Abstract:

With the developments in technology and education, educators have been trying to make use of Web 2.0 within the social-constructivist framework in order to turn their teaching into a more dynamic collaborative process and encourage their learners to be more active in knowledge construction. Similarly, language teachers benefit from Web 2.0 tools to cater for the needs and demands of their learners but the question is: Are these tools exploited to their full potential or are they simply used to create another form of traditional teaching, where classroom work is just repeated in an online medium? Triggered by this question, the present study aimed to explore practices with Web 2.0 in a division of a language school at a university in Northern Cyprus. To this end, the study first elicited perceptions of 200 students who have experienced the use of Web 2.0 in their English lessons through a questionnaire. As the preliminary data analysis revealed conflicting results with the social constructivist paradigm, the study employed a further investigation on how virtual learning environments are integrated into the English courses and the types of activities employed by the teachers in the research context.

After sharing study findings, the presentation will highlight the need for questioning practices with Web 2.0 in language learning. Finally, the presentation will elaborate on what can be done to be more in tune with social constructivist learning in English language lessons. The presentation will hopefully end with a fruitful discussion on the effective use of Web 2.0 in language learning with contributions from the audience.

Keywords:

Web 2.0, Social constructivist theory, English language teaching.