Using the Internet to Enhance Language Teaching

Presentation on 7 April, 1998

University of Vermont

I. The Goals of Language Teaching. In these days of emphasis on communicative, proficiency-based language learning, the "Five C's" are of great importance.

[From National Standards in Foreign Language Education]

If we desire such outcomes, how can technology, especially that of computer networks, support and enhance our goals?

Here are just a few:

reading for meaning: from elementary research, "treasure hunts," and use of graphics-heavy pages on the Web to more advanced cultural, literary and content-based reading.

listening comprehension: on the Web, sites with audio and/or video; network videoconferencing.

speaking proficiency: "keyboard conversations" that lead to in-class speaking; internet exercises involving repetition; audio e-mail and discussion groups.

writing proficiency: e-mail tasks (including TL pen pals), bulletin boards and discussion lists, online portfolios (student Web pages)

cultural knowledge, interaction: bulletin boards, topical Web sites, e-mail communications. More in the TL than your library could ever afford!

accuracy in vocabulary, grammar: exercises and presentations on the Web or local network, MOO's, references (dictionaries, verb conjugators, etc.)

Back to the Five C's -- all these activities contribute to enhancing them, both inside and outside the classroom. If we learn to see them as tools and not as obstacles or intrusions.

II. What networking technology exists to carry out these activities?

A. Let's go to an essential site offered by Jean W. LeLoup at SUNY Cortland -- a communications technology module for use in any methods course (http://www.cortland.edu/flteach/methods/), and use his excellent outline.

B. Now, since this presentation will concentrate on the Web, we'll do a short lesson in Web browsing, using a great source as an example -- Internet Activities for Foreign Language Classes.

C. Using a search engine. Pleasures and pitfalls.

III. Sample Sites and Lessons. (A tiny taste of what's out there.)

A. A general principle -- always prepare students before the task is carried out. Help them anticipate what they'll find.

B. For basic language courses.

1. Vocabulary and culture -- the family.

a. A simple exercise (located through the Destinos page). Note how it is prepared, and how it is limited. At what level could it be used? What outcomes does it support?

b. Here's a site from the Cervantes Institute. What might you be able to do with it? How?

c. Another, from SUNY Cortland and Jean W. LeLoup, from the lessons entitled Taller hispano, is a model of its genre -- and it has sound and video. Comment on its outcomes and levels.

2. Writing, vocabulary and culture. Let's visit one of my online exercises, used in my Introduction to French course. Students have just learned the verb aller (to go), and destinations on campus and in town. Does it carry out preparation strategies? How does it help students and limit the scope of the exercise? Note: this sort of exercise is great -- some students show real proficiency on it, in that they create sentences much more original and inventive than I could have assigned them on an exercise.

3. Reading for meaning, culture. This is a highly successful task I assign beginning students in December. The site they must find the information in is quite labyrinthine, yet these students find the information and present it clearly and simply to their classmates, making for a great francophone Christmas celebration that depends only on them.

C. Intermediate through advanced intermediate courses.

1. A "MOO" on the Web. The virtual city of Numancia lends itself to all the types of exercises we've mentioned. It includes a chat room, e-mail correspondance possibilities, cultural activities, etc. Visits to it could be ongoing throughout a course.

2. A Web exercise from the University of Texas at Austin is intended for the very end of their two-semester elementary French course, but is an excellent example that involves reading for meaning, cultural comparisons and writing.

3. An exercise I use to begin my ALC (applied language component) for BU319 (International Finance) shows how students (intermediate proficiency is the only requirement to take the ALC) can delve into a specific content area. You may not need this specific exercise, but apply it to topics such as sports, current events, music, movies, etc.

D. Various other examples. Again, a very modest sample -- there are riches out there (even though you must be inventive and patient to find them)!

A nice potpourri from Taller hispano.

Samples from Marie Ponterio's French Civilization course. Good models for creating your own online exercises.

Les écoles (note use of sound)

La vie familiale

Les symboles

Think of what you could do with one of the many museum sites. Here's one in Michoacan.

For advanced students -- the popular "College-Bowl"-type show from Québec, Génies en herbe.

Need pen pals for your students? Want to link classes? Look here.

The site on Musiques afro-caribéennes has links to artists and groups from all over. Many include audio samples of the music. For example...

Mundo Latino maintains an excellent "café" where students may go to chat, listen to music, etc.

I like most of this exercise by Kathy Barton, which uses an online catalogue in French to have students shop for clothes.

Although this site is in English, I'd love to use it in a Spanish class. Using the Aztec calendar, they can learn a lot about Aztec culture, then have their birth date, for instance, created with Aztec symbols -- think of the conversations they could have about it afterward (in Spanish!).

I teach a low-advanced course called Etudes littéraires -- a combination literary analysis, survey and writing course. One of the links I love to use is a poetry anthology -- with many of the poems read aloud. You must choose carefully, since some are interpreted better than others, but it's great to be able to assign listening to a poem as homework!

Use search engines to find advertisements that use specific vocabulary or cultural topics. Here's one I use sometimes, for cruises on the Saint Lawrence.

E. References. There are many to be found. Here's a sample.

French Verb Conjugator

Vox Spanish-English, English-Spanish Dictionary

Dictionnaire Universel Francophone En Ligne

E. Using your own Web site to manage class activities and Web tasks.

IV. Some sample sources on pedagogy using technology.

Language Learning and Technology -- an online review

CALICO

International Association for Language Learning Technology

V. For more help and information from me:

My academic Web site: http://academics.smcvt.edu/amcconnell/ (I hope to add a bibliography, including links, to this presentation, so come back soon).

The Web site of the SMC LLRC Research Team (links change periodically -- keep visiting, and contributing to the discussion): http://academics.smcvt.edu/llrc/

Keep visiting these sites -- they're both under construction, and more is added each week.

My e-mail address: amcconnell@smcvt.edu