Using Google tools to Foster integration of ICT in EFL teaching: a proposal for intervention

Abstract

There has been much interest in the last decades in information and communication technology (ICT) and its relevance to education. Research has been growing at a rapid rate on how ICT could be adapted in order to improve the quality of education. Especially, in the area of modern languages, much interest has been put in how to integrate ICT in EFL teaching. Especial emphasis must be put on the word “integrate”, for integration of ICT is not just using ICT in the EFL class. The use of computers and other ICT in the class, as long as it is taken as some kind of pastime or simply as a novelty to increase students’ motivation is not integration of ICT in EFL. In other words, asking students to write an easy on the computer instead of on a piece of paper, or telling students to look up words in an online dictionary instead of in a normal dictionary, is not an example of ICT integration. As Domínguez Miguela and Fernández Santiago (2006, p.22) point out, an activity that is intended to bring together ICT and EFL teaching must be fully integrated in the syllabus design in terms of objectives, content and evaluation. As to how to integrate ICT in EFL teaching, Domínguez Miguela and Fernández Santiago (2006, p.53) suggest the following.