Roger Alejandro Chaves

Analysis of a case study

Case 3: Integration of technology into language teaching

 
 
Erika is a very responsible teacher, and she is worried because she has realized that students
fail English very often in her institution. She knows that using technology, the students and
the teachers can realize deficiencies on time and there is something they can do before it is
too late. She proposes the idea in her school she is not very sure about the benefits,
disadvantages and other issues that emerge when using technology to support assessment. 
Help Erika to shape her idea and help her design a plan to achieve her objective. 

Erika believes that some of the causes of the low English performance of students in her
institution are lack of motivation and the use of a traditional methodology. To improve the
 Roger Alejandro Chaves
Analysis of a case study
teaching method, Erika proposes an idea which is to make use of technology. She thinks
that by using digital platforms for language teaching, students are more motivated because
they are digital natives. In addition, the use of technology can help teachers with
assessment as it allows them to monitor their students' learning.

Erika’s idea is to integrate the portfolio into language assessment through the Classroom
platform. Portfolio is an assessment procedure that language teachers and administrators
can use to evaluate students. This is an alternative assessment of formative and summative
nature; students are expected to produce language through activities proposed by the
teacher. Also, this procedure requires continuous monitoring by the teacher through
conferences where the teacher and the student meet to analyze the student’s performance.
For the evaluation the teacher will use holistic scales, some conferences and meetings, a
self-assessment format that students complete at the end of each thematic unit, and finally a
space for students to reflect on their strengths, weaknesses, and a plan for improvement.

The use of this procedure is very significant because it has many advantages that benefit
language learning. First, by means of the portfolio assessment is possible to evaluate
achievement because through the delivery of the different activities in the portfolio students
demonstrate the communicative skills and language skills in English that they have
developed during a unit or course. Second, it helps to follow the progress of the skills
developed by the students, and to make a diagnosis because this type of assessment allows
students to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses to create an action plan of
improvement. Third, this assessment procedure is very practical because it does not require
a lot of money to implement. The portfolio is a type of assessment that can be created and
managed online, where the teacher creates a space on the Classroom platform for students
to upload the progress of activities in various formats such as audio, video, texts, among
others.

Additionally, this procedure presents authenticity and another important principle of

evaluation which is Washback. The activities and evidence to include in the portfolio allow
students to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of specific
knowledge and skills. Also, the portfolio is of formative type and has a positive
influence on the students. The portfolio allows constant monitoring of student progress and
convenient feedback. Through this type of assessment, the student and teacher analyze and
identify strengths and weaknesses, and together create an action plan to improve the
linguistic skills in which the student has problems.

Although, this procedure may present some drawbacks of being relatively time consuming
and because students develop the portfolio autonomously, with proper planning this
procedure can remain practical and reliable. For this reason, the teacher must determine in
advance the evidence that the portfolio must include and establish from the beginning the
dates of delivery of each activity. Moreover, the teachers should propose meaningful
activities to motivate their students to perform each task responsibly, and in which they do
their best to complete it.

This assessment procedure well-structured and organized can be very beneficial for
students. Through portfolios teachers could give individualized assessment where students
 Roger Alejandro Chaves
Analysis of a case study
identify their strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, the use of technology can help
motivate students to learn the language and assesses the learning process in an ongoing way
throughout the term of instruction.