Pixel International Conferences

The use of ICT in language teaching and learning has long won universal acclaim of both learners and teachers. The positive impact of this use has been described by numerous authors. Problems, related to ICT in the educational context, however, are often ignored or considered negligible in comparison with advantages.

While A1-B1 students seldom have to work with longer oral or written texts (articles, presentations, lectures), ICT seem to have a rather positive influence on the learning outcome and the classroom atmosphere. However, with the increase in the volume of information processed by learners and its level, previously unnoticed problems emerge.

These problems are mostly related to the capability of human brain to process information. The article describes the fundings of the classroom observation and experiment prompted by the research by Russian psychologists Firsova (2010) and Kolesnikova (2015). Kolesnikova suggests that the skills of processing printed information (e.g. from a textbook) differ from those requires to process information presented in electronic media, which means the learner has to acquire transliteracy skills. Firsova proves that the technical side of the matter (e.g. the position of information on the screen, fonts, colours etc) influences the way and effectiveness of perceiving information.

The classroom observation conducted by the author involved the experiment in two groups of C1 students. The experiment identifies problems related to using ICT in the classroom. Among these problems, a short memory span (lack of long-term memory abilities) and evidence of functional illiteracy are the most alarming. Students experience similar problems with the subjects where the instruction is provided in L1; in the subjects in L2 (English) and L3 (French or German) these problems double and triple.

The author, however, does not deny the positive influence of ICT in language learning. The article discusses ways to cope with the aforementioned problems and to teach students transliteracy skills to make their studies more effective.