Whether teaching English to native speakers of other languages or introducing native English speakers to new languages, educators can find a wealth of resources on the Web. The following sites are just a sampling of those available.
Building Worldwide Community
In 1992, three professors from St. Olaf College in Minnesota created International E-Mail Classroom Connections (IECC) (www.iecc.org), one of the first services on the Web to facilitate international pen pal exchanges. Currently, almost 8,000 teachers in more than 80 countries participate in at least one of the site's lists. Here, teachers can find partner classrooms or schools, set up connections for their students with older (age 50+) volunteer pen pals, or gather survey information and opinions from a global audience.
Many language classrooms now use Web logs (blogs) as a tool through which teachers and students can form learning communities. The Internet TESL Journal provides information on Web logs, including what they are and how to use them within the foreign language classroom (http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Campbell-Weblogs.html). Creative uses of blogs are emerging. For example, Ai, an assistant marketing director at Vancouver English Centre, maintains a popular blog (http://dearai.blogspot.com) that provides advice to English language students, particularly university students or those participating in exchange programs.
Some sites combine e-mail and Web logs with other communication technologies to create more comprehensive learning resources. For example, Dave Sperling's ESL Café (www.eslcafe.com) offers a wealth of materials for ESL and EFL teachers and students. Teachers and students can visit individual Web boards and a group chat room to discuss issues of relevance to all. Of particular interest to students is the Help Center, where community members pose and answer questions, generally about grammar.
Connecting Language Learners with the World
The Paperboy Online Newspaper (www.thepaperboy.com) offers online links to the Web sites of almost 6,000 newspapers around the globe. Students can search by city and country and access a list of links to newspapers in a given location.
Live Radio (www.live-radio.net/info.shtml) provides links to the Web sites of radio stations worldwide as well as with the users' hometown radio stations. Students learning foreign languages can practice their listening skills by monitoring real-time broadcasts.
Instructional Strategies
Learning Support Services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison maintains an online compilation of ideas for using Internet resources as a language teaching tool (http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/lss/lang/langlink.html). In addition to ESL resources, the site includes links to Web resources for teaching and learning many different languages, including French, Hebrew, Slavic, and Quechua.
Recognizing that non-English-speaking students have widely diverse needs, the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (www.ncela.gwu.edu) provides In the Classroom toolkits designed to bring research and practice together for those involved in the education of English language learners (www.ncela.gwu.edu/practice/itc). The toolkits offer specific strategies to address different needs, including elementary and secondary grade-level content, school skills, home/school connection, and interrupted formal schooling. For example, the home/school connection toolkit describes how home visits and translation services can connect families to schools and how culture fairs and family/community interviews can bring students' home cultures into the classroom.
TESL Journal (http://iteslj.org), first published in 1995, is a comprehensive site for Teachers of English as a Second Language. This monthly Web magazine includes articles, research papers, lesson plans, classroom handouts, teaching ideas, and more.
SBC's Blue Web'n Site (www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn) is an annotated library of almost 2,000 outstanding education sites categorized by subject, grade level, and format. It includes sections for foreign languages and English as a second language.
Finally, educators can promote the learning of their English language learners by connecting learners' parents with effective instructional ideas on the Web. For example, Colorín Colorado (www.colorincolorado.org), produced by Reading Rockets and funded by the U.S. Department of Education, provides Spanish-speaking parents with the information they need to help their children become more successful students. The site includes reading tips, activities, and additional resources, and is offered in Spanish and English.
