How Today’s Technology Influences Teaching an English Course

Technologies in today’s world affect how we talk as well as how we write. Recently, the term “app” (an application, specialized program downloaded onto mobile devices) was just added to the dictionary because the term is used so much with increasing technology. We also tend to abbreviate words when we are typing, such as: ttly (talk to you later), brb (be right back), and nbd (no big deal). These abbreviations and so many others are being used so frequently that people are actually starting to just say them when talking and other people universally understand them. I wanted to get a better understanding of how technology influences teaching an actual English course and if technology was beneficial to teaching or just got in the way of learning.

Incorporating Technology into Teaching

Dr. Kavita Mudan is a professor at The University of Maryland that teaches English 305: Shakespeare and Contemporaries.  Technology has directly influenced how she teaches her courses by allowing her to stream videos off of Youtube easily and simply. She discusses how she incorporates online access to benefit her students by showing them the content that they read in class. 

The Impact of New Technologies

The English language is constantly changing by adding and subtracting words that are necessary for the language. New technologies have impacted English as a language and a subject in a variety of ways. Mudan goes into detail about how texting, blogging, and twitter influence the language and how people are thinking today.

The Future of the English Language

Current technologies have already affected the way people talk and write, but what impact will future technologies have on language? It is possible that language will be very different than what it is now or it is possible that it has already changed for the most part and will remain the similar. Mudan gives her opinion on how language will evolve and how she thinks the language has mostly standardized already.

Technology is always growing and changing. What the future holds for how this technology will impact the English language is unknown, but it will certainly have some sort of impact. Technology is beneficial because it allows professors to use more and easier media sources to teach their courses; although its downfall is that it could cause students to stray away from the actual text and become more distracted. Standardizing the language and the uses of technology will play into how English is spoken and written in the future.