Using Technology to Enhance ESL Literacy

Introduction:

As one of English learners and a technology teacher assistant at King Abdul-Aziz

University (KAU) in Saudi Arabia at the same time, I had the experience to use the new

technologies to help me learn how to speak English, starting from the Internet to an electronic

translator. Actually, I'm working in the Center for Teaching and learning development (CTLD)

at KAU, so my job is not limited with technology, but also includes teaching and learning

development at the university. In the center, we have a course for teacher assistants who

have scholarship to prepare them before they leave to another country such as USA. But the

course does not have tips of how they can learn English (or another language) in limited time

to get an acceptance from one of the world's universities and start their graduate studies. It is

true that they will study at one of English centers at the beginning, but the time is limited with

one year, and sometimes this is not enough to study masters or PhDs in another language,

especially if they start from the beginner level, or they did not study English before. Because

all of pervious facts, I chose to investigate about how English learners can increase their

ability in learning English in general, and reading and writing In specific within a short time,

and then design a lesson which contains tips or a summary of how these teacher assistants

can learn at least- the English basics by using technology tools to prepare themselves

before leaving to another country. Then, how to increase what they learn in the English

centers. For sure, this information will be useful for any English learner who aims to study in

one of English universities or just to be literate in English. Actually, it is important to mention

that I will suggest then present this lesson once I get back to my country, and that is why I am

going to edit it many times until I get back and present it. Also, I would like to say that this

class related to my project in the way that teaching reading and writing for English speakers

kids is very close to teaching adult English learners, and I found many topics in this class

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useful for me as an English learner as well as teacher assistant who care of the learning and

teaching development.

Research Methodology:

I start this project with investigation for some articles and thoughts about using

technology in ESL (English as a Second Language) learning. In fact, I found many sources

about using technology in classrooms in general but when it comes to ESL classes, they are

few, and they are fewer when it comes to ESL literacy in specific. Finally, I found that in

general we can use any kind of technology in any type of classrooms according to the goal of

these classes.

In the article " Old Concerns with New Distance Education Research ", the authors

mentioned that one of the mistakes that researchers may do in designing a multimedia or

educational technology research is using the " media comparison study", where the

researcher is comparing an aspect from each method or educational environment to

determine which one is the "best". (Lockee, Moore, Burton)(pp.1, 2) So, that is led me to deal

- in this research- with using technology in learning English as a second language literacy as

an entity rather than dealing with technology in English learning as a general unit.

The beginning was with many different perspectives articles, and then I brought some of

ESL teachers' point of views to the research, to represent the reality of how technology is

applied in learning English literacy. After that, I got Dr. David Betts advice for Language

learners in general. Finally, at the end of this research, I will write a summary lesson of my

experience and my point of view as an English learner and from this research project

providing with a handout.

What is the meaning of literacy?

"According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary online (www.m-

w.com/cgibin/dictionary ), literacy is "the quality or state of being literate."
Literate, according to this same source, derives from Middle English and

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 Latin terms meaning "marked with letters" and "letters, literature." Two
definitions are provided: 1- "able to read and write," and
2- "versed in literature or creative writing...having knowledge or
competence."(De Valenzuela)

The first definition is exactly what this research needs to look for in English learning,

especially that the goal from this study is knowing how English learners can perceive the

ability to learn English reading and writing in a short time as they can, such as the case of

teacher assistants in Saudi Arabia who need to learn English in one year, and get an

acceptance from one of graduate colleges over all the world. So, I believe that learning

reading and writing is very important in higher education classrooms.

Moreover, it is interesting to say that the meaning of being literate is changed and as

Chatel mentioned in her article "New technology, new literacy: Creating a bridge for English

language learners", that the literate person today is the person who have four characteristics.

First, he possesses strategic knowledge which contains knowing how to use search strategy

to obtain information from a complex text. Second, the literate person is a critical thinker.

Third, he is aware of different meaning of media content. Forth, he is updating his knowledge

and the way of using new technologies. So, for English learners, they need to learn not only

reading and writing in English, but also to be critical thinker in English.

How the learner can start learning English with technology?

The answer of this question is depending on the level of the learner. For example, Saudi

teacher assistants in all universities in Saudi Arabia have - at least- these skills: knowing the

basic of English grammars, reading very simple English books, describing themselves like

their names, majors, and the social status, and writing one paragraph in English but with

grammar errors. Actually they learned the pervious skills because English classes is

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mandatory in middle and secondary school in Saudi Arabia, but the problem is that they do

not use it outside the class, so it is easy to lose too.

Briefly, there are many steps to English learners in order to increase their ability in

learning English deeply. The first step in this situation is the revision. This step can be done

with assistance from many technological tools, and I will explain each one of them later. As

an example, English learning websites that offer grammar lessons, which divided to levels

starting from the beginner level that teach learners the part of speech as an example. So, the

learner need in this case to skim these lessons that he studied before to refresh his memory,

then open new lessons and study them carefully. In addition, is important to mention that

most of these websites' lessons are free.

Another tool can affect positively in learning grammars is English learning software

programs such as " Tell me more English", which had the most reviews on the internet and

some English centers are use it in their labs such as CESL ( Center for English as a Second

Language) at University of Arizona, but it is expensive. Next , English learners should start

vocabulary lessons to collect as much as they can of English words and try to use it in

sentences. After that, reading lessons should be began, especially that they have now the

amount of vocabulary that assist them reading clearly, and they know the structure of

sentences. Then, they need to start learning how to use the grammar and vocabulary in

writing. The final step is being social! Yes this is true because they need to use the language

to acquire the real skills that they will need it in English environment. So, after listing steps of

learning, it is useful to specify each technology tool and how it can be used in learning

English as a second language or as a foreign language in general.

Technology Tools:

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 1) A brief history:

The relationship between technology and foreign language education is started since

sixties and seventies when language laboratories were found in many educational settings.

"The traditional language laboratory was include laboratories booths, each providing a

cassette deck, and accompanying microphone and headphone. Teachers monitored their

students' interactions by using a central control panel." (Singhal) The basic idea behind this

laboratory was that if students listen to the verbal behavior and try to copy that, they will learn

faster. And that is why The language lab activities grounded in a stimulus-response

behavior pattern. The more drill practice the students encountered, the faster they would

learn the second language." (Singhal)

Actually, the step of establishing language laboratories had a positive effect on foreign

language education, but the activities was boring for students and they did not pay their

attentions to learn the language. And that is led to a big shift in this field where a new

approach was appeared and named "computer assisted language learning (CALL)."

Now, many CALL software are provided and a lot of computer applications are found to

help English learners in each skill such as grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, writing,

spellcheckersetc. Also, some of these software programs can give the learner a feed back

to what he/she did, and this software became more interactive by including videos, graphics,

sounds, and animation too. (Singhal)

2) English learning technology tools:

A) The Internet:

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 Today, the Internet became available for most people, and they use it for different

purposes and majors. Recently, educators start using the internet as a learning and teaching

tool where they can search for answers for any question or topic they want to know about. In

English learning, the internet became a very important tool to enhance the ability of speak,

understand, read, and write in English. Starting with websites in general, the Internet

provides a variety of methods to learn or teach English in interesting methods. Moreover,

English learners as I mentioned before can visit English learning websites that provide

electronic lessons that available any time for free. In addition, some of these websites offer

an interesting way to increase the ability of using English which is chatting with native

speakers. In fact, it is obvious that using the language with native speakers is a good way to

learn the pronunciation and increase the fluency of speaking different language. In some

websites, they ask the learner for his mother tongue language and the language that he want

to learn, then they match him with a native speaker of the language that he want to learn, but

also this native want to learn the other language as well, so they can work alternately to learn

the language of each other. They need to write and correct to each other too. For example,

www.busuu.com and www.livemocha.com. Another kind of learning websites ask for

registration and pay a fee to start the lessons with a teacher, but they give the learner 7 days

as free trial to experience the webpage and decide if it is worthy or not (I.e.

www,Englishtown.com).

In fact, another way of interacting with native speaker or using English with another

English learning in different countries is the e-mail. This method can improve the ability of

writing, so the fluency and the organization skill will be increased.

As an example, a study done by Chang in 1993 in Taiwan was "exploring the potential

of long-distance communication involving second language learners." The goals of the study

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were giving students a real experience that can help them improving their writing, exchanging

ideas, reading context "across cultural boundaries", and increasing the international social

skills. The study applied on undergraduate students at Taiwan's National Kaohsiung Normal

University (NKNU) and students at University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC). For

eight weeks, students were contacting each other to do specific tasks. First, they began with

task 1 which asked students to write a letter for each other, and they need to write their

previous English background beside their personal information. Second, in task 2 and 3,

"students were asked to use their textbooks on the History of English Language to report on

interesting uses of English, (i.e. connotations, spelling, etc)." Next, in task 4 and 5 students

were asked to work on pronoun and lexical use in a section of specific text and working on

syntactic structure too. Finally, in the last task, students were collected examples of "English

slang and idioms used in each country's films and music". Both groups were asked to

respond to each other in all tasks.

"Davis and Chang (1994) point out that as writers on both sides of the world shared

questions and comments, jokes began to surface. Over time, the students' reading and

writing began to change as well. Through surveys and informal case studies of student

writing during the conference, it was found that for the most part, students' writing had

improved in both fluency and organization." It is interesting to say that students said that they

learn a new way of using English and learn about new cultures too. (Singhal)

Also, the internet can be used as a search method to find success experiences in

learning English over the entire world. By using the search engines, the English learner can

find real, impressive, and encouraging stories which can be useful to inspire ideas and try to

achieve the same success.

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 B) English Learning Software Programs:

There are several types of English learning software programs. Some of them are

meant to improve specific aspect of English parts such as improving reading comprehension,

writing skills, vocabulary, or even a translation program. On the other hand, there are many

software comes as a package for the whole English skills and it is also divided as levels

starting from beginner to advance. Also, there are different programs for different ages, for

example games for kids while focusing on grammar lessons for adult. Unlike websites, most

of software programs are not free, and some of them are expensive, but they have benefits

too. These programs are useful if the learner want to feel comfortable and choose the time

for using them according to his schedule. For the price, I think it is worthy for the good

programs especially packages because it is still cheaper than attending a center and pay for

tuition and textbooks. So, I believe that these programs are the perfect choice for English

learners who do not have time in their schedules to attend centers or hiring a tutor.

One of the famous examples for these software is a program named " Tell me more

English". This program gives the user the choice to organize his lessons from different

lessons, and these lessons are divided as levels. In fact, lessons are vary between grammar,

listening and speaking, organizing sentences, recording your pronunciation, fill in the blank

the appropriate word.etc.

C) Translation applications and tools:

These applications offered online, on the computer, and in separate tools too. All of

them are useful for the learner to know the meaning of a word while he is reading, or to find

the word in English while he is writing. The websites that they offer a translation, usually offer

it for free like Google translator where the user can translate from his native language to

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English or any different language- and vice versa. The advantage of these websites that

the learner can put a full text to translate it, but it is important to say that the translation is not

perfect because this program is translating the text word by word without correcting the

grammar from language to language, and this Is make the translation ambiguous sometimes.

The software translation program mostly offers a digital reading sound for the text too.

In fact, I think that the electronic translator tool is a good friend for English learner because it

gives him the meaning with the correct pronunciation, basic grammar, irregular verbs,

vocabulary, translation from English to English, English to native language and vice versa.

Reading and writing learning with technology:

All previous tools are helpful to achieve English learning goals in all language skills, but

to be literate means that the learner need to learn how to read and write in this new language

which is English in this case of study.

Reading skill is acquiring once the learner gain the basic skills such as spelling,

phonetic, grammaretc. These skills can be obtained by using special software which offers

different methods to address different learning styles. For example, for visuals they added

videos and graphics, and for auditory, they added sounds and audio files, and for kinesthetic,

they added different practice to deal with words. In fact, for helping English reader how to

read and pronounce words, Microsoft offer a program with each personal computer for free

named Easy of Access". This application can read any text that the reader chose to read it

with digital sound, even if the text is long such as PDF files. This kind of programs is helpful

for English learners because they can give them the opportunity to learn how to pronounce

and spell at the same time. From my real experience as an English learner, I faced a problem

at the beginning to combine between reading and speaking because some words I know their

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spellings but I do not know the correct pronunciation which is different than the spelling, so

when I hear it I did not recognize that I know this word before because I pronounce it wrong

as it is written, and the opposite is true too!

Writing is simply represented by most of the Internet and computer applications. For

example, Microsoft Word Processing program is the popular tool in writing and checking the

spelling at the same time. Also, chatting, emails, messengers, forums, and blogs, all of them

are great tools to practice writing in English, or at least perceive the fluency and exchange

ideas of writing.

ESL's Teachers Perspectives and Advices:

When I decide to do this project, the first step came to me was asking ESL teachers.

So, I sent emails asking English teachers at CESL (Center for English as a Second

Language) at University of Arizona where I studied English for six months- to ask them

questions related to this research. And the questions are:

1) What are the technologies that you are applying them in your classroom?

2) Do you teach online courses? If yes, what are the advantages and
disadvantages of this kind of classes on ESL students (briefly)?

3) What are the websites that help you in teaching ESL students?

4) What is your advice for ESL students to learn English in a short time?

5) Give me an example for a type of technology that used in teaching ESL reading
or writing. (If you know one)?

In fact, only four teachers were sent me back there answers, and there answers were

varying. For the first question, all of the four teachers are similar in using DVDs/CDs and

projectors, but they are differ in the way of getting deeper in using technology. Two of them

do not use more than the DVDs and projectors while the other two are trying to incorporate

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technology in their classrooms. For example, they mentioned using D2L (Desire to Learn)

which is an online board that offer in University of Arizona that help teachers and their

students to exchange files and start online discussion. Also, they mentioned websites like

livemocha.com which I mentioned before and software's program for writing class, and Wiki

for reading class. For the online classes question, one of them is teaching online courses and

he said that the advantages for students is the ability to learn wherever they are in the world,

and taking classes comfortable from their homes. On the other hand, there are

disadvantages, for example, these courses required a very high degree of learner-based

motivation, and they face technical problems some times which make it hard to organize their

ideas with these interruptions.

Then, each one of them gives me several websites that they said it is useful such as:

www.livemocha, www.learner.org, www.eslcafe.com, websites for movie scripts and music

lyrics, Davis ESL cafe, manything.com, and they said those are few of them. Moreover, they

advised English learner to watch a lot of movies, TV programs and news, listen to music to

learn English faster. And they said that to increase the ability to read and write in English,

they advised students to use Wiki space, social networks, blogs, writing letters, chatting, and

watch movies with subtitles to increase reading fast skill. In addition to their advice, one of

the teachers said a beautiful statements and he use a good metaphor. He said that English

is like a castle on the hell which is not easily overtaken. There must be a constant barrage of

attacks from all angles (land, sea, air, etc.) Similarly, a student of language must find time

every day to attach different skills."

Dr. David Betts Perspective:

Dr. David Betts is one of the faculty members in Language, Reading, and Culture

department at the University of Arizona. He is integrating technology and arts in all his
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classes, and he teaches technology in education classes indeed. That is why I interviewed

him to get some information for this research. In fact, he told me at the beginning that he

does not have that much of experience with teaching English as a second language, but he

can tell from his experience in learning Spanish. First, he said that he used some application

programs like Language Learning Apps for iPod Touch and iPhone which is contains many

applications that can be useful for language learner in general. Also, he used a book called

Spanish for Dummies, but he said that these tools can help you learn the language but you

still need to involve in the society of this language because books and programs do not teach

you the culture. For English learners, dr. Betts advised them to read news papers which is

offer online, watch TV, register in websites like livmocha.com and Busuu.com, where they

can meet native speakers to help them improve their language skills, and using software

applications.

The course for teacher assistants at KAU in Saudi Arabia:

The courses in the Center for Teaching and Learning Development that aims to the

faculty members and teacher assistants in the university are designed to be presented in one

day for three to five hours minimum, or for one week maximum. So, I believe that teaching

teacher assistants how to learn English in short time or learning tips that could help them

does not need more than one day for five hours to show them how to start, and then they

continue by themselves.

The first hour in the course will be a brief explanation why they need to start before they

travel to the new country and before attending the English center. This point will be done

from my experience as an English learner and from what I saw in USA with the other Saudi

Students.

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 First, I will start with describing my journey in learning English. I start as all students in

Saudi Arabia learning English "academically" since the middle school. Then in the

undergraduate, I studied Computer Science where they teach us English texts with Arabic

explanation in the class! And they test us in English too. The result was that I can read

English better than speaking because simply if you do not use English, you will lose it! And

this is the first tip. After that, I did not make any revision for English until I got this job after

two years of the graduation. After the first two months in the new job, the center tell us- the

new teacher assistants- to prepare ourselves for English exam to determine our levels in

English, and who will get the higher two grades will attend with other teacher assistants from

all the department a preparing English course to give advance English lessons and

information about the plagiarism and writing researches. But this course accept only 20

teacher assistants while there are hundreds of them will going to leave the country without

getting the same experience. So, I started the revision of basic grammars and read a lot of

texts, and the result was that I got the higher score among the center but actually it is still a

low score comparing with the full mark. That is made me frustrated even when they accepted

me in that course. For personal reasons, I had to leave to USA before starting the next

semester, so I apologized that I cannot attend that course. After two weeks of arriving to

USA, I started English classes at the English center. They asked us to do a measuring test to

determine our levels, and I found myself in the upper intermediate level, but I felt that if I

revise what I learned before coming and taking the test, I will be in a higher level and then

reducing the time for myself. So, the second tip: make a revision for all what you learned in

English before leaving to study abroad.

During my study at the English center, I was trying to improve my English outside the

classes by watching movies, involving myself in English conversation with native English

speakers or even any other English Learners, and watching kids programs! In fact,

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everything for native English kids is a perfect tool to learn English for adults such as reading

their books and stories, visiting kids websites (I.e.readingeggs.com), and watching kids

educational programs. And this is leading me to the third tip: watch a lot of English movies

and TV programs with subtitles first, then try to watch them without it. Also, the forth tip is:

deal with all kids stuff that made in English. Read kids' books, watch kids' programs and

movies, listen to kids' songs, and play kids' games.

Before getting the acceptance from one of the universities, you need to pass English

exam named TOEFL(Test Of English as a Foreign Language), and also for some majors you

need to pass another exam named GRE(Graduate Record Examination) which is hard even

for native speakers, so you really need to be ready before going because those exams will

take most of your times, and that is why I am telling you today to be ready before attending

the English center because if you do not, you will face a really stressful time trying to pass

these exams, learning English, working hard to get an acceptance from the university, and

trying to adapt with the new life.

After telling the previous information, I will spend the second hours talking about all

technology tools that I mentioned early in this research. And the third and fourth hours will be

a real practice for each tool mentioned in the course to teach them how they can use it. This

step will take most of the time because during the practical application there are many

problems will face some of the learners, and they are vary in getting the instructions, so they

need to get help individually some times. Finally, the last hour will be for tips for how to take a

test like the TOEFL test. I will tell them how I faced terrible times taking that test for many

times because I do not know the test tricks to pass. For example, I will advice them to not

reading the passages in the reading section because there is no enough time for this.

Instead, they need to skim the beginning of each paragraph of the passage then read the

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questions and read the part that related to them in the passage. Also, using technology is

very good in practicing for TOEFL. As an example, there are many books that can give them

many similar questions for the real test to practice them. In addition, there is a CD attached

with each book that contains a similar full test to the real test with the same time limit.

Furthermore, learners can register in one of the TOEFL preparation websites, and I suggest

"Notefull.com". In this website, the instructor give the learner small useful tips to be a TOEFL

test taker and pass this exam.

In the practical two hours, I suggest teaching how they can register and use the

livemocha.com and Busuu.com to start contacting with natives who wants to learn Arabic too,

and they willing to correct their writing and speak with them. Then, I am going to show them

some exercises in Tell Me More English" software which I will installed on all the lab's

computers before the course, so they can use it in the lab any time. After that, I will use some

web translators such as Google translator to give them the idea of translating a text. Finally, I

am going to summarize all tips and tools that mentioned in this research and give them a

handout too.

Conclusion:

Learning English need a high endeavors and trying hard to learn. But if the learner

uses the new technology to reach this goal, he will learn and have fun at the same time which

can make it easier. What I mentioned in this research is just examples, but if the learner

searches for more, he will find many tools and websites that can help in learning another

language in general and English in specific. For sure, every day a new technology tool is

appeared, and a new method of learning is created, so being updated with technology is a

very important step in this age, the digital age!

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The Handout of this lesson:

Tips for learning English outside school settings:

1- Watch English movies and TV programs with subtitle.

2- Listen to English songs and sing by using the song's lyrics.

3- Listen to podcast, and try to choose intermediate topic first, then ranging to the advance

topics such as universities' lectures.

4- Use every educational programs or books aims for kids in English. Watch their movies

and programs, listen to their songs and sing them, read their books, and play their games.

5- Use blogs, Wikis, face book, e-mail, and forums to increase your ability of understanding

English, writing English, exchanging ideas, and organizing your writing.

6- Try to learn every day 10 new words in English and translate it. For this step you can use

Google for searching about words, then use Google translator to translate them. Finally,

try to write them down to remember their spelling.

7- Choose a software program or application to practice English every day.

8- Reading English newspapers and journals online.

Technology tools that can help in learning English:

1- English learning websites (I.e. www.livemocha, www.learner.org, www.eslcafe.com,

www.busuu.com, Davis ESL cafe, manything.com).

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2- Software applications (I.e. tell me more English, Rosetta stone English, instant

immersion English, word smart).

3- Translation websites and applications (I.e. Google translator, Babylon).

4- Newspaper websites (The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/ , USA today

http://www.usatoday.com/ , Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ).

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 Citation

Chatel, Regina. "New Technology, New Literacy: Creating a Bridge for." The NERA

Journal 38 (2002): 45-49.

De Valenzuela, Julia Scherba. "Definitions of Literacy." Julia Scherba De Valenzuela,

30 July 2009. Web. <http://www.unm.edu/~devalenz/handouts/literacy.html>.

Lockee, Barbara, Mike Moore, and John Burton. "Old Concerns with New Distance

Education Research." EDUCAUSE QUARTERLY (2001): 60-62.

Singhal, Meena. "The Internet and Foreign Language Education: Benefits and

Challenges." The Internet TESL Journal 3 (1997). Web. <http://iteslj.org/Articles/Singhal-

Internet.html>.

Ybarra, Renee, and Tim Green. "Using Technology to Help ESL/EFL Students Develop

Language Skills." The Internet TESL Journal 9 (2003). Web. <http://iteslj.org/Articles/Ybarra-

Technology.html>.

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