Using technology in English language teaching: Connecting pedagogy with practice

While technology is now widely regarded as an all-important resource in the 21st-century classroom, utilising its core affordances can present teachers with overwhelming challenges and dilemmas. How are teachers supposed to confidently evaluate the potential of new technologies in achieving or even surpassing curriculum objectives? Is every technology really transformative? How can they respond to the latest trends advocating the adoption of new technologies? How can they make informed and pedagogically sound decisions about whether - or not - to integrate them into their classrooms?

This interactive session will help teachers develop a critical understanding of key issues surrounding the use of technology in language teaching and explore connections between pedagogy and practice. It will also explore effective and practical ways of evaluating learning technologies and creating engaging, relevant, and personalised language learning experiences. In the last part of the session, participants will work in a small group activity aimed at helping them consolidate what has been discussed.

 

Speaker: Sophia Mavridi

Sophia Mavridi is a lecturer in digital technologies and English Language​ ​Teaching at De Montfort University (Leicester,​ UK). Her responsibilities also include teaching and supervising dissertations for the MA programme at NILE (Norwich Institute for Language Education). Her research focuses on the intersection of digital pedagogies and teacher education as well as online, blended and hybrid language learning. Her latest volumes are ‘Language Teaching Experiences during COVID-19’ (British Council); ‘English for 21st Century Skills’ (Express Publishing); and ‘Digital Innovations and Research in Language Learning’ (IATEFL).