I want to share about technology in teaching speaking skill, written by Maryam Bahadorfar and Reza Omidvar. You can find this article from International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research Review · April 2014. I hope you will love my resume about this journal. Happy reading!
Speaking being the most important skill in learning a second or foreign language. To be a teacher, you should master, at least, one of four productive skills. As stated by Bahadorfar & Omidvar (2014) "Good speaking skills are the act of generating words that can be understood by listeners". So, to be a good teacher, we should to prepare the student as much as possible to be able to speak in English in the real world. The goal of teaching speaking English is not only the student could memorization of dialogue. The goal of teaching speaking English is about how to improve students' communicative skills, so they can learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance.
There are some categories that can be used as the role of learners in developing speaking skills in the classroom (Brown, 1994):
- Intensive - It goes one step beyond imitative to include any speaking performances that are designed to practice some phonological or grammatical aspects of language.
- Responsive - It consists of short replies to teacher-or student-initiated questions or comments.
- Transactional (dialogue) - Transactional language, carried out for the purposes of conveying or exchanging specific information, is an extended form of responsive language.
- Interpersonal (dialogue) - It carried out more the purpose of maintaining social relationships than for the transmission of a fact and information. These conversations are little trickier for learners because they can involve some or all of the following factors - a casual register, colloquial language, emotionally charged language, slang and sarcasm.
- Extensive (monolog) - Here the register is more formal and deliberative. It can be planned or impromptu.
Technology will help not only the teacher but also the student. Technology gives learners a chance to engage in self-directed actions, opportunities for self-paced interactions, privacy, and a safe environment in which errors get corrected and specific feedback is given. Giving feedback means that the technology has an ability to track mistakes and link the student immediately to exercises that focus on specific errors.
Modern technologies available in education today are:
Communication lab
Software's are available to develop speaking skills. By incorporating suitable software through computers the students will play it again and again with their own interest and try to improve their speaking skills, which are most essential in this modernized IT world. The usage of headphones in the lab makes the students to have interest over the subject and induces them to repeat again and again instead of feeling boredom.
Speech recognition software also helps improving the students speaking, this can convert spoken words to machine-readable input. The device recognizes the accuracy of what was read and then provides a positive reinforcement like “You sound great!” or gives the user an opportunity to try again, in this way the learner can figure if he is reading well or not. As the user’s skill improves, the technology reads less material so that the learner reads more. This software also evaluates and provides scores of grammar, pronunciation, comprehension and provided with the correct forms, for examples if a student mispronounces a word, the learning tool can immediately spot it and help correct it. This device can be a very useful device for distance learners because they don’t have a teacher who corrects their speech and this device can help improving their speaking skills.
Internet is a commonly acknowledged term and widely used by people throughout the world. Students now use Internet in the class to learn English. Online teaching inside the classroom seems to be interesting and makes the students to find out the suitable materials for them. Students are instructed to do the grammar exercises which are available online. Through Internet we can collect data from various sources for any instruction. to improve speaking, students can use Skype, MSM Messenger, Google talk (used to have conferences on line) and other applications where students can connect with friends, other students, teacher and even native speakers, these ways of learning have been observed to improve oral proficiency in students and make up for the lack of native speakers in the areas where students live and what is more, on line conferences also enhance intercultural awareness, motivation and raise the level of interaction.
TELL is the use of computer technology including hardware, software and the internet to enhance teaching and learning of languages. It allows the students to get access with all the technologies available for the enhancement of English learning. Students are allowed to use online dictionaries, chat, and to view the various happenings around the world.
Podcasts can be uploaded or downloaded, this audio help the learner familiarize with the target language and teachers can use them as useful audio material that can be used in class for activities like discussions, besides, in the web, there are even particular podcasts that are for ESL learners and these can include pronunciation for particular needs of students. Podcast undoubtedly help learners in speaking. Pod casting is the integration of audio files where we can feed our own materials and ply it inside and outside of the classroom. Students use i-pods to hear their favorite music files. In the same way they have their education in the form of entertainment.
Quick Link Pen allows learners to copy and store printed text, Internet links. It helps to
transfer the data to computers and enables the reader to get the meaning of the word from a
built in dictionary. Accessing this type of machine seems to be a more convenient method.
Recent developments in machine translations presents translation engines like GO Translator
and Bablefish.
Quicktionary
It is a pen-like device. It allows the reader to easily scan the word and get its definition and translation on its own LCD screen. Technology such as Enounce and Sound-Editor enable learners to adjust the speech rate of listening materials to assist their comprehension, and present spectrum of speech waves and visual depictions of mouth and tongue movement to ease the learning and refine pronunciation.
Educational institutions should modernize their technical instruction capabilities by using new equipments and laboratories for supporting the teaching process. Modern technological tools are much more interesting and provide fun and enjoyable learning, motivating the students, and help them to enhance their language learning in a fruitful way, moreover, these tools help students learn at their own pace and promote autonomy in them.
Author
Ahoy, It is me Triska. A college student of English Education Department in University of Singaperbangsa Karawang. I am a-pixie-dust-enthusiast. I love to watch a movie or Korean Drama and also love to write my blog.
Hi, visit my blog on www.putsept.site 🙏
BalasHapus