2.
ICTs and TEYLs: Advantages of use
T
he term ICT (Information and Communications Technology) embraces a wide range of services, systems, applications, equipment and software, which allow for the transmission,
retrieval, editing, storage and in general the manipulation of information (see
‘Information
and
Communication
Technology’
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_and_Communication_Technolog y - accessed 14.09.13). It also comprises multimedia applications which combine digital data in a variety of styles (e.g. text, graphics, image, animation, sound and video). The term stresses the role of the integration firstly of real-time communication services (e.g. chatting, video conferencing, and data sharing like interactive whiteboards) with non-real-time communication services
(e.g.
voice
mail,
e-mail,
SMS),
and
secondly
of
telecommunications, computers, software and audio-visual and storage systems. Generally, the use of ICTs in the EFL classroom can improve the quality of state primary school education by bringing EFL teachers and learners closer to technological developments, facilitating teaching and learning, and renewing teaching methods and techniques. More precisely, classroom experience has shown that ICTs can be powerful educational tools for teaching English to young learners (TEYLs) for the following basic reasons. Many of these reasons are connected to the principles and objectives
set
out
in
TEYLs
courses
(for
Greece,
see
PEAP1
http://rcel.enl.uoa.gr/peap/articles/programma-0 - accessed 14.09.13). 3