Use of ICT tools for English Language Teaching

Development of technology has changed the life of man and way of thinking and working as well. It also affects the forms of communication we use. The change in forms of communication tools, like, earlier we used to write letter and then rare phone calls and now unlimited chats with friends, emails instead of letters, directly affects the way of teaching and learning language. A student using smart phone to communicate will obviously be not interested in learning merely from board instead, s/he would like to learn using various ICT tools. For that, a teacher can use various web 2.0 tools like, Blog, Google Classroom, Wiki, Ted talk, Moodle, and so on.

 Let us discuss how these ICT tools or what we generally call Web 2.0 tools can help for Language teaching and learning.

• Blog

Blog is a website containing a writer or a group of writers’ own experiences, observations, opinions, etc. and often having images and links to other websites. (dictionary.com)

There are various purposes to use blog, we can connect with people from entire world, we can read others’ ideology and can share our ides with the world, and can comment on others’ blog posts. A teacher can use blog to improve his/her students’ basic communication skills.

Students can read blogs and can create their own blog as well. Teacher can instruct students to read one another’s blogs and make constructive comments. So, in a way, students can improve their reading and writing skills and critical thinking will also be developed.

• Podcast

A podcast is an episodic series of digital audio or video files, which a user can download to listen.

Podcast is the best way to learn language with listening practice. Many students feel bored in reading but can learn very easily with enjoyment while listening. For such students, educational podcasts are appealing and encourage them to learn.

Teachers can create their own podcasts or can suggest students some very good podcasts like eslpod, BBC, etc. Besides, teachers can also help students to make their own podcasts, and then to share in the classroom and allow students to give comments to one another’s podcasts. In this way students’ listening and speaking skills will be improved.

• Wiki

A wiki is a website that allows users to add and update content on the site using their own web browser. Users can collaboratively modify content and structure directly from the web browser.

Wiki is a useful tool for students and researchers to work collaboratively from distant places. With the help of wiki teacher can help students to enhance students’ communicative competence, especially, Reading and Writing skills. Students can work together from their different places and teacher can see what they have done and can edit the content as well. Moreover, students can see what changes their teacher has made in their content.  

• Google Classroom and Nicenet

Google Classroom and Nicenet are the virtual classes. Google Classroom helps teacher to share material, give instructions and assignments, grade assignments, discussion forum, etc. Nicenet is also one kind of virtual class like Goggle Classroom. The only difference is that Google Classroom is directly connected to Google Drive and Nicenet is not. On the other hand, Nicenet provides video conference facility to teacher and learners but Google Classroom doesn’t.

There are a number of ICT tools available in the market, to teach and learn language. Here I have discussed a few of them. To be an effective language teacher one has to be updated with time and for that, one must have knowledge of technological development apart from their subjects.