DeVeLOPmeNt OF mULtimeDiA APPLieD iN eNGLisH teACHiNG

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of second language teaching. The boredom and the routine 
of using only a course book and repeatedly drilling the 
same types of exercises can be easily avoided.
As the issue of the comprehension of spoken language 
is crucial, teachers should try miscellaneous resources of 
podcasts. Traditional course books usually offer gap filling 
and true or false exercises, which do not really give a sense 
of real communication. Students very often complain that 
podcasts going along with course books seem to be artificial 
and fake. Fortunately, a wide range of free podcasts made 
specifically for language learners, is currently accessible 
on iTunes, YouTube, SoundCloud etc. Another reliable 
source that can be used for a purpose of listening practice 
is the radio. It offers news broadcasts and interviews 
which are available on their websites. Moreover, teachers 
might even use songs played currently on the radio as 
most of the students recognize them easily and are more 
familiar with the lyrics even though they do not know the 
meaning standing behind the words. Nowadays, almost 
everyone owns a computer or a smartphone. Due to this 
fact, students are able to create podcasts and recordings 
on their own which give them a chance to practice their 
pronunciation.
The key role in eliminating the monotony from the 
classroom is occupied by videos, which support both 
the expansion of the vocabulary and the development of 
listening skills. While children prefer watching cartoons 
or animated stories, older learners are more likely to watch 
documentaries or travel journals. Lyric videos are very 
entertaining and give numberless options considering the 
fact that the teacher can use students’ favourite songs. 
As a result of such activities, students can experience the 
language not only aurally but also visually. It gives them a 
better context and insight into the natural use of English.
A majority of young students have access to, and are 
actually fond of using the Internet as much as possible. 
In this case the teacher can use countless resources with 
online games, which stimulate and improve every aspect 
of language skills. The Internet provides the classroom 
environment with a diverse range of games that are free 
and available for everyone. These games are designed 
to practice and examine for instance target vocabulary, 
a specific grammar construction, or comprehension of 
a text. Moreover, students have a chance to practice 
their skills at home by downloading applications and 
games on their phones or computers. Digital versions of 
hangman, Scrabble, crosswords, or even memory games 
are entertaining for all age groups. The teacher might even 
display these games on the interactive whiteboard and 
engage the whole class.
The concept of the enhancement of writing skills by 
encouraging students to create online blogs is also worth 
considering. Blogging platforms such as Blogger, or 
WordPress, give students an opportunity to create blogs 
for free. Sometimes students find blogging engaging and 
encouraging because they can write about anything they 
find interesting. The fact that not only the teacher can 
read their virtual journals, but basically everyone with the 
access to the Internet, makes them put more effort into 
writing. Getting feedback from a larger audience may have 
a positive influence on the development of one’s skills 
as well. If the idea of blogging weekly or daily does not 
appeal to the students, they can use their blogs as digital 
portfolios of their best works.
Multimedia is a recent and popular term in the field 
of computer usage. Generally speaking, multimedia is 
the combination of text, sound, pictures, animation, and 
video. Typical set-ups include CD-ROM, CD-ROM 
player, sound equipment, and special hardware, which 
allow the display of sophisticated graphics. With the rapid 
development of the internet, which has become a powerful 
medium for it provides a number of services including 
“e-mail, the World Wide Web (WWW), newsgroups, voice 
and video conferencing, file transfer and exchange and 
numerous corporate services delivered through specialized 
programs”. In the context of teaching, multimedia can 
be called an integrated media, which consists of various 
media forms such as text, graphic, animation, audio, etc. 
to browse, query, select, link and use information to meet 
pupils’ requirement. Smith and Woody defined multimedia 
as “the use of both visual aids and verbal descriptions to 
illustrate concepts” [1].
According to Mudge , Multimedia applied in English 
teaching may include four stages. The original stage 
can be dated back to the 1950s when only a few foreign 
language institutes started to employ phonograph, 
broadcast, movie, tape recorder and other current media 
in foreign language teaching. During that time, audio 
and video were once considered a significant revolution 
to the teaching of foreign language. Following in the 70s 
and 80s, audio and video developed dramatically with the 
advancement of electronic technology. Electronic taping, 
slide projectors, videocassette players, language labs and 
other electronic devices were included in this era. By 
the turn of 90s, multimedia technology was becoming 
increasing available in foreign language instruction 
because of the development of computer technology and 
the coming of the digital revolution. In the early 2000’s, 
the internet became a powerful medium for the delivery of 
computer-aided learning materials. The internet provides 
a worldwide means to get information, lighten the work 
load, and communicate with each other at any time and at 
any place. CALL which is Computer Assisted Language 
Learning came into play during the later part of the 20th 
century. Warschauer divided the history of CALL into 
three stages: behavioristic CALL, communicative CALL, 
and integrative CALL. Behavioristic CALL applied in 
1960s and 1970s was based on the behaviorist learning 
and featured repetitive language drills. The computer was 
regarded as a mechanical tutor to deliver the materials to 
the pupils. An example of a behaviotistic CALL strategy 
is PLATO [2].
PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching 
Operations), the best-known tutorial system, is a special 
hardware consisting of extensive drills, grammatical 
explanations, and translation tests at various intervals. The 
next stage, communicative CALL, appeared in the late 
1970s and early 1980s. It focused on the communicative 
teaching method and encouraged pupils to generate 
original utterances through the process of discovery, 
expression and development rather than just repeat the 
prefabricated language. Pupils were supposed to make 
use of the computer or the hardware to assist them in 
language learning. What they actually work with is not 

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the computer but their classmates or teachers. In this 
model, the computer is viewed as stimulus or tool. Popular 
CALL software developed in this period included word 
processors, spelling and grammar checkers. Following 
this stage is the third stage, integrative CALL which 
included the development of multimedia computers and 
the Internet. This model not only integrates various skills 
(e.g. listening, writing, speaking and reading) but also 
bonds different technologies serving as effective and 
comprehensive tools for language learning and teaching. 
With integrative CALL, teachers were moving away from 
communicative perspective of teaching to a more social 
way, which emphasizes the language use in authentic 
social environments. Applying this multimedia networked 
computer in the language class provides pupils a more 
effective means to learn English. For instance, pupils 
can have rapid access to the background, grammatical or 
vocabulary explanations, pronunciation information while 
the main lesson is in the foreground. Besides, pupils under 
this model are usually encouraged to engage in their own 
language development rather than learn in a passive way. 
The history of CALL suggests that multimedia can serve a 
variety of purposes for language teaching. It can serve as 
a tutor to offer language drills or a stimulus to stir pupils 
to think. With the advent of the advanced technology and 
internet, computer usage in language teaching provides 
an authentic environment for pupils to communicate with 
native speakers in an Nevertheless, the application of 
multimedia in English teaching is not as widely used as 
expected. A reason for this could be the underdevelopment 
of technology and immature pedagogy about using 
multimedia in teaching foreign languages. For example, 
multimedia cost is high and not all educational institutions 
can make use of this tool. In addition, many teachers are not 
trained in using multimedia to teach English. According 
to Gong & Zhou, some teachers who have been aware of 
the applicability of multimedia teaching tend to focus on 
the flowery and fancy courseware and neglect the teaching 
aim, teaching object and teaching content, so the whole 
English classroom would become a demonstrating hall of 
computer functions.

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