The use of new technologies in Language Teaching.

2. I have a private intermediate student who I teach once a
week (during lunch time) at his office. He is from Argentina and
due to his accent he can’t pronounce some sounds (/v/,/r/).
Words like very, valuable, rope are extremely difficult for him to
speak. Also, I discovered that he used to stutter when he was
younger (he doesn’t have a clue I know it), and the solution for
that was thinking a lot before saying anything, damaging his
speaking and listening skills, once he’s not prompt to answer. We
have been working together for two months and all he wants is to
learn English, without any specific purposes. During this time my
objective was getting to know him, checking his grammar
comprehension, testing his abilities.

3. I teach him in his own office. It is good in terms of noise – it is
quiet, since his coworkers are at lunch during class time – and he
has a computer and an IPad we can use. There is only one
disadvantage about the equipment: I can’t use his computer once
he needs to let it on in case someone (his boss) needs him. But
there is free access to Internet and I can take my personal
computer to classes, whenever I want.

4. Last meeting we worked with the simple past tense of
verbs. As a final activity, I asked him to write a story according to
some pictures we had. He worked really well with verbs, but we
had to work together for linking the situations of the story
(repetition of words, linkers, adverbs…). After that, I asked him to
read the text out loud. It was a huge task for him and I could
notice that even the words he usually says correctly were
mispronounced while reading. Because of that, I asked him to
write another text as homework which he is supposed to read to
me in our next meeting.
We worked for a long time on pronunciation and because
of that, I decided to change the approach for the next classes,
adding the usage of technology, increasing his time of English
practice .

6. After our last meeting, I realized that this student needs:
• to listen to himself in order to correct himself and/or
understand my corrections;
• to listen to English spoken by native people, so that he can
memorize and practice the sounds of the English language;
• to read sentences/texts out loud;
• to practice writing in order to improve this skill, learning new
structures.

7. We haven’t used any technology in classes so far. But now it is
essential to include it, so that I can help him achieve another
level in the language. Also, the technology will play an important
role in the learning process since there are no other students in
class.
The technologies/media to be used are:
- Computer
- Voice recorder
- YouTube
- Email
- Facebook

8. From now on, every class will have the following structure
(not always the same order):
1) We will work with videos (songs, series, parts of movies,
some humor, commercials…) from , focusing the aimed
grammar point for that class.
This will help him notice/practice the English language spoken
by native speakers, the sounds of language, with a different range
of activities for Listening (i.e.: filling the blanks) and Speaking (i.e.:
repeating the words he hears).

9. 2) He will write a text every week (as homework) according to
what will be asked: a diary, an answer to a question, his opinion
about a specific subject, the summary of a book, movie… He must
send it to me by . I will correct it, send him my
impressions/corrections, print it, and we will work on it the next
class – he will read his texts to me.
This way I will promote more time for studying at home, for
thinking in English, and also getting more material to explore his
speaking and reading skills.

10. 3) We will work with the text he will have written at home (if
he doesn’t, I’ll be prepared with another text). He’s going to read
it out loud and I will record it ( ). Then, he will
listen to himself, trying to identify mistakes/errors , and we will
practice sounds.
I think this will be the most effective source since he needs to
“visualize” the problem. He needs to listen to himself in order to
understand/compare what he is doing/saying from what must be
done/said. Since he will have written the text, he will be
familiarized with it, and will be able to pay attention only to
pronunciation and intonation.

11. 4) Outside the classroom, we will be also connected by
. This tool will help us maintain class work by sharing
extra materials for practice: websites, Tongue Twisters (they’ will
be of great importance), songs, chats…
This way, I extend timing for practice, help creating a mood of
expectation to classes in addition to being closer to the student,
helping him on the spot, without having to wait so long.

12. It’s my first experience teaching English to a native Spanish
speaker and I do expect that these tools help improve his
language skills, specially speaking. I only have an hour class per
week – this is not enough to help him effectively. Also, all
technology, especially the internet, is well known for
approximating people, for facilitating people’s lives, for giving
access to knowledge.
He is a great student, likes English a lot and loves having
homework. This way, I believe the new approach will work
perfectly, given he has a great appreciation for technology and he
is used to working with it.