ICT in the Classroom:
Solving EFL Teacher Problems
1. The first problem every teacher trainer comes up against is
people’s fear, which can be roughly divided into two aspects: one, fear of the new
technology itself; two, fear of showing one’s ignorance. There are many misconceptions
about ICT (Information Communication Technology) in general, and ICT in education in
particular. An introduction should therefore deal with those issues. Teachers should
understand that computers are not necessarily harmful for one’s health if used
carefully, as any other tool. A mere explanation of protective screens, flexible
schedules, exercises for the eyes and body, will help.
A great number of teachers in Russia have never used a computer in their lives, and they
are terribly shy when they are confronted with new technology, and the confusing new
terminology used. I have watched people again and again put their finger on the screen
when they are told to click on something, they cannot understand what is meant by
“address”, “URL”, “search engine”, etc. The first lesson in a computer lab
should proceed very slowly, so that teachers do not feel embarrassed because of their lack
of knowledge. It took me a while to realize why, though there was a lot of interest in the
international projects in my home town, there were no real teacher participants for the
first few years when I was already well launched into this type of activity.
Step by step, I took several younger colleagues to the lab, taught them patiently how to
turn on a computer, how to type in their name and password, how to open up windows, etc.
When they decided they wanted to have a lesson in the Internet-class with their students,
I had to come and remain in the class with them, because the moment students asked
technical questions, the teacher was lost. Finally, two teachers dared to do a project.
They did all the necessary work themselves, but they asked my technical help for the final
stage, that of publishing the news about their new site, contacting other teachers who
might be interested, and arranging some certificates for students and teachers.
2. The second problem any teacher faces, be they experienced in
this type of work or not, is the integration of ICT into their regular school curriculum.
When discussing this problem with my European colleagues in Brussels during the First EUN
(European Schoolnet www.eun.org) Conference in February 2003, I learned that all of
us are faced with the same obstacles. There is quite a rigid plan, a curriculum all of us
have to follow, as well as a strict school timetable. The technology seems to be ahead of
the educational process, which so far does not include ICT as a standard part of school
education in all the subjects. What follows is, of course, that every teacher has to deal
with the same problems all over again: How to include and integrate ICT, search for
information, new types of lessons, international projects and other types of
cooperation-communication, into our usual work? How do we persuade colleagues and school
administrators that this kind of work is needed, that it doesn’t harm the educational
process if used with moderation and intelligence? How do we manage to turn all these
“new” things, which are already an integral part of most children’s lives, into
something everyday, ordinary, acceptable in the educational establishment?
My experience shows that this goal is possible, though it takes a lot of time and effort.
Since any lab with computers is mostly used by IT (Information Technology) teachers, it is
quite difficult for any other teacher to squeeze into the schedule, so to speak. That is
why when I was only beginning this work in 1997, I first spoke to the school
administration, wrote a plan, and explained why and how such lessons can be beneficial for
students. We arranged a timetable together, so that every year, there are two days a week
when the Internet-classroom is ours to use. When any EFL teacher wishes to have a lesson
there, they come to me as coordinator, and I arrange things for them. True, I still often
have to come to school very early to turn on the computers, often to download things
teachers need for the lesson, and to distribute cards with useful URLs among the students.
But I can also see the definite shift towards more independence, at least on the part of
younger teachers.
3. Types of lessons for an EFL teacher. Gradually I worked out
several basic approaches, which I wrote up as a set of short lectures for teachers and
lesson plans for teachers and students. It is very important for me that this type of work
be recognized and widely known, since I know that any EFL teacher, and maybe teachers of
most subjects, has to overcome the same obstacles and walk along the same road. One of the
ways to publicize what you are doing is real lectures, which I have been doing in my area
for a number of years. Another way is to hold various teacher competitions. I took part in
many of those, national and international, and had many pieces published in various
newspapers, magazines, and books. The most accessible venue, and the fastest way to reach
many people at once, is, of course, the Internet. I publish at www.websib.ru in English and in Russian, at www.eun.org, www.iearn.org
, www.teachingenglish.org in English.
To sum up my ideas on the types of lessons for EFL teachers who wish to
use ICT in the classroom:
1) A regular lesson with material found on the Web at any of the
educational sites, to supplement a topic, or to find something very new for the theme.
Example: Instant Lessons at English To Go www.english-to-go.com
2) A lesson-search for information via a search engine, or with some
known URLs.
Example: Yahoo! Search at www.yahoo.com , Yandex
at www.yandex.ru
3) Preparation for a report or a discussion lesson.
Example:
World Wide Words at www.worldwidewords.org
4) E-mail lesson, exchange of information with students from other
countries.
Help to be found at International Education and Resource Network site www.iearn.org
5) Project work.
Here, the examples are numerous. Our own work can be seen at Lyceum № 130 site under the
heading Projects www.sch130.nsc.ru
6) Creation of sites.
We integrated a recent project called “Climate Change” into our
current topic Environment, created a site which can be seen on the school homepage now,
and submitted our work for an international competition held by Science Across the World www.scienceacross.org .
These categories are not final, nor are they a must. Naturally, all of them require some
additional work on the teacher’s part; but all of them can easily become part of the
regular curriculum if the teachers so wishes.
4. Perhaps one of the biggest problems is overcoming the
barrier inside yourself. Time and again, I hear teachers complain that ICT and Internet
are harmful because students start browsing the Web at will, find some “indecent”
sites, and play games, etc.
It is my firm belief that this may happen only if the teacher does not know why ICT is
necessary for, say, a lesson of English, because until now they have done fine without
ICT. So the teacher consciously or subconsciously undermines the desire to use the Web in
the classroom.
Students will be students. Some wish to obtain the new knowledge, others will always try
to play truant. We have to accept the good, the bad and the ugly, and try to do what we
can. If students are trained and understand that ICT is a tool, a source of knowledge,
they will listen to the teacher and follow the steps suggested by the adult educator. If
they don’t wish to learn…well, we have all seen a sleeping student in the back of our
classrooms, right? It does not matter to such a student whether there are computers around
them or not, they will sleep or daydream anywhere. I believe that one of the problems is
the usual one, that of lack of discipline in the classroom. My own experience shows that
if I, the teacher, know what I am doing at the lesson, if I understand why we need to do
it, and if I manage to explain all this to my students, there are no problems with
discipline. This is another theme which I am often asked to talk about at my lectures and
seminars.
5. Open Lessons are familiar to any Russian teacher. When I tell
my colleagues about them, they are often astonished. Isn’t it too strenuous, too hard
for teachers and students? It is difficult to answer these questions because Open Lessons
have always been a part of our life. I conducted a new series of Open Lessons for the city
teachers on October 21, 2003. Once a week, I have my lessons of English with four classes
in the Internet-classroom. I showed my visitors how such a lesson becomes part of the
regular school routine. Students exhibited several English To Go lessons, explained how
the tasks were done, how the feedback could be achieved during the next lesson in a
regular classroom. Afterwards I conducted a seminar for the teachers, showing them various
educational sites, explaining in detail how to integrate these types of work into our
daily school life. The most important questions were how and why are such lessons
necessary. The teachers saw for themselves that the latest information can be found on the
Web very quickly, that a student may use a Web dictionary when needed, and generally find
help easily. My colleagues loved our new project which we have just finished.
6. Money is always a problem. In Russia, teachers are not paid
regularly, there are constant delays, and the existing salaries are far below the official
living minimum. There are few young teachers now, and it is hard to motivate teachers:
they are not paid for their regular work, so why should they learn to do anything extra?
Until the situation changes, it is impossible to effect any real changes. Though many
schools in Russia now have computers and Web access, very often the new technology is not
used. I have heard stories of computers simply sitting in a dark room under lock and key,
because there is nobody in the school who knows how to use them, and who is willing to do
extra work. During this school year I have done a whole new course of lectures for the
district EFL teachers. They were very enthusiastic and a few even took part in Europe Day
under my guidance. But they said to me that they see no opportunity to continue doing
anything like this once they return to their own schools in the area.
Still, I believe in what I am doing, and I am willing to share my findings with all the
teachers of the world.
How to Measure
Advanced Level Student Success
In this article, we’ll be looking at how to measure advanced level
student progress. We’ll be faced with the dual problem of (a) teacher’s assessment of
students abilities, (b) student self-assessment. While all of us are well aware that we
are constantly dealing with mixed ability classes, we are also occasionally faced with
that mixed blessing, a class which at least looks, if not exactly is, a one level class.
We’ll try to offer some new insights into using the traditional four skills as a tool
for measuring student progress, and to provide a few suggestions for future work.
Teacher Assessment of Student Abilities
Student Self-assessment
Reading Skills
Writing Skills
Listening Skills
Speaking Skills
Teacher Assessment of Student Abilities
When you are faced with the fact that one of your classes produces very
good grammar and reading test results, writes letters and essays with few mistakes,
achieves outstanding results in listening comprehension, and has no problems communicating
with a native speaker, you are in effect faced with the need to help your students realize
how good they have become, under your expert guidance. As a teacher, you should also look
for some tactful ways to let them see for themselves that one or two of their number are
actually much better than all the others, even if it seems to them that they are all at
the same level.
Surprisingly, many students tend to underestimate themselves. Without
your help, they cannot be sure how good, or how bad, they are. Even those who consistently
get top marks in every task still need some reassurance and/or confirmation. Naturally,
there are some weaker students who have a rather high opinion of themselves. With them,
your tact is a must: you want to show them that there is still room for improvement,
without decreasing their desire to improve whatever aspect it is they are slightly weaker
at than their classmates.
Advanced level presupposes the ability to cope with FCE exams, or an
equivalent. There are many types of reading tasks to choose from, to be found in any FCE
textbook. I would suggest that for an assessment lesson, you choose a combined task, e.g.
fill in the gaps and put the word(s) into the necessary form, e.g. change the tense of a
verb, or form an adjective from a noun, etc.
If your students feel confident when writing an essay or a letter,
suggest a more complicated writing task. A typical extract from a letter which requires a
reply may have some hidden points, like a certain number of veiled questions and requests
for information which have all to be mentioned in the reply. They may have to write
the same number of sentences, or twice the number of sentences as there is in the original
letter, or just write a set number of words. Be sure to tell them that spelling mistakes
will count as mistakes (sometimes, we disregard those when doing a grammar test).
Take any FCE tape and play the part with multiple choice questions.
Besides being a listening comprehension test proper, this task allows you to check their
ability to scan a text, and to think logically in English.
Have cards ready, with the titles of the main topics you have prepared
and discussed with your class. Explain the two basic rules:
1) one cannot refuse to talk on a topic, or ask to change it;
2) the phrase, “I don’t know”, cannot be accepted.
Before you distribute the tasks, be sure to do the following:
a) Each task should have a set number of points, e.g. 20 gaps and 25
words in reading (20 points), 25 points for Writing (5 hidden questions, and twenty points
if there are no spelling mistakes…19 if there is one…and so on). Listening
comprehension usually includes 8–10 dialogues. For speaking, you may wish to use this
simple Evaluation Chart:
Grammar |
Relevance to Topic |
Fluency |
Use of Link Words |
Pronunciation |
b) Explain to your students what they are going to do.
c) Set a time limit for each task, and for all the tasks together, e.g. two periods of 45
minutes total.
d) Trust your students: let them count the points themselves, then compare the results
among the classmates.
A Few Suggestions for Future Work
My experience shows that if you do this type of lesson(s) once, you
will have to do it again. Those who considered themselves very good in speaking may
discover that they do, in fact, tend to panic and say: “I don’t know!”, when they
have to produce an impromptu speech; those who write well may forget all about the hidden
questions. It may be wise to start collecting materials, and to change the format of each
test lesson slightly, so that instead of, say, Filling in the Gaps they get “that boring
grammar again” in reading, and instead of the standard dialogues with A, B or C, they
will have to fill some gaps. Offer your advanced students some really challenging tasks.
Remember: if you do not try, you do not succeed.
By Nina M. Koptyug,
Lyceum No. 130,
Novosibirsk
|