How Can Teacher Use Technology to Increase Learning in Foreign Language classrooms?

I will share about an article which talk about using technology to increase learning in foreign language classroom. Actually, the website which provide this article is talking about the American teacher who teach the students about foreign language. I think that we could apply these strategies to teach Indonesian students too because the main point is that this article is giving advice how the teacher could apply technology to increase learning in foreign language classroom. Enjoy the reading ! Students will learn better if they are provided with authentic situations, so that we need to integrate technology in teaching foreign language. Technology will help the teacher to provide authentic situations. There are some ways which we could apply in integrating technology with the teaching learning process : 

1. Online Research Tour 

The students can have a virtual tour by using technology. The students can go online and look at different pictures, or videos of the different cities. The students can "visit" a foreign country without leaving the classroom. students will know many things about the culture, the language, and many things related to the foreign country by using the online research tour. Besides that, the students are then aware of the global community around them. There are so many resources for the students to find online which is related with their  foreign language.  

2. Video Conferencing 

Video Conferencing is one of the most popular ideas in foreign language classrooms today. How could we do that? With the popularity of programs such as Skype, it is easy to connect students from different sides of the world. Using video conferencing is a way to connect language learners to native speakers. For example, the students can connect to people from America so that the students can learn the authentic speaking which is really spoken by the native speaker. Besides that, the students can also learn the culture of the native speaker from the native speaker that they connected to in the skype. 

3. Video Recording

Through the use of video the students can hear themselves speaking the language, and hear their mistakes and the mistakes of their peers. This is an invaluable experience for learning about themselves, and their strengths and their weaknesses. Also it creates a safe atmosphere for working in a group. By watching the video after they have recorded it, the material will be reviewed another time. Using video also creates a creative output for students who have strengths in that area. This leads to more motivation for the students to learn. For example, we could ask the students to form a group, then we will ask them to speak while the another member of the group will record the conversation, so that we could hear their mistakes from this video. 

4. Multimedia Storytelling

 If we just ask the students to read a story, it will not help the students to get the idea. We could ask the students to make a story telling. When a student takes material, reads it, and then turns around and retells the story they will have a greater understanding of the task. This idea incorporates reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in the language. For example, we could ask the students to create a story telling about other culture of the foreign country, for example America, and make it into video. By giving this task, the students will be to find many information about another culture and become expert of  those information. We could ask the students to use “Movie Maker “ or  “Photo Story” program to create story telling. The students not only create the story and record themselves saying it, but they can add animations, sound effects, and background music. 

You can read more in http://fledtechnology.wikispaces.com/