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PROMOTING THE ATONOMUS LEARNING BY THE USE OF ICT IN THE ENGLISH CLASSES

UNIVERSIDAD DE LA SALLE

ANDREA MARCELA CARDENAS NIO

CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACION

LICENCIATURA EN LENGUA CASTELLANA INGLES Y FRANCES

BOGOTA D.C

10 MAYO DE 2016
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In a globalized world, technologies are immersed in all the aspects of life; in jobs, politics, economy and

education everybody use them to communicate or transmit information. These new technologies such as

computers, tablets, software, videogames and platforms have been some important tools in the process of

teaching and learning in educational environment especially in English learning process. If English teachers use

ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in their classes, the students will be motivated to use new

technologies resources not only at school but also at home promoting the autonomous learning.

Having access to technology is easier than in the past. Most of people have the possibility to use a computer in

their homes, at school or in the university and with the aid of internet; many people can obtain lots of

information about a topic of their preferences. That is why technology is the bridge that people have for

accessing to educational information. In that sense, (Semenov et al., 2005) says ICT make natural tools in

education because of the simple and fundamental fact that learning is largely based on dealing with

information. Listening, talking, reading, writing, reassuring, evaluating, synthesizing and analyzing, solving

mathematical problems, and memorizing verses and state capitals, are all examples of off-computer information

processing. (p.90)

On the other hand, as the ICT deal with all skills that belong to a language learning process it is so

important that teachers specially English ones, use all possible technology resources in their classes and

motivate the students to use them at home by internet, TV, cellphones (for people who apply), with all

information that makes the process of learning a second language easier. It is mandatory for teachers showing a

view of possibilities for their students and include those virtual classes for making a real contact with the

second language. In terms of being conscious about the use of ICT, every classroom teacher has a responsibility

to learn to make effective use of the ICT tools that his or her students are learning to use. Moreover, the

classroom teacher has a responsibility to be able to assist his or her students in gaining increased ICT

knowledge and skills, especially in areas that relate to the curriculum the teacher is teaching. (Moursund, 2005,

p.4)

As the student is motivated by the teacher and sees other way to study English he is going to have clear

that theoretical classes are gone and the practical classes are not only at school, creating the necessary

environment in the house or in a place where there is access to technology and use all information that as in the
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initial part is mentioned has all skills ( listening, speaking, writing and reading) necessaries to learn a language

in a full filed way. Also, the student can access to cultural information about the English speakers countries,

listen people form those countries, make activities online, play games related to the topics seen in class and

complement their English learning process; as a sample of this ( Karampelas, Karvounidis, Economidou y Mantikou,

2013) in the research of Tian (2012) have pointed out basic abilities of autonomous learners. First, autonomous

learners are motivated and confident. Second, their learning is focused on duties, which may relate to school curriculum

subject or to the accomplishment of a project. Third, they can collect, evaluate information, and present their

knowledge they have constructed. All these abilities can be helped by ICT, through searching on the Web and gathering,

analyzing, presenting and disseminating information. These basic abilities are going to be the main axis of this study. The

central idea is to investigate how ICT can assist in the development of these abilities in a particular context.

For Concluding this essay, it is important to rescue that language teacher have a world of possibilities to make

their classes interesting and fun and the use of ICT is a key to engage them with a foreign country, also, it is important

to include in the classes not only grammar or focus in one of the abilities but also in Cultural aspects to show the

students all the cultures, behaviors and aspects that are around a language that they can discover first thanks to ICT but

later in personal way

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REFERENCES

Alexey Semenov, M. I. (2005). INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION. 30-63.

Karampelas, K. E. (2013). ICT AS FOUNDATION FOR AUTONOMOUS LEARNING IN. 134.

Moursund, D. (2005). Introduction to Information and. Communication Technology