ICT based learning tools and its impact on students with visual Impairment Abstract In today’s world Information and Communication Technology is playing a vital role in the development of educational curriculum and also in teaching learning process. It supports the students to improve their knowledge and learning skills. It also finds its impact on special needs education. ICT based Assistive tools are widely used to support inclusive learning. In particular students with visual impairment can be benefited by various tools.
It concerns the mastery of the language code itself - lexicon, syntax and semantics. Canale and Swain (1987) pointed out that grammatical competence will be an important concern for any communicative approach whose goals include providing learners with knowledge of how to determine and express accurately the literal meaning of utterances. They believe that knowledge of these rules will be crucial in interpreting utterances for social meaning, particularly when there is a low level of transparency between the literal meaning of an utterance and the speaker’s intention. While discourse competence concerns the mastery of how to combine grammatical forms and meanings to achieve a unified spoken or written text in different genres, the cohesion and coherence of utterances or sentences. It is used to refer to two related, but distinct abilities.
With all these compliments there is a need of having careful thoughts and attention being focused on why, when and how the new information and communication technologies can develop higher education and the international dimension. With advancements in Information and communication technologies majority of the developing countries use English for information sharing and as a teaching language. In addition to that most of the electronic data sources and information are in are available in English only. With the increasing necessity of learning English it is believed that students will not find the importance of learning other languages. Learning other languages serves as a platform to learning other cultures.
Language teaching approaches, methods and procedures are constantly undergoing reassessment. New ideas keep emerging as the growing complexity of the means of communication and the opportunities created by technology put language skills to new uses. In addition, the political, social and economic impact of globalization, the new demands of the labour market that result from it, the pursuit of competitiveness, the challenges of intercultural communication and the diversification of culture are all phenomena that have opened new perspectives on the central role that foreign languages have come to play in the development of contemporary societies. This has far-reaching consequences in terms of foreign language learning. Having become more aware
As linguistic competence alone is insufficient for learners to use a foreign language correctly and appropriately, it is completely acknowledged that students cannot be successful in their learning foreign language until they have also mastered the cultural context in which language lives (Lange, 2011). So it is important for language learners gain the knowledge of culture that is rooted in the language and they must be encouraged to associate language use with culturally appropriate behaviors in their learning foreign language so that they can communicate correctly and
2.3.5. The Importance of Teaching Strategic Competence in the English Communicative Lessons As Strategic Competence is one of the major components of communicative competence, the development of this component, largely determines the fluency and conversational skills of the learner (Dornyei and Thurrell, 1991). They also state that teachers are usually unaware of the importance of this component and the activities that lead to training this strategy have hardly been developed. This results in a lack of fluency and conversational skills, which students usually complain about. Training this type of competence, in particular, helps in developing the learner 's confidence when getting into a conversation.
Students especially at the secondary school level are encouraged to use computers, Internet and e-mail for homework, sourcing information on the website for complete projects and assignments. In addition, students can use computers to prepare and make presentations and communicate effectively through cooperative learning with classmates. ICT literacy (also known as the digital knowledge and skills) are very important because without it, students cannot participate fully in society nor acquire the skills and knowledge required for living in the 21st
In the last 20 years, a worldwide extension of information and communication technologies into the field of education has been noticeable. The global integration of technology into education has potentially been hypothesized on the use of new technological tools to reform an outdated educational system, better adopt students' engagement to the information age, and speed up development efforts in national level. In developing countries, the above commitments have created a set of furious assumptions about the requirement of educational reforms ‘‘initiation stage’’, which requires information collection and planning, sounds to be blurring in this breakneck process of technology implementation (Young, 1991). In other words, computers were
Using ICT attracts them because it is challenging, yet it is a part of their everyday lives. Nevertheless, when students use ICT in the class the “… undeniable improvement of language skills and strategies related to handling information and the language through which it is conveyed in the stages of searching, analyzing and processing information”, (Lanni, 2005) when mixed together along with other skills students are benefited and gain much more than what was expected. Nevertheless, due to the students‟ simultaneous, natural and often incidental acquisition of IT skills, that are needed in order to manage hardware and software so that various tasks are completed and problems are solved. Jarvis (1998) believes that by integrating basic IT skills in the EFL classroom, we are developing language skills and equipping learners with technology
Knowing the language is actually knowing the culture. More importantly, speaking the language allow students to experience the culture. Hence, I believe that as a Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, my role is really significant in such that, in addition to this, I can give the students more resources by which they could approach a culture, by which they can immerse themselves in that culture, by which they can learn more about the culture in order for them to function in that culture, but this is not my main focus, as I would like them not only to learn about my culture, but also to bring their own culture into interacting in the culture that they are learning. Of course the linguistic competence and subject knowledge are of a great value in that students should learn and understand at the same time. Here, I will apply some of my techniques in ELT too, that is to say, effective CCQs ‘Concept Check Questions’, ICQs ‘Instruction Check Questions’, and also strong MPF ‘Meaning, Pronunciation, Form’ and PACS ‘Post Analysis Correction Stage’.