These days, people have been familiar with the Internet. The Internet is a network of thousands of computer networks. Nowadays, the Internet can be used by teachers as a tool for their development and resources for their teaching. The use of the Internet has become an approach to second language or foreign language education. It is said that the Internet is good and appropriate for second language and foreign language learners. I agree with the sentence saying that the Internet is good and appropriate for both learners and teachers since the Internet gives many benefits or advantages. This essay explains the benefits of internet to language learning.
Firstly, the Internet offers a vast amount of information for teachers and students. The Internet is a confederation of thousands of computer from various sector of society such as education, business, government, etc. We can find a whole lot of information about anything, including about education, on the web. Teachers and students can find authentic materials and resources for the language teaching learning activities on the web. There are also lesson plans, worksheets, and ideas about how to teach for teachers. Thus, like it is said in BBC’s Knowledge on the Net, the Internet is a large house with many rooms that are full of information.
Secondly, information on the web is up-to-date and it needs shorter time to search. One of the great advantages of searching information on the web is its being immediate. It means that by using the Internet we can save our time on searching information. Searching information in library will take so much more time than searching information on the web. Instead of turning many pages of many books in library to find information we need, we can just open a programme, click the mouse, and go searching the information we need on the web. Besides, we can find up-to-date information on the web. It is more useful and meaningful having up-to-date information from the web than having out-of-date information from books.
Thirdly, by using internet, learners and teachers can create meaningful interaction and communication. The web is not only about information but also about communication. Learners and teachers can communicate each other more intense than communicate in class since there is no time limitation. Those students who have problems in expressing what they want to say in the target language in class might write to their teachers. Meanwhile, teachers are able to meet and interact with other teachers from around the world through the Internet. Teachers can discuss and share their problems about language teaching and try to solve the problems. Dave ESL Café is an example of sites where teachers can discuss their problems. And also, according to Meena Singhal in her article ‘The Internet and Foreign Language Education: Benefits and Challenges’, learners can stimulate authentic communication and develop specific communication skills by communicating through the Internet with other learners or with their own teachers. Indeed, communication can greatly enhance the language learning experience, so that the Internet is a positive thing for learners. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the Internet doesn’t isolate learners from their families, peers or communities. Actually, the Internet connects learners to others within or outside of the communities. Briefly, meaningful interaction and communication, which are good for teachers and students, can happen through the Internet.
Fourth, the use of the Internet promotes higher order thinking skill. The Internet can also be used to serve a medium for experiencing and presenting creative works. Being creative means improving our thinking skill. By browsing the net, where we can see many other teachers’ and learners’ point of view about some issues and get used to up-to-date issues, a teacher or a student might get involved on to the web so that he or she might promote his or her thinking skill. He or she will not only comprehend and apply information but also start to try to analyse, synthesize and evaluate the information. Learners’ achievement, including achievement in language learning, will be increased by having higher thinking skill. Thus, the Internet is proper for promoting higher order thinking.
Fifth, learning through the Internet is so much better than learning in a traditional language laboratory. The traditional language laboratory involves a series of booths. Each booth provides a cassette deck, microphone, and headphone. In traditional language laboratory teacher monitors students’ interaction by control panel. It was soon recognized that such activity in traditional language laboratory were both tedious and boring. Besides, interaction between teacher and students is limited and the equipments are complex in traditional language laboratory. Those factors led to the Internet using in teaching-learning. It has been shown that through the Internet, learners increase their motivation to learn. Even, it is said that the primary reason of using the Internet in language learning is because the learners love it. The Internet is the real motivator. Learners can experience challenging learning through the Internet. In short, the Internet is better than traditional laboratory in learning and teaching language.
Sixth, both teachers and students can increase interests and skills development in current technology. As we all know, technology is improving all the time so that all of us should be familiar with the technology. Teachers and learners should be aware of the development of technology. By using the Internet teachers and students get in touch with technology all the time so that they might grow their interests and skills in current technology, at least the Internet. To be brief, both teachers and students won’t be old-fashioned about technology and they might be more skilled in modern technology.
To conclude, the Internet offers many benefits on language learning. The first benefit is that the Internet offers a vast amount of information for teachers and students. Second, the information on the web is up-to-date and it needs short time to search the information that we want on the web. Third, teachers and learners can create meaningful interaction and communication by using the Internet. Indeed, communication can enhance the language learning experience. Fourth, higher order thinking skill can be improved through using the Internet. Fifth, learning through the Internet is so much better than learning in a traditional language laboratory. And the sixth benefit of using the Internet is that both teachers and students can increase interests and skills development in current technology.
Yuanita DI
