Научная статья : The use of information and communication technologies in language learning

The use of information and communication technologies in

language learning

Бухарский филиал Ташкентского института ирригации и инженеров механизации сельского хозяйства, Узбекистан

Джураев Шарафиддин Бобокулович

Студент 2 –курса факультета гидромелиорации

One of the most essential things in learning a language is vocabulary. As it is the way of expressing our thoughts and opinions about everything. Therefore teaching vocabulary to the students especially in effective way is important.

According to the article of a teaching site, it stated that in order to effectivly acquire new vocabulary, students must go through four essential stages:

• first, they notice a new word with help;

• secondly, they recognize the word at first with help,

• than later on their own;

• and lastly, they are able to both recognize and produce the word.

• Pupils need to encounter a new word 10 to 16 times to effectively "learn" it according to recent research?

When we come across a word and try to understand its meaning we will have to look at the context in which it is used. In the past, students were usually presented with reading text, text books or pictures when they studied vocabulary. However, s development of information and computer technology (ICT), teaching and studying activities have become more varied, especially when dealing with vocabulary.

As a media of education, ICT can provide many solutions for teachers. So every teacher knows that, whenever he is presenting a new topic with a small or large number of new words, students are supposed to learn, understand and memorize those words. However, many teachers also realize that there is only small chance to make students learn all the necessary, at best, they will learn them by heart mechanically, parrot them back at us and write some test and then probably forget the new vocabulary. To activate the new vocabulary and to use the new words in the context, the teachers need some new techniques which will interact and satisfy the students who live in the era of ICT now. That’s why the meaning of ICT tools becomes more important. It’s a valuable tool to improve teaching and learning vocabulary, not only for students but also for teachers. For teachers, ICT is a professional resource to explore many methods of teaching vocabulary. ICT provides opportunities to develop their vocabulary by doing many activities. The integration of ICT in teaching and learning is considered as a medium in which a variety of approaches and pedagogical philosophies maybe implemented. However, ICT as a teaching aid is more complicated in that. It demands more specific skills from the teachers. That means the teacher also plays an important role.

As one of the tools is teaching vocabulary, ICT has some significant benefits. It has the capability to control presentation, increase variety and creativity, provide feedback on learning activity, and it can also be adapted easily with any materials.

When presenting a new word, students should be given an interesting material to attract attention. Unlike books and dictionaries which have fixed presentation, computer can combine visual with listening materials, texts with graphics and pictures even movies. For the lower level learners, these learning activities are interesting and challenging. Instead of reading and memorizing, students can directly be involved into the activity. Through watching videos, students are introduced with many new vocabularies in a fun way. Those vocabularies are presented directly in the real context with the real images. So students will easily remember it. ICT also increase variety and creativity in presenting new words. With ICT, teachers can use different materials for each lesson. Computer programmes can be adapted by teachers to suit their students’ needs and level of language knowledge. Unlike books, which are produced in a single uniform format and need to be taught irrespectively of students’ problems.

With the using of hypermedia, the methodology of learning language has developed to a new way. Hypermedia can provide the language teacher and language learner with multimedia resources, such as animation, sounds, movie, games, video, etc. Hypermedia offers an environment which combines listening with seeing.

It was observed by the teachers that the students prefer visual annotations to textual and audio annotations. Video and graphic annotations were accessed when students wanted to retrieve background information about the topic, and graphic annotations were used to illustrate the meanings of words.

In summary, it can be pointed out that vocabulary and reading comprehension are closely related to each other. ICT, the internet and modern technology is on the forefront of language teaching offering teachers and students a like the opportunity to explore and even exploit English in ways that were not possible before. Students are able to use English with ICT in a very natural, realistic environment, enabling to communicate more effectively in the new language.

The programs should be interactive, allowing the students to make choices. Also, they should consist of a wide range of different types of exercises in which students not only choose the right answers but also type in answers.

There is a reciprocal relationship between vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. The better the students’ vocabulary knowledge is, the better they perform with reading comprehension tasks. Similarly, the more the students read using the appropriate skills and strategies, the more their vocabulary develops. Multimedia plays an important part in both vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension; therefore, instructors should be aware of the potential benefits of integrating technology in the language classroom.

In conclusion, although it has been mentioned the benefits of using ICT in teaching vocabulary, it should also stated that ICT can not replace traditional teaching methods. Text books and any other printed materials are very necessary in the teaching and learning process, especially in the remote area. But one thing for sure, ICT lesson can alternate traditional classes, or traditional activities can be improved by using the computer or the internet.