The Internet is very useful for teaching English. Teachers can use it for gathering information for their classes, including teaching plans and materials for classroom use. They can subscribe to mailing lists related to TEFL/TESL, and exchange information with other teachers. They can subscribe to electronic journals or newsletters either by e-mail or using the World Wide Web and keep up with new trends of English teaching, finding new or interesting publications. They can consult with publishers on teaching materials.
There are a wide variety of ways that the Internet can be used in the classroom. Teachers can organize "keypal" exchanges, and students can exchange letters with their keypals and have the experience of corresponding with people from all over the world. Students can use a mailing list, IECC-Survey, to conduct surveys for class projects. They can subscribe to student lists to exchange ideas with other students around the world. There are many learning materials on the World Wide Web, and students can use them to study English. They can read news in English using either by e-mail or on the World Wide Web. Students' newspapers or newsletters can be posted on the World Wide Web.
Using the Internet for English teaching is new, and there are few books and papers on the subject, though there are many resources on the Internet. We need to explore ways to find materials on the Internet and experiment with using them to improve our teaching. This articles give some information about using the Internet.
If you need additional teaching/learning materials for the class, you can find a quite large number of materials on the web. There is a huge amount of material for listening, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and culture.*2 You can select appropriate materials for your students' interests and level of English proficiency. There are some teaching plans which include materials may help you to teach your students.*3 It is a good idea to go over those materials when you have free time, and classify the ones that interest you according to their topic or how you might use them. Since there is a huge amount of material available on the web, there should be many useful materials for your students, if you look for it.
Useful information for classes you obtain on the World Wide Web is easy to present to the class, if you have a computer which can access the World Wide Web and a large monitor or device to show it. The World Wide Web makes use of multiple media, and many resources are very realistic, colorful and attractive.
Professional Resources
Teachers can subscribe to mailing lists or
electronic journals and read journals available on the web.
Lists. There are many lists for TEFL/TESL, but the largest one is TESL-L (listserv@cunyvm.cuny.edu). You can obtain concrete information about it in "Using TESL-L for Research and Teaching English," (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-tesl.htm). It is good to subscribe to TESLCA-L with TESL-L, since you will receive information related to computers, e-mail and the web.
There are many useful lists English teachers might be interested in "Useful Mailing Lists for TEFL/TESL, Linguistics, and Communication" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-tefl.htm).*4 You can read descriptions of those lists and try subscribing the lists you think might be useful.
In Japan, JALTCALL and EFLJ are two fairly active lists that discuss English teaching in Japan. The IECC has several mailing lists, and teachers can participate in various projects, look for keypals for their students, or discuss intercultural issues for teaching. There are some specific mailing lists for second language learning or acquisition (SLART-L) and "writing and computer" (WRICOM).
By subscribing to those lists, you can get useful information on conferences, new products, materials, etc., but if you really want to benefit from a list, YOU have to participate in discussions. Ask questions, if you want information. Bring up issues that concern you, and find out what other people think. If you just wait until something useful drops into your lap, you may wait a long time. React to what other list members post, and answer their questions if you have the information. Also if you subscribe big lists or many lists, we strongly suggest to set them to digest mode, so that you receive only one file for each list each day with all the messages for that day, rather than many individual messages.
Web journals. There are some useful web journals such as the Internet TESLJ (http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/) in Japan, English Teachers' Electronic Newsletter (http://ietn.snunit.k12.il/newslett.OLD.html (Now it is ETNI News - English Teachers Newsletter), and Agora Newsletter (http:// agoralang.com/agora/agoranews_current.html) are fairly useful. They have their own resources and links to other sites. There are many more around the world.*5 Many of them carry useful articles, announcements, etc. You can also contribute your articles to share your experiences, research findings, lesson plans, teaching materials, etc., with other teachers of English.
Other web sites. You can visit web sites of professional organizations and check on their activities and publications. They have conferences, workshops, publications, etc., for language teachers.*6
Many foreign publishers, particularly American and British publishers, distributors, and large book shops have web pages, and you can find out about their products and get their e-mail addresses. You can order their materials and ask questions by e-mail.*7
Robb and Tillyer wrote a detailed article about how to carry out this type of project, which explains how to prepare for the project and what orientation to give to students. It is available from the TESL-L archives, and its file name is [PENPAL ADVICE].*9
Surveys
Students can subscribe IECC-Survey to conduct their own
surveys for class projects. If they are interested in wedding customs in certain
countries, they can make questionnaire to ask various questions about wedding
customs and post it to the list. They will probably receive some answers, and
they can use them as resources for their projects.*10
Reference Materials
Students can use the Internet as a resource for
their projects. That is, the Internet can provide access to such resources as
dictionaries or encyclopedias. Students can also find thesauruses and various
reference materials for writing papers.*11
There are some style sheets for writing papers at http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/referenc.htm#style.
There are many useful resources to help with writing in "Reference
Materials for Students and Researchers
(http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/referenc.htm). There are
library web pages at http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/referenc.htm#libraries,
where you can look for books. There are some virtual libraries and search sites,
where you can look for various resources. (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/referenc.htm#sites)
Student Lists and Kidlink
Students can subscribe to student lists.
There are ten different lists, and students can participate in general
discussions for low and high level English students, or discussions on business,
economics, current events, movies, music, sports, science, technology, and
learning English.*12
You can give students assignments to obtain certain information on lists, and
students can bring the information back to the class. Just telling students to
subscribe to these lists may not work well. Student Lists are for college
students, but there is Kidlink, which is for teanagers. Teachers need to take
greater care for orientations, since students are younger and their English
proficiency is lower. Kidlink is at http://www.kidlink.org/.
Materials
There are many learning materials to help students to
study English. Some of them are just traditional drill types, but some are very
creative and attractive, so that students will have higher motivation to learn
English. Of course, you can make your own materials and post them on the web.
Simple web pages are easy to make, but complicated and artistic web pages are
not only difficult but also time-consuming to make. We have some collections of
links at http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/student.htm#material
for students to learn English and at http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/teacher.htm#material
for teachers to teach English. We have made some , and they are at http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/class/material/.
Journals and Newsletters
Students can read journals or newsletters
for students of English. Many of them have readings and fun activities to do as
well as useful information. It is worth investigating these and making plans for
what your students read, and how you can use the materials for your class.*13
News
Students can get news from various sources on the Internet.
One source is of news by e-mail is Daily Brief, a daily summary of U.S. and world news. The Daily Brief is a 2-3 page news summary sent out by e-mail every weekday morning. Included in the Brief are summaries of major news events that occurred during the 24 hours prior to distribution. To subscribe to the Daily Brief, send an empty e-mail message to incinc@tiac.net with "db" (without quotation marks) in the subject line.
Teaching the English Newspaper Effectively (http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/Lessons/Kitao-Newspaper.html) is useful, if you are thinking about using English newspapers to teach English. It has some exercises which you can use with any newspapers.
Many Japanese newspapers have English news on the web. Newspapers. TV, and Radio in Japan (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/teij.htm#news) has many links to Japanese newspapers, as well as other mass media. They are much easier for Japanese students to read, since they are familiar with the contents.
It is possible to read hundreds of newspapers in English around the world through "News Sources" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/referenc.htm#mass). You can read not only major newspapers around the world, but also countless minor newspapers as well.
Web Pages
A simple web page is fairly easy to make. It can be
accessed by anyone in the world. Thus, it is a good device to publicize
information, for example, making newsletters for students, local people or even
people from all over the world. We show how to make simple web pages at http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/kitao/int-www.htm.
We have made web page that serves as a bulletin board to present class syllabi,
announcements, homework, reading materials, exercises, etc. We have used them to
present students' compositions to show to the class.
If you learn a little more, you can create fairly artistic web pages which look professional. It is possible to teach students to make newsletters, etc., on the web.*14 You can see some examples at http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/Links/StudentProjects.html. Also, Robb's article "Web Projects for the ESL/EFL Class" at http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/people/teacher/trobb/projects.html will help you to do such projects. You will find more examples at "Links to Projects by ESL Students" (URL: http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/Links/StudentProjects. html).We have had students make web pages with useful links and descriptions. We have made a book with students' essays. There are many ways to use web pages for English language instruction.
There are many resources on the Internet already, and teachers and students have tried to use them in various ways. However, there has been little research done on how to use the resources most effectively. We need to continue to investigate ways to use the Internet for better language teaching/learning.
2. " Useful Resources and Learning Materials for Students " in On-Line Resources and Journals: ELT, Linguistics, and Communication (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/student.htm).
3. "Useful Resources, Lesson Plans, and Teaching Materials for Teachers" in On-line Resources and Journals: ELT, Linguistics, Communication (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/teacher.htm). TESL-L has the file in their archives [LESSON PLAN].
4. The table of contents of On-line Resources and Journals: ELT, Linguistics, and Communication is http://202.23.150.181/users/kkitao/online/. Since it is still being constructed, many URLs mentioned for sections of it may be changed, but the URL for the menu will not be changed.
5. "ETNI News - English Teachers Newsletter" and "Agora Newsletter" can be subscribed to by e-mail. You send the message "subscribe etni" to majordomo@environment.negev.k12.il to subscribe to the former and the message "subscribe agoranews" to majordomo@agoralang.com to subscribe to the latter. You will receive only one issue of agoranews at the beginning of each month.
There are many more web and e-mail electronic journals as shown in "Journals and Newsletters in TESL/TEFL, Linguistics, and Communication" in On-line Resources and Journals: ELT, Linguistics, and Communication at http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-tefl.htm. Since the use of the web is getting more widespread, most journals and newsletters are available only on the web now.
6. "ESL/EFL Organizations and Mailing Lists" in On-line Resources and Journals: ELT, Linguistics, and Communication (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/organi.htm)
7. Hundreds of web pages are listed or linked in commercial places (Publishers, Distributors, Software Developers, etc.) " in On-line Resources and Journals Related to ELT and Linguistics (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/book.htm).
8. "Keypal Opportunities For Students" in "On-line Resources and Journals: ELT, Linguistics, and Communication" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/keypal.htm).
9. Robb, T., and Tillyer, A. (1993). Electronically yours: Cross-cultural communication through e-mail penpals. TESL-L.
10. IECC-Surveys for
students
iecc-surveys-request@stolaf.edu
iecc-surveys-digest-request@stolaf.edu
(set digest: I suggest that you to set the list to digest)
Send the following
message to either of the above addresses to subscribe to iecc-surveys. (Since it
is an active list, it is good to subscribe to it with the digest mode.)
subscribe iecc-surveys
IECC-SURVEYS is an electronic mailing list where students (and teachers) can post requests for assistance on short-term projects, surveys, and questionnaires. This differs from the IECC-PROJECTS mailing list, which is intended only for teachers seeking classroom partners on specific projects.
11. "Dictionaries & Reference Materials" http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/Links/English.html#REF
"Reference Materials: Dictionaries, Thesauruses, Quotations, Encyclopedias, Grammar, etc." in On-line Resources and Journals: ELT, Linguistics, and Communication at (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/referenc.htm#reference)< P> 12. In order to use student lists, the teacher has to register the class with Tom Robb at Trobb@cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp. General information is available on the following web pages.
"Sl-lists: International EFL/ESL email student discussion lists" at http://www.latrobe.edu.au/www/education/sl/sl.html
13. "Useful Resources and Learning Materials for Students" in On-line resources and journals: ELT, linguistics, and Communication (http://202.23.150.181/users/kkitao/online/www/student.htm
) 14. "Using the Internet" in "On-line Resources and Journals Related to ELT and Linguistics" is useful.