An Effective Role of E-Learning Technology For English Language Teaching by Using Meta Communication Actors
An Effective Role of E-Learning Technology For English Language Teaching by Using Meta Communication Actors
An Effective Role of E-Learning Technology For English Language Teaching by Using Meta Communication Actors
Ugur DEMIRAY
Prof. Dr. Faculty of Communication,
Anadolu University, Eskisehir, TURKEY
ABSTRACT
Meta communication plays a key role in foreign language learning and teaching.
Broadly speaking, meta communication is communication about communication. Meta
communication is something that goes beyond communication and all language
learners and teachers should be familiar with its existence. It should be stressed that
meta communication which accompanies any message is very powerful. In face to face
writing lessons, the student can make emphasis on any point by utilizing larger fonts,
capital letters, or bold fonts in his essay. However, in virtual learning environments,
students can make use of emoticons like :-) “happy”, :-( “sad”, :-/ “perplexed”, O.o
“confused” to communicate about communication. Further, they can deploy some
acronyms like (BTW= By the way, ASAP= as soon as possible, TM= tomorrow) to easily
convey their messages. It should be emphasized that E-learning applications (virtual
worlds, second life, ICTs) are very beneficial in foreign language learning and teaching
since they create a platform for students and teachers to interact in a context with no
boundaries of time and distance.
E-Learning has introduced new approaches of instructional delivery where the roles of
teacher and student have significantly changed. The integration of information and
communication technologies into the education field is in constant progression and
generates empirical approaches for educational environment design. Some research
projects in distance learning are introduced in the world.
I. INTRODUCTION
Education in the 21st century is based on the improvement of global and information
focused skills. These skills are searching in the Internet, reaching information,
collaborative learning, effective communication, critical thinking and creativity. The
Internet has the feature of being widely used in education and it is inevitable that this
feature is becoming more important day by day.
Recently, the Internet has been seen as an important learning environment. This view
is strengthened by the interaction of distance education students with one another and
their teachers and the provision of high-speed interaction (Odabasi, 1998). Language
learning is a growing sector in a globalised world. It is inevitable to make use of e-
learning tools in language education. Traditional language teaching methods cannot
cope with the new technology and they must be reviewed to meet the changing needs
of the teachers and learners. The Internet-based interactive environments offer the
interaction which supports the learners in learning. Through the use of computer,
modem, telephone and related software, functional virtual classes can be formed in the
Internet-based education. Li and Hart (1996) state that multimedia facilities of the
Internet and its interactive sources are useful resources that make the Internet as an
appealing medium for instruction. The Internet is especially attractive to educators on
account of its authentic language, expected rise in student motivation, and promotion
of global awareness (Meloni, 1998). The purpose of learning collaboratively is to
acquire common knowledge and use this knowledge to solve a problem. Collaborative
learning is beneficial for the teachers who want their students to gain benefit and
share it with the other students. Related studies have showed that collaborative
learning is more advantageous, especially for students who failed in traditional classes
(Joyce, Weil, Showers, 1992). Collaborative learning creates a positive social
atmosphere and facilitates perception. Collaborative learning in teaching through the
Internet is fulfilled via planned or unplanned social interaction process. The nature of
learning environment requires the regular interest with the topic and interactive study
so the result is high level of learning (Istifci & Kaya, 2011).
Web 2.0 tools increase creativity. Students can make films, videos and publish them.
Wikis and blogs make collaborative learning possible and support learner-centered
learning. Nowadays, students are more open to share their life, work and educational
experiences. By using Web 2.0 tools, students can think critically, learn independently
and freely. Usage of Web 2.0 in learning and teaching leads to dramatic changes in the
educational system. Tools of Web 2.0 give to the learner brand new opportunities to
create flexible, more effective learning environment, which is pointed to the
individualization of the learning process in the context of close cooperation with pear-
learners and experts of the field. It enables learners to build up their knowledge based
of their prior experience, to collaborate with each other, to reflect upon the new
knowledge, contextualize it, and create their personal learning environment. The
most important advantage of Web 2.0 tools in education, and in language202
learning in particular, is its simplicity. To obtain required information about any subject
it is enough to just enter the correct key-words into the searching system (like
Google), or in the social network, and wait for the replies. Some tools of Web 2.0 are
used in language learning most effectively.
In the era of the WWW, Wikipedia has become the world’s single largest encyclopaedia
and one of the most diverse online communities (Ayers, 2007). Now, the encyclopaedia
is more than its article content, illustrations and categorizations. The content grows
and evolves continuously. Moreover, the Wikipedia site itself is also the facilitator for
the voluntary, de-centralized editor community to come together, to coordinate the co-
operative work (Kittur & Kraut, 2010; Kittur, Suh, Pendleton, & Chi, 2007; Viégas,
Wattenberg, Kriss, & Van Ham, 2007), to ensure and improve information quality
(Stvilia, Twidale, Smith, & Gasser, 2008), to resolve user conflicts (Kittur & Kraut,
2010; Kittur et al., 2007) and to sustain order against vandalism (Geiger & Ribes, 2010;
Viégas et al., 2007). While Diderot, with a restricted circle of young French
intellectuals, decided over the first encyclopaedia content and form, the principles and
evolution of Wikipedia are open for all to see, to join, to support, to edit, and to criticize
(Forte, Larco, & Bruckman, 2009). Hence, despite the fact that the primary content of
Wikipedia still largely follows the traditional encyclopaedic format (Emigh & Herring,
2005; Haider & Sundin, 2010), the Wikipedia itself and the vast community of
wikipedians with their continuously evolving coordination mechanisms provides a great
opportunity for novel research (Kittur & Kraut, 2010) -both in its own right and for
producing lessons to be learned for other on-line communities (Ayers, 2007). In
addition to the primary content of articles, pictures, and article categorizations,
coordination of the mechanisms materialize through meta communication, that is,
communication that refers to other communications (De Vito, 2001). In this case, the
Wikipedia’s primary content and the emergent communication mechanisms themselves
(Lanamäki & Päivärinta, 2009). Wiki is one of the best ways to work together on the
particular subject as a group. This tool enables a creation of the social web-page,
where learner can add value to the discussion about the topic in question. Wikis are we
sites that enable users to add content, edit and delete. Learning through Wikis is
different as they support both student and teacher learning. One of the most famous
examples of wiki is a Wikipedia, a network dictionary, which can be updated by any
internet user. In Wiki pages editing of pictures and texts, tables, lists, links, archiving,
formatting, spelling check and emoticons can be used (Horzum, 2010).
In the language learning Wikipedia can be used very effectively in developing the
reading skills and as a source of information in the project preparationin the language
learning. In order to develop the writing skills another wiki-resources are more
appropriate to use. For example, Pbworks, a web-site, which enables a development of
closed wiki-space for a group of learners, where they can work together on joint
projects, overview each other’s opinion, discuss, and support each other. The prevailing
principle in this kind of environment is -the best way to learn something, is to teach
others. Podcasts are very useful in developing speaking and listening skills. They are
used in order to create and distribute audio and video programs in the Internet. Unlike
with the general TV and radio, podcasts can be downloaded and watched at any
convenient for the learner time and place. Podcasts can be of any length, starting from
several minutes till several hours, authentic, and also created for educational purposes.
English learners might find directories of podcasts on the following web-page:
www.podomatic.com.Video Sharing Sites such as YouTube, Howcast, Hotmail Videos,
TeacherTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, BBC Learning English Videos help teachers and
students in learning and teaching foreign languages. It is possible to find educational
information in almost every topic and videos increase student motivation in class.
Moreover, they help students to absorb what they learn in the books (Istifci & Girginer,
2011). YouTube is a very interesting Web 2.0 tool. It is one of the most popular social
services, which is equally popular among all internet users, regardless of their
age, gender, social or mental differences. YouTube can be considered as a203
broadest library of video-material, where registered users can not only watch them,
but also download and make comments.
Blogs or Weblogs are web sites that people can write what they want and how they
want without having technical information. Readers can also make comments that are
important dynamics of blogs so there is interaction between the writer and the readers
of the blog. Blogs are personal web-sites in the form of a diary or a journal. They can be
devoted to a particular topic, or may include notes about different subjects. Blogs are
tools that can be used in two purposes in language learning. On one hand, blog is a
great tool to develop the writing and reading skills. But, on the other hand, blogs are
used very effectively by teachers and facilitators in order to give learners advices and
share experiences. Social networks are the most important tools of Web 2.0. They
almost eliminated the barrier between formal and informal communication between
users. According to the modern approach to learning, a learner is a center of the
learning process, and everything rest, including teacher, should support him/her in
achieving the learning goal. Social networks offer very good environment to take this
principle into life. In the world, which is populated with only the friends, who are there
to support, help, collaborate and provide with needed information on time, the learners
feel free to ask, discuss and reflect without fair to be misunderstood or punished. There
are no assignments, no supervisors at all - just collaborators and friends. This sense of
unity made social networks very powerful. Nowadays, they have substantial impact on
the peoples’ minds; there even is a big problem of social network addicted people. One
of the most important social network tools, Facebook is being used by millions of
people in the World and has become an inevitable part of their life. Facebook is a social
network that provides communication and information exchange. People who have
Internet connection in every part of the world communicate and interact among
themselves via this social tool. In other words, people compose virtual social lives for
themselves.
Nowadays, Facebook is used for educational purposes and there have been studies
concerning the educational use of Facebook. These studies are generally about teacher-
teacher, teacher-student or student-student interactions. Facebook also provides a lot
of opportunities for instructors. Some major opportunities are reaching the students,
feeling empathy with students, integrating with their feelings and understanding them.
Facebook is known as flexible and user-friendly for people who have different
personalities. Furthermore, it is more economical and private than other
communication tools to communicate and interact via the Internet. Facebook is used
by millions of people and becomes an inevitable part of their lives. In a study carried
out by Selwyn (2007), it has been found out that one of the educational topics of
Facebook is practice and sharing of academic information. Providing effective
motivation especially for the youth and being effective for the changing roles and
relations of teachers and students by using computers and the Internet in foreign
language teaching, it becomes inevitable for the students and teachers to use Facebook
(Istifci ve Girginer, 2011). Students’ passing most of their time in Facebook has got the
attention of foreign language teachers and language learning via Facebook has started
to be supported. Facebook is used for sharing resource books, announcements, group
works, applications and lessons. Teachers and students can send the lesson materials,
addresses of web sites and videos, share student presentations, homework and other
materials by having links via google. Using Facebook for educational purposes,
teachers and students fulfill the basic functions as: Learning through collaborative
learning, carry on research, questioning, improving discussion skills, supporting critical
thinking skills, improving problem solving skills, sharing teaching and learning
materials (video files, voice files, pictures, charts, presentation, websites that include
database and other types of documents), sharing daily news and events by associating
them with lessons, following some groups or people, participating discussions related
to lessons.
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Twitter is another social network tool that provides communication every time and
everywhere. It is always updated and advantageous for the users. Users can help each
other, solve the problems fast and access the sites easily. It can also be used in
language education. Teachers and students can communicate with the experts and
gain information. The implementation of the new web tools and new learning/teaching
model is the most important task of teachers’ professional development. The new
challenge of developing world outside the school is that the pupils/students are using
new communication, content creation and collaboration models and methods in their
free time. The implementation process should start with small steps. The teacher needs
to find one task or process in her own daily learning plan. The guideline for teacher’s
trainer is to develop training so that the teacher can use the learned skill next day in
his or her own school. This is quite challenging because every school has different
infrastructure, staff and habits. That’s why the training always needs to have an
element of personal project planning for the participants (Launoskorspi, 2011).
Major changes in the social and economical conditions in Europe and worldwide force
new needs and trends upon the technology. The main challenge for “the knowledge
society of the future” is to ensure that each member of the society has the opportunity
of continuous professional development, frequent retraining and obtaining of new
competences, mastering new information technologies (IT), Life Long Learning (LLL),
and so on. Within the educational sector a number of continuous efforts are taking
place to stimulate the use of ICT in all sectors at all levels of education. E-Learning has
introduced new approaches of instructional delivery where the roles of teacher and
student have significantly changed.
Meta communication can refer also to the communication context in general, beyond
particular primary utterances or genres. Hoppenbrouwers & Weigand (2000) give an
example where norms for using e-mail in general as a medium were discussed. The
idea of relational meta communication (Wilmot, 1980) seems also to refer to the
communication context and stakeholder relationships beyond particular utterances or
genres. Verbal communication is supported by a raft of non-verbal signs and cues that
reinforce what we are saying or clear up any ambiguities. For example, we may cross
our arms when we feel threatened by what somebody else is saying, or we nod our
heads when we agree with what s/he is saying. Nonverbal behaviors, whether they
involve the hands, the eyes, or the muscle tone of the body, usually occur in packages
or clusters in which the various verbal and non-verbal behaviors reinforce each other.
Like verbal communication, nonverbal communication exists in a context, and that
context determines to a large extent the meanings of any nonverbal behaviors. The
same nonverbal behavior may have a totally different meaning when it occurs in
another context. It is also important to mention culture in teaching meta-
communication as the nonverbal behaviors are generally culture specific. Although
nonverbal communication gives clues to what speakers are thinking about or enhances
what they are saying, cultural differences may also interfere with understanding a
message (Pennycook, 1985). The rules are brought to our attention only in formal
discussions of nonverbal communication, such as this one, or when rules are violated
and the violations are called to our attention – either directly by some tactless snob or
indirectly through the examples of others. While linguists are attempting to formulate
the rules for verbal messages, nonverbal researches are attempting to formulate the
rules for nonverbal messages-rules that native communicators know and use every
day, but cannot necessarily verbalize. It must be mentioned that nonverbal behavior is
highly believable. For some reasons we are quick to believe nonverbal behaviors even
when these behaviors contradict verbal messages. Nonverbal reports on research
demonstrating that compared to verbal cues, nonverbal cues are four times as effective
in their impact on interpersonal impressions and ten times more important in
expressing confidence. From a different perspective, Albert Mehrabian (1976) argues
that the total impact of a message is a function of the following formula: total impact
=7% verbal + 38% + 55% facial. This formula gives very little influence to verbal
messages. Only one third of the impact is vocal (that is, paralanguage elements such as
rate, pitch, and rhythm) and over one half of the message is communicated by the face.
(Paralanguage-the vocal, but nonverbal dimension of speech that can convey
information, especially about a speaker’s attitude). The formula, developed by
Mehrabian and his colleagues from their studies on the emotional impact of messages,
is not applicable to all messages. It is applicable only to the expression of feelings.
Although it is interesting to speculate on what percentage of message impact is due to
nonverbal elements in other kinds of messages, there is no valid and reliable answer at
this time.
Emblems are nonverbal behaviors that translate words or phrases rather directly.
Emblems include the nonverbal signs for OK, peace, come here, go away, who me?, be
quiet, I’m warning you, I’m tired, it’s cold. Emblems are nonverbal substitutes for
specific verbal words or phrases and are probably learned in essentially the same way
as are specific words and phrases, without conscious awareness or explicit teaching
and largely through imitation. Although emblems seem rather natural to us and almost
inherently meaningful, they are as arbitrary as any word in any language.
Consequently, our present culture’s emblems are not necessarily the same as our
culture’s emblems of 300 years ago or the same as the emblems of other cultures.206
The OK sign may mean “nothing” or “zero” in France, “money” in Japan, and something
sexual in certain Latin American cultures. Just as the English language is spreading
throughout the world, so is English nonverbal language. The meaning of the thumb and
index finger forming a circle meaning “OK” is spreading just as fast as English technical
and scientific terms. Emblems are often used to supplement the verbal message or as a
kind of reinforcement. At times they are used in place of verbalization, when there is a
considerable distance between the individuals and shouting would be inappropriate or
when we wish to communicate something behind someone’s back. Illustrators are
nonverbal behaviors that accompany and literally illustrate the verbal messages.
Illustrators make our communications more vivid and more forceful and help to
maintain the attention of the listener. They also help to clarify and make more intense
our verbal messages. In saying “Let’s go up”, for example, there will be movements of
the head and perhaps hands going in an upward direction. In describing a circle or a
square, you are more than likely going to make circular or square movements with your
hands.(Veliyeva, from http://yazikiliteratura.narod.ru/lin74.htm retrieved on
20.08.2011) Thus, there can be misunderstandings in communication. It is essential to
remember that the meta-communication which accompanies any message is very
powerful. The receiver will use these clues to help them to interpret what you mean,
but more importantly they will often take the meaning from the meta-communication
rather than from the words themselves, particularly when what you are saying conflicts
with what you are doing. Hence, understanding or interpreting nonverbal messages
accurately is especially important for second/foreign language (L2) learners whose
comprehension skill is more limited. Since meta-communication is creating meanings
to solve relationships of body language (Demiray, 2009), listening and speaking
teachers may also concentrate on exposing students to the samples of body language,
gesture, facial expressions, posture, eye-gaze and interpersonal distance by showing
authentic videos of real life use.
IV. CONCLUSION
In today’s world language learners make use of Internet and Social Networking Sites in
their learning. These sites such as Facebook, Wikipedia, Video Sharing Sites, Blogs are
valuable in providing language teachers authentic materials to teach
metacommunicational elements to the learners who are more open to share their life,
work and educational experiences. Young learners are keen on interacting through
social media and they use critical thinking more. Thus, they may be exposed to meta
communicational use of language in the class. They must aware of the fact that English
is a language that is used all over the world and there are a lot of varieties of English.
They should know that English today is not just British or American English, it is used
as Lingua Franca by a lot of countries.
Teachers may also make use of technology in and out of class to support learners’
critical thinking abilities. They may show learners authentic videos of people from
different parts of the world to show how people communicate by using meta
communicational elements. Teachers who want to establish good relations with their
students may use Social Networking Sites to communicate with them and foster their
relationships with the students.
Dr. Ilknur ISTIFCI holds both MA and Ph.D. degrees in English Language
Teaching. She is currently teaching writing and speaking in the School of
Foreign Languages, Anadolu University. Her research interests include
teacher training, discourse analysis, speech acts, cross-cultural studies,
teaching language skills and distance education. She is the associate
editor of IJONTE-International Journal on New Trends in Education and
Their Implications.
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