Analysis of the Impact of the Digital Tools on TESOL Teaching

Department of School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, China

^* Corresponding author: Shuohang.Zhang23@student.xjtlu.edu.cn

Abstract

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) has undergone some revolutionary changes due to the impact of digital tools. This kind of change is obvious in the transformation of teaching patterns and approaches. Digital tools have enhanced the learning efficiency of TESOL. Meanwhile, they weaken the role of teachers. Based on this, this paper mainly focuses on the positive and negative impacts of digital tools on TESOL teaching, then gets some results and relevant suggestions by analyzing previous literature: the main positive influence of digital tools on TESOL teaching is breaking the limitation of traditional classroom and providing a realistic language learning environment. Some students may become overdependent on digital tools due to their high efficiency. On the other hand, the differences in students’ mastery levels, issues related to academic ethics and the low penetration rate in economically backward areas are the problems that need to be resolved by relevant departments and people. According to the above positive and negative influences, relevant digital departments, like designing and developing, should improve relevant functions and users should utilize digital tools in a proper way to help them learn a language.