The following is an article  I wrote at the end of last year for  OUP  that appeared in the English file news. It is this article that provided the basis of my plenary talk at the LABCI and Southern Cone conferences. It is reproduced here with the permission of OUP.

As good as a coursebook is, in the twenty-first century, teaching is no longer about the four walls of the classroom. There was a time when a learner of English had to rely almost solely on what went on within the four walls.  A really motivated learner might have been able to hear the BBC world service or see a film in English and if they could afford it, buy an English newspaper or book.  The teacher’s roles in the students’ language learning was key; the font of all knowledge, the model of the language, the ‘one true source’. The four walls providing the enclosed space for the once, perhaps twice weekly, forays into an English-speaking world.

But that was before the coming of the digital age.

Now, thanks to the Internet and the advent of digital media, a complete shift is happening in language learning and it’s a time for teachers to be excited, to embrace their new roles and watch and help as learning English moves into a new era.

The technophobes or authoritarians amongst you might be tempted to stop reading. However, before you do, consider that teaching has always adapted to its surroundings, moving from lecture to pair work, from translation to communication. Likewise, we have always tried to make the best use of any materials that we could get our hands on; from slate to whiteboards, from the postcard an English friend sent through to an authentic article found in a magazine, from recordings off the radio through to dvds.  Why do we do this?  Because we realize our students have needs and interests that run beyond the coursebook. If we can spark that interest, we spark motivation. A motivated student is a better learner.  The digital age has given us the greatest opportunity yet to motivate our learners so they will engage in English in a way that best interests them and suits the way they learn.

While we will always strive to give our students the best possible lessons we have to accept that the amount of time they spend with us in the classroom is little compared to the exposure to English they can now get in their daily lives.  We cannot control the English they will meet, nor can we always be there for every student at every moment of the day to help them understand everything.  In the digital age of teaching the dual role of both teacher and educator has never been more valid. Teach students to be literate in a second language, educate them to be digitally literate so they can take control of their own learning. Teach them English, educate them in how to learn English for themselves and apply it to their lives.

In the classroom we try and bring the coursebook material to life, make it animated in a way that appeals to the different learning styles. The digital age means we now have interactive tools for the classroom to go along side our more usual set of ideas and activities.  However, as good as you make the lesson or you think the coursebook is, unless you teach a class of adult clones, there is little chance that it will be meeting ALL your students’ needs and interests at every moment.  Not everyone in class will enjoy a lesson on the topic of modern artists, but for those that you see really getting into it, you can suggest websites where they can go and pursue their interests and at the same time give them more exposure to English. Applying English to life has always been one of our goals; if the students can see a use for English then they’ll be motivated. Since most of our students use the Internet for work and life, the digital age of teaching finally helps bring this goal to fruition. Once a student realises they are able to find out and understand things on the Internet then a whole world of real English uses opens up. They can join online groups and find new friends around the world to email, instant message and skype. If being online is what they like then they can try their hand at joining the blogging community and sharing their thoughts in English with others, or use a myriad of other sites that will give them real language ‘practice’.

As a teacher our role needs to evolve from being the ‘font’, the  ‘model’, to one of helper and guide. We need to link our classroom practice with the wider world, accepting that the four walls are gone and show the students how to extend the coursebook topics into the real world.  At the same time we should acknowledge that for a student to attain their full language learning potential, it is important to let them loose on their own; let them find out what works best for them.

The digital age of learning is not all about using authentic websites.  I am sure we all agree that no matter how good a teacher we are, learning doesn’t take place solely within one lesson. We’d be fooling ourselves if we walked out of a 60-minute vocabulary lesson thinking the students would remember every word.  In fact if you goggle ‘learning a language’ you will find countless references to 80 percent and twenty-four hours.  The percentage being the estimated amount lost within one day of the initial learning.  However, no matter how many times we try and convey that opening their notebooks a little each day will help their learning, we often seem to be fighting a losing battle with our students.

With busy lives our students can be forgiven for not always opening their notebooks to study and at the times when they could study they have probably not got their notebooks or workbooks with them. However, this is another place where turning to digital material can help. Publishing companies can now provide support to students in different ways.  With workbook materials now found on cd roms, students can load the workbook on to their computers and do the exercises in a five-minute break instead of having to remember where they put their paper notebook. Even the student who says they are too busy to study is running out of excuses. Things such as listening materials can now be put on to their mp3 players so they can learn on the move, you can even record the lesson for them to play again  – trust me it works, ask my student who went from A2 to C2 in no time at all once he realized he could study while commuting. Our students learn in different ways, lead different kind of lives and we need to ensure that as teachers we channel into that.

To do this we need to become accepting of the digital age and not try and shut it out as many of us have the want to do.  We wouldn’t try and teach a language point without doing our research, and the same approach needs to be taken with digital tools.  Successful language learners tend to be risk takers, willing to experiment with language. It’s quite an easy parallel to make that successful teachers need to be experimenting as well.  To those teachers who say they do not use technology, do you have a mobile phone? Do you email? Have you ever googled?  The answer is invariably yes and therefore you do use technology, you have just become so used to it you don’t notice.

Human nature seems to make us want to grumble about things but then seamlessly integrate them into our lives. The same goes for teaching. Think about the first time that you used a video or dvd in class. You were probably apprehensive about it but a few weeks later you gave no more thought other than popping it into the machine and cueing it at the right place. Technology is here to stay. There’s no point in trying to deny that. It’s as true as the fact that you can’t learn for your students. But in the digital age you can help them learn for themselves, you don’t need to be an expert in technology, you’re already one in English, and that’s what students will always need. So look beyond the fours walls, grab hold of all the tools, try them out and embrace this new era of teaching and by doing so you’ll help create confident and able users of English.