Xorijiy lingvistika va lingvodidaktika
–
Зарубежная
лингвистика
и
лингводидактика
–
Foreign
Linguistics and Linguodidactics
Journal home page:
https://inscience.uz/index.php/foreign-linguistics
Challenges and achievements of using digital technologies
in English language teaching
Alfiya BAKIROVA
Uzbekistan Armed Forces Academy
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Article history:
Received July 2024
Received in revised form
10 August 2024
Accepted 25 August 2024
Available online
25 September 2024
This article analyzes the denotative and connotative
meanings of lexemes and phrasemes. As linguistic units, words
and phrases play a crucial role in communication processes.
Words typically denote objects through their denotative
meaning, while phrases often serve as carriers of connotative,
emotionally charged meanings. The article explores the
structural and semantic features of lexemes and phrasemes,
highlighting the differences between these linguistic units.
Special attention is given to their roles and meanings in
linguistics, as well as their linguistic and extralinguistic
characteristics.
2181-3701
/©
2024 in Science LLC.
https://doi.org/10.47689/2181-3701-vol2-iss3
This is an open-access article under the Attribution 4.0 International
(CC BY 4.0) license (
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.ru
Keywords:
denotative meaning,
connotative meaning,
lexeme,
phraseme,
semantics,
linguistics,
linguistic unit,
emotional meaning,
stable units,
phraseology.
Ingliz
tilini
o‘qitishda
raqamli
texnologiyalarni
qo’llashning qiyinchiliklari va yutuqlari
ANNOTATSIYA
Kalit so
‘
zlar:
raqamli texnologiyalar,
rivojlanish,
zamonaviy dunyo,
ta'lim tizimi,
ingliz tili,
muammolar va yutuqlar,
onlayn dasturlar va
platformalar.
Ushbu
maqolada
ingliz
tilini
o'qitishda
raqamli
texnologiyalardan foydalanish muammolar va yutuqlar prizmasida
ko'rib chiqiladi. Uzoq vaqt davomida chet tilini o'rganish talabalar
tomonidan materialni eslab qolishga borib taqalardi. Mashg'ulotlar
qiziqarli va samarasiz edi, chunki talabalardan ko'pincha o'quv
materialini yoddan o'rganish va qayta-qayta takrorlash talab
qilinardi. Internet-texnologiyalarning rivojlanishi nafaqat ta'limni
yanada jonli, qiziqarli va rang-barang qiladi, balki talabalarning
ishtiyoqini oshiradi, fanga bo'lgan qiziqishni uyg'otadi va hayotning
hozirgi ritmida muhim rol o'ynaydigan o'rganishni avtonom tarzda
1
Teacher, Languages Department, Uzbekistan Armed Forces Academy.
Xorijiy lingvistika va lingvodidaktika
–
Зарубежная лингвистика
и лингводидактика
–
Foreign Linguistics and Linguodidactics
Special Issue
–
3 (2024) / ISSN 2181-3701
7
amalga oshirishga yordam beradi. Shuning uchun ham talabalar
ham, o'qituvchilar ham yangi kompyuter dasturlari va veb-
saytlarni yaratishga qiziqishmoqda.
Проблемы и достижения использования цифровых
технологий в преподавании английского языка
АННОТАЦИЯ
Ключевые слова:
цифровые технологии,
развитие,
современный мир,
система образования,
английский язык,
проблемы и достижения,
онлайн программы и
платформы
.
В данной статье рассмотрено использование цифровых
технологий в преподавании английского языка через призму
проблем
и
достижений.
Долгое
время
изучение
иностранного языка сводилось к механическому заучиванию
материала студентами. Занятия были малоинтересными и
непродуктивными, так как учащимся зачастую предлагалось
заучивать и многократно повторять учебный материал.
Развитие интернет
-
технологий не только делает обучение
более живым, интересным и разнообразным, но также
повышает мотивацию обучающихся, пробуждает интерес к
предмету и способствует автономному обучению, что
особенно важно в условиях современного ритма жизни.
Именно поэтому как студенты, так и преподаватели
заинтересованы в разработке новых компьютерных
программ и образовательных сайтов.
INTRODUCTION
The problem of teaching methods, despite the objectively observed expansion of their
arsenal in connection with the advent of the digital era, remains one of the most acute in pedagogy
and teaching methods. Evidence of this is the actual refusal of the authors of various programs
and teaching aids to indicate through the use of which techniques and teaching methods it is
supposed to achieve the set goals and objectives of training. This aspect is not reflected in the state
educational standards of general education. In them, the results of education (subject, as well as
personal and meta-subject) exist outside the approximate content of subject areas and individual
subjects. This is especially indicative in the field of teaching foreign languages, where the use of
digital technologies is certainly associated, among other things, with the implementation of their
communicative function.
By traditional technologies (methods, techniques) of teaching, we mean those that do not
provide for the interaction of subjects of the educational process with the digital environment. At
present, the semantic field of the concept of "digital technologies" (including in teaching English)
remains blurred. Many researchers give contradictory interpretations. Thus, S. V. Mikheeva,
identifies digital technologies for teaching English with IT technologies associated with the use of
the web environment and the formation of "digital literacy" [2]. I. V. Pevneva, O. N. Gavrishina
means the use of electronic dictionaries and online lectures by digital technologies for teaching a
foreign language [1]. There is also a concept of digital technologies as teaching technologies
associated with the use of computer technology [5]. In our opinion, these and other
interpretations of the term should be associated with the narrower concepts of computer
training, computer technologies, etc., still used in pedagogy and teaching methods, but not with
digital technologies. I. V. Robert interprets the concept of digital technologies differently [3]. She
Xorijiy lingvistika va lingvodidaktika
–
Зарубежная лингвистика
и лингводидактика
–
Foreign Linguistics and Linguodidactics
Special Issue
–
3 (2024) / ISSN 2181-3701
8
notes that digital technologies allow creation of a kind of copy of the physical world, while the
word "digital" reflects the tendency to intellectualize learning and is used to denote any object
that works with discrete values.
Adhering to this point of view, in our work, under digital technologies of teaching
(including the English language) we will understand a set of technologies, methods, and
techniques associated with the translation of information into a discrete form for the purpose of
its subsequent processing or perception.
None of the works reviewed above analyze the necessity and sufficiency of using digital
technologies. At the same time, in the indicated work, I. V. Robert identifies several factors of the
negative impact of digital technologies on the learning process. These, first of all, include the
"information overload" of the student, which occurs with excessive uncontrolled use of
information, with its chaotic search, without previously identified and recorded features
(keywords). Such unsystematic perception and use of information, especially presented in
audiovisual form, sometimes aggressively imposing bright images on the user, cuts off his ability
to analyze, and identify structural connections in the content of information. Also, I. V. Robert
operates with the concept of content "blindness", when the use of the technology itself masks or
replaces the goals, objectives and content of the information that the student can receive through
these technologies. We can state that this phenomenon was quite clearly manifested in the
process of our empirical study: it turned out to be more important for students to use (apply) a
smartphone than to complete a task with its help. In addition, in the above-mentioned work [3],
M. Sharipova also makes an important remark for us about the existing risk of losing social
communication skills (that is, the absence of subject-subject interaction), weakening the ability
for logical and critical thinking when using computer technologies [5].
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The idea of the study was to experimentally test the applicability of techniques, methods,
and technologies for teaching foreign languages, which have been repeatedly described in the
literature and various sources, revealing the didactic potential of search engines (Yandex, Google,
Yahoo) and voice assistants (Alice, Siri). Our work involves creating situations in English lessons
where students must use a computer or smartphone with the ability to use a search engine or
voice assistant to complete a task. These techniques have all the characteristics of technology, but
in our work, we deliberately use the term "technique" to emphasize that by using only digital
technologies in teaching English, it is impossible to achieve the necessary results, including those
prescribed in the requirements of the state standard of the Republic of Uzbekistan [4].
RESULTS AND ITS DISCUSSION
We will generalize the entire variety of techniques described in the methodological
literature into four groups:
1. Searching in a foreign-language search environment (for example, Yahoo.com).
Example: search in English and find who Babe Ruth is and what he is famous for. Explain in 2-3
sentences in English.
2. Voice search using Sigi on iPhone smartphones. The student is required to pronounce
correctly, its quality can be assessed by the text that appears on the screen during pronunciation.
Sigi can be asked to find information on the Internet, translate a word or phrase, find the meaning
of a word or phrase, show the weather in a locality, find a friend in a notebook and dial his number.
Example of a task: ask the Sigi voice assistant to perform in English.
3. Dialogue with Sigi in English. Although Sigi is only partially an artificial intelligence, you
can build fairly long dialogues with the voice assistant. You can ask Sigi to tell a story, but the
Xorijiy lingvistika va lingvodidaktika
–
Зарубежная лингвистика
и лингводидактика
–
Foreign Linguistics and Linguodidactics
Special Issue
–
3 (2024) / ISSN 2181-3701
9
assistant will refuse to do so and you need to persuade her. You can ask questions, even stupid
ones. The student's reaction to the answers, their understanding, and correct construction of the
response phrase are important.
4. Dialogue with the voice assistant Alice in English. The voice assistant Alice is installed on
a computer or smartphone as an application. The working languages of the application are
English and Russian. The assistant only works with an Internet connection. Assistant Alice is
essentially an artificial intelligence. Unlike Sigi, Alice can be trained to maintain a conversation,
including in English.
The above-mentioned techniques are chosen by the teacher independently, based on
pedagogical appropriateness, the goals and objectives of the lesson, technical feasibility, etc. It is
recommended to enter data for subsequent processing by the teacher after the lesson in the
questionnaire. This gives an idea of how the combination of digital teaching technologies with
traditional ones was implemented.
Teachers who conducted lessons using digital technology data using search engines
(Yandex, Google, Yahoo) and voice assistants (Alice, Siri) as an example concluded that
information search in the English-language environment using a search engine is optimal for
preparing, in particular, for a monologue speech. It turned out that work using this technology
helps involve all students, including in pairs. A comment from students from non-linguistic
universities who failed to complete the task of finding information about unusual sights was
noted, that the task "was more difficult than working with a Russian-language search engine",
since 1st-year students from non-linguistic universities do not understand Russian and English
well.
Similar results in a parallel group of the same 1st-year students when completing the task
are because, as indicated in the observations, not everyone understood the task and found facts
about cities in other countries. When planning a lesson using the search technique in a foreign
language environment, it was assumed that each of the students (or at least one of the pair) could
freely access the Internet from a smartphone. However, in practice, it turned out that, despite the
active use of instant messengers and applications on a smartphone, access to the Internet is in
many cases complicated by technical problems, restrictions on the mobile phone tariff (in the
ratio: 11 have access / 4 do not have, 9 have access / 2 do not have access, 7 have access / 6 do
not have access, etc.) [4].
Based on the results of one of the English lessons, it was noted that not all students had
access to the Internet for individual work, so it was the students of non-language universities who
chose the form of work in pairs. Also, following one of the lessons using this technology, the
teacher noted that students said that it is easier to work with the Google search engine compared
to Yahoo since Google also supports Uzbek-language queries. Thus, even when in a foreign-
language search environment, students try to use the opportunity to support the Uzbek language
and switch to interaction in their native language. One of the teachers conducting the lesson noted
that it is necessary to give preference to using search engines that do not support queries in the
native language.
Xorijiy lingvistika va lingvodidaktika
–
Зарубежная лингвистика
и лингводидактика
–
Foreign Linguistics and Linguodidactics
Special Issue
–
3 (2024) / ISSN 2181-3701
10
Unexpected results were obtained by using techniques 3 and 4, in one of the resources
cited above, characterized by the position of high didactic potential. Some students have
smartphones with Siri, others have the opportunity to use the voice assistant Alice. The voice
assistant Alice does not always switch to English, and Siri, instead of an answer or any voice
reaction, gives a list of links to Internet resources for a given query.
In lessons related to speaking and dialogic speech, it turned out that with Siri it is possible
to compose and maintain a dialogue, but only at the initial stages of learning English. This voice
assistant does not answer more complex questions but displays a list of links on the smartphone
screen. On the one hand, the teacher-experimenter records his assumption that this technique is
rational to use when teaching English at the initial level, but at the same time he states that not all
students have smartphones with Siri. In addition, there is a problem of compliance with
established sanitary norms and rules governing the duration of students' work with such
equipment
CONCLUSIONS
Summarizing the analysis of the use of digital technologies in teaching English, we can state
the following:
- Difficulties associated with technology and the correctness of its operation, with the
establishment of interaction with the digital environment. The means and resources spent on
interaction with the digital environment often greatly exceed the effect that is obtained due to
this.
- Information oversaturation of the student, when he actually ignores the initially set goal
of searching for information and carries out an uncontrolled "journey" through information flows.
- In at least three cases, the phenomenon of content "blindness" was observed: it was more
important for students to use a smartphone than to complete a task with its help and achieve an
educational result.
- Inability to manage the educational activities of students at the time of direct interaction
with the digital environment. This is because all tasks and situations created in the lessons implied
the opposite action, that is, the transfer, and recoding of information from the digital environment
to the lesson situation.
Xorijiy lingvistika va lingvodidaktika
–
Зарубежная лингвистика
и лингводидактика
–
Foreign Linguistics and Linguodidactics
Special Issue
–
3 (2024) / ISSN 2181-3701
11
- The impossibility of monitoring and correcting the correctness of pronunciation and
grammar, vocabulary, since voice assistants perceive simple phrases, including those with errors.
If from the point of view of the formation of meta-subject and personal results, this is acceptable
(overcoming the so-called language barrier), then it is completely unacceptable from the position
of the formation of subject (vocabulary, grammar, phonetics) learning outcomes.
If we compare the obtained results of the study and its aspects in this article, which the
teachers of our department focused on in their observations, with the goals and objectives of
learning English at the corresponding level of education, then we can formulate a number of
conclusions.
The results obtained using the described teaching methods cannot be unambiguously
attributed to the subject. Rather, they are meta-subject, associated with the construction of a
practical or problematic situation in the lesson, requiring students to apply knowledge and skills
from different spheres and subject areas, with the selection and implementation of an action plan.
In addition, there is an achievement of results associated with productive communication. The
continuity is obvious: the use of voice assistants has shown effectiveness at the initial stage of
learning a foreign language, while students with more advanced English or Russian language
skills were able to fully use English-language search engines. The effectiveness of the techniques
discussed in our article depends on many factors not related to setting the learning task and
planning the lesson following the predicted result. Thus, these techniques, described in the
literature as "digital technologies", do not apply to learning technologies in this interpretation
(they do not meet the criteria for reproducibility of the result in different conditions). We are
convinced that the use of these techniques is mandatory when planning and implementing a
modern lesson. Thus, the considered techniques for teaching English significantly expand the
teacher's capabilities in achieving meta-subject and personal results and can be used exclusively
in combination with traditional methods, especially those aimed at establishing communication,
developing written speech, etc.
REFERENCES:
1.
Pevneva I. V., Gavrishina O. N. Digital technologies in teaching foreign language to
students. Philological sciences. Issues in theory and practice. 2015. No. 12-1 (54). P. 139-142. (In
Russ.)
2.
Mikheeva S. V. Digital technologies in teaching foreign languages in a non-linguistic
university // Modern problem of science and education. - 2021. - No. 2. URL: https://science-
education.ru/ru/article/view?id=30570 (In Russ.)
3.
Robert I. V. The development of informatization in education based on digital
technology: intellectualization of a learning process, the possible negative impact. The human
sciences: humanistic studies. 2017. № 4 (30). P. 65
-71.
4.
Rustambekova N. A Digital Text as the Means of Integrating Informational Technologies
into Teaching English. Russian Linguistic Bulletin. 2023. No. 1. P. 161-170 (In Uzb.)
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Sharipova M. (2023). USING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN TEACHING A FOREIGN
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