An ICT-Based Approach to Teaching Civilisation to EFL Learners

Abstract

The present paper, which is based on an experiment conducted with thirty-six third year undergraduate students majoring in EFL, proposes an approach to teaching civilisation to make it an important subject that enhances content and skills, both of which are necessary in the education of well-versed, thoughtful, and judicious students. In this method, small groups of students combine the use of various books and multimedia assets to investigate a given topic covering a specific time period and dealing with a major development in American history. Students are expected both to find a video clip or a filmand to prepare an original PowerPoint presentation on the basis of predefined questions to explore the main themes and deal with key elements, such as events, facts, dates, terms, treaties, regulations, and people.Contrary to conventional approaches, this method, which partly depends on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), can support a student-centred learning environment in which students become more active and self-motivated learners and critical thinkers of historical events and facts. Other anticipated secondary benefits from such a pedagogical endeavour in the American civilisation class are the promotion of students " reading, thinking, writing, and speaking skills, as well as the increase of their abilities to navigate the internet and master digital technologies. Introduction In recent decades, research in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning and teaching in higher education has provided a variety of concepts, methods, and findings that are of both theoretical interest and practical significance. Research has also provided a range of digital tools that can be exploited for developing teachers understanding of learning and teaching in particular contexts and for assessing and enhancing the student experience on specific courses and programmes. The effective integration of new technologies into the learning/teaching process is currently much more challenging than providing computers and securing classroom connection to the internet. Finding the appropriate mode of integrating ICT into classroom practices is also one of the impediments twenty-first century teachers will face. In fact, the integration of digital technology is also associated with a shift from a teacher-expert to a student-centred approach of teaching and learning. Given these facts, EFL teachers are in front of the imperative necessity to drop traditional ways of teaching and learning and adopt the active learning approach which has become the basics of education. However, so that the active learning method can be successfully implanted in the Algerian context, there need to be changes in both university instructional materials and in teachers " and students " perceptions of teaching and learning. During the last decade, the Algerian higher education authorities have progressively implemented the License-Master-Doctorate (LMD) system in its higher educational system. They expected university teachers to combine modern teaching methods and learning approaches with the use of new technologies to meet with the local reforms in higher education. Algerian educators believe that the diffusion and use of ICTs would make language classes more vivid, enjoyable, and attractive to both teachers and students. They also think that the reliance on newlearning approacheswould endow students with new skills required for the 21 st century labour market such as the ability to inquire, discover, investigate, and interpret facts. However, while teachers and students in the developed world are in an advanced stage in the use of digital tools and resources in their modern language classrooms, in Algerian universities, the use of ICT is still limited. Moreover, in developed nations there is a shift from a teacher-centered to a student-centered setting, where teachers become collaborators instead of dispensers of knowledge; and where students become actively involved in their own education instead of passively receiving learning. Most of language learners in Algerian universities, however, still study in traditional classrooms at particular times to passively listen to their teachers lecture in front of large classes. Relying on a literature review of previous research on ICT and the teaching of language, this paper draws on the changing conceptions in language teaching and learning and rapid technological advances to describe an experimental approach to teaching American civilisation. The method integrates some technological tools and focuses on active learning in order to advance the learning process and thus raise the quality of the language teaching experience in the department of English at Guelma University in Algeria. This work provides an overview on the unprecedented growth and tremendous use of these new digital tools in language teaching and learning. It also examines the benefits and advantages these technologies and their applications in the language classroom offer to educators and learners. The aim is to show how these new forms of digital technology led to the redefinition of the meaning of literacy in the digital 21 st century world, and enabled teachers to propel the reach