Using Timeline in teaching the History of the English language to EFL students

Abstract

The study offers a Timeline tool to solve problems of language competence and teaching history, in particular, the History of the English language to EFL students. Teaching and learning the course “History of the English language” is a tedious experience directed mainly toward memorizing dates and names. However, knowledge of the language’s history is paramount as it explains the influence of culture and other circumstances on all aspects of the language. There are plenty of free tools with excellent features for creating timelines on the Internet. Timelines have a wide range on implementation of possibilities; they can be used for studying time periods or time-bound topics spanning centuries and eras. The research was conducted to evaluate if creation of a Timeline can promote cooperative learning and develop the historical and linguistic knowledge of students. The experiment was carried out among the second-grade students of the specialty “Foreign languages: Two foreign languages” in two Kazakhstan Universities. Each group had to create a Timeline on the grounds of various events, pictures, videos, diagrams, and photos according to the definite period in the English language history. Group learning was a dynamic process considering the students’ different learning styles and different digital skills. Results of the experiment showed that working with timeline is handy and economizes time in highlighting the most important events from the English language history. Timeline technology in the educational process increases understanding of the cultural and historical events by establishing connection and sequences between cultural phenomena and significant events.