ICT is a motivational factor in learning foreign languages

Introduction

This article is part of the reflection on the motivation of the learner in English as a foreign language class and the impact that the tutor and peers are likely to have on intrinsic motivation, a concept that can be defined briefly as based on self-interest, the curiosity an actant has to complete a task.

Motivation has been the subject of extensive research in psychology and educational sciences. Learning a foreign language involves mobilizing knowledge and skills and is at the same time an act of personal commitment.

Language institutions need to retain their students and therefore seek to create or prolong a motivation to learn. We can only emphasize the need to better study the phenomena of motivation in the learning of foreign and second languages because it constitutes one of the major factors influencing the success of the learning process. Starting from these considerations, the role of the teacher appears as central, because he can develop techniques favoring the motivational increase of his learners "...teacher skills in motivating learners should be seen as central to teaching effectiveness" (Dorney, 1998).

The study of motivation in foreign language learning has mainly been the subject of two types of approaches: a first socio-psychological approach (Gardnet & Lambert, 1959, 1972), which focuses on instrumental motivation and a second, cognitive, which considers motivation as a dynamic process varying according to multiple factors. It is this last approach which is the basis of the study carried out within the framework of this dissertation on the intrinsic motivation for learning French as a foreign language.

My research focuses more specifically on the motivation of learners in the context of mixed tutoring, face-to-face and online. I chose to conduct this experiment a classic Moodle platform, hosted by the moostic.ch site. Two additional elements and their contribution were considered: ICTE (through pedagogical scenarios and activities carried out using software that allows the creation of multimedia pedagogical activities) and tools resulting from research on the Automatic Language Processing, TAL (dictionaries, translators, corpus work).

In his article "The impact of ICT in teaching", F. Poyet emphasizes that it is not easy to identify the real effects of ICT in teaching and learning, but that the general observation is that new technologies contribute to the motivation to learn, especially by the fact that they correspond well to pedagogical strategies centered on the learner:

(…) it is difficult to really identify the advantages and disadvantages of ICT, we can establish (according to the report by WJ Pelgrum and N. Law see p. 5) that ICT seems to improve knowledge, skills and transversal skills particularly concerning motivation, the pleasure of learning; self-esteem… In addition, flexibility, accessibility, increased modes of communication and interaction, variety of teaching and learning modes, and increased problem-solving and learning ability. use of students' meta-cognitive strategies put forward by Karsenti, are elements recorded by other researchers and seem to achieve consensus (see the Becta report)».

The aim of this research is to describe the most effective ICT tools in increasing students’ motivation to learn foreign language.

Methodology

To achieve the goal of the study and solve the tasks set, a set of theoretical and empirical research methods was applied: theoretical analysis of philosophical, sociological, psychological and pedagogical literature and research on the problem of students' motivation for learning; study and generalization of practical experience on the research topic; study of the documents of the Russian Federation that determine the policy of the state in the field of education; pedagogical experiment, including questioning, testing, forecasting, modeling, independent expert assessments, observations, conversations, content analysis, training, educational games; statistical processing of the results of experimental work.

Literature review

The concept of modernization of Kazakhstani education until 2010 assumes "the orientation of education not only to the assimilation of a certain amount of knowledge by students, but also to the development of his personality, his cognitive and creative abilities", which requires the purposeful work of the teacher and the teaching staff of the school as a whole.

The improvement of the education system, stimulated by the social order of society, constantly complicates the requirements for the psychological development of school graduates. Today it is no longer enough for schoolchildren to master the sum of knowledge, great importance is attached to the task of teaching schoolchildren to learn, and psychologically this means teaching them to want to learn. Therefore, the relevance of the topic is due to the following:

• motivation performs important functions in learning: it encourages behavior, directs and organizes it, gives it personal meaning and significance;
• the need to rethink the well-known methodological solutions to update the motivational mechanisms of students, taking into account the specifics of the school and the personal characteristics of students.

Studying at school includes various types of influence on learning motivation. The way of education of motivation through educational activity is very effective. Numerous psychological studies (P.Ya. Galperin and P. Golu, D.B. Elkonin, V.V. Davydov, A.K. Markova and others) have shown that the nature of motivation can be programmed through the type of learning. So, if the content of training is built not as a ready-made task, but as a system of tasks for students, if students are led to independently discover the theoretical provisions of the training course, if they practice learning activities in the unity of its components, then schoolchildren develop an internal, fairly stable, generalized motivation for learning.

The problem of teaching motivation interested me from the very beginning of my pedagogical activity. After reviewing the scientific, methodological, psychological and pedagogical literature on this topic, I was convinced that the psychological "study of motivation and its formation are two sides of the same process of educating the motivational sphere of the student's integral personality" (A.K. Markova).

The use of ICT contributes to the conscious assimilation of knowledge by students and allows:

• to increase the positive motivation for learning, to intensify the cognitive activity of students.
• the use of ICT allows you to conduct lessons at a high aesthetic and emotional level; provides clarity, attracting a large amount of didactic material.
• increase the amount of work performed in the lesson by 1.5–2 times; provide a high degree of differentiation of training (almost individualization).
• expand the possibility of independent activity; develop research skills.
• provides access to various reference systems, electronic libraries, and other information resources.

The use of ICT also allows for lessons:

• at a high aesthetic and emotional level (animation, music) provides visibility;
• attracts a large amount of didactic material;
• provides a high degree of differentiation of training;

Students learn the skills of control and self-control.

Allows training in the zone of proximal development creates favorable conditions for a better mutual understanding of the teacher and students and their cooperation in the educational process.

It is information technology, being a universal means of learning, that allows not only to form students' knowledge, skills and abilities, but also to develop the child's personality. The imagery of displaying certain phenomena and processes in the memory of the student enriches the perception of educational material, contributes to its best understanding, and therefore increases the motivation for learning.

Results and Discussion

The use of ICT in the conduct of directly educational activities makes it possible to move from an explanatory-illustrated method to an activity one, in which the child becomes an active subject, and not a passive object of pedagogical influence. This contributes to the conscious assimilation of knowledge by preschoolers and allows you to achieve better results in the education and upbringing of children.

In the work you can use the following computer games, programs:

• educational games – games aimed at the formation and development of children's general mental abilities, goal-setting, the ability to mentally correlate their actions to control the game with the images created in a computer game, for the development of fantasy, imagination, emotional and moral development;
• educational games are game programs of a didactic type, in which it is proposed to solve one or more tasks in a playful way;
• games of experimentation - the goal and rules of the game are hidden in the plot or the way it is controlled. To achieve success in solving a game problem, the child must, through search actions, come to an understanding of the goal and method of action, which is the key to achieving a common solution to the game problem;
• computer diagnostic games - games that develop, teach, experiment, can be considered diagnostic, since an experienced teacher and, moreover, a psychologist, by the method of solving computer problems, the style of the game of actions, can say a lot about the child.
• fun games - such games do not explicitly contain game tasks or development tasks. They simply provide an opportunity for children to have fun, carry out search actions and see the result on the screen in the form of some kind of “micro cartoon”.

The use of multimedia presentations makes it possible to make the GCD emotionally colored, attractive, arouse a keen interest in the child, they are an excellent visual aid and demonstration material, which contributes to good performance, allows you to put information not only in factographic, but also in associative form in the memory of children.

Advantages of using computer slide presentations in the process of educating children:

• polysensory perception of the material;
• possibility of demonstration of various objects with the help of a multimedia projector and a projection screen in many times enlarged form;
• combining audio, video and animation effects into a single presentation helps to compensate for the amount of information children receive from educational literature;
• the possibility of demonstrating objects that are more accessible to the perception of an intact sensory system;
• activation of visual functions, visual abilities of the child;
• computer presentation slide films are convenient to use for displaying information in the form of printouts in large print on a printer as a handout for classes with preschoolers.

The use of information and computer technologies is effective at all stages of direct educational activities. For example, with interest and joy, children repeat the movements of the cartoon man on the screen to the music at the time of the multimedia physical education session, which has a positive effect on the emotional atmosphere in the children's team.

During GCD with the use of information and computer technologies, the child develops:

• fine motor skills;
• optical-spatial orientation;
• hand-eye coordination;
• imagination;
• creative thinking;
• abstract thinking;
• short-term and long-term memory;
• internal action plan.

Recognizing that a computer is a powerful resource aimed at developing the intellect of children, it is necessary to carefully organize direct educational activities, observing the rules for using modern ICT:

• Ensuring a hygienic and rational organization of the workplace (use of new computers, a sufficient level of illumination; matching the furniture to the height of the child; finding the monitor screen at the level of the child's eyes or slightly lower, at a distance of no closer than 50 cm);
• Use of one computer for simultaneous employment of two and more children;
• The use of a computer in subgroup and frontal classes is possible only if there is special equipment: a multimedia installation or a large TV;
• Classes using a computer are conducted fragmentarily and with the obligatory observance of the following conditions to preserve the health of the child, that is, in compliance with SanPiN.

At the same time, the teacher must perfectly know the content of all computer programs, their operational characteristics (the specifics of the technical rules of action with each of them).

The use of information technology helps the teacher to increase the motivation for teaching children and leads to a number of positive consequences:

• -enriches students with knowledge in their figurative-conceptual integrity and emotional coloring;
• psychologically facilitates the process of assimilation of the material;
• excites a keen interest in the subject of knowledge;
• expands the overall.

Conclusion

The use of ICT is becoming increasingly relevant, as it allows multimedia, in the most accessible and attractive, playful form, to achieve a new quality of knowledge, develops the logical thinking of children, enhances the creative component of educational work, contributing to the maximum improvement in the quality of education and upbringing of the younger generation.

There is no doubt that in modern education the computer does not solve all the problems, it remains just a multifunctional technical teaching aid. No less important are modern pedagogical technologies and innovations in the learning process, which allow not only to “invest” in each pupil a certain amount of knowledge, but, first of all, to create conditions for the manifestation of cognitive activity of students.