ABSTRACT
The use of digital media in language learning has its roots in individualized computer-based drill and practice activities to assist learners in mastering grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation (for a historical overview, see Warschauer, 1996). Later, computer-based activities were designed to stimulate authentic communication, but the computer was still viewed as an occasional tool to promote learning rather than as an integral medium of language and literacy. In this chapter, we discuss a newer approach to technology in teaching English as an international language (EIL), in which digital media become essential tools of global interaction and global literacy. In this approach, mastery of language, mastery of new technologies, and the ability to combine language and technology to read and write the world become inseparable goals of the international English language classroom. Students deploy a variety of autonomous learning tools, such as concordancers and automated scoring engines, and an even greater variety of communication tools, from Skype and podcasts to blogging and microblogging, to hone their language and literacy skills as they use English to interact with others, publish their work, and leave their mark on society. Traditional goals of accuracy and fluency get expanded to include global agency, that is, the power to make meaningful choices and see the results of those choices both near and far. These forms of global communication and agency match well with the context of international English, in which the ability to meaningfully interact in diverse media with speakers of many varieties of English from around the world takes precedence over mastery of a more narrowly defined set of skills, such as achievement of native-like pronunciation.
