Interactive Language Learning on the Web

 

Language learners can benefit from online journals, listservs, and newspapers, but teachers can benefit from lesson plans and ideas, exercises and assessment tools. The World Wide Web is a resource for both language teaching and learning. What makes the Web-based language learning attractive to both instructors and learners are that the online language tutorials, exercises and tests because they are available to anyone who has access to the Web. Teachers can create their own interactive language learning activities on the Web, which allows them to put their activities that suit to their own course and students.

 Creating Your Own Web Based Language Learning Activities

  Teachers can create their own Web to put their exercises, lesson, games, and quizzes in many different languages. There are many advantages to creating your own interactive language learning activities for the Web. These advantages include accessibility, renewability, and adaptability.

  -  Accessibility : Teachers put course information and assignments and everything will be available to students.

-  Renewability: When teachers create this Web, materials can be update easily.

- Adaptability:  The activities in this Web can easily be modified to support students.

Challenges

   The greatest change in creating Web-based language learning is that teachers do not have the technical skill and knowledge to do so. Also, they do not have any time to devote to gaining the required skills. Another difficulty is that the variability of students' access to computers and browsers. Also, there is another important issue which is the need to design Web pages that are suitable for individuals with disabilities.

Teaching on the Web

   Many languages skills can be enhanced with the use of Web-based activities. For examples, vocabulary practice, grammar lessons, comprehension exercises, reading and writing task and pronunciation exercises.

  - For teaching reading and writing skills there are two ways. The first one is the online discussion boards are a good way to hold class discussion and create reading and writing activities for students. Dave's ESL Cafe provides many examples of this kind of activity. With discussion boards, teacher can post a question or subject to start discussion and every response is displayed on the board. The second way is to create online writing assignments or discussions through a Weblog. Students can use their blog as an online journal, to create a portfolio, or to have an online discussion.

 - For teaching vocabulary and grammar exercises, Fucaloro and Kenosian were created many exercises with JavaScript. JavaScript is an information collecting and feedback tool that is  used to make Web pages interactive. Liliane Fucaloro was created a vocabulary activity by matching words or phrases with definition. Also, Kenosian created a vocabulary matching exercise and a cloze exercise on the simple past that allows students to type in their answers and submit them for feedback. JavaScript is much more complicated than HTML, and most teachers don't have the time to learn to write script. Many online tutorials exist to teach people how to use written JavaScript.

 - For listening comprehension and pronunciation, audio clips can be put into Web pages to provide exercises for listening comprehension, pronunciation practice, and vocabulary development.

 - For online assessment, John's ESL/EFL resources provides a good example of the type of assessment tool on the Web. Students take an ESL word form quiz and submit their answers to the Web site, and the answers go via email to the instructor, who can correct the work and send feedback directly to the students. This type of online assessment can be done through the use of HTML forms and CGI script. CGI collects the information from the submitted form and sends it, via email, to whoever is collecting that information.

  In Saudi context, our teachers don't use an interactive language learning on the Web. They usually depend on the class work and the homework that is written in our notes. As a teacher, I will make my own website and I give my students a chance to work together. So, for reading skill , I put in my website column for reading skill and I put some questions to make sure that they understood when they answer, their answers will go to my email and I will give them a feedback. For writing skill, I will ask them to use a weblog to write what comes to their mind and to use it to enhance their writing skill. For vocabulary and grammar,  I will use with them online program that helps them to learn quickly and to make them feel interesting when they try to solve the questions. I will put for them an attractive pictures with words, so they will enjoy learning these words. For listening comprehension and pronunciation, I put for them audio clips and I give them some questions related to it, so they will answer and I will correct their answers. But for speaking skill and pronunciation, I will ask them to record their voice and put it online in my web.