More Productive Use of Technology in the ESL/EFL Classroom ‘The digital age challenges teachers to use technology In ways that faciltate language learning ESL/EFL teachers must decide how-—ane how nat—to use technology in the classroom, ‘There are thvee strategies ESL/EFL teachers can follow to ensure that technology ts thelr needs. First, investigate new media to see if Is sultable for classroom use. “Then identify how new media changes TESOL. Finally, set English Language Teaching objectives before selecting any tools of technology 1 ~N nity How New Med Set the Objectives ‘Changes TESOL before Selecting the Technology ‘Setting English Language Teaching objectives before selecting the technology ‘seguares the objectives. For instance, identifying main ideas, listening for details, am or giving opinions are three objectives that might work with a podcast, but English Language Teaching ebjectives should not be compromised to ft technology. Making students listen to a podcast Sust Because iis a new medium iminishes any English Language Teaching ‘objective added as an afterthought, However ithe selected objective is, for example, to encourage sef-conscious students to express thelr opinions, then teachers can consider how fo exploit ‘technology to achieve the objective a = | thorough investigation of 8 new medium may reveal a teaching tool that provides students with important bits of infermation ‘or expose it as a needless ‘communicative activity. Fused into any new medium are other media that are not new Scale, Pace and Pattern ‘once ESL/EFL teachers Identy the predecessar media within a new medium, ‘they Nave a better grasp of how to implement the new medium, ‘rift should be implemented at ll “Teachers can click through bits of information ata faster pace, ut content Becomes less meaningful E-mail introduced a rapié pace of message delivery, {and E-mai’s scale has changed the delivery by allowing students and teachers to send to many contacts at once “The pace of text-messaging is speecier than e-mail, but the pattern of text-messaging shorthand hardly resembles English