Fichamento 5 - "ESL teachers’ use of ICT in teaching English literature: An analysis of teachers’ TPCK"

Por Camila Dias da Silva e Jenny Yoshioka.

Identificação:

ZAINAL, Azlin. ESL teachers’ use of ICT in teaching English literature: An analysis of teachers’ TPCK. Procedia –Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 34, 2012, p. 234-237. Available in http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042812003527. Access in March, 14^th.

Resumo: Effective integration of ICT in English language teaching classroom depends on a host of factors. One of the important factors is teachers’ knowledge and skills in using ICT in class. This paper reports a case study of four secondary school ESL teachers’ use of ICT in English literature to second language (L2) learners. The data collection method includes observation of teachers’ lessons. Each lesson was video recorded and played back during a stimulated recall interview with teachers after each lesson. The TPCK model proposed by Mishra and Koehler (2006) is used as a framework for the analysis of the interview data. They suggest that teachers’ use of technology is guided by the dynamic relationship between teachers’ technological, pedagogical and content knowledge. The analysis of the interview data will hopefully provide a better understanding of how the different types of knowledge interact and influence teachers’ use of ICT in teaching English literature to L2 learners. Furthermore, through an analysis of teachers’ use of ICT in teaching specific subject content, this study also hopes to advance the development of the TPCK model. The findings will also contribute to an understanding of the role of literature in language teaching.

Palavras-chave: ESL; English literature; secondary education; TPCK.

Citações:

1.      Introduction

“The use of literary texts in a language learning classroom can be a source of valuable authentic material, cultural enrichment, language enrichment and to develop personal involvement (Collie & Slater, 1987). Furthermore, literature can be motivating material and help learners to develop their interpretative abilities (Lazar, 1993).” (p. 234);

“While most of these studies demonstrate exemplary use of technology, there has been limited research focusing on teachers’ pedagogical approaches in teaching literature in the language learning classroom. Paran (2006) calls for more research investigating the approaches taken in teaching literature with specific types of language learners and in specific countries.” (p. 235).

2.      Methodology

“The data was analysed to answer the research question: How do ESL teachers integrate ICT in teaching English literature?” (p. 235);

“The technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) framework, developed by Mishra and Koehler (2006) (…) proposed that teachers’ use of technology is guided by the dynamic relationship between teachers’ technological, pedagogical and content knowledge. (…) requires teachers to be ‘continually creating, maintaining, and re-establishing a dynamic equilibrium between each component’ (Koehler & Mishra, 2008: 20).” (p. 235).

3.      Discussion

3.1 ICT as an aid to comprehension

“Based on the data, all of the teachers used ICT as a presentation tool to address learner difficulties in comprehending literary texts. (…) Teacher A’s teaching of The Drover’s Wife by Henry Lawson where she used a CD-ROM to explain and check learners’ understanding of the short story. The traditional mode of reading from a book was transformed as learners viewed a multimedia presentation which contained animation, narration and lines from the original texts. (…). The learners’ low levels of proficiency would have been an obstacle for them to appreciate the story through reading alone and the use of multimedia enabled them to access the text through a different medium.” (p. 235).

3.2. ICT to promote learner response to literary texts

“Analysis of the data also revealed that teachers’ TPCK included knowledge of how to use ICT in a student-centred way. (…). The aim of the lesson was not to learn about the mechanics of the poem but rather to see how the learners responded to the poem. (…), the teacher believed that it would help the students to ‘internalise the poem and that [it] will help them understand the poem better’. Although there was no collaborative work and not all learners had the opportunity to use ICT, the learners were engaged in oral interaction with the whole class. (…), the use of ICT as a presentation tool in this lesson was effective in creating a learning environment where learners were free to share their personal views both orally and in writing.” (p. 236).

3.3. ICT to promote language awareness

“An analysis of the lessons further reveals that the teaching of literature was also integrated with the language practice. (…). The task required them to understand the meaning of words. (…). The activity provided by the program enabled a contextualized way of learning new vocabulary as they were not required to match the words with the definition but with the textual evidence regarding the character.” (p. 236).

3.4. ICT to increase learner motivation

“The teachers’ integration of ICT was also influenced by its impact in motivating learners to learn English literature. Teacher C stated that the use of ICT was more interesting than reading books and enabled learners to be more focused.” (p. 236);

“(…) The teacher acknowledge that there was no focus on the language: the aim of the activity was just to sing an English song “because students like music, they like to sing but they don’t really sing English songs.” She believed that the learners could be inclined towards different ways of learning and the use of multimedia presentations that included music and visuals could help learners to remember better.” (p. 236).

4.      Conclusions

“The effectiveness of the lessons largely depended on teachers’ knowledge on how to use ICT in ways that could benefit learners, and not just for the sake of convenience. In Sum, the evidence from these case analyses would suggest that teachers’ TPCK is related to their beliefs about the value of technology in addressing learners’ needs such as language difficulty and motivation. (…). The evidence from the case analyses would suggest that teachers’ TPCK could be further developed with more guidance on how to creatively integrate any prepared computer programs in ways that promote learner interaction during English literature lessons. This could begin by requiring teachers to examine their own beliefs about the value of any prepared programs and to evaluate their potential use in meeting learner needs.” (p. 237).