Using technology in teaching foreign language in academic lyceums

Increasing globalization has created a large need for people in the workforce who can communicate in multiple languages. The uses of common languages are in areas such as trade, tourism, international relations, technology, media, and science.

Using Internet and software in teaching the foreign language in Academic Lyceums:

Software can interact with learners in ways that books and audio cannot:

· Some software records the learner, analyzes the pronunciation, and gives feedback.

· Software can present additional exercises in areas where a particular learner has difficulty, until the concepts are mastered.

· Software can pronounce words in the target language and show their meaning by using pictures instead of oral explanations. The only language in such software is the target language. It is comprehensible regardless of the learner’s native language.

Websites provide various services geared toward language education. Some sites are designed specifically for learning languages:

· Some software runs on the web itself, with the advantage of avoiding downloads, and the disadvantage of requiring an internet connection.

· Some publishers use the web to distribute audio, texts and software, for use offline.

· Some websites offer learning activities such as quizzes or puzzles to practice language concepts.

Language exchange sites connect users with complementary language skills, such as a native Uzbek speaker who wants to learn English with a native English speaker who wants to learn Uzbek. Language exchange websites essentially treat knowledge of a language as a commodity, and provide a market like environment for the commodity to be exchanged. Users typically contact each other via chat, VoIP, or email. Language exchanges have also been viewed as a helpful tool to aid language learning at language schools. Language exchanges tend to benefit oral proficiency, fluency, colloquial vocabulary acquisition, and vernacular usage, rather than formal grammar or writing skills.

· Translation sites let learners find the meaning of foreign text or create foreign translations of text from their native language.

· Speech synthesis or text to speech (TTS) sites and software let learners hear pronunciation of arbitrary written text, with pronunciation similar to a native speaker.

· Course development and learning management systems such as Moodle are used by teachers, including language teachers.

· Web conferencing tools can bring remote learners together; e.g. Elluminate Live.

Players of computer games can practice a target language when interacting in Massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds. In 2005, the virtual world Second Life started to be used for foreign language tuition, sometimes with entire businesses being developed. Some Internet content is free, often from government and nonprofit sites such as BBC Online, Foreign Service Institute, with no or minimal ads. Some is ad-supported, such as newspapers and YouTube. But some requires a payment.

As we used some types of technology during our experiment in some classes of Academic Lyceum, mainly, for the first course students, the results were so excellent. Because even the students who didn’t want to learn English, also were interested in learning the language by technology. We used computers, project, multimedia, tape script, authentic videos, educational films and educational cartoons. Using technology is very effective for teaching and learning foreign languages. Every lesson based on integrated skills according to study book “English. Students book....”, at the beginning they listened to some task (it goes on as a pre-listening, while-listening, post-listening steps) then speaking or writing something which they’d listened to and then reading (it is also pre-reading, while-reading, post-reading steps) and on some new words or vocabulary. At the end of the lesson students had to improve all language skills and of course, we achieved our aim. First, they’d learned to answer for all questions or they could retell the meaning of the texts which were given by listening task. Second, in writing task they could wrote short essays, letters and advertisements using simple words but without repetitions, they used synonyms or antonyms or with phrase words.

At the end of the course, we analyzed the results by evaluating the knowledge of students. Their score were better than before (at the beginning of the course they had enter-tests).

Used literature

1. Jemery Harmer “How to Teach English”. Addison Wesley Longman, 1998.
2. Richards, Jack C. Theodore S. Rodgers. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge., 2001.
3. Holden, Susan; Mickey Rodgers English language teaching. Mexico City: DELT.,1998.