Although they have been used for teaching since the 1960s, computers only became practical and affordable for language learning in the early 1980s, when relatively inexpensive personal computers first became available.
The first Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) programs were mainly used for manipulating words and sentences, playing games with students, testing them, and giving them feedback on their performance.
Used in this way the computer has often been described as the ‘medium of the second chance’ (because the activities usually let you try more than once to get an answer right) and of risk-taking (because you can make mistakes in your answers without other students knowing). We feel that both descriptions can be applied to activities on the Internet.
In many ways, however, the challenges presented to both students and teachers by the Internet can provide a more interesting, rewarding experience. The Net is a huge, rich resource, much of it as yet unmapped. Even finding useful information requires skill and judgement. The variety of resources is so great that deciding how to exploit resources once you find them can be a challenge in itself. And what of the millions of Net users, connected into a vast communications network? How do you contact them? How can you ensure that your students’ Internet time is productive in terms of language learning? What sort of language-learning activities is the Internet best used for?
This book will help to answer these and other questions by presenting ideas for computer-based language-learning activities using the Internet and the World Wide Web. We feel that the main distinguishing feature of the Internet, which sets it apart from more traditional types of CALL, is that it is a medium of exploration. In our Activities, we try to encourage both you and your students to explore for yourselves the huge potential of this medium, not only as a source of practice texts, but as a way of releasing creativity and imagination, both yours and theirs. Our Activities all have the aim of providing language practice, or of helping students to learn new language, but they also have the additional aim of helping you and your students acquire the skills that you need to make the best use of the Internet in learning or practising language. We would like you to think of this book as a starting point.
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