Journal 1 TLL - Responding to an article written by Mark Warschauer and Carla Meskill entitled “Technology and Second Language Teaching”

It is very interesting to know about the development of technology in teaching and learning process. I was surprised when I realized that even a blackboard is a very important invention on that era. Even Mark and Carla said that it was “the most ubiquitous” technologies in U.S. education. Now we can see how it develops. There are overhead projector, computer, LCD projector, etc.

That development should be the tools to make the teaching process effective. In the other way, based on my experience, there are some problems. When I was a junior high school, I feel more comfortable if my teacher taught me with whiteboard than if my teacher used overhead projector (OHP). That is because we need to be adapted when the teacher uses that.

It is also surprising to know that those technologies also influenced the teachers’ approaches in teaching language. For me, I did not really realize about those technologies and their influences in some approaches. That is because some of teachers in Indonesia are out of that in kind of new invention in education. 

In my opinion, technology is important for teacher. So teacher, especially in Indonesia, should be up to date with that thing. The technology used also has to be appropriate and contextual to the students. We can not act like an up-to-date teacher but does not use in the context. I do believe with some of my lecturers who say that something most important was to know who was our student and what they need.

Warschauer, M., & Meskill, C. (2000).Technology and second language learning.In J. Rosenthal (Ed.), Handbook of undergraduate second language education (pp. 303-318). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.