Synthesis Essay - Technology in English Language Teaching

Technology in ELT

            Nowadays, technology has reached its peak. It has been used in every part of daily life, science, and education. In education, it is very beneficial to use it correctly for complete learning. Most of students have every kind of ability to reach it through tools they have. Also, in universities, technology is started to be used to a great extent. It is also very beneficial to use technology in English Language Teaching department in terms of permanence of knowledge, attractiveness of lessons, and efficiency.

            First of all, with the help of technology, permanence of knowledge taught in the lesson would be enhanced. Tools like projectors provide students with more visual content which help them keep all the knowledge in mind. Additionally, some programs and virtual environments such as “Facebook”, “Wikipedia”, and “Edmodo” can help them reach whatever they want. “Technology integrated lessons will definitely enhance the permanence of the knowledge aimed to be taught during the lessons” says Priscilla Norton, the Learning Technologies Design Researcher in George Mason University. (Norton, 2013) This utterance lays the importance of technology in the permanence of knowledge in learning.

            Second, a classical classroom environment -with books, lecture, blackboard, and writing- cannot be very attractive for students. At this point, making lessons attractive by using technology is a pretty brilliant idea. Visual contents like videos, music, and photographs help teacher draw student’s attention and make lessons more beneficial for students. An attractive way in which all the students are interested is the most and the best way to teach. (Halverson, 2009) As Dr. Halverson said, it is the best way to educate people with a way which is more attractive and joyful for them. If a person is eager to learn, he or she will absolutely learn somehow. At this point, by using technology to make lessons attractive, it is easier to make them eager to learn.

            As the last aspect, the technology will improve the efficiency of lessons. With the help of technology, teachers can reach an incredible amount of information by only one click and transfer them to all their students. Some say that it is still possible without technology, by gathering information from books and encyclopedia. Conversely, all the books and encyclopedias are not accessible and teachers cannot reach them all. On the internet any teacher can easily reach any kind of source they want. Times have changed, teachers have evolved, and we now have a new breed of learning technologists. As a result, we have a efficient teaching with the evolved technology. (Peacock, 2013)

            All in all, usage of technology in ELT, and even all departments, has several positive effects that cannot be disregarded. Above, three of them are tried to be explained in a meticulous way. Apart from all these three aspects, this is a fact that there are a load of reasons to consider technology as a beneficial utility.