ICT as a pedagogical aid for supporting students with difficulties in their acquisition of English : An interview study and an action research study

Abstract The aim of this study is to investigate some uses of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a pedagogical aid for supporting students with difficulties in reaching the curricular goals in the school subject English. Special focus is on students with reading and writing difficulties and on students with a foreign background in the ninth grade of the compulsory school and in upper secondary school. The method of investigation consisted of two parts: (a) interviews with eleven regular English teachers and with four remedial teachers about their experiences of using ICT as a pedagogical aid, and (b) an action study in which ICT-based activities were tested in a group of six students with difficulties in English. The results of the interviews showed that in the remedial classes ICT-based support was rather limited. The exceptions were students with severe reading and writing difficulties and other grave learning disabilities. These students were offered greater access to various technical aids and systematic support. For dyslexic students various ICT tools often proved to be an effective and indispensable support in their learning. In non-remedial English lessons, the use of ICT was somewhat greater. Here teachers used ICT as a pedagogical aid for the benefit of all students. The computer was considered to be a good support for project writing as it provided the students with a huge database, with online dictionaries and with a spell checker. The results of the action research showed that students were positive about communicating in English via ICT and they showed great interest in other activities facilitated by technology, such as training grammar, vocabulary, and reading. In conclusion, these surveys generated results similar to those of other studies, showing that although ICT can be an effective pedagogical aid in supporting students with difficulties learning English, it is not presently being used to its full potential