Research methods and techniques in second language teaching

Second Language Teaching

Technology and second language teaching

With the advent in technology, every aspect of life, both social and professional tended to incline towards adopting technology. This means that even in the classrooms the use of technology use is inevitable. The adoption of technology in teaching in many instances has met resistance from the teachers with varying reasons ranging from lack of time to lack of resources among other reasons. However, of late teachers have gradually accepted the appropriate technologies that are deemed suitable in aiding the teaching process.

Teaching of second language can also benefit from the introduction of technology into the classrooms. The use of technology varies among schools and while some schools have fully adopted the use of technology almost 100%, some are still yet to accept it.

Teachers have a pivotal role to play in ensuring the entrenchment of technology into the learning process. This is inevitable since incorporating it in the learning process and classrooms is both a teaching tool for the teacher as well as a learning tool for the students. As indicated by Education World (2013), students seem to be adapting quite fast to the rapid expansion in technology, indeed faster than the adults. This means therefore that incorporating technology into the learning process and classroom use is a great way of increasing the interest of children in learning.

Technology used

Email updates and text messages are some of the ways that technology can be used in handling a class of this nature. With each student having a mail, they will be receiving updates from the instructor on the material that they can use for regular exercise and application of the lessons learnt in class. It is also a way through which the students can easily contact the instructor on questions that they would like to be answered even while away from class.

The other tool is the online books that are of late quite widely used. In teaching second language, there is need to have as many books as possible and some of the best books in teaching language can be found online. Some of them are on paid websites yet some can be accessed online free of any charges.

Second language teaching can also be aided by use of interactive activities as a supplementary aspect to the curriculum. The teachers can allow students to go online and try completing the activities during the regular class hours with proper timing.

The teacher can also utilize technology to keep track of the performance of their students. This can be done by utilizing the services of auxiliary websites or the use of computer software dedicated to analysis of numbers. This then helps the teacher to appropriately adjust their approach and teaching skills to address the particular weak points that the students or particular student might have.

There is need to incorporate computers in class as well particularly in some particular topics in teaching second language. This applies especially when it comes to the use of language in creating formal documents or such like formal types of writing which can best the imbibed by the students.

With the availability of the computers, there will need also to have language systems used to help the students especially in the independent learning process. This will help the students grow some level of independence and self-reliance in learning more details of language as they can easily look up the meaning and use of words and phrases even in the absence of the teacher.

LCD projector is yet another technology that can be used in a class setting to aid in the teaching of English. The instructor can use it for the daily teaching but more significantly it can be used by the students in their presentations in class while engaging in class activities that will enable them learn faster.