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THE PROBLEMS OF USING INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
(ICT) IN ENGLISH CLASSROOM
Fayzullayeva Munavvar Bahodirovna,
Master student of Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages
Key words:
Information and communication technology (ICT), English as a second
language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL), motivation, IC devices, challenges and
barriers.
It goes without any doubt that
technology takes essential part in humans‘
life. It helps to transfer any information to
anywhere with a fast speed, as well as creates
enjoyable, friendly and fun atmosphere in
learning and teaching process. With the
invention of technology, such as computer,
smart phone, video camera and the internet,
learning is no longer process, especially in
teaching foreign languages. Technology is
believed to be able to make students respond
positively in a language classroom. The usage
of ICT is very important in motivating
language learners to participate in lessons
actively and to learn successfully. « ICT
offers a variety of learning opportunities for
students to learn language. ICT can enhance
the quality of teaching and learning by
providing
access
to
great
variety
of
educational resources and by enabling
participatory pedagogies ». [1, 27].
However there are some problems of
usage ICT in English classrooms in schools of
rural area which come across both teachers
and learners throughout the lesson. It is as
natural as breathing that teachers of 21
st
century have to know utilizing and integrating
information and communication devices in
teaching process. «There is no doubt that,
over the last 15 years, there has been a
phenomenal growth in ICT in all aspects of
society, and education is not an exception».
[2, 12].
Nowadays, some modern and latest
IC technologies such as computers, laptops,
over head projectors, electronic white boards,
televisions, multimedia and web based
applications have an important role in
teaching and most of them are used in urban
schools while schools which are situated in
rural areas don‘t possess such devices or if
they have IC technologies they are not enough
for using in teaching or they have problems of
maintenance. Today teachers want to integrate
ICT in teaching, especially computers should
be used during the lesson for enhancing
learners‘ listening skills and for the rest three
skills at the same time, however there is lack
of computers in most rural schools and
teachers may not have access for using ICT,
as they are quite costly. It is one of the
barriers of teachers and learners faced. There
are some drawbacks with transportation and
electricity while utilizing ICT. If there are any
problems with electricity during using
technological devices, in this case a skillful
teacher should have alternative methods and
materials for the lesson which are prepared
beforehand for language learners. It is visible
that technology is playing essential role in
every field of life. We lean on electronic
devices and we cannot run even our daily
activities in the absence of these means. So
these IC technologies make people especially
the youth moron day by day. People try to
find any information or even for finding
answers to common questions they search
from the internet rather than looking for
books. Somehow it is a beneficial and good
way for enriching technological literacy, but it
makes people lazy and depends on technology
rather than using their cerebrum for their
thought process. Both teachers‘ and learners‘
brain should keep working instead of being
totally dependent on using devices. As well as
teachers and learners should not be addicted
to ICT or the internet materials as there is full
of fake information. Human being built
technology and devices not the technology
created him. It is pity that there are some
problems with people who are living in virtual
life. We know that the youth are attracted by
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social sites and they are disconnected from
the real life. Nowadays most pupils of
secondary schools especially in urban areas
have their own mobile phones, smart phones
and other devices which are connected almost
all social sites of the net. While finding
information or vocabulary definition from the
internet for the lesson, their attention may
draw to other distractions which can be easily
obstacle for the lesson. «Students need to
understand
that
this
school-related
communication is different from their social
conversations with friends outside of school».
[3, 24].
Most of learners cannot interact and
share their opinions and problems openly,
they prefer to communicate through sites
rather than open interactions.
As it is obvious that softwares are
keeping on updating and most teachers have
not technical skills, it is true that they may
have enough teaching experiences but they
cannot use modern IC technologies, in this
case they should work with the teachers of
ICT for running the lesson effectively, if it is
necessary.
Another drawback of using ICT is
extinction
of
good
handwritings.
As
nowadays almost all documents are typed and
should be in e-version. Pens and papers are
easily replaced its places to computers,
laptops, smart phones, desktops and tablets,
therefore
nowadays,
finding
a
good
handwriting is like finding a needle in the
haystack. While using e-devices people may
have some problems with their health, as lack
of eyesight, and some problems in our
nervous system. More using ICT get people
tired quickly and slow down our thinking
process.
One of a sorrowful drawback is
creating cheating atmosphere in teaching and
learning process through ICT. It has already
stated about that mechanized world makes the
youth lazy day by day. Cheating or plagiarism
is illegal activity however technology made it
more powerful and easy to use especially
while examination environment. It goes
without doubt that the internet is full of
information and without using thought
process they prefer to copy out internet
materials.
It should be stated about one of major
problems is replacing books with e-books.
Nowadays most of our important stuffs are in
our favourite gadgests, as mobile phones,
smart phones and tablets, even books have e-
version and it‘s called electronic books. It is
known that books are our best friends and
assets as well as assistants, nothing can
replace them. Electronic books may not be
cost- effective and can cause eyestrain. If
there are any viruses in your gadgests they
may delete or damage e-books, in this case
you
cannot
find
and
read
important
information on it in any time you want. But
real books are handy to carry with ourselves
rather than computers, laptops and we can
read them in any time and everywhere.
Today our president is taking into
consideration that the youth of our state
should read and obtain knowledge from the
real books rather than e-books and ICT. Real
books can give us real knowledge and truth.
Methodology.
A study aimed at finding difficulties
and challenges faced by teachers in using
information communication technologies in
English classrooms in schools of Samarkand
district. 4
th
and 11
th
secondary schools 11 of
English teachers were interviewed. The
teachers were selected from two different
areas of Samarkand district. 6 teachers from
the village of Badal and 5 teachers from
Sochak.
The questions of interview were
prepared and structured beforehand in order to
find the answers and solutions if there are any
problems in using ICT, for following research
questions:
1.
How do Samarkand district
secondary school English teachers manage
problems in using ICT in teaching EFL
(English as foreign language)?
2.
If there is a problem with using
ICT, how do Samarkand district secondary
school English teachers motivate and
conduct the lesson without ICT?
Before conducting interviews teachers
read the questions and thought about them.
Then all interviews were in English in March
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and April 2019 and the interviews lasted
about 40-50minutes and they were recorded.
After the interviews the researcher looked
through and listened again the answers of the
interviewers in order not to lose important
data.
Results and discussion.
Table 1 shows that 11 secondary school
English teachers were selected from different
area of Samarkand district. 6 of them are
female and 5 of them are male. The below
table illustrates that 7 teachers aged 20-30 and
4 teachers aged over 30. Most of teachers had
at least 5 years of teaching experience
.
Table 1. Main information about the interviewers.
Area
Name
Gender
Age
Teaching
experience
(year)
Badal
village
Umerzoqova
Mavsuma
F
38
12
Sharofzoda Shohida
F
28
8
Ochilov Muhammad
M
24
3
Raupov Bahodir
M
25
1
Saidov Bobur
M
32
13
Rahimova Gulchehra
F
29
7
Sochak
village
Sattorova Dilafruz
F
35
14
Tolibov Kamol
M
55
35
Esanova Ohista
F
25
3
Amonov Doston
M
23
1
Hurshedova Nigina
F
26
5
According to the research there are
some challenges of using ICT in secondary
schools in teaching EFL. They are:
1.
Lack of computers, technologies
and maintenance
2.
Lack of internet access
3.
Lack of technical supports
4.
Lack of time
1.
Lack of computers, technologies
and maintenance.
Nowadays secondary schools should
have technologies and equipments, however
interviewed teachers were not satisfied with
the facilities of the school.
Shohida
Sharofzoda who is a teacher of primary level
pupils said:
In our school there are only 2 laptops
for 6 English teachers, but both of them are
not functioning well, for primary level pupils
we should use computers in order to motivate
them in learning foreign language every
lesson, as the class pupils are taught
separately, and both teachers should have
computers. In this case teachers of other grade
pupils of school may conduct their lessons
without using computers however they should
use IC devices as there are listening tasks in
each lesson. It is demanded from teachers to
use their own IC technologies but most of
them may not access ICT, as they are
expensive.
Similarly, Esanova Ohista from 11
th
secondary school shared her frustration
connected with technical problems of IT
equipments.
There are not any computers in
classrooms, if a teacher wants to show any
presentations or electronic textbooks and
materials or videos there are not any facilities
to present prepared materials. If there is only
one in this case the teacher should ask who
are using in his/her lesson in advance to
borrow only an hour. If there is no problem
with electricity the teacher can use IC device.
Moreover, Tolibov Kamol, a very
senior teacher of secondary school in Sochak,
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he expressed his need for help to use IC
devices in his teaching. He complained about
lack of technical support of the school.
If I use IC technologies I have a lot of
problems in utilizing them. If there is not the
technician I cannot connect the laptop to the
overhead projector. If the technicians don‘t
have time I ask for help other teachers who
can use IC devices well.
From the same secondary school
teacher Hurshedova Nigina showed her
dissatisfaction that:
When we use ICT throughout the lesson
of course we may face problems with
transportation or electricity. In order not to
waste our time the teacher should print out
materials on papers which are going to give
pupils. In this case the authority of school
should support with financial side. I mean
prepared materials should be free and printed
out by school‘s printers. Because in a group
there are 15 or even 18 pupils, teachers cannot
afford to print out for every pupil in every
lesson.
2.
Lack of internet access.
21
st
century is the age of the internet
however most schools of rural area have not
got internet access. It is one of main issue that
if the teacher needs to use the internet he may
use only in his house or may enter through his
gadgets.
The internet connection is also problem
in our school stated Rahimova Gulchehra.
There are about 20 computers in ICT room
but none of them is connected to the net.
3.
Lack of technical supports.
Some teachers gave their opinions about
lack of technical supports as:
We have not special technicians who
can solve any problems in using ICT during
the lessons. We have to know how to connect
and even to fix them by ourselves, said
Raupov Bahodir the teacher of 4
th
secondary
school.
4.
Lack of time.
The next main barrier is lack of time in
using ICT in EF classroom. According to the
curriculum, there are only 3 periods of
English lesson in a week with 45 minutes. It
is not enough to conduct lessons with ICT, if
you are lucky and there are not any challenges
while using devises you can run the lesson
successfully, otherwise you may waste your
time with technical problems, explained
Sattorova Dilafruz from the 11
th
school.
In order to solve problems in using ICT
which are occurred throughout the lessons,
teachers
informed
about
some
other
alternative methods if there are any technical
problems in lessons. Firstly, teachers should
modify lessons and print out some extra
materials and handouts beforehand in order to
use them when there are barriers with IC
devices. Moreover, any challenges and
problems are occurred in utilizing ICT,
teachers can ask help from technicians of the
school or any other teachers who have enough
experience
in
using
IC
technologies.
However, «teaching language learners by
using ICT has distinct advantages that are
related not only to language education but
prepares students for today‘s information
society» [4, 7].
References:
1.
Salehi H. & Salehi Z. Integration of ICT in language teaching: Challenges and barriers //
Proceeding of 3
rd
International Conference on e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-
Learning, 2012. – P.215-219.
2.
Unwin A. The professionalism of the higher education teacher: What‘s ICT got to do
with it? // Teaching in Higher Education, 2007. –P. 295-308.
3.
Lee C.K. Affordances and text-making practices in online instant messaging // Written
Communication, 2007. –P. 223-249.
4.
Nordin N., Embi M. & Yunus M. Mobile lerning framework for lifelong learning //
Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2010. –P. 130-138.
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Fayzullayeva M. Informatsiya va kommunikatsiya texnologiyalarining ingliz tili darsidagi
muammolari.
Bu maqola ingliz tilini informatsiya va kommunikatsiya texnologiyalari orqali
o‘rgatishdagi muammolariga bag‘ishlanadi. Bu maqola o‘z oldiga Samarqand tumanidagi ba‘zi
maktablarida ingliz tilini informatsiya va kommunikatsiya texnologiyalari orqali o‘qitish va
o‘rgatishdagi muammo va to‘siqlarni topish va kamchiliklarni bartarf etishdek maqsadni qo‘yadi.
Файзуллаева М. В данной статье рассматриваются проблемы преподавания
английского языка с помощью ИКТ.
В этой статье выдвигается проблема выявления и
устранения недостатков и препятствий в изучении и преподавании английского языка с
помощью ИКТ в некоторых школах Самаркандской области.
