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When bringing internet materials into the classroom, it should always be done with a purpose, as highlighted by Senior 2005: 71
“ …
we need to have a clear pedagogic goal in mind: what precisely we want our students to learn from these
materials…
”
Students feel more confident, more secure when handling internet materials as long as the teacher gives them with pedagogical support. Internet
materials should be used in accordance with students ability, with suitable tasks being given in which total understanding is not important. In order to overcome the
problems created by difficult internet materials, one solution is to simplify them according to the level of the learner. This can be done by removing any difficult
words or structures but this can also remove basic discourse qualities, making the materials
“ less”
internet. The basic parameters to consider when simplifying a material are:
1 Linguistic simplicity
It includes grammatical structures, lexical items and readability. 2
Cognitive simplicity It covers age, education, interests of the learner.
3 Psychological simplicity:
It is whether the materials follow traditional social norms or not.
b. Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet Materials
Teachers in the information age are faced with changes Kumari, 1998: 12. The rise of multiple technologies and globalization dynamics has led to a world
in which there are “no permanent structures of knowledge or meaning” Stromquist, 2000: 11. Students in the era of globalization need sophisticated
knowledge and higher-order skills. Consequently, public universities need to empower students with the skills and knowledge needed to respond to global
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demands or markets so that students are capable of competing with others in the highly competitive global marketplace. Among many factors, English
proficiency and the internet skills will help students to increase their competence.
To serve this new demand, English teachers need to change their roles. Teachers have to play new roles in today’s technology-based learning to respond
to this situation. The learner-centered approach is the basic pedagogy that lies under the role shifting of teachers. Teachers are no more just knowledge feeders,
but facilitators Nunan, 1998: 75. Teachers become less a source of information while they become pathways to knowledge. They have to play the roles of tutor,
mentor and helper to help learners develop information skills efficiently. As quoted by Charupan 2002: 56, Maurer and Davidson mention that the
advantages of internet materials are: 1
Teaching and learning is more effective. 2
Teaching and learning is more effective when students evolve strategies to understand how they learn.
3 Teaching and learning is more effective when they are an active process.
4 Teaching and learning is more effective when skills are mastered and
become automatic. 5
Teaching and learning is more effective when seen as a development of emergent process.
6 Teaching and learning is more effective when experienced and accessed in
natural contexts using internet materials. Another strength of internet for English teaching is its emphasis on
pedagogically sound approaches to using the internet. It can be tempting to try
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out a new technology simply because of its novelty, and there certainly are valid reasons for experimenting with technologies. However, as Charupan
2002: 54 point out, it is important to design internet-based assignments so the assignments provide a structured and pedagogically sound basis for students. In
conclusion,
Internet for English Teaching
represents an important contribution to the field in terms of advancing the integration of Internet technologies in
language courses and in terms of promoting communicative approaches that are made operational through use of collaborative technologies. While instructors
with little or no experience with instructional uses of the internet will benefit most from this book, those with years of experience will also find this an
informative and useful addition to their collection on instructional technology. The wide variety of different types of materials means that it is easier to find
something that will attract the learners and may even encourage further reading or reading for pleasure. An advantage of taking a complete newspaper or
magazine into classroom, rather than photocopies of an article, is that students can actually choose what they want to read. The more the learner reads, the
better a reader he will become. Internet materials later improves not only his language level but also confidence. If the material interests the learners, it can
also be related to his own experiences. One of the aims of internet materials is to help the student react in the same way L1 speakers react in their first language
L1. Learners who live in the target language environment, once outside of the classroom will encounter a variety of situations in which different reading
purposes or skills are required. It can be claimed that learners are being exposed to real language and they feel that they are learning the
real
language. These
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are what make us excited and willing to use internet materials in our classrooms. but while using them, it is inevitable that we face some problems.
While the above-mentioned criticisms focus more on the design of exercises to be found in language software and on the Internet, other possible limitations
include problems with the medium itself. Frizler 1995: 90 states that because the ability to express oneself in writing is a crucial aspect of using the Internet,
some researchers propose that this puts students who lack interest or skill in writing at a disadvantage. She also points out that the quality of English found
on the Internet is often non-conventional, and may actually hinder students in their progress toward communicating in person with native speakers of English.
Another factor which affects the internet classroom is that of social interaction. While many students enjoy the creative and imaginatively social
aspects of the Internet, some students may prefer to be in a traditional classroom, watching and listening to a teacher and peers in person. Other drawbacks include
technical problems such as lost files or forgotten passwords. However, these issues can usually be remedied by the instructor or lab personnel.
Also included in this category of criticism are concerns about what Allwright and Bailey 1990: 19 call the Receptivity of students towards the
teacher, the teaching medium, materials, etc. Students with high anxiety towards the use of technology, or those with no prior computer experience may
encounter problems.
3. Definition, Advantages, and Disadvantages of Textbook Materials
