Technology is becoming increasingly present in our lives and its use is rapidly emerging in educational institutions as well. The use of ICT is interesting, highly motivating, accessible to students and it extends language learning beyond the classroom into their everyday lives. The use of technology is also beneficial for teachers – it can assist their instructions, provide access to numerous materials and activities, increase exposure to English language, and introduce innovative teaching approaches for successful language teaching and learning. However, to successfully integrate ICT in the classroom, the teachers need to have well-developed digital competences. Therefore, it is important for the teachers to strive for good examples of ICT use, engage in practical trainings and proactively learn about new pedagogical approaches. In this master's thesis we investigated the extent of ICT use in English teaching and learning in the first and second cycle of primary school. We aimed to determine how often teachers include ICT in their lessons, the methods they use to include it, the stages of the educational process where it is incorporated, the most used media, tools and materials, and the main purposes of integrating ICT. We were also interested in the teachers' digital competences level, the criteria they consider when selecting suitable ICT, and the language skills they most frequently develop using ICT. The teachers' opinions and perspectives were conducted by a quantitative research study. We found that teachers frequently use ICT, most commonly during the stage of introducing new learning content and during presentation of the content. The most used devices, tools and materials in their work are computers and LCD-projectors, websites, tools for creating and editing slides, audio materials, videos, e-textbooks, and e-workbooks. The main reasons for using ICT are higher exposure to the diversity of English, higher motivation, and easier access to a variety of activities, according to the teachers. We also discovered that teachers feel competent or moderately competent in working with ICT and desire more support. The most common challenges they face are spending more time preparing for lessons, lack of adapted digital materials, and a shortage of devices. Teachers list free access, their own proficiency and ease of use as the main criteria for choosing ICT. We also found that teachers most frequently develop listening comprehension skills using ICT.
With this master's thesis we aim to encourage English teachers and future English teachers to actively use ICT in their language teaching. The research results will contribute to the further development of English didactics and the adaptation of teacher education at the primary level regarding the integration and use of ICT.
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