Employment of Google Tools in English Language Education: A Review

Abstract

Google Workspace for Education offers various tools that are believed to be beneficial for both educators and learners. This paper aims to review the benefits of core tools in Google Workspace for Education and employment of the tools in the context of teaching and learning English. The paper is hoped to bring a better understanding of the usability of the tools for English language educators to make use of in order to digitally transform their classroom effectively.

Survey Analysis of University Teachers in Ukraine Regarding the Use of Google Workspace for Education

“…In everyday life, they are constantly used to share and store files of various types, as indicated in the work [3]. Due to cloud technologies, including Google Workspace for Education, the staff and students of educational institutions get access to modern tools and communication channels, which allows them to communicate easily and to perform the assigned tasks together [10].…”

“…GWfE is one of the most famous and powerful online educational environments based on the use of cloud technologies. It is successfully used in the educational process of secondary and higher education due to numerous advantages: ensuring cooperation at different levels (student-student, teacher-student, teacher-teacher [13], administrationteacher; development of students' critical thinking and creative collaboration [10]; engaging students in reflective communication and sharing ideas; development of communication skills [9]; creation of communities to enable group work; discussing ideas, posting announcements [11]; development of digital skills (remote work in the cloud with different data formats), ensuring interactivity [7]; the ability to work on various digital gadgets. The significant educational effect of Google Workspace for Education is evidenced by the high values of such indicators as simplicity of use [14], acceptability [6], and attitude [15].…”

“…As a result of its popularity, the use of GWfE and its individual tools has been reflected in numerous research works. In particular, the possibilities of Google Workspace for education were considered for studying mathematics [9], English [10], [11], as well as for development of digital competence of teachers [1] and students [12]. Teachers' perception of G Suite for education in terms of several criteria was studied in the work by [13].…”