Capítulo II

CHAPTER II

Literature review

English language has become one of the most popular spoken languages nowadays, with approximately 372 million of native speakers and 611 million of L2 speakers, it accumulates over 983 million of people speaking the language across the world. In addition to this, it was reported in 2015 that at least 67 countries and 27 non-sovereign entities had English as their official language, being the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand the countries with more English native speakers living in, making this West Germanic language to be used in multiple daily activities such as business, education, work, arts, law, science, among others. As a consequence, more and more people are interested in learning English as a foreign language; so are people in teaching English.

Along with the rapid expansion of English language comes the globalization of the technology, internet and specifically, ICTs. This kind of technologies has had a great impact over educational field, rewriting the way education has been done over the past decades, from a teacher-centered model to a learned-centered model (Tinio, 2003). Those schools which are constantly renewing their tools and materials have implemented ICTs in their classrooms in order to adapt to the 21^st century necessities. Therefore, new abilities and skills have emerged and are now considered necessary in our current society.

What are ICTs?

ICTs is an acronym which stands for “Information and communication technologies” and is defined as a set of technological tools and resources whose purposes are to communicate, create, disseminate, save, and manage information (Tinio, 2003). Some examples of this technologies are the radio, television, Internet, computers, cellphones and tablets. They are believed to enhance the learning process in nowadays students, a reason why many schools around the world have included them in their educational curriculum with a “learning to learn” perspective; this means, the acquisition of skills and knowledge that will make possible learning process in the future and over a lifetime (Tinio, 2003).

ICTs in education

ICTs have the potential to take education to places where people have no opportunities at all to access a real-time education system. Radio, television, printing, Internet and computers are some examples of ICTs throughout the history of education. Because of their nature, they are omnipresent and available anytime, anywhere. They can lead to an asynchronous learning, meaning that there is a time delay between the activities delivery and its fulfillment by students. Also, by having online materials, learners may have access to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, meaning a more independent type of learning in a learner-center environment. (Tinio, 2003). Last but not least, learners can have access to multiple learning resources, not relying only on printed material such as textbooks or workbooks, but to a great content located on the Internet, of any subject and any media, infinite times by infinite people (Tinio, 2003).

Education planners must first create goals -that are expected to be fulfilled later- in order to choose the most suitable types of technology and their respective modalities of use. Each type of technology is unique on its own, thereby, results are expected to vary according to how they are used. Haddad and Draxler discovered five levels of technology use in education: presentation, demonstration, drill and practice, interaction, and collaboration. All of the ICTs can be classified in the presentation and demonstration categories and all of them except for video technologies can be classified in the drill and practice category. Networked computers and the Internet fall into the interaction and collaboration category, making them the most suitable technologies to achieve those goals; nonetheless, their full potential will continue as a mystery as long as they keep being used only for presentation and demonstration (Tinio, 2003).

Radio and TV broadcasting in education

Radio and television have been introduced into education since 1920s and 1950s respectively and, since then, three approaches have been identified to their use in education:

Direct class teaching: broadcasting programing replaces teacher temporary.

School broadcast: broadcasting programing compliments teaching and provides exclusive learning resources.

General educational programming over community: stations that supply general and informal education.

 Improving the quality of education

Increasing learners’ motivation. Multimedia tools like videos and television can help learners to increase their interest because of their authentic and challenging content. Internet also can enhance motivation due to rich variety of contents and interactivity of other ICTs that can connect with other learners and experts in the field and provide real-time events.

Acquisition of the basic skills. Drill and repetition through ICTs facilitate the transmission of basic skills.

Enhancing teacher training. ICTs have been used to enhance the quality of teacher training in many institutions worldwide, such as Cyber Teacher Training Center (CTTC) in South Korea, China Central Radio and TV University, the Shanghai Radio and TV University and Indira Gandhi National Open University.

Learner-centered pedagogy

ICTs may change the paradigm in content and pedagogy that has been around since the 21^st century by promoting the acquisition of the knowledge and skills that will allow students to a lifelong learning. If they are used properly, ICTs can empower new forms of learning and teaching that are based on social constructivism and establish a switch from a teacher-centered pedagogy to one that is learner-centered (Tinio, 2003).

Overview of Pedagogy in the Information Society

Active learning. Activities decided by learners, with small groups, various activities and pace chose by learners.

Collaborative learning. Characterized by diverse activities in character or content, with working groups helping each other.

Creative learning. A productive learning, whose aim is to discover new solutions to issues.

Integrative learning. Combines theory and practice, relates subjects, it’s thematic and unifies teams of teachers.

Evaluative learning. Student-directed and diagnostic.

ICTs in workplace

ICTs are said to prepare students better for nowadays workplaces. Workplaces that are acquiring and adopting more and more the use of technology and Internet, making them a crucial part of their everyday activities. But these workplaces demand what EnGauge of the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (U.S.) has identified as 21st Century Skills that every worker must have, and are listed below:

Skills Needed in the Workplace of the Future

·         Functional literacy: Ability to decipher meaning and express ideas in a range of media; this includes the use of images, graphics, video, charts and graphs or visual literacy.

·         Scientific literacy: Understanding of both the theoretical and applied aspects of science and mathematics.

·         Technological literacy: Competence in the use of information and communication technologies.

·         Information literacy: Ability to find, evaluate and make appropriate use of information, including via the use of ICTs.

·         Cultural literacy: Appreciation of the diversity of cultures.

·         Global awareness: Understanding of how nations, corporations, and communities all over the world are interrelated.

·         Inventive Thinking: Adaptability Ability to adapt and manage in a complex, interdependent world.

Teachers’ attitudes

Attitudes towards computers are interrelated with teachers’ amount of knowledge about computer technology, making them crucial requirements for its effective use: while confidence increases, anxiety and fears decrease, thereby, confidence and knowledge on technology a teacher has may impact on the way technology is implemented in the classroom (Loyd and Gressard, 1986). Gardner, Discenza, and Dukes (1993) established computer anxiety as a resistance to using computers, and the more computer experience a teacher has, the less computer anxiety he will suffer. As a result, they reported that by reducing incertitude towards technology is the first step in order to become a confident and proficient user of technology. Teachers’ positive attitudes and adequate proficiency in using computers are main factors in the integration of technology in the classroom (Stevens, 1980). Technology integration into education seems to influence teachers’ attitudes towards computers; but also the more importance students give to computers, the more computer anxiety a teacher may foster (Christensen, 2002). An efficient training for teachers who are not adopted with these skills yet is crucial to increase meaningful use in their courses, thereby, fostering students’ enjoyment for computers and making a difference in their education.

ICTs in Mexico

Current situation in Mexico is quite worrisome: 4 of 10 basic education institutions have access to Internet Forbes (2013); a ten-year delay in educational technology and guaranteed university education to barely 27 of 100 high school students. It is then necessary a shift to both technological and educative paradigms because educational demand is increasing exponentially. It is crucial for Mexican technological platform to improve and the contents that are transmitted must have pedagogical and educational parameters of great quality. Schemes should be created where the student can appropriate knowledge through the same technology. In Mexico, different challenges must be overcome that are fundamental to achieving progress in this area: extend the infrastructure in telecommunications; to promote the penetration of the internet in the educational system; encourage the development of platforms under an approach that generates meaningful learning; and betting on new information and communication technologies. (Macedo, 2015)