The Role of modern Technology in

English Language Teaching (ELT)

Course: Fundamentos de la Lingüística Aplicada a la Enseñanza Inglesa

Author: Dolores Medina Ruiz
INDEX:

1. Literature review......................................................................................................................3
1.1 Definition of Second foreign language...............................................................................3
1.2 The presence of technology in the study of a foreign language.........................................3
1.3 The different alternatives we can find in modern technology in classroom.......................4
1.3.1 Social Networks...........................................................................................................4
1.3.2. Chats and e-mails.......................................................................................................4
1.3.3. Blogs, Podcasts and collaborative work tools.............................................................4
1.4 Advantages of modern technology in TEFL........................................................................5
1.5. Hypothesis.........................................................................................................................6
3. Procedure for Collecting Data..................................................................................................6
3.1 Description of the participants...........................................................................................7
3.2. Type of Statistical Analysis to be Used..............................................................................8
3. Results......................................................................................................................................9
3.1. Use of technology in classroom.........................................................................................9
3.2. Skills that are improved thanks to the use of new technologies in classroom..................9
3.3. Level of participants in each skill.......................................................................................9
Biblography................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The use of new technologies has been increasing day by day in class. They give a totally
different approach to teaching English due to its different and numerous alternatives. In
addition, every day, there are more and more students who are in favor of learning a
language in this way. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how effective can be
modern technology in English Language Teaching. To carry out this research we will
use different research tools, both secondary and primary sources, and relying on
qualitative and quantitative data that will allow us to reach a conclusion, since despite
the fact that different studies have been carried out over these years and we have access
to much information. It is curious to carry out our own evidence. In this way, we can
reach to the thesis that interaction with modern technology in class leads to a better
learning of English.

1. Literature review

1.1 Definition of Second foreign language

At nation level, second foreign language refers to the language that belongs to the
educational field and that is not recognized as an official language in the country.
Individually speaking, if a child acquires his mother tongue and then, he acquires
another language, this language is called L2 (second language) or FL (foreign
language). (Manga, 2008).
We will differentiate between second language and foreign language given that they are
not the same thing. The first one is spoken in the country although it is not considered a
mother tongue and the second one is a language that does not have any role in the
community where it is spoken. An example of foreign language would be an Italian
speaking English. (Carmen Muñoz, 2002).

1.2 The presence of technology in the study of a foreign language

As we already know, English is one of the most important languages in the world, and
every day, more and more educators are needed in order to teach the language to
students. Most teachers stick to teaching the old way. However, there are others who are
open to new options and choose to make use of technology. (Parvin & Salam, 2015).
Consistent with Warschauer (2000), technology has always been present in every
language teaching situation. For example, language teachers who make use of the
grammar translation method (in which grammar was explained by the teacher and
students translate it) used the blackboard. Years later, the overhead projector substituted
the blackboard. Afterwards, in the 1900s, university students studied in audio labs,
where they had to perform the repetition of drills. (Warschauer, 2000).

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It is clear that the use of modern technology as for example internet has been increasing
through the years and its tools will be very useful in terms of education. (Islam, 2011).
Eaton (2010) supports this view by saying that nowadays learning a language doesn’t
consist of for example memorizing grammar, but establishing communication with
other people around the world with the use of technology. In addition, there are many
virtual environments that help students to improve the language skills of listening,
speaking, reading and writing and which make students enjoy these learning tasks.

1.3 The different alternatives we can find in modern technology in classroom

Modern technologies allow people to learn a language with the use of different
alternatives as for example social networks, videos, chatrooms, webs where you can
share your work with other people (e.g., Google Drive, DropBox, Wettransfer…) and so
on. These options provide us with useful knowledge and the use of these gave us the
chance of learning how to choose the information that is more relevant to us and being
judgmental with all the information that is available.

1.3.1 Social Networks

Nowadays, social networks are used by people of all ages and that is the reason of why
they are very useful in language learning, since they arouse a lot of interest in people. It
is a reality that every day schools make use of social networks with students. There are
many examples of teachers who create accounts for the subjects they teach in social
networks such as Instagram. In this way there is a virtual relationship between the
teacher and the students and it is more entertaining to access knowledge.

1.3.2. Chats and e-mails

Chat rooms and emails are very useful for people who want to communicate with native
people. These current means of communication are very beneficial for learning a
language since thanks to them it can be improved different skills such as speaking,
reading, writing and listening. An example of this is Omegle. It is a is a free chat room
where you can communicate with all people around the world. This website has a chat
and a microphone through which you can write and speak to native speakers of the
language, and at the same time, you can also listen to them and read what they write to
you. In this way, the learner could improve all the skills mentioned before.

1.3.3. Blogs, Podcasts and collaborative work tools

First of all, blogs allow an interaction between the teacher and the student. In blogs,
both students and the teacher can create content and this content can be read by both the

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student and the teacher. It also allows feedback from the teacher as well. Secondly,
there are podcasts. This tool allows students and teachers to upload audios of
themselves and be listened by others. The skills of listening and speaking can be
improved with the use of these tools.
Finally, there are the collaborative work tools, with these tools both students and
teachers can share their documents, videos, audios and so on. Some examples of these
are Google Drive, Wettransfer and so on. With the use of these tools the student
improves his autonomy rather than his skills.
1.3.4 Media sources
There are also a great source of knowledge. Media sources as for example, YouTube
allow students to have a more entertaining way of learning the language in class. The
projection of videos in class is very interesting since it is a way to break with the
traditional teaching method. In addition, today the youngest are used to make use of this
type of sources and for them it is very familiar.
1.4 Advantages of modern technology in TEFL
Learning a language with technology in classroom has led to several positive points.
Generally, some of the most important benefits according to Jarmila Robová (2013) are:

Recovered from https://www.sciencedirect.com/

Furthermore, when investigating more in the benefits of modern technology in TEFL,
we find very interesting points:
According to Karisiddappa (2002), Internet encourages students in having more
knowledge, in learning and in having more social interaction. This is supported by
Warschauer (2000) who establishes that we can integrate technology by differentiating
between two perspectives: the cognitive approach and the socio-cognitive approach. In
the cognitive approach students construct their own language knowledge by interacting
with substantial knowledge of the language. Some examples of these technologies are
the text-reconstruction software or multimedia. In the socio-cognitive approach,
language is learnt by social interaction with other people around the world. Thus,
students are given the chance of interacting with other people and practicing the
language.
Zhao (2010) noted that when learning a language, one of the most important elements is
pronunciation, and he agrees with the idea that sometimes is complicated to provide an
effective feedback because there can be the situation that the teacher is not good at
evaluating the student’s way of pronouncing. A way to provide feedback is making
students repeat the pronunciation of a word, however, with the help of technology, the
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students can get useful feedback given that there are many programs that helps students
in terms of phonetics and phonology. Interactive resources during class can function as
an instructional support.

1.5. Hypothesis
H1: The use of modern technologies in classroom improves English level of students in
TELF. When we talk about level, we also include skills such as speaking, listening,
reading and writing.
2. Description of the Variables to be Controlled
According to the variables to be controlled in this experiment, we first have an
independent variable, which in this case would be technology in classroom; the
dependent variable would be the group of participants who interact with technology in
class (experimental group), and the independent variable would be the group of
participants who don’t interact with technology in class (control group).
3. Procedure for Collecting Data

- Secondary information research

In the first place, we decided to carry out a global investigation through the internet
tool. We have found different theories already presented. However, we must investigate
to obtain more conclusive data. These theories will allow us to get an idea of the
possible final results, but it is necessary to carry out an investigation to reach to stronger
premises about the hypothesis that we have set out.
- Primary information research

Quantitative study
On the other hand, a questionnaire has been carried out with a number of 25 subjects of
the same age and that belong to the same school year. In the questionnaire, we have
formulated different questions: if they like to learn English, if they make use of
technology out of class, in which skills do they think they have the highest level, if they
make use of technology in classroom and finally, participants who answer yes to the last
question will be asked what abilities they think they improve with the use of
technology. After asking who uses technology and who doesn’t, we are going to
differentiate between a control group that doesn’t make use technology and an
experimental group that makes use of technology. Once the questionnaires have been
completed, we will be able to extract numerical data from these questions and reach a
conclusion also with the help of the qualitative study.
Qualitative study
We will also carry out a qualitative study through a group dynamic that will consist of
testing the level of each of the participants based on the different skills (speaking,
listening, reading, and writing). In this way, we will be able to know if the abilities
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developed correspond to the abilities that the participants believe they develop with the
use of new technologies. We will contrast the data collected in the quantitative study
with the data from the qualitative study.
We will initially distribute a sheet which instructions in English that individuals must
understand. The idea is to have a debate and answer about ten questions about a video
that we will reproduce and that will be the main topic, in our case COVID-19. They will
also have some texts from which they can get ideas and then individually they will have
to develop their ideas and comment on them. By doing this study, it will be known if
they really have the abilities that they have previously answered in the questionnaire.
3.1 Description of the participants
First of all, according to the age of the participants, all of them are around 15-16 years
old and they are Spanish. Therefore, the school year they take is secondary school and
they study language at high school as a foreign language. The group is quite
homogeneous, they all belong to the middle class.
Regarding the participants who are interested in learning English, we find that 60% of
the participants are interested in learning English while 40% of them not.
Graph 1: Degree of interest in learning English of each subject

Source: self-made

Taking into consideration the participants who make or don’t make use of technology
outside class, we find that 85% of them use it, 10% of them use it sometimes and 5% of
them never make use of technology outside class.
Graph 1: Use of technology outside class of each subject

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 Source: self-made
3.2. Type of Statistical Analysis to be Used
Since we want to measure the degree of level in each of the competences, we will use
factor analysis. In factor analysis we examine the relationships of the variables to figure
out the independent scales that are in the data. (González, 2005).
In our case, the main independent variable is technology. This allows us to check if the
elements of the language test really measure the competences. We wanted to use a
technique that is carried out with a program through a computer, specially we are
talking about SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences).
As in our case, we have decided that after the quantitative analysis we will select 10
people for a level test. This program will allow us to make an organization in
descending order of those individuals who have a higher level. We will carry out the
following test on these individuals. In this way we will narrow down the sample. It has
been decided that those individuals who are proficient in 3 or more skills will stand out
the most. If, on the other hand, there are no participants who meet this requirement, we
will choose those who at least meet 2 skills. Therefore, we will recode as follows:
Number of abilities ≥ 3 or number of abilities ≥ 2, or what is the same: 2 ≤ x ≥ 3.
We will also check that if the ANOVA assumptions are met, in other words, the effect
of the level of English considering the different skills due to the influence of a factor, in
this case technology.

Recovered from: http://www.ub.edu/

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This is true, since the performance of each one of the participants is independent, the
population or sample chosen is normal, it does not present great alterations and the
variance is common.
To carry out this analysis we will consider that the confidence interval is 95% and it will
be necessary for the program to calculate data such as the mean, the standard deviation,
and the standard error. The second step will be to carry out a test of homogeneity of
variances and finally we will obtain the ANOVA hypothesis.
After doing this, we obtain a p-value of 0.03 which is lower than the significance level
(0.05). Therefore, this method shows us that, if there is a direct relationship between one
factor, which in this case is technology, and the performance of the individuals in
English.

3. Results

3.1. Use of technology in classroom

According to the data obtained by the questionnaire, most of the participants make use
of technology in class. On the other hand, eight of them do not make frequent use of
technology in class.

3.2. Skills that are improved thanks to the use of new technologies in classroom
Taking into account the abilities that are improved by the use of new technologies. 30%
of the participants thinks that listening ability is the one that is most reinforced, 25% of
the participants think that speaking is the one that is improved the most, 25% think that
writing is improved and 20% reading. Therefore, it’s clear that there is a compensated
level of skills that are improved with the use of technology in class.

3.3. Level of participants in each skill

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 The results obtained through the questionnaire have been the following:
Table 1.

Source: self-made

3.3 Results from the dynamic group

On the one hand, we can see that after realizing the qualitative study, many results
of the control group did not coincide with those obtained in the quantitative study.
Most of the people who were not exposed to technology in class only had high
levels in reading and writing skills (which are more reinforced in traditional class).
However, the experimental group (students who were exposed to technology)
presented a compensated level in all the different abilities (as they answered in the
questionnaire).
On the other hand, we see that some of the people who were not exposed to
technology in class, but still made use of it outside the academic field, presented a
higher level than the participants who didn’t use technology for any academic
purpose. This shows that technology has a great influence on the enhancement of
skills. In addition, although the control group presented higher levels on reading and
writing skills with respect the others. The experimental group still got better results
in those skills.

4. Discussions and Comments

In order to finish this research project, we will carry out a critical analysis of the results
obtained taking into account the theories previously proposed to support our hypothesis.
The hypothesis previously proposed was that use of modern technologies in classroom

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improves English level of students in TELF. When we talk about level, we also include
skills such as speaking, listening, reading and writing.
From the beginning we established that the different technologies in the classroom
helped students improves all their language skills and the results have shown that this is
he case. The fact that students who were exposed to new technologies in class
(experimental group) performed much better than students who were not (control group)
together with the theories previously exposed, give us the clue that the use of new
technologies in class leads to success.
On the one hand, according to what Warschauer (2000) states, technologies have always
been present in the academic field, and this gives us the idea that they will always be
necessary together with traditional teaching, which can be said that it is just as
important as technology in classrooms. The different technologies alternatives proposed
together with the traditional teaching method make students successful in learning
English and this is demonstrated in the results obtained. On the one hand, social
networks, chat and e-mails create a great interest among the youngest and make students
have funnier interaction with English and they also make learning a language easier. On
the other hand, another alternative as for example podcasts increase the level of
listening and speaking skills, which with the traditional teaching method are not so
reinforced.
Furthermore, Robová’s statement (2013) together with the students’ opinion regarding
technology in class, leads us to the conclusion that the use of these technologies makes
students have a higher degree of motivation and makes them more self-sufficient in
class so they do not depend so much on the teachers.
In addition, after the results of the studies we also agree with Karisiddappa (2002), that
states that new technologies encourage students in having more knowledge about the
language. This is also supported by Warschauer (2000) that establishes that we can
integrate technology by differentiating between two perspectives: the cognitive
approach and the socio-cognitive approach. In the cognitive approach students interact
with substantial knowledge of the language. An example of these technologies is
YouTube, previously mentioned before. In the socio-cognitive approach, language is
learnt by social interaction with other people around the world. An example of this
technology would be Omegle, also mentioned before.
The only thing that is pending after having reached these conclusions is that teachers
know how to integrate technology into their classes. This is their responsibility. They
are the ones who have to take into account the different advantages they have and how
to use them in favor of students. On the other hand, it is also important that technology
reaches all the audiences, but that is already the responsibility of greater forces.
5. Conclusions
The goal of this research was to show that the use of new technologies in class lead to
an improvement in the English level of students, and the results obtained have reflected
that this is the case. There are a lot of alternatives within technology, like those
previously mentioned. The only thing left is that the students make more use of them
day by day. It is clear that there may be disadvantages such as the loss of direct contact

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with a teacher in learning a language, but we faithfully believe that there are many more
advantages than disadvantages.
In conclusion, we believe that new technologies improve the level of English of students
and they look surer of themselves in the different abilities that exist in a language. In
addition, it’s clear that every day there will be more teachers that will make use of
technology in class.

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