Table of Contents [302597]

Table of Contents

ARGUMENT. 3

THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE GLOBALIZATION CONTEXT. 5

[anonimizat]. 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. [anonimizat]. 25

2.2. Teaching Reading. 26

2.2.1. Teaching Reading: 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 READING. 44

3.1. [anonimizat]. 46

3.2. Programs Used for Teaching Reading: [anonimizat], and Reading Galaxy. 47

3.3. Technologies That Support Students' Reading Development. 52

Chapter 4: USING TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING LISTENING. 56

4.1. The Role of Technology in Teaching Listening. 56

4.2. The Listening Process: Importance and Difficulties of Listening in Language Learning. 57

4.3. The Various Impacts of Multimedia Technology in the Development of L2 Listening Skills. 59

4.4. Listening 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. [anonimizat]. 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. [anonimizat]/Listening Classroom. 87

6.4. A Case Study. 91

CONCLUSIONS 102

BIBLIOGRAPHY 104

APPENDIX. 113

USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING READING AND LISTENING

ARGUMENT.

In this 21[anonimizat] “technology” is a flag partnership in many domains including education. This is because technology has become the knowledge transfer highway in most countries. [anonimizat] (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.

[anonimizat], and Technology (ICT) [anonimizat]orates into daily classroom instructional process. In conjunction with preparing students for the current digital era, teachers are seen 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 current globalization(Albirini, 2006:6). Process of adoption 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 for 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 both 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 high 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 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 & Meskill, 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 authentic 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 approaches 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 language learning web sites, electronic dictionaries, chatting and email messaging programs, listening CD-players, and learning video-clips.

Starting from the premise that learners' access to information grows year after year due to the 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 involved 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 the teaching-learning process and to achieve my proposed goals at the beginning of each lesson.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE GLOBALIZATION CONTEXT.

“I wish I'd spent as much time learning languages as I spent on fencing, 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 language 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 fields, 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 English is a way to get access to a large number of information, connections, and opportunities.

People used to view learning languages as something very important, however, definitely not as something that is fun like dancing or fencing. It used to be a must and something one needed to put in a great deal of effort. Despite this, the situation has changed and today’s strategies to second language learning include a lot of diverse techniques that motivate students and they very often learn the second language without actually knowing . Therefore, the interest in teaching and learning foreign languages is permanently growing. English has become Lingua franca, and the center of attention not only for researchers 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, cultural 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 only 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 standards 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 around 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 the 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 present, 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 substantiate 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 education: 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 cross-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.

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 information 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 instructional materials that better fulfill their learning needs.

Connections: Technology promotes connections at a global level and communication 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 supportive relationships with instructors in the country and create partnerships with school librarians 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 information 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 interconnected 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 us might understand this as: using PowerPoint or pupils classroom response systems in lectures; podcasting lectures; and others may think of particular classes applications, like designing Web-based interactive learning modules and simulations to teach skills 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 process 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 cognitive 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 knowledge do you want them to develop by the end of the term? What teaching strategies (lecture, discussion, group work, case studies, etc.) 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 technology to assess pupils’ learning can be done

The Teacher

When you have a clear idea of the course goals, learning objectives and how you can use technology to support learners’ 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 using technology? 2) Do you have time enough for course planning and selecting teaching strategies that would be suitable to your choices of technology? and not at least 3) What 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 adopting technology tools into your courses, it is a necessity to consider learners’ past experience with technology, their wishes and access to technology, and the multitude of learning styles as they bring them to your course.

Technology Tools

Because we have considered the context of teaching and learning, we can look to an examination of the technology itself. The main issue we all encounter is the need to understand the possible uses and functions of an increasingly toolkit of technologies. You should take into consideration which applications are suitable for your learners, disciplinary learning, course content, and teaching style. Not all tools are alike. Some of them are better at promoting learning in specific content but there are others which are useful for a large number of disciplines. Certain technology tools are built for specific instructional targets, while others are more generally applicable. (Barson& Debski.1996)

Chapter 1: PRESENTING TECHNOLOGY.

Technology 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 technology When student and teacher are hand in hand, education would be evolving with the impact of technology. Traditional teaching in a physical classroom, has remained the main type of providing lessons during the centuries. On the other hand, the regress 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 with new technology each of us needs to know at least something about technology. 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 proficiency.To 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. They 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 and audio-visual tools for a better understanding of concepts has been set up in almost all the educational institutions. This factor caused speedy and effective learning and that might be non-volatile. Nowadays, the teacher’s role is not limited only to reading books, to make the concepts clear, they might refer to internet technology and to share the same with their students. That’s why, teachers should understand and be informed about the tools. Use of internet tools can be attractive, fun and pretty exciting. By 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 feed, virtual world or classroom, workgroup 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, learners majority, use internet tools regularly and using IT by a teacher for educating pupils in a classroom implies that teachers will be talking to his/ her students in their language that leads to wide understanding. Learning something about these tools is not a bad deal. These tools are cost effective and might be free that come for a trial run. Most of them can be used to support classroom teaching or distance 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” for good teaching and learning…is… a good teacher! That teacher 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. What technology has done for me, is that it makes everything LOGICAL and COHERENT.

Through the technology lens teachers are:

collaborative… we are collaborating with teachers from around the world to figure out “this thing”…how to best prepare the citizens 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…we are not alone…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 we 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 exploring 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 lens … teaching and learning seems monolingual … fuzzy … unidimensional … not reaching its full dimensions … for all of us … It has been hard … We have not always been successfull 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 the change/transformation captive in a “technology bow” in order to have excuses why it can’t happen. It seems easier to say “I don’t do computers” than “I don’t care to prepare my students for a different future 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 the 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 our smartphones. Social media has become commonplace, and the way we use technology 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 technologies, I would like to take 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 pupils to solve equations. The possibilities are uncountable. 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 these are all technology that I as teacher I look to 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 you can use to change the world” NELSON MANDELA

The widespread availability of devices, such as smartphones and tablets, the wealth of reading material 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 literacy 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 efficiently. In a world full of information to read, libraries become more and more important. Along with digital and information literacy skill sets, it's necessary to promote and encourage a love of reading across any formats – offering the facility for analyzing, 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 and paper, while collaborating more effectively with learners. Personally, in my previous classrooms, I didn’t seek to integrate every free Web tool. I simply used sites as a resource. I referenced that resource at the beginning of each new semester and made decisions based on what I was teaching. Ultimately, I focused on the underlying learning objectives that 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 technology integration, you have to find a focus. Getting caught up in the endless, always expanding world of web 2.0 applications and iPad or Android apps will only confuse your pupils and frustrate you. Also, look for instructional technology specialists or coaches in your school for help. All teachers need to understand that it's OK to ask a students – they know 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 doing 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 future, 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? Undeniably 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 solutions to problems both independently and collaboratively . We want them to be active learners, 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 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. Permitting 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 wander is sometimes too much for some to allow. In spite of this, in my experience allowing the freedom to search and discover 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 opportunities 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' learning 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-learner 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 and 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.

EduBlogs: EduBlogs offers a safe and secure place to set up blogs for you and for your classroom

Wikispaces: Helps to share 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 attending meetings online. It 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 games, look no further than FunBrain. Here, teachers can take advantage of fun tools for reading and math.

Google Education: Google offers a number of wonderful edtech resources for teachers, including email and videos, lesson plan search collaborative apps, career development, 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, presentations, 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 anything else on your Evernote account, access it when you want, and keep it organized. It’s a must-have tool for lesson /activity planning.

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

Google Earth: Starting from 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.

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

Dropbox: Helps us 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 their knowledge on specific notions (verbs, prepositions, etc.). The app also keeps account of students’ progress and allows them to skip questions by shaking the tablet. Online colleges offer a list of 16 apps for ESL students.

Podcasts. Everybody can listen to podcasts 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 learners. Teachers can also help students to create podcasts for giving them chances to practice their speaking skills. With just a microphone and a computer, each learner can create reports and presentations. Video podcasts are a captivating alternative for learners and some classes even have their own YouTube channels.( https://www.apple.com/)

Web Quests. Web quests are a funny 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 can 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 vocabulary and comprehension. Videos help to expose students to the use of natural English. 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 becoming a thing of the past, learners can have pen pals that they email or write to on a discussion group. Make an arrangement with an English-speaking class in another state 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.

Blogging. Class blogs provide great platforms for students to practice their writing skills. Live Journal, Edublog and Blogger allow you to create your blogs for free. Because students find blogging attractive, that it is more of an authentic writing experience. As a larger audience typically has access to read posted entries, students tend to put more effort into their blogs. Teachers can get students 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 blogging (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 stories that can be shared or printed. Students can improve their writing with images to bring their stories, poetry, songs, etc. to life!

Web Quests. Web quests are a funny way for learners to use the Internet 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 already created web quests.

Many of today’s technology options allow students 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 allows 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 different 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 projected from the computer, allows for changes, and receives input electronically or by touch. The software for the IWBs allows a multitude of 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) as well as activities exclusive to this type of technology.

As example:

Highlighting: a clear color that can be placed on top of writing.

Hide and reveal: an item located on top of others can be removed.

Drag and drop: an item on the board that can move in various directions.

Storage and recall: Unlimited storage and quick recall of material.

Animation: Items can be spun, change size, and move in a pre-determined direction.

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)

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 teachers 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 watched 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 makes 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 podcast 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 resources 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 device, accessible to all learners, 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 teachers 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 ready 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.

Chapter 2: THEORETICAL BOUNDARIES IN TEACHING RECEPTIVE SKILLS.

2.1. Receptive Skills – General Aspects.

In any language there are four basic skills: productive skills – 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 brings 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 new 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 purpose-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 representation 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 these skills and discuss possible solutions.

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 would 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 elementary 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 happening 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 pleasure or excitement.

As well the modality in which texts are decoded by the lectors/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 comprehension. 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. As Hockly (2007:89) declares, “ […] starts from 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 according to cultural norms and individual experience'. It is about what the lector brings to the 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 input to what they already know and, consequently, construct the writer’s intended meaning. .” The lectors' world outlook or 'schematic knowledge', as set forth by Alptekin (1993:136) is: […] an important part of the 'fit' which exists between people's culture-specific cognition and their native language. As the same writer states, the problem appears when the learners' formal knowledge comes into contact with teaching aid including target-language cultural notions. When there are no cultural background notions and a dearth of understanding of the L2 culture arises, so the process of reading becomes 'a unavailing, burdensome, and frustrating experience'. According to Wallace (1992), L2 readers become more dependent on the 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 of of the principal logic for the liability we try predisposed to is the insensate old in English Language Teaching (ELT). As stated by Alptekin (1993:138): 'most reader writers are bumptious boong speakers', who element of ' chiefly through culture-specific schemas' acquired in 'their own English speaking society'. He into the accord brightly-lit promote out it is economically motley for publishers to quarters the learner's cultural skills , as a service to it would wail be fitting for learners in other cultures. He also argues, anyhow, that contexts 'cannot be replicated versions of native speaker contexts of use', and as summarized by Hockly (2007:96), he advocates 'carefully chosen texts' to which L2 readers can respond 'authentically'. Therefore, coursebooks counterfoil a lot of authentic material.

It doesn’t matter which the problem is, teachers 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 accomplish it.

2.2.1. Teaching Reading: Problems and Solution.

I believe that all instructors/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-cultural 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 to 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 Internet or a questionnaire on an already set topic. For young learner classroom pre-reading activities 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.

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 the 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 policy 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 specific 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 when practising a grammatical structure. But is not enough if we don’t try to connect it to the 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 life 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 learning process. In order to help slow readers, I often put pupils into mixed ability groups where they take turns reading out loud to each other. Every group have more or 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 loud 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 frustrated 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 important 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 which 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 style.

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 competence, everyday materials 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.

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 check 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 against 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 comprehend 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 are 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 existing knowledge

– Have a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading

– Are always motivated

– 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 and 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 another.

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 strategies are appropriate for the type of texts, 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 process 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.

Facing these problems, learners can sustain that English learning is difficult, in particular the reading skill. The students, generally know from their test results that they always failed in the reading text. This matter will out from the goal of teaching learning. The solution of these 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 make 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 asking 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 reading 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 strategies.

 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 encourage 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 encourage 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' consciousness 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 situations they may encounter outside the classroom. This 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 language classroom. Teachers can help their students 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 strategies 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 the 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 adjust 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 vocabulary 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 created 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 texts 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 students' needs. The problem is that textbooks indicate the level that they were designed for, but many do not provide 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. "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 students 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 weak 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 for them, then effective readingcomprehension, 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 refer 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 with, 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 authentic 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 well. Ausubel'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.

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 and 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 environment 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 means 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 in 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; connect 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 effectively, provide an opportunity for deeper comprehension and critical thinking because students become part of the discussion. This builds on and results in knowledge, 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 tend 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 students, 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 of 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 suggested 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 students’ appetites to read. Greenwood (1998: 15) states that it can provide a “need to read to complete an activity 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 activities. 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 forward 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 must 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 activities. 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.

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 knowledge 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 that, 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 language) have emphasized the priority of learning this skill. Surprisingly, teaching listening strategies and techniques have not received an important place in the English curriculum. As an example, early language teaching methodologists made reference to reading and listening as passive skills which are developed 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 (1991).

Taking into consideration the various steps a listener goes through before he understands the sense of a message and acts upon it, we will realize what difficulties a learner faces while listening.

When listening to a message, the learner has to distinguish spoken language from other sounds, when listening to a message. He/She would then have to divide the parts of speech into words and keep meaningful fragments of the language in the short-term memory. Anyway, a listener does not 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. The first calls for a quick oral response while the other is more common while processing information in a lecture.

Just a few of the difficulties 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.”

The listener has to recognize abbreviated and reduced forms of words, word order, and key words. He has to guess the meaning from the verbal and nonverbal context and adjust listening strategies to different kinds of listening purposes. More than this, he has to use his basic/ past knowledge and experience to make inferences, predict 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 give 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:

listening and making no response (following a written text, informal teacher talk);

listening and making short responses (obeying instructions-physical movement, building models, picture dictation. etc.), true-false exercises, etc.;

listening and making longer responses (repetition and dictation, paraphrasing, answering questions, answering comprehension questions on texts, predictions, filling gaps, summarising, etc.).

The purposes that a listening activity should pursue are providing:

general information (understanding of the main points);

specific information (understanding of the particular items);

cultural interest (generally informing about the target language culture);

information about people's attitudes and opinions;

the organization of ideas;

sequence of events;

lexical items (words expressing noise/movement);

structural items (their use and meaning);

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 backward and forward as needed. The listener is not usually conscious of performing these steps, nor of switching back and forth between them.

The listener:

determines a reason for listening

takes the raw speech and deposits it in short-term memory;

attempts to organize the information by identifying the type of speech event (conversation, lecture, radio ad) and the function of the message (persuade, inform, request);

predicts information expected to be included in the message;

recalls background information (schemata) to help interpret the message;

assigns a meaning to the message;

checks that the message has been understood;

determines the information to be held in long-term memory;

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 processing 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, together 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 lexical 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 that 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 prior knowledge 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:

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

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.

they do it for pleasure, so that their knowledge of the language improves and it makes students better readers.

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 comparison 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 reaction.

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 speaker'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:

Clustering. In written language we are conditioned to attend to the sentences as the basic unit of organization. In spoken language, due to memory limitations, we need to help students to pick out manageable clusters of words; sometimes foreign language learners will try to retain overly long constituents (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.

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. Learners 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.

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.

Colloquial language learners who have 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

Rate of delivery. Every language learner initially thinks 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).

Stress, rhythm, and intonation. The prosodic features of the English language are 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 significant 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.

Interaction. Unless a language learner’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 listeners (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 insufficient 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 listeners 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 content of the material suggested for listening and comprehension: linguistic material for listening; conditions in which the material is presented..

When the teacher uses the material which has already been assimilated by students, comprehension 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 difficulties: phonetic, lexical, and grammatical, learners need practice in listening and comprehension in the target language.

Because the phonic systems of English and Romanian differ greatly, phonetic difficulties appear The hearer is under the impulse of interpreting 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. Learners 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 grammatical 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 participle constructions. More than this, English is rich in grammatical homonyms, for example: to lie-lie; to ring- ring; -ed as the suffix 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, the following factors should be taken into consideration:

a. the topic of communication: whether it is within 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 interesting, 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 listening comprehension.

The context and students' readiness (intellectual and situational) to understand is very important. The narrative progresses plays a great role: whether the passage is extracted from the beginning of a story, the nucleus 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 main 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 the 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

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 condition 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 difficulties 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 summaries 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 and not all the problems can be overcome. Certain features of the message and the speaker, for instance, are inevitable. This 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 classroom conditions, and useful exercises which help them to discover effective listening strategies.

Here are a few helpful ideas suggested by Ur:

Grade listening materials according to the students’ level, and provide authentic 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.

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 instructions, and answering questions.

Provide learners with different kinds of input, like: lectures, films, anouncements, everyday conversation, radio news, English songs, etc.. Selection of short, simple listening texts with little redundancy for lower-level students and complicated authentic materials with more redundancy for advanced learners, provide 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 effective. For achieving better results in comprehension the teacher has:

a) to prepare the learners 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 words they are listening to and moreover, it will help them build their confidence,

d) to use the same song again and again. Listening is not an easy skill to achieve, so building the learners' confidence is vital at all stages of language learning. 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 sounds, rhythm and intonation.

Songs can be the first step which can be followed by more elaborate material which 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 use 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.

Technology plays 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 not 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 technologies 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 primarily 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 instilling 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: 347). It makes it easy to access new information. 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 teachers. 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 highlighted the importance of taking into consideration the dynamicity of students and classroom contexts; therefore, teachers should adapt to the instructional needs for different contexts 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 differences 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 information, 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’ motivation, 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 they 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 classroom, allowing a deeper integration with the culture of the target language, and encouraging students to go deeper into the themes under discussion. In line with this, 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 advantages, 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 language 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 the words in the text. Thus, ESL instructors often ask how to make reading class more collaborative, 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 cause 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.

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 options in the program including timed-reading, read, paced 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 adding vocabulary. Teachers must have a password To 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:

Read:

This exercise 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 of 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.

Timed Reading:

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

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 stopped the paced reading. As a result, the round will not be counted but canceled. students might experiment until an appropriate speed is found.

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:

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 exercises 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:

By number of letters

By showing the first letter

By definition

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 paragraph 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.

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.

Glossary:

Besides authoring the texts to be used for the exercise, teachers can also add vocabulary to the program 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 feature 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 building 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 called "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". 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:

Hide all Words

Show given words

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 text 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:

Letter: to know a certain letter after assigning it by the cursor.

Word: to know a certain word after choosing it by the cursor.

Hint: to know more about a word that is replaced by circles.

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 teacher 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.

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 building, 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 helped develop students’ reading comprehension and speed.

Reading Comprehension: students construct meaning by interacting with a text, for example:

reading the text to answer multiple choice questions (in Ganymede Squares Game)

reading the text to determine the accuracy of alien claims (in To Tale the Truth Game).

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:

selecting correct answers (in Ganymede Squares Game).

decoding secret phrases (in Stump the Human Game).

decoding hidden phrases (in Meteor Match Game).

Reading for detail: students identify supporting information in a text, for example:

reading alien claims first, and then going to the text for the answer (in To Tale the Truth).

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:

answering questions about characters (in Charlotte's Web in Ganymede Squares).

answering questions about the setting of the Wizard of OZ (in Beat the Krok).

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:

matching answers to clues (in Ganymede Squers).

filling in blanks in hidden phrases (in Beat the Krok)

completing secret phrases (in Stump the Human).

Follow Directions: students attend to detail in order to accomplish tasks, for example:

reading and following game instructions (in Ganymede Squares).

following audio instructions (in Meteor Match)

reading clues (in To Tale the Truth).

Logical Thinking: students use deductive reasoning and inference to understand meaning, for example:

determining the accuracy of alien claims (in To Tale the Truth).

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 comprehension 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 start 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 their 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 related 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 purpose. (AlKahtani,1999)

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 increasing 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 the 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 comprehension. (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 voice 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 independently. 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 without 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 improve 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 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 scanning 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, students 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, illustrations, 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 hypermedia 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 motivation. 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 – electronic 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 pronunciations 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 skills and reading fluency,”. As well, electronic talking books increased motivation to read as well as promoted basic word recognition.

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 texts.

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 by 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 brought 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 and 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 portable 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 downloadable 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 computer, (b) copied to CDs and MP3 players, and (c) uploaded to websites as podcasts. (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 that 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.

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. It 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 definition 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 right 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™ series 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)

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 communication 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 come, 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 process 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 become 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 videodisc, 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, graphics, 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 and 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 and graphics, control combinations of analog and digital sound and images. Arranging these combined media into intelligent, pedagogically-driven material is a challenge to teachers.

Over the years, a wide variety of teaching aids 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 completely. 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 language. 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 graphics 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 listening 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 Hearing 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 you need not listen 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 have 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 listener 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 step, 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 information 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 message 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 Responding, 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 proposed by Nunan.

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 believed 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 complex 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 listening comprehension process. With regard to this, there exist a direct relationship between what seems to be contained in speakers’ minds and the listening 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 information.

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 learners. 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 computer technology, Web-based learning has become a common choice in education 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 for 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 writing 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 classroom. 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 phonics, 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 difficult 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 can 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 technology into their day somehow whether it is used during instruction or for 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. Students 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 other 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 interactive. 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 written on the page in front of them.

There is no interaction. Lue and Kinzer (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 two, 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 experiences, 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 develop 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, cannot forget that its success requires clear instructions and explanations in each activity in order to students get a perfect understanding.

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 they 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 backgrounds, 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 elicit 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 detailed 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 without 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 stranger

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 students 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 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 complete 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 activity, 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 groups 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 pictures 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 are told that they are going to listen to a tape/CD and that they should put 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:

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 Stuart 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 scenes to that they have listened.

Activity 3: Telephone messages (taking messages)

Skills: predicting and listening for specific information

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 some 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 to 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 is 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.

Mrs. Galloway: Hello

Jane Metcalfe: Can I speak to Kate?

Mrs. Galloway: 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 activity, they can discover the language 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 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, some suggestions have been offered, which can be put into practice during the lesson 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 they 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. There 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 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 may 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 lack 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 enhance literacy instruction is motivating to students; students tend to stay focused on instruction 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, electronic 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 points. 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 literacy 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 include 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:

the ability to collaborate with others effectively;

to gather information and sift through that information from different resources including both traditional and electronic means;

communication;

problem-solving skills.

If these new literacy skills are not made part of teaching and learning 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.

4.7. Listening to Learn: A Digital Framework Activity.

DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS

1 hour

Create a safe and positive learning environment by agreeing 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.

HANDOUT

Open Questions: How? What? Where? Who? Why?

Summarising: A summary helps to show the individual that you have listened and understood their circumstances and their feelings.

Reflecting: Repeating back a word or phrase encourages the individual to carry on and expand .

Clarifying: Sometimes an individual may gloss over an important point. By exploring these areas further we can help them clarify 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’.

Reacting: We need to show that we have understood the situation by reacting to it –

“That sounds 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.

Summarising audio. (Youtube, download mp4) Appendix 5

Activity

1. Show and explain the elements of the Listening 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) Clarifying – ask students for examples

e) Short words of encouragement – ask students for examples

f) Reacting – read the given statement and ask 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 situation? 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 listener, one the talker and one the observer. Using the Listening 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 anyone 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 class at the same time, until you say stop. See how they turn out!

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 Engagement.

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, issues 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 audiobooks 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 knowledge 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 print 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 points he has marked 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 India. 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 presentation. 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 more 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 strategies. 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 well 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 the 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 historical 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 key 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 focused 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 section 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 chooses 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 multimedia 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 heart 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 commitment (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 excel 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 flexible 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 tackling 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 assignment.

Chapter 5: ADVANTAGES 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 practice 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 important tool to teach English. Now there is an enormous demand of technology that offers 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 common 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 researchers 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 towards 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.

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 lessons, 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 personal 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 information 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 effect 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, writing 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 implementation 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 classroom 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 teachers 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 digital 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 access 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 working. 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.

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 Use 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 educational 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 main 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 positive 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 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, accessed 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 environmental 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..

Computer assisted language learning (CALL) software has provided another teaching tool for second language education. The use of computers in English language 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 understanding 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 (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 perhaps 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 communication 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 words 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 that 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 comprehensively. 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 of 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 are 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 allow 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.

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 practice. 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 software 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 references 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 satisfactory 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 Investigations 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. Computerized 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 reading skills:

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.

Reading comprehension. Traditional question and answer CALL programs are used for reading comprehension as well as grammar and vocabulary development.

Text manipulation. There are a number of ways in which computers can manipulate continuous text which involve 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 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 how to delete and insert a letter, a word or a larger chunk of text;

Learn how to save text;

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 needed 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 and write them 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 enough 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 which 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 test. 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 traditional 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 different language skills in particular without having to be dependent on traditional methods of testing which may not reveal the exact achievement of different skills.

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 authentic?

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 teachers 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 language 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 increase 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 study 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 technology 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 learner 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 Communication (CMC) (Shield, Weininger & Davies, 1999).

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 parts 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 their 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 raise 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 inside and outside the classroom.

5.1.7. Advantages of the use of computer technology in EFL instruction.

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 computer 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 conduct 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 subsequent 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 by 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 as 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, graphics, audio 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 computer 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 postgraduate 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 powerful 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 instruction 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 becomes unsuccessful as EFL learners receive impoverished or insufficient input in the target language.

Therefore, as Blake (2008) argues, if computer technology is used wisely and creatively, it could play a very significant role in enhancing EFL learners’ contact 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 learners.

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 teaching, 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 with these processes. As the success of any initiative, in language teaching and learning processes, lies in the guided and coordinated 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 better 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.

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 changing world.

6.1. Technology 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 assisted 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 improvement of the teaching process as well as its failure. Educational success tends to be presented in terms of:

actual learning outcomes,

student motivation,

their engagement ,

adapting proper strategies in the process of learning.

It is, therefore, 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, introducing 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 effective? Do the benefits outweigh its cost?

Are the teachers ready to work with the new technology? Is any training required?

Does it help teachers make more efficient use of class time?

6.2. Computers, Internet, IWBS and EFL Reading/Listening.

The only words 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 internet, 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 lesson, 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 computers 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 positively 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 students' 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 classroom. 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 students 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 offers “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)

The CD-Rom has become the most common fixture as the accompanying auxiliary material medium 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 students’ 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. Traditional 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 multimedia 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 reasearchers 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 responsible behaviors. The independent use of technologies 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 autonomy and independence by making the 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:

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.

The teacher opens discussion with students about their answers.

The teacher reads the text aloud to the class (one time) then asks students to read the text silently.

Some students will have the opportunity to read aloud.

The teacher presents new vocabulary and clarifies ambiguities.

He asks students about the content of the text (question-answer).

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.

The teacher provides general feedback.

Following the steps above mentioned it is clear that this kind of reading/listening instruction which is typically teacher centered reduces students’ progress and autonomy does not motivate them to read/listen and does not involve them 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 handheld, 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, children 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 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 contemporary, 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, accessed 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 aid 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 to 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 school 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 the 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 meaningful input about what is going on in their heads. Young children are known for having difficulties verbalizing what they think, especially about abstract concepts and actions.

Since children, not teachers or authorities, are the ones who have to learn with 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 successful. 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 technology 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 education. These 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 technology 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 technology to their teaching style.

Most teachers 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 technology for education.

It is proved that elementary educators who held more positive beliefs about the potential of technology 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 attitudes 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 deficits. The most prevalent form of technology for this purpose is 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 recognition, 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 numerous 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 opportunity 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 listening 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 support…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 issue.

These constraints are a challenge for both students and teachers, especially those who want to pursue the world wide requirements of the century: the digital age teachers and learners.

6.4. A Case Study.

During 2018-2019 school year we developed and applied a case study for students in the 8th grade in our school. There were two classes implied in the project with an equal number of students, namely 28. 8th A students were taught using traditional methods and aids while 8th B students were subjected 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 we 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 the 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:

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 language 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.

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 engagement, 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 developed 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 suggested 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 level. 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 more 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 with new techniques and materials in this changeable teaching world.

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 recommendations can be recorded:

As technology has developed, the incorporation of this medium into the instruction process becomes necessary.

The computer is being viewed more as an integral part of the learning activity, and as a means by which skills are transferred to learners.

Theory and practice in second language learning can be matched together by the use of modern technology.

Modern technical ways should be followed for effective learning and teaching of the second language.

English language teachers should encourage their students to use technology in developing the language skills.

Educational institutions should modernize their technical instruction capabilities by using new equipments and laboratories for supporting the teaching process.

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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

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 really

01:36 hurtful to be told that

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 believe 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 is 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

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

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

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 about 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 all 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 what 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 Koran later

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

Appendix 5. Summarising audio (Youtube, download mp4)

00:01 I'm really stressed out at 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 just 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

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

Appendix 6. KEY for SCHOOLS – CAMBRIDGE TEST

Appendix 7. PET – CAMBRIDGE TEST.

Appendix 8. HIGHFLYER – Revision Page XVIII-XIX.

Appendix 9. HIGHFLYER – Final Revision – Unit 24.