Information Technology in English Teaching

Li Yanhui
Jilin Institute of Chemical Technology Int'l Conference on Information Systems and Management (2010) Special Session within MASS Jilin City, China liuxingjiang@sohu.com
AbstractModern information technology can not only show the teaching content vividly, enlarge students' horizons, broaden students' views through the combination of audio and sound, appropriate forms of expression but also activate classroom atmosphere greatly, enrich the teaching content, stimulate students' interest and thirst for knowledge, strengthen students' ability of autonomous learning, understanding etc. Therefore the application of information technology in English teaching has become the hotspot in English education. This paper mainly expounds the concept, strategies and advantages of application of information technology in English teaching. The application can promote teaching reform. Keywords-information technology; constructivism; English teaching

I. INTRODUCTION The basic concept of information technology can be explained from three levels: in a broader sense, information technology is a variety of methods which can make full use and expand the functions of human organs and combination of tools and skills; with respect to a less broad sense, information technology refers to a sum of sills like information collection, transmission, processing, and expression; considering its narrow sense, information technology is a combination of skills using hardware and software devices as computer, network and scientific methods to acquire, process, preserve, transmit and use all kinds of information as image & word processing etc.. Information technology has two connotations: one of them is means, which is all kinds of information media such as print media, electronic media, and computer network etc. It is a materialized form of technology; another is approach, which is using information media to collect, process, store, communicate and apply a variety of information. It is an intelligent form of technology. Information technology is composed of two important elements which are information media and application methods of information media. II. THE NECESSITY OF APPLYING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO ENGLISH TEACHING
Faced with the development of information technology, English teaching can mainly be reformed from the following six aspects: (1) To change the traditional teaching concept.

English teaching should be transformed from a passive form of teaching students knowledge into an active form of developing their independent learning. (2) To change the traditional concept of teachers. The teacher's role should be changed from a central knowledge instructor, initiator to a director, facilitator who can guide and help students build meanings voluntarily. (3) To change the traditional concept of students. Students should turn from passive recipients to active participants, being knowledge explorers and main part of meaning building. (4) To change the traditional concept of teaching media. The previous instructional media are used by teachers for classroom aids which should be transformed into the cognitive tools helping students learn, both as objects of perception and means of cognition. (5) To change the traditional teaching methods. Teaching methods should be changed from simple inductive or deductive explanations to comprehensive application of a variety of new teaching methods based on cooperative learning, active learning, collaborative exploration and meaning construction etc. (6) To make the teaching means more variable. Students learn a language to communicate, from which perspective teachers should make what they learn in class be used in real life. The purpose of English teaching is to train students creativity and the ability of using the target language to communicate on purpose. As a communicative tool, only through the communicative activities and fun classroom activities can English be better grasped by students. Specifically, this requires not only the teaching materials to be close to real life but also teachers to use the materials in a communicative and creative way. Teachers should also create a good environment to encourage students to study and reflect in English. To reform English teaching, it is essential for us to use digitalized English teaching; we have no reason not to rely on modern information technology, particularly the technology with the computer as the core of the multimedia. Thus, the only way is to integrate English teaching reform with modern information technology. III. THE EFFECTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON ENGLISH
TEACHING

3.1 To facilitate the transfer of knowledge and information among the instructors and the learners.

978-1-4244-5326-9/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

(1) Teachers impart knowledge to students for two purposes: to teach the book content; to make students to learn effectively. (2) In the face of teaching information, students must have two reactions: shift the knowledge understood to selfimprovement; constitute a response. In the modern classroom teaching, using modern teaching media which can put teaching materials like images, sounds, texts together, teachers can provide students with a variety of incentives to enable students to obtain a variety of audio-visual and other sensory channels of information, increasing the teaching capacity and fully mobilizing the students enthusiasm, initiative and creativity. (3) The interaction of information technology enables students to choose their own learning content and arrange the learning process to solve practical problems according to their abilities, interests. It can not only guide the students to participate in knowledge formation process actively and play the main role, making different levels of students reap the benefits, but also give students more interaction, assessment opportunities, thus promoting students to dare to express their opinions, changing the passive learning to active participation and practical operation which will help students develop independent thinking and multi-directional thinking quality. (4) From the educational and scientific perspective, the information necessary for modern society has been far beyond the limits of personal knowledge available. Students learn not only textbooks, the carrier of information but also sounds, images, etc. a wide range of information cited as teaching content. This innovation will greatly expand the students knowledge. For students, textbooks are no longer the only channel of knowledge transfer. The teaching resources combined with a variety of media have entered the classroom and students cognitive system. Under the guidance of teachers, students can dip into more disciplines, and learn the latest knowledge of various subjects through the Internet to improve the students adaptability to society. (5) From the perspective of teaching theory, as students are not interested in textbooks and being taught in the traditional spoon-feeding teaching mode, students motivation to learn are often restrained. In multimedia learning, students are the learning subjects whose acceptability is the direct embodiment of teaching effect. By using multimedia teaching, teachers can turn a pure preaching into an appreciation of scenarios. It is an enlightening, multi-level teaching method, which can present knowledge, demonstration exercises in an audio-visual and graphic way. This heuristic teaching is bound to mobilize their enthusiasm to participate in the teaching process. As what students learn in the classroom can not satisfy their curiosity, teachers can guide them to search the Internet to learn further and communicate with teachers making their learning personalize. In this way, students have become full active learners and the learning effect is self-evident. In short, through the use of information technology, the teaching concept is updated and students learning initiative is enhanced. 3.2 To be helpful to regulate students attention in the classroom teaching.

To improve memory attention is an import psychological condition for students to master knowledge. Excellent attention quality is the guarantee of students acquiring knowledge. At the beginning of class, students are often easier to disperse the attention, with a strong emotional color, if a teacher can choose and produce audio-visual materials carefully and use concrete images to arouse students interest and questions, students attention can be attracted. In the teaching process, when encountering difficulties or relatively abstract problems, students often feel boring so as to lose their attention. At this time, if teachers can adopt a variety of audio-visual means which can have sensory effects on the students, they can make the abstract, boring materials concrete and effective, thus preventing students from losing attention, serving to focus students attention on what they are learning. 3.3 To contribute to the optimization of English teaching (1) The meaning of the educational process optimization is: under given conditions and at the same time, students are enabled to learn more, faster, better, more people being educated. (2) There are two optimization criteria: maximum effective awareness; minimum time. In a limited period, if teachers want students to learn more and updated knowledge, without increasing the burden of students, they can only rely on modern teaching methods. 3.4 To be conducive to conduct research learning in English teaching Research study means, under the guidance of teachers, students themselves select and identify research topics or projects then collect, analyze selected information and apply knowledge to solve practical problems. It requires the educators to let students explore knowledge by themselves, so that they can gain the first-hand knowledge and develop their capacity in practice. Research study is essentially a new understanding of education, which requires teachers to fully mobilize and protect students spirits of self-exploration, desire of seeking knowledge and passion, which are students lifelong driving force of learning. Therefore, the concept of research study should be carried out throughout the teaching process and penetrate any aspect of students learning. The basic core is to advocate students subject spirit of research and promote the basic education to be based on students autonomy, collaboration, creativity to create conditions to promote quality education. The facilitation of information technology to research study is mainly reflected in the following three areas: (1) Information technology provides theoretical guidance and technical methods to the development and utilization of research study, an independent, open, inquiry-based learning activity carried out in the broader context of educational resources. It is of great importance to develop and use libraries, laboratories, multimedia electronic classrooms, campus network, the Internet, teachers and other internal and external educational resources to create conditions for research study. (2) Information technology provides information-based and open learning environment and resources to research study. With the rapid development of science and technology, learning resources are developing and enriching from the text

materials, audio-visual materials, multimedia courseware and resource pools to the Internet resulting in learning breakthroughs in space and time, from the limited classroom teaching and learning activities to free option at any time, at any place. (3) Information technology provides theoretical guidance and evaluation tools to research study evaluation. Research is a means of completing the training objectives and methods not the ultimate purpose, through which students are enabled to experience the process of inquiry personally, obtaining feelings and experience, accumulating knowledge and methods to foster the innovation capability. In the research study, what matters is whether students have got a sense of inquiry, whether they were involved in the inquiry process, whether it was a positive experience, whether they have learned some ways of understanding the world. The evaluation and the guidance to the students should be combined closely to encourage students to display their strengths and talents, learn to respect and appreciate others. Students are also encouraged to go out of the classroom and carry out social investigations and studies actively. Modern information technology provides procedural memory and evaluation tools to research study. Students can take advantage of computer multimedia technology to work up research results into the multi-media courseware and exchange

with other student online facilitating teachers and students evaluation. IV. CONCLUSION With the development of education informatization, it will undoubtedly become a dominating teaching approach in the information age. Therefore advocating and exploring information technology and curriculum integration are of great significance for cultivating students' information attainment, developing students' innovation ability and practicing their lifelong learning habit in the current background of education modernization. REFERENCES
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