This review summarizes the relevant research on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education. Specifically, it reviews studies that have touched upon the merits of ICT integration in schools, barriers or challenges encountered in the use of ICT, factors influencing successful ICT integration, in-service and pre-service teachers’ attitudes, perceptions, and confidence in using ICT as well as the importance of school culture in the use of ICT. This review discusses gaps in the literature and the directions that future studies may take to address these gaps.

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ICT in Education: A Critical Literature Review and Its Implications

This study focuses on the problems in teaching tenses to Turkish students at university level in Turkey. Some of the problematic and confusing tenses such as Past Simple and Present Perfect Tense, Present Continuous and Present Simple, Past Simple and Past Continuous Tense Teaching grammar have been handled throughout this study with the data obtained from the written exams of the learners. Most frequently occurred errors have been listed and they have been analyzed in detail. The findings reveal that the reasons for these errors mostly derive from mother tongue interference and lack of adequate linguistic background. The other component of this article is to offer remedial teaching activities for foreign language learners to compensate the shortcomings.

Theory and Practice in Language Studies

The availability and the use of mobile messaging applications are increasingly widespread among the new generation of students in Iran. The present study aimed to investigate the role of WhatsApp in the vocabulary learning improvement of Iranian junior high school EFL students. Using a mixed method design, a group of 60 students including 30 male and 30 female students studying at two male and female junior high schools in Isfahan, Iran participated in the study. A pre-test and post-test were used. Four English classes were instructed and the experimental group received vocabulary instructions electronically four days a week for four weeks using the WhatsApp while the control group was taught vocabularies of their textbook inside the classroom by traditional method used in all Iranian schools for teaching English to students. The results revealed that using WhatsApp had significant role in vocabulary learning of the students. The results also showed that there was not a substantial difference between male and female students regarding their vocabulary knowledge after using WhatsApp. The findings of this study can be beneficial to Iranian EFL students, teachers, language schools, policy makers, and syllabus designers.

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The Role of WhatsApp in Teaching Vocabulary to Iranian EFL Learners at Junior High School

Understanding how educational technology can enhance student engagement is becoming increasingly necessary in higher education, and particularly so in arts and humanities, given the communicative nature of courses. This narrative systematic review synthesises 42 peer-reviewed arts and humanities articles published between 2007-2016, indexed in four international databases. The results indicate that the majority of research has been undertaken in language learning, predominantly in East Asian countries, with limited grounding of research in theory. This review found that educational technology supports student engagement, with behavioural engagement by far the most prevalent dimension. Affective engagement was the lowest observed dimension, with affective disengagement the most prevalent negative dimension. Blogs, mobile learning, and assessment tools were the most effective at promoting engagement. However, caution and education in how to use technology are needed, as any use not underpinned by effective and informed pedagogy can also lead to students feeling overwhelmed and disengaging from learning. Further research is needed on online collaboration, as well as international courses that offer cross-cultural opportunities for language use, and the increased use of qualitative methods is also advised.

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Facilitating student engagement through educational technology in higher education: A systematic review in the field of arts and humanities

During the recent technological years, language learning has been attempted to transform its path from the conventional methods to instrumental applications Mobile phone provides people to reach and exchange information through chats (WhatsApp) It is a tool or mode that means the facilities are used for main purposes The unique features of the application are its compatibility to exchange information, enhance communication and relationship A mobile phone provides to download, upload and store learning materials and information files The purpose of the current study was to investigate the use and effect of mobile applications such as WhatsApp on school work and out of school work In this way, Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was conducted among 80 learners in order to select intermediate EFL learners  In total, 60 participants whose scores were 70 or higher were elected as the intermediate level and were divided into experimental and control groups In order to control the reliability of the collocation pretest, the test was pilot studied on 15 learners Then, the pretest was conducted to measure the learner’s collocation knowledge in both of the groups The experimental group frequently installed WhatsApp application in order to learning and practicing new collocations in order to learning and practicing new collocations, while the control group did not use any tool for learning them An immediate posttest after the treatment was administered The results in each group were statistically evaluated and the findings manifested that the experimental group who used WhatsApp application in learning collocation significantly outperformed the control group in posttest Thus usage of WhatsApp application to acquire collocations can reinforce and enhance the process of collocations acquisition and it can guarantee retention of collocations This study also prepares pedagogical implications for utilizing mobile application as an influential instrument in learning a second language Keywords: Mobile application, WhatsApp, Collocations knowledge, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Iranian EFL learners, Social Networking Sites (SNSs)

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Impact of WhatsApp on Learning and Retention of Collocation Knowledge among Iranian EFL Learners

The development and application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the field of Foreign Language Teaching (FLT) have had a considerable impact on the teaching methodologies in China. With an increasing emphasis on strengthening students’ learning initiative and adopting a “student-centred” teaching concept in FLT, language teachers and researchers in China have resolved to explore effective and appropriate teaching models both in theory and practice. A range of reforms of college English teaching in China has demonstrated the shift of the teaching focus from enhancing students’ reading ability to their listening and speaking abilities. More focus has been put on improving students’ communicative language ability (CLA). This paper aims to examine the feasibility of the student-centred teaching model utilised in an English audio-video speaking class (EAVSC) in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) environments at the authors’ university by carrying out two quantitative longitudinal case studies. Analysis of correlated data shows that this specific teaching model in general is both plausible and effective in improving students’ communicative language abilities, especially in their speaking abilities.

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Zhihong Lu

Papers

A research on a student-centred teaching model in an ICT-based English audio-video speaking class