Information technology and language skills

Abstract

Research has shown that Information Technology (IT) influences the teaching and learning of the four language skills, that is, speaking, listening, reading and writing. IT requires fundamental organisational and pedagogic changes in classrooms, in order to function effectively. The main objective behind this research is to investigate the influence of IT on the teaching and learning of the four language skills. This is highly dependent upon the teachers' attitudes towards the IT itself. Thus, it is imperative to study this relationship. In order to obtain a global picture of this relationship seventy-eight Year One teachers in the Primary schools were surveyed. Case studies of four Year One teachers were drawn up in order to investigate their work in the four language skills through the use of IT. The main sources of information for these case studies were log-books maintained by the teachers. Results obtained from the study show that teachers are using IT as a tool for the teaching and learning of language skills in a limited way. Case Studies results show that IT has features which can be used to promote language skills mainly through the basic skills approach rather than the context based approach. Questionnaire results indicate that teachers need more training on how to integrate IT effectively.