From Parrots to Puppet masters: fostering creative and authentic language use with online tools

Problems in Foreign Language Education The teaching and learning of English as an international – albeit foreign – language in SE Asia are beleaguered by a number of problems, which in a general sense are faced in the teaching and learning of other types of knowledge and skills as well. One of the most frequently discussed is the force-fed pedagogy in which many teachers and students find themselves trapped (Zeng, 1999). Many educators believe that ‘teaching to the exam’, which is common in public and private institutions in SE Asia, encourages imitative practices by dampening students’ desire and ability to learn (e.g. Paris, 1995). This problem is related to the often-observed tendency toward an imitative rather than a creative approach to learning in SE Asian classrooms (Cheng, 1999). Narrowly focused teaching practices dominate the curriculum from primary to tertiary and are rationalized by the face validity that norm-referenced standardized assessment promises. An unhappy outcome is that many students spend the bulk of their education memorizing formulae easily parroted in examinations, but inadequate for life outside the classroom. In the case of foreign language learning, stock phrases are often made to substitute for grammatical and communicative competence in the target language. The foreign language (L2) that students acquire is often a constrained and unnatural version of the language they need for academic, professional, business or social communication (see Milton, 2001). This situation is further exaggerated in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching by a dearth of proficient teachers, insufficient time and resources to develop effective learning opportunities, and lack of coordination of the substantial efforts made by dedicated teachers.