Writing Assignment

The ICT approach to EFL Teaching and Learning in Indonesia

By : Armaini Hasmeida

Information and communications technologies (ICT) are the computing and communications facilities and features that variously support teaching, learning and a range of activities in education (www.kented.org.uk). It has been well spread in the world today, including our beloved country, Indonesia. It has also been introduced to our education system and used in many education institutions. Unfortunately, it remains stranger for most of the Indonesian, in this case, Indonesian teachers and students. Training and workshop on introducing this technology has been run so many times, yet they are still unfamiliar with this package-gadget. This phenomenon can probably be explained by understanding the background of ICT and also Indonesian teachers and students attitude toward it. As an English teacher, I would limit the essay on the area of English teaching and learning.

As we all know it is important to talk about ICT in the EFL Teaching and Learning in Indonesia because it has occupied almost every parts of human life. Technology is not everything, but without technology we are nothing. According to a site organized by BBC, ICT has transformed society. It has had a major influence on the way we live, work and learn. Already 60 % of existing and 90 % of new jobs require some ICT skills, including teaching. I observed simply the use of ICT as it exists nowadays, and the result given. It helps a lot of students experience different attitudes toward this language. The research on ICT also supports the simple observation. Hartoyo (2008) states that a number of various studies examining the effectiveness of computer-assisted language learning programs have revealed that there are significant differences in favor of computers between the language learning achievement attained by students from computer-assisted language learning groups and non- computer ones (e.g. Gila, 1992; Atkinson, 1992; Borras, 1993; Sanne, 1993; Underwood, 1993, Welch and Hodges, 1990; Hartoyo, 1993).As a teacher, I don’t want to fail helping my students to achieve forward steps because of ignoring this fact. Although it is important to understand that many variables are involved because we are dealing with complex social and psychological aspects of human behavior. For example, student’s ability to learn the technology can be influenced by their social environment, economic life, and attitude toward the technology itself. Some other experts also had some researches on other area of language skill (e.g. speaking) and it shows good outcomes. According to Hawkins, sheingold, Gearheart and Berger (in Hartoyo, 2008), same results can be seen in recent studies on the effectiveness of computer-mediated language instruction in stimulating learners’ language outcomes in terms of conversational skills.

These facts indicate that the use of ICT will help enhance English learners’ skills; therefore, it is such a great pity if we as Indonesian English users fail to apply it in order to improve our skills in English. It is a big challenge for the teachers as educators to change the perspective of the nation from negative into positive. The change of the perspective will then change the attitudes of English learners in the country. We can start by taking the obstacles as challenges; it is not to be burdened of, but to be curiously faced.

This essay will talk about the background of ICT and technologies that can be used in teaching English, the benefits of applying ICT, the attitude of Indonesian people toward ICT and problems found in dealing with ICT, some strategies and tips relating to conducting ICT in the classrooms, and evaluation of the use of ICT.

What kinds of technology can we use in teaching English?

In teaching English or for that matter any other subject we have now diverse set of tools and media available to facilitate both the teacher and the student, through the advent of technology and its effective usage in teaching has aided and lessened the gap between student and teacher. Such technology includes but is not limited to cameras, computers, internet, audio & video equipments, overhead projection devices, scanners, printers, storage media like hard drives, flash USB devices and DVD/CD-ROM etc. These equipments can help teachers in number of ways. Awareness should be raised regarding usage of technology and its proper application in class rooms, to create willingness in using technology in our teaching activities. Fortunately, these all kind of tools can be applied and used for teaching and enhancing skills in core language learning, listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Teaching can made very effective and productive with the proper use of technology in class rooms.

Mentioned hereunder is a table enlisting some technologies which can be used in teaching English:

Word Processors / desk top publishing

Writing letters Writing Essays Using Thesaurus Understanding Grammatical Structure Spellings can be improved Creating Graphical Illustrations Writing own illustrated books and Publishing stories, poems, letters, brochures, reports, essays, signs, articles, reviews, recounts, biographies, diaries, journals, signs, information, arguments, illustrated books scripts, research log

Internet for information

Acquiring themes from online resources Getting suitable images to illustrate work Information about writers Search for song lyrics Search for any topic Author information Topic searches i.e. “Shakespeare” English courses online Discussion groups

Group discussions

Engaging in ‘discussion’ about particular reading i.e. John Marsden

Web page Construction

Personal web page design Personal web page on school site Producing personal web site On-line magazine production

CD ROM information

Researching topics CD ROM interactive educational games such as Hollywood High Researching topics Researching writers

Interactive book reading

Shared reading of interactive books for pleasure A critical literacy approach to interactive books Drawing Drawing letters of the alphabet Making book covers Constructing cartoons Illustrating writing for effect

Digital image manipulation

Cutting, pasting and manipulating digital pictures to illustrate own writing Placing appropriate photographs into document to promote ideas Altering structures and features for effect – i.e. making a color photo into a grey one to illustrate a sad poem

Sound recording

Recording spoken stories Adding sound to published works Interviewing characters from a novel

Graphic organizing

The life cycle of an insect Using a graphic organizer to show student’s own family tree Using Mind Man to show the relationship between characters in a novel Games Word building and spelling

Games

Using spelling programs for drill and practice to broaden spelling A study of the gender/violence aspects of games

Talking Books

Sharing ‘talking books’ Producing own ‘talking book’ using Power Point type software

Chat lines

Probably best accessed on intra – net rather than externally – but many students spend a great deal of time ‘chatting’ to people all around the world. This could open up interview possibilities i.e. interviewing a student in Dallas via a chat line about education there.

E-mail

E-mail friends E-mail for information E-mail dialogue between teacher and student E-mail authors

(wwwfp.education.tas.gov.au)

What are the benefits?

From the table above, we can easily understand how useful ICT is. There are some benefits we can list down. We can divide them into two parts, benefits for students and benefits for teachers. We will start with the benefits for the students. First of all, it helps improve their knowledge by the easy access of the significant source of reading material. Second, it supports the independence learner concept. Students can actively seek the information they are willing to know. They don’t need to be dependent on their teachers who are not always being able to be around them when they need information. In this case, students will have curiosity on variety of subjects beyond the limit of their existence at school and contact with their teachers. Another benefit is that it can be very motivational when they are to publish their work that can be accessed and given feedback from around the world. Networked exchanges seem to help all individuals in language classes engage more frequently, with greater confidence , and with greater enthusiasm in the communicative process than is characteristic for similar students in oral classrooms. It was stated by Swaffar( in Chinnery, George M, 2009). Therefore,the students can also express themselves more freely because the technology offers a large number of interesting features that can attract students’ interests and trigger their creativities. It is fun for them; when it’s fun they learn. Most of them can relate better to their work and create as creative work as they can to express themselves. Finally, this teaching-learning method helps teachers and students build their personality. It’s not about winning, it’s about building personality. By having the right attitude toward new things (e.g. technology), both teachers and students can develop themselves and have strong personality among othe

The computer [possibly] offers many advantages for individual                  instruction: it has infinite patience and often an attractive ‘personality’. …it can diagnose, test and retest a pupil’s weaknesses; it allows branching to deal with individual errors, which the tape recorder cannot do; it gives the pupil a sense of being in control without needing to feel embarrassed at his own weaknesses. It was pointed out by Davis and cited by Hartoyo (2008,25)

Hope, et al, (in Hartoyo, 2008) also supports and completes this opinion: Good programs can offer, in this way, individualized attention and can allow students to work at their own pace. Students can work in privacy without fear of reprisal often they give incorrect answers. Immediate diagnosis saves time and frustration and helps students weed out their errors. Computers possess the quality of infinite patience. They treat each student in the same way without favoritism; they are also very consistent in their responses, regardless of how many hours they have been working. Even the best teachers cannot show the same level of enthusiasm, interest, and energy, day in and day out.

As for teachers, apart from being the source of the lesson material and information, ICT has more beneficial points. First, it allows for the easy production, storage, and retrieval of prepared materials such as certificates and work required sheets. Second, it can free up communication with other teachers through the internet network. It also can assist good teaching but of course not replace it. Students need our supervision and guidance in using ICT. What is important to be underlined is ICT is only a tool for us to reach our goal in education. It helps us minimize the effort with great result. Some other opinions about the benefit of ICT are for me to mention to emphasize and complete the unmentioned points.

Fletcher-Flinn & Gravatt (in Hartoyo,2008) mentions : Other advantages, such as time savings for students as well as teachers, cost effectiveness, the presentation of realistic problems requiring interactive hypothetical-deductive reasoning, immediate feedback and self-evaluation, opportunities for collaborative learning in small groups, and ease of teacher monitoring and control are equally valid measures of any instructional program. Well designed programs delivered by a computer can provide all of these benefits and, in addition, seem to be enjoyed by learners are shown by their positive attitudes and higher expectations about computer-assisted instruction. It seems that computer technology is now an integral part of our pedagogy provided we take care to produce good quality instructional software which facilitates independent learning.

Moreover, Davey, Jones & Fox (in Hartoyo, 2008) formulate that computers (multimedia) have great potential as a state of the art technology for language learning and that the inclusion of multimedia aspects such as sound and vision (whether still or moving) in language learning materials can transform the learning experience and enhance motivation of learners, which makes the ICT even better and more useful.

Attitude of Indonesian Teachers and Students toward Technology and the problems founding in dealing with ICT

The reality that appears in the society regarding technology often comes in discouraging rumors. Many have complained for the inefficient system that is, using the ICT in their classrooms at school. In fact, some have stated that it is not suitable applying this method at schools in Indonesia. I am going to also list down the issues involved in using ICT in the classrooms.

• Schools can’t afford to have computers in the classroom

Many schools in Indonesia have already possessed computers, yet there are still many other schools which have not.

• Teachers are not technology savvy, while there is not enough IT at schools

Sometimes, when the teacher is not capable, teachers tend to blame the system/method.

• Teacher and Student’s attitude toward technology are poor (mostly because of the environment doesn’t support)

The attitude is influenced, so teachers should be wise in modeling the attitude toward everything.

• Developing a whole school approach For the schools that have already computers, this is another challenge for them to manage.

• The teaching strategies needed to accommodate the computers.

Teaching strategies will lead students to use the computers efficiently, not only for games.

• Where to place the computers in the school/classroom.

• The technical assistance needed Some of Indonesian teachers are not familiar with computers; they need IT to help them apply the method. It can be quite hectic, time and finance spending.

• Classroom dynamics. The students will be individualistic and the classroom cannot be dynamic because they are busy with their own work. • Skills, attitudes and knowledge of computers and computing. The schools have to provide the training on this subject.

• Moral, ethical and equity questions. Being attached too much with the computers can influence them to act less social, but not always. The information they can access also needs to be supervised.

Looking at those problems mentioned, I would try to draw a conclusion on what can help us face those problems. The key of the answer would be attitude. There are always answers for questions. There are always ways when there are wills. Applying the right attitude for every problem will help solve many problems. For example, the schools with no computers, they can start from the encouraging stage, informing students, influencing students to be attracted to technology even though they cannot use it at school. They then will look for more information after school and start going to computer rentals to do their homework and assignments.

As Brown (in Eyildirim and Ashton, 2006)) points out, attitudes are cognitive and affective; it means, they are related to thoughts as well as to feelings and emotions. Attitudes determine how people approach learning a subject. The attitudes started developing early and are influenced by many things, such as environment, parents, friends, social surrounding life that probably has different social and cultural values. Therefore, Brown (in Eyildirim and Ashton, 2006) also concludes that attitudes: “forms a part of one’s perception of self, of others, and of the culture in which one is living”. Based on this fact, relating the theory of attitude to our daily teaching life, we should draw a line and create a picture of how these two things will work well together. As teacher, we can learn how to model the attitude toward technology in order to get student’s attention on ICT; we can then influence them to a certain attitude that will allow them concerning about applying ICT on their English learning, and as well other lessons or aspects of their life. Teachers are centers, directors, leaders, motivators, aspirators, eye-openers for their students in the classroom. We suppose to create great effects for students in learning new things. There is no limit for attitude. The right attitude will be able to face any kind of problem and situation. We should always share the spirit of positive attitude.

Strategies and tips dealing with technology

Attitudes toward technology have been covered theoretically in the previous part. Other area we should build on in dealing with technology is practical use of the technology itself in the classroom and daily life. Teachers should be smart and wise to face the obstacles (challenges) in dealing with this. Students will get the influence and confidence when the teachers show the same attitude. In order to be confident in leading and guiding the students applying ICT in language activities, teachers should actively seek information and practice the knowledge or skills relating to it.

Here are some strategies and tips we can apply in our daily teaching activities:

No available computers

Use other forms of technology such as video cameras, still cameras, OHPs, sound recording, game machines, etc.

Encourage home computer use for publishing or research to move students into areas other than games. If students have to get information, make computer accessed informationone of the options.

One computer in the classroom

Keep a record chart of computer use – recording the type of use (game, word processing, CD, e-mail…

Use the computer to promote collaboration – writing, research, games etc

Have a computer specific task in all activities

Encourage use of the full range of computer facilities
Model the use – show that you use the computer for productive reasons –

Two or more in the classroom

Organize group activities around the computer. For example, if you have your students creating picture books – one group could create an electronic picture book using power point.

Assign specific activities to each computer. One could be for internet, one for word-processing, one for multi-media, one for games. Use should be charted.

A room full of computers to book into

Get onside with the IT manager at your school – you could find that they are flexible in allowing students from your class to work in with their class

Have a booking sheet for the room

Use the room to introduce the whole class to skills, knowledge or software/hardware

Arrange shorter and more specific tasks if access is limited. It would not be useful for a student to start extended word -processing if the class can only get to the room once a week

http://wwwfp.education.tas.gov.au/english/technology.htm [Accessed January 16th 2009]

Evaluation of the use of ICT

From my simple observation, ICT has been nicely done by some of the international and local schools. There are two different attitudes shown by the students from the international schools to the local schools students. I need to discuss it in another whole essay or conduct particular research to touch on that part in detail. Generally the outcomes and results of the students written test, conversational skills, creative project assignments, and student’s attitudes toward the target subject (in this case, English) has been elevated. English has become an interesting subject to talk about and work on. They enjoyed displaying their skill and they appreciated that the use of the technology can help them provide online information throughout the world, throughout the world, made it easier to find sources, and made them more qualified students

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the use of ICT in language learning is a useful and innovative way of enriching the learning environment of students with adequate ICT skills and access to the Internet. Besides contributing to the learning of the four language skills (listening, reading, speaking, and writing), the ICT-based activities engaged the students more fully with the topics and issues of the related studies, enabled online collaboration and peer-to-peer learning, facilitated their critical thinking and inspired creativity in the application of the language. However, there are obstacles and challenges appear when people apply ICT on various subjects. Therefore, the use of ICT-related activities required careful planning and preparation, monitoring and moderating of students’ work, as well as reflection and adequate feedback to the students after they had completed their ICT-based assignments. This essay shows that even though there are many challenges dealing with ICT in the classrooms for teachers, there are still ways and opportunities for us to develop ourselves and our students in order to improve our skills in ICT. By understanding the use of ICT, it is expected that teachers will be able to improve students’ skills in language area in a fun and interesting way.

References

Chinnery, George.M., 2009. VoIM-Mediated Cooperative Tasks for English Language Learners.English Teaching Forum 46, no 4: 28-29.

Eyildirim, Selma, and Ashton, Sally.2006. Creating Positive Attitudes towards English as a Foreign Language.English Teaching Forum 44, no 4 : 2-3.

Hartoyo, 2006.Individual Differences in Computer-Assisted Language Learning. Semarang: Pelita Insani Semarang.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ictcoach/kb/alanclarke.shtml [Accessed January 30th 2009]

http://wwwfp.education.tas.gov.au/english/technology.htm [Accessed January 16th 2009]

http://www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/ict/definition.htm [Accessed January 30th 2009]