New Technology and Business English

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New Technology and Business English

• Pete Sharma
• Business English Trainers Conference
• English UK
• IH London, May 2010

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Overview

• Background thoughts
• Impact of new technology on Business English
• Courses
• Teaching
• Materials
• 10 key things to know about Learning Technologies

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Background four thoughts
(i) Computers have changed our lives as teachers
forever
Corpus linguistics Word frequency Course book
authenticity Neologisms
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((ii) CALL is situation specific (Levy
Stockwell)

• Computer-aided language learning
• Solution in situation A has no impact on
  situation B
• Classrooms - online

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((iii) New era

• Digital natives /
• digital immigrants (Prensky)
• Publishers no longer sole owners
• Web 2.0 User-generated content /collaborative

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(iv) Technology driven world

• Innovators early adapters - early majority
• Pedagogy playing catch-up
• Pedagogy is crucial for language teaching

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Course types
Effective presentation skills
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Benefits of a blended approach
Synchronous
Asynchronous
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Course creation
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On-line testing

• Pros

• Cons

• Save time
• Adaptive tests
• Easy to mark

• Tests test what are testable
• Quantative vs qualatitive
• Ignore humanistic side (personality etc)

teacher.scholastic.com
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Impact of technology on language teaching

• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Language skills
• Receptive (L / R)
• Productive (S / W)
• Phonology

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Vocabulary Learner training
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Presentations Power Point
Death by Power Point
Pecha Kucha
20 images x 20 seconds 6 minutes, 40 seconds