SOYEZ LES BIENVENUS

Au COLLOQUE du CEBELAE
 Investigating the Roles of Information and
Communication Technology in the Development
of Benin EFL Learners’ Linguistic Performance:
A Case Study of the University of Parakou

Written and Presented by:

1. Maxime Awokou, Doctorant à l’Ecole Doctorale Pluridisciplinaire de la FLASH /
UAC.
2. Dr. Servais Dieu-Donné Yédia DADJO, Maître de Conférences (CAMES) de
Linguistique Anglaise Appliquée, FLASH Adjarra, Université d’Abomey-Calavi,
Bénin.
3. Dr. Abdoulaye HAKIBOU, Maître de Conférences des Universités du CAMES,
Linguistique Anglaise à l’Université de Parakou (UP)

Avril 2024
 OUTLINE
 Introduction
 Problem Statement
 Objectives
 Research questions
 Hypotheses
 Methodology
 Findings and Discussion
 Suggestions
 Conclusion
 INTRODUCTION
 English language has proven to be a means of development, that is why
almost all French-speaking countries have introduced it into the educational
system as a second language.
 At this era of the technological revolution and modernity, the integration of
ICT in Teaching English as Foreign Language (EFL) has become prominent
for the improvement of learners’ proficiency.
 Moreover, The integration of (ICT) since certain years has significantly
transformed various educational landscapes, including the teaching and
learning of English as a Foreign Language (EFL).
 The University of Parakou serves as a prime example of how ICT tools can
be used to enhance the linguistic performance of EFL learners.
 PROBLEM STATEMENT

 The traditional teaching of English as a Foreign language has

shown its limits because of the weak linguistic performance of
learners.
 With the increasing importance of English as a worldwide most
spoken language, there is a growing need to explore how ICT can
facilitate more effective language acquisition, especially in non-
English-speaking countries like Benin.
 OBJECTIVES

OG: Investigate the roles of ICT in the

development of linguistic skills among EFL
students at the University of Parakou

OS1: Provide insights into

OS2: Show how ICT can
how technology can be
support students in
better utilized to enhance the
improving their proficiency
quality of English language
in English,
education in Benin.
 RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
1. Do all EFL Lecturers at university of Parakou have access to
ICT?
2. Do all EFL Lecturers use ICT in the implementation of the
Teaching-learning of English as Foreign Language?
3. What are the ICT tools do they use?
4. How do ICT can improve EFL learners’ linguistic performance?
5. What are the difficulties EFL teachers met while using ICT in
classes?
 HYPOTHESES
1. All EFL lecturers do not use ICT in the teaching and learning
process.
2. EFL Lecturers are not well trained for using ICT
3. Using ICT improves learners’ linguistic performance.
4. Using ICT tools in Teaching English as Foreign Language is
motivational for EFL learners.
5. All EFL studentsdo not have access to ICT
 METHODOLOG
Y
8 Lecturers
Target Interviews
population Techniques
120 students
Focus group
discussion
Documentary
research
Methods Questionnaire
Field Instruments sheets
investigation
 FINDINGS (1/4)
 Data from Lecturers
Close Ended Questions to the Lecturers Answers +percentage between square
brackets
High Low Yes No
How could you express your level of motivation in 8 00
teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL)? [100%] [00%]
Do you use ICT in teaching EFL? 5 3
[62.5%] [37.5%]

Do you agree with Those who think that ICT could 8 00

enhance students’ linguistic performance? [100%] [0%]
Have you received a suitable training in ICT use? 5 3
[62.5%] [37.5%]

Are you ready for devoting a time for a training in ICT 8 00

use if the government decides to do so? [100%] [0%]
 FINDINGS (2/4)
 ICT enables students to practise listen and speaking skills through audios, videos, and other
multimedia tools and this helps them to improve their linguistic performance. ICT helps
students to Improve pronunciation through pronunciation apps like google translate and
pimsleur, frevo etc.
 ICT helps student to practise reading skill on one hand through digital platforms which provide
reading materials such as online books and articles that can be tailored to the students’
proficiency level and on other hand through Interactive Reading Apps like Xeropan which offer
interactive reading exercises that engage students with multimedia content, facilitating
understanding and vocabulary.
 ICT helps students to practise writing skill through collaborative platforms like google Docs that
facilitate collaborative writing, allowing students to work together on documents, receiving real-
time feedback, and improving their writing skills. All the same language learning Apps like
Duolingo and Babbel contain writing exercises that help students to practise sentence
construction, grammar, and vocabulary.
 FINDINGS (3/4)
 Data from learners
Close Ended Questions to the Answers + percentanges between square brackets
students High Middle Low Yes No

What is your level of motivation 34/120 65/120 21/120

in EFL learning? [28.33%] [54.16%] [17,5%]
Have you once used ICT in 120/120 00
Language learning?
[100%] [0%]
Do you believe that ICT can 103/120 17/120
improve your linguistic
[85.83%] [14.16%
performance?
]
Are you ready to attend a 120/120 00 [0%]
training in ICT use for learning [100%]
language?
Does every one of you have a 93/120 27/120
computer or a smartphone? [77.5%] [22.5%]
 FINDINGS (4/4)
 ICT helps us to improve our four language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and
writing.
 ICT helps us to learn language wherever we are even in the absence of our lecturers.
 ICT eases interaction between we students and offers opportunity for practicing language.
 ICT helps us to improve our vocabulary by discovering new words.
 ICT enlarges our knowledge and helps us to discover the world and even to make friends with
native speakers online that enables us to improve our linguistic performance by keeping
discussing with then every time
 Some of learners are used to smartphone whereas others confirm that they are used to both
smartphone and computer.
 Lack of financial means to buy a computer or a smartphone,
 discussion (1/4)
 It is evident from these results that all the lecturers are motivated in teaching
English as a Foreign Language and they agree that ICT enhances students’
linguistic performance. This means that ICT has positive impacts on students’
linguistic performance.
 ICT enables students to practise listening and speaking skills through audios,
videos and other multimedia tools that help them to improve their listening and
speaking skills. This means that it impacts positively these two skills and thanks
to that they can easily understand whoever speaker’s speech whatever its nature
is. In other words, ICT facilitates the communication between students and
other English speakers even with the native speakers.
 ICT helps students to practise reading skill on one hand through digital
platforms which provide reading materials like online books and articles that
can be tailored to the students’ proficiency level in terms of grammar and
vocabulary. All these enable students to improve their linguistic performance.
 discussion (2/4)
 ICT also helps students to practise writing skill through collaborative platforms
like Google Docs that facilitate collaborative writing, allowing students work
together on documents, receiving real-time feedback, and improving their
writing skills. All the same, language learning Apps like Duolingo and Babbel
contain writing exercise that help students to practise sentence construction,
grammar and vocabulary.
 ICT enables students to learn language anywhere and anyhow whenever they
want. ICT favours interaction among students, renders the students more
motivated and facilitates the practice of language learning because each of them
have possibility to react and give their point of view about a given subject
through writing message or audio in for instance their WhatsApp groups or
Facebook or other channels of communication. By doing so, they develop their
proficiency which allows them to improve the different skills. All these are the
advantages of ICT which impact positively students’ linguistic performance and
allow them to improve day by day language skills.
 discussion (3/4)
 It has raised some disadvantages which require some approaches of solution in
order to facilitate the efficient use of ICT. These problems can be classified into
two categories which are the direct problems related to ICT users’ life and the
indirect problems related to the obstacles that prevent others from having access
to ICT tools.
 Talking about the direct problems related to ICT users who are mainly here
students and lecturers, we can talk about threat to private life due to the problem
of hacking such as electronic harassment, hacking of bank accounts and social
network accounts. We have also the problem of cybercrime like online scams,
ICT spread fake news which cause confusion and potentially harm individuals
or societies, ICT provokes problem of vision due to its prolonged use, ICT can
lead student to depravity life due to the pornographic contents that it provides,
prolonged use of ICT can also lead to solitude and reduces face to face
interaction and decreases personal connections.
 discussion (4/4)
 As far as the indirect problem related to the obstacles that prevent some from
getting access to ICT tools, we can raise the problem of lack of financial means
which prevent some students from getting ICT tools and internet connection, the
problem of digital illiteracy and social discrimination.
 All these problems mainly the direct problems are very harmful to students’ life.
For instance, many young students today become online scammers and they
scam the honest citizens online. This situation leads many of them to prison
today and it destroys their future after being jailed.
 The proof is that our prisons today are full of young people who undergo the
penalties of 5 to 10 years. On other hand, the pornographic contents that ICT
provides can lead some students mainly girls to profligacy life like prostitution
which can cause them some sexual transmitted diseases that can lead them to
death.
 SUGGESTIONS (1/2)
 In view of all these harmful consequences, the government should take
imperative measures so as to cope with these situations for the welfare of
our students and our educational systems. For this reason, we suggested that
the government should provide suitable training for lecturers and students
in term of ICT use.
 Promote ICT use by facilitating the access to all students and lecturers
without any discrimination so as to ensure the same education opportunities
mainly for the students, equip our universities with digital centers with
unlimited and free internet connections to facilitate access to internet for the
poorest, sensitize students on the adequate use of ICT by drawing their
attention on the drawbacks they incur if they use ICT tools for inappropriate
purposes.
 SUGGESTIONS (2/2)
 We strongly believe that if the government could take into account our
suggestions, we can dream of the better education system mainly in the
process of language learning. Despite these disadvantages raised as far as
ICT use is concerned, it is undeniable that ICT is very important for
students and impact positively their linguistic performance. That is to say
ICT enables them to improve the four language skills such as listening,
speaking, reading and writing.
 CONCLUSION
(1/2)
 This research work investigates the Roles of Communication and information
Technology in the Development of Benin EFL Learners’ Linguistic
performance: A case study of the University of Parakou. This research work
aims at examining the impacts of ICT on students’ Linguistic Performance.
 Through qualitative and quantitative methods, the data have been collected
from the questionnaires addressed both to EFL Lecturers and students of the
first and second year of English Department at FLASH/UP. The finding of this
research work has shown that ICT enhances student linguistic performance.
 It favours interaction between students and also enables them to learn English
language wherever they are without solely relying on Lecturers. Moreover, the
result has also shown that ICT helps students of FLASH/UP to practise the four
language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing.
 CONCLUSION
(2/2)
 So, it has been confirmed from this research work that ICT really Impacts
positively students’ linguistic performance. That is to say ICT offers diverse
language learning opportunities which helps students to Improve their
linguistic performance.
 However, this research has also raised some disadvantages of ICT to which
some suggestions have been made so as to cope with these small obstacles.