How to Teach English with Technology

G. Dudeney and N. Hockly

Pearson Education Limited 2007, 192 pp., £18.95

isbn 978 1 4058 5309 6

Blended Learning

P. Sharma and B. Barrett

Macmillan 2007, 160 pp., £13.95

isbn 978 0 230 02083 2

The use of new technologies in English languageteaching has experienced an increment in the lastyears. However, very little has been published so faron the how-to aspect of technology integration in thiscontext. Two recent books fill in this gap: BlendedLearning and How to Teach English with Technology.I adoptedbothpublications formycomputer-assistedlanguage learning (CALL) course last semester, and

my students, who are pre-service English teachers,welcomed them warmly. Part of my students’enthusiasm stems from the fact that the publicationsallowed themto see inpracticewhat they had learnt intheory. Informed by the latest developments inlanguage teaching theory and practice, these bookscovermanyof thegrowing rangeof technologies usedin ELT and offer practical ideas which teachers canincorporate into their teaching.

Both publications are consistent with an ‘electronicliteracy approach’ (Shetzer and Warschauer 2000),which views technology not just as an aid forlanguage learning but rather as an important newmedium of literacy in its own right. According to thisapproach, language teaching professionals who haveaccess to computer technology are in a goodpositionto teach students not only language but also valuableskills and strategies in using computer technologythat can help them to cope with the requirements ofthe information technology society. Another keyconcept in the books under review is technologyintegration. Therefore, the main rationale underlyingboth publications is that technology use should be anintegral part of the teaching and learning process andnot a discrete activity to be undertaken in isolation ofthe rest of the learning. The books then provide verypractical and exciting ideas on how teachers can goabout developing effective ways of putting theseprinciples into practice.

Blended Learning is divided into nine chapters.Chapter 1 is dedicated to the authors’ definition of‘blended learning’—i.e. ‘a language course whichcombines a face-to-face classroom component withan appropriate use of technology’ (p. 7)—anda discussion of four principles, which, according tothe authors, should guide the process of technologyuse: (a) separating the role of the teacher and the roleof the technology, (b) teaching in a principled way,(c) using technology in a way in which it is wellintegrated into the teaching/learning process, and(d) thinking carefully about how technology canenhance learning. The following chapters areorganized around the various domains ofinformation and communication technologies(ICTs), such as web materials (both authentic andELT materials), electronic dictionaries, officesoftware, interactive whiteboards (IWBs), portableelectronics and wireless devices, and computer-mediated communication. Each chapter providesa description of the technologies in question,a discussion of the opportunities and challenges theypresent to the language teacher, and a ‘Practicalactivities’ section. The description of each activityincludes the pedagogical aims and rationale of the

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activity, the targeted level, interaction patterns,materials and technology required, and step-by-stepguidelines for theprocedure.Most chapters concludewith a ‘Case studies’ section, which is based on theinsights of practitioners who made use of newtechnologies in their practice. This section combinesboth the description of the teaching process anda discussion of problems and constraintsencountered by the teachers involved. The bookalso includes 17 photocopiable worksheets, whichcan be used to support the implementation of thesuggested pedagogical activities.

How to Teach English with Technology is divided into12 chapters. The introductory chapter discusses therole of technology in language teaching, examines thedifferent attitudes to technology, and outlines thebasic skills and equipment that teachers need inorder to start using technology in their teaching. Theother 11 chapters focus on a wide range of ICTapplications, such as word processors, IWBs, web-based materials, email and chat, social software(blogs, wikis, and podcasts), and CALL software.Each chapter starts with a discussion of the rationalefor using the technology in question and thenpresents practical suggestions on how to exploit thepotential of this technology in the ELT context. Keyideas are summarized at the end of each chapterfollowed by a reference to the accompanyingCD-ROM, which provides further resources andinformation on the topic. The book also includes12 photocopiable worksheets, which can be used inteacher training sessions, and a glossary of importantterms. The CD-ROM includes audio commentariesof English teachers from various parts of the worldtalking about their experience of using newtechnologies in their teaching, a webliography, videotutorials on using various pieces of software (e.g.Hot Potatoes), and a short video clip of an IWB inaction in a classroom.

Both books thus provide a rich resource ofinformation for current use of technology in the ELT

context. The authors of both books are experiencedlanguage practitioners and teacher trainers in the ELTfield and this shows in the range and pedagogicalappropriacy of thematerial. Most activities proposedare based on a socio-cognitive view ofcommunicative teaching, which is in line with thelatest developments in ELT research and practice.Many of these activities focus on collaboration andproject-based work, in which pupils are involved incompleting real-world and relevant tasks. Both booksalso place a strong emphasis on the use of newtechnologies to support the development of learnerautonomy. Several activities proposed aim at (a)

educating learners to be critical users of ICT (e.g. byevaluating the accuracy and appropriacy of languageused on blogs or by evaluating the use of Google asa tool to find and test collocations) and (b) raisinglearner awareness of language learning strategies(e.g. by using word processing for supportingvocabulary memory strategies).

One of the strongest points about the books is thatthey appeal to teachers at all levels of technologicalproficiency. Teachers who are unfamiliar with newtechnologies will benefit from (a) the very easy-to-follow tutorials of how to work with variousapplications, (b) print-screen pictures from theseapplications, and (c) basic information for beginners,as for instance, the short tutorial on how to copy andpaste material from the Internet. The moreexperienced CALL practitioners will profit from newideas and fresh approaches to technology use.Another advantage for them is that the variouschapters are relatively independent from each other,which allows the techno-teachers to pick andchoose their way through the book. They can identifythe gaps in their knowledge and go straight to thosesections they are interested in.

To some extent, the two books are complementaryand there are only a few overlaps between them.Although the books deal with similar technologyapplications, they vary in the depth in which theycover these applications. For instance, while thechapter on word processing inHow to Teach Englishwith Technology is very detailed and provides varioussuggestions of language learning activities which canbe supported by this tool, in Blended Learning, thistopic is dealt with in a superficial manner. On theother hand, the topic ‘Interactive whiteboard’ isrelatively well covered and illustrated in BlendedLearning, and How to Teach English with Technologyonly provides a basic introduction to the mainfeatures of this technology.

The two books also vary in some ways regardingthe nature of the activities they propose. BlendedLearning has a stronger focus on how technology canbe used to link classroom learning to language useoutside the classroom. Therefore, most of thepractical activities suggested by the authors areaimed at providing opportunities for learner trainingand for the development of language learningstrategies. How to Teach English with Technology, onthe other hand, presents and discusses pedagogicalactivities that can be more easily integrated into theregular language classroom. Although the formerbook offers a greater amount of activities, the latterdevotes more space to a clear explanation of therationale and description of how the activities could

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be implemented, by making extensive use ofsnapshots and step-by-step tutorials.

Both publications provide numerous references tointeresting and useful Internet-based materials.Although this could constitute aproblem,aswebsitesoften disappear and links are broken, the publishersof both publications have tackled this issueeffectively by creating online solutions for providingregular updates of their content. Blended Learning issupportedby awebsitewhichupdates the contents ofthe book and adds new useful links and ideas, whilethe publishers ofHow to Teach Englishwith Technologymade their webliography available on the companywebsite, which also facilitates regular updates.

I would recommend both books without hesitation.I think they are invaluable resources for languageteachers and teacher trainers and they complementeach other in several ways. However, two points ofcriticism are worth mentioning.

One of my criticisms is Blended Learning’s specialfocus on activities that target the higher level adultlearner. Although I believe that teachers whowork with lower levels could still adapt some of theideas to their own contexts, the publication wouldappeal to a wider audience if the authors had workedwith a greater variety of activities for different levelsand age groups.

I also would have liked to see a stronger connectionbetween research and practice in both publications.In my view, the authors could have strengthened thecontent of these books by making clearer referencesto CALL research. In How to Teach English withTechnology, for instance, the authors sometimesmention research that has been conducted on theuse of a specific technology (e.g. ‘there has beensome research’ p. 74), but the references are notprovided. In fact, one of the few complaints made bymy students about these publications was their lackof references to academic research. I clearlyunderstand that both are practice-orientedpublications and they would not have enough spacefor in-depth discussions of research findings.However, a consistent reference to high-qualityacademic research in the ELT and CALL fields wouldcertainly benefit teachers and teacher trainers withan interest in exploring the issues discussed in thebook in more depth.

ReferencesShetzer, H. andM. Warschauer. 2000. An electronicliteracy approach to network-based languageteaching in M. Warschauer and R. Kern (eds.).

Network-based Language Teaching: Concepts andPractice. New York: Cambridge University Press.

The reviewerEuline Cutrim Schmid is an assistant professor ofApplied Linguistics and TEFL at the University ofEducation, Heidelberg, in Germany. She teaches atundergraduateandpostgraduate levelsona variety oftopics including computer-assisted languagelearning (CALL), linguistics, and qualitative researchmethodologies. She is a CALL researcher and herwork has focused mainly on the use of interactivewhiteboard technology and learner response systemsin the ELT context. Her current research is concernedwith teachers’ perspectives in technology integration.Email: euline.cutrim.schmid@ph-heidelberg.dedoi:10.1093/elt/ccn045

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