UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language

551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

ACADEMIC PROTOCOL

551006 TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS

A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

DIANA LICETH MARTINEZ

OPEN AND DISTANCE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
2014

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

CONTENTS

Course Identification ............................................................................ 1

Introduction.......................................................................................... 2
Justification.......................................................................................... 4
Educational Intentions ......................................................................... 5
Purpose ............................................................................................ 5
Objectives ......................................................................................... 5
Competences ................................................................................... 5
Learning Goals ................................................................................. 6
Didactic Units ...................................................................................... 7
Theoretical Context ............................................................................. 8
Methodology .......................................................................................10
Evaluation System ..............................................................................13
References .........................................................................................14

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

Course Identification
DATA SHEET
Academic Course

Technology in Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Code

551006

Key Words

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), English

Language Teaching (ELT), English Language Learning (ELL),
Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), Multimedia
Technology, Web 2.0 Tools, Social Networking, Blog, Webquest,
Wiki

Institution

Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia UNAD

Year

2014

Academic Unit

School of Education

Formation Field

Basic Disciplinary Formation

Knowledge Area

Humanities

Academic Credits

Three (3) credits with 144 hours of academic work: 108 hours of
independent study and 36 hours of tutorial support.

Course Type

Theoretical

End Users

Students of BA in English as a Foreign Language

General Learning
Competence

Students identify and accurately use information and

communication technologies in order to enhance academic
processes related to language teaching and learning in different
educative contexts.

Offer Methodology

Distance / Online

Format Delivery

Virtual Campus
Unit 1: An Overview of ICT and Language Teaching and
Learning

Didactic Units

Unit 2: How Can Technologies Improve ELT?

Unit 3: Blogs - Webquests - Wikis

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

Introduction
The course Technology in Teaching English as a Foreign Language corresponds
to the specific professional training component of the B.A. Program of English as a
Foreign Language which is offered as a required course for undergraduate
students majoring in English and which objectives are to develop skills in the future
English teachers to manage appropriately and timely online tools as a means of
processing, managing and systematic transferring information and communication
as well as the generation of academic, pedagogical and didactic processes in an
interactive way.
The course has three (3) academic credits which include independent study and
tutorial support. The course is theoretical and the methodology to follow is based
on the distance education strategy. For this reason, it is important to plan the
learning process, which in the UNAD virtual mode is characterized by:

Independent Study: it is developed through personal work and presentation

of different evaluations such as lessons, quizzes, and self-assessment activities,

Working in small collaborative learning groups: Students have to interact

and permanently provide input for the construction of the reports requested
in each activity.

Tutorial Support: This corresponds to the guide provided by the tutor in

order to enhance the students learning and training.

The course evaluation system is conducted through formative assessment,

which establishes different ways to check the progress on students selflearning.

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

The Interactivity System links the actors in the process through various learning
activities that guide students work towards achieving the intended objectives, as it
follows:
- Tutor-Student: through individual support.
- Student-Student: through active participation in collaborative learning groups.
- Student-Tutor: by providing support to small collaborative learning groups.
- Tutor-Students: through accompanying course group.
- Students-Students: in the socialization processes that take place in the
different course groups.
For the development of the course the role of technological resources as an active
and interactive means is really important, it seeks the exchange of ideas
throughout the process of tutor-student dialogue:

Websites: they promote the approach to knowledge, interaction and

production of new educational dynamics.

Systems of synchronous interactivity: it allows communication through direct

face-to-face meetings or mediated meetings (chat, audio-conferences,
video-conferences, telephone support).

Systems of asynchronous Interactivities: It enables communication at

different times, encouraging student time availability for their learning
process, using e-mail, forums, and discussion groups, among others.

As you become proficient in the role of student by entering the course on a daily
basis, reviewing each of the learning areas and specially the protocol and course
module you will develop confidence and skill in managing the activities. One of the
variables that best determine the success in online courses is engagement with
peers in collaborative work. Be prepared to submit your contributions from the
beginning of the activity.

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

Justification

This course is intended to encourage the student to develop skills for the
instrumental mastery of the computer as a processor and as an advanced seeker
of information, as well as interactivity tool for teaching English as a foreign
language, thus articulating the Technology-contextual Component expressed in the
UNAD PAP, which is the media support, expressed in different formats, to the
accompaniment of Open and Distance Education learning, from the production and
use of different pedagogical mediations through technology.
From this perspective, the technological skills that are developed in this course,
suggest the concept of resources and learning environments based on ICT; here is
pursued to use the New Technologies of Information and Communication to
support the development of new knowledge and critical spirit, to support lifelong
and reflective learning and to create communities of learning in collaboration with
other students and teachers. They may also play a leading role in training their
teachers and the creation and implementation of a community based on the spirit
of innovation and lifelong learning, enriched by the software and telematics tools.
Likewise, they may have the ability to select and use appropriate existing
instructional methods, games, training, practice and Internet content in computer
labs to manage class data and support their own professional development. They
will be competent to use technology information: searchers, analyzers and
evaluators of information, problem solvers and decision makers, creative and
effective users of productivity tools, communicators, collaborators, publishers and
producers; and informed and responsible citizens able to contribute to society.

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

Educational Intentions

Purpose

To ensure the student makes an effective use of computers in teaching and

learning English processes, viewing this as an educational tool that has a
positive effect on increasing communication skills in foreign languages.

Objectives
The objectives of the theoretical course Technology in Teaching English as a
Foreign Langauage are that students:

Develop skills to manage appropriately and timely online tools as a means

of processing, treatment and systematic transfer of information and
communication as well as the generation of academic, pedagogical and
didactic processes.

Encourage the development of skills for the instrumental mastery of the

computer as an interactivity tool for English as a foreign language teaching.

Competences
The course will develop the following competences:

The student develops skills related to the use of ICT, using technology to
strengthen the processes of learning and teaching English as a foreign
language.

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

The student appropriates knowledge about the way to teach and the
educability assisting him/her as a human being, so to start a basic
understanding of his/her professional practice in an effective and efficient
way.

Learning Goals
The learning goals students will reach throughout the course are related to the
following processes:

Recognize and make an assertive use of ICT in the learning and teaching
English process.

Build skills, aptitudes and attitudes that reflect the pedagogical training of
the future professional from the B.A. program of English as a Foreign
Language.

Demonstrate readiness to study, motivation for self-learning and for the

frequent use of technological resources in the educational practice.

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

Didactic Units

TECHNOLOGY IN TEFL

ICTs and Education

Technology in English Language
Teaching and Learning

UNIT 1
AN OVERVIEW OF ICT AND LANGUAGE
TEACHING AND LEARNING

The Advantages of Information

Technology in TEL
The Impact of Using Technology in
TESL

UNIT 2

ICTs in FL Teaching and Learning

HOW CAN TECHNOLOGIES IMPROVE

TEFL?

Social Software and Participatory

Learning
Blogs for EFL Learning

UNIT 3
Webquests
BLOGS - WEBQUESTS - WIKIS
Wiki Technology

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

Theoretical Context

Before addressing the mediating role assumed by the technologies in the teaching
process, it is worth recalling the concept of learning according to Gimeno Sacristan
(2002), who assumes such a process in terms of subjectivity or enculturation. That
fact implies that levels of complexity and expansion of cultural assimilation are
determined, in order, by the transformations of subjectivity given from direct
experience, interpersonal relationships, acquisitions through reading and those
generated by Information and Communications Technologies (ICT).
In this regard, by demonstrating some of the social tensions that have been
generated between the globalized world and the local nature of our societies, we
can highlight those raised from the passage of the transmission of tradition through
oral way, learning processes mediated by the use of the written code and the
tensions generated between this kind of learning and the learning mediated by ICT.
Therefore, it is important to say that processes of education cannot be attributed to
"have" or "to possess"-even when mediated by technology-, because now the
domain of knowledge is more concentrated in the "power to know" or "the power to
access". So, the processes of interaction and deconstruction of knowledge are
most pertinent to our context.
In the same manner, if we quote Manuel Castells (1999), concerning the
movements generated with what he called "information age" and his proposal to
face them, alluding to tangible examples of the changes he began to see almost
twenty years ago, it reflects more than the events "of the past", a reality which,
though sometimes difficult, unfair and even uncertain, it is the mirror of what still

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

continues to accrue within the social, political and economic relationships of which
we are actors or products.
Castells also discloses his own conclusion considering some statements to be
taken into account as reflections to overcome what has been shown, bearing in
mind the foundation fostered by a sense of identity and a projection oriented by
knowing what we want.
Although the solutions proposed by Castells, by way of reflection, are changes that
should prompt from various persons and institutions involved, from a much more
specific perspective to our potential, in our role as teachers we should recognize
and make others know how we involve the shafts raised by this sociologist. Or
perhaps are not we entitled to make a reflection-action over the use of ICT,
especially when, as mentioned by the same author, assumed "... with the
necessary care, their presence may lead to a (emancipatory) revolution"? Thus, it
is worth reviewing how they are getting or using ICT within the teaching-learning
processes.
Thus, the relevance of the processes mediated by the use of ICT should result in
the contents that are managed and the methodological attention they deserve. In
this sense, the call to the educational community is not only to manipulate ICT
approach, but to question and build teaching strategies. These, recalling that by
themselves, computers -for example- are not educational tools, but require the
creation of devices and strategies to approach and build knowledge, which
responds to teaching practice.

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

Methodology

In order to comply with the educational intentions of the course, it is important to

responsibly plan the learning process by means of different phases taking into
account the characteristics of distance education methodology, for that reason, this
process includes the following phases:

Recognition: Previous Learning experiences in a particular field of

knowledge or activities of another sort. It consists in creating contexts,
conditions and environments for the student to objectify the meanings of
their previous experiences and provide them with methods, techniques and
tools to facilitate this process.

Consolidation: It refers to a set of activities that are pre-planned in a

didactical way, leading to the mastery of concepts and skills of different
levels, according to the purposes, goals, skills and learning goals
established in the course.

Transference: All knowledge, ability, skill or competence that allows the

transfer of familiar situations to unfamiliar situations. That is, the learning
activities planned in the activity guide should add re-contextualization and
productivity values to the knowledge that is learnt in derivate competences.

Activities aimed to transfer learning from one phase to another are also set, in
order to consolidate or balance the mastery of the skills acquired. At the end of the
process closure activities or balance learning activities are conducted. It is a
transfer activity around the learning outcomes in the academic course through the
development of planned situations that include feedback activities from the tutor
and the students themselves.
10

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

Taking into account the phases described above, the academic work according to
the academic credit system holds:
1. Independent study developed through:
- Personal work: It is the basic source of learning and training and involves the
student's specific responsibilities regarding the study of the academic course,
corresponds to the identification activities of the course purposes, its intentions, the
analytical plan, the activity guide, the study of the material suggested by the
UNAD, the research in documentary sources (bibliography of printed documents in
paper: books and magazines, bibliography of documents located on internet, Web
sites of specialized information and virtual libraries), development of activities
planned in the activity guide, writing of reports, self-assessment exercises, and
taking of evaluations.
- Small collaborative learning group work: it is part of independent study and it
aims to learning how to complete and master teamwork, the socialization of the
individual work results, the development of teamwork activities, report writing
according to scheduled activities in the activity guide. The Participation in a small
collaborative learning group is mandatory within the academic course.
2. Tutor follow-up: It is the support that the institution and the program provides to
students in order to enhance the learning and training. It is characterized by:
- Individual tutoring: it is the follow up process that the tutor conducts with the
student as a way of tutoring advice for the learning of the subject contents,
counseling of methods, techniques, and tools ownership, to enhance the learning
communication process, criteria to evaluate the learned content, report reviewing,
assessment of activities and monitoring of the individual learning process.
- Small collaborative groups tutoring: it is the follow up process that the tutor
conducts with the students to the activities done in small groups, interlocution on
the criteria used, report reviewing, advice on methods, techniques and tools for the
11

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

enhancement of collaborative learning, suggestions on productive learning

scenarios, evaluation of activities and assessment of reports.
- Group course tutoring: it is the follow up process that the tutor conducts with
the set of all students under his supervision through socialization processes of the
activities developed in the individual work and in the small collaborative learning
groups, reports assessment, exchange of learning criteria and treatment of topics.
The group meeting in the course may be face-to-face, virtual or blended, as the
technological possibilities created by the institution allow.

12

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

Evaluation System

The evaluation system aims at the control and verification of the student learning
processes focused on the creation of competencies to resolve situations and
activities in multiple assessment formats, both qualitative and quantitative in
nature.
The formative processes at UNAD focus on learning in order to strengthen the
student's independent thinking. Consequently, the assessment of learning
processes are correlated and articulated and generate in the student skills to
perform processes of:
Self-evaluation, it is performed by the student individually to assess their own
learning process, through exercises, workshops, problems, case studies, individual
portfolio, self-regulated readings and research on specialized topics.
Peer-evaluation, it is done through collaborative groups, and aims at socializing
the results of individual work through portfolios which consists of making a
collection of the productions or tasks (essays, reading analysis, personal
reflections, and concept maps) and allows the joint reflection on the products
covered and the learning achieved.
Hetero-evaluation, it is the assessment made by the tutor and aims to examine
and describe the competent performance of the student.
The evaluation system will have as referent the different learning stages:
recognition, consolidation and transference. Also, the evaluation system will take
into account the various stages of academic work performed by agents of the
educational process: individual work, work in small collaborative groups,
socialization work in course groups.

13

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA UNAD

School of Education BA in English as a Foreign Language
551006 Technology in TEFL Academic Protocol

References
Castells, Manuel. (1999) Globalizacin, sociedad y poltica en la era de la
informacin. En: Revista Anlisis Poltico No. 37 (Mayo / Agosto). Bogot:
IEPRI, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Chun, D. M. (1994): "Using Computer Networking to Facilitate the Acquisition of
Interactive Competence" in System, 22/1: 17-31.
Doughty, G. (et al.) (1995). Using Learning Technologies: Interim Conclusions from
the TILT Project. Glasgow: University of Glasgow Press.
Duchastel, P. (1996): "Learning Interfaces". In Liao, T. (ed.), Advanced Educational
Technology: Research Issues and Future Potential. New York: SpringerVerlag.
Garrett, N. (1991): "Technology in the service of language learning: trends and
Issues". The Modern Language Journal, 75/1: 74-101.
Gimeno Sacristn, Jos. (2002). Educar y convivir en la cultura global Espaa:
Ediciones Morata.
Holec, H. (1980): Autonomy and Foreign Language Learning. Council of Europe.
Ivy, M. (1998): "Activities for using junk email in the ESL/EFL classroom". The
Internet TESL Journal, 4/5, May 1998. http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/
Keegan, D. (1996): Foundations of Distance Education. London: Routledge.
Kozma, R. B. (1991): "Learning with media". Review of Educational Research
Oliver, R. & Perzylo, L. (1992): "An investigation of Children's Use of a Multimedia
CD-ROM Product for Information Retrieval". Microcomputers for Information
Management
Perzylo, L. (1993). The Application of Multimedia CD-ROMs in Schools. British
Journal of Educational Technology

14