International THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND INFORMATION Journal of Professional Development Vol.2,No.2,July-Dec.2013 COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY PRASANNANSHU Associate Professor, National Law University, Delhi. E-mail: prasannanshu@rediffinail.com In India we come across people who have been studying a language for years, and at times even decades without being able to use it. It means that you may come across graduates, M.A.'8 and even Ph.D.'s in Sanskrit, English, or any other language, who are not able to speak their respective language, and are not able to produce or comprehend correct and grammatical sentences. Apparently, the problem .lies in the pedagogical theory being followed and the ensuing methods being used in the teaching-learning enterprise. The usual approach still explicitly and implicitly being used in a vast majority of Indian educational institutions is the outdated tabula-rasa framework where the learner is supposed to be a blank slate upon which the teacher is expected to write all the desirable things. In other words a child I learner is treated like a mouldable wet-clay which can be given the desirable form if the artist (read 'teacher' in place of 'artist') is skilful enough! According to Bunch (1994) 'Tabula rasa is the Latin term for a cleaned tablet, one that has been erased and is ready for new marks' This approach has been discredited after the Chomskian revolution, and the development of the notions of a learner being born with inherent knowledge of language and the corresponding Chomskian mental construct of an LAD (language acquisition device) in the mind of a child I learner. Language is a skill, and communicative ~roficiency is a matter of use. The usual classrooms pump into the students theoretical knowledge about the language like its grammatical rules, which in fact, a native speaker is not even consciously aware of. The situation can be likened to the teaching of other skills like swimming or playing cricket: if a learner is just told about the rules of swimming, or cricket in a closed room for weeks, months, .or even years, do you think that they can survive the swimming pool, or the cricket ground if left alone? The answer most obviously is no! This very same malaise afflicts our language classrooms. Here, the importance of theoretical inputs is not challenged, but rather it is emphasized that a learner should be exposed to practical applications and use at the same time. However, in situations where it is not easy, economical, or even possible to let the learners handle costly machines, equipment's, or enter risky environments where high levels of skill are required not only for operation, and performance, but also for survival, technology has come in handy. We all have heard about the flight simulators, and the simulators used by transport departments and driving schools to teach flying and driving respectively as a part of the training (although the 'real thing' always remains a part of the teaching-learning programmes in such situations). We can extend a similar approach to language teaching, too. The language lab for example acts as a' flight simulator in several ways for the students of language. The socially risky (read, 'embarrassing') venture of trying out a half learned language in the social life can be cushioned by some of the features offered by a language lab. The use of ICT (Information Communication Technology) has tremendously changed the classroom. It is a well-known fact that we learn from several sensory modalities (ii) we as individuals learn in different ways. Some of us use primarily the visual mode, others more prominently the auditory route, and yet others would be able to learn better if their senses of touch, olfaction or taste are also involved. Rydeen (2009) only appears to be supporting this proposition when he says, 'Each individual, whether preteen, teen or adult, possesses unique and different learning styles ...' The use of technology and multimedia devices has all of a sudden widened this range in unimaginable ways. Now, a language learner may hear the sounds of people, animals, insects, and objects without leaving the classroom. Likewise, well-planned teachers can expose their students to a wide range of visual treats, like still-photographs, videos, movies, colours, and visuals: all thanks to the multimedia technology, nowadays available in the· classroom. Some platforms specially designed and available for the classroom, e.g. the e-station or electronic podiums are also available, some are even indigenously developed in India e.g. Rao (2010). A study of in-job teachers conducted by Tekerek and I n t e r n a t io n a l J o u r n a l o f P r o f e s s io n a l D e v e lo p m e n t V o I .2 ,N o .2 ,J u ly - D e c .2 0 1 3 Ercan (2012) in Turkey found that 'a vast majority of the teachers have personal computers, they connect to Internet at home and have positive attitude towards Internet use.' This observation may be taken to be a general trend, in the absence of specific studies, rather an isolated occurrence. There have been attempts (successful in varying degrees) to integrate smells with computing. For example Gollobin (2013) reports that an Oakland-based company, DigiScents has developed hardware, which it calls iSmell along with a software platform that plays scented media. PR Newswire of 17 Dec. 2012 predicts that 'In five years, industries such as retail will be transformed by the ability to "touch" a product through your mobile device.' It bases its prediction upon the report that 'IBM scientists are developing applications for the retail, healthcare and other sectors using haptic, infrared and pressure sensitive technologies to simulate touch, such as the texture and weave of a fabric'. It can be foreseen easily that the day when these techniques register their presence in the classroom is not distant. Thus, the situation so far is that out of our five senses, viz. sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste the first four have been taken care of by the ICT. The fifth sense, i.e., taste is a sense overlapping, or in close proximity with the sense of smell as both is based upon chemical receptors, and hence is not out of the reach of scientific imagination. So we have seen in the above two sections that simulated experiences, and multimodal and multisensory experiences can be made available by the application of technology. In addition, technology holds the potential of converting the assembly line teaching into a more personalized experience. The pressure of economy of scales; rising costs of educational infrastructure, and workforce and other factors, like commercialization of education has been pushing up class sizes to 60,80 or even more. This is in spite of the fact that several authorities have been insisting that the ideal class size is far below this figure. For example, McCarthy (2013) reports that 'Socrates believed the ideal class size is five students.' Rydeen (2009) cites the case of Boston's Quincy Grammar School that had a provision of seating 55 students in a class. It was the first fully graded elementary school in the United States, and was built in 1848. This way he deducts that the ideal class size, one- and-a-half centuries ago, was considered to be as large as 55. He goes on to add that over the years the number of students that are perceived to constitute the ideal class size has been reducing, and current scholarship holds the ideal class size at all levels of schooling to be of 18 to 20 pupils. Similarly, Schreiber (2013) believes that 'The ideal class size for an acting class is 16 to 18'. Traditionally, education has been associated with religion, whether it be India, the West, or the Arab World. The concepts of charity and piety were also inherently associated with education. Profit motive was generally not associated with education, and it was rather looked down upon, but with the march of the free market economy, education has become, in significant part, a lucrative business proposition, so the assembly line models, ideals and procedures are petering unchallenged into the education system. To retain the human touch in this despiritualized or secularised business proposition, technology, again has played an important role: A single teacher can interact through voice and video with a large number of students simultaneously. This also removes the restriction of distance. The learners and the teachers, theoretically, may be located at distant locations, including in different counties and continents. The population explosion can also be blamed for increasing class-sizes .. As has been noted by Rydeen (2009) 'Many educators see smaller class sizes as the best way to create effective teaching and learning conditions, especially in the early grades. Reducing class size to reach an ideal student-teacher ratio requires more staff and classrooms.' This obviously makes smaller class sizes economically unviable. ICT has not only made the classroom experience more personal, and full of sens9ry stimuli, but it has also democratised the learning process, as learning opportunities are available through the net anytime, anywhere and relatively cheap (or even for free) to an unprecedentedly large number of people. The net provides a very wide range of possibilities for the learners. This ranges from: the availability of online dictionaries, e.g. Oxford Dictionaries; Merriam Webster Dictionary; and the Free Dictionary, Encyclopaedia and Thesaurus. Some online dictionaries and encyclopaedias that may prove to be useful to the teachers and learners, and their websites are listed below: D ic t io n a y A v a ila b le a t AVVO http://legal-dictionary.avvo.com/ 7 I n t e r n a t io n a l J o u r n a l o f P r o f e s s io n a l D e v e lo p m e n t V o I .2 ,N o .2 ,J u ly - D e c .2 0 1 3 Cambridge Dictionaries Online Collins Dictionaries Dictionary. corn English Cobuild dictionary: meaning of words and expressions, synonyms, definition Macmillan Dictionary Merrlam- Webster dictionary Oxford Advanced American Dictionary Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary Oxford Dictionaries The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ http://www.collinsdictionary.com/ http://dictionary.reference.com/ http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-cobuild/ http://www.macmillandictionary.com/ http://www.merriam-webster.com/ http://oaadonline.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ http://oald8.oxfordleamersdictionaries.com/ http://oxforddictionaries.com/ http://www.ldoceonline.com/ E n c y c lo p a e d ia A v a ila b le a t Probert Encyclopaedia Encyclopaedia Britannica Wikipedia Technology has, in fact, revolutionized learning by virtually moving the teacher closer to each learner, e.g. in a language lab where the teacher can view the screens of all the learners, monitor their activities and intervene when required, to guide 'and direct learner behaviour. Typically, a language lab platform provides the teacher with the option of grouping several students together according to their levels or requirements thus promoting group involvement, participation and collaboration in learning. Language labs also provide the learners with a greater degree of independence to learn it their own way. For example, a learner can choose (with or without the teacher's involvement) the way they want to learn, or to practice the areas in which they require more exposure. They can also submit their work to the teacher instantaneously, and in real time, and seek guidance, or evaluation. This way a teacher skilled in the use of language lab technology can provide a more personal experience to an ever-increasing number of students in a class. This technology can also expose the students to a large number of experts, who in the normal course of the things may not be able to visit the class. This is achieved by means of recorded or live broadcast lectures. School or college ERPs also play an important role in enhancing the learner experience. A student can be informed of their marks, attendance, shortcomings, strengths and of unrelated or related administrative issues 24x7 via ERP applications. Recently, a non-profit enterprise named EdX has introduced a free, online essay evaluation system based on artificial intelligence. This will not only save a lot of time for the teacher http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/ http://www.britannica.com/ http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Main]age who is supposed to read and mark the essays, but will also make the process instantaneous so that the students can amend or rewrite sections to arrive at better texts, and in the process improve their writing skills (Markoff, 2013). The site h t t p : //c r i.d u .a c .in io t lt u t o r ia lls t u d y m at m o lists the features of online EResources as follows: Huge information reservoir; Up-to-date information; Multimedia format; Interactive; Quick information retrieval; 24X7 Availability; Multidisciplinary approach; Peer-reviewed Information sources; Various search options; Special services i.e. SDI, Alerts, etc.; and Standardized citations. Practically all major newspapers of the world are available online, and many of them are accessible free of cost, for example, The Times, of India, The Hindu, and The Hindustan Times. Many online journals are available and again many of them are free of cost. The web provides Collection of historical speeches to the students of history, Classical Literature (e.g. on the Project Gutenberg site) to the students of literature, and Educational videos (e.g. on the YouTube site) for a vast range of topics taught in the class. This is just a sample; the net is a treasure trove of resources, e.g. Audios; Bibliographical tools; Cartoons; Dictionaries; Directories; EBooks; E-Journals; Encyclopaedias; Films; Library Catalogues; Magazines; Music; Newspapers; Old books; Paintings; Patents; Photographs; Preprints; Share wares; Technical Reports; Thesauruses; Videos. Thus an unimaginably large, and mindboggling range of information is available, which can be used by the language learners for enhancing their knowledge and language skills, and in d 3 .h t m l I n t e r n a t io n a l J o u r n a l o f P r o f e s s io n a l D e v e lo p m e n t V o I .2 ,N o .2 ,J u ly - D e c .2 0 1 3 coming closer to the ideal of the native speaker. REFERENCES: 1. Bunch, Aaron. "Beyond tabula rasa." . A r g u m e n ta tio n 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. and A dvocacy 3 0 .3 (1994): 174+. A c a d e m i c O n e F ile . Web. II Apr. 2013. Gollobin, Kelly. "SMELL-O- VISION DU JOUR -- Start-up DigiScents banks on the digital delivery of odors." Computer Reseller News 22 Jan. 2001: 39. Academic OneFile. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. "IBM Reveals Five Innovations That Will Change Our Lives within Five Years." PR Newswire 17 Dec. 2012. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. Markoff, John. New software can grade student essays. Publication: The Times Of India Delhi; Date: Apr 7, 2013; Section: International; Page: 21 McCarthy, Colman. "Students in school 12 hours a day: Washington Jesuit Academy adopts a winning approach to education." N a t i o n a l C a t h o l i c R e p o r t e r 31 Mar. 2006: 17. A c a d e m ic O n e F i l e . Web. 16 Apr. 2013. Online E-Resources and Searching Techniques. http://crl.du.ac.in/ot/tutorial/study _mat _mod3.html. Web 17 April 2013 Rao, Gollapudi Srinivasa. 2013. "Budding engineers make userfriendly E-podium." Hindu [English] 18 Sept. 2010. Academic OneFile. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. Rydeen, James E. "Endless Search." A m e r ic a n (2 0 0 9 ). School A c a d e m ic & U n iv e r s ity O n e F ile . 8 1 .6 Web. 16 Apr. 2013. Schreiber, Terry. "My classroom rules for teachers and actors." B a c k S t a g e W e s t 6 Dec. 2007: 12. A c a d e m i c O n e F i l e . Web. 16 Apr. 2013. 10. Tekerek, Mehraet and Ercan, Orhan. 2012. Analysis of Teachers' Attitude towards Internet Use: Example of Chemistry Teachers. Creative Education. 2012. Vol.3, No.3, 296303. Published Online June 2012 in Scientific Research (http://www.ldoceonline.com/http:/ /w 9. ww .SciRP .orgjoumal/ce ). DOl: 10.42357ce.2012.33047