The Advantages of Using Technology in Second Language Education

This week, while browsing through some applications of technology in the classroom, I came across this very interesting article. Read article here. Foreign language classrooms have undergone an extraordinary transformation as a result of technologies developed in the last century. This article goes over research studies done on the matter and briefly analyses the results. Television, radio, voice recording devices, and the internet have brought the target culture much closer to all foreign language learners. Students can watch foreign movies, browse works in foreign languages, and even make friends with native speakers in other countries. 

Recently programs like Rosetta Stone have given great result in language acquisition and made a lot of researchers re-evaluate their approach to foreign language instruction. In the middle of all this, foreign language teachers must look for meaningful and innovate ways to use technology to immerse students in the target language. One of the most interesting parts of the article stated that "technology integration in foreign language teaching demonstrates the shift in educational paradigms from a behavioral to a constructivist learning approach. Language is a living thing, so the best way to learn a language is in interactive, authentic environments.” Foreign language instruction has changed to emphasize communication. From this point of view, technology becomes a tool to enable that communication to happen. There is a human factor to language learning that I think it is not likely to be removed from the classrooms any time soon.