TEFL Danby Vermont

Until recently lessons had been given in schools for thousands of years using very similar materials. Use of voice, teacher presence, writing on a board, students writing individually (from slate to notepads) and visual aids have all been used effectively as early as Ancient egypt and beyond. This all changed in Europe with the invention of the printing press. Books and publications suddenly became common place and it suddenly became far more important that people knew how to read and in turn write. The abundance of materials that suddenly became available though it was inevitable that literacy rates would increase and so they did. Leading on from this in more recent times it has become common place that students have textbooks and standard literature from which they work and learn. This, along with a formalised education system, allows everybody to progress at more or less the same pace and thus push each other to do better. Even more recently than that it is now simple and affordable to have recordings of native language speakers and videos of role play situations adding more context and experience of correct language. It is also not uncommon for schools to have their own recording materials to allow students to replay their own speech and actions back to themselves, their classmates and to the teacher in order to see any mistakes they are making etc. We are currently experiencing a revolution in teaching materials that is potentially as big as the introduction of printed material. The use of computers and the internet opens up an infinite cove of possibilities to materials and interactions that have, in the past, been impossible. Not only is there a huge amount of software available that can be as specific or as general as you need but there are word processing programs and other things that are potentially far more relevant to students and how they will learn their language skills in the future. Things start to get really interesting when you bring the internet in to play. For a start you have an inextinguishable source of authentic materials that increases far, far faster than you could ever get through it. It is easy to find materials that are relevant and interesting. The internet can also give students an actual means of communication to native speakers of the language they are learning. When I was at school in the early 1990's we wrote letters in french to students of a school in france. To do this now via email is incredibly easy and not only gives you the opportunity to practice written skills but with programs such as Skype it can be nearly as good as a face to face conversation. For many students this is something they would not have ever been able to do 10 years ago. It is not like text books have been left behind though. Countries such as South Korea are investing heavily in replacing old text books with tablet PC's allowing students to carry all of their books on a single device. The big issue with new technology though has always been price. Many countries where learning english is very important are not particularly rich countries and this means that they often cannot afford such luxuries. That is not to say that these technologies should not be pioneered wherever possible though as proven success can drive down prices. Programs such as One Laptop Per Child continue to work on bringing down the prices of technology to that which is affordable to even the poorest nations. Despite all of this though there is still a need for bright, enthusiastic teachers. They will always be required and the ancient methods will always stand as a core to how we teach and learn. We will never be able to rely entirely on technology to teach us a language as it is the teachers who add a human element to the process. After all, is the whole point of learning a language not the improved communication between humans?