When we enter a teenage room, we will mostly find a child sitting in front of the computer, chatting with his/ her friends, playing online games or writing blog posts. Most parents worry about their children’s preference to spend their free time on browsing the net. However, since pupils like to join online communities and chatting with their friends, we as future teachers should utilize their “hobby” for the purpose of language learning.
There are some Do’s and Dont’s which a teacher should be aware of and pay attention to while planning a lesson.
DO’s:
- Use communication tools only if they seem appropriate to enhance social and language skills
- Keep record of students’ communication in order to reflect over it and correct the mistakes
- Offer the possibility of online teacher consultation after class, when students have questions concerning their homework
- Use the net to establish e-mail friendships betweens your own students and those of an English speaking country
- Make your lessons more creative by the use of synchronic (Student/Expert Chat, Creative writing, Use of MOOs to enhance creativity and programming skills) and asynchronic methods (Writing E-Mails, browsing forums and leave comments, start online discussions on certain topics etc.)
- Do not hesitate to contact teachers from other schools in order to exchange teaching experience
- Set up joint projects with students from other classes or even other schools
⇒ Make use of intercultural communication and let students look beyond their noses
- Keep the main target in mind, namely to enhance students’ language skills, so…
- Make your students aware of the existence of the “internet slang” which both includes acronyms and abbreviations which might be confusing at the first sightFor instance: BION = “Believe it or not”; AKA = “Also known as” etc.
- Remind your students of the netiquette which composes a set of rules on how to communicate on the internet properly.
DONT’s:
- Let students post sth. anonymously from home
⇒ You will never be sure whether it really was your student who did the homework
- Use online tools as often as possible
⇒ Avoid online communication if face-to-face assistance can be utilized
- Make students get on with ambiguous contents on their own
⇒ Try to eliminate ambiguities which may arise through synchronous and asynchronous communication
⇒ Intervene if necessary by making use of your administration rights
- Persist upon group work, even if you suggest that it will end up in total chaos
⇒ Think of an alternative approach which is more suitable to convey your message
- Give unskilled students difficult tasks, in order to show them up in front of the class
⇒ Take care of those students who have little experience with the use of the internet and do not overcharge them with workload
⇒ Think about how you can improve their situation
- Let students work with all information they find on the net
⇒ Be aware of information overflow and offer your students only a range of sites which they can use to solve their task
All in all, I believe that communication tools are worth considering to teaching English since (according to students’ free time activities) they anyway play a big role in adults’ lives. In my opinion, the integration of online communication into the English classroom will show students on how they can use the net for more reasonable purposes, such as language learning. However we should also be aware of the flaws on the net which might bring about some problems to our teaching. Chaotic group work or students’ insufficient knowledge on handling with online tools may lead to unforeseen difficulties which a teacher should be flexible about. Thus, we should not disclose traditional methods which are sometimes more efficient to our purpose.
MY ADVICE:
Include parents into the monitoring of homework in order to show them the positive effect of online tools to their children’s language progress.
