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TEACHING ENGLISH TO DIGITAL NATIVE STUDENTS

Yuliani Kusuma Putri

STBA Yapari-ABA Bandung WEST JAVA, INDONESIA

STBA Yapari-ABA

English Department Jln. Cihampelas No. 194 Bandung

West Java, Indonesia 40131 Email: youlee.kape@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

It goes without saying that in this digital era, teachers are obliged to at least understand how

to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) media in their teaching. With the next generation students, the digital natives, teachers as digital immigrants are expected to adapt their teaching methods by adding the use of multimedia and/or internet to their class

activities, in order for the class to be more attractive, interactive, and innovative. In English teaching and learning, it is important that the learning process be fun so that the digital native

students do not feel bored by the learning. It is also the duty of English teachers to insert ICT media to their teaching activities, not only to make the class more interesting, but also to guide the students to utilise the media more wisely and smartly. Using ICT media in English

teaching and learning will also improve students’ creativity and they can learn English even without the presence of the teachers. Learning English with ICT media will also improve the

digital native students’ 21st Century Skills. What are the activities in English teaching and learning that the ICT media can be inserted? How are the ICT media inserted in such activities? What skills can the students improve after learning English using such ICT media

in the activities? This paper focuses on English teaching and learning activities that can be done using ICT media.

Keywords: Digital Native Students, Digital Immigrant Teachers, ICT

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BACKGROUND

Technological advancement has forced us to enter the environment of Digital Age, where

everything is going digital, such as digital books, digital libraries, and even digital classrooms. It is inevitable that those who do not adapt to it will become those who are left behind.

This new age has also influenced the field of education; it has obliged schools to provide at

least computers to support the teaching and learning process, including the English learning process. Some schools have also provided both students and teachers with free internet access. In order for the free facilities to be utilised wisely, it is important that both students

and teachers be familiar with their use for the ease of English teaching and learning process.

Students today are mostly digital natives. Born in the digital era, they have become familiar with the use of technology such as computers and internet. They have even gotten attached to ICT media in their everyday lives due to internet-based-mobile-phones. It is now the duty of

teachers to encourage them into the correct use of ICT media in order to help students learn more effectively. One of the ways is to insert the media into their learning activities.

DIGITAL NATIVE STUDENTS AND DIGITAL IMMIGRANT TEACHERS

The terms Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants were first introduced by Prensky in 2001 in his work “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”. Both terms are metaphors for people who were born before and after the Digital Age. The term Digital Natives comes in many names

such as Net-Generation (Tapscott, 1998, 2009, Oblinger & Oblinger 2005), Millennials (Howe and Strauss, 1991, 2000, 2003), and Generation Y (Jorgensen, 2003; Weiler, 2005;

McCrindle, 2006). Digital natives are children who were/are born during the digital age, that is to say, in the last

decades of 20th century where everything has gone digital. Prensky (2009: 117) states that by virtue of being born in the digital age, our students are digital natives by definition, but that

does not mean they were ever taught everything (or anything, in some cases) about computers or other technologies, or that all of them learned on their own.

Digital natives are those who were born when computers, video games, digital music players, video cameras, and digital cameras had been invented and used worldwide. According to

Prensky (2001: 1), “Today’s average college graduates have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are

integral parts of their lives”. This shows that students today have changed their ways of thinking and absorbing information, which are exceptionally different from their

predecessors. This has brought up issues to conventional educational system, and raised a question whether the system suits them perfectly.

Digital immigrants, on the other hand, are those who were not born in the digital age, but have adapted and been able to use most aspects of the technological advancement. Present-

day teachers are digital immigrants, because they had been born even before the digital media

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were invented or at least when the media were being developed. Prensky said that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an out-dated language (that of the pre-digital age), are

struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language (2001: 2). Some digital immigrant teachers may find the new technology surprising, and some may just feel obliged

to adapt to it in order to keep up with their digital native students. Digital immigrants have their own ‘accents’ when they communicate in this digital age, such

as the most obvious example ‘Have you got my email?’ They also prefer to print out emails to read instead of reading them from their mailbox. They still believe going to the bookstore

or library is the best solution to find resources, whilst most of the information they need is available on the internet by just one click away. They would also rather search for information offline, i.e. asking other friends rather than google it. On the contrary, digital

natives have their ‘language’ that most immigrants do not understand. They prefer the practical use of technology. They believe internet is the main source of information. They

have their own private ‘e-library’ where they keep e-books in their own computers, laptops, or even tablets. When they want to find some information, they google it first instead of asking their parents/teachers.

There are some different ways of thinking between digital native students and digital immigrant teachers. Prensky (2001: 2) elaborates that digital native students are used to receiving information really fast while digital immigrant teachers choose to receive it slowly.

Digital native students like to parallel process and multi-task, but digital immigrant teachers like the process to be step-by-step and they prefer to do one thing at a time. Digital native

students also prefer to see pictures, graphics, sounds, and videos before text and immigrant teachers are the opposite. In addition, native students choose random access (hypertext) over one source. Native students also function best when networked; on the contrary, immigrant

teachers prefer to work individually. Finally, native students choose games over serious work while immigrant teachers prefer serious work.

DIGITAL NATIVE STUDENTS AND DIGITAL IMMIGRANT TEACHERS IN EFL

TEACHING AND LEARNING

It is inevitable that EFL teachers need to improve their teaching methods by adapting themselves to the latest trends. The old-school teaching methods they have been applying will

not seem to work well for their digital native students. Their ‘language’ also needs improving in order that students understand what they try to communicate. If teachers insist on using

their ‘language’, students will not pay attention to the learning process because it is not understandable to them. “Often from the Natives’ point of view their Digital Immigrant instructors make their education not worth paying attention to compared to everything else

they experience – and then they blame them for not paying attention,” (Prensky, 2001: 3).

In EFL teaching and learning, a friendly learning environment is needed. For digital native students, it is essential that the environment be fun, attractive, and interactive, where they can both learn and play, without losing the essence of education. EFL immigrant teachers must be

willing to listen to their students’ voice in order to achieve the objectives of education. Learning English, or learning any language, is different from learning Mathematics, Physics,

or Chemistry in a way that languages change/improve through times. That is why EFL

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teachers must also improve themselves and the learning process along with the improvements of technology and educational system. One of the ways in improving the learning process of

English in this digital age is to insert technology or ICT media in the classroom.

When we talk about inserting ICT media in classroom, it does not always refer to PowerPoint presentations. There are abundant ICT resources English immigrant teachers can use in classroom, consisting of both offline and online resources. Offline resources, including

PowerPoint presentations, are those which do not need to be connected to the internet in their use, for example videos, audios, and offline video games. Online resources, on the other

hand, needs to be connected to the internet to access them; such as social media Facebook, Twitter, and Path; blogs such as Blogspot, Tumblr, and Wordpress; Youtube video browser; and instant messaging such as Skype, G-Talk, Whatsapp Messenger, and Line. Both offline

and online resources can be utilise to help immigrant teachers teach English to digital native students.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES WITH ICT MEDIA

ICT media in English teaching and learning process can be used especially for the basic skill

activities. The four English basic skills are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Immigrant teachers can use videos, audios, even offline video games to teach listening to their native students. As we all know, free resources for English listening can be downloaded

from the internet. Using those offline resources, immigrant teachers can both teach listening and instruct native students to create similar projects to the resources. This activity can even

be more interactive since students get involved in the learning process and they also have a product. In my listening class, I created videos consisting of several persons asking questions for students’ final project. They had to answer all the questions by recording their own videos

answering the questions. In the project, I gave my students the freedom to improvise their videos. As a result, they not only improved their listening skill, but they also got more

creative. The videos were both distributed to the students and uploaded to Youube in case some students did not get the offline copy from their friends.

Image 1 Video for Listening Final Term

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Image 2 Digital Native Students’ Videos in Response to Listening Final Term Video

Another tool that can be used in English listening activity is a radio-streaming programme for Android. As we all know, almost everyone, including digital native students, has at least one

Android mobile phone. Instead of using the mobile phone solely for communication, immigrant teachers can instruct native students to install a radio-streaming programme on their mobiles, such as TuneIn Radio, that can stream radio channels from all around the

world. For both listening and speaking class, immigrant teachers may tell native students to listen to some English radio channels and find out the current issues and discuss them in

class. This way, native students will be able to enhance their critical and systematic thinking. For speaking activities, immigrant teachers can also utilise native students’ Android,

Windows, or iOS phones. Today’s communication is done via instant messaging, because instant messengers such as Whatsapp, Line, Kakao Talk, and Blackberry Messenger can not

only send text messages but also voice notes, pictures, and videos. Immigrant teachers might use these applications to encourage native students’ speaking ability; say, by recording their voice having a dialogue or giving opinions about something and send it to teachers’

messenger using voice notes. In this case, immigrant teachers must also install similar applications on their mobile phones. This activity will improve the ability of either immigrant

teachers or native students in ICT literacy, which is completely needed in this digital age. There are also some offline media that can be used for speaking activities, still using mobile

phones. Immigrant teachers can instruct their native students to make their own movies or short videos using their mobiles. If immigrant teachers want to supervise their students as

they make the video, they can make some role-plays in class, with the supervision of teachers, and record them. This will lead students to have media literacy skill, which enables them to understand and utilise the most appropriate expressions and interpretations in diverse,

multi-cultural environment (IMLS: 2014).

Offline or online ICT media can also be used for reading activities. The easiest and simplest way to use ICT media for reading activities is give native students reading resources they are going to learn in PDF format so they will be able to read them on their notebooks, tablets, or

mobile phones by themselves. Teachers can use already existing resources that can be obtained free from the internet; however, it is better if teachers develop the resources for

students’ exercise. Teachers can add reading-comprehension-skill questions in the resources, or they might ask students to rewrite the readings into a paragraph using their own words, which can be done both individually and workgroup. In the conclusion of the paragraph,

students may give their own opinions about what they have read. In this way, students may improve their ability to reason effectively, use system thinking, and make judgements and

decisions.

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In addition, immigrant teachers can also conduct the activity online. They can put the reading resources on their blogs (the links or the texts), and have the students read them. In such

activity, it is important that teachers have their own blogs. Such offline and online activities for reading can also improve the students’ writing skills, since they are asked to rewrite and

conclude. In writing class, immigrant teachers may ask their students to write diaries or journals in

either their notebooks or mobile phones. It is recommended that students write their diaries on their notebooks instead of their mobiles, because this way, teachers can examine the

diaries straight from Microsoft Word documents. It is possible to tell students to collect their diaries in DOC format every week or every other week. Teachers can review students’ work using Review toolbar in the programme and they can proofread them without having to print

it out.

For the online version of the activity, teachers can also instruct their students to create their own blogs and start writing their diaries and posting them online. Here, teachers are expected to follow their students’ blogs even though it is only once in a while. This activity, however,

only works effectively when teachers handle a small class, i.e. a class of 5 to 15 students. There are still many ways of inserting ICT media to EFL classroom as part of students’

activities. It is the duty of English immigrant teachers to improvise their teaching activities.

CONCLUSION

Technological advancement has helped both English learners and teachers provide and improve resources for teaching and learning. Teachers, as digital immigrants, have a new duty to utilise the improvement of technology in their classroom activities. Teachers are also

obliged to monitor their students, the digital natives, to make use of the digital media they possess to help them in the English learning. Both digital immigrant teachers and digital

native students must collaborate well in order to achieve the objectives of English learning in this digital age.

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REFERENCES

21st Century Skills Definition. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.imls.gov/about/ global_awareness.aspx.

Jones, C. & Shao, B. (2011). The Net Generation and Digital Natives. UK: The Open

University.

Palfrey, J. & Gasser, U. (2008). Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital

Natives. USA: Basic Books. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. In On the Horizon Volume 9 No. 5,

October 2001. MCB University Press.

-------------. (2006). Don’t Bother Me, Mom –I’m Learning! United States: Paragon House. -------------. (2009). Teaching Digital Natives – Partnering for Real Learning. Corwin Press.

-------------. (2011). From Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom. In From Digital Natives to

Digital Wisdom: Hopeful Essays for 21st Century Education 2012. Corwin.