- Critical Discourse Analysis
- 10 روش برای اینکه مثل بلبل انگلیسی صحبت کنید
- حرف ربط در انگلیسی (Conjunction)
Impact of using computer applications on teaching and learning
Today’s educational policies are largely devoted to fostering the development and implementation of computer applications in education.
During the 1990s the question of ‘ Should the computer be used in second language teaching?’ changed to ‘How can the computer best be used in language teaching?’. As we are in the 21st century, everyday language use is so tied to technology that learning language through technology has become a fact of life with important implications for all applied linguist, particularly for those concerned with facets of second language acquisition(SLA).
Forward-looking members of the profession have suggested that the nature of communicative competence has changed in a world where communication occurs with computers and with other computer and with other people through the use of computers.
Rassool(1999),In a world increasingly driven by (a) the need for innovation through research and development (R&D),(b)the multileveled changes brought about in our everyday lives as a result of the nature and speed of technological developments,(c)the volume and range of information available, and its open accessibility,(d) the multimodal features of electronic text as well as (e) its interactive nature, we require significantly more than just the ability to read and write in a functional way.
Language learners are entering a world in which their communicative competence will include electronic literacies, i.e., communication in registers associated with electronic communication (Murray, 2000; Warschauer, 2000).
The interdependence of communicative interaction, new technologies, the development of computer applications, the design of computer-based tasks and focused activity for learners to become critical thinkers and creators of knowledge is a reality of the new educational model
Universities and other higher education institutions
are highly involved into knowledge creation, diffusion and learning. University’s competitive ability depends on institution opportunity to share, spread and adapt knowledge as well as it is created. Modern students will require regular updating of their knowledge, skills and competences.
Therefore, teachers should conscientiously redesign their courses and adopt new instructional methods and appropriate technologies to fully exploit the benefits of web-based learning environments, and computer applications in education.
The process of teaching and learning Management is a very complex one because the students need to develop different skills related to psychology,
communication, critical thinking, economic and social thinking, decision making etc. One significant pedagogical approach gaining credence through research and classroom practice is students’ collaborative engagement with
problem-solving, computer-based tasks for more effective learning
the use of computer applications within teaching and learning of Management could have positive effects, on one hand, and negative effects, on the other hand.
The main positive effects of using computer applications for teaching and learning Management, as they are perceived by the students and teachers,
are the following:
• Using computer applications increases the students’ motivation for learning Management;
• This method for teaching and learning Management catch the attention of the students and increase their interest for learning Management;
• Using computer applications lead to the development of students’ skills;
• Using computer applications develops the students’ process of thinking critically;
• Using computer applications creates the opportunity for students to be active in class,
and not passive;
• Using computer applications creates the opportunity for students to solve different case studies, to change the variables in these case studies and to see the results of these changes;
• Using computer applications prepares the students for the knowledge-based society and economy which cannot be understood nowadays without computers in our day-to-day life;
• Using computer applications contributes to the students’ engagement in the process of learning Management
The use of computer applications in the process of teaching and learning Management is showing to the students some experiences where they acquire
not only technological proficiency but also balance between their design abilities and depth of knowledge.
When students are encouraged to externalise their mental schemas and clearly
communicate their understanding of the interconnectedness of ideas verbally and graphically, then student-designers are effectively engaged in productive, reflective, creative technoliterate practices.
Computer applications have also negative effects. The computer applications used might not work properly, or they might not work at all in some cases, or they might conduct to the wrong results in terms of logical thinking if they are in their first stages of development. In these situations the impact for the students learning process and for the professors teaching process is negative. Both students and teacher could feel frustrated because they all had certain expectations (different or not) at the beginning of the lesson.
Another negative effect of using computer applications in teaching and learning Management, as it resulted from this study is that sometimes the students are focused on learn how to use the computer applications instead of how to interpret the results of these applications. Generally, in economic area, and especially in management area the important issue is to learn how to interpret the results of a computer application and to be capable to adopt rational decisions based on the results of that application. Therefore, in this area it becomes necessary that teachers to teach the students how to fully benefit from using computer applications in order to develop their ability to
adopt assisted decisions based on the interpretation of the data resulted from computer applications
Methodology
What is the effect of Spelling on reading?
Two key researchers to have contributed to the field of early reading and spelling development are Frith and Ehri, with their stage models of word recognition. Frith (1985) claimed that there are qualitative differences in the time-course of children’s reading and spelling, and also that there are
causal links between these two activities. According to Frith’s model, based largely on children’s reading errors, children begin to develop literacy skills by first reading words using partial visual cues (“logographic stage”); this then fuels a motivation to write, and children attempt to spell.
words the way they sound, on a one-letter-to-one-sound basis — thus
progressing into an “alphabetic” stage of spelling development. They then transfer their emerging knowledge of letter-sound correspondences to reading (“orthographic stage”). Hence reading becomes the pacemaker.
However, reading instruction and reading activity is perhaps the most striking candidate as a causal agent behind the rapid development of language awareness at the age of school-start (Alegria, Pignot & Morais, 1982). It seems as if learning to read involves learning about the phonetic structure. The child himself has to learn about the phonetic structure when taught to read and write, and most reading methods also provide the child with some form of instruction about the speech sounds and their relationship to letters. Type of reading instruction has an effect on the development of phonemic awareness with a more phonics-oriented method leading to an earlier development of phonemic awareness (Alegria et al.,1982)
But in the other view point, Spelling involves a set of active, conscious processes that are not necessarily required for reading (Crystal, 2000) and, as such, it generally represents a bigger challenge to learners than reading. Writing systems ignore the intonation and stress (i.e. supra-segmental) features of speech, and they do not convey information about regional dialect.
Spelling is believed to be a more difficult task than reading. The ability to spell has been recognized as complex and multifaceted process. Lerner (1985) pointed out that the students may use a contextual, structural or configuration clues in reading. Whereas in spellings there is no opportunity to draw such clues in reproducing a word. There are four factors that greatly affect the spellings.
•The ability to spell words that are phonetic.
• The ability to spell words that involve roots, prefixes, suffixes and roles of combining; English spelling will seem much more logical if the formation and origin of the words are understood
• The ability to look at word and reproduce it later.
• The ability to spell demons
Based on the research of Mehwash,rashid ( 2012) Twelve subjects from six sections of 3rd grade within one elementary school at Rawalpindi city (Pakistan) were identified as LD. The case studies of these subjects explored their problems and then by observation their attitude towards teachers, siblings and other relationship indicators were also inquired through interview process.
Some of the background problems related to them were as following:
Six of the subjects were elder in their siblings. Do not pay attention in class, remain passive and cannot fully understand the lesson. Feel problem in English reading, not able to spell even simple words correctly; don.t know the sound of alphabets. Auditory sequential memory deficits were observed and feel difficulty in learning letters/ sounds association and hearing and remembering the sounds in the correct order. For example
. Lacking confidence.
. Unable to adjust herself in new school.
. Parents were not paying proper attention.
Louise (2005) stated that students with learning disabilities in reading usually have problems in spellings. First, the basic deficit in reading disability (RD) typically involves word decoding, and many of the same weaknesses that impact word decoding in individuals with RD such as poor phonemic awareness or poor knowledge of letter-sound relationships also influence spelling. Furthermore, spelling is affected by independent reading and exposure to text; avid readers see more words in print and have more opportunities to learn spellings of specific words.
Phonemes grapheme relationship
the great majority of the world’s writing systems represent phonological units. These may be syllables or rimes, but most are even smaller: there are separate symbols for each sound segment, or phoneme. Such writing systems are called alphabets, and English is an example (e.g. Olson, 1994; Treiman, 1993)
What do children know about the relationship between spoken and written language, and how do they make sense of their writing systems to eventually become spellers?
There are several challenges to face — some associated with linguistic skills and some with visual memorization skills.
These all contribute to individual differences in early spelling performance
in English (Caravolas, Hulme & Snowling, 2001).
The first step is for children to recognise that spoken words contain a
sequence of separate sounds — an ability generally referred to as
phonological awareness. Next, they must learn the alphabetic principle:
letters and combinations of letters are the symbols used to represent
speech sounds
First strategy used in pakistani class was alphabets and their sounds. Subjects were taught to sound the alphabets and how to relate these sounds with their symbols. In auditory perception of letter sounds, knowledge of phonics and structural analysis was given to develop their skills in applying the phonic generalization.
learning to write requires visual skills as well as phonological skills.
((Saussure offered a dyadic mode: signifier and signified, which is the relation of a sign and its meaning on the other hand when there is a form there will be a meaning.))
children must learn the shapes and referents of the symbols that are used to represent linguistic units. They must distinguish symbols used for writing from those that are used in other domains, such as drawing and numbers. Chan and Louie (1992) have shown that children pick up on these graphic features quite early but, inevitably, in systems containing some very similar symbols, children can experience confusion — such as lower case b, p and d in English. Furthermore, children must learn variant forms, as with upper-case and lower-case versions; they must learn about disjoint symbols, such as accents in French; and learn about groups of letters that can function as single units, as in English sh, which are the source of frequent spelling errors (Treiman & Kessler, 2007).
A good strategy of teaching is: Spell the word by pictures
Pictures were pasted on charts and Subjects were asked to spell the name of that thing by using learned skills of how to spell.
Pronunciation and spelling
Because English incorporates the methods of several different languages, we have to accustom ourselves to many variations in the way certain sounds are spelt. Many common words are spelt wrongly because their pronunciation differs from their spelling or sometimes because they are mispronounced. To with persistently misspelt words, try to associate the word with another word in its family or invent ways of remembering the spelling:
e.g. medicine with medical, recognize with recognition, democracy with democrat.
Other Spelling improvement strategies
Missing letters
Different words with missing letters were written on the paper. It was asked to recognize the correct word, to see the missing word and then to fill the blanks by recognizing its sound.
Letter clues
The entire word was covered up and then gradually exposing each successive letter until the subjects could guess the correct word. For example garden, beautiful, mother, uncle, sparrow, carrot etc.
Mixed up letters
Words with no sequence were given to Subjects and were asked to write these words in order. For example fish as fshi, kite as ekti, flag as glaf etc.
Highlight words
Highlight words strategy was used by highlighting the difficult part of the word. Then Subjects were asked to make a mental picture of that word, read the word aloud and spell it aloud. For example, “SepArate” then were asked to think how the difficult part looks or sounds. So, while writing „separate. they might be thinking “sepArate. and thinking of that bold „red A.
By using these strategies, remarkable improvements were noticed in the spelling. Post assessment indicated improvements:
• Relate sounds with symbols, subjects were well aware of phoneme grapheme relationship.
• By understanding the sounds subjects were able to recognize missing alphabet in the word.
• They were able to encode the words.
• They were able to spell a bit difficult word through exercise of highlight words.
CALL and listening, speaking and pronunciation
The addition of sound to computers in the 1980s brought listening away from the linear tape and allowed the blending of onscreen graphics and text, leading to multimedia environments. Digitized speech and video offer greater control for the listener, and the addition of technologies for supporting meaning, such as L1 and L2 captions, glosses and explanatory notes, can
improve both immediate comprehension and acquisition (Borrás and Lafayette, 1994).
speaking practice in a CALL setting has largely been of two types: pairs or groups of students speaking to one another as they sit in front of a computer engaged in a task, or individual students using the computer to record their voice, often in the context of pre-determined dialogues.
applications are far from the types of experiences found in normal face-to-face interactions. More natural speaking practice is now possible using asynchronous means such as online audio discussion boards (e.g. Wimba) and podcasting. Skype and other VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) applications allow audio and video connecting computer to computer at little or no cost.
In the area of pronunciation, there are three major types of applications. The simplest is the digital version of the tape recorder, where learners use the computer to listen to native speakers’ models, and then record and compare their own voices in an attempt to match that model. A second area that can be combined with recording is speech visualization. Here too, learners attempt to match a model, but instead of just hearing it, they view a graphic representation of it: the complex wave form, the spectrogram showing bands of stronger and weaker resonance at different frequencies, or an extracted wavy line representing the pitch contour. Although the value of matching
wave forms and spectrograms is questionable due to their complexity, practice with pitch contours has been shown in several studies to be effective in raising awareness and performance in intonation (Chun, 2002) and tone in tonal languages. The third application is using ASR (automatic speech recognition) to judge roughly how close a learner’s speech is to a norm for native speakers. Feedback to the learner can be presented in the form of a meter or numerical score, although in addition to problems with judgemental accuracy (native speakers may be tagged as non-native for instance) there are clear limitations to the value of such feedback since it does not tell the
learner where the breakdown is occurring or what to do to improve. A few recent applications such as Carnegie Speech (www.carnegiespeech.com) have been able to pinpoint specific phonemes within a word or phrase that need work and offer targeted explanations and exercises for improvement.
Conclusion
The new competences and skills needed for the knowledge-based society demand the continuous change of educational practices. Learners growing
up in the digital age are far more experienced and able to process information rapidly than were their predecessors. Therefore, teachers should give
priority to learners own explorative, constructive and communicative activities instead of a teacher-centred knowledge transfer model of education.
The study revealed that the use of computer applications within teaching and learning of Management could have positive effects, on one hand, and negative effects, on the other hand.
Though using computer applications in education has shown educational benefits, changing traditional teaching and learning is yet a challenging process. Some progress is being made, but there is a need for more and advanced research aimed at improving and generalizing the positive effects of using computer applications in education and eliminating the negative effects of these practices. This could lead to better learning and teaching processes and also to the development of new and attractive methods for teaching and learning. Promoting good practices of using computer applications in the educational field could contribute to increasing the trust in these new methods.
By the way there is no positive/negative effect, it is all about learning and finding better way of spelling. Computer apps are supportive.
We should mention that computer application is limited, spelling occurs in time by human. Applications can provide form which is found correct.
