Download PDFOpen PDF in browserChallenges and Impact of Teaching English in Limited Access to Technology Environment10 pages•Published: February 12, 2020AbstractTechnology surrounds us everywhere, every moment. It seems almost impossible to imagine our life without technology, but in fact there are places and people who have little in the way of technological resources. This is the case for 47 underprivileged young learners (third graders) in the city of Elbasan, Albania. These third graders are part of a project which aims at enhancing their English with the aid of 12 pre-service teachers of English, through fun activities, games and use of technology. In a time when technology has become a common educational tool in many developed countries, these third graders have very limited technology access both at home and at schools. They live in the “Global Village” and should be well prepared to participate in it. For this reason, the project is trying to give these students as much access to technology in the classroom as possible to make learning English fun, and at the same time researching how would the use of technology influence their learning. This paper tries to answer the following research questions: 1. How does the use of technology influence the English language learning? 2. What are some of the challenges that pre-service teachers face while teaching in a low tech class? To answer these research questions observation and interviews were conducted. The observations were carried out from November 2018- January 2019 and the interviews in January 2019. The results indicate that third graders are more enthusiastic and engaged in learning during classes when the activities include the use of technology. The pre-service teachers faced various challenges when using technology in class such as the lack of tech equipment, not being able to observe many activities which integrate technology in class and the lack of experience of employing tech equipment. When available both third graders and pre-service teachers embraced the use of technology as a tool to make teaching and learning English fun and inclusive.Keyphrases: albanian schools, challenges, impact, limited technology, pre service teachers In: Claudia Urrea (editor). Proceedings of the MIT LINC 2019 Conference, vol 3, pages 152-161.
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