Ok, then. We ́ll see her on Friday afternoon
Mrs. Galloway: Er…yes.

When they have the messages written, they can compare them to their partners to
see if they have written the same thing. They listen to the tape again and this way,
they can solve any problems or doubts. With this activ ity, they can discover the
langua ge used in the phone calls and typical phrases like “I am afraid she is not “or
“Can I take a message?” and then, they can work in pairs to role -play calls.
Finally, teaching listening can be very different depending on the
methodology fol lowed by each teacher but what it is really important is to develop during
the English lessons to get students learn the second language entirely. Due to this, some
suggestions have been offered, which can be put into practice during the less on in
order to motivate students to participate in class and to do interaction activities to
develop listening skills.
These activities allow students to feel more comfortable and sure when they have
to hold a conversation in English and the y make the skills more effective in order to get
a perfect acquisition of the second language, covering all the skills: listening, speaking,
reading and writing.

4.6. New Technologies in a Literacy Program .
“Technology should enable learning for kids, but it shouldn’t replace the
fundamental foundation of literacy, which is putting a book in a child’s hand.”
ALICIA LEVI
As society moves through the 21st century, technology is becoming more
advanced and prevalent in our education system . Ther e is increasing emphasis on
computer technology and literacy in today’s classrooms, which reflects the importance of
computer technology and literacy in society. Appropriate technology access and use to

67
facilitate learning is an important aspect of today’s education, especially as many children
will frequently encounter and interact with technology outside the classroom ( Lovell &
Phillips, 2009 ).
As educators seek to prepare children for their literacy futures, they must realize
that literacies of today ma y not be the literacies of tomorrow. Bringing new literacies into
the classroom is not always an easy task for teachers, when two thirds of teachers feel
under prepared to use technology.
Another challenge teachers face is a lack of resources, such as a la ck of
technology, time, and technical support. Also limiting are teachers’ attitudes and beliefs
about technology as well as teacher knowledge and skills (Barone & Wright, 2008 ). All
these factors influence a teacher’s use of technology in the classroom to enhance literacy
instruction.
Teachers have a variety of resources to aid in their instruction of literacy in the
classroom, such as Smart boards, computers, iPods, and digital cameras. My research
suggests that using technology in the classroom to enhan ce literacy instruction is
motivating to students; students tend to stay focused on inst ruction when technology is
used.
In today’s world, new literacies are ever changing according to Labbo (2006 ).
New literacies can include, but are not limited to, elect ronic gaming, mobile
communication, weblogs, Web Pages, multimedia text, as well as learning how to read
and write with multiple modalities, such as the following: graphics, video, animation,
music, audio narration, hyperlinks, search engines, and power po ints. New electronic
literacy genres include, informal products such as emails, text messaging, video
conferences, and chat rooms and formal genres which include power point presentations
and website design. Baker (2007 ) reports that some of the new litera cy skills needed to
be successful in today’s world include the ability to find information on the Web, being
able to evaluate this information for accuracy, while also synthesizing this information.
The Internet has changed the definition of literacy to in clude writers and readers
of electronic texts not typically found in traditional forms of literacy. We now need to be
able to communicate through video, hyperlinks, animated graphics and digital
pronunciations, to name a few of the new literacy skills that children and adults need for
today’s literacy interactions. He asserts that there are four skills that are of the most
importance for students to learn now that the Internet is such a significant factor in the
world today:
1. the ability to collaborate with others effectively;
2. to gather information and sift through that information from different
resources including both traditional and electronic means;
3. communication;
4. problem -solving skills.
If these new literacy skills are not made part of teaching and le arning standards,
hen students of today will not be successful in today’s world of technology. New literacies
are essential in today’s classrooms in order to provide equal opportunities to all students
in the 21st century.

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4.7. Listening to Learn : A D igital Framework Activity .

DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS
1 hour
Create a safe and positive learning environment by agreei ng ground rules for the
lesson.
In this lesson we will learn:
– to improve our listening skills
– to understand the elements of effective active listening
– to use effective listening skills.
Resources
Listening Wheel
Listening Wheel handout.

69

HANDOUT

Open Questions : How? What? Where? Who? Why?
Summarising : A summary helps to show the individual that you have listened
and understood their ci rcumstances and their feelings.
Reflecting : Repeating back a word or phrase encourages the individu al to carry
on and expand .
Clarifying: Sometimes an individual may gloss over an important point. By
exploring these areas further we can help them clari fy these points for themselves.
Short Words of Encouragement : The person may need help to go on with
their story – use words like ‘yes’ or ‘go on’.

70
Reacting : We need t o show that we have understood the situation by reacting
to it –
“That sou nds like it is very difficult”
Digital resources
Listening Wheel audio (Youtube, download mp4) for tapescript –Appendix 1
Role play audio clips – sections 1 (Youtube, download mp4) Appendix 2 ,
2 (Youtube, download mp4) Appendix 3
3 (Youtube, download mp4) Appendix 4 .

Tyrone is really worried about his Dad who lost his job a while
ago.
He seems very down and is not going out much.

Sam had an argument with his friend over where to
go at the weekend and now he is not talking to his
friend.

71

Dexter went with friends to a party and was persuaded to
smoke and now feels guilty about it. His parents hate smoking.

Millie is struggling at school. She has not told her parents because
they think she is doing well and work comes easily to her.
Millie has been hiding letters from school and missing detention s
and is scared about what might happen.

Summarising audio. (Youtube, download mp4) Appendix 5
Activity
1. Show and explain the elements of the Li stening Wheel using the slides.
a) Open questions – invite students to give examples of open questions
b) Summarising – listen to the audio clip as an example and discuss
c) Reflecting – look at the example then ask students to give examples
d) Clarify ing – ask students for examples
e) Short words of encouragement – ask students for examples
f) Reacting – read the given statement and a sk for examples of a reaction.
2. Listen to the audio clip: ask students what they noticed? Repeat with clip 2.
What was different?
Would the two people have felt any differently in this situatio n? Repeat with clip
3 and ask students if they identified any aspects of the Listening Wheel. How would the
person have felt in this situation? What helped them to talk? Feed back and share.
3. Group students into threes and hand one scenario to each group. One person
will be the listene r, one the talker and one the observer. Using the Listen ing Wheel ask
students to note which parts of the wheel are being used during the role play. Allow five
minutes for the role play.
4. Feed back from groups: what elements of the Listening Wheel did an yone
notice? How did it feel for the listener, what was easy or difficult? How did it feel for the
person talking – what helped most?
5. Chinese whispers: whisper five different phrases around the clas s at the same
time, until you say stop. See how they turn out!

72
DEAL
Developing Emotional Awareness and Listening
Connecting with others
Reflection
What could I do to improve how I listen to others?

How would this benefit me?
Summary
Really listening to people makes them feel valued and understood. Being able to
listen well to others helps you to be someone who others can turn to.
Expressing feelings
Source of activity – https://www.samaritans.org/

4.8. Provide Multiple Means of Representation , Expression AND
Engage ment .
Representation
For some listeners, access to the meaning and the spirit of the speech is impeded
by underlying difficulties with language. Some students may lack the vocabulary to
comprehend, while others may be unfamiliar with King’s syntactic style and rhetorical
structures, such as the use of repetition and refrains. The speech also assumes a certain
level of background knowledge. Today’s students may have limited or no knowledge of
the civil rights movement. For English language learners, iss ues of language, history and
culture may be compounded, making the speech even more challenging for them as
listeners .
However, in a digital context, the speech can be transformed so that students have
multiple entry points into meaning -making. Many audiob ooks now offer both text and
audio narration so that students may listen to and view a print version of the text. In some
cases, synchronized highlighting is offered to encourage students to attend to the text
while listening. Vocabulary and background kno wledge can be supported via hyperlinks
to glossaries and other informational resources, including access to experts and online
communities with a special interest in this topic.
Further, English language learners may be provided with access to audio and p rint
translations of the speech in their first language. For Elena, Desmond and Tanya, the
learning options have been expanded. Elena listens to the speech in Spanish first, then in
English. Then, as she studies the printed text more closely, she reads the text in English,
clicking on multimedia glossary hyperlinks in Spanish and English to help her understand
key terms and concepts. She also views a hyperlinked news video of the march on
Washington to understand the larger context. Desmond reviews key poin ts he has marked

73
in the audio and text versions in preparation for his test. Confused by a reference made in
class to Mahatma Gandhi’s influence on King, he follows a link to a website that provides
multimedia coverage of King’s meeting with Gandhi in Indi a. Tanya reads and listens to
the speech again, this time focusing on the accompanying photos and eyewitness accounts
of the march on Washington to help her develop a deeper understanding of this seminal
event that she can bring to her multimedia presentat ion. Layering additional information
and media onto the speech has multiplied options for understanding and learning the
“content” of this speech and event. In other words, each of the students is benefiting from
multiple representations . (Feltovich, P.J., Prietula, P.J., & Ericsson, K.A., 2006 )

Expression
In addition to offering students multiple means of representation, digital texts offer
options to support strategic learning and expression. This is often the more challenging
task, since it requires a m ore detailed and comprehensive view of the learner, the text,
and the goals and activity. Listening to a speech, reading a text, viewing a graphic,
animation, or video, or carrying out a combination of these activities, requires both
knowledge and strategi es. To support strategic learning, prompts to apply relevant
strategies, such as stopping to summarize key points or to note a question or confusion,
can be embedded in the learning environment. Pedagogical agents can provide models
and think alouds, as we ll as feedback to the learner. Online experts can mentor students
in ways of thinking and knowing within their discipline. The flexibility of digital
environments makes it feasible to vary the level and type of support in relation to the task
demands and t he learner’s needs and strengths.
Consider again our three students, Elena, Desmond and Tanya. Imagine a digital
environment that supplements the speech, text, and other representational supports for
learning about the man, the speech, and the larger histo rical context, with embedded
supports for strategic learning and expression. For example, before listening to the text,
Elena clicks on a “Listening Coach” who points out that King will increase the volume
and intensity of his voice to draw attention to ke y points. As Elena is listening to the
speech, she periodically encounters an audio prompt that asks her to stop and think about
what she is hearing and to apply strategies, such as summarizing key points, visualizing
or making a prediction about what will be addressed next in the speech. She types a
response into her online notepad. Because she is still learning to express herself fluently
in English, she stops and audio records a note in Spanish to expand what she has written.
Meanwhile, Desmond is focuse d on studying for his test. He listens to the highlighted
main points that he bookmarked in a previous section, then clicks on a selfcheck quiz to
monitor his understanding. When Desmond misses an item, he is prompted to listen again
to a particular sectio n of the speech by clicking on a link. The link takes him to the
relevant section so that he can listen at a slower pace. It also highlights the corresponding
segment in the printed speech to further focus his attention on the salient information.
Desmond continues through this guided review until he is satisfied that he understands
the core information needed for the class test.Tanya becomes increasingly interested in
the topic of civil rights as a result of her exploration of Internet resources. She choos es to
complete a multimedia slide show that illustrates the audio recording of “I Have a Dream”
with still and moving images of protest marches, examples of discrimination and other
visual aids that enhance the experience of listening to the speech. With m ultimedia

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options for expression, Tanya blends text, video and audio media to reinforce the
important points and emotion of King’s speech as it unfolds on that momentous day .
(Feltovich, P.J., Prietula, P.J., & Ericsson, K.A., 2006)

Engagement
At the hear t of learning is engagement —engagement with the process, with the
content, with ourselves as learners, designers and communicators. Centered in the
affective networks of the brain described earlier, engagement is individually based and,
for the most part, socially constructed. Recent studies on how human beings become
experts in fields as diverse as sports, business, science and the arts suggest that while
talent is important, even more essential to developing expertise is a high level of interest
and commi tment ( Feltovich, P.J., Prietula, P.J., & Ericsson, K.A., 2006 ). Goal -setting
and practice, guided by feedback, are essential to the development of expertise. And, not
surprisingly, they conclude that the level and amount of practice that is required to ex cel
is more likely to happen if one is interested in whatever it is that he or she needs to
practice.
Yet all too often in school, students have little freedom to set their own goals and
pursue interests. In fact, many stumble at defining an interest that is academically related.
Further, despite the acknowledged need to differentiate instruction and provide guided
practice, it is quite difficult to achieve in today’s diverse classrooms without additional
teaching support and, we would argue, without flexib le multimedia, such as audiobooks
and digital texts, which can open up the learning process in ways that inspire more interest
and instill a sense of ownership. Let’s revisit Elena, Desmond and Tanya as they finish
learning about, with, and through “I Have a Dream,” and accompanying digital learning
supports and resources. The students set learning goals and made choices about how they
were going to accomplish them. They took advantage of all that the digital literacy tools
afforded, including audio options . For example, Elena —who might have become
discouraged by a language barrier if learning about “I Have a Dream” was restricted to
print alone — now finds it easier to persist in studying the topic. The topic is still
challenging, but the multiple means of t ackling the subject hold her interest, especially
since she can use her Spanish knowledge to support her English comprehension.
Desmond also increases his investment and interest since he is able to control the pace of
his review of the audio recording and access crucial background knowledge that he knows
will help him accomplish his goal of performing well on his test. Tanya, too, thrives in a
learning environment where she can make choices and be creative in fulfilling the
assignmen t.

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Chapter 5: ADVA NTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES IN
USING TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING ENGLISH .

English language learning technology began to be used centuries ago if we
consider the blackboard as a technological tool However, many researchers consider
that the use of technology in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) started in the1950s.
Since then, the educational system in EFL has undergone an impressive
transformation . They also mention that tape recorders and videos have been in use
sincethe1960s and 1970s, and are still used in classrooms around the world. Since
the1980s (first generation of personal computers), the technology development has
accelerated this transformation with the emergence of new methodologies and
resources to teach English. During the 1980s and the 1990s, thanks also the
advancement of technology, the communicative language teaching started to place
more emphasis in a meaningful and authentic interaction with the language.
Therefore, in the last decades technology has involved major changes in the way we
teach English .
According to Arnó (2012 ),since 1991 technologies have provided authentic
materials and resources for English learning in a real situation pract ice as a consequence
of the greater number of resources and materials available on the Internet. The same
author believes that technology has offered precious tools for LSP (Learners of languages
for specific purposes). According to Merzifonluoglu (2018), the implementation
of technology in EFL education has conceived new possibilities for language learners and
teachers. Both of them agree in that technology has changed the perspectives to teach
and to learn English and they believe that technology has helped learners and teachers
to improve English teaching. Nowadays, integrating technology in English Language
Learning has become a very importa nt tool to teach English. N ow there is an
enormous demand of technology that of fers teaching methods and resources in order to
create a stimulating, motivational, and dynamic language learning environment.
Dudeney &Hockley (2007) state that technology is becoming more and more
important, and it will become a co mmon part of teaching English next years. They
argue that the reasons are the greater Internet access and learners who have grown
up in the digital era.
There are many authors who are favorably disposed toward the use of new
technologies in English learning. Despite having some disadvantages, it seems that
many pedagogues and researchers position are more in favor of the use of ICTs. Next, I
will outline some of the advantages of using technology that some authors and res earchers
point out.
The use of computers in English teaching and learning can offer an extensive
variety of multimedia content and other channels of communication between learners,
saying that technology has helped to change teacher -centered approaches tow ards
learner -centered ones. Students have become more active learners by increasing their
autonomy. The same author believes that learners can decide their own learning
objectives.

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Using technology in the classroom encourages English learners to foster their
success in the English Language ( Cutter, 2015 ). Technology offers many
opportunities for learning language than traditional methodologies. Therefore, teachers
have lots of resources and materials that they can use in their lesso ns, explaining that
technology increases motivation. Students become more motivated when they work
on computers and use modern devices than they are working with textbooks. They
are often less distracted, and the teacher can choose per sonal lessons for every learner
based on their needs . Moreover, the students can complement their knowledge using
their devices at home.
The implementation of technology increases the learners’ interests and
motivations. Learners find new infor mation that cannot be found in traditional tasks
and it also helps to develop their language creativity. Genc ( 2009 :136) mentions,“
Many researchers in EFL teaching profession pinpoints that good motivation
have a positive ef fect on foreign language learning. Students can see the real world
in the classroom, and they can be motivated easily.
He believes that technology in EFL provides easy, practical and authentic
resources and it helps to improve students’ four skills (listening, reading, wri ting
and speaking).claiming that technology is not the teacher substitute. It will encourage
learners and enhance classroom ambience. Thus, Genc is the only author that mentions
that the implem entation of technology has a low cost and that technology is not the
teachers’ substitute. As well he supports the idea that the implementation of technology
in classrooms has become an important change of teaching.
Technology enhances the cl assroom atmosphere, and learners can manage their
own learning process. The classroom becomes more learner -centered. It is also noted
that technology allows students to involve in real -life and meaningful locations and
contexts and introduces different kind sof materials. Both authors agree that
technology is a beneficial for learners. It increases motivation and offers opportunities
to learn in a meaningful context.
Although there are many advantages in the use of ICTs (Information
and Communication Technologies) there are some authors that research about
the disadvantages of using ICT in EFL teaching.
The lack of technology investment is the most important barrier that teach ers find
when they want to use technology in their classrooms, arguing that an incompetent
technical ICT knowledge about technology may also be a problem. Many teachers are not
competent enough to use ICT s effectively. The majority of teachers are di gital
immigrants and they have had to train technologically to be competent. Teachers, who
have not aquired the technological competence, are the ones who have serious problems
to use ICTs.
Pourhosein (2015) also highlights restricted Internet acc ess as a barrier. There are
still places where the Internet does not have the necessary access points. Besides,
inadequate computer technology support in hardware/software is also an impediment.
Computers need maintenance. For this reason, the lack of maintenance causes that
computers break and stop worki ng. Therefore, he mentions that the lack of technical
assistance in schools to repair computers and Internet connections to continue using
ICT in schools as another obstacle.

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Dudeney & Hockley (2007 ) talk about a general lack of ICT training for teachers.
They also believe that teachers need more technology competence and add that
some teachers want to use more technology but schools are not sufficiently equipped.

5.1. The U se of Computer Technology in EFL Classroom .
Technology and English language education are related to each other ( Singhal,
1997). During the sixties and seventies of the last century English language learning
laboratories were being used in various educatio nal institutions. The traditional language
laboratory was consisted of a number of small cabinets, provided with a cassette deck, a
microphone and a headphone for each one. Teachers use a central control panel to monitor
their students' interactions. The m ain advantage of that type of technology was that verbal
behavior of students would help them to quickly learn the second language. The students’
skills can be enhanced by encountering more practical drill problems. Although the
language laboratory was a p ositive step in linking technology and language education,
this technique was actually tedious and boring for learners. Also, there were minimal
interactions between the teacher and his students.
Today, computer technology enjoys a noticeable presence in s econd and foreign
language teaching and learning processes. This is because of infinite benefits this use has
for teaching, learning and assessing second and foreign language like English. The use of
multimedia technology, in EFL classroom, can offer the d elivery of a wide variety of
multimedia content, with pedantic and authentic language models, accessed with
individual control. The use of computer also offers other channels of communication
between class members and distant learners as well as supplement al practice exercises
and tutorial feedback. The use also shifts the learning environmen tal from the traditional
‘teacher – centered’ towards the ‘learner -centered’ approach moving EFL learner as
passive entity to a student who is active in the search for t he fulfillment of his or her own
learning needs and to use the lang uage in an authentic situation. .
Computer assisted language learning (CALL) software has provided another
teaching tool for second language education. The use of computers in English langua ge
classroom is useful for both teachers and learners . (Kaliski, 1992)
Currently, there are numerous software application programs available such as
vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation programs, spelling check utilities, electronic
workbooks, reading and writing programs, and different learning packages to assist
instructors in creating tutorial exercises to enhance their English language course.
The use of computer technology in EFL classrooms has many advantages for
developing the EFL learners’ language skills. The use of computer presents the EFL
learners with gateway to various activities for developing their language skills.
5.1.1 . Computer technology and listening comprehension skill .
Listening skill “is the process of identifying and underst anding the speech of
the speakers ” (Basheer, 2013) . The same author believes that the use ICT in listening
skills furnishes students with visual and voice inputs which can improve their
information and ideas, and as a consequence enhance their listening skills. Stanley

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(2013 ) claims that the listening skill is the most difficult skill to teach successfully
and the least manageable of the four skills. This ability is considered one of the most
difficult to acquire and per haps this is one of the reasons why it is the most neglected.
The listening process is an active process in which listeners select and interpret
information that comes from auditory and visual clues, in order to define what is
going on and what the speakers are trying to express . Comprehension, which can be
defined as “the process of relating language to concepts in one’s memory and to the
references in the real world” ( Rost, 2002: 59), is key to forming an accurate
understanding of a situation
Computer -based listening tests are very important in reinforcing the
understanding skills of the listener. CD -ROM based learning films can also provide
significant advantages over the traditional methods. Finally, Internet voice chatting using
the second language may also aid the communicat ion capabilities of the student.
Online learners who listened to the native speakers of English, found the given
words easier to pronounce. In fact, they became familiar with the accentual patterns of
English words and were able to understand the native speakers of English online.
Consequently, they achieved high score in listening comprehension and learned
perfectly the accentual patterns of the given wor ds and enjoyed the whole learning
process while listening to native speakers of English. Therefore, it could be inferred that
listening to native speakers on TV, radio, BBC, chat forums and on Internet is
consequential to online learners' high performance in pronunciation.

5.1.2 . Computer technology and speaking skill .
Good speaking skills are the act of generating words that can be understood
by listeners. According to Brown and Yule (1983), speaking is the skill tha t the
students will be judged upon most in real -life situations. It is an important part of
everyday interaction and most often the first impression of a person is based on
his/her ability to speak fluently and comprehen sively. So, teachers have a
responsibility to prepare the students as much as possible to be able to speak in
English in the real world outside the classroom.
Computer technology helps and encourages the playfulness o f learners
and involves them in a different ways of learning. It gives learners a chance
to engage independently, provide opportunities for self -paced interactions, privacy,
and a safe environment where mistakes a re corrected and exact feedback is given.
Feedback helps the learners to exercise and focus on particular error which adds
additional value by its ability. At present, there are number of qualitative feedback
software’s available on the web.
On the other hand,links are provided for explanations, additional help,
references, the value of technology is further augmented. The usage of
social networking sites like Skype, WhatsApp, Yahoo and Facebook etc all ow this kind
of audio as well video talk, in addition to IM (instant messaging) service has brought
tremendous change in the field of teaching and enhancing English learning.

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5.1.3 . Computer technology and reading comprehension skill .
Technological advances continue to expand possibilities for using computers to
support reading instruction. An important application is in direct instruction of basic
skills. Computers offer engaging, interactive activities for general and targeted pra ctice.
They give student immediate corrective feedback, and some programs provide incentives
for progress to higher levels of difficulty. Teachers also use programs to track student
progress.
Computers allow students to create and share work. Some softwar e allows them
to create graphics and multimedia projects, while word processing facilitates writing
projects. The internet allows information sharing through such resources such online
research, personal web pages, and e -mail. Moreover, electronic referenc es allow students
to conduct research more easily and in new and different ways from traditional research.
One of the biggest concerns of teachers and instructors is that students are failing to learn
critical reading skills that they need to progress sati sfactory through the upper levels of
their education. Commercial reading software developers have worked hard to create
software that gives learners real opportunities to read critically and develop critical
reading, and critical thinking, skills Investiga tions have shown that computer tools can
enhance instruction. The use of word processors can produce better writing. Multimedia
presentations can facilitate comprehension. Computers benefits diverse Learner by
allowing for individualized instruction. Compu terized vocabulary tools enhance second
language learners‟ comprehension, and computer -assisted instruction teaches basic
reading skills to students at risk.
There are three main ways in which computers are useful in helping language
learners develop readi ng skills:
a. Incidental reading . Most of the CALL (COMPUTER ASISTED LANGUAGE
LEARNING) programs, whether oriented towards reading or not, involve
the learner in reading text for the successful completion of the activity.
b. Reading comprehension. Traditional question and answer CALL programs
are used for reading comprehension as well as grammar and vocabulary
development.
c. Text manipulation. There are a number of ways in which computers can
manipulate continuous text which invo lve the learner in close study of
the content and structure of the text. An example might be shadow
reading which provides students with authentic texts. Additionally,
sentence structure, speed reading and cloze -reading are some of the
alternative ways of developing reading skills. An example for software
matching activity might be the JMS Newline activity: ‘Match the slang
words with their definitions’. Another activity might be JMS Newline
Software: Speed Practice Reading Comprehension activity ( Sperling, 1998 )

5.1.4 . Computer technology and writing skill .
The Word Processing program is one of the most common purposes for
which computers are used and it is regarded as the most powerful to use when starting to

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work with CALL. In order to use word processors learners have to be familiar to
the keyboard of the computer and they also have to learn the following before using
the computer:
– Learn how to start a word processor ;
– Learn h ow to delete and insert a letter, a word or a larger chunk of text ;
– Learn how to save tex t;
– Print a text ;
– Moving words, lines, sentences, etc. around.
Word -processing programs transform the computer into a sophisticated and
flexible writing aid that can improve learners' writing skills and their attitude toward
writing. The main principle of word -processing programs is based on the ability to
manipulate text freely. By writing text into the memory of a computer, the writer
can play round with his text until entirely satisfied. The word -processor provides useful
practice for guided and free writing. Vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and reading
tests have an obvious relevance to the sub -skills that are ne eded for writing
(Duber: 2000). By providing something to write about, the computer stimulates both
writing and speaking. An example might be the following activity from the Redhouse
Dictionary CD -ROM: ‘Put the jumbled idioms in order a nd write t hem in your notebook’

5.1.5 . Computer technology and EFL assessment and testing .
According to many scholars in the field of language testing, a successful
assessment of different language skills should be highly authentic, valid, and reliable
enoug h to be used ( Hatch and Farhadi, 1982; Hughes, 2003)
Authenticity in general refers to real world activities. Accordingly, if a test is
supposed to be authentic, it should reflect the real world activities. As a matter of fact,
the activities whi ch are used in testing should not be artificial such as matching items.
They should reflect on the communicative aspects of the language in real world
communication.
Validity means that the assessment should test what it is supposed to te st. The
content of the test is one kind of validity which should reflect the purpose of the test.
The last but not the least important factor in testing is reliability which generally
refers to the consistency of the scores. In his regard, the trad itional methods of testing
such as multiple -choice, which are still used by many teachers, often lack
authenticity and validity because they do not represent how we use the language
for communication with other people in informal setting outside the classrooms
(Underhill, 1987 ). In other word, they are rather artificial than real..
Different computer technologies can be used to help the teachers assess their
students’ language proficiency in general and diffe rent language skills in particular
without having to be dependent on traditional methods of testing which may not
reveal the exact achievement of different skills.

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In this regard, several factors should be considered by those teachers who aim
at designing assessment based on technology:
– Does the activity require the student to be creative?
– Does the activity reflect real world communication?
– Does the activity let the student use what he /she has learnt?
– Does the activity allow the student to use their language skills as a whole?
– Does the activity increase motivation?
– Does the activity reduce the affective filter?
– Does the activity increase group work?
– Is the activity reliable enough?
– Is the activity valid?
– Is the activity a uthentic?
Consequently, any activity to be designed to assess different language skills
via the utilization of computer technologies should require the students to be
creative. To do this end, the activity should reflect real world communication. In
other words, it should reflect on what the language learners may face within the society.
Another essential factor in computer based assessment is that the activity should
let the students use what he/she has learnt. Some teac hers design some tests looking for
what the students do not know rather than what they have learnt. The activities should
also reduce the affective filter and increase the motivation. Sometimes, this can be
achieved by giving the floor to the langu age learners themselves to design some
assessment activities for their peers.
In this regard, teachers can divide the class into two groups and ask each
group to design some test items for the other group. This will increas e the motivation.
The last but not the least important issue to be considered after designing the activities is
verification of the items. In fact, the reliability and the validity of the test should be
verified. This can be achieved by running a pilot s tudy to make the necessary
amendments. Considering the above -mentioned question computers and the internet,
can be valuable sources not only for language learning but also for assessing different
language skills . (Hancock, 1994)
5.1.6 . Computer techn ology and learner ’s motivation and authonomy .
Learners can control their learning processes as much as possible and can become
quite independent of teachers when they work with computers. Jones (2001) states that
teachers play a great role in developing le arner autonomy in Computer -Assisted
Language Learning (CALL). For example, students formulate their tasks independently
without teachers’ detailed instruction and they often reflect on their and their
interlocutors’ responses through Computer Mediated Com munication (CMC) (Shield,
Weininger & Davies, 1999 ).

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According to Kohonen (2001), making choices about learning contents and
processes, reflecting on their learning process and being aware of their achievements and
discovering new needs are the essential p arts of developing learner autonomy. In a word,
to develop learner autonomy, it is crucial for learners to have opportunities to reflect on
what they have done and how they achieve their personal learning goals. CMC is a good
way for them to reflect on the ir learning processes. In addition, the continuous interaction
between teachers and learners will also provide teachers with opportunities to reflect on
their own teaching and to be aware of what is in their students’ minds. Writing journals
or diaries can also be used for this purpose (Carroll, 1994). Learners can easily keep a
record of their individual reflections on their learning experiences in a computer.
Computers and Internet technology seems not olny to encourage learner’s
autonomy but also they ra ise learner’s levels of motivation in language education by
offering topics that are of interest to the learners and by introducing a diversity of study
methods i nside and outside the classroom .

5.1.7 . Advantages of the use of computer technology in EFL i nstruction .
Nowadays, CALL is gaining more popularity in language learning and teaching.
Different scholars considered several merits and barriers for applying CALL, but most of
them have the same items.
Ahmad et al. (1985 ) divide the advantages of compute r into three types:
1. Those which are part of its inherent nature
2. Those which benefit the teacher.
3. Those which benefit the learner.
They argue that the computer can offer interactive learning which means that like
a two -way task, it can conduc t a two -way learning session with students which will
improve the students’ performance in language acquisition. It is indeed more than a mere
programmed textbook. The computer can assess the student’s response. It can give
messages, check the student’s s ubsequent responses to the questions, give positive and
negative scores to correct and wrong answers and finally corrects the errors made by the
users and give the appropriate feedback. All of these activities can be repeated easily and
without mistakes b y the computer which easily arise from repetition by human beings. It
sometimes happens that due to the illness, timetable clashes or other family and personal
problems, students are absent from classes and cannot attend the course and accordingly
miss the lessons and related points covered in the class.
These kind of problems present no difficulty for the computer and consequently
for CALL programs. The reason is clear, if a computer is available, the student can later
use the computer and spend as long a s he/she wants to get full benefit from the call
program. It can also accommodate different speeds of learning and alternatively time
limits can be allocated for answering questions. This is specifically helpful and valuable
for testing purposes. From the teacher’s point of view, the computer offers a lot of help.
The big help is its versatility in handling different kinds of material in short time. But the
simplest is the one -way presentation of information in different forms such as tables,

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graphics, audi o and video and text. The computer can also present games, questions and
answers, dialogues and many different activities and exercises which will certainly
facilitate learning and create a favorable condition for teaching and learning purposes too.
The co mputer also offers many advantages and help for students. The first one is
accessibility. If computers are available, student can work with them ass long as they
desire. As a result of the computer's flexibility of time students thus can get most of the
benefit from their time. This factor makes most of the courses accessible to students who
would otherwise miss the classes. Distance teaching is nowadays practicable by the
utilization of the computer. This also makes the courses available on a distance mode for
part-time students too. Technological developments have made it possible to link the
computer by telephone line (modem) which has consequently made it feasible for the
users to use the E -mail and Internet to learn language too. Graduate and postgradua te
students can benefit more from computer too. They can get in touch and communicate
with their supervisors whenever they want even out of office hours and get feedback on
their assignments and thesis from their supervisors.
Finally “computer can be a po werful motivating force As Kaliski (1992) points
out, the computer has a positive and key role in productive language instruction provided
that its possibilities and limitations are recognized. However CALL deserves a special
and serious consideration and attention

5.1.8 . Implications for EFL teachers and learners .
Foreign language learning is considered to be both an intensive and time –
consuming activity. According to Bialystok and Hakuta (1994 :74), “anywhere from 700
to 1320 hours of full -time instruct ion are needed to reach a level of high fluency” . In
contrast to this view, most EFL learners spend on average only 150 hours per academic
year actively studying a foreign language. In most cases teaching and learning a foreign
language like English become s unsuccessful as EFL learners receive impoverished or
insufficien t input in the target language .
Therefore, as Blake (20 08) argues, if computer technology is used wisely and
creatively, it could play a very significant role in enhancing EFL learners’ con tact with
the target language, particularly in the absence of the study abroad option. Such views
signify the importance of computer technology in overcoming many prevailing problems
in EFL situations and have many implications both for EFL teachers and le arners.
If EFL teachers and learners cooperate and use this technology wisely, it can play
wonders in achieving the aims and objectives of teaching and learning of foreign language
like English .

5.1.9. Conclusion .
The use of computer technology for te aching, learning, practicing and assessing
foreign language, like English, has many advantages, for practicing and assessing
language skills. The Use of Computer Technology in EFL Classroom of computer
technology in EFL instruction while teaching, learning and assessing target language, the
results would be highly encouraging, productive and profitable for all those associated

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with these processes. As the success of any initiative, in language teaching and learning
processes, lies in the guided and coordina ted efforts, so is the case with the use of
computer technology. Therefore, all those related with the planning, teaching, learning
and assessing as well as testing foreign language like English if join the hands together
to exploit this technology for bet ter and productive EFL teaching and learning, the stated
aims and objective of teaching and learning of foreign language like English can be
achieved very easily.

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Chapter 6: PREMISES OF THE PEDAGOGICAL
RESEARCH .

A widespread belief among teachers and researchers is the use of ICT
(Information and Communication Technologies) to teach EFL learners. Nowadays ICT
represents the progress in education and it is an essential factor to pursue requirements of
the digital generation of students and the chang ing world.

6.1. T echnology Enhanced Classroom : An Overview .
Multimedia Technology has created a drastic change in the mode of learning
and achieved a great success in various fields of education, business, medicine etc.,
CALL (computer as sisted language learning) has a vital role to integrate audio,
video and multimedia technology to impart the value based teaching especially for
the students of second language learning. Computer mediated communication plays a
major role of interaction and combines multimedia technology to assess the
basic requirements of the students. Nowadays, texts with printed colour, graphics,
animations and video clips with latest digital technology makes the reader to engross
in the reading material and to have a prolonged interaction with the text and the
reader.
The application of ICT tools in any teaching environment requires
consideration of numerous aspects which lead to the improv ement of the teaching process
as well as its failure. Educational success tends to be presented in terms of:
a. actual learning outcomes,
b. student motivation,
c. their engagement ,
d. adapting proper strategies in the process of learning.

It is, ther efore, crucial to employ ICT tools in the process of teaching
reading/listening. Numerous ICT researchers claim that ICT tools improve education
and support teachers and learners in the process of ELT. ( Young, 2003).
In spite of these, int roducing a technology in the classroom should not be done at
random. Jones and Sato (1998 ) suggest that in adopting any technology one should
consider the following questions:
– Does the technology facilitate the attainment of course goals?
– Is it cost effe ctive? Do t he benefits outweigh its cost?
– Are the teachers ready to work with the new technology? Is any training
required?
– Does it help teachers make mor e efficient use of class time?

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6.2. C omputers, Internet , IWBS and EFL R eading /Listening .
The only w ords which come into our minds when we hear the word technology is
the word computer, website, satellite, and e -mail . Everyone uses technology, but in
different ways. Therefore, some countries are using very advanced technology, while
others still having very old technology. This can be the same for using technology in
language teaching and learning. Some teachers have access to high technology such as
computers, while others have access only to chalk and a blackboard.
Computers, interactive boards and in ternet, for example, are being used creatively
and effectively in language teaching and learning. We can assume that having a computer
in the classroom is an asset for any teacher. With a computer in the classroom, teachers
are able to demonstrate new less on, present new material, illustrate how to use new
programs, and show new website. Research reviews, on using computers, have generally
concurred that:
a) the use of computers can increase students learning in basic skill area,
b) the integration of com puters with traditional instruction produces higher
academic in a variety of subject areas,
c) students learn more quickly when learning with the aid of computers,
d) students like learning with computers and their attitudes towards learning are
positiv ely affected by computer use (Noeth and Volkov, 2004).
The class website and network -based communication applications present a wide
array of environment for interaction. Class website is an easy way of creating a web page
for your class to display the stu dents' work. Teachers, then, can post homework
assignments, student work, and so much more. The network -based communication
applications offer the teachers with a variety of Web tools such as blogs and wikis that
are currently being implemented in the clas sroom. Blogs allow the students to express
their knowledge of the information learned in a way that they like. If you are a teacher
and need to find a way to get your students eager to learn, create, inspire, and assign them
a blog. Blogs also allow for st udents to maintain running dialogues, ideas, and
assignments that also provide for student comment and reflection. Wikis are more group
focused to allow multiple numbers of the group to edit a single document and create a
truly collaborative and carefully edited finished product. During the last 10 years, more
and more language teachers have integrated the internet into the classroom , for the simple
reasons that:
– It helps motivate students .
– It contributes to teacher professional development .
– It off ers “a new learning environment and a wealth of pedagogic possibilities – It
encourages students, increases autonomous learning potential and brings
enthusiasm into the classroom .
– It serves as a mediating tool for technology -enhanced and student -centered
instructional environments .
– It could serve as technological scaffolding, which complements teacher
scaffolding inside and outside the classrooms . (Fischer, 1999)

87
The CD -Rom has become the most common fixture as the accompanying
auxiliary material mediu m for language textbooks today.
Interactive whiteboards usually provide touch control of computer applications.
These enhance the experience in the classroom by showing anything that can be on a
computer screen. This not only aids in visual learning, but it is interactive so the students
can draw, write, or manipulate images on the interactive whiteboard.
These technical tools are usually required for EFL/ESL classrooms. Electronic
books and stories, audio books and stories used in EFL classrooms enrich st udents’
interest and lead them to be a good readers and listeners. They also enable teachers to
reach students through a medium that is both effective and a part of their daily lives

6.3. T raditional vs Technology -Enhanced Reading /Listening Classroom .
In traditional classrooms, teachers stand in front of learners and give lecture,
explanation, and instruction through using blackboard or whiteboard. These method
must be changed concerning the development of technology. The usage of mu ltimedia
texts in classroom assists learners in become familiar with vocabulary and language
structures. The application of multimedia also makes use of print texts, film, and
internet to enhance learners’ linguistic knowledge. The use of print, film, and internet
gives learners the chance to collect information and offers them different materials for
the analysis and interpretation of both language and contexts and can create a learning
atmosphere centered around the learner rather than the teacher that in turn creates
positive changes . It is sustained that by using computer technology, language class
becomes an active place full of meaningful tasks where the learners are responsible for
their learning. Other reasearcher s as: Drayton, Falk, Stroud, Hobbs, and
Hammerman (2010) argued that using computer technology indicates a true learning
experience that enhances learners’ responsibilities. Technology encourages learners to
learn individually and to acquire resp onsible behaviors. The independent use of
technologie s gives learners self -direction
The use of internet increases learners’ motivation. The use of film in teaching
helps learners to realize the topic with enthusiasm and develop their knowledge. Learners
can learn meaningfully when technology is used in the process of learning through using
computer and internet. When learners learn with technology, it assists them in developing
their higher order thinking skills. It can be concluded that the true combination of
multimedia and teaching methodology is very important to attract learners’ attention
towards English language learning.
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have some benefits for
teaching and learning. First, learners play an active role, which can help them retain more
information. Next, follow -up discussions involve more information where learners
can become more independent. Finally, learners can process new learner -based
educational materials and their language learning skills can increase .
Traditional didactic teaching styles differ from student -centered learning in that
the focus of instruction shifts from the teacher to the student. The main focus of student –
centered learning is that the student develops auto nomy and independence by making the

88
student responsible for its own learning path. These findings indicate that interactive
technology in general could alter classroom practices and have implications for teaching
and learning (Blackwell et al., 2013 ).
As described by some EFL teachers, the main steps are as follows:
1. The teacher introduces the text in a form of oral questions in order to test
students’ background knowledge about the topic to be dealt with.
2. The teacher opens discussion with students about t heir answers.
3. The teacher reads the text aloud to the class (one time) then asks students to read
the text silently.
4. Some students will have the opportunity to read aloud.
5. The teacher presents new vocabulary and clarifies ambiguities.
6. He asks students about the content of the text (question -answer).
7. After a general comprehension of the main ideas of the text, the teacher gives
students different reading activities including WH questions, yes/no
questions, direct/indirect questions…etc.
8. The teacher pro vides general feedback.
Following the steps above mentioned it is clear that this kind of reading/listening
instruction which is typically teacher centered reduces s tudents’ progress and autonomy
does not motivate them to read/listen and does not involve t hem in active reading or
listening.
The role and importance of the use of multimedia technology in EFL classrooms
for teaching, learning, practicing and testing purposes has always been widely
contemplated subject among the ELT researchers and pedagogues. The advent of
multimedia technology in EFL instruction has lead to significant changes in teachers’
approaches, methodologies and strategies to teaching foreign language like English. With
many practical benefits both for EFL teachers and learners, today, the use of computer
technology in EFL teaching and learning has achieved great popularity.
The most commonly used term to define the use of interactive technology for
education is one -to-one technology -enhanced learning. In general, the term technology –
enhanced learning is used to refer to learning supported by interactive technology ( Chan
et al., 2006 ). It covers all those circumstances where technology plays a significant role
in making learning more effective, efficient or enjoyable. The notion of one -to-one refers
to a ratio of at least one computing device for each student.
In comparison to traditional teaching methods, the features that make wireless,
computers like tablets especially attractive platforms for studying include: the portability
of the ha ndheld, the potential for social interactivity and customization, the ability to
gather unique data from the environment, the connection between other handhelds for a
shared environment and the combination of physical and digital worlds. For example,
child ren can use their tablet both at school and at home, they can personalize their tablet
and they can practice learning matters with their tablets while teachers are discussing the
particular concepts in class. Furthermore, learning with ICT gives children the

89
opportunity to study at their own individual level. ICT allows children to practice learning
matters at their own level and pace, without affecting the rest of their classmates. All these
features should make the tablet an ideal device to improve conte mporary, traditional
learning methods (Klopfer, Squire & Jenkins, 2002).
As a conclusion I could say that computer technology enjoys a noticeable presence
in second and foreign language teaching and learning processes. This is because of
infinite benefits this use has for teaching, learning and assessing second and foreign
language like English. The use of multimedia technology, in EFL classroom, can offer
the delivery of a wide variety of multimedia content, with pedantic and authentic language
models, acc essed with individual control. The use of computer also offers other channels
of communication between class members and distant learners as well as supplemental
practice exercises and tutorial feedback. The use also shifts the learning environment from
the traditional ‘teacher – centered’ towards the ‘learner -centered’ approach moving EFL
learner as passive entity to a student who is active in the search for the fulfillment of his
or her own learning needs and to use the language in an authentic situation.
In technology enhanced classrooms teacher’s authority is more restricted and his
role is to guide only when it is necessary, If in traditional classrooms the text is the only
used material for reading in technology enhanced classrooms, technology is an ai d for
reading or listening providing authentic materials.

Methodology
The present study seeks to know:
* Students’ attitudes and reactions to technology -enhanced reading/listening
classroom (computer/IWB/internet).
* Teachers’ attitudes and reactions t o technology -enhanced reading/listening
classroom (computer/IWB/internet).

Children’s attitudes towards interactive technology
Next to the importance of beneficial learning outcomes, another important aspect
of integrating interactive technology in schoo l education is the attitude of the children
towards using technology. Even if the learning outcomes of digital teaching methods are
very positive, the students of the age group of 6 to 14 years old have to accept these
methods for beneficial outcomes. As Berman (1977) stated "Designers of new
technologies for children sometimes forget that young people are not ‘just short adults’
but an entirely different user population with their own culture, norms, and complexities".
The most obvious way to learn about t he students’ attitudes towards interactive
technology is by asking their opinion and evaluating their answers ( Borgers, deLeeuw
& Hox,2000). However, there are some challenges regarding the ability of children to
verbalize their thoughts and to provide mea ningful input about what is going on in their
heads. Young children are known for having difficulties verbalizing what they think,
especially about abstract conc epts and actions.

90
Since children, not teachers or authorities, are the ones who have to learn w ith
interactive products, it is important to know how they feel about using technology for
education. When their attitude towards interactive technology for educational purposes is
negative, it is unlikely that the integration of technology will be succes sful. At the
moment, almost nothing is known about how children see the use of technology in
education, probably because it is taken for granted that children accept these
developments.

The importance of teachers’ attitudes on the implication of technolog y in
classrooms
The attitude of children is not the only obstacle that should be conquered to
successfully integrate interactive technology into the education system. An important
factor that hinders integration of technology in education is that there is often resistance
by schools,in order to maintain current teaching practices (Collins & Halverson, 2009 ).
Despite increased access to technology, studies still report the underuse of technology in
the classroom, especially in early childhood ed ucation. Thes e constraints are not only
caused by institutional barriers, such as lack of time and money, but oftentimes teachers
encounter personal constraints towards the use of technology .
It can be assumed that older teachers are less inclined to use interactive te chnology
during their daily activities, since they grew up in another generation. Therefore, it is
possible that younger teachers might have more technological skills and knowledge to
successfully add interactive tech nology to their teaching style.
Most te achers indicated that internal factors, such as passion for technology, and
support from others played key roles in shaping their teaching styles. Given that the
majority of teachers are trained in traditional teaching methods, it is important to note that
the internalization of the regulations, rules and norms that go along with traditional
methods likely influences how they use techno logy for education.
It is proved that elementary educators who held more positive beliefs about the
potential of technolog y to aid learning practices also used a wider variety of technologies
compared to their colleagues with more negative beliefs. Even if people have access to
use technology and technical support, they do not use technology unless they possess
positive attit udes towards it. It is recommended to refocus teachers and change their
existing attitudes and beliefs.
It is obvious that teachers can play an important role in deciding whether to use
technology in classrooms or not, depending on their attitudes. However , little is known
about the actual attitudes of teachers towards the implementation of interactive
technology for educational purposes. Since these attitudes are important to successfully
integrate technology in the education system, studies need to focus on how teachers think
about using technology in their classrooms and how they want to use interactive
technology in the future . (Collins & Halverson, 2009)

Finally, computer technology can be used to assist struggling students by
accommodating skill defic its. The most prevalent form of technology for this purpose is

91
audio recordings of books. . Now, with the accessibility of more advanced computer –
based technologies, audio recordings can be combined with additional interactive
elements to support word rec ognition, word meaning, and overall comprehension with a
multisensory experience.

General Interpretations
Both students and teachers showed positive attitudes towards Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) and they are all aware of the numerou s benefits of
these technologies. For students the presence of a technology in the classroom will make
reading/ listening more enjoyable and help them practice this lifelong skill better than
they do in the technology free classroom where they do not have such an opportunit y
However, the technology classroom is not free of troubles.
There are also some constraints students faced such as: weak competence in
reading/listening in general, frustration, anxiety and embarrassment in the technology –
enhanced liste ning and reading classroom . Technical problems especially with the
internet/computers annoy at least students’ dependence on the teacher. As regarding the
teachers they also have their fears:
– The insufficient training in the use of technologies (computers/ IWB/internet).
– Absence of a good management of the technology -enhanced listening and
reading classroom.
– Lack of experience in teaching listening and reading using the new technologies.
– Administration constraints (equipments, time schedule, financial supp ort…etc.).
– Students’ weak command of the new technologies (computers/IWB/internet).
– Students’ discipline problems in the technology -enhanced listening and reading
classroom.
– Overcrowded reading/listening groups.
– Time constraints which is a constant i ssue.
– These constraints are a challenge for both students and teachers, especially those
who want to pursue the world wide requirements of the century: the d igital
age teachers and learners.

6.4. A Case Study.
During 2018 -2019 school year we developed a nd applied a case study for students
in the 8th grade in our school. There were two classes implied in the project with an equal

92
number of students, namely 28. 8th A students were taught using traditional methods and
aids while 8th B students were subjecte d to modern methods, to technological aids.
We considered in our study lessons which dealt with reading and listening
sequences/aspects of the teaching process, including teaching, learning, discovering,
practicing, consolidating, revising and testing. If during the first semester there were no
significant differences, these differences, visible in the results obtained at tests, were
obvious at the end of the school year. 8th B students obtained better results after testing
their knowledge and skills and w e consider that this progress is due to using technology
in teaching among other circumstances.
For 8th B students I applied KEY FOR SCHOOLS –CAMBRIDGE TEST
Appendix 6 at the beginning of 1st semester and PET – CAMBRIDGE TEST Appendix 7
at the end of th e school year, while for 8th A students I used their textbook –Highflyer
(Revision page xviii -xix at the beginning of 1st semester Appendix 8 and Final Revision
Unit 24 at the end of the school year Appendix 9). The results are shown in the following
charts :

A1
29%
A2
42%B1
17%B2
12%RESULTS FOR THE INITIAL READING TEST OF
STUDENTS
IN THE 8th grade A
A1
A2
B1
B2

93

A1
23%
A2
38%B1
27%B2
12%RESULTS FOR THE INITIAL READING TEST OF
STUDENTS
IN THE 8th grade B
A1 A2 B1 B2
0%5%10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%
A1 A2 B1 B2
COMPARATIVE RESULTS
–
INITIAL READING
TEST
8th grade A 8th grade B

94

A1 A2 B1 B2
15%
44%
21%
30%RESULTS FOR THE INITIAL LISTENING TEST OF
STUDENTS
IN THE 8TH GRADE A
8th grade A
A1 A2 B1 B2
17%
27%
26%
30%RESULTS FOR THE INITIAL LISTENING TEST OF
STUDENTS
IN THE 8TH GRADE B
8th grade B

95

0%5%10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%
A1 A2 B1 B2COMPARATIVE RESULTS -INITIAL LISTENING TEST
8th grade A 8th grade B
A1
21%
A2
44%B1
23%B2
12%RESULTS FOR THE INITIAL READING TEST OF
STUDENTS
IN THE 8th grade A AT THE END OF THE 1st
SEMESTER
A1
A2
B1
B2

96

A1
23%
A2
37%B1
24%B2
16%RESULTS FOR THE INITIAL READING TEST OF
STUDENTS
IN THE 8th grade B AT THE END OF THE 1st
SEMESTER
A1
A2
B1
B2
0%5%10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%
A1 A2 B1 B2
COMPARATIVE RESULTS
–
INITIAL READING
TEST AT THE END OF THE 1st SEMESTER
8th grade A 8th grade B

97

A1 A2 B1 B2
23%
40%
23%
14%RESULTS FOR THE INITIAL LISTENING TEST OF
STUDENTS
IN THE 8TH GRADE A AT THE END OF THE 1ST
SEMESTER
8th grade A
A1 A2 B1 B2
16%
37%
33%
14%RESULTS FOR THE INITIAL LISTENING TEST OF
STUDENTS
IN THE 8TH GRADE B AT THE END OF THE 1ST
SEMESTER
8th grade B

98

0%5%10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%
A1 A2 B1 B2
COMPARATIVE RESULTS
–
INITIAL LISTENING
TEST AT THE END OF THE 1st SEMESTER
8th grade A 8th grade B
A1
20%
A2
45%B1
30%B2
5%RESULTS FOR THE INITIAL READING TEST OF
STUDENTS
IN THE 8th grade A at the end of the school
year
A1
A2
B1
B2

99

A1
21%
A2
40%B1
30%B2
9%RESULTS FOR THE INITIAL READING TEST OF
STUDENTS
IN THE 8th grade B at the end of the school
year
A1
A2
B1
B2
0%5%10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%
A1 A2 B1 B2
COMPARATIVE RESULTS
–
INITIAL LISTENING
TEST AT THE END OF THE 1st SEMESTER
8th grade A 8th grade B

100

A1 A2 B1 B2
15%
45%
30%
10%RESULTS FOR THE INITIAL LISTENING TEST OF
STUDENTS
IN THE 8TH GRADE A AT THE END OF THE
SCHOOL YEAR
8th grade A
A1 A2 B1 B2
20%
42%
33%
5%RESULTS FOR THE INITIAL LISTENING TEST OF
STUDENTS
IN THE 8TH GRADE B AT THE END OF THE
SCHOOL YEAR
8th grade B

101

Conclusions .

Findings of the present study urge the need for educational reforms at the level of
our schools particularly in the implementation of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) in teaching/learning the EFL in general and the listening and reading
in particular. The study shows the great benefits the technology -enhanced listening and
reading classroom can offer students and teachers, particularly in helping the former
introduce changes in the teaching of reading/listening and in engaging the latter in the
fruitful skill of extensive reading and listening. It therefore becomes sine qua non for
practitioners in education to interact with technologies in the langua ge classroom and to
reinforce the status of listening and reading skills in the curriculum so that it becomes one
of their most preferable activities. We hope the present study will help both teachers and
students step toward innovation in the reading and listening classroom and cooperate to
introduce ICT in the classroom .

0%5%10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%
A1 A2 B1 B2
COMPARATIVE RESULTS
–
INITIAL LISTENING
TEST AT THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR
8th grade A 8th grade B

102
CONCLUSIONS

Technology in the classroom is beneficial to students learning. By using
technology one increases student motivation to learn and focus on instruction as well as
aids in the practice of important skills such as reading and listening. Teachers must use
technology in the classroom to motivate their students, help focus their students, and
create authentic and purposeful learning. .
Technology also increases student engage ment, thus allowing students the
educational opportunities of the 21st century and helping them gain the skills necessary
to be successful in today’s society .
We can notice that listening and reading competences are complex skills that
need to be dev eloped consciously. They can best be developed with practice in
classroom through activities, which promote interaction between students.
I have tried to show that it is easier to obtain students ‘participation and
motivation when the su ggested materials are entertaining, original and surprising. The
key is to motivate and change their negative attitude towards English giving students a
chance to listen/read/speak about interesting topics, which can result easy for them and
for their leve l. How can teachers get that? First of all, teachers should use the English
language from Primary Education so, if pupils are accustomed to this language since an
early age, it will be easier to communicate and understand English better and their fears
will disappear.
Nowadays, there are few schools where teachers do this, and the results
are very good although recently, the situation has improved due to the creation of
bilingual schools and extra classes in English. Day by day school life is when
students really learn the mentioned skills previously. Sometimes, it is only when a
child spontaneously uses vocabulary or expresses his own opinion related to a previous
listening or reading aloud carried out in the classroom.
An idea would be giving pupils opportunities to use their speaking and
listening skills in real life situations, giving them the sense of what they are learning in
situations that they do not have in the classroom. For example, doing mo re activities
outside school, participating in events or inviting people from an English speaking
country as a way of comprehending its practical use.
Another way would be using new technologies, which are very useful and
motivate the students because they consider them something different and funny. It is
desirable to say that teachers must support students in their education and encourage them
to use English, and at the same time, teachers need to be in constant contact wi th new
techniques and materials in this changeable teaching world.

103
Finally, teaching listening and reading skills can be very different depending
on the methodology followed by each teacher but what it is really important is to develop
during the English lessons to get students learn the second language entirely. Due to this,
I have tried to show how technology can be utilized in developing the language skills of
the learner. Different methods/ activities for using technology in improving the four
language skills were discussed thoroughly.

A case study was also carried out to estimate the acceptability of some students
for the utilization of technology to enhance their language skills. As a result, the following
concluding remarks and recomme ndations can be recorded:
1. As technology has developed, the incorporation of this medium into the
instruction process becomes necessary.
2. The computer is being viewed more as an integral part of the learning activity,
and as a means by which skills are tra nsferred to learners.
3. Theory and practice in second language learning can be matched together by
the use of modern technology.
4. Modern technical ways should be followed for effective learning and teaching
of the second language.
5. English language teachers should encourage their students to use technology
in developing the language skills.
6. Educational institutions should modernize their technical instruction
capabilities by using new equipments and laboratories for supporting the
teaching process.

104
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APPENDIX .

Appendix 1. Listening Wheel audio. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………… 114
Appendix 2. Role play audio clips – Section 1 (Youtube, download mp4) ……………… 115
Appendix 3. Role play audio clips – Section 2 (Youtube, download mp4) ……………… 116
Appendix 4. Role play audio clips – Section 3 (Youtube, download mp4) …………….. 118
Appendix 5. Summarising audio (Youtube, download mp4) ………………………….. ……. 120
Appendix 6. KEY for SCHOOLS – CAMBRIDGE TEST ………………………….. ………. 122
Appendix 7. PET – CAMBRIDGE TEST ………………………….. ………………………….. …. 149
Appendix 8. HIGHFLYER – Revision Page XVIII -XIX ………………………….. …………. 176
Appendix 9. HIGHFLYER – Final Revision – Unit 24 ………………………….. …………… 178

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Appendix 1. Listening Wheel audio.

00:01 hello Milly I don't usually see you on
00:04 your own how are you I'm okay thanks how
00:11 are you yeah I'm well but you don't
00:17 really sound okay Emily you sounding
00:29 really upset you know it can be really
00:34 hard to talk about how you're feeling
00:37 sometimes but if you want to try I'm
00:40 here sometimes it can help to talk about
00:44 how you're feeling
00:47 it's it's nothing really well I mean I
00:52 don't know
01:01 I've just had a really bad fight with
01:04 my mum you've had a bad fight with you
01:08 mum yes I mean we're always fighting but
01:15 it was worse this time what made it so
01:23 bad this time
01:24 Milly she told me she said she never
01:28 wanted to see me again that's a horrible
01:33 thing to say that must have felt reall y
01:36 hurtful to be told that

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Appendix 2. Role play audio clips – Section 1 (Youtube, download mp4)

00:00 hey Robert how you doing yeah I'm okay
00:03 so what's happening well Sarah dumped me
00:06 last night did she yeah I just can't
00:09 beli eve it I never saw a corner thar
00:10 thought we get on really well don't
00:14 worry about that did you see the game
00:15 that's right no I was too busy getting
00:17 dumped you coming to training tonight
00:19 right we've got a game on Sunday I don't
00:22 really feel like it I mean I can think
00:24 of very ceremony was making me feel
00:26 really damn look don't worry about it
00:29 you'll be fine anyway you can't let some
00:30 girl ruin football for you to be honest
00:33 I don't think it'd be much good tonight
00:34 anyway I want to try and talk to Sarah
00:36 sieving it so it's not now look won't
00:38 you just forget about her she said she
00:40 doesn't want you anyway besides there's
00:42 plenty more fish in the sea I know you
00:44 think this i s so easy don't you I'll
00:46 call Tom are going to pick us up just
00:48 make sure you're ready by half 7:00 Oh
00:50 have you got any spare shin pads are
00:52 gonna walk done with mine oh look I need
00:54 to go I need to speak to serious Academy
00:56 yeah yeah whatever just make sure you're
00:58 ready for 7:30 you stop you idiot I'll
01:00 see you in a bit yeah see you later

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Appendix 3. Role play audio clips – Section 2 (Youtube, download mp4)

00:00 hey Robert how are you doing no I'm okay
00:03 so what's happening well Sarah dumped me
00:06 last night oh man I'm really sorry I
00:09 hate getting dumped yeah it's crap
00:12 I was really into her as well so why'd
00:14 she dump you she said it just wasn't
00:16 working the girls always say that what' s
00:18 she talking about
00:19 you didn't two -timer did you maybe
00:22 you're being too full on oh yeah thanks
00:24 a lot probably used me to stuff I
00:28 couldn't believe it when I happened
00:30 though I just never saw coming
00:31 I thought we were getting on really well
00:33 you know so I mean I didn't mean it was
00:36 your fault I take to understand
00:38 everything you're going through when it
00:39 happened to me I just ignored oh it's
00:41 best way she gets the message you don't
00:43 want to know her anymore I can't ignore
00:46 though I never felt this way before
00:48 about anyone just don't know what to do
00:50 with myself all I can think about is her
00:53 well if you talk to your family about it
00:55 doesn't –you older brother have a
00:56 girlfriend maybe I could give you some

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00:58 advice
00:59 no you gotta be joking what are they
01:01 gonna do
01:02 I don't worry about it I can handle it
01:05 well you know you can talk to me
01:07 whenever you need to
01:07 yeah thanks any time

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Appendix 4. Role play audio clips – Section 3 (Youtube, download mp4)

00:00 hey Robert how you doing yeah I'm okay
00:05 that's what's happening well Sarah
00:07 dumped me last night oh man I'm really
00:09 sorry you want to talk a bout it no it's
00:12 no big deal I was really into her
00:15 did she say why she didn't want to be
00:18 with you she said it just wasn't working
00:21 just like that how are you feeling
00:24 well I just couldn't believe I didn't
00:26 see it coming at a ll so we were getting
00:28 on really well you know I've never felt
00:32 this way before I just don't know what
00:33 to do it meself all I can think about is
00:35 her it's really getting me down so what
00:39 do you think would happen if he talks
00:40 about it I mean what would happen if you
00:43 told her how you're feeling well I
00:44 called her this morning she was like
00:46 really blunt as long as she needed space
00:48 and all that I mean what do you think I
00:50 should do don't say hey babe wha t are
00:54 you thinking don't know just need to
00:57 sort myself out maybe I'll talk to my
01:00 brother he's been told so many times
01:01 just got to have some good advice I've
01:04 gotta start thinking about it for a
01:05 while anyway your freaky Ko ran later

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01:08 sure but you know you can talk to me
01:10 whenever you need to about this yeah
01:12 choose me I appreciate it no problem

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Appendix 5. Summarising audio (Youtube, download mp4)

00:01 I'm really stressed out a t school with
00:04 my exams and everything I'm not doing
00:07 very well in my schoolwork I'm really
00:09 scared I'm not going to get the grades
00:12 because if I don't I might not be able
00:15 to stay on into sixth form and my
00:18 parents thought be so angry they were
00:22 already driving me mad always going on
00:25 about my future and stuff and how I've
00:27 got to work and be successful like it's
00:30 the only thing in the world that matters
00:32 I do want to work but I'm worried I'm
00:36 jus t not good enough not clever enough
00:40 I've always struggled through school but
00:42 it hasn't really mattered before and now
00:45 it's like like I'm going to be a big
00:47 failure and let the whole family down
00:50 I've been working so hard staying up
00:54 really late and everything and I'm just
00:57 so terrified it's all going to be just
00:59 this huge disaster and my parents
01:02 they'll never forgive me you've got such
01:07 a lot to cope with let me just make sure
01:10 that I've understood you you've got
01:13 important exams coming up and your
01:16 family's expecting you to do really well
01:18 in them but you're terrified that you
01:21 can't meet their expectations

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01:23 and that if you don't get the grades you
01:25 need you're going to be seen as a
01:27 complete failure and then you'll feel
01:29 like you've let the whole family down
01:31 it's no wonder you're feeling so
01:33 stressed and exhausted too probably with
01:37 all that staying up to work

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