Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in English teaching Presentation for the Ministry of Education by David Hayes, PhD British Council Consultant & Associate Professor, Department of Applied Linguistics, Brock University, Canada

Objectives To examine the role of ICT in English language teaching To understand the benefits (and drawbacks) of using ICT to enhance teaching and student learning To introduce participants to a variety of on-line resources for teaching and learning To draw lessons for successful use of ICT in English teaching in Egypt

Part 1: ICT and traditional teaching

Contrasts between a traditional classroom and an ICT-enhanced classroom Traditional classroom Focus on teaching Teacher fronted Teacher as source of knowledge Passive students Dependent learning ICT-enhanced classroom Focus on learning Student-centred Knowledge from multiple sources Active students More autonomous learning 4

Preconditions for use of ICT Reliable electricity supply Financial resources for … 1. Hardware 2. Software 3. Training for users Secure, dedicated classroom spaces Good connectivity in wider society Government commitment to ICT use in education Which of these are available in Egypt? 5

Connectivity in Egypt Connectivity in Egypt has been growing According to 2014 statistics, 48% of the population had access to the internet This was an increase of 10% over 2013 figures Source: Mobile phone usage is even greater with 61.2 million users in 2015 Of these, 18.2 million were smartphone users Source: Emirates-Leads-Middle-East-Africa-Mobile-Phone- Penetration/ http:// Emirates-Leads-Middle-East-Africa-Mobile-Phone- Penetration/

Government commitment

Part 2: The benefits of using ICT

What does the research tell us? In a review of over 350 studies on the use of teachnology in foreign language learning Golonka et. al. (2014, pp ) commented: “At their best, technological innovations can increase learner interest and motivation; provide students with increased access to target language (TL) input, interaction opportunities and feedback; and provide instructors with an efficient means for organizing course content and interacting with multiple students. At their worst, the use of new technologies can result in inappropriate input, shallow interaction, and inaccurate feedback; student frustration with software and hardware; distraction from the learning task; and a general over- emphasis on delivery modality over learning objectives.”

Drawbacks of using the internet The internet is a wonderful resource for teachers and students But it is not perfect, and needs to be used carefully to avoid problems with … 1. ‘Infoglut’ – information overload, having too much information to process 2. ‘Infobabble’ – the information you find just doesn’t make sense 3. ‘Infosprawl’ – the information you find is not well- organized enough for you to be able to use it 10

Part 3: Resources for ICT

The technology 1. Mobile technology Laptop/notebook computers Tablet computers (iPad, Surface Pro, etc) Smartphones 2. Hard-wired technology Desktop computers Interactive whiteboards

Uses of technology The technology can be used to access: 1. Course management systems 2. ePortfolios 3. Language corpora 4. E-dictionaries and grammar checkers 5. Automatic speech recognition and pronunciation programmes 6. Network-based social computing such as: Virtual worlds Chat Social networking (e.g. Facebook, MySpace) Blogs, wikis, internet forum or message boards

Resources for students (1) There are lots of free learning resources for students (and their teachers) on the internet … The British Council’s Learn English sites – Learn English (for adults); Learn English Teens and Learn English Kids – have skills practice, grammar and vocabulary exercises, videos, music, study tips for exams, games and songs and so much more Remember that students usually need teacher guidance to make the best use of these resources

Resources for students (2) Interesting things for ESL students – an American site which makes use of data from the Voice of America Special English Word Book and has vocabulary quizzes (e.g. drag and drop), grammar exercises, pronunciation practice (e.g. minimal pair discrimination), songs and games Primary Games – a site focused on primary age children in the USA, with free games, puzzles and other educational material (children need to sign up)

Resources for teachers (1) BBC Learning English – videos and activities for grammar, vocabulary, topical discussions, news, courses for various levels and so much more. You can also switch to Arabic to help you use the site Teachers need to be aware that some of the content may be culturally inappropriate for students in Egypt Teaching English – the British Council’s website for teachers has many resources for teaching young children, teenagers and adults including lesson plans, flashcards, posters, stories, activities, etc As well as resources for teacher development In some countries the British Council has conducted “curriculum mapping” to link these resources to the local school curriculum

Resources for teachers (2) Teacher Training Videos – an award winning site with many free on-line videos of how to use technology in your teaching and learning (everything from PowerPoint to blogs, wikis and Moodle); also reviews of many other tools for teachers An inventory of freely available on-line tools and resources is available at: of-ICT-tools-and-OERshttp://ict-rev.ecml.at/en-us/Resources/Inventory- of-ICT-tools-and-OERs This lists 66 different tools and resources, all of which have been evaluated “with sound pedagogical criteria in mind”

Conclusion There is government support for ICT in education but … ICT is not a panacea (or universal cure) for problems with English teaching ICT cannot replace good English teachers Face-to-face teaching will always be important in language teaching ICT is most useful when it is integrated with face-to-face teaching – a ‘blended’ approach

References Golonka, E.M., Bowles, A.R., Frank, V.M., Richardson, D.L. and Freynik, S. (2014). Technologies for foreign language learning: a review of technology types and their effectiveness. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 27 (1), MCIT (2013). ICT for education: A national priority – Egypt’s case. Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT): Cairo, Egypt