ICT & VELS

1. ICT provides a rich and flexible learner-centred environment in which students can experiment and take risks when developing new understanding.

I have certainly found this statement to be true in relation to my current placement where I am teaching French. I use ICT prolifically in the French classroom. Some of its advantages include: visual prompts which aid student comprehension, introducing other French voices into the classroom through online listening and viewing activities, highly interactive activities, and online activities where students cannot progress until they have produced a correct response.

In respect to online activities such as those offered on Languages Online, they allow for a flexible learner-centred environment in that students can advance at their own pace, unhindered by classroom dynamics. More advanced students can run ahead, leaving the teacher to assist students encountering difficulties. Online programs provide instant feedback to students, allowing them to correct their errors and then to move on.
The computer is an impartial and disembodied critic and so students will feel less anxious about taking risks in the language.

ICT puts French culture and communities at the fingertips of students. They can access French radio, film and television, Skype French classes overseas, and check the weather in French cities. These are opportunities which were previously limited for students, or availably only to students with the means to travel to France. In this way ICT works as an equalizer among the student population. As a resource, ICT technologies are much richer than any textbook. A wealth of information is at their fingertips and it's up to us, as teachers, to point them in helpful directions.

ICT is also advantageous to students in that it permits them more diverse means of communicating. They are not limited to the spoken or written word. If, for assignments, they can make films or PowerPoint presentations or Prezis or interactive posters then their capacity to communicate increases as they can use symbols and music and animations to get their message across. This is fantastic for students who feel frustrated by their developing (and not yet developed) language skills.

Central to language teaching is the idea of communicative competence. Social networking tools can launch students' learning as they have the relational motivation to communicate; to write and to speak. In this way they are a gift to language teachers!