THE USE OF SMART PHONES TO IMPROVE A FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING

Ana Karoline Cardoso da Silva

In the last decades we have watched a new style of learning and teaching become more prevalent. Instead of only books and the four walls of a classroom, teachers and students are beginning to take advantage of what “technology” has to offer us: practicality, velocity, portability. Who could ever imagine that one day we would talk with a friend on the other side of the world just using a little device? It is fantastic to imagine all these possibilities concentrated in the palm of our hands. And why do not use it to improve foreign language teaching and learning? Authors, teachers and students are already accomplishing it, which gives us a lot to say about it.

Marc Prensky is a famous writer in the area of education. He endorses the idea that education and technology form an efficient couple that guarantees successful teaching and learning. In his book “Teaching Digital Natives” (PRENSKY 2010) he tries to help people understand how this technological world works because he also believes that in  the future the classroom will be dominated by technology and  teachers should be prepared to handle with a classroom full of students, not holding their books, but their smart phones. 

           

When you buy a smart phone, it already comes with a kind of virtual store where it is possible to find hundreds of applications (apps) available to download that help language learning. You can, for instance, download “Duolingo”, an app that focus on grammar and vocabulary; the objective is to complete phases to raise your level. There is also the “English Grammar”, another app developed to be used as a grammar reference. Additionally, there are games where the main purpose is not to learn English, but it may it may occur as a consequence. Here we can mention the “Trivia Crack”, a very interesting game which I am addicted to. It works as a quiz, the questions are about entertainment, arts, history, geography, sciences and sports, so it is also an educative tool; it is connected by Facebook and you can compete with your friends. Moreover, there are lots of dictionaries. In my opinion, the “EN-PT Dictionary Free” is fantastic! All the words come with translation, phonetic transcription, options to hear their pronunciation and the best part is that it works off line.

            Some apps that I constantly use include the dictionary mentioned above. For example, I am using it right now to help me while writing this essay. I cannot forget to mention the app named “English Irregular Verbs”, highly helpful to check the verbs on their past participle form.

However there are other ways to enjoy the smart phone. I use it to listen to music, pause it when necessary, and follow the lyrics to train my listening. To practice my speaking, I record my voice and then I listen. One can also download books and magazines, text messages to my friends. And everything inside a bus, or while waiting to be attended in a medical appointment: convenience and portability, all in one.

           

Inspired by this “technology wave” some projects have been developed to give the support required to teachers, an example of this is the “Educonexão Project”. It was created by a franchise named NET to make teachers around Brazil able to deal with technology inside the classroom. The course lasts 2 months and the teachers are supposed to create a web-class to present in the end of the period. The tutor of the project at Florianopólis, a city located at the state of Santa Catarina, said that in the end of the course the teachers were more motivated and full of ideas to make their classes more interesting.

            Despite all the benefits there is still resistance by the teachers about using technology inside the educational context; they think, for example, that cell phones and classroom do not match, since it steals the student’s attention. And it steals, if the teacher is not prepared to manage his or her class and if she or he is not prepared to turn this situation in his or her favor. After all, as Marc Prensky (2012) said, that the teacher is not obligated to know everything, but he or she can learn with the students as well. As a matter of fact, this new way of learning and teaching did not come to impose that the old ones are ineffective, in fact it just wants to show us how dynamic the learning process can be .In the end, everybody just has to enjoy: motivated teachers, more autonomous students and the educational process occurring in a curious, different and efficient way.