Making use of the internet for english studies
Preface
The Internet. The media everybody talks about
and wants to get use of . Newspapers and magazines are covered with articles about this
complicate network, even though they are presenting the issues on their own homepages in
the Internet; every single company, may it be a little store or a tycoon, presents itself
and its products throughout the web. Today, on every letter head and buisnesscard email
addresses can be found.
Yet today, thousands of students in dozens of
countries around the world are living the reality of the global village in interactive
ways. Through the medium of networks and telecommunication technologies these students are
learning to think of themselves as global citizens for the first time, seeing the world,
and their place in the world, in ways much different than their parents.
1. The Internet - What is it?
The Internet is basically a connection of
many computers located all over the world. What these computers really do is exchange
information. The Internet seems to be chaotic at first sight. What else should we expect
of a system which is not controlled or organized by anybody. But it works anyway.
It is
the playground for everybody. All of us can take use from this network. It might be
disappointing for some newbies when they notice that life on the net is just normal
and trivial. But it must be obvious that netters won't change fundamentally only because
they are connected by a computer. Horror fictions like "Newromancer" are
exciting and breath-taking, but this has nothing to do with the Internet of today, ( Cole,
page 10). Still, the world's biggest computer network is surrounded by an aura of mystery.
In contrast to controlled flow of
information, however, the global interconnection of networks gives millions of people
direct access to information in ways the world has never seen before. Information of every
sort flows freely, across national borders and around the world, directly from where it's
happening to where it's needed.
1.1 History of the Internet
The history of the Internet is something else
than everybody would expect. It was a planned system by the US Army. In the early 1960's,
in the time of the Cold War, the American government was faced with the problem, how the
country was to communicate after a nuclear war.
So they created a non-centralized network
that linked city to city and military base to base. The network works even if some parts
of it were destroyed. In 1969 the ARPANET was created, to give civilians access to it. The
users changed this high speed network to an electronic post office (->Email).
Scientists and researchers used ARPANET to collaborate on projects. Eventually, people
used it for leisure activities such as chatting or mailing lists (-> Usenet).
In the 1980's, the National Science
Foundation (NSF) started a program to establish Internet access. They created a
"Backbone" called NSFNET to connect college campuses via regional network ,
(Cole, Internet, page 10). But despite of the switching off of the NSFNET by the US
government in 1995, which was misunderstood as the breakdown of the Internet, too many
host-computers existed already to keep the Internet alive. Bill Clinton said in his 1997's
inauguration address: "Ten years ago, the Internet was a mystical province of
physicists ; today, it is a commonplace encyclopedia for millions of schoolchildren",
(Clinton, 1997).
(cf. Cole, Internet, S.
10; cf. similar PBS, https://www.pbs.org/internet/ history/)
In the early 1990's the Internet experienced
explosive growth. "Traffic on the Internet expands at a 341,634% annual growth
rate", (PBS, https://www.pbs.
org/internet/history/). The main reason of this growing
was the creation of the World Wide Web.
1.2 History of the World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW) was created at CERN
[ https://www.cern.ch/ ] a physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland in 1989.
The World
Wide Web is the fastest growing Internet resource, but it is a part of it. Its development
was based on the transmission of web pages over the Internet, called HTTP, by using the
HTML technology. The WWW is able to include text, pictures, sound, music, voice,
animations and videos on its webpages. The user can simply click on a link and than switch
to a new page, because the WWW- pages support hypertext. The Internet was previously black
and white, text and files. By improving the HTML-Mode technology (the latest version is
3.
2), the color mode was added. (cf.. Gromov, https://www.internetvalley.com/intval.
html)
A web-browser is needed to get access to the
WWW, like the Netscape Navigator or the Microsoft Explorer. The two companies, Netscape
and Microsoft are fighting "an epic battle" for the number one position in the
web market, (Cooper, page 52). Nobody knows exactly how big the WWW really is. Search
engines try to index the whole WWW, like the Web Archive Organization. In the graphic
below, you can compare the content of the WWW to other data collections. The huge
collection of online books at the Library of Congress [ ]
is amazing.
2. Internet in Students' Lives
"THE INTERNET OFFERS THE RESEARCHER
access to a vast source of information scattered at locations around the world.",
(Campbell, page 1). It gives you more informa- tion or working materials than a local
library can offer. You can gain access to written materials, but it is possible to link to
video, audio, and listening resources as well.
Every student in the Kollegstufe still has
problems using the English language.
Firstly, students are not native English speakers and
have to learn everything right from the beginning of the Gymnasium until the Kollegstufe.
Secondly, students live in a non-English speaking country and cannot use the language in
normal life, only in the classroom. There, they skip into an English-speaking world and
read English texts, articles, poems, short stories and novels to improve their speaking
skills. On this way, they get used to speak the foreign language.
But the effort, students must make in order
to do well in the LK English is on a high level. In tests and exams they have to analyze
short stories of famous authors or articles, out of Time []
or Newsweek [].
In those
articles they must find the style and form of the writing or the point of view out of the
given texts. Recognizing stylistic devices, irony or satire is even harder.
Once connected to the web , students can find
needful material for the years of their English classes. The variety and diversity of the
wide ranged links are amazing and unbelievable. You will never cover everything, but
surely enough for your studies. English learning students can improve their abilities in
every area.
Especially when they have problems in writing, grammar or spelling, lack of
vocabulary or not enough know- ledge about English speaking countries. The Internet faces
all these problems and offers everything and unlimited material to fill these gaps.
"The Internet holds the potential for
revolutionizing the way research is done ", (Camp- bell, page 2). This sentence might
be true, if you take a look on the advantages of it. The Internet is available 24 hours a
day and is the best stocked global library. Finding material is easier and faster than it
is in a huge library.
Students can share information, material and ideas via chat or
email, not only in their city, but they can exchange all over the world. The Internet
comes into every students house and appears on the computer screen.
3. What do I need to get started?
Nearly every household has a computer these
days. In the time of multimedia the PC or Mac is able to arrange presentations,
calculations and well organized texts. As easy as this, it is to get access to the
Internet.
Only a few things are needed.
3.1 Hardware Requirements
The only thing you need beside your computer
is a modem. A modem is the key to the vast resources. Modems can transfer datas out of the
big networks of the Internet. The transferring rate can reach 115,500 bauds with 28.
800
kps (kilobytes per second). The commercial online providers AOL and CompuServe already
offer this transferring rate. The cost of an Internet connection varies tremendously with
your location and the kind of connection that is appropriate to your needs.
Right now, the development of ISDN offers the
user an access rate of 64,000 kps to the Web. This is a very high rate and makes Internet
surfing to a fantastic experience.
3.
2 Software Requirements
As soon as you are registered to an
commercial online service, you can use a simple understandable software, which is based on
Windows 3.1 or Windows 95.
The most important part of the online
software is the Internet browser. This is the door to the wide world of information.
Today, the most used browser is the Microsoft Explorer 3.0 and the Netscape Navigator 3.
0.
They offer you easy access to the Internet. With additional software, you are able to get
the whole multimedia features, like Internet phone or voice mail. These additional
software is called "Plug-Ins", like Real Audio.
4. How to Find Needed Resources
If you are new on the Internet it will be
hard for you to get along in this jungle.
The easiest way to find needed resources would
be to contact a search engine like Yahoo []
or AltaVista [ ]. They are
the biggest and best filled engines on the web. Meanwhile, different engines can be found,
some German web crawlers, too.
At the main page of one of this engines, you
can use the search feature by filling in a keyword about your wanted material and within
seconds all related links (called matches), which include your keyword, appear on the
screen and can be visited.
A good example would be to use the Internet
in order to find material about the '96 American presidential election. Using the Yahoo
search engine is the simplest way.
Contact Yahoo and fill in the keyword "
Election 96 " in the given search-field. After a few seconds the Yahoo server
tells you that it found 10338 matches including the word "Election 96". Now it
is possible to crawl through all this 10338 matches, which would take nearly a year. But
after finishing the first twenty links, you probably already got all information you
wanted to know about the American presidential elections and this might be sulficient. In
the first twenty matches of our example you find an explanation about the electoral system
[
] or the website address of the Project Vote Smart Campaign [ https://www.vote-smart.
org/campaign_96/presidential/
index.html ]. On this page you get everything about the candidates, parties, the
election process or the campaign strategy. On nearly every webpage you find additional or
related links which can be visited. A printed copy of the hompages of the Democratic and
Republican Party can be found on page 27. The homepage of Bill Clinton is on page 28.
This
way of crawling through the net is called "net surfing".
To get information about a nation , important
persons or happenings, fill in the keyword and receive the needed results. If students
need any background-knowledge about things they have talked about in class they should
contact a search engine.
The following English educational links were
found in the web on the same way like the websites about the 96's election.
5. How Can the Internet be Used for the
LK English
Once connected to the net you will have the
biggest information data server of the world.
Especially for students, a lot of resources
are offered.
5.1 Dictionaries
Many dictionaries are based on the Web, most
of them are easy to use and reply quickly. It is amazing that most dictionaries are
located on German university's servers.
Englisch-Wörterbücher aller Art
These online dictionaries are a collection of
English-German and German-English dic- tionaries. If a word can't be found in your
dictionary at home, it is possible to go online and try it in these huge filled
"Online Dictionaries".
Using an online dictionary saves money. You don't have to
buy new and expensive dictionaries anymore, because the web-dictionaries get continously
updated. But you do not get detailed information about the different ways the word can be
used , like you find in the books of Langenscheidt or Ponds. On page 29 of the appendix
you find a printed copy of this hompage and an ex- ample of the way you look up the word
"sophisticate".
5.2 Resources for English Stylistic
Devices and Writing Skill
In English classes, students often have to
analyze stories, articles or texts.
This takes a main part in English learning. They
should be able to deal with an given text, to understand and to interpret it. Common
questions about a text are to figure out the theme, plot, point of view or a
characterization. In the Internet, you find pages which explain these objects and tell you
how to express and find them in a given text.
5.2.
1 Stylistic Resources
How to Critique Fiction
https://www.webcom.com/~victory/
howcritic.html
At this website you find different styles of
literature criticisms. You find a plan how to go through a text most effectively step by
step. In order to improve your writing, it is shown how to analyze a given text and to
deal with questions.
It provides hints about 'Plot', 'Characterization' or 'Point of
View' and many other important things about critiquing.
Victory Crayne, the author, did a fantastic
job in writing this page to give everybody an outlook about the way of analyzing texts.
Before a forthcoming test it is helpful for LK students to contact this page, because it
prepares them perfectly to deal with questions in LK English tests and in the final exam,
the Abitur.
Writer's Web
One of the best writing-related link on the
web is the Writer's Web. It is set up by an American college from the University of
Richmond/VI. It gives students a sophisticated tools to help them formulate better
English.
This webpage includes links to wonderfully explained websites about problems
every student must face, like drafting a paper, punctuation, sentence structure or
quoting. For example, you see on the page "Using Paraphrases" the right
way to restate another person's idea. There are not only stylistic devices, but also hints
about how to write an essay or a text good enough that it can passed to teachers,
professors or employers. Another helpful link is the site about the right way of
integrating resources in an essay or expert work. The sites of Writers Web are easy to
understand and are a pearl of online English learning resources. It is an important
reference page for students to consult in about forgotten forms.
The homepage is on page
30 of the appendix, the example "Using Paraphrases" can be found on page 31.
5.2.2 English Language Learning Resources
To learn a foreign language is hard. In most
cases the language you want to learn has no roots together with your own language. Some
resources in the Internet help you to deal with the English language and get most out of
your efforts.
BenJX
One of the oldest educational resource on the
Internet is offered by BenJX. These websites explain the visitor how to learn a foreign
language and how to get used to the world of the Internet. There are texts ready to
download about learning English on the Internet, but also general texts about the
"normal" way of language learning. They teach you to achieve the best results in
further studies and explain, how to succeed in other areas, like reading, writing or
speaking. They go deeper into debating and negotiating in a foreign language. You can
download texts about courses to improve your language skills in a very short time.
Further Internet addresses are useful for
advanced English students. They can be visited as well, because they include more material
to gain the language knowledge, like Writing Help [
]. This is a collection of links to other writing sources. The Keith Ivey's English
Usage Page [ https://www.webcom/
~keivey/ engusage ] is a miscellany of links to spelling or pronouncing pages and many
other educational resources. Further links are on the floppy disc.
5.3 Grammar Resources
The most important thing about speaking a
language correctly is the right use of its grammar. The English grammar is not very
difficult, but it still provides a lot of problems to student. The Internet offers many
web sites dealing with grammar.
5.3.
1 Online Grammars
If you want to use the Internet like a big
grammar-encyclopedia, you should try the following resources.
An online-English Grammar
This is the best grammar on the net. It is
set up by the Edunet International Organization and written by Anthony Hughes. On these
pages lots of explanations about the use of adjectives, adverbs or nouns can be found. The
definite and indefinite articles: the, an, a, or the distributives: either,
neither, nor, each, every , are explained. Not one chapter is missing in this
excellent online grammar.
It is very helpful for students, because it
gets updated continously and gives more examples than any school book can offer. A print
of this page is on page 32.
Grammar Help Page
Ruth Vilmi set up this link page . You
can find information about punctuation, spelling, but also lots of grammatical
information, like explanations about the right use of pro- nouns, the passive or
vocabulary.
The Perdue Online Writing Lab
https://owl.trc.
perdue.edu/
The best organized and best filled
grammatical and style library on the Internet is offered by Perdue College/Indiana. An
Online Writing Lab(oratory) shows you how to use English grammatically correct and
explains you how to use several terms. The list of explanations last from sentence
structure, commas, quotations to spelling and gerunds. If you have questions about these
terms, you will find good examples and comparisons. It is the best website for students to
surf in and explore the rules and the use of the English language.
As far as I am
concerned, it is the best help for students on the web.
Grammar and Style Notes
This website was invented by Jack Lynch. It
is a little encyclopedia about grammatical rules and explanations and comments on style.
The material is ordered in alphabetical capitals and therefore you can find your
grammatical term easily by using this search feature.
If you search for the difference between
"affect" and "effect", you will get this result:
Affect versus Effect:
Affect with an a is usually a verb; effect
with an e is (usually) a noun.
When you affect something, you have an effect
on it.
The usual adjective
is effective. Effect as a verb is a different
word altogether, which means
to bring about or to accomplish, as in
"to effect a change."
If you read this phrase you recognize that it
is not explained correctly. It is wrong that "affect" is usually a verb and
"effect" usually a noun. It is wrong as well that the noun "effect" is
a different word altogether, because it has the same meaning like the verb. The whole text
does not exactly explain the diversity of the words "affect" and
"effect".
5.3.2 Advanced Grammar Resources
Grammatical Support, which tries to go deeper
into the English grammar, is located on the web, as well. It will be helpful for every
student to use these resources to improve the capability of using English correctly. But
these sources will not produce gifted students or improve their skills dramatically after
they went through them. They only support learning beside school.
The English Grammar Clinic
This 'Clinic' was also set up by Edunet
International. It is an outstanding resource for students as well as for native English
speakers. You can send your English grammar questions to the Lydbury English Center
(Email-link on the website). Your email will be answered by professional teachers. For
answers you can enter a forum, or the so called "Grammar Cafe " for a
chat. If you think your question is a common question, that it might be answered at once,
you can visit the FAQ-page, where you find a lot of com- mon answered grammar questions.
I myself downloaded the whole FAQ-page and
saved it on a hard drive, because it already covered all my grammar problems and so I did
not have to contact the teachers in the forum. A print of this homepage can be found on
page 33.
CNN Newsroom for ESL
These websites contain grammar, vocabulary
and comprehension questions based on real stories. You can choose between vocabulary,
grammar and discussion material right at the frontpage. The resources are only available
during the school year, but you can get access to previous exercises at any time.
Additional grammar resources can be found on
the link-page "Grammar Resources for English Language Learners" [https://www.
tcom.ohiou.edu/OU_Language/english/
Grammar.html ]. Another page which includes grammar sources is the English Gram-
mar Links for English Students [
].
Further links are on the enclosed floppy disc
as well.
5.4 Homework Support
Students often have problems doing their
homework. The worst case which can happen is not to understand what it is all about or
lack of knowledge in a science area. There are two good homework supporting pages on the
web.
Homework Helper
A teacher from Trabuco Hills High School will
help in nearly every subject, no matter whether maths, physics or English. You can leave
an email with your question and it will be answered in about 2 or 3 days.
The print of
this homepage can be found on page 34.
Study Help
On this website five different forums are
located. One of them is the English-Help Fo- rum. You can send an email with your
problem and you will receive help. The support you will get is not a perfectly solved
homework, it is only to make you understand the material.
5.
5 Reading Resources for Students
The Internet is the biggest library of the
world, because it contains huge sources of written materials. "In the broadest sense,
literature is everything that has been written from the classical novel or sonnet to a
soap opera script or comic book", (Campbell, page 267). So most of it might be
interesting and helpful for students, because reading improves your ability to talk and
gains your vocabulary.
5.5.1 Literature
There are many magazines, newspapers and
books located on the Internet and beside that, they are available in local stores.
On many
pages you can find links to famous books or magazines, which get updated daily in the
style of the printed copy. There are many specialized areas of literature accessible
through the Internet. College campuses around the world have electronic literature
resources available. The opportunity for students to download their working material
freely is one of the best things about the Internet.
Online Book Page
This webpage has a large collection of
electronic books that can be distributed freely. Finding your recommended book is easily
done by using the search option.
You can search by asking an author's name or a book
title. On this server, most of the known books of world's literature are located for
downloading.
English Literature Main Page
On this page can be found lots of links to
works of British authors like Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Oscar Wilde and many more. The main
page is devided into the different literature periods from medieval to modern time. On the
different time periods pages, you find the full author's works. It does not matter if book
or poem, short story or novel, most works are ready for downloading together with some
information about the authors.
This page is very helpful for LK students, because they
will learn a lot of British authors and have a good collection of facts and works.
The Complete Works of Shakespeare
The complete dramas of Shakespeare, including
Hamlet, Macbeth, the sonnets and many more are available on this webpage. You find a
simple tablet already devided into the sections Comedy, History, Tragedy and Poetry. In
these scales you find further links to your required work. You can take a look at the
Shakespeare-Homepage on page 35.
Banned Books Online
The Banned Book Page is a part of the Online
Book Page and maintains a page for books that were banned or were attempted to be banned
by legal authorities at some time in the past.
You find books like Ulysses by James Joyce
or Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
The information is very interesting and can
be used for a report in front of the class.
5.5.2 Newspapers, Magazines
"Although literature has lagged behind
the sciences in getting journals in an electronical format, there is a move in this
direction", (Campbell, page 276). But every big newspaper or magazine is already
offering an Internet issue of its printings.
They are well organized and easy to read by
using the HTML 3.0 Standard for scrolling through the different pages.
The biggest American newspapers, also
available throughout the world, maintains their daily issue on the web, like USA Today [
] or The
New York Times [ ]
(Appendix, page 36). A mouse click on the headlines on the front-page leads to the
articles. To read a newspaper online is cheaper than it is to buy it in the store. It is a
good resource for students, if they need articles for a news report.
CNN Interactive World News Main Page
Ted Turner's world's biggest news channel
offers daily updated news from all over the world, together with fantastic pictures and
sometimes audio and video files. You can also read all the written news from past days and
weeks, but without audio and image support. (Appendix, page 37)
5.5.3 Comprehension Reading Resources
Impact Online
The University of Illinois set up this page.
It maintains older English articles.
In these articles, you can click on the important
words and look up their meaning . The articles are based on a lower level and shouldn't be
a big problem for LK English students. An example is the article, "O.J. Simpson Case
Focuses National Attention on Domestic Violence", on page 38.
Tongue Twisters
Tongue Twisters are funny chains of
alliterations.
These two web sites offer lots of English tongue twisters. Look them up and
start laughing!
Fluency Through Fables
On this page you can read fables, mostly
written by Aesop , check the vocabulary and answer given questions about them. The new
learned vocabulary can be used in a completion text right away. The Comenius Group [
https://www.comenius.com ] offers a lot of learning material.
The start-up main page can be
also received in German.
The fables and exercises should not be a big
problem for students. I think they are easy to understand and help only very little to
improve your English
PIZZAZ!
At this web address you find lots of
educational materials in all kind of literature. The re- sources are divided into
'Poetry', 'Fiction', 'Bag of Tricks', 'Publishing Opportunities' and 'Other Teacher
Resources'.
Biography
Here you find a library about mostly every
known writers', scientists' or artists' bio- graphies. A search function helps to get
information within seconds about the person you look for.
This page is very important for
LK Students, especially for their reports. Here they get material about the persons they
have to talk about. The information this server gave me about "Jane Austen" can
be found on page 39.
5.6 Listening and Speaking Resources
The Internet does not only contains written
material. Beside graphics, it contains audio-files.
This kind of "multimedia"
can be used wonderfully in all sorts of education.
Leaning Oral English Online
This page, provided by the University of
Illinois, offers conversational texts, which are connected to audio-file by using HTML 3.0
technology. The easy and understandable dialogues deal with situations taken out of daily
life. They won't be a real support for the LK student, because they are too easy. To
receive the audio-datas, you need a special plug-in.
A link to get the required software
is on the page.
Weekly Idiom
The weekly idiom, offered by the Comenius
Group, is a term which is a common expression in the English language. The idiom is
defined and other dialogue examples are given, it can be downloaded in an audio form as
well. You find the print on page 40.
The idioms are good for students, because
they are mostly not part of the normal vocabulary. This website really helps to gain the
students' vocabulary.
Audio On-Demand
Since everything is possible on the Internet,
many radio stations can be received via the web. On this page are resources offered by
radio stations from all over the world, like from Radio Australia, Radio Canada
International and many more. So if you want to listen to English language, you can turn to
this page. I think the Internet's radio feature is a nice little tool, but the quality of
listening to it is not as good as it is of a normal radio. Watch TV instead to download
the plug-in!
5.7 English Tests and Comprehension
Materials
5.
7.1 English Tests
The SAT and ACT exams are used for college
admission. The result of your exam counts 30 % of the admission decision . You will have
to attend these tests if you apply for a college. You do not need to take both tests. It
depends on the college you are interested in, which test is preferred .
But normally you
take both tests, especially if you don't do well in one of these tests. The exams are
offered nation-wide seven times throughout the year. (cf.. IN-A-Flash, )
If you are not a native English speaker you
will have to take the TOEFL test as well. It is a exam in which your English language
skills are tested.
The TOEFL is designed to measure the English proficiency of people
whose native language is not English. It is required for admission to almost every
university in the United States and Canada. This test is offered in schools in the United
States, but you can take them in most
major cities throughout the world. In our
area the Amerikahaus in Nuremberg offers this exam.
If a German student wants to study in the USA
or Canada, all three tests will have to be taken to be accepted in a college. The
following web addresses might be very helpful.
TESTPREP.COM ™
This webpage is the only one which offers
free and complete online SAT test-preparation courses. It helps and supports you in all
the different areas of the test: maths, vocabulary and 700 practice problems. Now, the
course is only available for the SAT test, but pages for the TOEFL and ACT will soon
follow. You can start working with some useful practice pages right away and find links to
offered prep-products on the web, which you can order online. You find a print of this
website on page 41.
To take the test is not only helpful if you want to study in the US,
but it will also improve your English knowledge.
Red Rock International
An Australian web page can be found on this
address, which offers some preparation resources for the TOEFL. This is more an
advertising page for their product, called " The Test Taker ", which can
be purchased online. You can download only 1/4 of the commercial software as shareware,
but still it helps to get along with the TOEFL. Images of the available software give an
example about the software before you order it.
TOEFL
(Print on page 42)
These Internet websites set up by the ETS-NET
Server (Educational Testing Service) offer everything you need for the exam.
This page
helps you to get the best preparation. It provides hints about taking the test, the dates
of the test and where you can take it. You can click on a bulletin-board and look at
international test dates. The page gives you a wide overview about available preparation
products. Examples and parts are ready to be downloaded in order to tell you more about
the test.
BEAT THE TOEFL
The whole previous TOEFL test can be
downloaded on this webpage.
You find the questions to all areas: 'Listening
Comprehension', 'Structure and Written Expressions' and 'Reading Comprehensions'. To take
a look at the previous TOEFL test would be a good support before you take the latest issue
of the test.
5.7.2 Comprehension Courses and Tests
If you don't want to study in North America,
you still have chances to get your English skills tested, beside the tests in school. Some
organizations offer online tests or courses in which every online user can take part.
The International Writing Exchange
On this website one of the best online
English courses is located. "Taking part in this course you will have the opportunity
to study English with other students from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North
America.(...) You can find ways to make your English writing more effective on the
international stage.
" ( https://www.ed.uiuc.edu/ Exchange/ main.html).
The whole course works in a cycle of three
weeks.
In the first week you will write an article about one of the given topics. In the
second week you will find several articles about your or other topics and you can write
short comments about their writings. In the third week you will be able to join a
conference and talk about your and other articles, telling and explaining them your ideas
and your efforts.
The International Writing Exchange is the
best way to improve LK English students' writing, because English professors and teachers
will correct your writing as well.
To participate you only have to send a short
Curriculum Vitae and your email address.
Test Your English
This webpage is set up by the Colchester
English Study Center .
This Center designed a English test for ESLS (English as a Second
Language Students). The first questions of this text are quite easy, but if you go on,
they will get more complicated.
After downloading the whole test, fill out
the test offline and sent it back to the center. There it will be corrected and the
results will be sent back to your email address. Taking part in the test is free and a
good training for LK English Students.
ESL QUIZ CENTER
You can take part in a test to improve your
English writing and grammar skills.
You can choose tests out of different sections like
"count/nocount nouns" or "if-clauses". You need to fill out a form by
clicking on the answers you think would be right. After finishing the test, you click on
the submit button and you will receive your result and score. The correction tells your
mistakes and the percentage of your right answers. This webpage is the best online
self-test for students to check in which section they have still problems in. These
quizzes are well made, but they don't tell how well you exactly do.
In the Kol- legstufe
it is hard to judge, whether taking tests like these is enough. An example for one quiz
you find on page 43, the corrected result can be read on page 44.
5.8 Corresponding on the Web
5.8.1 The Email
"The Internet email feature sends
messages from one place to another.
It is an ideal resource for checking with students at
other universities in subject areas of interest or for contacting professors doing
research in an area you are studying", (Campbell, page 16).
If you sign to a commercial online service
you already will have got your email address. In most cases it is the User ID, which is
used to connected you to the service.
Emailing is like a postbox. It is even more
simple than that. No stamps, no envelope, no letterbox is needed.
You just fill in the
address of the receiver and it will arrive within minutes. Much quicker than a normal
letter. You also can transport files together with an email.
The email feature is a fantastic tool for
students. The Internet was built up on the email function. The best example would be the
Usenet, a data library like the Internet, but built on thousands of forums and messages
sections.
If you join a Usenet group, you will be able to read former messages and add new
messages to topics you are interested in or concerned about.
On nearly every website you find an
Email-HTML, the link to an Internet address. You can use it, if you need further
information or just want to join a registration.
A Word A Day (AWAD)
If you subscribe to this free service, you
will receive a new English word daily. The word will be explained and defined with
occasional commentary to the subscriber. Every month the organization sends out a
FAQ-message.
"More than '51,000 linguaphiles in more than 100 countries' already
subscribed", (AWAD, https://www.word- smith.org).
An example is the following abridgment of the
Email I received on the 29.Nov.1996:
lee.
way \'le--.wa-\ n 1a: off-course lateral
movement of a ship when under
way 1b: the angle between the heading and the
track of an airplane
2: an allowable margin of freedom or
variation : TOLERANCE
Marcus, Steve, Key Div. I Step for SUNY.,
Newsday, 10-08-1996, pp A66.
"While the funds do not represent a new
source of revenue, Laskowski
said he will have leeway toward freeing some
of the fee for scholarships."
The aim of AWAD is to support learning
English.
But this example is rather difficult for non native English speakers. The
explanation of the word 'leeway' is hard to understand, because the word lateral is
probably unknown by most students and must be explained as well. In the given example, is
the structure " leeway toward" used metaphorically and not in the sense of one
of the explained meanings. The word "While" is not used correctly in this
context, because it is temporal. To use a causal word like "because" would be
better. This example tells us that not every educational resources on the Internet is
really correct.
No matter which page will be visited it is not garantied that the received
informa- tion is 100 % right.
Another good use of the email feature is to
correspond with other students, teachers and classes throughout the world. Many websites
are available about pen pals (online expression: Key Pal).
The Email Key Pal Connection
This website is also offered by the Comenius
Group. It wants to bring thousands of people together from all around the world. Everybody
can subscribe to the list of pen pals.
You only have to write a little bit about yourself,
hobbies, interests and your email address. Your facts will appear on the website and can
be read by every visitor. If you find someone interesting, you can contact him. The Pen
Pals are from all around the world, but most of them are Asian college students.
Meanwhile I have three different key pals.
One from America, one from England and another one from Israel.
They correct my English
and I correct their German writing.
Intercultural E-Mail Classroom Connection
This link goes a little bit further than the
Key Pal Connection. This site, built up by the St. Olaf College, wants to connect
classrooms throughout the world by discussing and working out intercultural programs. It
starts with a key pal friendship of two or more classes and than they can continue to work
together on projects, to bring closer their clas- ses, countries and cultures. The
project's aim is simple and broad: by connecting schools and students nationally and
internationally which use the Internet, it hopes to demonstrate how the Net can be used as
a tool for research and as a medium for interactive and collaborative learning.
BYU's English Language Cybercenter
https://humanities.byu.edu/Student
PenPals
This Page contains a list of people
throughout the world who would like pen pals to help them to practice English (or would
like to help you practicing English).
5.8.2 Chat and Online Contact with Other
Users
Chatting allows users in different locations
to chat back and forth, because it follows the Client/Server model.
The common interface
for chatting via the Internet is the IRC, the Inter Relay Chat. The most used and simplest
client software is MIRC and available at [https://www.mirc.com]. But also commercial online
services offer talking to other online users. The best developed chat systems belongs to
CompuServe , with its well organized and filled forums.
Lots of useful software, shareware
or text files about major topics can be found in the CompuServe's forums additution. You
can get in contact with thousands of other current users in an public chat room or a
private box.
Especially for students chat systems can be
very helpful. If you leave a message in a Newsgroup of the Usenet, it may be never
answered or it take a long time to get it ans- wered. If you join a student forum [
htttp://www.stufo.
com ], it will be possible to get in contact with other students from
all over the world. You just can get new friends or receive help for your studies.
Chatting has a lot of advantages for students .You com- municate and type the English
language. You can ask American or British forum staff to correct or help you in your
English studies and they will help you as good as they can. Another good thing about
corresponding is that you must try to express yourself in English well enough in order to
get understood.
Classroom Net
At this address you find a chat forum for
teachers, students and other people to talk about educational questions or just for a
small talk. Mostly it is visited by American teachers, but sometimes there are students as
well. No special client software or plug-ins are needed. These websites are well organized
and provide helpful educational links to material.
If you really want to chat with other
students from all around the world, you will have to sign to a commercial online service,
because in their chat rooms there are more people than you can find on any IRC-page on the
Internet. In CompuServe are many forums for students and they are well visited.
So if you
want to see real results in improving your English spend a few more dollars or German
marks for a commercial service. I am a member of CompuServe's Student Forums since April
'96 and, because I applied for a job as a Sysop, my account got free flagged. So I am able
to communicate with other students in English free of charge.
6. Who Offers all these Resources?
Mostly the American universities offer
resources for other students. Every single college in the USA.
has its own domain, which
means that it has its own server ability. If it is an educational institution like a high
school, college or university it will always have the domain ending ".edu" in
its address.
In these colleges there are small Internet
workgroups who create all this material and information mainly for other students at their
campus, but also for everybody to whom it may concern. These students can take such
workshops as a college class and get tested in it.
In America, every college student has their
own email address.
Professors do not hand out student's facts, results or information in
class anymore, they send it directly to the student's email post box. In some colleges,
like the Perdue University/IN, students must have an own homepage during their stay at
this college.
Nowadays you find very few German schools
online. Basically the problem is attitudes, application, access and accomplishment,
because the electronic frontier is not something that the education system has embraced
with open arms in our country. Schools do not see the advantages of this new media as a
learning tool and are still fearful towards this technology. Nearly all German
universities are connected to the Internet and present with their own homepage.
But German
universities do not offer as much educational material as American colleges do. Germany is
still developing with regard to the Internet. A new online market was created by
companies, because the WWW had grown so rapidly. These companies used there homepages for
business reason, even if the access is free. Companies like Edunet earn money, by means of
advertising. They offer ESL-students free access to their websites, but other companies
pay money to get their advertising on this frequently visited webpage.
Criticism and Conclusion
The extend of the Internet's resources is
overwhelming. Indeed it is. But you need a lot of background knowledge to get access to
its resources and to deal with them. Knowledge about computers and about the Internet
would help LK English students in every kind of research. Especially for them the Internet
is the best thing, beside a trip to an English speaking country, to improve their English
and find resources for class. The problem is that not many students have Internet access
or know somebody who might have it.
But the Internet does not occur in any area
of the students' school career. They leave school without knowing anything about the usage
of the world's best filled library and resource provider or the advantages it offers in
their area of education.
In Germany, not many schools have computers
or an Internet access. Teachers can not deal with it, as well. The Bavarian state
government started a project to teach its teachers the use of the net, but the project
just started and it will take a long time until every school is linked to this technology.
Another problem is that the Internet language
is English, and sometimes, if you don't know specific words of the Internet jargon or
slang it is hard to understand.
Words like modem, email or baud might be foreign and
meaningless to most students.
Besides the problem that students don't get
taught in computer techniques, another major problem is still the cost of being online.
Besides charges for accessing the Internet, the user must pay the incurred phone calls,
because you take the phone line as the data's receiver.
The cheapest solution to get connected to the
web would be the Freenet link, offered by most universities. The University of
Erlangen/Nuremberg presents it own freenet.
Beyond that, the low transfer rate is a
problem, because of the overstrained phone lines.
Receiving webdata in the evening is
nearly impossible. So you can't always get your wanted information at the time you need
them.
But companies try to integrate the Internet
in our lifes. So it is already possible to phone by using the Internet connection,
Internet banking or Internet shopping. Software will help us to get the most out of the
Internet and, I am sure, the Internet will change our future, but only to our advantage.
The glamour of words like
"Internet" or "Online" is too much emphasized in our society .
Today
it is the best helper and supporter for people who are using it. Internet makes life
easier and therefore education as well. But it can't take over the place of the common,
old fashioned English book. The question, whether the Internet will really replace the
old-fashioned way of learning English, can not be answered yet. Every attempt to head in
this direction is a step in the wrong direction . The voice and video tools can't
supersede the teacher's role.
The Internet assist the learning ability and aids if
questions occur and does not make a native English speaker out of LK English students.
But we, the students, should know: there is
somebody supportive out there.
Bibliography:
AWAD, A Word A Day. @
Campbell, Dave and Mary: Doing
Research on the Internet. Reading/MA, 1995
Clinton, William, Inauguration
Address. Washington, 20.
January 1997.
@ https://allpolitics.com/news/
9701/20/transcripts.html
Cole, Tim: Für jeden etwas. In PC go,
5 (1996), page 8-11
Cole, Tim: Für jeden etwas, Wie das Internet
enstand. In PC go 5 (1996), page.
10
Cooper Ramo, Joshua: Winner Takes All.
In Time, September 16, 1996, Vol 148 No.12,
page 52-59
Gromov, Gregory: The Roads and
Crossroads of Internet History. @ https://internet-
valley.com/intval.html
PBS, PBS.
@ https://www.pbs.org/internet/ history/)
Sanjana, Marian: In-A-Flash. @
Appendix
1. Illustriations:
page 5: Web Archieve '96 @
page 14: Shakespeare, CompuServe, GO CIS:
Literature, shakesp.gif
2.
Websites:
page 27: Democratic Party @
https://www.democrats.org/
Republican Party @ https://rnc.org/
page 28: Bill Clinton's Homepage @
https://www.vote-smart.org/campaign_96/democrat/
clinton.
html
page 29: Martin Ramsch's Bookmark Collection
@ https://www.forwiss.uni-passau/book-
marks/english.german.german_english.html
page 30: Writer's Web @
page 31: Using Paraphrases @
https://www.
urich.edu/~writing/paraphrs.html
page 32: Online English Grammar @
page 33: The English Grammar Clnic @
https://www.edunet/english/clinic-h.html
page 34: Homework Helper @
page 35: The Complete Works of Shakespeare @
https://the-tech-mit.edu/Shakespeare/ works.
html
page 36: The New York Times @
https://www.nytimes.com
page 37: CNN Interactive World News @
https://www.cnn.com/WORLD/index.html
page 38: Impact Online @
https://www.
ed.uiuc.edu/Impact/Articles/
page 39: Biography: Jane Austen @
page 40: Weekly Idiom @
page 41: TESTPREP.COM™ @
page 42: TOEFL Online @
page 43: ESL Quiz Center @
page 44: ESL Quiz Center: Results
@https://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/Quiz
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