L2 learning and Teaching reference Digital Native.

 

L2 learning and Teaching reference Digital Native

The rapid development of communication and information technologies in the globalizing world makes it easier to access information, share, and interact with one another. The digital world makes learning a second language more convenient and easier. Many different terms are used to call the generation who was born into the digitalized world as the millennium generation, internet generation, digital generation, net generation, and media generation, although the term “digital natives” indicates that this generation is an excessively user of technologies, it certainly implies far more than that. Due to the technology’s rich environment, the digital natives are exposed to. They are said to develop their unique characteristics, which make them different in some aspects, the technology-rich environments made young people approach and use information in a completely different way of processing it very fast by causing a change in their brain structure.

In the earlier world, L2 learning was complicated compared to the modern world, in the past humans don’t have digital facilities so they have to try hard to learn the language but in the modern world, everything is different. The electronic device or digital world makes for benefits for l2 learning. Learners can communicate with more people in the targeted language, they have more opportunities for collaborating with friends, etc.

In the first quarter of the 21st century, the rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICT) also affected foreign language education. The use of technology in teaching and learning environments is gaining popularity. The widespread use of these technologies has led to significant changes in both language learners and teachers in foreign language learning and teaching. Through these tools, digital learners can access hundreds of daily podcasts, wikis, videos, exercises, and other content to practice a foreign language. Consequently, they can make foreign language learning processes much more practical and meaningful via such links and tools.

The digital native’s foreign language learning efforts significantly differed depending on their affinity toward learning English and self-reported academic success as well as the use of media hardware and social media, such as smartphones, Google, reading e-books, and newspaper, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, gaming, and shopping. Hardware and social media were seen to make endeavors in different aspects of foreign language learning efforts. Social media sites such as Instagram and YouTube are the most popular. The participants have indicated various purposes for using the new media, and a vast number of digital natives multitask and function well when networking. 

 In sum, technology can play the role of the medium that creates rich and resourceful environments to stimulate the emergence of collective creative processes.

 

References

 Anderson, T. (2003). Modes of interaction in distance education: Recent developments and research questions. Handbook of Distance Education, 129-144