The Internet for English Teaching: Guidelines for Teachers by: Mark Warschauer

Teachers have been using online communication in the language classroom for more than ten years now. From an investigation of the experiences of dozens of teachers around the world who have used the Internet in language teaching (Warschauer, l995a; l995b; 1996c; 1996d), a few common guidelines emerge that can assist teachers in successfully planning and implementing network-based learning projects.

Guidelines
Readers will note that these guidelines are independent of the particular technological tools being used. As has been noted elsewhere, "technology is developing so rapidly that it can often be difficult or even overwhelming to harness, somewhat like trying to get a drink of water from a gushing fire hydrant" (Warschauer, l995b. p. xv). In order to make effective use of new technologies, teachers must thus take a step back and focus on some basic pedagogical requirements. The following guidelines are designed to help teachers implement computer network-based activities into the second language classroom.

#1: Consider Carefully Your Goals
There are several possible reasons for using the Internet in language teaching. One rationale is found in the belief that the linguistic nature of online communication is desirable for promoting language learning. It has been found, for example, that electronic discourse tends to be more lexically and syntactically more complex than oral discourse (Warschauer, 1996a) and features a broad range of linguistic functions beneficial for language learning (Chun, 1994; Kern, 1995; Wang, 1993). Another possible reason for using the Internet is that it creates optimal conditions for learning to write, since it provides an authentic audience for written communication (see, for example Janda, 1995). A third possible reason is that it can increase students' motivation (Warschauer, 1996c). A fourth possible reason is the belief that learning computer skills is essential to students' future success; this reason suggests that it is not only a matter of using the Internet to learn English but also of learning English to be able to function well on the Internet.

None of these reasons are more or less legitimate than any of the others. However, since there are so many ways to integrate the Internet into classroom instruction, it is important for the teacher to clarify his or her goals. If, for example, one of the teacher's goals is to teach students new computer skills, the teacher may want to choose Internet applications which will be most useful to them outside of the classroom, with activities structured so that students steadily gain mastery of more skills. If the immediate goal is to create a certain kind of linguistic environment for students, once again, the teacher should consider what types of language experiences would be beneficial and structure computer activities accordingly. If the goal is to teach writing, Internet activities should be structured so that they steadily bring about an increase in the types of writing processes and relationships essential to becoming a better writer (see, for example, seven activities by Janda in Warschauer, 1995b).

As will be discussed further below, little is usually gained by just adding random online activities into a classroom. Clarifying course goals is, thus, an important first step toward successful use of the Internet.

#2: Think Integration
Most teachers who have used the Internet have started out with some kind of simple key pal (computer pen pal) exchanges. And most teachers who have used these exchanges have felt something lacking. Simply put, there is no more reason to except a significant educational outcome from simply creating a pen pal connection than there is from simply bringing two students into a room and asking them to talk. Over time, greater involvement on the teacher's part in creating learning activities that create sufficient linguistic and cognitive demands on the student is needed to get maximum benefit from Internet exchanges. And, as a number of people have noted, this teacher intervention is most successful when it brings about activities and projects that are well-integrated into the course curriculum as a whole.

Bruce Roberts, the coordinator of the Intercultural E-Mail Classroom Connections (IECC) program, explained this point well:

There is a significant difference in educational outcome depending on whether a teacher chooses to incorporate e-mail classroom connections as (1) an ADD-ON process, like one would include a guest speaker, or (2) an INTEGRATED process, in the way one would include a new textbook. The e-mail classroom connections seems sufficiently complex and time-consuming that if there are goals beyond merely having each student send a letter to a person at a distant school, the ADD-ON approach can lead to frustration and expected academic results‹the necessary time and resources come from other things that also need to be done. On the other hand, when the e-mail classroom connection processes are truly integrated into the ongoing structure of homework and classroom interaction, then the results can be educationally transforming (in Warschauer, 1995a, p. 95)

Of course there are many ways that Internet activities can be integrated into the overall design and goals of a course (see Sayers, 1993 for a good overview). The teacher can work with students to create research questions which are then investigated in collaboration with foreign partners. Students and long-distant partners can work collaboratively on publications. Or students can use exchange partners as experts to supply information on vocabulary, grammar, or cultural points which emerge in the class. Again, the choice has to be made by the classroom teacher, preferably in ongoing consultation with the students. Nevertheless, as Roberts suggests above, it does behoove the teacher to think about how to integrate online connections into the class rather than adding these connections on top of the rest of the classroom activities in a disconnected fashion.

#3: Don't Underestimate the Complexity
Most English teachers, even those who consider themselves computer novices, have several relative advantages when learning to use the Internet. They are, in most cases, skilled at English, experienced at typing or keyboarding, and have some basic computer literacy (i.e., they probably have at least used a computer for word processing). ESL students, on the other hand, at least in some cases, may lack these basic prerequisites. Though we have had students who are quite experienced with computers, we have also had students who had seldom used a computer; lacked basic knowledge such as how to operate a mouse or open a folder; and lacked the vocabulary, reading, and listening skills to follow instructions for using the computer

Beyond these issues of learner preparation, there are a number of other complexities in introducing Internet-based activities in the ESL classroom. Activities in a single class may be dependent on scheduling the computer lab, and on students finding computers outside the class time to continue their activities. Hardware and software can malfunction and computer systems can be down. Students' schedules might not permit them to return to the computer lab at a time when computers are available to complete their assignments.

Exchanges between classes are even more complex. The partner class might have absent students, or might not meet in a particular week due to holidays or other activities in that location. The partner teacher might not have the same understanding of the nature of the exchange, and working through differences can cause further delays. The students might have differences in background, language, and experience which can cause further complications.

None of these potential problems mean that Internet based activities shouldn't be used. But in attempting to integrate online teaching, it is best not to be overly ambitious in the beginning. A situation which overwhelms both students and teacher in technical difficulties is not likely to bring about the desired results. It is better to start small and to create the kinds of activities which have a direct purpose and are well-integrated into classroom goals. If these activities prove successful, you can build from there and attempt a more ambitious plan the following semester.

#4: Provide Necessary Support
Mindful of the complexities which can arise in Internet usage, teachers need to provide support sufficient to prevent students from being overwhelmed by difficulties. This kind of support can take numerous forms: creating detailed handouts that students can refer to when class is finished and the teacher's personal help is not accessible; building technology training sessions into the class schedule, not only in the beginning but on an ongoing basis; working with the computer center to set up log-on systems and other procedures which are as simple and intuitive as possible; assigning students to work in pairs or groups, both in and out of the lab, so that they can provide assistance to each other; providing details to the students about how and when they can get assistance from technology specialists or others on campus outside of class; and being available to help students at times when they are most likely to need it.

#5: Involve Students in Decisions
The concept of a learner-centered curriculum (Nunan, 1987) predates, and has broader significance, than the Internet enhanced classroom. However, this concept seems particularly important when considering network-based teaching.

First of all, as indicated above, network-based teaching involves a number of special complexities. It will be difficult, indeed, for a teacher to be fully aware of the impact of these complexities without regular consultation with students. This might involve anonymous surveys, class discussions, or similar means of involving students in expressing their opinions about the process of implementing technologies.

Notably favorable is that the nature of computer-mediated communication creates opportunities for more decentered interaction (for summaries, see Warschauer, 1996b; Warschauer, Turbee, & Roberts, 1996). To fully exploit these opportunities, the teacher must learn to become a "guide on the side" rather than a "sage on the stage". A situation which is based on communication between students but in which the students have little say over the topics or outcomes of that communication is not likely to lead to the kind of atmosphere optimal for language learning.

As pointed out elsewhere (Warschauer, Turbee, & Roberts, 1996), involving students in determining the class direction does not imply a passive role for teachers. Teachers' contributions in a learner-centered, network-enhanced classroom include coordinating group planning, focusing students' attention on linguistic aspects of computer mediated texts, helping students gain meta-linguistic awareness of genres and discourses, and assisting students in developing appropriate learning strategies.

Conclusion
A paper of this length can not completely cover the topic of network-based language teaching. Further information on this topic is available in books (see for example Warschauer, 1995a; Warschauer, 1995b) and on the Internet itself (see for example NETEACH-L at http://thecity.sfsu.edu/~funweb/neteach.htm). In the end though, each teacher will have to find her or his own way, based on the goals of the teacher and the program, the needs of the students, and the materials and technology available. It is hoped that the guidelines outlined in this paper can provide some assistance to teachers attempting to optimally combine their own goals, their students' needs, and the power of the technology-enhanced classroom.

References

Chun, D. (1994). Using computer networking to facilitate the acquisition of interactive competence. System, 22(1), 17-31.

Janda, T. (1995). Breaking the ice: E-mail dialogue journal introductions and responses. In M. Warschauer (Eds.), Virtual Connections: Online Activities and Projects For Networking Language Learners (pp. 57- 58). Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Kern, R. (1995). Restructuring classroom interaction with networked computers: Effects on quantity and quality of language production. Modern Language Journal, 79(4), 457-476.

Nunan, D. (1987). The Learner Centered Curriculum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sayers, D. (1993). Distance team teaching and computer learning networks. TESOL Journal, 3(1), 19-23.

Wang, Y.M. (1993). E-mail Dialogue Journaling in an ESL Reading and Writing Classroom. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon at Eugene.

Warschauer, M. (1995a). E-mail For English Teaching. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Publications.

Warschauer, M. (1995b). Virtual Connections: Online Activities and Projects For Networking Language Learners. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Warschauer, M. (1996a). Comparing face-to- face and electronic communication in the second language classroom. CALICO Journal, 13(2), 7-26.

Warschauer, M. (1996b). Computer-Mediated Collaborative Learning: Theory and Practice (Research Note No. 17). University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Warschauer, M. (1996c). Motivational aspects of using computers for writing and communication. In M. Warschauer (Eds.), Telecollaboration in Foreign Language Learning: Proceedings of the Hawai'i Symposium. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Warschauer, M. (1996d). Telecollaboration in Foreign Language Learning: Proceedings of the Hawai'i Symposium. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Warschauer, M., Turbee, L., & Roberts, B. (1996). Computer learning networks and student empowerment. System, 14(1), 1-14.

About the Authors

* Mark Warschauer is a researcher at the University of Hawaii investigating new technologies in language learning. He has trained teachers in computer assisted language learning in Europe, Asia, and the United States. His published books include E-Mail for English Teaching, Virtual Connections, and Telecollaboration in Foreign Language Learning.

* P. Fawn Whittaker is Language Center Director and ESL Instructor at Brigham Young University-Hawaii Campus. She has integrated ESL reading and writing studies with computer and accompanying internet support in several of her intermediate and advanced ESL courses. She advises Center (http://lc.byuh.edu) and student web page development (http://lc.byuh.edu/EIL_WORLD/EILW.html).

[+/-]More...

[+/-] Back...

Practical ways for the teacher to create CALL Materials/Activities

Authoring a CALL Task in a Wordprocessing Program

There are several tasks that a teacher can easily just wordprocess and give the students in a file to work on in some way on the wordprocessor (e.g. in Word). The teacher uses a suitable text for the class. Texts could be:

1. cut and pasted from WWW or a corpus like BNC,
2. scanned from a coursebook from a unit a few weeks back, or written parallel with a text used before,
3. a student composition (maybe with errors in), or a teacher-made composite of several student compositions, and so forth.

The ways a teacher can alter the text include:

1. A text with the paragraphs in jumbled order to be reorganised with use of cut and paste
2. A text with errors in, to be corrected
3. The start of a text, or of each paragraph of a story, with space to complete the story
4. A text with words missed out to be filled in
5. A text with inflections like -s missed off the words to be filled in
6. A text with no punctuation, which has to be supplied
7. See a collection of such suggestions at various levels.

You can also see an example of such a text created by a past student

Text can be long or short. It can even be disconnected sentences if preferred. Students can work independently or in groups, etc. This is of course in addition to the possible use of WP as part of a ‘process writing’ regime of teaching composition writing, used to encourage redrafting, revision etc. and provide the motivation of nice printed output.

Requires only WP expertise, and no need for Internet access.

Authoring with old software originally made for the BBC computer

The old WIDA favourites, originating in BBC format, available to us in DOS forms (and purchasable now in Windows versions) allow easy authoring of staple multiple choice, matching and open choice exercises with pedagogically sound options available to supply useful feedback and so on to the user (within the limitations of such word and sentence level discrete point tasks). Matchmaster, Choicemaster, Gapmaster, Vocab, Storyboard etc. Typically the teacher has to run the Teacher rather than Student version of the program, and type in words and/or sentences or text suitable to their learners, and the program then uses these in the task it is dedicated to.

A way of updating these well-worn formats is to derive the items that you put in from corpora. I.e. instead of sitting and thinking up sentences to be used in the items, or copying ones from the coursebook, you access a corpus of native speaker English like BNC for them and select, according to the current level and needs of your students. E. Wilson 1997 ‘The automatic generation of CALL exercises from general corpora’ in ed Wichmann et al Teaching and Language Corpora (Longman) discusses this, e.g. for an exercise/test of choosing the right participle form startled or startling etc.

Assembling Dedicated WWW Links

The WWW contains lots of CALL material, both intended as such and not. But the problem with the WWW for students learning English is to rapidly find a suitable CALL task or exercise. In fact that is the problem with using the WWW in general. One can waste ages trying to find the information one wants. It cannot really be left to most students to be able to find what is suitable for their level and other needs at some particular point in their learning of L2.

There are of course dedicated EFL sites like those looked at in our other document which assemble loads of material and links to material for EFL. However, these usually contain too much material unsorted for type or level to be easy for the learner to use directly, especially if they are not advanced learners at a level to understand all the English of the WWW itself.

The most basic thing a teacher can usefully do is to collate links suitable for a whole set of classes/courses. See for example the ones the Modern Language teachers at Essex have collected. Often such collections are for self-study rather than integrated in the class activities, and not very specific to particular groups of their students.

However, the teacher can help even more by searching and identifying suitable tasks/resources for a specific class, at a specific stage of learning, maybe for specific weeks of a course, and putting links to them on his/her personal webpage, or a class webpage, with suitable guidance and instructions. The students can then access that page and go straight to what they need. Admittedly this is little more than an extension of evaluating material, but very useful.

It requires little expertise to create a simple webpage with links to WWW sites. This can be done easily with the facilities in Word, with little more knowledge than someone used to wordprocessing already has. Essentially you wordprocess the framework text. Insert the links by highlighting the word destined to be clickable and using Insert...Hyperlink. You get a dialog box where you can enter the internet address of the page you want to link to (or indeed you can link to other wordprocessed files of your own). Choose to save the document as HTML. At University of Essex you get the page to appear on the WWW by saving it with the name 'index' in a directory/folder called myweb which should appear on your m drive. If you can't find such a directory, instructions on how to create it are at http://www2.essex.ac.uk/wag/guides/restricted/privatewww/installation.html

Anything that you put in the folder 'myweb' in the file called 'index.htm' appears on your personal website on WWW at address http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~name/ (where instead of 'name' you put your email username). As you create your own further webpages you can add them in that directory and link them all to the basic index file.

See also this link for a good 'How to make a webpage' start guide.

Assembling your own Teaching Material on a Webpage

Beyond assembling links to WWW sites on your own or a class webpage, you can assemble and explain and connect your own materials in a simple way. Example:

Use a scanner to scan suitable material from books, magazines etc., including pictures, for students to access and read. Once scanned you can put the files on your website. You could add whatever instructions, explanation, questions, pedagogical points you want.

However, you won't readily be able to get fancy things like hidden choices or answers, or calculation of scores etc. see below.

It needs a little expertise to use a scanner, but in Word it is easy to create links from a text to your own other files or pictures (Highlight and use Insert… Picture or Insert…Hyperlink).

Slightly more ambitious material can be made with what follows.

Authoring a Simple Reading Task just using Links on a Webpage

If you have typed in, or scanned in, a suitable passage for a class to read, you can easily build in all kinds of pedagogically useful adjuncts, as links. I.e. you pick words in the text and make it link to another file, or part of a file, in which there could be all kinds of types of supporting and additional information. The student is free to exploit this or not as they read. For example:

Things to think about before reading the text (schema activation activity)

Pre-teaching of vocab... if desired

Support while reading the text - vocab help (in TL or NL), paraphrase of difficult sentences, etc. or a link to an online dictionary on WWW

Prompts to develop reading strategies - on word guessing, on predicting, etc...

Comprehension questions to check understanding at that point - e.g. ask what a particular pronoun refers to

Post-reading activity suggestions

Post-reading test of new vocab

Texts on connected themes to read in addition.

There is a rather poor example of this at this WWW site; a rather better one in an old DOS hypertext program done by me (EFLDEMO).

Authoring using a Web Authoring Package

The above activities do no more than allow the user/learner to click on links to get further information. However, many simple types of exercise require students to be able to enter words on screen, or make choices by clicking 'buttons', putting ticks in boxes, and so on, and ideally would also give feedback and calculate scores. These can be authored using packages which allow you to enter the language elements yourself, and do for you all the work of making the webpage with these features from it. You then export this exercise as an HTML webpage to your myweb directory and create a link to it from your index page.

One package which has a suite of modules to make such exercises is called Hot Potatoes (or Hotpot) and comes from University of Victoria . The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for non-profit educational users who make their pages available on the web. Other users must pay for a licence. Check out the Hot Potatoes licencing terms and pricing on the Half-Baked Software Website.

It has modules for the following (covering much of the ground of the DOS authoring packages like Matchmaster, Gapmaster and Choicemaster):

JBC: multiple-choice or true-false exercises/tests

JQuiz: open choice exercises/tests

JCloze: gap-fill text exercises

JCross: crosswords

JMix: jumbled-sentence and jumbled word exercises

JMatch: matching and ordering exercises

You can see an example of a single multiple choice item created this way with JBC here. The limitation, of course, is that you have to accept the general format the authoring package supplies, though you can choose language content to suit any level or special interest of learner.

Another very useful facility, which you use online, is The Compleat Lexical Tutor which allows you to make text (or single sentence) cloze exercises. You choose your text, which could be typed by you in Word, or on some website, or scanned from somewhere. You cut and paste your text into the space provided in the Compleat Lexical Tutor. The program then can be asked to check the vocab in the text to see which words are in particular frequency bands. You can then ask for it to make a cloze version of the text by gapping, say, all the very frequent words, or all the very infrequent words, and so on. You can finally save your exercise as a webpage onto your own computer so that you can link to it and use it when you want.

Editing an Existing Exercise from the Web

The basic 'language' in which material you see on WWW is written is called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). If you are creating a webpage in Word you can see the HTML version of what you are writing by clicking View... HTML Source. And then to revert to normal click View...Exit HTML Source. You will see that what you compose is represented in HTML just as plain text, with no underlining, font size, paragraphing etc. shown as you normally see it in Word. In other words it is not WYSIWYG like Word. Instead, all the effects are shown by markers in < > brackets which don't appear in WWW or in the normal way you see text in Word, but serve to create the effect you want.

Increasingly the snazziest webpages with EFL exercises and so forth one sees on WWW are created with facilities 'beyond' HTML (like Javascript), but you can find useful ones in HTML which you can copy and change to the words, text etc. which you require quite easily. You may be able to edit directly in Word (normal view), but I find usually you have to go to the HTML version and alter that. This is not too difficult if you leave all the things within < > the same, and just change the text in between. Note that the < > markers often come in pairs, before and after some wording. E.g. a paragraph has

before it and

at the end. There is also usually a mass of HTML codes at the start and end of the text.

So one way to create your own exercises is to find one which does the right task, and is all in HTML, copy it into Word and change the language to what suits your class this week. Keep going back to the normal view of the text in Word so you can see the effect of your changes, and keep copies as you go in case you alter something which creates an effect you don't want.

You click File... Save As... on the top menu of the window, and save a copy of the exercise on your m drive space for you to call on in Word later to edit. You should be able to change everything: title, text, answers etc. to suit a specific imagined class. Then it can go on your own webpage for them.

Requires care to alter the HTML version of a document without upsetting the markers. But not too hard for someone used to wordprocessing.

Good sources for help on making your own webpages: see this collection of links to sites explaining HTML.

Setting up email etc. to keep in touch and manage.

You can keep in touch with students and support teaching in all sorts of ways with email. E.g.

· Remind them of deadlines for doing work

· Give feedback on queries

· Provide hints and prompts on what to do out of class

· Tell them about changes of room and time

· Announce changes to your webpage

· Etc.

This of course can be provided to all the members of a class, or separately to individuals, as needed. In the former case, within any mailer you can usually put together the email addresses of a group of people under one new class label (called an ‘alias’). Then you just enter that collective label as the address when you send emails to the group, with no need to enter the address of every member separately. This supplements what you might put on a webpage, with the difference that email forces information onto the receiver in a way a webpage does not.

More elaborate versions of this are possible. For instance there is software that allows you to set up something like a discussion list or chatroom just for a specific group of people, e.g. a class. Students and teacher become exclusive members and can log in and read what each other have to say, hints they want to share, share documents, submit assignments etc. See Internet Classroom Assistant for an easy way to do this.

This might not seem like ‘creation’ of a CALL activity at all, since no material is authored by the teacher. However, the teacher does play a key role in setting up the facility and managing it. Indeed whether or not it serves a useful purpose and aids learning may depend on the messages, tasks and documents that the teacher issues.

All this is of course most useful for distance courses, where it is of course a step or two away from video-conferencing, though it also is helpful for nondistance situations.

Ultimately, the computer can offer a medium for computerising the whole classroom, so that a class of students at several different locations can be taught by a teacher at a location distant from all of them. This is done with the aid of sound and video links over the internet and a virtual blackboard on screen for all to contribute to. See for example E. Matthews 1998 ‘Language learning using multimedia conferencing: the ReLaTe project’ ReCALL Journal online 10,2. Distance learning in general relies heavily on computers. See e.g. Matthew Fox 1998 ‘Breaking down the distance barriers: perceptions and practice in technology-mediated distance language acquisition’ ReCALL journal online 10,1; Robin Goodfellow and Marie-Noëlle Lamy 1998 ‘Learning to learn a language – at home and on the Web’ ReCALL journal online 10,1. Prof Lavington of Computer Science had a pilot project running a few years ago with a few students at Essex learning Polish from a teacher in London. Also some learners of Japanese at Essex have been involved in email/video sessions with trainee teachers in Japan. At a lesser level teacher-student email can valuably support teaching, whether local or distant: M. Warschauer 1995 E-Mail for English Teaching p32ff and ch5.



Things you Can't do

As yet hard to do by the above means are creating simulations, or materials making heavy use of video, audio, a lot of graphics etc. Specialist authoring programs like Toolbook allow this, but they require some time, dedication and perseverance to master and use. Also you cannot make your own 'ideal' version of a task like multiple choice or a game you like but which is not available in a web authoring package (e.g. Tree of Knowledge).

[+/-]More...

[+/-] Back...

Student weblogging for fluency, skills, and integration.

Integration - into what, exactly?

I remember doing computer orientations less than ten years ago when students didn't have e-mail addresses yet, and we'd get them started on hotmail or some such free service, while we waited for their siu address to come through. Within a few years more and more students had e-mail addresses when they arrived, and were eager, once on the web, to check in to those mailboxes and write their friends, sometimes even during the orientation. Then, they'd become impatient if our computers didn't have foreign fonts.


I mention this because now, we have the experience of setting them up on a weblog, creating their own, and they immediately import a picture, or connect their new weblog to their networked site in their own language. Their CESL weblog is not their only one, or even their first, but is possibly one of many, possibly their first in English. So our job is not so much getting them online, getting them used to publishing, or getting them oriented to putting their own writing online; they've already done all of this. It's establishing an online anchor in their new community, a place that can serve as a gateway to the other domains that they function in online.

Our view of community has shifted rapidly, even more so for our students. Today they come thousands of miles to a new home, but don't have to leave much behind, in terms of being able to stay in touch with news from home, or being able to write frequently to friends and loved ones. In such a situation it is even harder to take steps into the new environment, where their language limits them. Their first and most immediate community is their new classmates, in the same position as they are, who have the same problems in adjusting to their new surroundings. No sooner do they set up a weblog, than they start exploring, and looking at others' weblogs.

I have come to view integration into the American student social environment as possibly a mixed blessing. There are many possible outcomes for newly arrived internationals: it is possible for them to be integrated, but into the wrong crowd; or, they could just as easily integrate themselves into a productive, growth-enhancing crowd. Isolation is generally not good, but at the same time can be what some need, and even, in a small rural town like ours, what some have come looking for deliberately. What I'm saying is that it's not always advisable for us to decide what kinds of integration are most beneficial to our students, or how to go about getting them.

It is certain, however, that access to online communities widens their horizons, and makes more English-speaking communities available to them. Given the internet and English reading-writing skills, an international now is able to explore his/her field or interest, get on boards or e-mail listservs addressing issues of that field, and lurk until comfortable enough to contribute; this has made a huge difference in providing a fair view of their futures and the discourse styles that will be expected of them.

And this brings me to another advantage of online presence, and active exploration of online communities: online communication (with the exception of chat) gives the student the distance and the time they often need to consider things before they get involved in them. Assuming their parents are part of their decision process, an active use of online sources of information is very useful in terms of sharing their lives with people back home. Teaching the student how to find relevant sites online, evaluate them and search out comment and criticism related to them can be one of the most useful skills we can impart.

Everybody's in MyFace: the rise of social networking

Recently I've been surprised when low-level students, having made a weblog, immediately went and brought pictures to it. They already knew how to go and grab them and bring them back; they didn't have the English to say, welcome to my weblog, but they were able to do it with a lifted picture. I was impressed. And, shortly after, they'd linked their site to their social network in their native country. This we both allow and encourage, by the way.

Social networks are different from weblogs, in that sites are expected to be visual and social, in that language is expected to be informal, and finally, in that it is expected that everyone in your network wants to know your every move; some, like Facebook, tell you of your friends' every moves, as if you lived in a tiny town where people said things like, "I see Mabel's husband Henry has slipped off to the bar again." On the one hand, people are using technology for what it does best: connecting us with each other better. But again, if we can't move without being seen, some of us will go hide in a corner. I am not likely to rush my class onto one of these, but I'm surprised to see that a number of our students are coming from this environment; they are used to these communities, and even expect to find them in the places they visit and choose to live. In that sense I'm sure they're more connected to the people around them, even when they arrive, than new students used to be. Social networks also alleviate the burden of living thousands of miles from home; students who become homesick during class often rush to the lab; see who's on the IM; see who has just checked in at the social network.

A recent Harris Poll has shown that social networks are the choice of communication for American teens "when staying in touch with friends (24%), leaving short messages (23%), and contacting a friend in different school or town (21%)," beating out cell phones or landline phones (Harris Interactive, 2007, see below). What implications does this have for us and our classes?

First, weblogs, low-tech and unobtrusive as they are in comparison to other technologies now available, actually take us a step into social networkers' worlds, and pull them back, toward more formal speech, toward more static presentation, toward asking permission for photos. Weblogs at least recognize that many may already have an entire life online. And, at the same time, they provide online presentation is and will be an issue for them from now on; that those of us for whom these technologies are new, a controlled way to become accustomed to the changes that are occurring in modes of communication.*

It is most useful here to point out that, like it or not, these networks and environments are already overflowing with our students; our students have likely been here, without ever having been taught how to evaluate or understand what they've seen. It sometimes comes as a shock to them that teachers, generally being of an older generation, might actually go onto the internet, see some of these sights, maybe even have one, but above all value some of the skills they've learned from doing this, and be eager to learn what the place is like from their perspective.

As the world becomes steadily more aware of the internet as a "place," and a dangerous place at that, one where there is a good deal of rudeness and harassment, pornography and sham perpetration, the age-old question arises (one that is often applied to blue-light districts, drugs, or anything else dangerous in this world): should I, as teacher and/or parent, merely prevent the people I am responsible for, from going there? Or is it better to give them some tools and guidance, so that when they do (as inevitably they will), they will be better equipped? One can guess the side I'm on; I've already gone in after them.

Comment culture

Comments can be the most seductive element of weblogs, because they offer the browser a free link, simply in return for putting in two cents' worth on any given issue. Once one has made a few posts, dropping comments on others' weblogs, in Blogger at least, drops automatic links to that weblog that then give the commenter attention, wanted or not; assigning comments is essentially assigning students to read each other's weblogs (this could happen) and say something, directed or not, about the content of the entry. I assign comments, but make no demands upon them. As a result I get a veritable free-for-all: a window into not only the pure state of their unmonitored grammar, but also a window into the worlds they come to us from. Many students never actually make these comments, no matter how much or how well I explain how it is to be done. I can only speculate about the reasons for their hesitation; it could very likely be that they are still at this point intimidated by the entire medium, not to mention the absolute responsibility that true unedited freedom of speech entails.

I have seen teachers give assignments in the regular posts of a weblog, and then have students put all contributions in the comments of these posts. In these weblogs, students comment, because the price of not doing it is failure in the class.

Since I have started doing this, though, I've found a number of benefits. The first is that time wins over them, and they begin dropping comments when they have something to say, and saying it. They may start out dutifully doing an assignment, but the opportunity to reach out and communicate is very seductive, and they begin taking advantage of it and using it for real communicative purposes.

We get visitors from being on the carousel; this is the name I give to a circuit that Blogger places our weblogs on, when we actively post to them. One can see the carousel by pressing the "Next Blog" button at the top right of any Blogger blog, but one gets on it simply by having a weblog, posting to it regularly, and not changing the settings to disallow it (the carousel is also censored, but this has never been an issue). One result of this is that our students who do not identify their blogs as displaying student work, or even connect to the class page, no doubt confuse some carousel viewers. But so what? We've gotten some interesting visitors over time; I consider this an advantage of Blogger, in that the carousel audience is constant, diverse, and for the most part polite, friendly, and representative of public culture.

[+/-]More...

[+/-] Back...

Teaching writing in online and paper worlds

Introduction

Commitment to teaching students to write and present work online fundamentally reorients both the teacher and the student to a new medium, or rather, to two media at once. Writing teachers I have talked to are apprehensive on several levels; when first writing this, I used the analogy "opening up a can of worms," but later decided to rewrite due to the vagueness of the term.

"Can of worms" is appropriate, however, if you consider that though worms are not pleasant for many people, they are quite useful for others, and represent a world of opportunity to those who spend their days fishing. I have found weblogs beneficial for my writing class in many ways, which I outlined last year (1);it teaches students in media that they are likely to use; it gives them a real audience to write and relate to every day; it makes them more flexible; it puts their writing in real space where everyone can see it and comment on it as an ongoing process, until they are ready to take it down. I think teachers are attracted to the idea, but have a full plate already, and need to see how weblogs are going to fit into an already busy schedule.

Their first concern is that by increasing their teaching load by double, other skills will be devalued, given a fraction of time they were given previously, or lost in the shuffle altogether. I feel that, yes, orientation to online presentation has added numerous skills to the objective list that I bring to class each day (2); however, I have not lost that much in terms of what I no longer teach, what is in the rearview mirror.

Teaching with weblogs has widened my scope, given me more to teach, more to do. When I reflect on the characteristics of the paper world that have been left in the dust, so to speak, I really don't feel I've lost that much. My students know some things better, like what indentations are and why we don't use them online, or what adjustments you have to make to an online essay, when you know that the receiver will print it on paper, and thus not have access to the ability to click on the reference and arrive at the source. Much of what we deal with is audience awareness; I have heard at TESOL presentations for years about developing this in young writers, but now I feel that in moving from medium to medium with many pieces, with essays, research papers, and informal works, I have found an experiential way to drive the point home, to incorporate audience awareness into developing writers' systems.

For a writing teacher and a class of developing writers, amount of writing is indeed an issue, possibly the primary issue, and if writing teachers are afraid that putting things online will decrease the amount of writing that they are able to do with their students, my response is that maybe they should evaluate their entire program and the writing students do in it; was three essays per term, or whatever they were being expected to produce, enough to develop their skills adequately? Where else were they asked to write, and how much? What other kinds of writing were they producing, and what was being done with it? Were they ever asked to write for and interact with real audiences, besides their teachers? I have used weblogs to actually increase, almost double, the amount of writing my students do; much of this is for fluency purposes, directly communicating, with their classmates as their primary audience; I draw my inspiration from two champions of the communicative era, Peter Elbow and Marie Wilson Nelson, who basically taught me to deal with the writer's confidence as a more fundamental concern than anything else (3). I got tired of what I saw as a syndrome: students get an assignment; they put it off; they finally troll the web or the hidden files to find something that will do; they copy and paste, or, they just copy. Sorry, that's got to stop. In our class, they write every day; they write under my nose, then they publish it. And this happens so much that I'm intimately familiar with their style, their spelling, their grammar, etc. And I know when they've succeeded in communicating, because I was part of the process.

Teaching toward online presentation has elevated the importance of what my students write, since by nature asking them to put papers in a permanent international archive is asking them to do something for keeps, that would otherwise be in a notebook at the bottom of their dresser, or worse, in the recycling pile. They have the option to remove papers from the web, after the term is over, but they rarely do; from this I deduce that either they did not understand what I told them about their option, or that they feel it may be of some value to them sometime in the future. I prefer to believe the latter; this is why we saved old term papers, sometimes for years, in that dresser. But the web is far more accessible than the dresser, and takes up less space in terms of carbon footprint, so to speak, than the paper did. The fact that they put it there themselves makes it more likely that they can find it again.

Teaching toward online presentation has given me and my students a much more intimate relationship with certain writing techniques and skills, if only by virtue of using them and seeing them used in different media and in more genres. My writing classes used to have paper products only, essays and research papers done on paper, sometimes with title page, abstract, and six to ten carefully numbered pages of text, a bibliography at the end. Nowadays we have that in addition to an online research paper, the abstract separated by being in a different weblog and linked to the paper itself. Thus the students not only see the separation of the abstract, but also participate in using it for its proper function: as an invitation to read the paper itself. In the original, it needs neither the title nor the author's name, since it's part of the paper, but when it is with the paper itself, it's not doing what an abstract is supposed to do: invite a reader to read a term paper which is in another physical location. Thus the process of operating in different media has given them a different and wider concept of what an abstract is and why we would ask them to make one.

Since teaching toward online presentation can be restated as teaching toward publication in an ongoing, and developing, but nevertheless permanent arena, it has forced me to come to grips with the ongoing and uncomfortable relationship of the ESL/EFL teaching profession with the process of grammatical correction. While not all online publication has to be for public consumption, it is clearly easier for developing students to present work to the general public knowing that the teacher, or someone, has helped them make sure that the work does not have grammatical issues impeding its ability to communicate their thoughts. In other words, I "correct" (or "line-edit," as we refer to it) what they write, or get others to help; I justify it pedagogically, and I do enough of it so that I feel that it would be an unfair burden on my time if it weren't valuable to them. But I feel that it is valuable to them, and arrange my time accordingly.

I've learned that students generally accept the fact that they need to publish work or put it online, that they for example have to figure out how to make a weblog and put a research paper, complete with linked references, on it. I do notice a wide range of technological competence and background, coming into the class; it gives some students apprehension, for example, that they are so far behind their classmates in certain ways, right from the start. To counter this I set up a we-teach-each-other ethic in the classroom; this also comes in handy at times when I also need to rely on them to do certain things, for example, put an excel chart on a weblog, or copy and paste onto a chat interface.

Teachers may feel they are stepping into the unknown, a world that is very dynamic, egalitarian, active, one that you may not have time or energy to master. Yes, true. Some blog posts have 60, 70, 80 comments, though my students get very few. The web at its best is decentralized, freewheeling, open and accepting of many things, including some typos and vagueness about what your exact name is. On social networking sites, people give you applications that allow other people to do other things on your site, and you have to figure out what these are and what people are putting there; if you don't have time to watch little YouTubes, you probably should make time, or get out of MyFace, so to speak. Social networking has been described as a necessity on today's campuses, and it is- this is one more reason to make sure our students can write online, can distinguish formal from informal, can upload pictures, etc.

In short, teaching toward online presentation has made me far more aware of the world that they in many cases already occupy, the world they will need to produce most of their English in, I believe. It's one thing to say to them, I'm going to make you write paper essays, because that's what I believe your teachers in academic classes will ask you to do. But I tell them, in essence: I'm going to ask you to make paper essays, and then put them online in a presentable way, linking the references and formatting them properly. Then I'm going to ask you to get into a chat medium and write there, too, and while we're at it, I'd like you to use an online whiteboard medium, where we can see your image while you talk and use the chat interface at the same time. And I'm going to do this because this is how I believe you are going to need to use your writing skill in the future.

In answer to a challenge that was presented to me, however (4), I will say that I am slow to change certain things, among them my view that ultimately my students must survive in an academic world that is basically undemocratic, read-only, non-interactive, etc. Ideally they will be adequately prepared for both worlds. Ideally they will be able to manage Facebook, at the same time chat and use their videocam, thus keeping up with their friends, and turn around, pass tests, read books, and write papers adequately to please their teachers. I don't feel they're mutually exclusive, or even that the academy has the obligation to change its media or modes of communication. Let it do as it sees fit. I will prepare my students in any event. My main point is that the world they live in, which we should be aware of in order to present realia and prepare our students to use language in, is a world that we have in some cases failed to come to grips with.

Thirty years ago, the communicative revolution changed the nature of teaching language permanently, by insisting that grammatical competence alone was of little value if one could not master the oral medium in which it was being used. In that era, which in many ways is not over, strategic and oral competence were stressed over grammatical accuracy; classes were set up so that students took whatever they learned and immediately began to use it, in pairs or in groups, with peers or with whoever was handy, because the ability to use things in real communicative situations was valued more than the ability to recognize grammatical correctness at every junction. Today, the world is moving into an online medium where writing is used more freely, more casually, and more often between strangers. Online writing is today being used in many of the functions that we are more familiar with performing orally: meeting people, introducing ourselves, making business contacts overseas. Thus the same imperative applies to today's writing teachers: if our students are not able to use online environments successfully, and use writing in chat and other online contexts, they will not be fluent in the modern, more technological sense of the word.

The difference between the problem of today's writing teacher and the problem of practitioners at the beginning of the communicative era is that most of those teachers, and particularly the native speakers among them, were at least already fluent themselves in the very strategies and techniques they were trying to teach, though some of those strategies were poorly defined, or the teaching materials needed to teach them nonexistent; they were at least competent in the oral realm themselves, and knew what was missing in their charges.

[+/-]More...

[+/-] Back...

Developing Global Connections through Computer-Mediated Communication by ; Myra Shulman

The author shares her experiences in developing and implementing a collaborative Internet project connecting American University in Washington, D.C., and the Federal University of Parana in Curitiba, Brazil. Topics discussed include identifying an appropriate partner, designing a viable online environment, setting realistic goals, and encouraging interactive and authentic communication among students.

Introduction
Since September of 2000 my colleague Luci Collin from the Federal University of Parana in Curitiba, Brazil, and I have been involved in a collaborative Internet project. This article will discuss the background of the AU-UFPR project, its development and implementation, the problems and solutions, benefits, and suggestions for similar Internet projects. First, let me define Computer- Mediated Communication. According to John December, editor of Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine, CMC is ãthe phenomenon of human communication and information retrieval on global networks.ä It is also defined as ãhuman interaction via computer networks and in online environments.ä CMC is an interdisciplinary mix of communication, technology, education, and journalism. Of course, in education, CMC offers multiple possibilities in terms of distance learning, which is the context for our project.

The project grew out of my participation in spring and summer of 2000 in the U.S./Brazil Fulbright Teacher Exchange, which involved twelve Brazilian and twelve U.S. teachers working in partnerships. This Fulbright program is a direct but non-simultaneous exchange that offers ESL/EFL teachers the opportunity to work in each other's countries for six weeks. The goal of the Fulbright Exchange is to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between the people of Brazil and the people of the United States.

Background
Phase one of the Fulbright exchange involved 12 Brazilian teachers working in the United States with 12 American teachers. On May 4, 2000, phase one ended with a debriefing for all 24 teachers in Washington. At this time we were given training by the expert staff at the US/Brazil Learning Technologies Network (LTNet) at the Academy for Education Development in use of Internet communication tools to establish connections between Brazilian and U.S. teachers and students. The LT staff created a VEE (Virtual Exchange Environment) for us that included features such as homepages on the Fulbright Teacher Exchange section of the LTNet web site, and we were encouraged to develop future Internet projects. This was our initial experience with using the Internet to enable and enhance communication and was the impetus for the AU-UFPR project.

Phase two of the exchange took place in July and August of 2000, when I taught at the Federal University of Parana in Curitiba for four weeks. One night in Professor Luci Collin's advanced level North American literature class, fifteen students and I were discussing my students at American University, their academic and social activities, and their lifestyles. (I teach advanced level College Reading and Writing courses at AU.) One student suggested that it would be great if the Brazilian students could communicate through e-mail with my students at American University. The others were enthusiastic about this idea. Professor Luci Collin and I immediately agreed that we should develop a collaborative Internet project, and we asked the students for input in conceptualizing such a project. As a first step, two Brazilian students developed a questionnaire that each student would fill out in order to sign up for the project. Thus, the students were the true originators of this collaboration.

Development
After I returned to Washington, Professor Luci and I discussed through e-mail the parameters for our electronic collaboration and decided participation in the project would be voluntary rather than a course requirement. Our students were at the advanced level and were about the same ages. Our challenge was how best to achieve the integration of classroom learning with online experiences in a learner-centered context. Primarily, we wanted to facilitate interpersonal interaction between our students by encouraging the students to share their ideas about what they were reading and writing. The specific objectives were to enhance our students' reading and writing skills, expand their cross-cultural skills, and sharpen their technological abilities. As a general goal, our project would improve our students' English language competence while also improving mutual understanding between people in the United States and people in other countries (which is the Fulbright goal).

Because I had been trained by the staff at the Learning Technologies Network at the Academy for Educational Development in Washington, DC, I turned to them to help set up this online collaboration. They suggested a framework that approximated the format of a course and would allow students to create homepages and teachers to make assignments and monitor the students' work for clarity, quality, and quantity. Thus, the original design for the AU-UFPR project required online courseware. To keep cost low, the free version of Blackboard (www.Blackboard.com) was used. This software program expands the boundaries of a course from the classroom to cyberspace. Using the electronic classroom, teachers can teach part or even all of their courses on the Internet by posting the course syllabus, assignments, and tests on the web site. Teachers and students can communicate asynchronously via e-mail and synchronously in chat rooms. This program demands extensive bandwidth and computer memory in order for participants to use it efficiently.

Implementation: Problems and Solutions
On September 18, I announced the project in my two College Reading and Writing classes and asked interested students to fill out questionnaires in preparation for participation. Sixteen students signed up for the voluntary project. On October 10, I sent an e-mail announcing that the Blackboard environment was ready, so students could enroll in the ãcourse.ä Most students enrolled themselves, but I helped those who needed support. As the weeks passed, my students in College Reading and Writing were communicating with me and with one another on Blackboard and some had developed homepages, but there was no communication from our Brazilian counterparts. Fortunately, Eric Rusten, from LTNet, was going to Brazil and arranged to meet with Prof Luci and her students to discuss the project. At the meeting at the UFPR, Eric discovered that the Brazilian students were unable to access the Blackboard web site because of insufficient bandwidth at the university in Curitiba. (Bandwidth refers to the speed and volume of information that goes from one computer to another.) Although the students had tried repeatedly to get online, they had failed to do so, with one exception. Thus, Eric and Gini set up a simple listserv, the AU-UFPR Virtual Exchange Discussion List (AU.UFPR@listbot.com), which made it possible for the seventeen U.S. and twelve Brazilian students to communicate through e-mail and a simple chat room. Now the project became viable.

One minor problem arose in the area of cross-cultural communication skills. Although it only involved one Brazilian student, Prof Luci and I realized that students in a global Internet project like ours need a brief introduction to intercultural communication. In December 2000, I had sent an e-mail praising a book I had just read titled Brazilian Adventure by the Englishman Peter Fleming (published in 1942). This book describes Fleming's journey into the rivers and jungle of central Brazil. A Brazilian student replied to me that Brazil was not just an uncivilized jungle. Since I had spent six weeks in Curitiba, Brazil, which I assumed this student knew, I certainly did not think that Brazil was an uncivilized jungle. Thus, I was somewhat surprised by his peculiar comment. Luci then suggested the need for training in cross-cultural communication for students participating in our project. On reflection, I saw that she was right, and the intercultural awareness and competence of the students and teachers should be raised through brief lectures and assigned readings on this topic before beginning the project.

Currently, we are in phase two of the AU-UFPR project, and 23 students in Professor Luci's classes in Anglo-American Studies at the UFPR and 32 students in my College Reading and Writing classes at AU are communicating through e-mail and discussing a variety of topics, with the focus on comparisons of cultural customs and values. This semester we have twice as many students participating, so the AU-UFPR project is expanding, and our students are accomplishing the major goals of this project: to improve their English language skills, to broaden their cross-cultural understanding, and to sharpen their technological abilities. We are still using the listserv, but if funding to federal universities in Brazil is increased, and if the bandwidth is expanded in Curitiba, perhaps we will return to the Blackboard context.

Assignments and Evaluation
In College Reading and Writing, I allocate ten percent of my students' final grade to class participation and attendance. I told students that their participation in the AU-UFPR project would be counted in this ten percent, based on my evaluation of the quality, quantity, and clarity of their email messages and assignments.

In addition to the informal e-mail communication, there were three assignments in phase one:

* an opening task of creating a homepage,
* a prediction of who would win the U.S. presidential election, and
* a final assignment of writing a condensed report on a book or article, including summary, evaluation, and recommendation.

The project this semester, which began in March 2001 because of the school schedule in Brazil, will last for one-half of the semester at American University. Thus, we do not plan to expand the number of assignments. The first assignment was a personal profile done at the LTNet web site. The second was to discuss a cultural value or tradition. The third was to write about cultural differences with North Americans. Future assignments could include writing reports in partnerships, peer review of these documents, publishing these documents on the LTNet web site (using Blogger), reading an article from the Internet and writing a reaction paper on it, and creating group web pages. Long-term goals are to integrate the course content and assignments into the online collaboration so that students would take the course through long-distance learning.

Benefits of the AU-UFPR Exchange
Luci and I are eager to let our students ãexplore alternative pathwaysä in our courses, which is one reason we have set up the AU-UFPR collaboration. Diverse learning techniques are necessary to meet the need of our diverse students. We believe that it is essential to provide students with a variety of learning opportunities to enhance the chances of successful learning.

Overall Luci and I are satisfied with our initial venture into virtual collaboration through the Internet, and the students have benefited in both tangible and intangible ways. The following are specific benefits that resulted from this project:

* Adding a new dimension to a traditional course
Just the small addition of this Internet exchange had an impact on my traditional approach to College Reading and Writing. I was excited to be attempting a new activity, and the students joined in my excitement about our electronic collaboration. We spoke about the progress of the project in nearly every class for a few minutesLearning and teaching in cyberspace results in a reconsideration and review of classroom teaching methods since the contexts present opposite teaching environments. I have reflected on my face-to-face teaching in light of what I have learned from this brief venture into distance learning

* Creating an alternate pathway to learning
Using the Internet as part of my course created a new way for my students to improve their reading and writing skills. They benefited from this experience in different ways, according to the degree of involvement in the project, but overall their learning was accelerated by this virtual collaboration. Their e-mail discussions offered students the chance for real communication, which enhances language learning. As Zane Berge and Mauri Collins write: ãIn using emerging computer-based technology as a resource, students are encouraged to explore their own interests and to become active educational workers, with opportunities to solve some authentic problems. . . . Computer-mediated communication (CMC) promotes a type of interaction that is often lacking in the traditional teacher-based classroom. It allows learners the freedom to explore alternative pathways÷to find and develop their own style of learning.ä

* Accommodating students' different learning styles
According to Berge and Collins, ãIn combination with other media, computers can utilize an instructional design that teaches to the multiple intelligences that Gardner (1983) speaks of in Frames of Mind (linguistic, logico-mathematical, intrapersonal, spatial, musical, bodily kinesthetic, and interpersonal).ä I believe that as teachers we have to try different strategies to find what will help each student, and this project accommodated different learning styles and intelligences. Those students who were quiet and reluctant to participate in class were the most active participants in the Internet project. One student who never spoke up in class created an extensive home page and was the most active participant in the discussion list. Several other students who appeared shy in class were enthusiastically sending e-mail messages. Because Internet communication is only in written form and lacks all visual cues, this context gives anonymity to students, often freeing them from their usual constraints. Therefore, students can express themselves more directly than they otherwise would. For some of my students, this online experience proved liberating, and it gave me a greater understanding of their competence in the informal writing style of e-mail.

* Building a community of learners
The students in my classes and Luci's classes have blended into a community of learners through their involvement in this project, and this community was truly a multi-national group with 16 countries represented. The students seem pleased to be members of this group, as evidenced by their end-of-semester messages. The benefit of forming a group of learners is that learning is more fun when it is social, as students feel they are part of a social process rather than learning in isolation.

* Supporting American University's goal of global education
The president of AU has stated that AU is aiming to become a leader in global education. This type of Internet project supports such a goal and certainly will become more common as the university moves in the direction of distance learning through global networks. Although the AU-UFPR project is small, it is a step in the right direction of global education.

The Process of Developing Collaborative Internet Projects
Although every Internet project is different and has unique characteristics, some common parameters exist. The following are the basic steps for establishing successful collaborative Internet projects.

* Identify an appropriate school, teacher, and students.
This project grew out of my teaching experiences in the U.S. Brazil Fulbright Teacher Exchange. Thus, I did not have to search for an appropriate partner school. However, it is not difficult to locate schools that would be eager and able to take part in such a collaboration. The easiest way to identify possible partners is through the LTNet web site (www.ltnet.org) if you are interested in schools in Brazil. Other organizations that link schools are IEARN (www.iearn.org) for K through 12 schools and Classroom Connect's Connected Teacher (www.connectedteacher.com/home.asp). Also, you can go to the web site http://www.teaching.com/iecc/ to find international partners.

Finding a teacher with whom you are compatible in terms of teaching philosophy and techniques is equally important. In this case, Luci Collin and I share similar philosophies toward education and employ similar pedagogical techniques. We are in agreement about the goals of this project. We are both teaching advanced reading and writing courses with similar course content, objectives, and assignments. Moreover, I had the advantage of teaching her students, so I could see that her Brazilian students and my ESOL students are at the same advanced level of competence in English.

* Choose a viable on line environment
Before embarking on the project, check the technology environment in your partner's school/city/country. It was only after we had configured this project using Blackboard that it became apparent that the technology network in Curitiba was not able to support this heavy software, so the students in Brazil were feeling frustrated as they attempted to participate. The solution of a free listserv was easy to implement although it is less appealing in terms of the options it offers. However, creating a hybrid online environment using a combination of low bandwidth demanding tools can allow you to do the same things as Blackboard.

* Decide on realistic goals for the project.
Luci and I decided on the general project goals of improving English competence and cross-cultural understanding because we wanted to begin with a simple design and then, after testing it for one or two semesters, to expand our vision. Specifically, we believed that our students would improve their reading and writing skills in English by designing home pages, sending and receiving e-mail, and doing assignments, would learn about each other's cultures, and would become adept at using technology through participation in the project. We chose to make the project an add-on to the course rather than to integrate it in this first trial.

* Encourage interactive communication.
Students are extremely busy with their academic schedules as well as their social lives. Sometimes their good intentions exceed their abilities to carry out their plans to participate in ãextra creditä projects. Of course, they are already e-mailing friends around the world. Knowing this, Luci and I drew their attention to the benefits of participation in the AU-UFPR project by stressing that they would enjoy making new friends and exploring the cultural values of another country.

Our three assignments in Phase one and Phase two, which were simple, topical, and relevant to their lives, were chosen to spur discussion. Besides expecting students to complete the assignments, we encouraged the students to e-mail one another for any reason and on any topic for the purpose of building global friendship, cooperation, and understanding. We emphasized that students could use an informal style in writing e-mail messages. We also explained that publishing their writing on the Web through Blogger would be quite an accomplishment. Although we have not used the chat room, we plan to in the future because the ideal environment is a combination of synchronous (chat room) and asynchronous (e-mail) tools.

* Establish a connection with high tech experts.
It is good to have a source of support for a collaborative Internet venture such as this one. Even in a small-scale project, things can and will go wrong. Being able to turn to experts for help makes all the difference between enjoying the cyberspace adventure and regretting the time and effort that it demands. Thanks to the staff at the LTNet, this experience has been consistently positive for Luci and me.

Conclusion
According to Stephen R. Acker, of the Center for Advanced Study in Telecommunications at Ohio State University, ãAs telecommunication networks begin to saturate the physical environs, we have entered a period of social transformation.ä This transformation is also occurring in education, and we are all a part of it. In fact, in light of the globalization of education, long-distance learning projects such as these will become more common and more comprehensive. Luci and I hope to continue with the AU-UFPR project because we believe that a collaborative Internet project has value on many levels, from the pedagogical to the political, assuming access to computers and software exist. Experience is the best teacher, and I have learned a great deal since I first entered into the VEE (Virtual Exchange Environment) almost one year ago at the LTNet. Based on my experience in this project, I offer the following suggestions.

* Find a school and a teacher that are compatible with you and your school and your school schedule.
* Check the computer environment and the bandwidth limits in both countries if you plan on using Blackboard or a similar heavy software program.
* Consider using a hybrid mix of tools rather than a complex approach like Blackboard.
* Work closely with your partner in the other location to develop realistic expectations, objectives, assignments, and guidelines.
* Give students a short introduction to cross-cultural communication skills.
* Establish a relationship with high tech experts who can support your efforts and solve problems when they arise, which they almost certainly will.

[+/-]More...

[+/-] Back...

E-mail Activities in the ESL Writing Class by ; Ron Belisle

Introduction

This article explores the student and teacher benefits of using electronic mail (e-mail) in an ESL writing class. It also explains several e-mail writing activities and sample assignments that have proven useful in a program with first and second year Japanese English majors at Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute (MFWI) in Spokane, WA USA. MFWI is a branch campus for English majors at Mukogawa Daigakuin in Nishinomiya, Japan.

Research shows that by using computers, students become better problem solvers and better communicators. Over a network, using e-mail and sharing files, students have the chance to collaborate and work together with other classmates, peers, and teachers. Networking electronically can help learners create, analyze, and produce information and ideas more easily and efficiently. Networking people "puts an inspiring, enticing, and usable set of tools within reach of the mass of computer users, empowering them to go beyond simply processing information to repurpose, design, publish, and express" (Mello, 1996). Through this increased electronic access to the world around them, students' social awareness and confidence increases. Networking frees them from the limitations of traditional writing tools that often inhibit and restrict writing processes. Learning is then transformed from a traditional passive-listening exercise to an experience of discovery, exploration, and excitement. Students can begin to realize their full potential when they are empowered to contribute and collaborate as a team to accomplish their writing tasks more effectively.

What is electronic mail?

Electronic mail is a relatively new medium of communication that is experiencing exploding growth in the U.S. and around the world. E-mail messages can be sent across different kinds of networks, both locally and globally. Aside from the Internet there are thousands of local area networks and wide area networks that send millions more messages daily across various kinds of transmission cable. Electronic mail over the Internet, the world's largest computer network, is experiencing exploding growth daily. Reuter, a major online news service, estimates that number of American homes online will more than triple to 35.2 million by the year 2000, or a third of households in the United States (Reuter, 1996). Nearly every major university in the United States provides Internet e-mail for its staff and students. America Online (AOL), the largest commercial online service in the States, handles more than 4 million pieces of e-mail each day. Moreover, its membership is growing by 75,000 per week. (Case, 1996).

Why use e-mail in the writing class?

Using e-mail in a writing class can occur over any kind of network as long as workstations with e-mail software are readily available to the students. This could be in a lab, over a campus network, or across the Internet. There are many reasons why using e-mail is advantageous for the student and the teacher in the writing class.

First, by using e-mail in the writing class students become familiar with a communication tool that is vital to their survival in the 21st century. What was once considered a fad is now becoming the communication tool of choice of many white collar workers in industrialized countries. In the world of business, education, politics, and technology, electronic mail is quickly taking the place of voice, paper, and fax communication. Employers will require this vital skill for their employees of today and tomorrow.

Secondly, a teacher can interact with a student or a group of students working on a project at times that are more convenient to the student, group, and the teacher. The vital interaction and feedback that takes place between a teacher and student (or group of students) over a writing task is not limited to the confines of a classroom.

Another teacher-advantage of using e-mail is the ability to electronically monitor the individual or group writing process from the brainstorming phase to the final draft. Typically, teachers often receive dozens of papers, assignments, and pieces of correspondence from their students each term. These pieces of paper often get organized (or should I say disorganized) on desks, in brief cases, in filing cabinets, at home, in the office, in the classroom, and so on. The age-old hassle of shuffling, filing, and retrieving these papers is nearly eliminated. With the click of a mouse modern e-mail software allows groupings of messages by student name, by date received, or by project name. Writing assignments received can be organized electronically by any one of these categories. These types of groupings make it easier for the teacher to actually see the process which their students are using when writing. This process can be monitored and analyzed much more effectively and logically by the teacher who can also view and organize student or group work more easily and efficiently. The teacher can quickly retrieve student writing for future analyses and grading.

Additionally students themselves can use these features to organize their writing instantly either by topic or by date created, or by name of sender. This kind of organizing helps the writers focus more on the tasks of communicating and collaborating with peers and teachers. An added benefit to all this is that it can save natural resources by cutting down on the use of expensive paper and toner.

Using e-mail can also save class time for some assignments. Teachers can send assignments and announcements electronically to the group. For example, if a teacher has to remind the students of a certain assignment due or of a particular procedure, the teacher can send one message to entire group. This can save valuable class time. Moreover, with the return receipt capabilities of e-mail the teacher is able to know whether each individual student has opened and read the message. This is an important feature to help monitor the progress of the student or the group.

A further advantage is that sometimes more writing is actually accomplished when using e-mail. Electronic blips on the screen are perceived to be more changeable, more ephemeral, and less indelible than traditional pen and pencil writing. Students who enter our program at MFWI love to have an eraser handy when writing. The reason is possibly because our students think that their writing has to be perfect the first time. They often don't understand that writing can be a way of thinking; it can actually help them with ideas, with organization, and with their thought processes. Writing involves braining storming, taking notes, preparing outlines, first drafts, revising, editing, and final drafts. Not even the best writers get it right the first time. Since computer-generated writing is much more ephemeral and less indelible, their writing becomes less static and "final" since it's perceived as more changeable, and thus the students learn to perceive it as a process.

This leads to the next point. I have found that when students communicate with each other using e-mail, their audience tend to focus almost entirely on the message itself and much less on the form, grammar, spelling, mechanics, etc. An interesting study was done by Susan Lapp, an ESL researcher, of the University of Texas Pan-American. She paired students of different ethnic backgrounds as e-mail pen pals. Prior to the pen-pal writing, she analyzed the attitudes of each of the partners towards the ethnic group of their partner. She found that in many cases there were many negative attitudes towards ethnic groups. Through the process of sending e-mail back and forth to one another, the partners began to put aside their biases and focus more on the person and what they were saying.

A final, but not least, positive aspect of e-mail is that shy students have a forum for expressing themselves and asking questions. Occasionally, some students who do not like to express themselves in a group tend to do better with writing. Since students usually generate more content electronically than with traditional pen-and-pencil methods, shy students often tend to express their opinions more openly without fear. This can give students self-confidence and eventually improve their writing ability.

Sample e-mail assignments and activities

The last section of this paper briefly describes some simple e-mail activities that I have used in my writing class during a 45-minute session in the lab or over the course of the term. For several of these assignments and activities described below I have developed student handouts. Those are indicated as "handout available". If you would like to receive a Microsoft Word copy of any or all of these files, please e-mail me at rbelisle [at] on-ramp.ior.com. I will send you the file electronically.

Please note that these assignments work best with software such as Eudora, Microsoft mail or programs like them in which the settings are personalized for the user. NCSA Telnet or certain types of communication software cannot manage large volumes of incoming or outgoing mail easily.

Dialoging

Dialoging is the most basic way to use e-mail. It's simply one more way to increase the frequency of communication between teacher and student and student and student. Below are examples of different kinds of dialoging that has taken place in the context of my writing classes.

* Student to teacher
o journal writing
o asking and answering questions
o progress reports and updates
* Teacher to student
o announcements
o assignments
o homework
* Student to student(s)
o class mailing lists
o fun, etc.
o social events and announcements

Real-time teacher-to-student dialoging

A fun first day dialogue activity to introduce e-mail to students is a kind of real-time teacher-to-student dialoging. Prior to a lab class session, send a message to the group. (Ask your network administrator how to create groups in your e-mail software.) The message must end with simple question eliciting a response. An example might be a basic welcome message followed by a question such as "What is your favorite food?" When each student opens her e-mail for the first time, a Welcome Message awaits them. Each has to read the message and reply to the question. (Tip: Ask the students to write complete sentences for their reply.) The teacher's role is to respond back immediately to each student's reply often just pasting an appropriate answer in the reply window plus another follow-up question that continues the dialogue. This activity works best with small classes of 12 or less.

An interactive process writing assignment
(handout Available)

This is a process writing assignment which involves collaborating with a partner electronically over a simple research project (just 2 paragraphs). All the interaction with the partner, from brainstorming for ideas to writing the final draft and everything in between, must be done electronically. All the while the teacher is monitoring the writing process of the group by receiving copies (cc) of all the correspondence. The students are not only graded on the final product, but also on the process of writing and how well they follow the instructions.

One perfect paragraph
(handout available)

This is a simple e-mail activity that helps students practice editing short paragraphs looking for grammar, agreement, spelling, and structural mistakes. The teacher prepares one practice paragraph or two with several mistakes and sends it to the group.

Example 1 of what to send to the group

This paragraph has about 9-10 mistakes. Find and correct them. Drag and select the paragraph with mistakes, then copy from the Edit menu. Click on Reply. Then paste from the Edit menu into your reply. Find and fix the mistakes. Send back the corrected paragraph to me. Continue this until the paragraph is perfect.

Lat months I spent two wonderful day with host family. They have 3 child and we played a lot together. We cook Japanese foods for them Saturday evening. They thought it dericious. On Sunday we wnt to the church. I enjoyed the music, but didn't understood the speech. I hope see them again in the future.

Example 2 of what to send to the group

Here's another paragraph to correct. It has about 11-12 mistakes. Find them and correct them and send the corrected paragraph back to me.

This wekend I will go grand Culee dam and Leavenworth. I looking forward to go there. I have never seen dam before. I want to go shop. I want to stay a nice hotel.

Teacher Tips

1. Copy and paste an answer such as "There are more mistakes. Please correct them and send the corrected paragraph back to me." into the reply of the e-mail message This will allow you to quickly reply to a paragraph that still needs correcting thus keeping up with all the messages students are sending to you.
2. List your messages in your mailbox window by date/time received if software allows. This will enable you to see which new messages on your list need replies.
Electronic secret pals
(handout available)

This is a term-long pen-pal activity in which students are assigned to other students from another writing class in the program. The students use bogus American names (for this activity only) and are not allowed to know the identity of their secret pal. The activity concludes with a "Meet Your Secret Pal" party at the end of the term. The teacher receives cc of all correspondence from the students.

Chain stories or sentences

This is a simple activity that help students with basic sentence level grammar reinforcing such grammatical structures as countable/uncountable nouns, prepositional phrases, and so on.

Before class send a partial sentence to the group, such as

"It was a dark and stormy night and "
or
"I went to the store and bought some "

Students then add to the story or sentence and forward it on to an assigned partner in the class. (Using copy and paste may be necessary for some e-mail programs. Other software programs append the original message to the reply.) The story is passed around to all members of the class with each adding their part. Have each student add something different each time. In the end there will be x number of stories or sentences where x equals the number of students in the class.

A strange meeting
(handout available)

Another more elaborate version of a chain story is what I call my Strange Meeting assignment. Students are asked to create phrase by phrase the skeleton of a short story (8 partial sentences) about the meeting of two individuals (male and female). What's unique about this exercise is that each person in the class is writing a sentence phrase to the story and then forwarding it (using copy and paste) on to an assigned person who then adds the next sentence phrase who in turn forwards it to another assigned person and so on. The sentence phrases are passed on to eight different people and then the last person puts the 8 sentence phrases together into a coherent, but often strange, paragraph of eight complete sentences. All the while students are sending copies of all the messages sent to the teacher who is monitoring the process.
Story puzzles

Story puzzles are stories in which sentences are randomly mixed and rearranged by the students in a correct sequence. Students use copy and paste to rearrange the randomly mixed sentences into a story and then send back the story to the teacher in the correct sequence. (Teacher Tip: Write the story in most any word processor separating sentences into paragraphs. Then select all and sort. The word processor will sort the sentences alphabetically by first letter of the sentence. Then copy and paste the mixed sentences into your e-mail message and send the mixed sentences to the group.)

Cloze exercises

Students fill in sentences with every xth word omitted, or every noun, or verb, and so on. The teacher then sends the message back to the teacher. The teacher checks and sends back for further revision if necessary. This activity can be used to reinforce the use of certain words such as adjectives, articles, nouns, etc.
Mailing lists

Students dialogue with a group on a particular topic. One e-mail address of the group can be created and a message on a certain topic asking for a response. Others send their responses to the group members. Most e-mail software programs have the ability to reply to either the original sender or all the recipients of the original message. In this case the preferences would need to be set to the latter.
International pen pals
(Internet access necessary.)

With the tremendous growth of the Internet, there are lots of opportunities to interact with students from other countries and cultures thus increasing the global awareness of students. International Pen Pals can be easily found on the World Wide Web using such search engines as Web Crawler or Yahoo.

How to page

Students write (via e-mail) a step-by-step process of how to send e-mail, use the word processor, use a CD ROM, and so on. Can be done in a group or assigned to individuals. Copies (cc) of all correspondence are sent to teacher.

[+/-]More...

[+/-] Back...

Word Processors' Grammar and Spelling Assistance: Consequences for Second Language Learning and Teaching. by: Ingrid Fandrych

Abstract
Modern word processors do not only include spell checks and dictionaries but also grammar checks. Do these facilities help second language students to compose correct sentences and texts? Will they even make the grammar component that has traditionally been part of Academic Writing courses redundant?

This paper sets out to determine the usefulness of modern word processors in terms of their grammar and spelling assistance and discuss the consequences for second language learning and teaching. For this purpose, the most common word processors on the market at present (Word, WordPerfect) will be tested on a variety of texts ranging from students' essays to newspaper articles and literary and academic texts.

Introduction
With the use of computers and word processors becoming more and more common among both academics and university students, a closer look at the grammar and spell check facilities of widely used word processors is called for in order to determine whether, indeed, the 'blind faith' that many people put in modern software is justified. After a brief look at the place of grammar in Academic Writing courses at university level, the following study attempts to test the most frequently used word processors - Word and WordPerfect - on a variety of text types. Some of the texts analysed in this context undoubtedly represent what is commonly called 'good English style' (e.g., the literary text by Nadine Gordimer, the non-fiction text by Noam Chomsky), but we will also look at less sophisticated texts like newspaper articles, and finally we will look at some examples of authentic students' essays in order to determine the usefulness of the suggestions made by the word processors.

Grammar in Academic Writing Courses at Tertiary Level
The National University of Lesotho (NUL) admits students with the equivalent of 'O' Level Exams (COSC), and therefore, they have to take certain bridging courses to help them to cope with tertiary education. Central to this bridging programme is a "Communication and Study Skills Course". The grammar component of this Academic Writing course consists of the following main areas:

* Sentence Structures;
* Paragraph Structures;
* Subject-verb Agreement;
* Tense;
* Modal Auxiliaries;
* Conjunctions;
* Articles;
* Prepositions;
* Punctuation.

Furthermore, we teach 'Academic Style', i.e. no contractions, no colloquialisms, no idioms, and the avoidance of impersonal constructions, as far as possible.

According to previous research carried out at NUL (c.f. Fandrych 1999, in print), some of the problem areas for students at tertiary level are:

* quantity instead of quality: unnecessary repetition and a general tendency to produce long-winded explanations;
* errors in style (contractions, colloquialisms etc.);
* problems with sentence structures;
* problems with punctuation;
* no editing/proof-reading;
* students are not used to looking up spellings, collocations, usages; instead, they 'improvise', and they often confuse words, e.g. conflict - convict, conduct - consult;
* sentences starting with again, also etc. ;
* problems with tenses, modes;
* problems with articles;
* wrong use of whereby;
* spelling errors, partly due to lack of phonetic distinction: tend/turn, this/these, hash/harsh; mader (for 'murder'); penulty, pinishment, lithal, nagetive; crimminals, limmit;
* redundancy, e.g. all the remaining others, can be able to, convincingly argue and convince us, decreases or diminishes;
* omission of 'to be' in attributive phrases.

Settings of Word Used in This Study
The relevant settings can be selected in the Edit and Tools menus of Word 97. For the purposes of this study, 'English (South African)' was chosen. Furthermore, the options 'Check spelling as you type', 'Check grammar as you type', and 'Always suggest corrections' were switched on, and, finally, in terms of style, 'standard' was selected, including all the options offered, namely:

* Capitalization
* Commonly confused words
* Hyphenated and split words
* Negation
* Numbers
* Passive sentences
* Phrases
* Possessives and plurals
* Punctuation
* Relative Clauses
* Sentence structures
* Subject-verb agreement
* Style:

1. Cliches
2. Colloquialisms
3. Contractions
4. Gender-specific words
5. Jargon
6. Sentences beginning with And, But, Hopefully
7. Unclear phrasing
8. Wordiness

The 'don't check' option was selected for the following features:

* Comma before last item
* Punctuation with quotes
* Spaces between sentences

At first glance, the above list of features Word attempts to rectify looks quite impressive and a number of items in the list definitely try to address some of the problems experienced by students, e.g. confusing words, punctuation, sentence structures, agreement, colloquialisms, contractions, conjunctions in sentence-initial position, and wordiness.

Grammar and Spell Check Options in WordPerfect
WordPerfect is in many respects more flexible than Word. There are a number of 'checking styles' from which the user can choose, e.g. 'Very Strict', 'Formal Memo or Letter', Technical or Scientific', Advertising'. In addition to these options, computer users can create their own styles, change the formality of the styles, and predefine the number of elements to be allowed in noun phrases, consecutive prepositional phrases, sentence length and the maximum number of elements allowed in a split infinitive.

'British English' was chosen (South African English is not offered as an option), and the standard settings in terms of style were applied, as the author wanted to be able to compare the different reactions of WordPerfect towards the range of texts under discussion. Similarly, and especially in the light of the mechanistic treatment of 'long sentences' and 'wordiness' in Word 97 (c.f. below), no restrictions were stipulated in terms of sentence length etc.

Analysis of the Texts with Word 97
Apart from some unfamiliar names and the term back-tracking, Word 97 only criticises the two newspaper articles for the use of contractions.

The extract from Nadine Gordimer's novel (literary text) is criticised for lack of commas (for example after morning in the second paragraph), 'wordiness' (absolutely no), the use of the passive voice (are said to be - no suggestions), long sentences (In the marble foyer …; I would hand the key …), the 'plural' (sic) of so-and-so's, and the use of and in sentence-initial position in the last sentence of the second paragraph. In the last two paragraphs, the contractions are criticised.

Chomsky's text (non-fiction) also shows signs of 'wordiness' (drawing to a close - suggestion: ending), long sentences (first sentence, second paragraph and the sentence beginning with The factors … in the third paragraph). Furthermore, Word finds irregular sentence structures (first sentence, third paragraph and first sentence, last paragraph), lack of punctuation (suggestion: comma after declined in the last sentence of the third paragraph).

Machobane (academic/historical text) is in good company with his long sentences (third sentences in the first and the second paragraphs, last sentence in the third paragraph, first and last sentences in the fourth paragraph), his comma use (Yet in the beginning of the second paragraph), and his 'wordiness' (at the moment, third paragraph).

Finally, Reagan (academic/linguistics) also produces some long sentences and, obviously, his American spelling is commented on.

Let us now turn to our examples of students' writings. The only problem Word has with Student A's text is the subject-verb agreement in the last sentence. Word suggests either to replace are with is, or to pluralise speech.

Student B: Word suggests replacing inorder with one of the following: ignored, ironed, ironware, intruder, inured - all of which would, obviously, be syntactically inappropriate. Instead of recognising the problematic sentence structures and lacking full stops (e.g. in the first line, third paragraph and second line, fourth paragraph), Word only comments on the "Extra Space between Words". Neither the really problematic sentence structures in the first and last paragraphs, nor the abbreviation and the use of need, the comma after also in the third paragraph, or the repeated use of some in the fourth paragraph are criticised.

Student C: Several wrongly spelled words are indicated. Several long sentences (first paragraph; second sentence, second paragraph; third paragraph; first sentence, fourth paragraph; last sentence, fifth paragraph; last paragraph) are discovered, but no suggestions are made. Furthermore, Word comments on the "Extra Space between Words" (line 2, fourth paragraph), suggests commas after problem and Thus (fourth paragraph), and after Law (fifth paragraph). In the latter case, Word suggests replacing which with that as an alternative. Finally, 'wordiness' is noted in the first sentence of the fifth paragraph, and it's should be replaced with it is (sic).

Student C's essay is rather problematic, but Word neither comments on the use of would (line 2), nor this offices (second paragraph), and ignores the syntactic structure of the third paragraph (apart from its length), the pronoun redundancy in the same paragraph, the position of also (second sentence, fourth paragraph), the use of where (last sentence, fourth paragraph), the spelling of can not (fifth paragraph), and the semicolon and the possessive in the first sentence of the fifth paragraph.

Finally, Student D is criticised for the contraction in line 1, and Word suggests replacing serve with serves in the second sentence. However, neither under (for undergo) nor the sentence structure of the sentence beginning with Also … (first paragraph) are commented upon.

Unfortunately, Word 97 cannot keep all its promises. This is not entirely surprising, as some grammatical features are rather too complex and context-sensitive for a computer programme to discover. In terms of the spell check, Word certainly has its - limited - usefulness, depending on the dictionary used. In terms of its grammar check facilities, Word is rather mechanical: whether something counts as a 'long sentence', even if it is correct (c.f. the analysis of literary, non-fiction and academic texts), seems to depend on word counts performed by the software; 'wordiness' apparently depends on certain phrases in the dictionary. Finally, the fact that some wrong suggestions are made is more regrettable than the mere oversight of certain problems Word claims to be able to solve.

We can conclude that the grammar component of EAP courses cannot be reduced or even done away with as far as Word 97 is concerned. What the software can do, is draw the attention of its users to certain problem areas, e.g. long sentences (which, however, do not necessarily constitute a problem per se, especially in academic texts), as syntactical errors might be lurking there.

Users who intend to make extensive use of the spell check facilities are well advised to establish their own, customised dictionaries. Academics who intend to rely on Word's grammar and spell check facilities must be warned that Word 97 can be extremely stubborn as far as the arrangement of lists or sectioned passages (e.g. legal articles) is concerned, and Word's constant criticism of 'fragments' in the references section can be irritating, too.

Analysis of the Texts with WordPerfect 8
Like Word 97, WordPerfect 8 does not have any serious problems with the two Mail & Guardian articles, apart from the use of the number 12 000, the spelling of ARs in the second article, and the unfamiliar word Accessline (all in the second article).

Nadine Gordimer's text is criticised for the use of words like wormholes, sun-set, bell-hop, show-cases (all of these in the second paragraph). Furthermore, WordPerfect informs us that but (second paragraph, middle) "is usually awkward" after a semicolon.

Chomsky's text is criticised for the use of the hyphen in post-industrial (first paragraph), a comma is suggested after Meanwhile (last sentence, second paragraph), and his American spellings are noted and commented upon.

In Machobane's historical writings there are, of course a number of unfamiliar names, some leading to rather amusing suggestions, such as Muchachas for Moshoeshoe, and dulcification for dutchification. Apart from these, the spelling of south-westerly is corrected to southwesterly or south westerly.

In Reagan's language, the use of the semicolon is explained as usually joining "two independent clauses", and, as an alternative, the use of a comma is suggested.

As far as the students' texts are concerned, WordPerfect also has less to say than Word 97. In Student A's first line, WordPerfect suggests a comma after performance, to make the sentence clearer. Otherwise, no comments. In Student B's text, the spelling of Inorder is criticised, and the lack of full stops between people and And (third paragraph) and between project and It (fourth paragraph) is corrected. However, the insertion of a comma after Language (fourth paragraph) does not clarify matters, as suggested by the programme. Student C is criticised for spelling errors (e.g. dicided, decesion, imformation, diffent, thier, interpretors, can not, stylisticans, diskets), and a full stop is suggested between meaning and This (fourth paragraph). In addition, the mistake in it's (fifth paragraph) is recognised and corrected to its. No other comments are made to improve the texts.

Comparing the analyses of the grammar checks of a variety of texts by Word 97 and WordPerfect 8, we can conclude that WordPerfect seems to be rather more flexible than Word 97, in particular as it gives the user several options to choose from in terms of the more mechanistic counting processes (which seem, at this stage at least, the best word processors have to offer as far as syntax is concerned). Another useful option for (advanced?) computer users is the choice between a range of styles, from 'very formal' to rather informal.


Word 2000

Word 2000 offers improved spelling and grammar checkers. For example, the spelling checker now recognizes a much broader range of names for people, organizations and companies, cities and countries, Internet and file addresses, and more. The grammar checker now flags mistakes and offers more effective user-friendly grammar, and rewrite suggestions. ("What's new with proofing tools", Word 2000 Help Function).
Word 2000 further announces that it can now "automatically correct spelling and grammar", and that the thesaurus offers synonyms; it can also check texts written in other languages, and detect hyphenation language-specifically.

Indeed, a fresh analysis of our sample texts shows a number of changes from Word 97 to Word 2000:

No more comments on 'long sentences' or 'wordiness'. So, apparently the mechanistic approach was abandoned as not very helpful.
Frequent reminders and instructions about hyphenation (as expected after the announcement summarised above), and concerning capitalisation.
The suggestion that not only should always be followed by but also.
In the first text about Chomsky, the sentence fragment in paragraph 10 is criticised.
In Student C's text the wrong number agreement this offices (second paragraph) is noted and explained, and the wrong spelling of can not is noted.
However, many of the other errors discussed above still remain uncorrected.

WordPerfect 9 (2000)
The most recent version of WordPerfect is more critical than its predecessor, but this also entails a number of problematic suggestions and wrong analyses, especially in the area of agreement and word classes.

In "Measuring the Collective Mind", the software identifies incidences of "Comma Splice of Fused Sentence" and suggests the addition of conjunctions or changes in punctuation in the second paragraph and in the second sentence of the 20th paragraph. Wrongly analysing the noun phrase one way mirrors, it suggests the singular form for mirror. Similarly, tracks (8th paragraph) is identified as a noun, which leads to the criticism of the adverb consequently, and the reverse for possible (same paragraph), sees (9th paragraph) is pluralised, miss (19th paragraph) is changed into misses, and so on. On the other hand, WordPerfect 9 reasonably warns of the homonymy of it's and its and finds the typo is for its (both in the 12th paragraph) - but wrongly suggests are instead.

In addition to the suggestions made by its predecessor concerning Nadine Gordimer's text, WordPerfect 9 suggests a comma after morning, the indefinite article before coloured beadwork (!), and, even more worryingly, was in there were two crossed assegais (all in the second paragraph). In the third paragraph, brassy and brand should be replaced by their adverbial forms, according the WordPerfect, and the position of the two prepositional phrases, with their lips and in the place, is criticised for "separating the verb from its direct object". Finally, the penultimate sentence of the passage "may not be complete".

Checking Chomsky's text, we are given more suggestions to replace "adjectives" with adverbs, for example in the first paragraph, power centered. An abstruse comment concerns the third paragraph: we are asked to consider replacing the "American spelling" (sic) of plead with British lead. Furthermore, the indefinite article is inserted before public subsidy (third paragraph), and in the final paragraph, we are told that "much of is usually followed by an uncountable noun. Check for agreement error."

Machobane's text is also subject to several incorrect subject-verb agreement suggestions, WordPerfect 9 cannot parse the complex noun phrase in line 2 of the opening paragraph, and in Reagan's passage most in most important (third paragraph) is wrongly analysed, which leads to the inappropriate suggestion to pluralise event.

Student A's text gets a comma after performance (first sentence). In "B's text, the indefinite article is criticised, as it should not precede the uncountable noun work (second sentence in the third paragraph), and a comma is suggested wrongly after Language in the fourth paragraph. The most worrying comment, however, concerns the third paragraph of B's text: "Normally an adjective like people doesn't modify a verb. Try the adverb form (usually - ly), or check for missing words."

In Student C's text, this offices is corrected to these offices (second paragraph), and can not and it's (both in the fifth paragraph) are corrected - but then which is deleted from the same sentence. Even more alarming are the changes from is to are after imformation (sic) in the second paragraph, and the suggested possessive for people in the last sentence of the fourth paragraph. Finally, in D's writings, one another (in the second sentence of the first paragraph) gets the comment: "One is not usually used with a pronoun", and WordPerfect concludes its proofreading process with another subject-verb misanalysis of crime rate (second paragraph).

Conclusion
It becomes clear from the above analyses that word processors cannot yet solve all the problems many users face when composing texts, especially if English is not their first language. It would certainly be premature to reduce the grammar component of Academic Writing courses and to rely instead on the grammar and spell checks of modern software. Furthermore, it comes as no surprise that many first language users even switch off the grammar and spell check options of their word-processors because they do not want to be bothered by the numerous less helpful - and frequently even wrong - suggestions and/or corrections made by the programmes. Personally, I consider any comments made by my software, but I do not always follow its advice.

Finally, we can conclude that the various products on the market all have their particular strengths and weaknesses - it would be impossible to recommend the use of one particular brand or even a certain version of that name. However, even if we cannot state any preferences, one valuable outcome of the above study is the realisation that there is no perfect grammar checker at present, and it is to be hoped that users of word processors are forewarned and will be aware of the individual shortcomings of the particular software they work with.

[+/-]More...

[+/-] Back...