Internet Assisted English Language Teaching

Description

Sceno, 2007. — 16 p.The Internet is a tool which offers unprecedented possibilities in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT). Internet assisted ELT can enhance teacher’s effectiveness and facilitates his or her work. It also increases students’ independence, motivation and provides a real information gap. Provided links lead to multimedia support material and additional information which allows to expand activities in the direction of students’ interest. Provided links enable communication.Students use the Internet to communicate sending e-mail messages and participating in news boards, discussion groups and keeping in touch with newspaper editors. They use computers for interactive group work involving problem solving and simulations. Consequently, Internet assisted ELT fosters student independence, helps students become more successful in school, enhances their critical thinking skills by allowing to judge the value of the information students find. As a result, students engage in learning for its own sake (emancipatory learning). Finally, Web-based ELT encourages and enables cross-cultural interaction among students from different corners of the world which is very important in a globalized world as students are led to approach the world in a new manner. The aim of the paper is to assess to what extend Internet assisted ELT can contribute to the effectiveness of ELT.