This paper tries to highlight the challenges in creating teaching materials which is based on web teaching and learning foreign language as well as
Web based language activities and its efficiency while learning English language.
Key words: web based language, activities, challenge, teaching materials, web site.
В этой статье обсуждаются проблемы при создании учебных материалов, основанных на веб-преподавании и изучении иностранного языка, а также языковая деятельность в веб-обучении и ее эффективность при изучении английского языка.
Ключевые слова: язык, основанный на веб-деятельности, проблемы, учебные материалы, веб-страница.
In the present time education becomes much more progressed and spread with the times and a contemporary English lesson is a complicated essence, readiness and carrying out of which necessitates teacher’s self-improvement, endeavor and creativity. The wealth of information available on the Web affords teachers and learners access to language learning resources like never before. Online journals, newspapers, and magazines provide authentic material for language learners, while teachers can find lesson plans and ideas, exercises, assessment tools, and other materials for use in their classes. The World Wide Web's capability for interactivity makes it especially exciting as a resource for language teaching and learning. Online language tutorials, exercises, and tests are available to anyone who has access to the Web. This accessibility makes Web-based language learning activities quite attractive to both instructors and learners. Teachers can even create their own interactive language learning activities on the Web, which allows them to arrange the activities to suit their own courses and students. This digest discusses some of the advantages and challenges for teachers who want to design their own interactive Web-based language learning activities, describes some of the activities produced by language teachers that are already available on the Web, and provides guidelines and resources to help teachers create Web-based activities of their own.
A quick search of the Web for interactive language learning activities will yield hundreds of online exercises, lessons, games, and quizzes in many different languages. Although using previously made activities is tempting, there are many advantages to creating your own interactive language learning activities for the Web. These advantages include accessibility, renewability, and adaptability.
«Accessibility»: By putting course material on the Web, teachers provide students with 24-hour, independent access to course information, and updates to Web pages and new assignments are immediately available to students.
«Renewability»: Once created, materials can be updated easily and often.
«Adaptability»: Web-based activities can easily be modified to support students at different proficiency levels or with special needs.
For many teachers, the greatest challenge in creating Web-based language learning activities is that they do not have the technical skill and knowledge to do so. Although creating simple Web-based activities requires no more than basic HTML skills, many teachers lack even this. Compounding this problem is the fact that most teachers do not have any time to devote to gaining these new skills.
Another difficulty in creating online activities involves the variability of students' access to computers. What type of computer and browser will they be using? What is the connection speed at which they will be accessing activities? These are questions teachers must answer before creating online activities. If students will be accessing the Web from a variety of computers with a variety of Web browsers and modem speeds, this must be taken into account in designing online activities (Polyson, Saltzberg, & Godwin-Jones, 1996). [4]
Another important challenge is the need to design Web pages that meet accessibility guidelines for individuals with disabilities so that students with special needs are not left out. This can make the design of online activities even more difficult. All of the students' needs and capabilities, as well as the teacher's technical skill level and time constraints, should be carefully considered before attempting to design online activities.
Web-based teaching materials are defined by Liu & La Mont Johnson (2005, 131- 147) as educative content or activity delivered through the Web that teaches a focused concept, meets specific learning objectives, provides a learner-centered context and is an individual and reusable piece. [2] According to Nam and Smith-Jackson, “The use of the Web as an educational tool has provided teachers with a wide range of new and exciting teaching experiences that are not possible in traditional classroom”. [3] With the help of web-based educational resources, teachers now have the facilities to search for data on wiki-type sites for tests and evaluations, to set online activities and tasks, to create online libraries. Access to quality educational materials has never been made easier for the young generation and it has gradually become a medium of choice to disseminate information
and services. Web based educational resources are now largely used in schools, universities and educational centers. Their application range is very wide, from class ratings and reviews to schedules, tests, textbooks and student — teacher management. Another source for teaching and learning is represented by open educational web resources, which refer to different types of learning support, courseware, reference lists and lecture lists, experiments and demonstrations, curricula and guides for educators, as well as to educational materials such as articles, simulations and specialized tools for the development, use and delivery of educational materials, including content search and systematization or virtual learning environment and training communities. All web-based open educational resources are useful, as they provide a complete online source for business English classes, which includes lectures, articles, and videos. The objective of the study is to establish the relation between the use of online learning systems and the improvement of business English vocabulary and to identify the types of online tools and open web-based educational resources which develop good academic practice and facilitate the students’ academic performance.
For those who wish to undertake the development of multimedia materials, instructions can be found in many places on the Web, and the references in the latter article are good starting places. But for those foreign language teachers who agree with the idea of using interactive materials and the Web to enhance their FL instruction but have neither the time nor the inclination to delve into materials development, take heart. Other FL educators have, indeed, made this a priority and many do share their creations on the Web. The WWW provides a wonderful venue for interactive language learning activities that can serve instructional, enrichment, and review purposes. Describing in detail one such site as an exemplar of different types of interactive activities that language learner can use to assist them in learning the target language. A discussion of some of the technical aspects of this site is also included so that the reader can better appreciate what goes on «behind the scenes» of many Web pages.
The site is hosted by Ursinus College and begins with an introduction and statement of purpose by the author, Juan Ramon de Arana. [1] His main purpose is to provide a variety of «language exercises for the purpose of facilitating the learning and teaching of Spanish in the Internet environment» and to present «different approaches to common language challenges for the foreign student of Spanish». Nevertheless, this site serves as an example to all FL educators for WWW interactivity and language instruction and learning. The site contains seven different sections: Introduction, News, Instructor check exercises, Self check exercises, FAQs, Comments, and a Copyright proviso. These sections are indicated by and accessible via the menu bar at the bottom of the initial frame.
The author has made a conscientious effort to illustrate his purpose, outline the steps he has taken in constructing this site, justify his choice of activities and subject areas, answer commonly asked questions, provide access to as many learners and instructors as possible, and solicit input in order to improve the site.
In this section, the author enumerates the many updates and corrections that have been made to the site during its existence. Many of the changes are due to comments submitted by on-line users. The Instructor Check Exercises are extensive, covering 27 different grammar points and vocabulary items in a variety of formats. The language points are presented in a table format that indicates the title of the activity, the language area treated, and a description of the activity, including the number of external links present to aid in completing the activity. The frame option provides a menu tree that lists the various topics, grammatical points, and vocabulary exercises. This section also offers some activities incorporating art and literature.
All in all, web based learning is one of the most efficient and convenient innovational technologies to improve learning skills in English as well as other subjects of every other fields of science and technology. The development of web-based language teaching and learning activities is sure to continue to be an exciting and growing field. While computer programmers, instructional designers, and computational linguists steadily push the extremes of the field, language instructors can use the basic tools of discussion boards and Weblogs, HTML and Java Script to create dynamic, interactive, and functional materials for their courses on the World Wide Web.
References:
- Juan Ramon De Arana. Modern Languages. Ursinus College. https://www.ursinus.edu.
- Liu, L., La Mont Johnson, D. (2005). Web-based resources and applications. Computer in the Schools, 21.
- Nam. C. S., Smith-Jackson, T. L. (2007). Web-based learning environment: A theory-based design process for development and evaluation. Journal of Information Technology Education, 6, 23–44. Retrieved June 22, 2009
- S.Polyson., S.Saltzberg. R. Godwin- Jones. A practical guide to teaching with World Wide Web. 1996.
