Foundations of Information and Communication
Technology in English Language Teaching
James Thomas
This article aims to situate the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) within
some fundamental paradigms of language education, namely linguistics, language acquisition
and pedagogy. It attempts to show how the practical use of software and web-based resources is
heuristic, task based, collaborative, communicative, and creative, among others, while at the
same time affording students far greater exposure to attested language (as opposed to invented)
and providing them with hitherto unimagined opportunities for meaningful language production.
This will be interwoven with a description of an ICT for ELT teacher training course held at the
Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University under the auspices of the Státní informacní politika
ve vzdelávání (SIPVZ) and the British Council.
Introduction to the role of ICT in ELT
This article is a full text version of the Powerpoint presentation given at the opening session of
the course Training Future Trainers in Information and Communication Technology for English
Language Teaching in May 2005.
Numbers correspond to the Powerpoint slides as used in the introductory lecture of the course.
5 The UK website, ICT Advice for Teachers1 defines information and communications
technology (ICT) as: Computing and communications facilities and features that support
teaching, learning and a range of activities in education (such as administration). The focus is on
the subject being taught or studied or the organisation being administered, rather than developing
pupils’ skills with and knowledge of the technologies themselves.
In the space of a few years, ICT has become the “central nervous system” of much of the modern
world, including business, travel, government, the media, art, music, research, administration and
education. In education, it has its place in administration, communication as well as in resource
creation and course delivery. From a teacher’s point of view, there is a dichotomy of practical
application, which can be simply described as out of class use and in class use. In the former, a
wide range of generic and dedicated software is used by teachers preparing worksheets and
interactive activities, for administration, writing course outlines, emailing colleagues and
students, in areas of professional development such as access to online journals, participating in
discussion forums, downloading lesson plans and other teaching resources from the web.
1
www.ictadvice.org.uk/index.php
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6 When used in class, teachers demonstrate aspects of course content typically using
presentation software, or guiding students to relevant resources on the web. 7 Students, on the
other hand, use computers for activities that are creative, communicative and collaborative, for
discovery learning and task based activities.
8 Language teaching per se involves an understanding of three core areas. The first of these is
language itself and its linguistic foundations. Secondly, language teachers have some
understanding of how language is acquired, especially a second language. Thirdly, an awareness
of the pedagogical principals relevant to the field are essential, i.e., what procedures, techniques
and approaches work with which types of students and why.
Language and Linguistics
9 The roles computers play in these three core areas will now be discussed. It is without doubt
that computers have contributed to our understanding of language per se. A vast linguistic
methodology has emerged as a result of advances in computer technology, and is called
computational linguistics. This primarily involves the exploration of large amounts of text in
electronic form. The analysis of these corpora has led to new dictionaries and new grammars that
represent language descriptively, rather than prescriptively. Computers have enabled blanket
descriptions of how language is used in ways that were unimaginable before the 1970s.
10 Since computers are very good at counting, a corpus of 100 million words of naturally
occurring language (e.g. British National Corpus, Cesky narodni korpus), furnishes a great deal
of raw data on which to perform research, i.e., to answer questions. Using a program called a
concordancer, one can provide data to address such questions as:
 What contexts is sibling used in?
 What is the standard order of knife, fork and spoon?
 When is the way how to do something used?
 Where does the phrase to boldly go come from, and how is it used?
 Do native speakers say that go into the nature? What words typically precede into the nature?
11 Knowing a word
12 A much greater awareness of the role of multi-word units has emerged through the
computational study of language. For example, it is quite straightforward now to produce lists of
the verbs that collocate with a particular noun, find phrases with a particular headword, and
observe phrasal verbs with separable or inseparable particles. And these lists also reveal the
statistically significant contexts and co-texts that vocabulary items occur in.
Empirical observations about many aspects of vocabulary have repeatedly revealed facts about
language that intuition does not. For example, one can identify 13 the domains in which
particular words are used, e.g. interval in the theatre, intermission in the cinema, half-time at
sporting matches, observe the semantic prosody of words, e.g. amid is typically followed by
negative contexts, things which are provided are usually good things, and observe 14 the
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pragmatic functions of vocabulary items. In fact, the 1995 edition of the Cobuild dictionary2,
specifically indicates the pragmatic uses of words. For example, the twentieth use of with is: If
someone says they are with you, they mean that they support or approve of what you doing.
Thus, in language study, we ask How is this word used? not What does this word mean?
15 Learner dictionaries are now created by all major ELT publishers and without exception they
employ data derived from corpora. Cobuild3 was the groundbreaker in 1988? Birmingham
University (John Sinclair). For example, many of them indicate how frequently a word is used,
and structure the order of a word’s multiple meanings according to their frequency of use. They
indicate the grammar of the word (colligation) and provide genuine illustrative sentences that
have been found, not just created as examples.
16 Modern grammars use computational linguistic techniques to arrive at descriptions of how a
language is used. The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (1999), for example,
even includes graphs that show such things as the relative frequency of individual modal verbs as
used in newspapers, academic texts, fiction and spoken English. And grammars of spoken
English are emerging for the first time – simply not viable without corpus linguistic techniques.
Studying large samples of corpus data has also shown the amount of vocabulary that is needed to
understand and produce language at various levels. The results of such research has led to the
development of defining vocabularies in recent learner dictionaries (Longman and Macmillan),
guided the order in which vocabulary is introduced in course books, and …?
As we will see below, this depth of knowledge is particularly valuable to non-native speakers
when they are speaking and writing, i.e., producing language.
17 Corpora of non-native speaker language empirical demonstrate the extent to which discrete
vocabulary items, multi-word units, grammar structures, discourse markers and pragmatic
devices are used differently by Italians, Chinese, Germans, Czechs etc., speaking and writing in
English. These corpora are also useful to interlanguage researchers – empirical statements can
now be made about the linguistic sophistication and expected errors from students of certain
backgrounds, at various levels. Perhaps the most comprehensive is the Cambridge Learner
Corpus4 assembled from exam scripts of Cambridge ESOL English exams.
18 A pedagogical approach exploiting corpora, known as Data Driven Learning (DDL)5, was
also established at Birmingham University (Tim Johns). This guided approach sees students
investigating corpus data themselves to resolve their language quandaries. There are problems
with DDL, particularly when students have to respond to unmodified NS language.
The Compleat Lexical Tutor
2
3
Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, HarperCollins (1995). Editor in Chief: John Sinclair.
Acronym for Collins Birmingham University Integrated Language Database
4
http://www.cambridge.org/elt/corpus/clc.htm
5
http://www.ecml.at/projects/voll/our_resources/graz_2002/ddrivenlrning/
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The purpose of this section has been to point out how computers are influencing our
understanding of language per se, and how applied linguists are putting this understanding at the
disposal of the full gamut of people involved in language education: students, teachers, authors,
lexicographers and grammarians.
Language Acquisition
20 The second core area is language acquisition. This field of applied linguistics can hardly be
done justice here, and only a few key points will be made before proceeding to its relevance to
ICT.
21 When young children start acquiring their first language, they do not already have another
language, they are exposed to vast amounts of input, typically from other native speakers, the
input is aural only and founded in the immediate environment of the child, and consist of
utterances that form a coherent discourse. The acquisition is incidental, not forced. There is a
long so-called silent period before children make their own attempts to say anything i.e., output,
during which they are processing how the language works, i.e., the acquisition stage of intake.
Their communicative goals are fixed in the immediate environment and their efforts are rewarded
with smiles and encouragement. (i.e., First Language Acquisition – FLA)
22 To a considerable extent, foreign language learning is the obverse in virtually every respect.
There have been many attempts to replicate aspects of native speaker acquisition, but in the
classroom – the reality for the majority of foreign language learners – this is not wholly viable.
23 Computers can supply some elements of the FLA environment. For example, the internet is
certainly able to supply learners with an endless stream of spoken and written language from
native speakers. The internet’s communication tools are able to facilitate genuine communication
between people – better input leads to better output. Students working on interactive exercises,
for example, have time to process what is happening in the language at their own pace, both
consciously and subliminally – essential to intake. Learners involved in DDL tasks are involved
in guided discovery work, i.e., processing how the language works. Groups of students going
through the process of collaborating on a webquest (see Ch XXX), are constructing knowledge in
a foreign language, of a foreign language, and creating a product.
Pedagogy and Methodology
24 The final section discusses some practical aspects of language learning in relation to
computer uses in the light of language and language acquisition.
25 The web and dedicated software offer tens of thousands of interactive exercises for students
to develop their language skills and, in the process the students get immediate feedback. These
generally consist of drill-and-practice programs, short answer quiz questions, word order
activities, crosswords, clozes and matching exercises, vocabulary games, action mazes,
adventures and simulations, exploratory programs, and text reconstruction (total Cloze) packages.
26 Many of these activities function merely at the sentence grammar level, i.e., strings of
unrelated sentences, which is not ideal input. However, they are more and more text based which
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means the students are gaining the linguistic advantages of exposure to proper discourse. Written
texts are typically articles, stories, reports, song lyrics, jokes, etc. while aural texts tend to be
songs, news items and short videos.
27 Software packages such as Hot Potatoes6, http … (free), Clarity7 http: (not free) and Wida8
generate web versions of crosswords, clozes, quizzes, which can then be uploaded to webspace or
given to students on disks. These programs are user friendly and make the process of adding to
the plethora of activities already available on the web, quite straightforward. However, making
them interesting, attractive, and accurate can be very time-consuming. Quizstar9 is a web-based
program that allows teachers to create a variety of quizzes, enrol students and monitor their
results. It is sophisticated and attractive.
28 Web-based tools and facilities: Information
dictionaries
Wordnet
AWL
lesson plans
newspapers
language courses
film trailers
29 The activities can then be recommended as remedial and extension work, as well as for
general revision. Recycling and reactivating known vocabulary and grammar is essential to
keeping it alive. As the activities can become mechanical if overused, it is recommended that
teachers provide small doses of considerable variety. It must also be borne in mind that since
these resources are free, are in the public domain, and are created by people with varying degrees
of expertise, the quality varies greatly.
On the other hand, students often find the activities enjoyable and motivating. Many of the
activities have students working individually at their own pace, which makes them nonthreatening. To this extent they foster a silent period when the student can consciously reflect on
the work, while being subconsciously involved in the whole language.
Collaborative learning
Conversely, the computer offers a number of ways of working with other people, so just as it can
be private study par excellence, it can be the opposite, par excellence.
30 Collaborative learning has gained in popularity in areas as diverse as management training
and language education. In ELT, communicative language teaching has long encouraged cooperation among students in everything from small scale interactions to larger task-based
projects. Students do not come to any course as empty vessels waiting to be filled by the teacher,
6
http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/
http://www.clarity.com.hk/
8
http://www.wida.co.uk/noframes/index.htm
9
http://quizstar.4teachers.org/
7
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rather they bring a lifetime of experience to share with their classmates. Email, mailing lists and
learning management systems all facilitate this asynchronous knowledge sharing, while chat
programs facilitate synchronous communication. While sometimes it is language facts that are
shared, it is more often that the sharing itself is an opportunity for genuine meaning-laden
language output, without which, an important step in language acquisition is missing. In elearning, this is referred to as 31 constructivism, in which people actively construct new
knowledge as they interact with their environment. The related theory of constructionism asserts
that learning is particularly effective when constructing something for others to experience. And
in social constructivism, a social group constructs things for one another, collaboratively
creating a small culture of shared artefacts with shared meanings.
32 Web-based tools and facilities: Communication
asynchronous
email
mailing lists
learning management systems
synchronous
chat
Skype – audio and visual
33 Tandem learning10 is an example of a web-based facility exemplifying collaborative
learning. It was Established in the by the Council of Europe, this website provides people with an
opportunity to find someone who is a native speaker of the language they want to learn and who
wants to learn the other language. Its database puts people in touch with each other and then it is
up to the pair to work out how they are going to make it work – some advice is given.
Keypals is the e-version of penpals. In teaching environments, these are typically organised by a
pair of teachers in different countries, who would like their students to communicate with each
other to give some purpose to their language learning. There are many websites offering advice,
and services to match classrooms across the world.
A webquest is a project-based activity in which the teacher prepares the steps, recommends
websites and directs students towards a completed project. For example, one group of students
might prepare a powerpoint presentation on the pyramids of Central America, while another
group creates a website on the Australian marsupials. Or in EAP classrooms, a group might
prepare a conference poster on hyperinflation in South America while another prepares a news
broadcast on unemployment amongst minorities in Eastern Europe.
34 Learning Management Systems (LMS) are typically web-based systems that allow a teacher
to create a course consisting of structured links to relevant websites, and add their own
documents. The students register and use these resources, communicate with each other in virtual
seminars, upload assignments, comment on each other’s work, etc. The system used on the Mod
P course was Nicenet11, as it is free, has no advertisements, and functions solely through the web
10
11
http://www.slf.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/
http://nicenet.org
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browser with no need for installation or maintenance. Other well-known and widely used LMSs
are Moodle, Blackboard, WebCT and Ikarus. YahooGroups is also used as an LMS, and although
it has useful facilities that Nicenet does not, it does not have face-value as an educational tool, in
my opinion. Moodle offers a great many facilities and is grounded very firmly in educational
philosophy of constructivism, but it does require installation and maintenance. Recently,
however, OurWebClass12 offers a limited number of classes to be set up for free in their Moodle
environment, and for a small annual subscription, more classes.
Conclusion
35 So it can be seen that in its very short history, there is a great deal of activity going on
around the world in the name of ICT4ELT. This brief introduction has not attempted to cover the
greater range of these, rather to situate ICT in the core paradigms of language study and teaching.
It has been shown that vocabulary, grammar and the four skills can all be developed using ICT
facilities, and often integrated into single activities. An area that has not been touched on here is
phonology, despite the fact that there are many “talking” programs and websites. Links to some
of them can be found at my fledgling portal13.
It is most unlikely that anyone working with computers in language education is trying to make
themselves redundant, and it is even more likely that language learners do not consider computers
a substitute for teachers. But it is clear that the web offers many opportunities to learners in need
of remedial work and those in need of extension work. This is a boon to both teachers and
students. And no-one need fear that the core paradigms of language education are ignored or
undermined by ICT. They collaborate.
12
13
http://www.ourwebclass.com/
http://www.fi.muni.cz/~thomas/EAP/pronunciation.htm
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Next Module P course, training trainers in ICT4ELT
http://www.fi.muni.cz/ICT4ELT/
Corpus Course in UK
http://www.fi.muni.cz/~thomas/CCCELT/
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