We don't teach technology, we teach communication

Practitioner Talk -Digital Technology in Disciplinary Contexts (Language Teaching) Future Learning Language School was set up to provide technology enhanced language programmes for junior foreign students coming to Ireland ... [ view full abstract ]

Practitioner Talk -Digital Technology in Disciplinary Contexts (Language Teaching)

Future Learning Language School was set up to provide technology enhanced language programmes for junior foreign students coming to Ireland on summer courses. It was hard to begin with to explain to parents and other stakeholders that it was a language programme and not a technology programme. In order to counter this perception we have had to drop TEL from the title of the programme in favour of Language and Technology, giving the language primary billing. In parallel with this we have been working to find the proper place of technology in these progammes, making sure that is a tool we employ whenever it can be useful, and not something that takes over as the content of the sessions, squeezing out the time for development of the language. This is particularly pressing given the limited number of hours we have for these projects and that we often don't get to meet the students or their parents in advance. This talk will explore these challenges and the approach that we have devised in order to ensure that we are still primarily teaching communication, rather than technology, and that that is clearly explained to students and their parents.