Technology for Writing and Reading
Thanks to
this week’s articles, Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction
by Jarek Krajka, and Using InternetBased Children's Literature to Teach EFL
by Larry J. Mikulecky, I could confirm one more time that technology
and internet can be very useful tools to teach specific skills of a second language,
in this case writing and reading.
Something I
learned from Mikulecky’s article is that internet can provide a big amount of
material that we, the teachers, can use with our students to practice their skills.
Mikulecky mentioned that there are some websites that allow students to get
literature in English to practice their reading skill, and at the same time it
allows them to overcome some barriers that were common in the past, like problems
of access, and expense. At the end of this article, the author included some
links to websites that can do what was mentioned before.
On the
other hand, Krajka’s article talks about the benefits of using internet to
teach writing. One of the benefits mentioned here, and that I think is one of
the best, is that thanks to internet students can be exposed to real usage of
the language. By using internet they can communicate by writing e-mails to
other people, including people from other countries in which their target
language is the native tongue. Besides this, the author provides some examples
of how teachers can apply internet to their lessons in order to teach or
practice writing.
In
conclusion, it has been demonstrated one more time that technology and internet
can become great tools to teach a second or foreign language, and its skills.
With this articles, I have learned how to apply CALL to teach writing and
reading.
Hello Stanley, I like your post for this week and I agree with many of the ideas you mentioned. Firstly, the internet is a good tool to teach specific English skills. Teachers and students have access to a big number of resources on the internet to practice and improve the different skills. For example, we can find different websites with a variety of reading material such as books, illustrated short stories, audio books, readings with exercises included, etc. I think that kind of material found on the web could be very attractive for learners, and teachers can save money when they use it. Secondly, I agree when you said that one of the benefits of using internet for writing is that students can be exposed to real use of the language. I consider that internet and writing online permit students practice having a teacher-to-student and student-to-student interaction, and as you mentioned they have the possibilities to practice with native speakers of the language. I would like to add that students also have the opportunity to share their work, ideas, and improvement with others (not only the teacher) and receive comments or corrections about it.
ReplyDelete