Computers, Culture, Books, and English

In an age where the media have come to inhabit numerous conduits for the production of culture, it is difficult to imagine culture without its mediated form. From television and comic books to fashion and postcards, culture comes to us in diverse vehicles shaped by agents distant form our everyday life. The entwining of media and culture is a feature of our age; we need only consider the close linkages between the Olympics and television, the collective memories of Vietnam and cinema, or the appreciation of popular music and MTV.

We experience our cultural life through the media in various ways. Romance novels, televised soap operas, magazines, and fashion shows provide respite from the routines of daily existence, but often so do documentaries and even the local news. The Internet is increasingly recognized as a forum through which culture is relayed and articulated, yet the Internet is a significantly different vehicle of cultural for the elderly, for adolescents, for Holocaust deniers, and for members of militias.

In the convergence of democratization, electronic technology, and rhetorical theory that is creating postmodern culture, technology has been pondered variable. We are coming to the end of culture of the book. Books are still produced and read in prodigious numbers, and they will continue to be as far into future as one can imagine. However, they do not command the center of the cultural stage. Modern culture is taking shapes that are more various and more complicated than the book-centered culture it is succeeding.

So: are we watching the slow death of the book? Is this the difference that computers will make to our profession? Those who argue for “distance education,” as opposed to the campus model, note that increasing energy costs, and the decreasing cost of electronic technology, make it inevitable that in-person education will price itself out of the marketplace. The escalating cost of American postsecondary education seems to support this position. Can we make the same argument for books? That for economic reasons they will be priced out of the marketplace and replaced by on-line text forms? Not now, and perhaps not soon. The book is still wonderfully portable, accessible, and pleasurable. But, as I consider the cost to me of this particular dysfunctional book, the virtues of on-line text become more and more apparent. Computer technology has already made a difference to English. And it has hardly begun.

Posted by Alexander Noguera

Technology in the classroom for teaching English

Technology has had a big impact in the world, it covers different aspects in our everyday lives, and it has changed our conception of the world. One of the most important technological developments was the invention of the computers and the internet, the entire world has been connected and has become in only one. This is the phenomenon of globalization that in a sense has affected the communication between people, businesses, cultures and education. The technological revolution and the quick development of globalization produced a big change in the way we get knowledge, and the way we get in touch with the environment.

A long time ago, the way of learning and teaching languages was limited by just focused on reading and writing approaches; just books and old-fashioned methodologies were used and people always tried to memorize the structures and vocabulary; but the learning experience was not significant at all. This is why the interest of implementing new approaches to develop all the skills in learning languages (Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking) has been increased last decades. In the 70’s a particular interest grew in how feelings and emotions could affect the learning process of the students. Researchers and experts of the humanist psychology area determined that students’ feelings are as important as their mental or cognitive skills. This is why new approaches were developed in order to motivate students to learn new languages and to make that process more pleasant for them.

How could technological resoruces be used for teaching purposes?

It has been demonstrated that students need to be immerged in the language they pretend to learn; and one way to make this immersion possible is exposing students to different cultural experiences using the technological resources. If they learn about the real world using the target langague as a bridge for communication, their learning process could be significant.

A big improvement in teaching languages, especially in English, started with the invention of computers, Internet, television, IPods etc, which made the learning process more interesting. Nowadays, students can have easy access to all information from around the world; in fact, it has been demonstrated that researchers prefer to look up for information through internet instead of look it up in books. Also, teachers can use different technological resources to make an interactive class. An example of this could be a class with a projector showing videos of real people in different situations, like a report of news from BBC, ABC or CNN; or playing an audio of the magazine “Speak up” which contains stories or interviews with real actors, scientists or people from different countries who have different English accents, it could help the students in the improvement of their reading and listening skills.

In conclusion, technology is very important to students in their everyday learning; however, the teacher guidance is crucial in this process. A good teacher knows how to use the best ways and methods for teaching, and how to intertwine them with the diversity of technological resources. Also it is really important the discipline and the dedication of each student to achieve this goal.

Posted by Adriana Salas

Evaluation of the web site Real English

Name of the site: Real English
Site´s URL: http://www.real-english.com/
Author(s): American and British ESL teachers of the Marzio School
Last  update: June, 2dn, 2010.
Purpose of site: The main purpose of the site is to provide students of ESL and EFL with some videos the way to use a real English language in different contexts.

Skills the site builds: grammar, listening, vocabulary, cultural knowledge.
Objective: The main objective of the site is to show the grammatical structures, lexical items and social functions of the English language through some videos providing language tutorials based on real people’s particular situations of their everyday lives.
Scope of audience: Worldwide. 
Target level: beginners to intermediate level.
Sensory input: Effectively.
Type of feedback: Semi-intelligent and intelligent feedback. 
Interactivity: Some.
Communicativeness: Some.
Context:  Lots.
Content: 1 hour or more.
Revisitavility: Once a year or less. The first videos were published in 1993.

Appearance: Average.
Navigation: Fairly easy.
Load speed: Somewhat slow.
Brief description of the site: The Web site Real English is directed for ESL and EFL students which levels go from beginners to intermediate level. The Real English site provides lots of different videos which contain the use of real vocabulary, grammar structures, lexical items and functions of the English language in an easy way. The videos present the English language structures in different contexts and the participants are real people (not actors) who are just walking around the street, these are the interviewees and the teachers are the interviewers. There is also a set of activities for each lesson, these activities are tested by a system in which the student has to put an answer and at the end of the exercise there is a check button to get a semi-intelligent feedback. Another important characteristic of these exercises is that students can record themselves in order to make comparisons with the original audio of the video and in that way they can improve their pronunciation. Besides if the students have some doubts they can send a comment to the teachers via facebook. Another way to receive feedback is going to their channel on Youtube or on their blog, students can ask what they need to know and the web administrators will clarify any doubt. The authors of the site offer some extra links about ESL/EFL Language Resources like: Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL), learn english feel good.com, A Byte of Language, Le Centre de Linguistique Appliquée, Université de Franche-Comté, Webhead Teresa Almeida d'Eca's bilingual site, in Portuguese/English, English4u, Everyday English, Cybrary Man's Educational Web Sites, Aulas Particulares de Inglês, The "OOPS" ESL/Foreign Language Page, CESOL, TuitionPlaza.com  , The Language Training and Testing Center
click on the link you want and visit it.

What I liked about the site: The most interesting aspect for me about the site was the way they made the videos. They are very creative people; they just ask a question to native English speakers related to a specific structure and function of the language in real contexts that makes lessons more interesting for the students instead of being in a classroom learning technical terms or grammar formulas. This way of teaching English is a good way to motivate ESL and EFL learners. There is also another aspect that attracted my attention, the site also gives the opportunity to the students to record themselves and in that way they can compare with the original video and take into account their pronunciation weaknesses in order to work on them.

What I don´t like about the site: The only aspect that I did not like about the site was the distribution of the content and the videos, sometimes it tends to be confusing and the options for recording the learners’ voices in some lessons do not work.

ESL/EFL Pedagogical implications of the site: The Real English site is very helpful for people who have difficulties to express themselves in English. Most of English learners just know how to use grammar structures and some vocabulary, but when they go to the real world and need to communicate in a natural or normal way, they just get stuck. This site provides the possible situations in which the English language is used in a natural way, being fluent and at the same time being coherent in order to encourage learners to feel free to speak.

Evaluation score for
Content usefulness: 6/6
Interface design: 2/4
My overall evaluation grade: 8/10

Posted by Adriana Salas

Mind map. Modified