The Role Of Technology In Learning

First of all, as Confucius said, learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous. I totally agree but do students really want to learn? Or how has the learning changed?

Technology changed so many things in every field both in a good and bad way. But to talk about learning and education, it changed a lot. Its role plays of course in supporting learning. But this success of educational technology I think depends on how it is applied to meet educational goals for particular kinds of students in specific language learning area.

It has been said that around 2 billion people simultaneously learning English in the world’s schools and colleges and as independent adults. So English teaching has been diversifying. For instance,

3) Integrative CALL (1980s-1990s) ; multimedia &Internet, content based, more authentic language learning, foster interactivity between the learner and the learner, learner and computer, built on students’ intrinsic motivation, a variety of media (text, graphic, sound, animation, and video).

As we see that it has been changed a lot within years and years due to the students’ & peoples’ needs and expectations. Because in the world everything changes, so does language and its way of learning/teaching. The point is the ‘context’; we should define the learner; their age, level, culture, learning style, background, personality etc., educational setting; the role of English in the country, in the school, resources available, time, environment, numbers, procedures etc., implementation of goal, syllabus construction, materials, classroom methods.. It goes on and on. I mean the aim of English language teaching can be ‘to create a society that is able to utilize the language for effective communication as the need arises and as a key to wider experiences’ or ‘to meet the needs of learner who need to improve their ability to communicate when socializing, telephoning, making business presentations

Yes the role of computers and technology in language learning has changed, although old approaches still have effectiveness. It has important potential for English language teaching. Accessing information to the learners can increase and it provides adjustability to instruction and so that better serve the individual’s learning pace, cognitive styles and learning