Language and electronic medium skills development through autonomous and ideological practices

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report on how the concepts of autonomy and ideology are perceived by scholars, educators and researchers. The project is a preliminarily study to investigate the connections between the language and computer literacies, that would lead to further influences the implications on the development of traditional language learning. The study will be covering 180 secondary students in two private schools (one is only girls, referred to as G school and the other is co-educational, referred to as BG school). This paper will mainly focus on comparing the students’ performance and use of the electronic medium at school and at home. The G school students do not bring nor use any of the electronic medium at school, except when the library computers are booked by their teachers for research. They handwrite their notes and assignments in their workbooks. Their education is focused on mastering the autonomous dimensions of a given literacy, the ideological dimensions can present much more compelling and in depth challenges. The literature reviews differentiate between language literacy and computer literacy acquisitions, the two literacies require different skills from each other. Even though, the BG students are using their electronic devices at school as well as in their domestic environment for homework. They are using the devices more than seven to nine hours a day. They access their textbooks as eBooks on their devices and they compose their notes and school work electronically. However, the G students are also practising on their personal computers and are familiar in operating the software and hardware as much as the BG students who spend a substantial amount of time each day on their electronic devices.