Using ICT in English for Specific Purposes classroom

Abstract

The application of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in English learning and teaching has become very popular. Using the Internet to learn a language can compensate for the lack of communication with the native speakers face to face and can create wide opportunities to enhance learning. While ICT has had a major influence on the teaching and learning of languages, there are some controversies between theory and practice, especially using it for different areas of language study (Barret and Sharma, 2007). Some disagreements cover areas such as the teaching of grammar, vocabulary, language skills and testing. However, advantages of English learning on the Internet surpasses its disadvantages. The Internet activities promote learner self-monitoring ability, strengthen and develop students’ cooperation, encourage the use of multimedia and network technology, allow to employ weblogs and wikis for online publishing, foster participation in different thematic discussion groups and chat rooms and communication with foreign pen-pals via e-mail as well as employ other interactive atasks such as podcasting (Zhong, 2008).