Name: Susan F. Spillman Session Type: Lecture/Presentation Suggested Track: Track I Abstract: With the addition of electronic classrooms and teaching laboratories to campuses throughout the world, the Internet becomes more readily available as a teaching tool for integration into class activities in language courses. Most students enter their university classes with computer facility; they are frequently required to use the Internet for research in many of their classes. The availability of the Internet in the classroom makes it possible to teach reading, vocabulary in context and cultural topics based upon electronic sites. Description: With the addition of electronic classrooms and teaching laboratories to campuses throughout the world, the Internet becomes more readily available as a teaching tool for integration into class activities in language courses. Most students enter their university classes with computer facility; they are frequently required to use the Internet for research in many of their classes. Instructors of the modern languages have had available many materials on disk and CD-ROM for CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) and have sent students to their language laboratory for drill and practice activities based upon such materials. With the availability of the Internet it is now possible to teach reading, vocabulary in context and cultural topics based upon electronic sites accessed during the class period. The imaginative instructor will find that exercises can be developed and distributed which will supplement the use of such sites and make possible interactive practice based upon cultural subjects that have great interest for students. Many sites have been developed for use by language teachers and their students. Such pages as those maintained by the American Association of Teachers of French and FLTeach provide instructors with pedagogical activities and opportunities for exchange with colleagues throughout the world. One favorite activity is correspondence among students of similar ages and interests. Students who exchange electronic mail with native speakers are both more motivated and more adept at writing. The French Quarter of the Global Village, located at the University of Richmond and developed by Professor Janice Paulsen, features hyperlinks both to pedagogical resources and to sites organized under such headings and tourism, sports, and the Electronic Cafe. This site, as well as Nomade, makes it possible for students of French and their instructors to select topics of interest and develop them into practice exercises and projects through study of the linked pages. Fortunate instructors can access MINITEL by downloading the emulation software from the Internet; this is not free, and requires prepayment. Students using MINITEL find a wealth of materials appropriate to all levels; sites such as train schedules, basic tourist information and TV listings/ movie reviews can be utilized in first-semester classes. After the introduction of the homepages and a selection of sites which are accessible by hyperlink from them, this presentation, including a video of students in action using the Internet for classroom reports and demonstrations of pedagogical activities based upon sites to be displayed on-line, will show other uses of this technology for in-class projects. Sites which furnish information to native speakers who log on in order to read the news, check the weather, prepare for travel or view works of art and hear examples of music from many different regions and nations furnish an almost limitless possibility of classroom adaptation, both by the teacher and by students who prepare reports outside of class and participate in directed discussion inside the class. Language tasks featured in both the video and the author's presentation include weather, discussion of science news, apartment hunting in French-speaking countries, museum and art gallery tours, travel in French-speaking countries throughout the world, and displays of Afro-Caribbean music with biographical and historical commentary. Length: Approximately one hour Audience: General; many examples are in French and Spanish but all discussion is in English. Presentation is easily understood by those who are not language teachers. Audience level: General On-site equipment: VCR and large monitor; Internet access and PowerMac computer (would prefer at least an 8100 but any Mac which will permit easy Internet access is all right. I would prefer NOT to work with a Lite_Pro, since they do not have good color fidelity and my students say that text the size of wire service news is difficult to read. Is it possible to hook the Mac into the large monitor of the VCR?) Contact Information: Susan F. Spillman, Ph. D. Xavier University of Louisiana P.O. Box 56A 7325 Palmetto New Orleans, La. 70125 Phone (504) 485-5112 Fax (504) 485-7907
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