Arthur H. Wendorf II - Teaching With Technology

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Teaching Foreign Languages with Technology

I have found in my everyday life that technology is a two-edged sword.  Sometimes it helps me to cut through the obstacles that lie in my desired path of achievement at an incredible rate.  When used in this way the sword of technology allows me to do more things more quickly and effortlessly than I would be able to without it.  At other times, however, technology slashes my efficiency and destroys my productivity.  When this is the case I often find myself frustrated, behind schedule, and stressed.  This two-edged nature of technology is not something that I have only experienced in my everyday life, however.  It is also something that I have experienced in the foreign language-learning environment as a foreign language instructor.  That is to say that in the foreign language classroom I have experienced technology both as an invaluable aid and as a seemingly insurmountable obstacle.  As I have reflected on these two roles of technology, I have come to the conclusion that the difference between these two scenarios is not caused by the technology itself, but rather by the appropriateness of the specific technologies for the task at hand, and by my ability to use those technologies effectively.  Therefore I believe that the usefulness of technology in foreign language instruction is directly related to the usefulness of the specific technologies employed for the various tasks of foreign language instruction, and the competence of the foreign language instructors with those technologies.

In foreign language instruction there are, in my point of view, three primary tasks at hand.  The first, and arguably most important, task is that of exposing the students to the foreign language in a communicative way.  In a university setting this task is best carried out both in the classroom, via the presentation of material orally to the students by the instructor and the oral interaction between the students and between the students and the instructor, and outside the classroom via written mediums.  In my opinion technology can be a great aid in the presentation of material in the classroom by providing a visual reinforcement, such as through prepared visual aids for projection during oral presentation, of the oral input that the students are receiving.  However, I am not aware of any way that technology could be used to aid in the spontaneous oral communication between the students nor between the students and the instructor, and so I think that it would be erroneous to try and use technology in this way.  However, I do think that technology would be a great asset in all communicative tasks in which students could be asked to engage in outside of the classroom.  Technologies such as the internet, for example, could be used to allow students to access authentic foreign language materials to read, and to communicate via email or chat with native speakers of the target language.

The second primary task of foreign language instruction is to allow the students to practice their understanding and production of the foreign language.  A distinction must be made again, I think, between practice that is best done in the classroom and practice that is best done outside of the classroom.  I believe that it is best to perform as much oral practice as possible in the classroom and as much written practice as possible outside the classroom.  As with oral communication, I think that oral practice is best done without the aid of technology.  However, as with written communication, I believe that written practice can be best done with the aid of technology by way of online electronic workbooks and activities.  These electronic resources allow the student to practice their reading and writing while receiving immediate, tailored feedback on their efforts.

The final task of foreign language instruction is to evaluate the students’ progress in their acquisition of the foreign language.  As with the other two tasks, this task can be divided into an oral and a reading and writing component.  Unlike was the case with the other two tasks, however, I do believe that technology can be a great aid in the oral component of evaluation.  Specifically, I believe that technology can be used to record the oral production of students, thus allowing their instructors to grade them at a more comfortable pace and more objetively.  Unfortunately, however, no technology that I am aware of can yet do the actual evaluation of the students’ oral production in a reliable manner.  Nevertheless, technology can be used to greatly facilitate the grading and preparation of many elements of the reading and writing components of foreign language evaluations.  Though, again, unfortunately no technology yet exists that can reliably grade the spontaneous written prose of a student.  These distinctions between what technologies can and cannot do effectively in the evaluation of a foreign language, as in the tasks of communication and practice, must be kept in mind if technology is to aid instructors and not make their jobs more difficult.

In addition to the belief that technology can be used effectively to help in the instruction of a foreign language, I believe that there is still one more crucial point that must be emphasized.  All of these potentially wonderful uses of technology will not come to fruition if the instructors and students are not properly trained in the use of the various technologies.  Therefore, I believe that it is important that sufficient time be dedicated to the introduction and practice of all of the technologies that will be used before such use begins in earnest.  If such training takes place, and each technology is used only for those teaching activities for which it is suited, I believe that the sword of technology will greatly aid us in the fight to help our students acquire a foreign language.