Why Use CALL?
The Internet has tremendous potential as a tool for teaching EFL. Sayers (1993) mentioned that network-based technology can contribute
significantly to:
- Experiential Learning. The World Wide Web makes it possible for students to tackle a huge amount of human experience. In such a way, they can learn by doing things themselves. They become the creators not just the receivers of knowledge. Information is presented in a non-linear way and users develop more flexible thinking skills and choose what to explore.
- Motivation. Computers are most popular among students as they are often associated with fun and games. Student motivation is therefore increased, especially whenever a variety of activities are offered. This in turn makes students feel more independent.
- Enhanced student achievement. Network-based instruction can help pupils strengthen their linguistic skills by positively affecting their attitude towards learning and by helping them build self-instruction strategies and promote their self-confidence.
- Authentic materials for study. All students can use various resources of authentic reading materials either at school or from their home. Those materials can be accessed 24 hours a day at a relatively low cost.
- Greater Interaction. Random access to Web pages breaks the linear flow of instruction. By sending E-mail and joining newsgroups, EFL students can communicate with people they have never met. They can also interact with their own classmates. Furthermore, some Internet activities give students positive and negative feedback by automatically correcting their on-line exercises.
- Individualization. Shy or inhibited students can be greatly benefited by individualized, student-centered collaborative learning. High fliers can also realize their full potential without preventing their peers from working at their own pace.
- Independence from a single source of information. Although students can still use their books, they are presented with opportunities to escape from canned knowledge and discover thousands of information sources. As a result, their education fulfils the need for interdisciplinary learning in a multicultural world.
- Global Understanding. A foreign language is studied in a cultural context. In a world where the use of the Internet becomes more and more widespread, an English Language teacher's duty is to facilitate students' access to the web and make them feel like citizens of a global classroom, practicing communication on a global level.
Background/Motivation
Many English teachers recognize the potential of the Internet for long-distance communication. It enables their learners to communicate with others. However, what many teachers fail to realize is that the Internet can be of great benefit not only for long-distance exchanges but also for linking students in a single classroom. Three types of electronic communication are possible within a single class: teacher-student communication, out-of-class electronic discussion, and in-class, real time electronic discussion. Many students learn how to use the Internet as a tool in itself. However, I feel that the Internet can be better mastered as a means through which a content area can be taught.
Although more and more material is becoming available on the Internet in Chinese in Taiwan, most of the material on the Internet is still written in English. This can be a frustrating experience and a deterrent to someone whose native language is not English. Feedback from the students in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at Hsuan Chuang University indicates that students want to master the Internet and improve their English simultaneously. This has motivated me to implement this project. Through sponsorship by the Ministry of Education, this integrated curriculum project was conducted in the spring semester of 2001. There are 210 students enrolled in this course.
