Based on the article “CALL Me … Maybe: A Framework for Integrating the Internet into ELT" by George M. Chinnery.
As far as I can tell, internet has become indispensable not only for daily routine aspects but for educational purposes as well. Nowadays, there are many people who find very attractive to adopt internet help into their syllabus, specially those in the teaching language area.
Among some benefits internet usage has, communication is the one that seems to bring more profit to the language learning experience. This implies students being assigned to look for a specific task on the internet and give their opinion about it, asking them to watch a video or even having them create their own material so that other students may find it on the net. Since the very beginning of the internet existence, there have been many useful websites designed to provide a more accurate learning; starting from interacting with a computer programmed-responses (alice.pandorabots.com), to interacting with native speakers of the target language.
Something I like from reading this article is that the author does not implie that only those who have access to the internet may enjoy its benefits, but also those who do not have access to it. I think it is a way to say: there is no excuse to those outdated practices!
Something else that called my attention was that there are some people who believe that the use of the internet on the language field has been overrated. In other words, that the effectiveness it has on language performance, is not as much as the traditional methods that impli no internet use. I have to say that I sort of agree on that one: I think that some people may find face to face interaction more meaningful, especially when learning languages. However, it does not mean internet does not fill in the blanks. I think it depends on the learner' s perception.
I completely agree with you. Internet is a very good tool to enhance student’s English skills. Of course, do not everybody has access to it. As a matter of fact, the author talks about more options to include even the ones that find difficult technology usage. Something that I really like from your post is that technology can be used for improving listening and writing skills by watching a video or to interact with native English speakers. In my opinion, this is a very good way that students can have, so that, they can start practice at any time with no limits.
ResponderEliminar