Gordon Lewis
The Internet and Young Learners
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ISBN-13: 978 0194421829
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Ada Sandoval of Berlitz Kids Mexico, Laurie Camargo of Berlitz Kids Germany, and all their teachers for taking the time to review the manuscript and test the activities in their classrooms. Further thanks go to Silvana Rampone for her comments and worksheet ideas, and Simon Murison-Bowie for being a supportive and insightful editor. My great appreciation also goes out to Julia Sallabank for believing in this project, keeping it moving, and giving me the confidence to be creative.
Finally I would like to thank my children, Kira-Sophie and Nicholas, and their friends at Tollgate School in Pennington, New Jersey, for trying out some of the activities in Spanish and giving me their honest opinions, as only children can.
This book is dedicated to my wife Katja.
I love her and without her nothing would have been possible.
The author and series editor
Gordon Lewis earned a B.Sc. in Languages and Linguistics from Georgetown University, Washington D.C., and a Masters from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, California.
While working as a freelance journalist in Vienna, Austria, he taught English and was editor of an English language cultural magazine. He founded Lewis Languages children’s programme in 1991 in Berlin. In 1998 he moved to Munich to concentrate on curriculum design, materials development, and teacher training. He is co-author of Games for Children, also in this series.
From 2001 to 2003 he was Director of Instructor Training and Development for Berlitz Kids in Princeton, New Jersey. He is currently a freelance teacher, trainer, and materials writer, and is also on the committee of the IATEFL Young Learners Special Interest Group where he works as co-coordinator for events. In 2002 he organized a large YL Conference in Bonn, Germany.
Alan Maley worked for the British Council from 1962 to 1988, serving as English Language Officer in Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, and China, and as Regional Representative in South India (Madras). From 1988 to 1993 he was Director-General of the Bell Educational Trust, Cambridge. From 1993 to 1998 he was Senior Fellow in the Department of English Language and Literature of the National University of Singapore, and from 1999 to 2003 he was Director of the Graduate Programme at Assumption University, Bangkok. He is currently a freelance consultant. He has written Literature, in this series, Beyond Words, Sounds Interesting, Sounds Intriguing, Words, Variations on a Theme, and Drama Techniques in Language Learning (all with Alan Duff), The Mind’s Eye (with Françoise Grellet and Alan Duff), Learning to Listen and Poem into Poem (with Sandra Moulding), The Language Teacher’s Voice, and Short and Sweet.
Foreword
Perhaps the aptest metaphor for the Internet is the jungle. The jungle provides an endless source of sustenance and delight to those who know their way in it. To those who do not, it is a dark and impenetrable maze, full of danger and unpredictable menace. In like manner, the Internet offers infinite resources to those who can navigate its limitless pathways. For those unfamiliar with it however, it can be a threatening presence, characterized by total lack of structure, full of potential predators.
In order to make best use of the Internet’s resources, those teachers unfamiliar with it need reassurance. This reassurance may be in the form of what to do and where to go to find what they are looking for. They also need to be reassured that they, and their learners (especially young learners), will be safe from some of the less palatable dangers lurking in the Internet, and to know that they can harness it to their pedagogical purposes in ways appropriate to the age and level of their learners.
This book offers precisely this kind of reassurance. It begins with a series of practical activities to familiarize learners (and teachers too perhaps!) with the way the Internet works. It moves on to activities involving communication via email. The third section offers activities to do with retrieving information from the Internet. Finally, there are activities designed to help learners build their own websites. The activities are clearly described and user-friendly, and will go a long way towards dispelling the misgivings many teachers feel about computers and the Internet as a resource.
In addition there is a rich array of useful Internet addresses. This is backed up by the book’s own website (accessed via the Resource Books for Teachers site http://www.oup.com/elt/teacher/rbthttp://www.oup.com/elt/teacher/rbt), which is regularly updated.
Much has been made of the power of information technology in language education. This has occasionally led to a blind enthusiasm for technology without a corresponding concern for its appropriate use. This book will certainly help redress this imbalance. It views the Internet as a learning resource, to be used judiciously alongside other resources, rather than as a miracle-working solution to all learning problems. This is greatly to be welcomed.
Introduction
Who is this book for?
This book is for anyone teaching English to young learners interested in enhancing their courses through the use of the Internet. The book does not assume sophisticated