Teaching English Nowadays

Name: Siti Hajar Aswat

NIM: 16101171120018

Abstract

In Globalization 3.0 (Thomas Friedman, 2005), teacher is required to be approachable, enthusiasm and make fun learning to attract students interest in teaching and learning English. Those aspects are accomodate by ICT which is now unavoidable. There are also some advantages and disadvantages of using ICT in teaching and learning process that teacher should know instead, so that the knowledge will transfer well without any problems.

Keywords: approachable, enthusiasm, fun learning, advantages of ICT, and disadvantages of ICT.

Teaching English Nowadays

Nowadays, teaching English is not only to make students understand the lesson, but also to balance English materials with the recent era. Remembering that we have entered an age called Globalization 3.0 (Thomas Friedman, 2005) where Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can takes teacher’s role in give students knowledge, it can be danger if teacher losts his/her control in teaching because of lack of ICT. Furthermore, because teaching English has receptive and productive purposes, students obviously need teacher as instructor and falicilator, which means that teacher still be the main aspect of teaching English. Because of the importance of teacher’s role in English lesson, teacher can be approachable, enthusiastic and make fun learning so that students will be more interest to learn English.

Teacher who is available, approachable and helpful create a safe learning environment for his/her students. When students feel comfortable in approaching a teacher, they more likely to risk exposing their lack of understanding and ask for clarification of the experctations. However, Graham Fraser (2011) said approachable can be mean as teacher acts like she/he is around his/her own friends in front of students. Actions such as smiling, joking/laughing, talking anecdotes, and asking about students’ feeling towards English lesson can help them see a similiar manner in a teacher so that it can engage students in receiving knowledge.

Beside of being approachable, Danuta (2014) said teacher’s enthusiasm in English can influenced students directly in enhancing and developing their interest, motivation to learn it and attention, and therebly indirectly affecting students’ achievement. Kunter et al (2008) assumed that teacher enthusiasm is a personality trait expressed in certain affectively determined behaviors such as enjoyment, excitement and pleasure in performing classroom actions, deriving from teacher’s intrinsic motivation, positive attitude and interest in English and teaching it.

In the context of the classroom, enthusiasm which expressed by a teacher will engage students’ attention. Students will be more pay attention if the teacher enthusiast or happy to teach them. If teacher shows an unenthusiast in teaching and learning process, it can be possible if the students feel bored with the lesson.

Barkeley Haas (2015) shows that teacher which relating to students with enthusiasm, passion, and dedication to English will spur the students desire to learn and explore English. The more of those atributes teacher shares, the more motivated students become and respond in a way that enhance their learning.

To make students fun in teaching and learning process now is limitless. Teacher today has been acomodated with many tools that can enhance teaching creativity. One of fun learning which mention by Yang and Dixon (2015) is games. They said that games can create fun, and fun is a necessary element of games. In the process of learning English, games can help and encourage many students to sustain their interest in English.

In the side of ICT, fun learning can be through such as digital platforms that are to make students entertain and get information. For instance, TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Talk or YouTube can be use to attract students interest in teaching and learning English. According to Martinez et al (2018), those platforms provide videos of conferences or documenters by speakers all around the world speaking in English. For that reason, there are many kinds of accents, words, and expressions that can be used in teaching and learning English in a didactic and funny way.

In education, ICT is accepted as a meaningful medium to be used in the classroom to motivate students in learning English. In the hands of teacher, Valk et al (2010) said that ICT can empowered teacher and students by facilitating communication and interaction, offering new mode of delivery, and generally transforming teaching and learning process.

Jurich (2011) mentioned a number of advantages of using ICT in the teaching and learning process. The first is providing multi-sensory stimuli that could enhance English language skill in a short time. The second is motivation because technology has the potential to be a powerful educational tool for students who have interest in it and need to be taught and embraced at an early age. The third is collaborative learning that supported by technology can boost language development because students learn within social interaction. The fourth is cultural understanding. Technology can accomodate cultural understanding in which students are able to interact and fully participate in their learning as they acquire language skills and cultural awareness. They can improve their ability in the English language and also learn the culture of the native speakers at the same time. Finally, technology implementation enables self-expression which is labelled as one of the most important context for language use to create and encourage language acquisition.

On the other hand, the use of ICT classroom has some disadvantages. Kolbakova (2014) suggests to using ICT with more work and additional struggle from the teacher to meet the needs of every students in the class. However, Schoepp (2005) stated that integrating ICT especially into classroom instruction is not as easy as flipping a switch; integration is a complex process and teacher may encounter difficulties or barriers. Many teachers encountered the problem of perception when using ICT in the teaching and learning process in the classroom.

Teaching English using technology is not a new concept or practice for teacher around the world. ICT in the classroom for teaching and learning process is now unavoidable as it is now a part of daily life. ICT is mostly used to provide authentic materials for the students. It can be easy for a bigger city to access the ICT to support the teaching and learning process, but it is still be the problem for a smaller city to access ICT. Beside of that, the advantages and disadvantages of ICT should be think by the teacher, even though in globalization era now ICT consisted of a requirement to encourage students in their learning activities.

References:

Friedman, Thomas L (2005), The World is Flat, Penguin Books, London, England.

Fraser, Graham (2011), On the Level: Engaging Students by Being More Approachable, Department of System Computer and Engineering.

Grabys-Barker, Danuta (2014), Success: From Failure to Failure with Enthusiasm, University of Silesia, Sosnoweic, Poland., Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, Department of English Studies, Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts, Adam Mickiewicz University, Kalisz., danuta.gabrys@gmail.com

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http://www.techknowlogia.org/TKL_Articles/PDF/335.pdf

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