Using internet in ELE classes
Using Internet when teaching Spanish as a second language
Spanish teachers are aware that it is difficult to capture the student’s attention and have the opportunity to motivate them to learn Spanish. Sometimes Spanish teachers have difficulties finding attractive topics of conversational Spanish and original working materials of grammar, vocabulary, etc. In this sense, the Internet opens new routes to get our students involved in our classes and enable students to learn Spanish for free.
This article overviews the main uses of the World Wide Web when teaching Spanish as a second language.
1. The World Wide Web in Spanish classes
Surfing the web allows us to offer our students hypertexts. This means that the traditional Spanish text is totally updated, accompanied by visual information and might even display an audio file. In this regard it is worth noticing that there are several radio stations that we can listen to in Spanish on line.
a) Learning Spanish on line
There are several sites that offer online Spanish self- learning courses. In these type of Spanish courses the students have the assistance of Spanish teachers.
b) Educational materials for Spanish teachers
These sites provide useful material and ideas that can be developed by teachers who want to work with new activities in their classes.
We can find many ideas on sites like:
c) Online publications: ebooks, magazines and newspapers
Ebooks: These may be texts already published on paper or text written specifically for reading on the net.
Magazines and online press: Some of them are also available on paper version but others are only available on the Net.
One of the most prestigious journals in the field of Hispanics is Espéculo (http://www.ucm.es/info/especulo/). Ogigia, is another electronic journal of Hispanic studies.
Online press offers many possibilities to Spanish teachers because we are able to read current affairs all over the world on our computer screens.
a) Other sites. Inexhaustible source of authentic material
We are able to use any written material in the target language with many different purposes. Thus, we can find pages with tourist and cultural information from any Spanish speaking country.
Similarly, the web gives us access to most public institutions such as ministries and research centers.
2. Conclusions
The World Wide Web is one of the doors opened to Spanish teachers by the Internet. Its use is very helpful because it enables teachers to prepare different contents for their Spanish classes.
Some Internet tools to improve our Spanish classes
In addition to the World Wide Web, the Internet provides Spanish teachers with several tools that may have a positive effect on our Spanish classes. We can use these tools to complement Spanish learning books and find an easy and quick way to learn Spanish.
Some of these tools are an essential source of information for Spanish teachers who wish to keep abreast of advances in Spanish for foreigners’ research. Using these tools Spanish teachers will find information on new bibliographical references, Spanish courses, research projects Spanish for foreigners’ schools, and so on.
This article briefly describes the usefulness of some of these tools.
1. E-mail
a) Applied to the practice of skills connected to reading and writing
E-mail messages have a double use for Spanish teachers, since they allow students to work on written texts and offer them authentic reading material in Spanish.
In fact, studies have shown that Spanish learners are much more motivated when they are writing to a real addressee, of whom they expect an immediate reply, than when they write a composition for their teacher, of whom they only expect a correction.
b) As personal attention of Professor
E-mails can facilitate and enhance the teacher's attention to the learning process. E-mails enable teachers to answer in a personalized way to their students. Similarly, the students have more time to reflect and absorb the teacher's observations.
2. The pen-pals (keypal)
Establishing Pen Pal relationships is also a great learning tool, an innovative way to learn Spanish and practice communication skills. There are many sites on the Internet in which our students can register and be matched with a penpal. The participants get to choose the country, hobbies, age and gender of whom they would like to write to.
3. Chats
It is not advisable to use the chat in our Spanish courses.
A chat refers to direct one-on-one communication. Although this synchronous conferencing system is closed to face-to-face communication, chats are not particularly suitable for teaching Spanish as a foreign language, especially because of the speed at which communication takes place.
4. The forums and mailing lists
If we have an email address we will also have access to mailing lists and discussion forums.
Espan. L was the first electronic mailing list in Spanish for discussion and exchange of all kinds of ideas, scoops, news and comments related to various aspects of Spanish teaching and learning.
Among the forums that focus on teaching and learning of Spanish as a foreign language, the Educational Forum of the Instituto Cervantes is worth noticing, as well as the forum of ASELE or the forum of Micastellano.com
