No
matter what you think of the World Wide Web1
as a teaching resource, it will play a grand role in the education
of your students. While most college courses find a need for the
Web in research or production—some perhaps having students
publishing "soft papers" to the class site instead of handing hard
copies in—the question remains: Is the Web an effective tool
for ESL teachers, or is it merely pedagogically hip, or used simply
because it's there?
As
the Web struggles through its awkward adolescence, users become
more savvy, and content gravitates toward substance and ease-of-use.
Techno-skeptics (at their worst masking techno-phobia behind a pretense
of sagacity) have derided the Web as the purview of those who, without
a connection, would be playing Pong or Doom. Not only do they no
longer have a case, but I don't need to elaborate on that fact here.
The Web is relevant and central to learning today and will be more
so tomorrow.
Web
use creates an environment for engaging, relevant, and collaborative
work in--and not merely about--English. Specifically, it
- provides
language practice
- sets
up genuine, not contrived, verbal interaction
- teaches
computer and Internet skills and promotes keyboard skills
- teaches
critical thinking skills
- teaches
research skills
- provides
access to a vast amount and variety of English material
- introduces
students to pedantic resources (TOEFL, references, etc.)
- introduces
students to resources for practical purposes (tourism, news, product
and company information, colleges, etc.)
- provides
for a class Web site to post syllabi, schedules, assignments,
and other messages
- provides
a means of presentation and publishing (for advanced users)
How
state-of-the-art does your computer lab (or cluster of computers
in the corner) need to be to get all this from the Web? Not very.
In fact, the hardware is the least of your worries. Any computer
will do as long as it has a color monitor, a 28.8Kbs modem (minimum),
and the ability to run either the Navigator 2.0 or later browser
(3.0 preferred) or Internet Explorer 3.0 or later. (Lynx or other
text or limited-graphics browsers will prevent you from seeing Web
pages as they were designed to be seen, or at all.) To hear sound
and view video, you'll also need a sound card (built into Macs),
a bit more RAM, and some free browser plug-ins (proprietary helper
applications launched from the browser, particularly QuickTime,
RealPlayer, and ShockWave).
Integrating
the Web into a curriculum takes more than getting on-line. The requirements
fall into four categories:
Access
- reliable
Internet access via modem or a campus backbone (LAN)
- sufficient
access to computers (two students at a machine even works)
- Teacher
training
- skills
and experience with the Internet, a browser, and advanced searching
techniques
Student
orientation
- written
orientation, training, and quizzing materials for Web browser,
plug-ins, etc.
- demonstration
of browser and logical searching techniques
- instruction
on Web epistemology
Materials/projects
- guided,
hands-on Web searching activities (e.g., scavenger hunts)
- research-based
projects (papers or presentations)
- production-oriented
projects (Web authoring for advanced users)
The
most critical of these are often the ones overlooked at first.
Teacher
training. Why is it acceptable for teachers to "teach" with
the Web with little understanding of it, and unacceptable for someone
to teach, say, pronunciation, with similarly limited knowledge in
that area? Perhaps because most ESL teachers today completed their
TESOL studies before the Web boom or before schools of education
could offer Internet training (which doesn't explain why many of
those programs still don't offer it). Or perhaps the Web still lacks
the respect it deserves as a rich and complex resource requiring
a fundamental understanding of its workings and an awareness of
its developments. Nonetheless, a teacher cannot expect to teach
others to use a tool that he or she has not yet mastered, be that
a language, a library, or the Internet. The Internet was made for
teachers. It's only fitting that they should be its biggest fans
and gurus.
Student
orientation. The intuitive nature of browsing the Web works
against acquiring a formal understanding of it. Though practically
anyone can browse and find a few things, with good training a great
deal more content could be found efficiently. Students need teacher-developed
primers explaining functions and features of software they wouldn't
be likely to figure out on their own. Demonstrating the features
of a Web browser on screen--understanding the Go menu, the Stop
and Reload buttons, the status line, or the difference between using
the Open location button and a search string in a search engine
(Yahoo, etc.)--will get students into contact with the desired content
sooner.
The
Web isn't always helpful in providing reliable information effectively
when a likely source isn't known to begin with. Web searches need
to be preceded by planning and not merely launched into by typing.
Consider first where the information would be found without a computer.
The birthplace of Ernest Hemingway, for example. Since this is a
static fact, we could go to an encyclopedia and feel confident in
the accuracy of the information. Using the Web, then, we should
seek an on-line encyclopedia, such as Encyclopedia Britannica. Doing
a search in Yahoo for Papa's birthplace, on the other hand, would
yield tens of thousands of Hemingway links, mostly fan pages--the
reliability of which students often cannot assess. Following these
links may be time consuming and fruitless. How about the price of
gold? What source might we look to for that? The business section
of a newspaper. So, using the Web, we could go directly to the local
(major) on-line newspaper.
A search
engine often throws its net too wide in a general Web-wide search
to be useful for ESL students. Though students appear to take easily
to Web use, they don't understand where to look for something or
how to access what they find without structured searching activities
where their techniques can be refined by class discussion.
Having
extolled its virtues, I should emphasize that the Web only complements--at
best--other language resources and activities; it does not replace
them. Those leading the charge into using the Web in class may be
taken to hyping the extent of its usefulness for the specific objective
of language learning. These evangelists are as dangerous as the
dabblers, the curious but rank amateurs (see Teacher training above).
I do believe that the Web, as a conduit for a rush of authentic
English content, demonstrates one of the few, but important, instances
in which computers provide a better language environment than traditional
means.
Many
of the orientation materials discussed above are available on the
MLL Web site. Click on "Student Resources" and look under my mug
shot for "Effective Web Searching." Be sure to take the Quiz and
review the Answers.
1.
"Internet" and "Web" are often used synonymously. Technically, the
Web refers only to the network of graphical documents coded in HTML
(or other markup language) and accessed with a browser, such as
Netscape Navigator. Non-Web (i.e., text-based) Internet resources
for TESL include the Nexis database and on-line library catalogs.
