AFFORDANCES AND DRAWBACKS

By Andrea Fonseca Murillo

VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTSSince del mid-

1960s technology has

became a fundamental

tool for restructuring the classroom

learning.

Multimedia and the Internet help the

teacher to provide a significant input, using video, images, sounds,

etc.

Technology is a helpful tool, but what are the affordances and the drawbacks of using it in a learning environment?

AFFORDANCES A VLE environment can facilitate the learners experience regarding the acquisition of a new language.

Multimedia provides multiples modalities to meet the needs of the students with different strategies and learning styles.

Technology can provide students with language experiences.

Technology helps to provide comprehensible input by the use of text, sound, pictures, videos, animation and hypermedia that give a meaningful context and facilitate comprehension.

Students broaden their repertoire of meta-cognitive, cognitive and affective learning strategies.

DRAWBACKS Socioeconomic problems, some schools do not have the tools, or if they have it, they are few to foster a VLE environment.

Some teachers have a lack of preparation in ICT’s use and they avoid its use in the classroom.

Sometimes the students do not use the ICT’s in a proper way.

CONCLUSIONS The use of ICT’s in the classroom generate an appropriate context in which the students can have an approximation to a new language and culture.

It is important the teachers training in the use of ICT’s.

If the resources are limited, teachers should have a plan or strategies (such as group work) to allow the use of technological tools in the classroom.