TEACHING OF ENGLISH THROUGH EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

THIS IS TRIBUTE TO ONE OF BEST TEACHERS OF GHORAKHAL EVER PRODUCED LATE MR.KL.TRIVEDI.
I AM POSTING HERE SOME EXTRACT OF ONE OF HIS LECTURES I CAN RECALL....

TEACHING OF ENGLISH THROUGH EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

INTRODUCTION:-
Gone are the days when teaching could be done with the black board as the only aid.now,educational technology provides various aids to make teaching very effecting and interesting.
In the teaching of English as a second language,communication is very important.spoken enlish,conversation,pronunciation,original writing etc, are to be given due importance in the new communicative approach.
In a populous country like ours,centralised examination can not be discarded suddenly. Until schools are given freedom to have individualised evaluation,centralised examination will continue.Until then ,how are we to test communicative skills?
The only way is language laboratory with equipment provided by educational technology and a 'Practical Examination' at the end of schooling (Secondary or higher secondary)
to test those skills.
An attempt is made is this essay to highlight the need for use of educational technology in the teaching of English,the ways in which it can be manipulated in the teaching and students of undergraduate (10+2) Classes can be helped to learn.

T.V.And Video in Class:

Tape-recorders,overhead projectors,slides/film projectors,radio, T.V. and Vedio cassettes can successfully be used in the teaching of English in India. They will help motivate learners to learn and use English for their short/long term needs . They are attractive and can add an extra dimension to teaching. They can help the teachers of English make teaching interesting and enable students to learn in an informal atmosphere without tension Educational technology is a catalyst and an imaginative teacher of English will be able to use it to facilitate learning and make learning and make learning fascinating.
Television is one of the most powerful means of communication. It is also a potent medium for the teaching and learning of languages. Video equipment is an additional resource to any teaching and learning programme. It is a very efficient medium in Foreign/Second language learning and teaching situations and it can be used to promote teaching and learning English in India very efficiently.
Television programmes are ephemeral . Vedio helps to overcome this problem. In the telecast mode, T.V. programmes are presented in linear fashion.the programme starts and continues till the end . the viewr can not stop or review an earlier part of the programme as a reader can do with a book.but with the video it is possible for the viewer to stop view,review or fast forward a programme over and over again,thus video programmes enable the learners to use at his/her will.A significant advantage of using video recorders in class is the controlled presentation of communicative scenes.the teacher or the learner can interrupt and replay sequences,freeze an action or a scene and even take away the sound or vision.
Two or three minutes of authentic television programme from doordarshan recorded on a video tape can easily provide enough stimulating input for one hour’s teaching .extracts from television programme can be used flexibly at various labels to develop major language skills and subskills which the learners would need.relating video materials to the rest of the class work and learners need and interests will depend upon the expertise and versatility of the teacher with ELT and the use of modern technology in education.

LARGE CLASSES :-
Some may feel that large classes threaten the very possibility of using this wonderful medium to teach enlish.nevertheless , a resourceful teacher of enlish will be able to devise ways and means to use video programmes for effective communicative activities in the classroom and enable learners to develop their capacity and help them use enlish appropriately and effectively.A large class can be divided into groups and each group can be given atleast half an hour a week for language activities based on T.V /Video programmes . This will not only provide the students with a change but also motivate them to practice and use English.

CONCLUSION;-
T.V and Video are additional tools in the hands of an English teacher .They have to be used to supplement the existing teaching methods and materials. No attempt is being here to suggest that these tools can replace all other tools and teaching aids,resources to augment T.V/Video materials and vise versa.
Finally the use of technology has implications for curriculum development course construction and teaching training because the educational technology can play an important role in the learning process . Therefore it is important to review the courses in English presently being used to teach English in our schools so that the educational technology could become an integral part of teaching ENGLISH.