TEACHING ENGLISH THROUGH COMPUTER
(UAS OF ICT SUBJECT)
Introduction
The first language you learn to speak is called your native language. As a baby, you listened to your parents or other people speaking and then imitated the sounds you heard. Babies seem to be born with an ability to learn the language they hear. Native speakers learn as children to use the right words and arrange them in the right order without even thinking about it. If English is your native language, you will know automatically that “ I going bed “ is wrong, but I am going to bed is right.
When you learn a second language, you have to memorize its words and learn its rules. That is why learning a second language can be difficult and it sometimes makes us frustrated. Realizing the fact, many people try to use many ways in learning English as a second language to make learning of it become easier and more joyful. One of them is by utilizing a computer as a medium which can help us learn English effectively or what we usually call it as Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). One of the advantages of teaching English using computer is that we can learn more than the language itself, but we will be given a chance to know more about that language. There are many models of teaching English using CALL that can applied in teaching learning process such as: the audio-lingual model, the cognitive-code model, and the humanistic model.
What is Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL)?
Computer Assisted Language Learning may be defined as “the search and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning” (Levy, 1997:1). Furthermore, Egbert (2005:4) says CALL means learners learning language in any context with, through, and around computer technologies.
From those definitions we know that the first definition prioritizes “application of computer” in its information structure, whereas the second definition not only prioritizes “learners learning language” but also broadens the potential types of relationships between computer technologies and language learning.
The role of technology in CALL can be thought of in terms of the metaphors of tutor, tool, and medium. In the tutor role, computers can provide instruction, feedback, and testing in grammar, vocabulary, writing, pronunciation, and other dimensions of language and culture learning. Voice interactive CALL can also stimulate communicative interaction. In the tool role, computers provide ready access to written audio and visual materials relevant to the language and culture being studied. They also provide reference tools such as online dictionaries, grammar and style checkers, and concordances for corpus analysis. The internet and databases can serve as tools for research. In medium role, a computer provides sites for international communication, multimedia publication, distance learning community participation, and identity formation.
What is the Best Way of Learning about CALL?
At the simplest level, one could get by with pre-packaged software, where, ideally, the only knowledge required would be that of turning the computer on and then loading the program. It is still the case that some degree of computer literacy is a considerable advantage. The alternatives open to the language teacher are the following:
1. Not to learn, to program, and to rely on high-quality software;
2. To learn simple programming means to be able to adapt and tinker with existing software-to improve it, to tailor it to local circumstances, or quite simply to make it work.
3. To learn an authoring language.
4. To reach semi-professional or professional programming standards.
But, not all teachers are computer literate or have limited computer expertise. The two solutions for overcoming these problems are:
First, employing specialist programmers to code according to language teaching specifications, in this way, the programs become non-trivial and integrally related to the teaching situation, while being attractive and not likely to crash every ten seconds or so.
Second, using an authoring language, that is a program which creates a program fairly simply which in turn can be used by learners.
Models of Language Teaching Using CALL
Relate to the software that is available in the field, there are many model of language teaching that can applied in the teaching learning process. Since the supply of programs available changes so rapidly, in this article the writer introduces five computer programs with their models of language teaching which can be used by an English teacher in teaching English to their students: Encarta, Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Hangman, Scrabble, and Longman Student.
1. The Audio-lingual Model
The audio-lingual model claims that language is learnt through the acquisition of association of stimulus and response; the aim of teaching is to get students are able to use structure, etc. automatically and unthinkingly in the appropriate situation. The techniques employed are usually drills in which students practice a particular, structural or lexical point until it becomes automatic, and exploitation activities which encourage transfer to less controlled situation. The prime belief of audio-lingual is that language is primarily speaking and listening, and that reading and writing are secondary skills that should be postponed as long as possible; the computer, however, depends almost totally on written language. For example, by using Encarta, not only can the students find the meaning of a word, but he or she can also hear how the word is pronounced. And by using Longman Student, the student can do listening exercises.
2. The Cognitive-code Model
The computer use of drills has in fact shaded over into another model, that of cognitive-code learning. For the advantage of the computer over the language is that it can analyze what the student writes, see if it conform to the expected answer and tell the students minimally if he is right or wrong, maximally the nature of his mistakes. Correction by the computer is only an advantage if we believe that the student learns by conscious awareness as in cognitive learning. If the student is encouraged to do exercises in Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, or Longman Student’s Dictionary, the computer will tell them if he is right or wrong. Some games in Encarta Kids, such as Word Scrabble and Spelling Bee can be useful for the student. Besides that, trying out Hangman and Scrabble can be a way for the student to exercise their English vocabularies.
3. The Humanistic Model
The other popular model of language teaching is the humanistic, a collective name covering the somewhat different of methods united by their emphasis on their value of second language learning to the individual’s own development, whether cognitive, emotional, social or whatever. The aim of humanistic teaching is not to relate the students to the use of language in the external world but to develop the internal world of his or her personality and mind. Computer puzzles and word games popular on computer, such as exercises in Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Word Scrabble, and Spelling Bee (Encarta Kids) can be useful for the students to develop the internal world of his or her personality and mind. Besides that, the students can also experience the exciting games of Hangman and Scrabble.
The Advantages of Computer in Organizing English Teaching and Learning
Looked at from the point of view of the teaching models and of language as information processing, the computer has certain strengths of handling the English teaching and learning. Four distinct advantages of the computer can be recognized:
1. Its capacity to control presentation.
Unlike a book, it can present fragments which add up to a whole; it can do so with any built-in time delay chosen by the students or selected for him. It can combine visual or graphic information with text; it can highlight features of text using color and movement. Potentially this is a great advantage over the linear fixed presentation of a book.
2. Its novelty and creativity
Oddly enough the computer is creative. Unlike any other classroom aid, it can vary the exercise each time. It is done and adapted its language to what the students produce, within certain limits.
3. Feedback
The computer is capable of analyzing what the student does and taking account of this in what it does next. One way of using this capability is through error correction; the student’s mistakes can be characterized and the appropriate advice given to him; or the computer may best its next move on an analysis of what the student types, whether in terms of increasing difficulty of the exercise, or of an answer in an exercise, or of altering the screen display.
4. Its adaptability
The first three advantages of the computer applied to the student, the last applies to the teacher. Unlike books or tapes, which are produced in a single uniform from publisher, computer programs can be adapted by the teachers to suit the needs of their students. A sophisticated way of doing this is for the teacher to master sufficient programming expertise to adapt the vocabulary, the level, the scoring scheme, or whatever of a program to his or her students.
Conclusion
To conclude, the writer has looked at a range of uses of the computer in language teaching and has shown how it is at present utilizing only some of the possibilities. Typical existing programs concentrate on a limited area of language and are incompatible with most contemporary teaching models. It is hoped that this article will on the one hand spur on those involved with the communicative and humanistic models to start thinking how computers might be useful to them, and on the other side it provokes those involved with computers to develop techniques to exploit the unused potential and to make them more usable by teachers. Without such a bridge, the use of computers in foreign language teaching will turn into a meaningless activity, providing programs that no one actually wants to use about aspects of language that few people consider important.
References
TESOL, Volume 34, Number 3, March 2000, p. 619-625
TESOL, Volume 40, Number 1, March 2006, p. 183-203
Skehan, Peter. (1999). English Language Learning. London: University of London.
