The role of information and communication technologies in teaching foreign languages

2. Using modern applications to improve the effectiveness of teaching foreign languages
According to Dudney and Hockly (2007) the ICT is an interactive and collaborative medium that allows the creation of text and activities that can easily be shared in public which helps students discover the language they are learning and its use. [3,347p]
There are a number of online courses, educational platforms and software programs which assist learning and teaching foreign languages. In this regard, foreign language teachers of today should be ready to provide their students with the opportunity to learn using technology in the classroom. According to the implementation of the ICT in education, UNESCO, Microsoft and Intel have created the” UNESCO ICT competency framework for teachers” in 2015, which is a guide for teachers on how to become more effective in the ICT-based lessons.
This competency framework explains to teachers a clear perspective how to use ICT to communicate and collaborate with students “to use ICT to communicate with other students, for example for them to submit their project reports online”, (UNESCO ICT competency framework for teachers, 2015) and many others.[4,110p] Having read the framework, teachers they learn when and where to use the technology in the process of teaching, the use the ICT to create blogs and online platforms where the students can share their projects and as well, exchange information and notes with each other. materials and methods ICT stands for Information Communications Technology. It is often referred to as only IT, but the C is added to underline the communicative aspect of the term. According to Kent (2004) “ICT in education point of view refers to Information and Communication Technology such as computers, communications facilities and features that variously support teaching learning and a range of activities in education.[5,305p] Estling Vannestal (2009:17) lists several benefits of using ICT in the language classroom.
First of all, ICT helps to create more variation in the classroom, which might lead to increased motivation in the students and thus better conditions to learn the target language. As the Internet is full of free, authentic and up-to-date materials that language teachers can use in their teaching. The Internet provides a good opportunity for students from all over the world to interact with each other through emails, online calls or in a chat room. Despite what the means of communication chosen, ICT is likely to help develop the understanding of other cultures in the students that participate.
Now, during the period of quarantine, the role of ICT in education is being promoted in our country. We have started with the e-learning platforms in education by distance learning. For instance: The digital educational platform has all the necessary functions for organizing distance learning in schools in Uzbekistan. This will allow students not to interrupt the learning process while at home, study subjects independently and communicate with the teacher remotely. Through this appication, teachers can give out homework and video teaching materials, and students can submit completed work for verification. As a result, teachers put marks in an electronic journal or give comments on finalizing answers. Private messaging, posting announcements, creating groups are also available). In the appication distance education functions are simple and affordable. Teachers have the opportunity to download presentations on the theoretical side, as well as tasks to test knowledge, leave comments on improving the work. Through the digital educational platform, the educational process in schools can be continued during the quarantine period).
Mostly, pre-school and school multimedia lessons are being shown by local TV channels and via social online websites. One of the most efficient medium for teaching foreign languages is television. The television appeals both to the ears and eyes. The lessons are being recorded and being telecasted by TV channels. This shows significant impact on the minds of the students. Television plays as a companion, entertainer and instructor in present learning and teaching foreign languages. However, university students and teachers of higher education are using various educational platforms such as Google Classroom, MOODLE and other free educational platforms.
Obviously, many users of these platforms to learn and to deliver online lessons are facing challenges and they have different opinions and experiences. What we must admit in this global outbreak period, the use of ICT has only positive impact on our way of thinking, learning and teaching. The book “Technology and second language learning” written by Mark Warschauer, described two distinct perspectives of how to integrate technology: by the cognitive and social approaches. In cognitive approach, learners construct their own individual knowledge by exploring language and culture in meaningful audio-visual contexts and whereas the social approach emphasizes the social aspect of language acquisition where learning a language is viewed as a process of socialization. From this perspective, students need to be given opportunities for authentic social interactions to practice real life skills. This can be achieved through student collaboration on authentic tasks and projects.
However, until the period of quarantine, students were being taught in language laboratories in all educational institutions of our country. A language laboratory is a room which is equipped with computers and technological materials for the practice of listening comprehension and speaking to help the students to master the target language (Singhal, M. (1997).[6,6p] These laboratories play an essential role in language learning where the students will have the opportunity to be in the room to listen to native speakers’ conversation, songs, watch films or have access to the internet to enrol online free courses offered by top universities of the world on the educational platforms such as Canvas, MOOC, Udemy, Udacity, Coursera and others.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Best practices of integrating ICT in learning and teaching foreign languages As being ESL/EFL teachers, we have the key role in facilitating in distance learning and teaching foreign languages. There is a wide array of free educational software applications and platforms that make English learning resources more accessible and they promote more personalized and meaningful learning for students, along with a healthy dose of classroom collaboration. For example: Google Drive, Edmodo, Kahoot, wordpress, and etc. These tools can be used to enhance and facilitate deeper and more authentic learning.
Edmodo
As a free social learning platform for students and teachers where presentations, books, materials, essays, songs and what resources are used during academic year can be saved here and teachers can create a class library to give students easy access to these at any time. Students find Edmodo (www.edmodo.com) as easy to work on it as it increases interest and motivation. Moreover, photos of group work projects of students or individuals, weekly spelling tests, multiple-choice quizzes can be posted so that all the students can see and do them for best practice.
Kahoot
Kahoot (www.kahoot.com) is a platform that is used to administer quizzes, discussions or surveys. It is a game-based classroom response system played by the whole group in real time as it is the perfect tool to engage students with a new topic. As a teacher, anyone can use Kahoot to create any educational games to encourage students towards competing in the classroom.
Google Drive
Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google. It can be used for writing projects, podcasts, and presentations to collaborate with students by providing general feedback on the projects or tasks. Speech Peek is an online portal that allows ESL/EFL teachers to create interactive speaking and listening exercises for students to complete and submit remotely. It is one of the useful online portals and an extremely effective way to improve and assess students' speaking and pronunciation skills. Through logging www.speechpeek.com, students make tape recorders so that teachers correct the recordings. A group blog One of the useful ways of displaying the creative work is to set up a class blog on Wordpress.com or social websites using Telegram, Facebook, or Twitter which reflect the ways in which students communicate on a day to day. They provide the opportunity for reading, writing as listening tasks. The advantage is that students can instantly leave comments to each other’s posts.
Podcasts
Podcasts are an easy way to record your own audio so that the students listen to practice. Alternatively, teachers can post podcasts on a class blog. Vodcasts As podcasts, short video recordings (called vodcasts) can be sent to the students or they can record their own. These can be something as simple as speaking into the screen for a couple of minutes on a topic of your choice. Or teachers might give short explanation of an item of grammar in front of the board for the students to watch at home.
Lyrics Training
Lyrics Training is an awesome website to learn a language with music. Students will watch and listen to a music video and fill in the missing lyrics of the song. The webpage offers a vast collection of songs that can be used for all proficiency levels such as beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert. Learning and teaching with music help students to become proficient in any foreign languages.
Colingo
Colingo is a web platform which offers live, online, teacher-led group conversation classes, personalized training and private tutoring for learning English with native speakers.
Webinar
Webinar is the best example for online learning. Webinar is an interactive seminar conducted by the World Wide Web. Usually a live presentation, lecture or work-shop that happens in real time as users participate through chatting, video chatting, file-sharing or asking questions with a microphone. Webinars are more helpful in learning foreign languages.
Online surveys and quizzes
There are sites (eg.surveymonkey.com, Google surveys) which allow teachers to create online surveys and questionnaires for the students to complete. This is also fun way to find out students’ views on a range of topics. There are also sites (quizlet.com) which allows students to learn and test them by using variety of quiz types that the site will generate.
Project work
If you want to do project work which can continue in and out of the classroom over a period of time, you have a number of options for blending technology into your face-to-face lessons. Obviously the students can research a topic online, but they can also present their findings in a number of ways. One option is to have them create an online poster using GLogster.com or Padlet.com which let you post a combination of text, images, video and audio onto a poster. If you would like to flip your classroom, all you need to do is video record yourself giving the language presentation at the board. For example, you might present a new grammar point and illustrate it with a timeline and load the video onto YouTube and ask students to watch at home before coming to the class. And also, you use Presentme.com or myBrainshark.com which let you post your slides and record your voice while talking about each slide. These are all interesting and motivating ways for students to show evidence of learning.

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