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Date Posted: 19:04:09 10/12/04 Tue
Author: Fernanda
Subject: Re: Task 3
In reply to: Kátia 's message, "Task 3" on 09:09:14 10/12/04 Tue

Computer networking on language learning

Many teachers are against the use of computer networking to improve language learning. They say computer eliminates a number of factors that are practiced in classroom interaction. In front of the computer, students do not have to monitor tone of voice, body language, intonational patterns and phonetic variance, for example. It is true that on-line classes work only with words on the screen, but they can aid in a number of aspects the process of acquiring language, even with important advantages.
In their book entitled Computers, Language Learning and Language Teaching, Khurshid Ahmad, Greville Corbett, Margaret Rogers and Roland Sussex point the advantages of the computer in learning and the benefits of online classes to teachers and to students.
They state that computers can handle a wide range of activities, can offer interactive learning without tiring and, with a machine available, the student can spend all the time necessary to learn.
The authors also report that online classes benefit teachers with its versatility in handling different kinds of material. The teachers do not need to be in direct contact with the students, what makes time available for creative teaching in the parts of the course where the contact with students is more necessary.
The book informs us that computer networking also helps the student because it allows them to choose when to study particular topics and how long to spend on them. Students can take a course, or parts of it, at a distance, and learning sessions can also be more concentrated than normal class sessions.
Three others important advantages of computer networking deserve to be considered: the enthusiastic student response to networking activities, the time to reflect about exchanges prior to participating in them, and the reduced “teacher talk”, that permits students to have more opportunities to practice.
First of all, students feel enthusiastic about doing on-line work because it promotes extended exchanges among them, and it is a good support to learn a foreign language. They feel free to produce.
Next, an oral class can be frustrating for some students, because they realize that they can not express their ideas in a foreign language as well as in their mother tongue. In an on-line class, however, that is time to reflect about what you are going to write, time to reconsider, to check what other people have written and to review your writing. These facilities also give confidence to students that may be shy to speak in front of fellows that they think are better able to speak the language than they are.
The last advantage of networking classes is that students can participate much more than in oral classes. Instructors tend to dominate speaking in oral classes, on the other hand, in computer networking, students generally work more than the instructors.
Concluding, computer networking is an effective way of helping students to express themselves in a better way. Using Janet Swaffar’s words from the book Language Learning Online “...computer classroom is more than just a gimmick, more than an enjoyable form of language drill, but a distinctive, perhaps unique, language learning environment”. It is also a comfortable kind of class for those who do not feel fine to speak in front of others.
Bibliography:
Swaffar, Janet; Romano, Susan; Markley, Phillip & Arens, Katherine. Language Learning Online. Labyrinth Publications, 1998.
Ahmad, Khurshid; Corbett, Greville; Rogers, Margaret & Sussex, Roland. Computers, Language Learning and Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press, 1989

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