it in foreign language teaching – comparing pedagogical options

IT IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING – COMPARING PEDAGOGICAL
OPTIONS
Yolanda-Mirela CATELLY
Politehnica University Bucharest,Splaiul Independentei 313, Bucharest, Romania
yolandamirelacatelly@yahoo.com
Abstract: Most foreign language teaching, including the tertiary level – non-philological profiles, is
based on methodological approaches which include a variety of information technology elements. There
has been debate within the teaching profession as to the rationale underlying the teachers’ options in
using a particular IT means. There are studies focused on the relationships between IT types used in
class and the learners’ profile, type of course and/or the targeted language. The study presents some
comparative highlights derived from the author’s experience of teaching English for Professional
Communication and English for Science and Technology to upper intermediate Computer Science
Faculty students of the Bucharest Polytechnic, and Russian to the Transports Engineering Faculty
students, respectively. Some of the main factors influencing the choice of IT instruments used in the
teaching-learning-evaluation process, as well as the rationale underpinning the pedagogical options
are discussed, and instances of practice are provided.
Keywords: foreign language teaching, higher education, IT in language classes, pedagogical approach
rationale
I. IT IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING – EVOLUTION OF
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
Early in the 1990s, when I first entered a classroom in what was to become my concrete
educational context for over twenty years now – the Bucharest Polytechnic, the language laboratory
was furnished with a sort of one-person wooden cages, meant to ensure total phonic isolation to the
student who would practice speaking (actually mere pronunciation!) drills, while being recorded on
the tape recorder - the then ultimate in foreign language teaching.
Over the last two decades I have witnessed a gradual change of the classroom setting, which
actually reflected the change in the approach to language teaching adopted in that university. Thus,
around 1992 – 1993, when the communicative approach to the teaching of English as a foreign
language was rapidly penetrating the academia, the first thing that happened was that the lateral
wooden partitions were removed. It was a sign that communication among the learners was ready to
come at the fore of the teaching-learning process.
Not too much later, with the coming forth of the Internet, we attended an even more dramatic
change, with classes endowed with computers, access to the Internet and, implicitly, a spate of netbased
materials flowing into our environment. At the same time, the teachers received information on
the multiple possibilities of using the newly appeared means, and some of them really began to use
such resources and tools – it was somehow fashionable to make use of IT means in the language class,
and enthusiasm was really at high levels.
At the beginning of the new millennium we managed to get two relatively well-provided with
IT means language laboratories. Those new settings had the possibility to flexibly re-arrange the
furniture in order to facilitate communication among the students in pairs and/or groups, as there were
no more partitions between them.

However, it may be interesting to note that rudiments of the old, so-called traditional teaching
approach, were still visible, as on each desk there were (and still are, although they are no longer
really used in teaching) headphones for the students to listen to the lesson input under the best possible
technical circumstances. That nobody actually makes use of them during the language classes
nowadays is obvious, as the main focus of the language course is to develop the communicative
competence of the students by exposing them to authentic input, in authentic conditions, which quite
often means background noise, instability of the source etc. (that is why listening to the loud speakers
mounted in the classroom walls is preferred) and to expose them to authentic tasks simulating as
closely as possible the real world in which they are expected to perform.
It is interesting to note that, with the emergence of the new IT technologies, like most teachers
of foreign languages, those of us who have embarked upon integrating these new means into the
language class actually passed through the three stages mentioned by [3], i.e. acceptance, then
frustration and finally the honey moon phase.
These stages are, we believe, inherent to a teacher who first discovers a multitude of
possibilities in the newly emerged technical tools, then they notice that perhaps this new world is a
touch too vast to be easily grasped – mostly from the technical point of view, at that stage – to finally
enthusiastically accepting it, once the technical difficulties encountered in handling them have been
resolved.
The stage we are at present goes one step beyond the honey moon of the beginnings – as, in
time, we have noticed that, as with so many interesting tools (of the type of games, music, video etc.)
there is a major risk that their introduction and permanent use in class can be conducive to a decrease
of the quality of the teaching–learning process, for various reasons that will be discussed in this study.
What we maintain here is that in using IT in class, foreign language teachers should start by
adopting a reflexive attitude. They should analyze the repertoire of tools available and choose only
those ones that would really help their students, whose needs, profile and level must be taken into
account.
They should integrate the new technologies into the traditional class in a well justified manner
from the pedagogical point of view, without exaggerations, viz. without turning the use into abuse, as
such an option would certainly endanger the quality and efficiency of the language class. Basing one’s
using of IT means on a sound pedagogical rationale, as well as making the right options in deciding
upon the weighting and variety of IT tools, is what we are mainly trying to advocate in this study.
The literature available on the relationship between the teaching of foreign languages and the
implementation of IT means in the didactic process is mainly focused on displaying the vast
possibilities which have been created lately. Thus, there are numerous sites for this purpose, as well as
online journals - see, for example [1, 2, 3, 9, 13]. Unfortunately, very few actually warn the language
teachers about the possible risks they might run in using such implements without deep consideration
of the lesson aims focused on the learners’ needs.
That there are numerous advantages in using the Internet, for instance, is also a matter of
common knowledge. There are authors who stress on the various benefits of using the net in the
language class. Fidelman [9] shows some of the most relevant, as follows:
- the World Wide Web is a good source of visually rich, interactive and instantaneous
information to people all over the globe;
- links to (isolated) people are provided, as well as ideas of other cultures;
- even people in the language teaching and research fields who are not very skilled
technically can get information via it, as it is very user-friendly.
At the same time, the author underlines that this is also a challenge to educational
professionals, who should try to understand how their field can be improved qualitatively by what she
calls the wise use of the Internet and the World Wide Web.
Another author [3] also refers to the pluses she envisages in using the WWW in the language
class, which are:
- providing the students with authentic language,
- ensuring up-to-the-minute information,
- creating the opportunity for real communication to take place,
- enhancing students’ motivation,
- being relevant to content-based instruction.

Few authors actually point out to the best ways of integrating IT in the teaching of a foreign
language, for example [2]. They show that:
(a) there are both synchronous and asynchronous learning possibilities,
(b) the type of teaching with IT should start from a simple approach and develop towards a
more complex one,
(c) the tasks created should be aligned with the general content and format of the course in
which they are integrated, and
(d) they should be of the problem-solving type.
In more recent studies, the concept of technology-enhanced language learning is introduced –
especially in a collection of articles edited by Bush [4]. In the introduction to the book, Bush maintains
that recently computers have become a current presence everywhere, they are ubiquitous, therefore the
focus has shifted from the machine itself to the type of communication facilitated by the technology.
He traces the shift in terminology in recent years from Computer-Aided Language Learning (CALL)
to Technology-Enhanced Language Learning (TELL).
The articles in the collection are mainly focused on the role of multimedia in the teaching of
foreign languages, explored from the perspective of the language teaching professional. This is a
viewpoint that we consider of more relevance to the teachers, as they can be supported in identifying
the best ways of integrating multimedia in their teaching contexts, on a principled basis.
In the same collection of articles, we should also remark [12]. In that study, the authors argue
that multimedia or technology should not be seen as a teaching method, but rather as a tool to help
teachers in accessing many different types of media (audio, video etc.) already in use. Simultaneously,
the learners can get higher control of the learning process, as they simulate real-life situations. We can
note that both actors in the educational process – the teacher and the learner – change their traditional
roles. The traditional textbook and other classroom means are now getting a different weighting in the
general class picture.
An essential point in this article is that, like many other researchers in this field, the authors
show that not enough research has been done on the efficiency of technology in foreign language
teaching. They call for greater cooperation between technology specialists and language pedagogy
researchers in order to identify the best lines of practice in this interdisciplinary approach.
Kassen and Higgins [10] add more scope to this issue, pointing out that the language teachers
need training at all stages in approaching multimedia in their educational contexts, as there is a risk
that teachers get enthusiastic about the multiple possibilities offered by the world of IT tools currently
available and they may introduce them without a sound pedagogic rationale underlying it.
Language teacher training in IT connected matters should therefore range, according to the
requirements of each specific context, from establishing what they call a comfort level with
technology, through integrating the technology in the curriculum, and up to developing the critical
skills to use technology effectively.
In connection with the above, we should also mention the study [1] that points out to the
development of the ethic component in the use of technology in education. We agree that by
recognizing the effect technology has on education, as well as on our quality of life, education
professionals implicitly admit the need for a clearly stated code of ethics.
There is an immense responsibility involved in integrating technologies into the educational
activity. This refers to the understanding of technology, its correct application and being aware of its
potential consequences.
Another aspect to be considered is to avoid exaggerations of the cultural generalization type,
as Warschauer [16] warns. He shows that, in our postmodern era, the role of language in identity
construction is becoming central, with the emergence of political, economic, cultural and social shifts
occurring in the wake of the informational revolution. It is one more aspect to be taken into
consideration in making one’s didactic options in the language class based on IT support.

II. BETWEEN ‘CHALK AND TALK’ AND IT – THE RATIONALE
UNDERLYING PEDAGOGICAL OPTIONS
We are not trying in this study to become the devil’s advocate in the matter discussed, but we
should debate some recent opinions in the literature [8, 5, 7] that point out to the cases in which the IT
technologies should not be used for the sake of novelty, modernization and the like.
Thus, in [8] we can find an opinion we agree with that if an activity can be done more
quickly/easily using other tools, such as video, audio or mere student – student or teacher – student(s)
interactions, then it is better to do so; the benefit consists in avoiding to overcomplicate the teaching -
learning process, taking the focus away from the language and getting it onto technology. It is
essential, we believe, that the way we implement technology in language teaching should support
communication and reflection.
That this is true is confirmed by our own experience, as well as that of colleagues with whom
we discussed these matters, who seem to consider that – ideally – in their best perspective of a positive
language learning experience, they see themselves in a real place, communicating with real people in a
real environment!
Certainly, it is the language teacher and class that have a major role in supporting the learners
to gain confidence, identify needs, introduce new concepts, acquire vocabulary, improve
pronunciation, develop grammatical awareness etc.
For such a wide range of objectives, IT technology can be seen as taking over the role of
virtual advisor, providing interaction, feedback, support a.s.o. for the students. Hence the kind of
questions that are aimed to getting new insights into the new roles of technologies for language
learning:
- How to harmonize the change of language teaching aims with the newly emerged
technologies?
- What framework of principles should be applied to designing new technologies for
language learning – teaching?
- What framework of principles should be applied to using IT tools in language teaching
– learning in an appropriate, pedagogically justified manner?
An important point of view is that of Constantinides [5]. Her article, entitled Don’t forget the
pedagogy, points out that we should beware of seeing technology as more than it actually is: the
means, and not the end in terms of language acquisition. Its role is to enhance our lessons and not to
take over.
Currently, the authors concerned with pedagogy-driven approaches to IT are not as numerous
as they should be. One of them, Davies [7], shows that the approaches proposed on the quoted site
have been generated with emphasis mainly placed on language teaching methodologies that can be
successfully implemented with the aid of new technologies, this being the appropriate direction in
approaching the IT – language teaching relationship. He points out that the debate on the priority in
the matter of pedagogy versus technology has been around for quite many years, but with the
emergence of each new technological miracle, it is necessary that it should be re-discussed and the
right priorities be re-established.
The newly appeared IT tools and technologies should be analyzed from the perspective of the
manner in which they can be applied to language teaching – learning optimally, in order to carry out
things that cannot be easily done otherwise. We should never let ourselves bewildered by the
fascination of new technologies.
Our choices should always be made carefully, and, the quoted author emphasizes, the teachers
of language should stop seeing IT learning vehicles as something special. Moreover, they should start
understanding that the use of technology should be dictated by the educational need, and not the other
way round. The learning objective and its attainment should be the starting point in appropriately
integrating IT in the language teaching – learning process.
Language teaching started from what was later called the chalk and talk approach, with the
teachers having only the blackboard, (possibly) a course book and (sometimes) a dictionary at their
disposal. In less than 25 years, a multitude of technologies emerged and have become attractive for the
language teaching – learning process.

There are extremely numerous authors [11, 14, 13] that make the effort of listing the
incommensurable number of IT tools available – as general resources, under sections such: World
Wide Web, Discussion lists, blogs, wikis, social networking, and Computer Mediated Communication
(CMC).
Some even mention the obvious advantages the teachers and students may have in using them,
as for instance: (i) providing vast amounts of (downloadable) materials (text, pictures, audio and video
recordings), for class and individual learning, and (ii) authentic materials that can be turned into
activities.
However, as Warschauer [15] points out, the teacher should consider carefully the pedagogic
goals in making options. He mentions, quoting previous research, several possible reasons for using
the Internet in language teaching:
- one reason is the belief that the online communication linguistic nature is suitable for
promoting language learning,
- it also creates good conditions for learning to write, as it provides an authentic audience
for this type of communication,
- it can increase students’ motivation,
- it is believed that learning computer skills is important to the learners' future success;
this suggests, then, that it is not only a matter of using the Internet to learn English, but
also of learning English to be able to function well on the Internet (in the case of
engineering students, as in our educational context, especially with Computer Science
students, this is of particular importance, as they already possess the computer literacy
skills, so there is much transfer between the two areas taking place).
The same author points out that it is the teachers’ duty to clarify their goals and give priority
to one or another of these reasons. This should start from clarifying course and lesson goals, as the
simple addition of random online activities into the classroom is pointless, inefficient and therefore
unadvisable.
One important objective of the teacher in using IT is – as mentioned by the same author [15] -
to create tasks that generate both linguistic and cognitive demands on the students in order to get
maximum benefit from the Internet as a resource. This is even more successful when the activities and
projects created are well-integrated into the course curriculum.
We consider that it is important that such teacher-generated applications should be conducive
to initiating collaboration among the learners, they should produce meaning and represent a
knowledge-producing means.
How this can be concretely done can be seen from the literature [6, 7, 13]. They list a series of
principles that should underlie the IT based tasks for the foreign language class, which we have
reformulated and completed below. Thus, the tasks should:
- be easily and clearly understood by the students,
- involve all the learners in it,
- make cheating impossible,
- shorten the time spent with hand writing,
- be mixed with hand writing, if that is the focus of the lesson (in our context, this is true
for the Russian course),
- be logically integrated in the development of the lesson,
- represent the best and most memorable solution to a teaching point at the respective
stage of the lesson,
- not be conceived in such a way as to add other points of difficulty for the students to
solve while concentrating on the main task,
- attach importance to the content in the first place, and not to the form, as many new
technical gee-whizarrdry have a short life in the educational field if they do not really
answer a specific need and are mere nine-day wonders,
- guide the students to material that not only is of interest to them, but which is
manageable at their level of language proficiency (the Internet was not designed to be,
and therefore it is not, a complete learning tool, but just one of the many ways and
means to be used in language learning; the material available is not graded, therefore,

especially with beginners, this may lead to making them feel overwhelmed with
inaccessible lexis).
III. ILLUSTRATION OF THE PROPOSED APPROACH AND OPEN
CONCLUSIONS
In the concrete educational context of the author, the learners’ profile covers a trait that should
be taken into consideration when the foreign language teacher designs and uses IT in the language
class, viz. the fact that they are engineering students, possessing (advanced) computer skills – in the
case of Computer Science ones. This is a fact that is influential in determining the approach to
teaching using IT that the teacher has made.
Together with their computer literacy level, other elements in the students’ profile to be
considered are their level of language proficiency, the course of language type and main objectives, as
well as the short- and mostly long-term needs of the learners.
In general, we will make reference to ESP type of course that we teach in the Bucharest
Polytechnic, discussing the concrete cases the author has been involved lately in:
- English for Professional Communication (EPC) practical courses to first and second
year students, at B1/B2 level,
- English for Science and Technology (EST) practical courses to second year students of
the Computer Science Faculty, at B2/C1 level,
- Scientific and Technical Communication in English (STCE) course and applications to
Master of Science students, at B2/C1 level,
- Technical Russian practical course to first year students of the Transports Faculty, at
A1/A2 level.
It is obvious that the type of course and the level dictate some options in terms of the IT
support used, but the principles underlying the options are more or less the same. It is used in order to
create the kind of activities which should answer the specific needs of the students in terms of their
learning process, which should have a clear purpose and be well integrated in the general course
approach, in order to help the actors of the instruction process to be more successful in attaining the
established goals.
The teaching approach is of an eclectic type, with options that are, we hope, well justified
from the pedagogical point of view. It is mostly of the communicative type, but other methods and
means are accepted, if they can ensure success.
In what follows, a selection of IT means used in each of these types of language courses is
briefly presented, as an illustration of the points made above. Thus, for the practical courses of the
ESP type, which take place in the multimedia laboratory, we use in combination the computer &
videoprojector, the document camera and the students’ computers, which provides an array of
possibilities of combining them, We use them at all the stages of the course, and for all the skills under
focus. We frequently refer to online dictionaries of the Worldweb type and make use of resources
from the Internet or CDs.
For the STCE course, we combine the course theoretical presentation on PowerPoint slides,
with providing the students with handouts, providing space for supplementary notes on the students’
pages, while the applications are solved with the help of computers in the lab.
As far as the course of Russian is concerned, due to the fact that we start from the A1 level,
which means we teach the beginner level, we combine the use of the IT means with a more regular use
of the board – for handwriting tasks, especially during the first part of the course, as there are marked
differences between the hand written Russian alphabet and the printed one, which the learners should
be taught to make.
It is of course not possible to illustrate in this section, not even briefly, the variety of
combinations of IT means used at different stages of the courses in each case. It is the teacher who
should take decisions in this respect, thus gradually developing the skill of selecting the most
appropriate IT tool for each stage and objective of the lesson.

However, to illustrate precisely the point we are making here, namely that each teacher should
develop an interest in using IT means in the language class in order to attain their goals more
efficiently, we have chosen the simplest, apparently, tool that we constantly make use of in our classes
– the Word document, for the following reasons:
- it is one of the most efficient instruments of the teacher (and students) from the
pedagogical perspective,
- it cannot be difficult to use for anyone of the teachers that can benefit from technology
in their classrooms,
- it is efficient and economic from the teaching time and from the learning time
perspectives,
- it is memorable for the learners, as it appeals to their visual style of learning,
- it can be later on re-created by the student during their learning process (and sometimes
homework should refer to that),
- variety can be ensured by using it in different ways,
- it is therefore both versatile and interactive.
Some of the ways this tool can be used in the language class, in process or as a product, are
the following:
- at the warming stage of the lesson, to introduce new material gradually, apparently
improvising, but in fact eliciting input from the learners and raising their interest to the
topic at hand,
- at other stages of the lesson - to provide input that supplements/adds/completes/changes
a.s.o. the one in the course book,
- to host feedback from the class at the end of tasks that require various opinions from the
students,
- to note down the results of the elicitation process,
- to created mind maps facilitating re-combinations of items,
- to amend previous input in accordance with new information,
- to create working tools (tables, for instances) for the classroom activity or to illustrate
homework patterns,
- to record the input from the students, marking their mistakes (by shading various
portions of the sentences, by colouring them differently) and even as a form of prompt
error correction for pronunciation or grammatical matters, by appealing to the students’
sense of humour, therefore in a non-threatening manner.
It is less time consuming and more memorable than the usual interruption of the lesson flow
by the teacher for some of the reasons shown above.
Moreover, the teacher can preserve these Word documents from each seminar or decide to use
them again (or comparatively) with other groups, as well. They can be easily accessed in the computer
and are much less perishable than the chalk/marker on the board.
Furthermore, such Word documents provide the advantages of clarity of the text, in
comparison with the hand writing, which is not always very legible, flexibility in the sense that they
can be amended/further developed, transferability via email, as well as the possibility to apply the
spelling correction promptly.
We cannot of course present here all the possibilities and combinations that we can make
using IT means in the language class. At the same time, technology keeps evolving extremely fast,
making it quite difficult for the teacher to keep abreast of its latest developments.
However, as Warschauer [15] pointed out, as language teachers, we should identify and
improve our own approach to using the IT means in our own manner, on the basis of the educational
context goals, teaching program and patterns, students’ needs and the technological resources at our
disposal, in the best possible combination.

References
[1] Beverly, Carrie. 1993. Ethics of Technology in Education, online http://rgfn.epcc.edu/programs/trainer/ethics.html,
accessed 07.01.2010
[2] Bignell, Simon, Parson, Vanessa, 2010. Best Practices in Virtual World teaching. Online
http://previewpsych.org/BPD2.0.pdf, accesses 20.02.2010
[3] Bradin Siskin, Claire, 1997. The Dark Side of the Web. Online http://edvista.com/claire/darkweb/index.html
[4] Bush, Michael, D., (Ed.), 1997. Technology-Enhanced Language Learning. Lincolnwood: National Textbook
Company
[5] Constantinides, Marisa, 2009. Don't forget the pedagogy. Online
http://ictforlanguageteachers.blogspot.com/2009/12/ httpmarisaconstantinidesedublogsorg2009.html
[6] Davies, Graham, 2006. The Education Forum, online
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/lofiversion/index.php/t6921.html, accessed 15.02.2010
[7] Davies, Graham, 2009. ICT4LT website, online http://ictforlanguageteachers.blogspot.com, accessed 23.01.2010
[8] Facer, Keri, 2009. Future Directions in Language Teaching and Learning, online
http://www.languagesoutthere.com, accessed 02.02.2010.
[9] Fidelman, Carolyn, G., Winter 1995 and Spring 1996. A Language Professional's Guide to the World Wide Web.
In CALICO Journal, The Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium, Vol 13, No. 2-3 , online
https://www.calico.org, accessed 07.01.2009
[10] Kassen, Margaret Ann and Higgins, Christopher J., 1997. Meeting the Technology Challenge: Introducing
Teachers to Language-Learning Technology. In Bush, Michael, D., (Ed.), 1997. Technology-Enhanced Language
Learning. Lincolnwood: National Textbook Company, pp. 263 – 285
[11] LeLoup, Jean W. and Ponterio, Robert, 2009. WWW Resources for Language Teachers. In The Foreign Language
Teaching Forum, online http://www.cortland.edu, accessed 15.01.2010
[12] Pusack, James P. and Otto, Sue K. 1997. Taking Control of Multimedia. In Bush, Michael, D., (Ed.), 1997.
Technology-Enhanced Language Learning. Lincolnwood: National Textbook Company, pp. 1- 46
[13] Robb, T., 1996. The Web as a Tool for Language Learning. In Journal of the Language Laboratory Association,
Kansai Chapter, Vol. 6, p. 1-11.
[14] Walker R., Davies G., Hewer S., 2010. Introduction to the Internet. Module 1.5. In Davies G. (ed.) Information and
Communications Technology for Language Teachers (ICT4LT), Slough, Thames Valley University, Online
http://www.ict4lt.org/en/en_mod1-5.htm, accessed 01.03.2010
[15] Warschauer, Mark, 1997. The Internet for English Teaching: Guidelines for Teachers. In TESL Reporter 30, 1
(1997), pp. 27-33
[16] Warschauer, Mark, 2001. Language, identity, and the Internet. In Mots Pluriels, No 19. October 2001, online
motspluriels.arts.uwa.edu.au/MP1901mw.html, accessed 21.01.2010.