Many people may think that using textbooks and doing practices are typical ways to learn and to teach language. Others may remember the lectures in which teachers explained grammar points and other related issues in front of the class. These are very traditional styles to teach and to learn language. Usually, language teachers were educated in such methods in higher educational institutions, such as universities or graduate schools, and teachers also get current information about teaching language or creating lesson plans from magazines and books. Students learn through classroom instructions, books, and other materials, such as audiocassette tapes, which are also very traditional learning styles. However, technologies which actually influence teaching / learning styles have developed. One of the biggest influential events related to language learning may be the appearance of the computer and the development of the Internet. Teachers can get updated information related to their interests very easily from the Internet or via E-mail. Also, for learners, the computer and the Internet system are tools for learning language, instead of listening to teachers talks or opening grammar books. The computer makes it possible to study language interactively and individually. There are many examples of useful and effective language learning software, and actually they have been used in the ESL (English as a Second Language) and FL (Foreign Language) classroom. In addition, the Internet, including the E-mail system, is used for language teaching / learning; however, the Internet is not an absolutely authentic resource. Some sites are useless, and rather, harmful for students. Teachers and parents always have to pay attention to the contents of web sites.
2. Resources for Teachers
The Internet is a treasure house of teaching materials and hints for lessons. Teachers can get many authentic teaching materials to teach English from the net and can find updated information for classroom activities.
(1) General Information about Using the Internet in the Classroom
Internet in the Classroom
Teaching with the Internet
This page explains how to use browsers such as Netscape and mail systems such as Netscape Mail. The main purpose of this site is that ESL teachers come to get information about ESL from the Internet, and exchange it with other teachers and students.
Because there are lots of excellent sites for ESL teachers and learners, they need to know how to get to these sites without spending a lot of time. Also, teachers can use the e-mail system inside and outside of the classroom as an opportunity to have students read and write English; therefore, this site is useful for teachers who want to know about the computer and the Internet system.
Teaching &Learning on the WWW
This searchable collection provides many sites, from courses delivered entirely via the web to courses that offer specific activities related to a class assignment or courses that offer class support materials via the web. If you type "ESL" or "English" in the research box, you can find many sites related to the subjects on the net. Because the Internet actually provides an environment for learning, we need to know which sites could be useful and appropriate in the classroom. This site provides this kind of information.
(2) Grammar
This homepage has interactive exercises, an index of grammar terms, and handouts of grammar explanation and exercises along with the interactive ones. Handouts can be directly sent to MS Word, so teachers can easily edit and print them out.
Example: Comma Splices and Fused Sentences -- Exercise 1
(3) Grammar
One of the best characteristics of the Internet is that we can get the most current information, which is much more up-to-date than that of books. The information on the net may be accessed faster than that of newspapers and TV. If ESL teachers use the current information taken from the Internet, such as news, events, or weather information, students may show their interests, and it could be a effective motivation for reading English.
On this site, you can make your own newspapers; that is, teachers can pick the interest and appropriate sources and put them on their own pages. The newspaper is automatically updated.
The Satoshi's Press - "For the ESL students"
Hand-on English Current Events Activities
This is the homepage for reading activities. There are instructions for teachers, explanations of grammar and its terms, grammar exercises, and CLOZE activities. The passages are about current events, which rouses students' interest.
(4) Speaking
Through the Internet, teachers cannot teach speaking skills; however, they are able to find some hints about teaching it from the net.
This is the huge collection of tongue twisters phonetically arranged according to dominate sound, which is suitable for English language teaching and speech therapy. Saying tongue twisters is fun and is an effective way to practice phonetic physical system. If there is some time in the class, teachers can introduce some of tongue twisters and help students say them naturally.
(5) Lesson Plans
There are almost limitless teaching plans of ESL.
TESL: Lesson Plans
This site has a huge amount of lesson plans for ESL. Each lesson plan can be used in the classroom immediately.
A Handout for the First Class Meeting
Example: Holidays and Seasonal Information
Example: Thanksgiving
3. Resources for Students
Teachers usually give lectures to students and have them practice in the classroom. However, with teachers' supervision, students in the classroom can study English at their own paces, depending on their own interests and the degree of their knowledge. In this case, using the computer and the Internet is one of the effective methods.
Just reading books about pronunciation is not enough to understand the system of English pronunciation. Some sites on the net provide interactive explanations with pictures and sounds.
This page is an introduction to the sounds of English. It has pictures and photographs to help students pronounce sounds, as well as examples of those sounds. It also explains the difference between the close pronunciations such as "heed" and "hid" with sounds. Students can actually hear the difference of the sounds. This is one of the advantages of using the computer.
English Pronunciation
This site shows very detailed explanations of English pronunciation with some plain pictures. It discusses the organs of speech: vowels, simple vowels, complex vowels, consonants, voiced and voiceless sounds, comparative study of vowels. Because there are examples of English sounds with phonetic symbols and explanations of terms such as diphthongs, which can be explained on the other page, students can easily understand the English pronunciation system.
(2) Vocabulary
This site has over 280 American slang expressions sorted alphabetically on the quiz form. Each sentence has a slang expression with an answer which can be seen if a user clicks an arrow located under the slang word. Usually slang expressions are not taught in the formal ESL classroom; so students learn them by themselves using this kind of material. Using the computer and the Internet could make students' motivation last longer than reading books.
(3) Reading
One of the advantages of using the computer and the Internet is that users can immediately get information they want to know. As reading practices, when reading passages and coming across unknown words, readers can just click the words and understand the meanings of it on some software and web sites.
This homepage is provided by MIT. All Shakespeare's plays and poems can be read on this page. There are some technological devices for ESL students so that they can easily follow his famous plays. There are some words which are underlined; if a reader clicks the word, s/he can see the meaning of the word. Also, the page has a "Search the Texts" function, so a reader can find where a word is located in Shakespeare's texts.
(4) Listening
Learning Oral English Online
This page is one of the ESL homepages which are maintained by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There are many conversations on this page; thus, students can listen to each sentence until they understand it. This is an easier way to listen to the same sentence repeatedly than using a cassette tape
player.
Foreign Languages for Travelers
In this page, students can chose their own language and the target language (that is, the language they want to master), and study words and sentences with voices. This is an advantage of the computer that the lesson can be adopted to students who have different knowledge or background.
Example: English: Time and Dates (Native language is Japanese)
(5) Quiz
In this homepage, there are many quizzes about English grammar, American culture and holidays. There are also reading comprehension questions on it. All questions are attached to answers; thus, ESL students can learn many aspects of America and English by themselves at their own study pace.
Example: Phrasal Verbs with "Down"
Easy Vocabulary Quizzes with Pictures
This site has a set of interactive JavaScript quizzes. Although all vocabulary is easy so that beginners of English enjoy this site, it is very attractive for them because if students click a right picture the score is added.
ESL Quiz Center There are many quizzes related to ESL. After students answer the questions and send them, they can immediately get the correct answer and their scores. The answer page also tells the students some explanations of the grammar points related to the questions. This interactive learning is a characteristic of the Internet.
The Amal Pedagogical Technological Center. (1997). Teaching with the Internet. [On-line] http://www.amalnet.k12.il/meida/english/course/ENGI9000.HTM
Bradley, L. (1998). Self-Study Quizzes for ESL Students. [On-line] http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/
Bradley, L. (1998). Phrasal Verbs with "Down." Self-Study Quizzes for ESL Students. [On-line] http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/vm/pvdown.html
English Pronunciation. [On-line] http://www.engl.polyu.edu.hk/MATERIALS/Pronunciation/1a-index.htm
Hixson, S. (1998). Internet in the Classroom. [On-line] http://www.indirect.com/www/dhixson/class.html
Hylton, J. (1996). The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. [On-line] http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/
Hylton, J. (1996). Romeo and Juliet. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. [On-line] http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/Tragedy/romeoandjuliet/romeoandjuliet.html
Kelly, C. (1998). Easy Vocabulary Quizzes with Pictures. [On-line] http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~itesls/vq/
Kelly, C. (1998). Example: Noun 6. Easy Vocabulary Quizzes with Pictures. [On-line] http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~itesls/vq/mc-n6.html
Kelly, C. & Kelly, E. (1998). Common American Slang. [On-line]http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~itesls/slang/
The Internet TESL Journal. (1998). TESL: Lesson Plans. [On-line]http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/links/TESL/Lessons/
The Internet TESL Journal. (1998). A Handout for the First Class Meeting. TESL: Lesson Plans. [On-line] http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/Handouts/Kelly-FirstClass.html
Levine, A. (1998). Teaching &Learning on the WWW. [On-line] http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tl/
Li, R. (1998). Learning Oral English Online. [On-line] http://www.lang.uiuc.edu/r-li5/book/index.html
Li, R. (1998). Shopping in America. Learning Oral English Online. [On-line] http://www.lang.uiuc.edu/r-li5/book/shpUS.html
Net Pressence, Inc. (1998). Create Your Own Newspaper. [On-line] http://www.crayon.net/
Net Pressence, Inc. (1998). The Satoshi’s Press - “For the ESL students.” Create Your Own Newspaper. [On-line] http://www.crayon.net/[email protected]
Salzmann, A. (1998). Holidays and Seasonal Information. [On-line]http://deil.lang.uiuc.edu/web.pages/holidays/purpose.html
Salzmann, A. (1998). Thanksgiving. Holidays and Seasonal Information. [On-line]http://deil.lang.uiuc.edu/web.pages/holidays/Thanksgiving.html
Silliman, A. (1998). Hand-on English Current Events Activities. [On-line]http://www.4w.com/hoe/currentevents.html
Simmons, R. (1997). Comma Splices and Fused Sentences -- Exercise 1. Grammar Bytes!. [On-line] http://www.chompchomp.com/handouts/csfshandout1.htm
Simmons, R. (1997). Grammar Bytes!. [On-line]http://www.chompchomp.com/menu.htm
Sperling, D. (1998). ESL Quiz Center. [On-line] http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/quiz/
Sperling, D. (1998). Verb Tense Review. ESL Quiz Center. [On-line] http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/quiz/vtr.html
Teachers for Christ International. (1998) Tongue Twisters for the ESL/EFL Classroom. [On-line] http://members.aol.com/TFCIntl/tongue.html
Travlang. (1998). Foreign Languages for Travelers. [On-line] http://www.travlang.com/languages/
Travlang. (1998). English: Time and Dates (Native language is Japanese). Foreign Languages for Travelers. [On-line] http://www.travlang.com/languages/cgi-bin/langchoice.cgi
Vickery, J. (1998). The EFL Playhouse Game Room. [On-line] http://members.tripod.com/~ESL4Kids/index2.html
Widmager, S. (1998). Sounds of English: Pronunciation help for learners of American English. [On-line] http://mason.gmu.edu/~swidmaye/sounds.htm