Introduction
Teaching is, without a doubt, one of the most difficult yet, at the same time, fulfilling professions in the world. It involves extensive preparation and study, enthusiasm and diligence, empathy and unlimited patience as well as adaptability and strength of character. Nevertheless, the sense of achievement that it brings about in the long term renders all of the challenges and efforts worth the strain it generates throughout one’s entire career.
It is also imbued with polarities; hence, while having the opportunity to impart your knowledge with your students may be considered a thrilling experience, your zest may, at times, be diminished by the impediment to get your message across efficiently enough. Consequently, it is the teachers’ duty to remember the feedback obtained from their learners and determine both the strengths and the weaknesses of the pedagogical strategies applied in all of their lessons.
In my opinion, teachers are lifelong learners engrossed in a perpetual learning process. They are continually ruminating on the success or failure of their teaching, constantly adjusting their approaches, methods and techniques, changing their position in relation to their students, reassessing their role, improving their strategies and creatively practising their techniques.
Taking into consideration the previously mentioned personal views, the premise of the present paper has been inspired by such a pondering on the most recurrent hindrances that I came up against in my teaching experience. I have ventured upon an apparently uncomplicated mission that of seeking to answer a question my students ask directly or indirectly, in a half-serious half-joking manner, every school year: “Why aren’t we allowed to use our smartphones and tablets during class?”; so I asked myself the same question and I came to the conclusion, that it is better to use new technology, that the students already have access to and have had access to for many years now, because this will prove to be in their best interest, than hold it against them.
Today we live in an information age, an age in which more and more people have access to computers and other digital devices and gadgets, an aspect that has made us almost totally reliant on them. The use of multimedia as a teaching means has obviously many advantages, such as providing more information, saving time, arousing the students’ interest, enthusiasm and motivation, stimulating their imagination and creativity, and so on. Even if multimedia has many acknowledged benefits, it should not be used randomly. What we should bear in mind is the fact that multimedia should only play an assisting role in English teaching. But even though Information and Communication Technologies have had a tremendous influence on our modern lives, many teachers today are still reluctant to get the most out of the technological progress and all the available devices and gadgets in order to attain the desired goals in terms of teaching and learning.
We do not live anymore in an era in which teaching was primarily centered on the teacher and was also text-oriented, consequently using the outdated, conventional approach, could be a very dangerous course of action on the part of the teachers, leading to very low motivation and very low efficiency in learning. The new century teachers are no longer merely transmitters of information, standing in front of the class, having only blackboards and chalk and traditional teaching approaches at their disposal. Along with the progress of ICTs, the role of the teacher has changed and the challenge is to “move with the times” while still maintaining academic rigor.
The first part of the present paper gives a general introduction of multimedia, illustrates the necessity of multimedia in English teaching and elaborates the advantages of multimedia teaching and difficulties when using multimedia. The second part explores methods and techniques used when teaching English and their role in promoting the students’ success. The last part gives some strategies on how to use multimedia well and illustrates a research case study, where two classes were involved-the experimental one and the witness one, and which demonstrates how multimedia can positively influence learning outcomes for the students, when compared to traditional teaching methods and techniques.
To conclude, the purpose of this paper is to understand the needs of the English students in a classroom setting, and to explore the methods and techniques that English language teachers can use to foster both language acquisition and learning curriculum content. Particularly, the paper examines how technology can help high-school students achieve academic success, or at least, critically improve their English language skills. It investigates how technology can be valuable for English language learners, as well as for their teachers.