Overcoming fissures in adopting Digital Humanities in ESL classrooms: A hybridized approach.

Abstract

Digital humanities have changed human perceptions about domains of traditional humanity principles as data is becoming more preferable over literature. The role of this transformation has created a digitized culture in the way humans handle information and this trend has become a massive boom in ESL (English as a Second Language) based e-learning centres. With the development of Information Communication Technology (ICT), using digital humanities in ESL classes is essential to make language teaching and learning interesting and interactive as teachers can use web-based stories, computer games, podcasting, listening to online news and use of weblogs to encourage students to learn the language. These practices change students’ learning processes in the ESL classroom because they can use a multiplicity of communication channels and social networking in their learning process to encourage and make language learning interesting. Nevertheless, learning English in a digital culture has caused learners in hasty hitherto futile adoption of e-learning materials causing a snag in this embrace. Potential solutions to these include a hybridized culture whereby students gain sufficient knowledge via traditional practices and later using online resources as verification systems for their productiveness, using online chats and participating in forums and virtual classrooms with online mentors and preferring materials with minimum presentational designs over high graphic content. Therefore, this research paper describes how this hybridized approach could be implemented using quantitative analysis acquired through ESL student sampling. Then questionnaires and surveys are used to identify how contemporary students perceive this transformation. Then a system that could be implemented in all demographic and socio-cultural background is presented. Finally, this system’s productivity is evaluated and fine-tuned.