One of the powerful impacts that digital technology had on our communication would be global connection. We access and connect to digital world through a variety of languages and forms. This power is similar to that of gravity or power of magnet drawing our texts and voices from around the world. Will future technology truly connect us into one world? How will different languages affect this process?
Hi, my name is Yuki and I currently live in a city next to Tokyo, Japan. I moved back to Japan from Vancouver last year. This is my fifth ETEC course. I worked in the television industry in Tokyo for over ten years while raising two children. After I came back from Canada, I have been teaching English in the private educational company, and I have just gotten the opportunity to work at the local college as an assistant for the directors. I am interested in technology-supported curriculum design for foreign language learners. In this program, I wish to understand how technology and digital communication impact the foreign language learners’ perspective on reading and writing.
Photo DaveBleasdale (Flicker)
Hi Yuki,
That’s a great question you pose. When I taught high school Spanish in Seoul I used technology extensively, and the students readily took to it. I think in my experience it increased involvement in terms of reading and writing. However, looking back I do wonder at what cost those benefits came…
JSV
JSV,
I am teaching English in Seoul now in a high school! I try to use technology regularly as a motivational tool in classes, especially with conversation class students. However, I recently had students write TOEFL essays in class the old fashioned way (paper and pen); they all told me they would have much rather have done it on the computer! One cost that concerns me is the loss of motor skills needed for writing if computers are allowed into the classroom.
I totally agree with you, Yuki, on the global connection caused by access to digital technology. English seems to be the international language that still facilitates this process. Although, there are a few exceptions where expressed forms of communication in other languages have transcended borders. “Gangnam Style” is one that comes to mind : )
Relying on Google and auto spelling-grammar correction for our memory causes another cost. To be honest, it is my problem. I am much more comfortable writing on a computer especially in my second language, English. When it comes to second languages, I feel that the volume using them in a certain environment affects stronger than the first language.
I am very glad to have a classmate in the same time zone. English is dominant among the information online, and the language gap is more serious for non-English speakers. At the same time, increasing the information online in a variety of local languages around the world is also important, I think…and encouraging them to pass the boarders as “Gangnam style”. I like the example you picked up!