Computers / Internet and ELT
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Using Computers / Internet in the English Classroom
“It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology, although I should be careful with such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in 5 years.” (John von Neumann, about 1949)1
COMPUTERS / INTERNET and ELT
“These days learners need to be ´computer literate`, and since computers use language it would seem logical to take advantage of them for language learning.”2
1. Introduction
Many language teachers in the Western world nowadays use the computer for the preparation of their material. But I think that there are only a few who actively use it in the language classroom. But as the computer is part of our everyday life, I think that any teacher has the responsibility to support pupils become familiar with the new technologies – as far as it is possible. Teachers should analyse advantages and disadvantages, problems and solutions, offers and dangers of computers, regarding to ELT, so that they are well-prepared for the usage in the language classroom. A computer is a tool which can and should be used at school (and in the language classroom). Referring to the Internet, Alan Maley stated that “language pedagogy cannot and should not be immune to the advantages the Internet offers – in information, in resources and in opportunities for global communication.”3
1 2
Teeler, Dede: How to Use the Internet in ELT”. Essex 2000, p. 1. Ur, Penny: A Course in Language Teaching. Practice and Theory. Cambridge 2002, p. 190. 3 Maley, Alan (ed.): Resource Books for Teachers. The Internet. Oxford 2000, p. 3.
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2. Computer vs. “proven material”
One question arose while I was dealing with the advantages and disadvantages of computers and the Internet as useful tools for the English classroom: What qualities do computers / the Internet have, that other materials (books, CDs, overhead transparencies…) do not have? One advantage of using computers in the English lesson is that they function as excellent motivators. They bring a welcoming change into the classroom. But teachers should nevertheless not ignore other materials now. “Computers can only function as additional material to CDs, videos, cassettes, overhead transparencies, pictures and so on.”4 And I fully agree with Maley who claims that this motivation will only be of a very short time when the “motivation [is] generated simply by the novelty of a ´new` medium.”5 The motivation should therefore be generated by the fact that the language is learnt with the help of a wide range of useful tools. It is of course very important to use the medium “seriously”. Using the computer just to “pass the time” is under no circumstances supportable.6
3. The Internet
“Few, if any, technological innovations have enjoyed such a meteoric rise in the public consciousness as have the Internet and associate World Wide Web technologies. Doubling in size roughly every 50 days, the growth of the web is nothing short of extraordinary.” (Bush 1996:66, quoted in Trinder 2000: 27)
The Internet is besides the mobile phone or the traditional letter, as for example, “a new medium of communication”. It influences the “processes [as well as] the products of communication.” Other useful descriptions of the Internet have been provided by Teeler: The Internet “has been hyped as the most significant development in communication tools since the invention of the printing press
4 5
Kranz, Dieter (ed.): Multimedia – Internet – Lernsoftware. Münster 1997, p. 181. Maley, Alan (ed.): Resource Books for Teachers. The Internet. Oxford 2000, p. 7. 6 Kranz, Dieter (ed.): Multimedia – Internet – Lernsoftware. Münster 1997, p. 151.
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and then condemned as the end of civilisation as we know it.”7 He further describes what the Internet actually is for him: “[It] is a network of people and information, linked together by telephone lines which are connected to computers.”8 Because of the great variety of material offered, “many language teachers see great potential in computer-mediated teaching and learning.”9 They use the Internet for “development, updating language skills, finding materials, learning about computer applications, and so forth.”10 Interestingly, many people refer to the W(orld) W(ide) W(eb) as the Internet, although the WWW is only the most important service on the Internet.11 I also refer to the WWW as the Internet in this paper – and I must confess that I have never thought about the fact that the WWW is only one service of the Internet before.
4. Lesson planning
“Computers are seen by many as an important teaching aid. However, it takes time to train both teachers and students in their use.”12
a) Introduction
There are an increasing number of teaching material and possibilities for exchange on the Internet. Lesson plans, various programs which can be used in the lessons, exchanges of materials or discussions of materials.13 I can hardly imagine how teachers planned their lessons variedly without the help of the Internet 20 years ago. Of course, I could plan and prepare lessons and materials without the Internet but once you get used to the wide range of offers, you get frustrated when it doesn` t work.
7 8
Teeler, Dede: How to Use the Internet in ELT. Essex 2000, p. 1. Teeler, Dede: How to Use the Internet in ELT. Essex 2000, p. 1. 9 Warschauer, Mark: Network-based Language Teaching. Cambridge 2000, ix. 10 Teeler, Dede: How to Use the Internet in ELT. Essex 2000, p. 1. 11 “Tel & Cal. Zeitschrift für neue Lernkulturen.” p. 32. 12 Ur, Penny: A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge 2002, 190. 13 „Tel & Cal. Zeitschrift für neue Lernkulturen.“ 2. Quartal, April 2004, 40 - 41
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What one gets out of the Internet are information on various topics (politics, economy, literature,…). Newspaper articles, poems, essays, reviews, videos or songs can be found there.14 But there is also the possibility to communicate with people all over the world, as for example in the chat rooms or one can just write an e-mail. Intern users can now contact almost everyone who is present in the internet and who has left his / her e-mail address. Regarding the language classroom, “the use of the Internet offers of course the possibility of cross-curricular work. Because when you use the Internet, you might as well learn skills which will also be needed for other courses or lessons.”15 Before any language teacher can think of the appropriate usage of computers in his / her lessons, he / she has to find out whether the school / institution offers the possibility to work with new media. Are there enough computers – at least one computer for 2 pupils? Computers are of course a matter of the budget. The best case, as Maley believes, would be that students work individually. But with classes of about 30 pupils, as it is the case in Austria in a number of schools nowadays, one cannot expect such an ideal situation. There will then be of course pairs and groups of three, four and even more students. 16 Provided that there are enough computers, one should try to find out whether the students are already acquainted with the instrument or not. Do the pupils / students already know how to use a computer?17 It is important for the timing that the teacher knows how well the students are already acquainted with the computer.
14 15
Maley, Alan (ed.): Resource Books for Teachers. The Internet. Oxford 2000, p. 6. Maley, Alan (ed.): Resource Books for Teachers. The Internet. Oxford 2000, p. 6. 16 Maley, Alan (ed.): Resource Books for Teachers. The Internet. Oxford 2000, p. 8. 17 Kranz, Dieter (ed.): Multimedia – Internet – Lernsoftware. Münster 1997, p. 176.
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b) Internet and ELT
“Any teacher who can be replaced by a computer should be.” (Anon)18
Of course the Internet is already an important feature in any western school system. Schools present their homepages on the Internet, various projects are presented, lessons are planned with the help of the Internet and a number of materials are provided. The Internet offers besides newspaper articles, books, dictionaries and so forth also software which can be helpful for the creation of exercises. But one can also use the Internet for the preparation of questions, topics and as an additional resource besides dictionaries or specialized literature.19
“Teachers should ideally plan to spend at least a term using the technology for themselves before trying to use it with a classroom full of students.”20
A teacher, who wants to use the computer / Internet in the language classroom should know how to use the computer and search the Internet because otherwise total confusion would be the inevitable. A detailed lesson plan for activities carried out in the computer room is absolutely essential. Important aspects for the lesson planning could therefore be: 1) language level, 2) number of students, 3) aim of the lesson, 4) appropriate timing of the exercise, 5) other ways of presenting the content, 6) further teaching aids, 7) social interaction (individual, pair work, group work) and 8) further exercises. It is also important to have an idea of when according to the schedule, the help of the computer would be most suitable for the language learning process.21 Teeler emphasized the timing as an important factor for classroom management. There should be enough time to prepare the students for the computer work, then there should be enough time to do the exercises and they should finally have the opportunity to print out their results.22
18 19
Anon cited in Maley, Alan (ed.): Resource Books for Teachers. The Internet. Oxford 2000, p. 14. „Tel & Cal. Zeitschrift für neue Lernkulturen.“ 2. Quartal, April 2004, p. 37 20 Teeler, Dede: How to Use the Internet in ELT”. Essex 2000, p. 60. 21 Kranz, Dieter (ed.): Multimedia – Internet – Lernsoftware. Münster 1997, p. 182. 22 Teeler, Dede: How to Use the Internet in ELT”. Essex 2000, p. 61.
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And of course one has to check the facilities available. Because “many schools do not yet have the facilities that would allow classes direct access to the Internet.”23 Additional equipment, as for example a printer or a projector, must also be checked beforehand. Are a printer and projector available? Do they work? And how do they work? Especially projectors are very helpful and might be necessary “to give presentations, focus students` attention or give instructions that everyone can see.”24 c) Lesson management
Maley has divided up the activities carried out with a computer into three phases: 1) pre-computer work, 2) computer work and 3) post-computer work. Before a teacher starts the computer work, he / she should explain what the pupils are expected to do. The aim of the activity is very important as otherwise the students might expect that this would now be the time just to play around. It might also be the case that the pupils come across new words in their activities so that the teacher first of all starts explaining some of them. Overhead display panels, beamers or software which allow you to control what appears on the students` screen would also make work easier for the pupils. I once observed a maths lesson where the class was working on their computers while the teacher was projecting the results onto a wall. It was extremely helpful for the whole class as they could compare the teacher` s results with their own. But of course, the use of such equipment is dependent on the budget of the institution. Nevertheless, the better you prepare your students before the actual work the better they will work and the fewer questions will come back in return. When the aim is clearly stated and the students do not have any more questions, they can start with the computer work. The teacher should hardly intervene but should use the possibility to monitor the pupils, how they interact with each other, which language they use and how they try to find solutions. What is really important is that “anything done in the computer room should be transferable back to the normal classroom, and any Internet activity should be planned from the outset with some
23 24
Teeler, Dede: How to Use the Internet in ELT”. Essex 2000, p. 37. Teeler, Dede: How to Use the Internet in ELT”. Essex 2000, p. 57.
Computers / Internet and ELT
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kind of follow-up activity in mind.”25 It would be very helpful for any student, if they had printed worksheets then which they can collect and where they can again look up their results. “They should at least take a copy of their work away with them on a disk.”26 Individual work at computers might in some situations and for some activities be very helpful. But for activities, where students have to find solutions in order to answer a question, group works would be wiser as in this setting opinions can be discussed in group. There are several ways of how a teacher can organise a lesson in the computer room. “When several groups are working within a class, it is possible to use a variety of interaction patterns. Groups can communicate with each other in person, by sending each other emails, by placing material produced during the class on a public drive on the network, or by re-forming into new groups. This allows for a variety of forms of information transfer.”27
d) Tips for the use of the Internet
As for all kinds of lesson, the preparation is most important. As I have stated earlier, think of the aim of the lesson, exercises, approximate timing and social interaction. If you have to use special sites in the Internet, check them before you work with them in class. And also watch out that there are enough computers in the computer class. For the lesson itself, it can be the case that the internet connection is extremely slow. Be patient and teach your teachers to be patient as well. Think of temporary exercises and then try again. For the use of the internet in the classroom, it is very helpful to save the addresses of various sites and to make bookmarks. It saves a lot of time and additionally, gives an example for one way of how the enormous numbers of sites can be organized. One very important thing in the work with the Internet is to be extremely critical. Everyone who has access to the Internet can publish something. When I use a site, I always check the author or institution and look when it was last updated. And whenever I use information from the Internet, I always check them with other sources. But not only teachers should be critical but pupils as well.
25 26
Maley, Alan (ed.): Resource Books for Teachers. The Internet. Oxford 2000, p. 11. Maley, Alan (ed.): Resource Books for Teachers. The Internet. Oxford 2000, p. 11. 27 Maley, Alan (ed.): Resouce Books for Teachers. The Internet. Oxford 2000, 11.
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The enormous range of information is very tempting. But there are always advantages and disadvantages and teachers should make their pupils aware of that.
5. Advantages and Disadvantages of the Internet
“As a vast virtual library the Internet offers a seemingly endless range of topics to choose from, all in one handy location.”28
As I have mentioned before, we must be really critical when we use the Internet. There are sites that are extremely old whereas other sites are regularly updated: monthly, weekly, daily and even hourly.29 Especially the material we use for the language classroom must be checked in detail as the exercises on the net could be wrong. There could also be printing mistakes in the texts or some totally wrong language could have been used.30 Advantages of the Internet are that at least part of the material is repeatedly updated and that sometimes publications of teenagers and children are presented.31 Compared to printed resources, materials on the Internet are easier available and cheaper. 32 I sometimes come across interesting exercises and when I want to buy the book which includes the exercises, I have to find out that it is too expensive and as I do not have to pay for the Internet connection, it is easier and cheaper for me to get material from the Internet. Disadvantages are that there are lots of “doubtful” sources and sometimes the question arises whether there is any truth in the material.33 The Internet users also have to watch out for costs and only limited offers. Another disadvantage of the Internet is that sometimes I have time to look for new material and then the Internet is too slow or sometimes I even cannot connect.
28 29
Teeler, Dede: How to Use the Internet in ELT”. Essex 2000, 36. Teeler, Dede: How to Use the Internet in ELT”. Essex 2000, 36. 30 Teeler, Dede: How to Use the Internet in ELT”. Essex 2000, 37. 31 „Tel & Cal. Zeitschrift für neue Lernkulturen.“ 2. Quartal, April 2004, p. 38. 32 Maley, Alan (ed.): Resouce Books for Teachers. The Internet. Oxford 2000, 6. 33 „Tel & Cal. Zeitschrift für neue Lernkulturen.“ 2. Quartal, April 2004, p. 38.
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I found another interesting aspect concerning the internet in the book of Tricia Hedge, where she states that the internet has no gatekeepers. I really like that term. “One interesting recent development relates to the problems increasingly noticed by teachers as students access information on the Internet. There are no gatekeepers here and users may need to evaluate information carefully against what is known about its sources and sponsorship.”34
LITERATURE
1. Kranz, Dieter (ed.): Multimedia – Internet – Lernsoftware. Fremdsprachenunterricht vor neuen Herausforderungen? Münster 1997. 2. Trinder, Ruth: A Critical Evaluation of the New Media in Language Learning and Teaching with special Reference to Multimedia CD-ROMs for Business English. Wien 2000. 3. „Tel & Cal. Zeitschrift für neue Lernkulturen.“ 2. Quartal, April 2004. 4. Warschauer, Mark: Network-based Language Teaching: Concepts and Practice. Cambridge 2000. 5. Maley, Alan (ed.): Resource Books for Teachers. The Internet. Oxford 2000. 6. Teeler, Dede: How to Use the Internet in ELT”. Essex 2000. 7. Ur, Penny: A Course in Language Teaching. Practice and theory. Cambridge 2002. 8. Hedge, Tricia: Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Oxford 2001.
by Eva Mittergeber
34
Hegde, Tricia: Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Oxford 2001, 215.