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.But syn-chronous interaction is also being used, both as a straightforward14Little and Brammerts (1996: 19).The International E-Mail Tandem Network, withseveral European universities participating, was set up to take forward this method ofworking.Follow-up studies include Appel (1999) and Little, Ushioda, Appel, Moran,O Rourke, and Schwienhorst (1999).268 language and the internetchatgroup and as a virtual world.One chat procedure uses split-screen techniques, in which a message from a student typed ontothe bottom half of the screen is seen by any other studentsinvolved in the exercise on the top half of their screens, withmessages listed in the order in which they are received.While thisprocedure can take place in a local environment, the Internetwidens the options considerably.15 The educational benefitsalready noted in chapter 5, where all the students were nativespeakers, are enhanced in a foreign-language-teaching context,with students participating more evenly, and teachers exercisinga less dominant role.Logs of interactions can be saved for laterstudy  an extremely useful option for learners.The greaterimaginative content and authenticity of a virtual world, whichcan be tailored to meet students interests, can also be highlymotivating.However, the constraining effects of multi-personinteraction on language, such as shorter sentence length anduncertain turn-taking, have yet to be fully investigated.Livelyand authentic MUDs may be, and an excellent medium forpromoting rapid responses, but their utterances represent only asmall part of the grammatical repertoire of a language.Finally, the Web offers an unprecedented array of opportu-nities for both students and teachers.Whatever complaints theremay have been in the past, over the lack of availability of authentic materials , there must now be a general satisfactionthat so much genuine written data is readily available, withspoken data on the horizon (see above).(Indeed, the pedagogicalproblem is now the opposite  to evaluate and grade what isavailable, so that students are not overwhelmed.) Blogging hasextended the range of opportunities.Another benefit is that theWeb can put learners in contact with up-to-date informationabout a language, especially through the use of online diction-aries, usage guides, and suchlike  though at present these are inlimited supply, with problems of access fees and copyright still15An example of a program used for local area networks is Daedalus Interchange.For adiscussion with reference to virtual worlds, see Pinto (1996).The linguistic future of the Internet 269awaiting solution in many instances.Websites can provide agreater variety of materials, attractively packaged, such asnewspaper articles, quizzes, exercises, self-assessment tasks, andother forms.As a publishing medium, moreover, the Web offersunprecedented opportunities to students, for both individual andcollaborative work.16 David Eastment estimated that (in 1999)there were a thousand ELT sites devoted to language-learningactivities, resources, and materials.17 At the same time, he wasfirm about the need for caution:A few ELT sites are worthwhile; but at the moment, they are fewand far between, and the learner, whether in class or studyingalone, would be better advised to concentrate on conventionalELT materials.At the time of writing, it is clear that a shelf ofEFL workbooks and coursebooks would offer far more in termsof exercises, activities and ideas than the whole of the WorldWide Web.The situation will change, but only after there has been muchmore progress in the adaptation of materials, to the screen and inteacher training.Eastment puts it this way:Conventional CALL was difficult enough for many teachers.TheWeb, for all its advantages, can be even more harrowing.Whatdo you do when the site around which you had planned yoursession suddenly disappears? How can you keep your studentslearning when the whole Internet slows to a crawl? How can youkeep control during an IRC [Internet Relay Chat] session? Andwhat is the best way of handling a student who covertly calls upthe Playboy site?18Teachers, he suggests, need to learn search-engine skills, ways ofevaluating web pages, techniques for manipulating and creatingtheir own web materials, and methods of integrating web activ-ities with the rest of their teaching [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]