THE USE OF TECHNOLOGIES IN TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES TO STUDENTS

Abstract

The integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in foreign language education stands out as a major method which can transform foreign language education in particular in the context of technical students, as they are the students who need specific linguistic competence for the global employment. Despite the discovery of literature documenting the usefulness of the ICT to promote both language proficiency and interdisciplinary communication, there is still a knowledge gap on the long term effect of ICT to promote language proficiency and interdisciplinary communication. This study employs a qualitative design in which classroom observations, student surveys as well as performance assessments were used to evaluate the effects of ICT on language acquisition. The findings show digital tools, including electronic courseware, online discussion forums, and synchronous communication platforms resulting in such improvements as students' engagement, autonomy, and their technical language skills. The results show improvements in vocabulary retention, fluency, and communicative competence, thus, ICT is beneficial to pedagogical value in technical education. The implication of the study stresses the importance of the curriculum innovations involving the use of adaptive digital learning strategies that facilitate equitable access and impact of its effectiveness in diverse educational settings. Future work will address scalable ICT based models and explore how long term their influence will be on the professional competency in global technical fields.