The Social Benefits of E-learning in the Study of Foreign Languages in [619903]

The Social Benefits of E-learning in the Study of Foreign Languages in
Romanian Education
Viorica Banciu
+
, Mircea Gordan and Simona Stanciu
The University of Oradea
Abstract:
Starting from the general definition that globalization is the process of interactions increased at
the global level, and of a higher interdependence at th e economical, social, technological, cultural, political,
ecological, etc. levels, and sharing th e idea that globalization also refe rs to the diminishing of distances
through technology, language and cultural differences, or to solving some global problems, this work tries to
discuss the influence of globalization upon intercultural manifestations, upon national and ethnical identities .
The evolution of society, namely th e Romanian society imposed specific changes in the school curricula, and
also the short and long term strategies.
The focus is moving from traditional learning to the creative, innovative and active learning. The curriculum
requires a flexible inter, multi a nd trans-disciplinary approach. The trad itional teaching paradigm is changing
to keep pace with the increase in non-traditional students and the changi ng workforce. As a result school in
Romania, education at superior levels, high-schools, colleges and universities continue to add more distance
education courses, education focusi ng more and more on e-learning.
Keywords:
E-Learning, Teaching, Learning, Foreign Languages, ITC
1. Introduction
The new trends in education have focused on the potential for changing the teaching-learning paradigm,
in practice, the technology, namely ITC, are more and more used in education to support the existing
teaching and learning practice with new tools. These ne w practices have an impact on student: [anonimizat], learning and creative expression within the
environment of pre-college education [1].
The term “knowledge society” and its variant “knowle dge societies”, has been adopted in the beginning
by UNESCO within its institutional policies. There has been a great deal of refl ection on the issue, which
strives to incorporate a more integral conception that is not only related to the economic dimension.[2]
The European vision of knowledge-based society could be that in a transformation where social,
economic and technical systems become simultaneously reorganized. The Future of ITC and Learning in the
Knowledge Society report concludes that ITC can play the role of catalyst for change in education and
training in Europe, providing ITC change goes hand to hand with institutional and social change. [3]
In the context of socio-cultural changes due to th e political and economical changes in Europe, the study
in of foreign languages became im periously necessary. Multiculturality implies the knowledge of several
languages. In the context of European Community polic ies foreign languages are passports for a better life,
for higher standards of living. English itself, especially American English, as a la nguage might be considered
a multicultural, mixed language to some degree taki ng into account the many foreign influences upon it.
Nevertheless it was never a truly mi xed language in the strict linguistic sense of the word; mixed languages

+ Corresponding author. Tel.:: BANCIU VIORICA, e-mail: myconferences18@gmail.com, telephone 0040 766 54 98 47

1012012 International Conference on Management and Education Innovation
IPEDR vol.37(2012)©(2012)IACSIT Press, Singapore

arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic
communication.
2. E-learning in Romanian Education
The development of new technologies in communicati ons leads to new approaches to the educational
process. E-learning is a new concept that designates a specific way of distance learning training. E-learning
is a term that designates a learning process that relies on the use of computers as source of information and
access to knowledge. The term e-learning is synonym ous with the E-learning, online education, online
education, web education, distance learning, etc.
Distance learning physics involves the distant be tween teacher and pupil / student communication
between them achieved by exchanging messages or electronic documents.
In distance education, a particularly important role is held by the technological factors which should
ensure that the pupils / students, and comm unication between them and their teachers.
A professor in the education system can address simultaneously a large number of pupils / students, but
can have a dialogue with each of them individually . Those who study in this way can benefit from
knowledge and experience of renowned teachers that c ould not address directly. We can say that within
distance education, the role of the human factor is the guidance.
This type of training is available to anyone re gardless of age, or level of education and access to
information through modern technology. The following c ourses in distance learning systems are able to gain
information as to his skills and abilities according to their own pace of study, choosing his own place and
time they are willing to study. Meanwhile, students can express their creativity by making interdisciplinary
connections between the concepts presented, revealing new interpretations of data. The lack of this fellow or
teacher can stimulate the timid. Multimedia presentation of information stimulates attention, their understanding and interpretation of data, l eads to active assimilation of knowledge.
Current information from all over the world can be found at any time using the Internet. Economic
factors should not be overlooked, pupils / students si gnificantly reducing transport costs or accommodation.
The educational system can have a negative effect on rela tionships, the creation of em otional ties, or in terms
of integration in society, lack of face to face cont act between students and peers or their teachers. The
efficiency of this system of education depends larg ely by the desire of those who follow such training
courses.
We appreciate that distance learning is an opportunity for those who wish to study, but for var
iousreasons, such as those of material nature or lack of time cannot attend the full time similar.
Over 20 universities in Romania ha ve implemented this method.
The rapid technological changes and the spread of the Internet pose no threat to the education, on the
contrary they make a flexible and attractive learning tool, one more adapted to the requirements of the
modern lifestyle and more suitable for the computer addicted generation.
E-learning facilitates learning and knowledge shari ng, develop creativity, prepare the young for the
future and bring together pe ople from different places, with the most diverse experiences.
Teaching foreign languages through e-learning is a challe nge and also became a modern part of teaching.
This paper aims to present the benefits of online t eaching modern languages both for teachers and students.
Due to the Internet’s flexibility pe ople are offered many resources but they also use the Internet for
communication and collaboration. This paper aims to present some methods of teaching English with the
help of the computer, as a possibilit y of personal development, and also to offer the student better chances
for the future.
3. M-learning – a new version of e-learning
M-learning is the way to learning the tools of co mmunication involving mobile wireless, which creates
the premises of an area spreading messages of global planetary scale. Mobile telephony has evolved so much
that now allows connection to computer making consiste nt data transfers. M-learning is a new educational
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paradigm that creates an environment in which pupils or students access to course materials, instructions and
applications anytime and anywhere.
For an efficient use of m-learning by both teacher s and pupils / students must understand the nature of
interpersonal relationships in place, the quality and consistency of interac tions, in realizing the importance of
communicative exchanges of information, knowledge, experiences, values and attitudes.
The new guidelines require rethinking of components or pedagogical principles, to give a particular
approach to content, new ways of training the trainers , new educational policies designed at a time in society.
When speaking about on-line learning we need to take into account the advantages and the disadvantages
of e-learning in the study of a foreign language.
Advantages:
• Student can study anywhere as long as there is access to a computer with internet connection;
• They can work at own pace;
• User can accommodate different learning styles through different activities;
• Flexibility to join discussions any hour of the day;
• E-learning is cost effective.
E-learning also offers individualized instruction, wh ich print media, cannot provide, and instructor-led
courses allow clumsily and at great cost. In conjunc tion with assessing needs, e-learning can target specific
needs. And by using learning style tests, e-learning can locate and target individual learning preferences.
(convenience, cost, time) and the disadvantages (fi xed courses, personal contact, reliability) of it.
Disadvantages:
• Lack of personal community and conn ection (not for blended learning);
• Its a banking model of education (w hich is partially inevitable);
• Not necessary based on the best science regarding How People Learn;
• Tech, toys, and teaching over learning;
• Focus on memorization over learning core competencies;
• Better aligning of incentives of teachers and learners;
• Downtime plus mobile as well as “play” are issues to consider as well;
• Underutilized talents and facilities;
• No way to ground social networking and web 2.0 tools;
4. Foreign languages and ITC
Taking as motto Heraclitus’s adage “The only constant force in the universe is change”[4], people should
use their utmost ability, adaptation, to cope with this change. If some years ago computers were the
concomitant of science-fiction movies like Star Trek, in reality, computers were rather primitive and scarce.
They were used only for basic operations, and there were few people who could use them. Regarding the
Internet, it was a means of communication mainly for scientists, who wanted to exchange and share
information with one another. We can say that this si tuation has known a “boom”, an incredible development
and expansion in the last twenty years. Today, this technology has become available to a lot of people, and
there is almost no school that doesn’t have computer s and Internet connection. One can easily find on the
Internet whatever reading material he/she needs, being able to access, read, buy or download all this knowledge. Younger generations, that have grown up together with this technology, find it more easily to use
it then their parents, for whom, at least at first, usi ng a computer was rather, if not very difficult to use a
computer.
The educational system has traditionally been cons ervative, the introduction of computers signifies a
great deal of work for teachers and produces a brusque change in relations between pupils and teachers and
perhaps for this reason many teachers are doubtful about the introduction of computers in the classroom.
Many teachers feel threatened by the change in their role and the need to develop a new mind set in which
the teacher is not the main source of information so th at treatment of teachers’ attitudes becomes a key factor
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in in-service training. With many of the innova tive projects proposed teachers have begun with great
enthusiasm only to become disillusioned once the project is in motion.
Teachers give positive responses to th ose items which are socially accep table such as the advantages of
ICT over traditional methods their motivating effect or the non complexity of use even though their answers
are at variance with their personal beliefs about teach ing which are reflected in questions apparently not
related to the use of computers. For example, many of them believe “the use of computers presents
advantages compared to traditional methods” (this has to be the socially acceptable answer since we have
seen that the majority of teachers have no experien ce of using computers in the classroom, definitely a
reaction based on hearsay rather than evidence). [5]
In secondary education, many teachers believe that the use of computers motivates students only as an
initial novelty, and as they become used to them, motiv ation diminishes. They claim that ICT helps them
control the problems of discipline in the classroom, due to the fact that students feel more motivated to work
with a new instrument, and are therefore more settled; but at the same time it is more difficult to get them to
concentrate on the language tasks, since they tend to ope n applications dedicated to games and leisure such
as playing computer games, checking their emails or ch atting. The overall feeling is that the use of ICT has
not improved the performance of the students in learning English.
Normalization has been achieved at an administrative le vel, but the main problem is that the use of ICT
has not been normalized in the teaching of foreign lan guages, above all because the teachers do not have the
training necessary to be able to integrate it into their classes.
The literature on attitudes is abundant in sociolinguis tics but scarcer in the specific area of teachers’
attitudes towards learning and teaching. In recent years, however, there have been an ever increasing number of studies into the possible reasons for the lack of im pact of ICT in improving educational results [6], the
different aspects which could be influe ntial such as self efficiency of teacher’s own computer skills [7] or the
part emotions play in accepting computers [8]as well as numerous studies on the problems facing the
introduction and use of computers in the classroom especially from the point of view of differing expectations and attitudes between students and teachers [9]Finally several studies have emerged which
establish teachers attitudes as the probable basic cause of the wide distance between expectations and
results.[10][11]
Attitudes are notoriously difficult to define and pin do wn. As [12] claimed attit udes are characterized by
an embarrassing degree of ambiguity and confusion which ar e difficult to pinpoint as they cannot be directly
observed but rather need to be inferred through be liefs conduct and feelings expressed. In other words
“attitudes are hypothetical constructs. Their existence cannot be seen or measured directly, we are only
aware of people’s attitudes through their behavior” [13]
In foreign language learning there are many specific features to which experts that develop educational
content and e-learning modalities must adhere. E-learning is facilitated by the use of digital tools and content.
Typically, it involves some form of interactivity, whic h may include online interaction between the learners
and their teacher or peers. The selection of proper mu ltimedia technologies in foreign language learning is
very important issue. It should be possible to ach ieve the necessary quality of teaching materials for
mastering reading skills, listening comprehension, writing and communication skills.
5. Conclusion
Nowadays the Internet and the ITC technologies have become every-day tools for everyone who has a
computer at home and a subscription with an Internet provider. Things that would have been impossible
some twenty years ago are commonalities today. While th e average user exploits the advantages of the new
trends in education, however they see fit, in a formal environment, that is school, the teacher will teach the
students to benefit as much as possible from the using of the Internet, improve education by offering the
students the opportunity of e-learning. The teacher beco mes a guide that will show the children the correct
way of extracting, selecting and using the information available on the Internet.
6. References
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[1] Mot Monica (2010) ITC –From an Emerging Technology to an Enabling Technology in Education, in the
Conference Proceedings of International Symposium: Research, E ducation, Development, Targu-Mures,
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[2] Natural Sciences Quarterly Newsletter, vol. 1, nr.4, (2003), available at:
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[3] Punie, Y., Cabrera, M., Bogdanowicz, M., Zinnbauer, D., Navajas, E., (2006) , The Future of ITC and Learning in
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[4] en.wikiquote.org/wiki/ Heraclitus
[5] Gobbo, C. and Girardi, M. (2001) . “Teachers’ beliefs and integration of information and communications
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[7] Paraskeva , F., Bouta , H. and Papagianni , A. (2008). “Individual characteristic s and computer self-efficacy in
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[8] Veen, K. and Sleegers, P . (2006). “How does it feel? Teachers’ em otions in a context of change”. Journal of
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[9] Oblinger, D. & Oblinger, J. (2005). “Is it age or IT: Firs t steps towards understanding the net generation”, in D.
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[10] Shoffnerm M. (2009). “Personal A ttitudes and Technology: Implications for Preservice Teacher Reflective
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[12] Erwin, P (2001). Attitudes and Persuasion , Ho ve: Psychology Press
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