NZ language teachers need to be confident selecting tech
NZ language teachers need to be confident selecting
technology
August 11,
2013
New Zealand language teachers need to
be confident in their ability to selectively use technology,
a University of Canterbury (UC) language education expert
says.
Changes are under way in the education
system. Plans are in place for an education communication
highway network with $211 million already committed to
deliver a funded package of fast, quality connections with
uncapped data to schools.
Associate Professor Una
Cunningham says that teachers can use technology to enhance
and facilitate students’ access to the language they are
learning and communicative activities that are in line with
current understanding of how languages are best learned.
Associate Professor Cunningham, from Sweden, will
give a prestige public lecture about digital language
teaching on campus next Monday (August 12).
``Many
schools in New Zealand have ample technology available in
the classrooms and the increased connectivity and uncapped
data will be welcome.
``Language learners in New
Zealand can finally join their counterparts in other
countries in having full access to the benefits of streamed
video and sound, podcasting, blogging, social media and
access to cloud computing and open educational
resources.
``Online materials are accessible
anywhere, even on mobile devices and some educators are
using this to flip their classrooms and free up class time
for interaction.
``Some of the young people who
people our classes learn to use technology quickly and many
are enthusiastic about using digital tools for learning. But
their native talent is unschooled and often
overestimated.
``Even the most tech-savvy students
need teachers who can help them learn the subject at hand.
Those who do not have access to technology outside school
and those who have special educational needs or who are
English language learners will often need even more
support.
``Language learning continues to work in
the same way regardless of the technology available. The
idea that you need to experience input in the target
language and have ample opportunity to use the language for
real communication still holds.
``There are many
engaging ways to use technology to work towards this goal,
yet a great many of the applications available for language
learning in schools involve rote learning of vocabulary
lists or drill-and-kill grammar exercises, which could have
been lifted verbatim from the book I learned Spanish from in
1972.
``Computers are great at this and give
tireless feedback, but this is not in tune with current
thinking on how we learn languages. Let us not lose sight of
our goals in our enthusiasm for technology-enhanced
learning.’’
ENDS