Week 3 - How I have been using technology in teaching.

Thinking that my children would have a great benefit from being in close contact with a native English speaker, in the winter of 2007 I applied for an American Peace Corps volunteer.

Since 2007 I have been working with American Peace Corps volunteers within the Peace Corps TEFL programme in Romania .That's how I managed to set up an English lab with a laptop with an Internet connection , a projector , a screen , speakers , 2 CD players, and an English library with 15 dictionaries for advanced students , 15 for beginners ,a lot of posters, flashcards, additional materials, and a large variety of English books (fiction and non-fiction , methodology , " How to teach ..." series , etc ) . In my lab there are over 250 titles and in the school library I managed to gather over 500 English literature books for children by donations from all over America. Having this place of my own means a huge difference in the ways I teach.

I consider technology as an useful way to promote language learning: all four skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The use of computer and the internet in classes is essential to actualize development in listening comprehension and oral skills. I use www.agendaweb.org/ on a regular basis. The variety of exercises to be used here focus on all four skills. This particular portal is dedicated to providing its visitors and everyone interested in learning English, with a wide variety of grammatical, audio and vocabulary exercises in order to enhance speech, and vocabulary. There is a large menu, containing a lot of sections, including a huge variety of exercises, organized by categories, along with their correspondent information and solutions. Grammar , vocabulary , verbs , listening , songs ( favourite ) ,listening , learning with news from BBC or BBC radio ( as also specified in the article “ Developing Listening Skills with authentic materials “ by Lindsay Miller ) , reading , videos ( also favourite ) and besides all these, the portal also offers an online dictionary. I tried almost any type of grammar exercise in order to practice new structures or to review the taught ones.

I have said that my favourites are songs and videos. Why?

Through music, children understand language; experiment with rhythm, words, tempo, and melody .Students will make the connection between print and spoken words. Last, but not the least they will learn how to think creatively and holistically. There are two processes involved in listening, and both can be utilized when songs are used in the classroom. The activity which is selected for a particular song will determine which of these processes is active. Cullen (1999) states that: “The first is bottom-up processing where the listener builds up the sounds into words, sentences and meaning. The second is top-down processing where the listener uses background knowledge to understand the meaning of a message. Practicing both of these processes is essential for developing listening comprehension.” Before having the first listening my students are asked a lead-in question, are shown some pictures of the band or have a short biography of the singer. The first listening allows them to tell me about the message of the song and the second one enables them to complete the missing words in the lyrics (usually selected according to a grammar / vocabulary point). The post-listening activities usually make us look deeper in the meanings looking for similes, metaphors, and other figures of speech. Of course, along with this procedure there are vivid discussions about the covert meaning of the artistic language. The third( and the fourth-sometimes ) listening is to practice pronunciation and to have fun .This is the part which is most enjoyed because they are allowed to mime , to gesture, to dance .Some other times , when we use a song with a well-made and to the point video I also elicit their opinions about the visual message . Listening is the language skill which most learners usually find the most difficult. First of all, we must take into account that the level of language input (listening) must be higher than the level of language production expected of the pupils. So we should have many speaking activities used in the first levels that enable pupils to participate with a minimal verbal response. However, in the last levels, pupils are encouraged to begin to manipulate language and express themselves in a much more personal way.

Saricoban and Metin (2000) have found that songs can develop the four skill areas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Eken (1996, p.46) states that songs can be used:
-to present a topic, a language point, lexis, etc.
-to practice a language point, lexis, etc.
-to focus on common learner errors in a more direct way
-to encourage extensive and intensive listening
-to stimulate discussion of attitudes and feelings
-to encourage creativity and use of imagination
-to provide a relaxed classroom atmosphere
-to bring variety and fun to learning


You will find many fun and productive ways to use songs with lyrics in the classroom for, as Gene Buck says, “There is nothing finer on which to hang a memory than a song.”