Osaka Kyoiku University Department of English Education

Japan

Blended teaching &

The Use of Technology in Teaching English As a Foreign Language

The use of Hot-Potatoes Software as a Sample

A. Karim Benlaayouni

Blended teaching &

The Use of Technology in Teaching English As a Foreign Language

The use of Hot-Potatoes Software as a Sample

A.Karim Benlaayouni

Blended Teaching and The Use of Technology in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Copyright 2006 by Abdelkarim Benlaayouni All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying recording, or otherwise, without permission from the author. Printed in Japan Binding company: Yamada binding co.ltd Yamada Morio Osaka/ Japan

To

The soul of my father who went to meet his lord While my training period in Japan

And

To my child Mohamed Walid who is now my future hope

Acknowledgements This research would not have come to existence unless the wise

guidance and the continuous advices of many people on the top of whom I have to mention my academic advisor Mrs. Haruyo Yoshida in the department of English education at Osaka kyoiku University. She has always been a reference and guide throughout the on going of the work.

I also dedicate this modest work to my family especially my

mother whose prayers have always been a light house in the dark oceans of my life

Finally and most importantly to my wife Hanane (tenderness in Arabic) to whom I am indebted and I say, This research would not exist

without your encouragements and your patience in educating our child. May love surround our small and beautiful family.

Amen

Preface Written by a leading authority in Morocco in both language teaching and in e-Learning of four skills in English as a second or foreign language, this paper is the most comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of the assessment of methodology using technology in language class. This volume is unique in that it reviews theory, research and practice in the assessment of e-Learning. It provides the novice with a comprehensive overview of the basic principles of e-Learning, and the researcher with an in-depth discussion of the major issues in the field. Osaka Kyoiku University Japan Haruyo Yoshida

Table of content

Preface Abstract 01 Introduction 03 The history of using technology in foreign language teaching 07

A/ The bahavioristic CALL 09 B/ The communivative CALL 10 C/ The integrative CALL 12

The advantages of integrating technology in teaching foreign languages 17 Towards a Blended Teaching language approach 23 About VOA materials and Hot Potatoes software 31 A Hot Potatoes sample for Moroccan High School English Language Program 37 Recommendations and References for On-line teaching 47

A/ For vocabulary 49 B/ For reading Skills 50 C/ For listening Skills 51 D/ For integrated Skills 52

E/ For Speaking Skills 52 F/ For Writing Skills 53 G/ For grammar and structures 54 H/ For Games and activities 55 I/ For Music and lyrics 55 J/ For international understanding 55 K/ For professional development 56

Conclusion 59 Bibliography 63 Acronyms and figures 66 Annexes 67

Abstract

Teaching foreign languages in general and English in particular has always been a fertile field for experiments and analysis with the aim of making it more efficient and fruitful

. Nowadays with the greatest technological development,

education seems to keep hand in hand with the recent innovations and tries to make use of these technological means either in the way of training teachers or in the ordinary classes for school learners. This can be clearly noticed in the fields of on-line learning and distance learning as well as the gradual integration of computers and Internet in teaching and learning processes.

As a student in the English department in high school and at the university, I used to observe our teachers and think about what was helpful in our learning; and now as a teacher of English, I learnt through experience, discussion with other teachers, and through study of methodology what works for us personally and for others in our field. The dream of ameliorating my teaching techniques and doing something that would facilitate the learners tasks has always been bothering me. Therefore this work goes in the same stream in the sense that it traces the historical background of the relationship between teaching English and using technology but always with great emphasis on the role of the human factor in the teaching/ learning process including the teacher and the student as well. My research thus supports the so-called blended teaching wherein technology/ the computer is working complementarily with the teacher in order to give high quality instruction and practice.

The second part of this paper is to some extent practical: I introduced the Hot Potatoes software as an example of exercise program that teachers can apply when trying to blend their teaching of English. I used this software and applied it to the Moroccan textbook of English Quick Way. I tried to make a specific Hot Potatoes for each unit according to the tasks and themes in the original units of the book. After or while studying with their teachers, Learners of English can have access to other reading and

listening tasks as well as some extra practice activities in grammar and structures etc similar to those they did with the teacher. Teachers in turn, can make use of these exercises either inside the classroom by making students work in pairs or in groups according to the infrastructure or assign these exercises as homework or as follow up activities.

Finally I tried to provide some 110 links to the teachers who

want to integrate technology and benefit from the greatest number of information on the Internet. In order not to be lost between websites and homepages I suggested some very useful educational references on-line for teaching English language. I divided the list according to the main tasks of teaching English: reading. writing, speaking, listening and, of course, structures and vocabulary as well as some games and activities. The list is not inclusive but may be helpful especially for teachers (and students as well) who are not very skillful in browsing and searching for such information on the web.

To conclude, its worth mentioning that the computer, as any

other technology means, is not a method. Rather it is a mere machine that needs to receive instructions from a human being in order to be able to do the tasks assigned to it. Therefore, the role of technology and the teacher are complementary and thus a teacher without any technological means is hopeless and technology without human factor is useless.

Introduction

E- Learning has witnessed a tremendous growth

In the last few Years especially for

Distance learning,

Adult education &

Technical or business

Education.

The world has witnessed a subtle technological revolution in all the fields of life. And the expansion of the digital technology as well as the World Wide Web have made peoples life and services easier than ever especially as far as the information is concerned. Technology has become a powerful feature of this time and it manages to break the frontiers between countries by opposing a new language, that of the computer, which changed the world into a small and unified town governed by information.

Education has also benefited from this technological revolution especially with the development of the digital technology which gave birth to the so-called E learning which, in fact, not only managed to go beyond the time and space hindrances of the teaching/learning process; but also contributed in creating new markets and prospects as well as new investigating opportunities that the traditional teaching system couldnt create or even reach.

On line learning or electronic learning refers to the new trend of Education wherein learners are no longer getting lessons in the traditional way: a teacher giving a lesson to students only in a classroom using a textbook and a blackboardrather teaching became computer based and lectures are given overseas using the most developed means.

E- Learning is an outcome of the technological revolution especially with the development of the digital system. And it has witnessed a tremendous growth in the last few years especially for distance learning, adult education, as well as technical or business education.

E- Learning differs from the traditional way of teaching/learning in the sense that it is based on learning on-line which implies learning through the computer and the net. The use of the computer in e-learning implies the inclusion of this new method under the realm of CALL (computer assisted language learning) or CBI (computer based instruction or (TELL) technology enhanced language learning or (CMC) computer mediated communication

In fact using the computer in specific and technology in

general in teaching is not a new phenomenon with E-learning, especially in the field of teaching/learning foreign languages because all methods, starting from the grammar translation method, had their own techniques.

Though On-line language learning/ teaching has been very

satisfactory for both learners and administrators on the one hand, and teachers on the other hand, the task is still complex and challenging especially for teachers because of many hindrances we will talk about in details later.

On line learning has a lot of drawbacks and shortages that still need to be considered. But if an on-line lesson or activity is implemented beside the traditional class work as a follow up or a continuation to the teachers work in the class room, it would give much more opportunities to students to learn more and different things about the same issue. This is what we will refer to in this paper as blended teaching. On- line learning can never replace a teacher; rather it can be a useful part to make the teachers work more effective and fruitful. Therefore, in this research I will first shed some light on the history of using technology in language teaching. Then I will try to justify the benefits of integrating new technology in teaching foreign languages in general and English in particular for both the teachers and the learners.

The main emphasis of this research will be on blending

teaching in which traditional face-to-face teaching is supplemented by online materials and activities. Therefore I will give a sample of these online activities by adapting the hot potatoes soft ware. I will use material from VOA (voice of America) in order to make a sample of Hot Potatoes exercises compatible with the program of English traced in the Moroccan textbook Quick Way. It will include activities that deal with the four skills integrativelly: reading, writing, speaking and listening. This software will be initially based

on the program of English language in the Moroccan high school textbook, as a first step, as a support to the teachers work in the classroom, with the hope of generalizing the process for all levels later. I will also provide a list of websites and homepage addresses

wherein teachers of English can find on line activities and games to use in the course of their teaching process.

So how did CALL develop throughout the development of

foreign language methodology development? What are the advantages of introducing technology in foreign language classes? What is Hot Potatoes? And in what sense can it be useful for both teachers and learners of English as a foreign language? And where can teacher find easy appropriate activities to blend their teaching?

A brief history of

Technology & Language teaching

Every type of language teaching has had

its own technologies

To support it.

Most of the recent studies of language teaching methodology

tend to consider the 1980s as a starting point for the integration of

using technology in language learning especially with the development of the CALL system. In fact every type of language teaching has had its own technologies to support it.

Starting from the grammar translation method to the communicative approaches teachers of language have being using different means and tools in order to transmit their messages to the learners at different levels.

First the blackboard has been a basic means used from the time of the grammar translation and the audio-lingual method wherein the teacher used to explain the grammatical rules and the students do the translations. During that time of teacher-dominated classrooms, with the one-way transmission of information method, the blackboard was a very useful and suitable means for language teaching.

Later, other tools such as the over-head projectors, the audiotapes, and language labs as well as the computer software programs supplemented the blackboard. As Barson Debski (1996) claim, "Though CALL has developed gradually over the last 30 years, this development can be categorized in terms of three somewhat distinct phases Behavioristic CALL, Communicative CALL, and Integrative CALL"

So what are the different phases of CALL? How did it develop? How did these phases relate to each other in a gradual way? What are the roles computers were assumed to play during each phase of CALL? A/ Behavioristic Call Shift in perspectives on language learning/teaching have paralleled developments in technology from the main frame to the

personal to the networked computers. Charles Crook (1994) posited three "metaphors" of computer based education activities "a tutorial metaphor (the computer as a tutor), a construction metaphor (the computer as a pupil), and a tool box metaphor (computer as a tool)" In the 1950s and till the 70s when the behavioristic theory of language teaching was dominating, CALL was introduced in the field of language teaching in the course of the repetitive language drills known as "Drill and practice" pejoratively known as "Drill and kill". Drill and practice courseware is based on the model of the computer as "Tutor" the computer was considered as a vehicle for delivering instructional material to students. Mainframe computers were at first seen as the taskmaster programs, they were designed to provide immediate positive or negative feedback to learners on the formal accuracy of the learners' responses in the sense that repeated drills on the same material was essential to learning. The computer, being a machine, is never bored from repetition and it provides objective (non-judgmental) feedback. The computer was very convenient in presenting material on an individualized basis. The PLATO hardware that includes vocabulary drills, brief grammar explanation and drills, translation tests was one of the most sophisticated of these tutoring systems. These drill programs were criticized in the point that they provoked no excitement among teachers and learners as well. Moreover they proved to be unsophisticated because they were allowing only one acceptable response per item. These factors hand in hand with the drawbacks of the behavioristic approach; namely its inability to present authentic communication, led to think about more sophisticated personal computers and thus a second generation of CALL came into existence. B/ Communicative CALL During the 70s and particularly in the 80s, Krashen language acquisition theory, as well as the growth in socio-linguistics led to a great focus on the role of meaning and communication in language learning. With the emergence of the

cognitive approaches to language learning, CALL, itself, shifted emphasis from the structures to the learners. Learners were assumed to " construct new knowledge through exploring micro-worlds which provide opportunities for problem-solving and hypothesis-testing which allow the learners to utilize their existing knowledge to develop new understandings"(Richards 1990) computers were seen, then, as things to be controlled by the learners rather than controlling learners. Communicative CALL focuses more on using forms rather than the forms themselves. It tries to teach grammar implicitly and allow students to generate original sentences instead of manipulating pre-fabricated language. Communicative CALL neither judges students nor does it evaluate them. The strongest point of communicative CALL is that it is flexible to a variety of students' responses and it allows using language in a natural context. Always within the communicative CALL, a socio-cognitive approach to the use of the computer was based on the shift from the learners' interaction with computers to interaction with other humans via the computer. Warschauer (2000) states this as follows "the basis for this new approach to CALL lies in both theoretical and technological developments. Theoretically, there has been the boarder emphasis on meaningful interaction in authentic discourse communication. Technologically, there has been the development of computer networking, which allows the computer to be used as a vehicle for interactive human communication" communicative CALL aimed at " helping students develop their own mental models through the use of the target language (Paul Gruba 2004) the activities for communicative CALL include "describe photographs, give directions, or express an opinion (Ibid). Programs for paced learning; text construction and language games are among the programs developed during this period. Like in the behavioristic call, the computer was a "knower of the right answer" but it was also considered a "stimulus" and the role of the computer is not to have students discover the right answer; rather it is to stimulate their discussion, writing or critical thinking. Communicative CALL phase did not differ totally from the behavioristic CALL; rather it served as a bridge to the third phase of

CALL. C /Integrative CALL By the end of the 1980s, critics pointed out that the computer was being used in an ad hoc and disconnected fashion and thus " finds itself making a greater contribution to marginal rather than central elements of the language teaching process" (kenning&kenning 1990) therefore many educators started to look for new methods to teach integratively which necessitated a paralleled development in CALL. Warschauer (1996a) referred to this third phase as Integrative CALL to refer to the efforts at developing models that would integrate various aspects of language learning. Integrative CALL emerged with the objective "to make full use of networked computers as a means to engage learners in meaningful, large-scale collaborative activities" (Debski2000, Warschauer&kern2ooo). It was based on two technological developments of the last decade: Multimedia computers and the Internet. On the one hand, multimedia computers, exemplified by CD ROMs, allow a variety of media: texts, graphics, sound, and videos They provide a "massive storehouse of recorded realia" (Pusak&Otto, 1997). Multimedia is very successful in providing support to different learning styles of language learners by "deploring different neuro-systems in learning through its reliance on sound, color, animation etc" (Hanson-smith, 1997) Multimedia entails hypermedia: all multimedia resources are linked together and the learner can navigate his own path himself. Hypermedia has a lot of advantages in the sense that it creates more authentic environment for learning (it integrates listening and seeing as well); in other words; with hypermedia skills are easily integrated an this facilitates focus on meaning rather than form as Warschauer explains: hypermedia " allows for easy integration of the skills of listening, reading, writing, and speaking, authentic learning experiments, student control over their learning and a focus on the content. Hypermedia also creates an environment for the exploration of vast amounts of information, experimentation and discovery" (Warschauer In Underwood1998). On the other hand, learners become able to communicate

in a direct, inexpensive, and convenient way with other learners or speakers of the target language 24 hours a day either from school or at home or in the work through Internet. In fact on-line communication dates back to the late 1960s when US researchers first developed protocols that allowed the sending and receiving of messages via computers(Hafner&Lyon1969) The ARPANET launched in 1996 evolved into the Internet in the early 20th century. In education, on-line communication became possible from the 1980s. On-line Communication or Computer Mediated Communication implies reading; writing and communicating via networked computers. According to Warschauer it compasses three categories:

Synchronous computer- mediated communication, whereby people communicate in real time via chat or discussion software, with all participants at their computers at the same time.

Asynchronous computer-mediated communication, whereby people communicate in a delayed fashion by computers, e.g. by emails; and some programs such as MOOs that allow people all over the words to interact simultaneously by typing at their keyboard

The reading and writing of on-line documents via the Internet Moreover it allows one-to-many communication instead of only one- to- one communication. Students can browse and search trough limitless fields using the World Wide Web in order to locate and access to authentic materials (magazines, newspapers, articles, short videos, movie reviews) They can also use the net to share and publish their texts or materials. Students in LA PAZ MEXICO make a great use of Internet when they search the web to find articles in their areas of research; they read and study these articles, then write their own drafts online. Later the teachers critique the drafts online and create electronic links to pages of appropriate explanation students would refer to in order to re edit their articles. When they publish them they can receive comments and feedback from over the world. Computers become a medium of global communication and a source of limitless authentic materials. As mentioned before, the computer is a toolbox or workhorse in the sense that programs do

not necessarily any language material, rather they empower the learners to use and understand the language. For instance, word processor, power point, spelling and grammar checkers, concordancers "Syllabus" is the main distinction between communicative CALL and integrative CALL: "Syllabus in communicative CALL is likely to be discrete and related to a set of curricular guidelines that have been defined in advance of learner needs" (corbel 1999) whereas syllabus in integrative CALL "represents a dynamic blue print where learning occurs through accidents generated by project"(Barson 1999)

To sum up, the theoretical perspectives in CALL including

the roles computers are assumed to play can be summarized in the following table:

On line teaching and integrating technology

In the language class:

What is the point?

The advantages of online teaching and using technology in

The Language classroom

Can be interpreted in the light of

The changing goals of language education

&

The changing conditions in postindustrial society

The technological revolution had affected many sides of the human life from the simplest processes to the most complicated acts. Education has being one of these fields which strongly and quickly was affected by the these changes because of many reasons: first the position of science was highly praised namely that the traditional methods of thinking failed to face the new challenges in the educational fields because of the huge amount of information that became available. Hence, it was necessary to reconsider the teaching methods and techniques in order to prepare the students to acquire the new knowledge in the highest quality and shortest amount of time possible. Second the problem of overpopulation growth and the overcrowded classes: it was necessary to consider the social and mental abilities and variations among the different learners. Simultaneously with these changes, the teacher, who used to be the only source of knowledge, gradually started to lose domination and utter control of the teaching / learning process. Many aspects of self-learning developed and more and more sources of knowledge became available including books, references, encyclopedia, CD ROMs, and of course On-line learning. In fact, lots of papers and documents were written praising On-line learning and talking about the positive points of this new way of learning in the sense that it a useful, practical, modern way of learning in general and language learning in particular. But the advantages of online learning and using technology in the language classroom in general can be interpreted in the light of the changing goals of language education and the changing conditions in postindustrial society. Lately, modern language education objective has not only been to teach learners the rules of grammar, but also; and principally, to help them gain apprenticeship into new discourse communities. This can only be achieved through creating natural, authentic, and meaningful interaction. Learning Online or using technology in learning a language is the best means to achieve that goal of international communication. "By using new technologies in the language classroom, we can better prepare students for the kind of international cross-cultural interactions which are increasingly required for success in academic, vocational, or personal life "(Warshauer&meskill p.7). The capacity of communication makes online learning very

attractive for learning languages. Much more attraction and motivation towards learning language is due to the development of on-line learning. Online learning presents authentic material, and this is very beneficial for learning because learners would lose interest unless they feel that what they are learning is relevant to their lives. Students need to feel safe and comfortable in their classroom; if students are not comfortable, they may learn something short term but it will not be acquired. (Krashen1982) Online learning can be an alternative for learners who are more comfortable within individual learning. Online learning allows the students to keep up to date with the recent information because it is based on providing students with authentic materials: basically almost all the information and activities are all reality based ones. Therefore, they are appealing and attracting students. If CALL presents the same material, in the same way and the same analysis of performance, on-line learning provides a multitude of presentations and a wide range of content suitable to different learning styles and strategies. Incorporating pictures from English speaking culture, music and drama in English, power point presentations that include these tools evokes the feeling, in learners, that English is not only a weird way of speaking and writing in their textbooks; but rather it is a communicative tool in the level of big proportions of people in other parts of the world.

Inside the same class, we find a variety of learning styles

and strategies: some students learn visually, while others learn by listening or by movements. Some students prefer individual while others prefer group work thus it is necessary to include all these styles and gear our lessons toward variety of learners. This is getting much easier through the use of technology simply because the use of different media in the classroom inherently offers more visual, aural and kinetic stimuli. Moreover, students can learn through simulation: students can see their pronunciation level or learn how to pronounce through seeing the mouth, tongue, or lips shape and thus try to imitate in order to ameliorate they way of articulating words. Thus with on line learning, students are offered the opportunity to learn spontaneously and according to their own pace without any complexes. Moreover it provides a sort of responsibility to the learners because they, learners, can easily see their results as well as their learning history, progress conditions,

results visually in graph or percentages. It is also a good way for providing feedback because teachers; on the basis of their learners results, can offer materials, which are suitable to each individual learner. Online leaning can be a good solution to substitute the shortage in the human resources in the field of education the so-called virtual classes which start to become popular in many countries in different degrees. Also the training courses for teachers can be done easily and with the least number of instructors. Moreover, the computer is not merely a teaching tool, rather it makes the teachers role less and less difficult and provides him with extra-time to check for various activities and better teaching methods and techniques, Despite all the advantages and benefits a learner can get from learning on line, still many researchers are cautious about it. They claim that there are many drawbacks and demerits of learning online. In fact, one of the most urgent questions that should be asked is whether or not technologies truly "work", that is, do technologies promote language learning? This leads us to inquire also about the demerits of online learning. Thus we can find almost for every positive point mentioned earlier a negative point. These negative points of e learning can be divided into two categories: human and non-human factors. On the one hand, the multiplicity of styles and contents provided by Internet use can be one of the short comings of the new medium, and this puts forward the famous question whether students do, in fact, make the best use of hypertext and hypermedia material offered by the on-line learning. Garrett (1991) stated this problematic in a set of questions that he summarized as follows: "if learners have access to a lot of data regarding something they need to know an unspecified amount about reference materials or related bodies of more or less directly relevant information, far more can realistically be accessed , what do they in fact look up? Do they know what they need to look for? How do they make use of it? In the long run, do they perhaps learn as much from browsing, in what might seem to us an inefficient or purposeless way, as from directed explorations? How freely does what kind of student at what level of learning browse or explore? Do learners get lost moving around in an infinitely complex set of related data? What kind of student gets lost under what circumstances? What kind of lesson structure

or visual clues tend to prevent them from getting lost" These questions, in fact, represent challenges to the use of on-line learning environments for language learning. The same opinion was strongly stressed by Harmer (2003) when saying, though there are wonders and marvels a-plenty on the Internet, there is a lot of rubbish too, and worse On the other hand, problems related to the issues of hardware and scheduling can be a hedge to the success of on-line learning. Sometimes language labs are unavailable, also malfunctioning of software and/or hard ware can spoil all the teachers' efforts, namely that some computer programs are not yet intelligent enough to be truly interactive: they cannot diagnose student's problems with pronunciation, syntax, or usage... Other financial problems can be summarized in the high cost of computers and Internet connection in many countries as well as the hardware cost, lack of quality software etc. Another human factor related to both the learners and the teachers is that students may not have the prerequisites computer skills that would guarantee success in this type of learning. Teachers problem can be summarized in Singhal s (1997) statement that "lack of training and familiarity on part of the teachers can make it difficult to implement the Internet in the language classroom". Generally a pure online course remains always incomplete and can never substitute a normal class wherein students share the feeling of learning with each other and with the teacher as well. You can get a lot of information and knowledge in an online class or even in a video- conference course but you can never feel that you are learning since the classroom represents an interactive context between the instructor and the learners; and within this context learning takes place. An online course may ensure that teaching takes place but cannot determine whether learning happens or not. This is justified by the importance of the Para-linguistic factors that affect the learning process.

On line and face-to face approaches:

A step towards

Blended Teaching

The focal point of Blended Teaching is

The ability of relating on-line materials to real classes

In order to

Make more effective teaching. As we have mentioned, the computer has become a characteristic of this age and the language of the future. But this machine remains useless unless it receives the instructions from the man through what is known as artificial intelligence; in this case the computer starts to think and distinguish the forms, letters and codes transmitted to it by the man. Therefore, both the computer and the man are interdependent in the sense that the power of the computer lies in its speed and preciseness while the humans power is in his intelligence. The relationship between these two vital constituents can be complementary if each side provides the other

with its strength. The output, then, would be characterized with speed and intelligence. Many people were suspicious about the relationship between man and the computer thinking that this latter may substitute the man. But in fact, in the same way the integration of the machine in the industrial revolution resulted in increasing mans power and capacity; the integration of the computer in many fields such as statistics and calculationswould certainly increase the human beings intelligence. The field of education is not an exception of this interdependent relationship between the man and the machine. Learning, on the one hand is basically a human faculty; and the teachers role is very compulsory and can never be replaced by a machine. On the other hand, technology and media are of great importance and help to the teacher in his class. And despite the disadvantages and dangers of online learning mentioned in the previous chapter, it remains a very useful means of language learning provided that some conditions and guidelines are followed in order to ensure success of that experience. Teachers in general should carefully and clearly trace their goals in order to organize the appropriate activities that would fulfill these goals. They should also provide students with handouts, training sessions, pair-work and direct assistance as means to support them and prevent them from being lost between links and hypertexts The computer, as an example, is one of the most useful technology means that would facilitate the role for both the learner and the teacher. But part of the effectiveness of teaching and learning with technology is due to the computers ability to perform tasks that are difficult or impossible to do without technology (Windeschtill 1998). Thus computers can free the learner from doing some tedious tasks such as sorting, storing information and concentrate on higher order tasks. The computer also can transfer information from tables to graphs or equations. Also it can easily manipulate texts and images etc. Besides, the web in service to the learner, (the web) is less a transformer of data or processor of symbol systems; its more a conduit to other peoples information. Thousands of computers all over the word function as websites with pages that can be accessed by anyone connected to the web(Ibid). Yet these means can be very destructive if not

conducted in a healthy way especially that these pages and texts have hyperlinks wherein a learner may be lost as we mentioned before. And as we saw in early chapters, the history of CALL showed that the computer could serve a variety of uses for language teaching: tutor, stimulus, toolbox, or a medium to global communication and a source of authentic materials. But as Garrett (1991) pointed out "the use of the computer does not constitute a method" rather; it is a "medium in which a variety of methods, approaches, and pedagogical philosophies may be implemented"(p.75). Therefore, in order to avoid these negative sides of e learning and make the best use of technology in our teaching, it is better not to reject any of the aspects of the teaching / learning process namely the teacher. In other words, technology in general can be included in the traditional classroom system and both the teacher and the computer work together in order to teach the learners more effectively. The teacher can provide a very effective and useful guidance to the learners in order to get the best side of these technological facilities. The teacher's main role in on-line activities is to help students develop their own learning strategies as Warschauer (1996) argues: "teachers must learn to become a "guide on the stage" rather than a "sage on the stage. So we can notice that there is a sort of interdependence between the teacher and the computer, as a technological mean. This is what theory defines as blended learning, mixed teaching, hybrid teaching etc. Blended teaching has become a necessity especially with the big socio-economic changes schools and universities are undergoing: society is in a continuous evolution; which in turn calls for an evolution in the educational fields. Nowadays most of the schools have the minimum basic computer equipments and learners are getting more and more informed. Learners are no longer the receptive minds that come to school in order to know rather they become participants in the courses. And great interest in Life Long Learning is growing. All these factors oblige the educational system to come more and more flexible and appeal to the different students needs and expectations. Blended learner fits very well for these conditions, as it is learner-centered rather than the ordinary classes

that are basically teacher-centered. Moreover it is able to cover the variety of levels. Blended teaching is teaching which combines online and face-to-face approaches. That is, teaching inside a classroom by resorting to elements of on line learning. We can even consider blended teaching an online teaching that is processed in a classroom in the presence and with the guidance of a teacher. In a hybrid course a significant portion of online activities are brought to the classroom and been done under the guidance of a teacher. The objective is of course to benefit from the best features of both classroom context and online facilities in order to develop active independent learners who are taking part in the on going of the lesson. Class seat time will be reduced since student are assigned tasks to do and are no longer receptive of the information, rather they become seeker for it: students browse and check for the information themselves through the net and thus they will learn how to manage the learning as well as the search time. By embedding human interaction with technology facilities in learning programs, educators exploit the media effectiveness to aid learning through blending face to-face experiences with both synchronous and asynchronous on line tools and methods in an appropriate mix. The focal point of blended teaching is the ability of relating on-line materials to real classes in order to make more effective teaching. And success of blended teaching depends to a great extent on how much the teacher is able to relate the material available with his real class in a cooperative and complementary way to give effective lessons. The fact of mixing itself is not an absurd process; rather teachers should be very alert and decide what to mix with what and how. There must be the so-called in philosophy epistemological rupture which means rejecting the negative side of the both parts and trying to fit the positive points in order to fit the objective of teaching. Teachers should look how online activities would make their teaching more effective and raise students motivation more and more with the less costs and efforts: for instance minimizing the T.T.T (teacher talking time) and maximizing the S.T.T (students talking time) and interaction.

The educators role in blended learning is much more a mentor rather than a teacher / lecturer. The teachers role in a Hybrid course is a much more an organizer and facilitator of the learning process. Collis &Moonen (2001) suggest that the key role of the instructor is becoming those of activity planning, monitoring, and quality control Thus in order to blend a course, for instance, a teacher may start his lesson by making his students check one or two of their friends journal online and make any comments briefly as a warm up activity. Or conduct a brief discussion (we usually call it 5 minutes activity) about the recent issues and exchange opinions about topics of their interest such as Sports, Incidents, University life, Political issues, newest discoveries, their problems with learning, each others hobbies and favorite singer or actor Then the teacher starts the lesson by introducing the main activity.

Take for example, reading: the teacher first asks two or three

general questions in advance about the main topic of reading, students at home check for material related to it then when they come to the class a brief discussion between the students according to their findings and share the information they got. Quickly the teacher does the skimming and scanning tasks on the basis of what is in the textbook. If there are any grammatical structures to be thought, after being introduced by the teacher, students are referred to a home page or a web site for structures (below is a list of useful addresses according to the different skills). The students either in pairs/ groups or individually do some exercises on line such as in the hot potatoes program that I will talk about in the following chapter. They can be referred to a crossword puzzle in order to recapitulate and practice the vocabulary covered in the whole unit or chapter. Finally, students may be assigned a follow up activity or exercise to check at home from the net, they may be asked to work in groups about a special topic and give small presentations every time to their colleagues either orally or by using power point slides etc.

The teacher is always there as a guide and mentor to follow

and check the way students are working and encourage them to take charge of their own learning and help them to learn at their own

pace. We can always notice that the presence of the teacher as a monitor is encouraged and the time of learning is extended since half of the tasks turn to become as assignments and homework. And learners are given some freedom with responsibility on their learning. Moreover, competition between students will remarkably rise since every student will try to bring something different from the others. Still blended teaching is not that easy as it may seem at the first glance; it is a difficult task especially from the part of the teacher who should work constantly in order to check for the appropriate material and try to adapt it to the courses and the objectives of his lessons. Also there is a great need for the teacher to construct classroom homepages as a way of making material. Such a homepage will include a set of information needed in a certain time for certain students with certain levels. But these homepages need to be updated every time according to the improvement of study. Moreover, a considerable level of technical knowledge from the part of the teacher and students is compulsory as well as continuous training to keep with the innovations in the technical field. Of course a minimum background of technical support and budget should be provided to the teachers willing to integrate technology in their classes and blend their traditional courses with online activities. Experience in many countries has proved that these difficulties have and will never be an obstacle in front of blended teaching. What is needed is only a certain amount of devotion and will: teachers should convince themselves that blending their teaching is a gradual process and with the minimum equipments teachers and learners would reach the goal provided that their objectives are clearly stated from the beginning.

About VOA (voice of America) material

&

Hot Potatoes software

VOA is basically a teaching tool Targeting non-native speakers of English

To Encourage them communicate with each other

In easy and understandable ways &

Learn by them selves.

Hot Potatoes is Software, which comprises Six authoring tools

that would enable language teachers to Create interactive web-based exercises of several basic types.

A/ VOA (voice of America) material

During the training course I had in Japan (October2004-

Marsh, 2006), two small books entitled Voice of America (VOA) were introduced to me by Yoshida Haruyo; one of the authors of VOA. Each book contains 12 units accompanied with an audio CD for listening activities. The data in VOA is very simple and I thought it could be a useful teaching tool because of the variety of themes and activities each unit has. VOA is basically a teaching tool targeting non-native speakers of English to encourage them to communicate with each other in easy and understandable ways and help students learn by themselves. VOA is not a new program; rather it was first broadcasted in October19th, 1959; but still it is popular all over the world and it is being broadcasted for more than 40 years.

These VOA texts can be a suitable reading material by excellence for three simple reasons: Firstly, because they are wholly

constructed of only 1500 selected vocabulary words, and this made them, to a great extent, compare favorably with graded readers. Such a characteristic of VOA material facilitates readability and encourages comprehension as Nation (2001) says It was found that comprehension increased in a predictable way as the density of unknown words decreased. To gain adequate comprehension of the text; most readers would need to know 98% of the running words in the text Moreover, this limited number of running words in VOA makes it possible to control the vocabulary intended to be taught, and it ensures that learners will not face many difficulties. Also at the end of the program they can learn most if not all the sample 1500 words.

Secondly, script of the VOA texts has a sound version, which

is supposed to be used for teaching listening. These listening tasks are very convenient for students level especially non-native learners. These listening texts are spoken in a speed slower than the normal speed of news and everyday conversations. The texts are read in a speed 30 percent slower than the normal speed of news as heard in the TV and radio etc; and this ensures that students would understand greater proportions of the listening materials.

Finally, VOA data in general is arranged in an easy and

accessible way because there is only one idiom per sentence; each sentence expresses one idea at a time. And this facilitates the tasks of reading and speaking to students and ensures comprehension. Moreover, learners can get VOA material for listening and reading either from Internet and/ or watch video of the topic without any need to pay for it since it is free from charge and there is no copyright for this material in general.

For all these reasons, I have chosen to use the VOA as a basic material with the hot potatoes software to make some exercises and activities for learners of English as a foreign language.

B/ The Hot Potatoes software

Hot Potatoes is program that had been developed in the computing and media center of the University of Victoria Humanities in Canada. Basically it is software, which comprises six authoring tools that would enable language teachers to create interactive web-based exercises of several basic types. (From Hot potatoes tutorial.) Hot potatoes software comprises five different types of exercises: J cloze, J quiz, J match, J mix, J cross and the masher.

So it is based on a variety of exercises that encompass almost

all the aspects of the process of learning a foreign language. The J cloze for instance is basically a cloze and gap filling exercise. It can be used for reading or listening tasks because the student needs to read or listen to the passage and fill in all the gaps then check the answers. When the student finds a difficulty with any gap he can click on a hint button to be given a free letter for that particular word. For vocabulary, J cross is a very useful exercise because it allows the students to revise or learn their vocabulary in a crossword puzzle. J quiz; on the other hand, is a tool for making question based exercises. Each quiz can comprise an unlimited number of questions of the following four types: multiple choice questions, short answer questions, hybrid questions (A combination of multiple choice and short answer questions), and multi-select questions. Hot potatoes s J mix is used to create jumbled exercises wherein words can be jumbled in a sentence or letters in a word etc. J match is also very useful for many tasks wherein students are required to match the right side items to the left hand ones in order to make the appropriate sentence or statement. It is also possible to use the drag-drop format of the J match in order to match vocabulary items to graphics. Hot potatoes also includes a masher, which is a different kind of application from the others in the Hot Potatoes suite. It's intended to help you make larger units of materials, linked together.

All the hot potatoes exercises are not complicated and they are easy for the teacher to make because The exercises are standard Web pages using XHTML 1.1 code for display, and JavaScript (ECMA Script) for interactivity. The authoring tools will also handle Unicode, so you can create exercises in virtually any language, or in a mixture of languages. You don't need to know anything about XHTML or JavaScript to use the programs. All you need to do is to enter your data -- texts, questions, answers etc. -- and the programs will create the Web pages for you. Then you can post them on your Web site(Ibid). All that a teacher needs is to download the hot potatoes from any motor of research such as Google or yahoo. Without any need to pay because it is free

from charge.

Hot Potatoes exercises are not fixed in the sense that teachers who are familiar with HTML or JavaScript code, can make almost any change in the way the exercises work, or even modify the format of the Web pages by attaching reading or listening materials to a J quiz or combining several exercises in a single J mix

As for the students, Hot potatoes exercises are not complicated to be used because each exercise is given a title and there are clear instructions accompanied with a set of buttons that allow the student to control his learning. For instance all the exercises can have a hint button, which is a sort of help to the learner in case of difficulty. Also there is the clue button, through which the learner can receive specific clues of a gap when included in the exercise.

Hot Potatoes in fact is a useful tool that can be used for teaching/ learning as well as for testing at the same time. The learner can do the exercises and receive the feedback including the score and the correct answers without any need to consult a teacher because at the bottom of all the exercises there is a check button on which the student can click after he finishes all the questions. Then he can mark the answers and thus the correct answers are inserted into the text. But any incorrect answers will be left in textboxes, so that they can be corrected. When the student checks an answer that is not completely correct, a penalty is incurred, so the score depends on the number of checks required before the answer is completely correct.(Ibid.) So Hot potatoes is a very good self-learning tool through which slow as well as fast learners can learn independently and gradually; and thus it fits with the main essence of e learning.

Teachers may share their exercises and provide students with an infinite set of activities by placing their exercises on a publicly accessible web server and use the hot potatoes suite free of charge. Students also need to pay nothing to have access to the tasks and activities launched on the hot potatoes site, as it is free from charge too.

Applying Hot Potatoes software

For the Moroccan High School textbook of English

Quick way

Unit 12

Human geography

As a sample

In Morocco, English is being taught as a 2nd foreign language

(with French as a first foreign language). The program of English has always been question of change according to the changes in language teaching methodology and students needs for both the international understanding and the vocational requirements of the learners etc. For the last decade, the textbooks for English language have been changed many times from Steps to English to English in Life then focus and the recent series of Quick Way that has been launched since2002.

As a teacher of English in the high school, I will shed more lights on the Quick Way series for high school level. Unlike in Japan wherein there are a variety of textbooks in the country or rather inside the same city or prefecture, Quick Way is a unified textbook for the Moroccan students of English all over the country. This textbook has two main targets as traced in the introduction to the Teacher textbook Quick Way3: A/ Equip the students with some study skills, which will help them carry on their education at tertiary level. B/ Develop the students critical thinking abilities The book is divided into 10 units. Each unit includes activities that cover all the skills: reading, listening, speaking, writing, vocabulary, and grammar. The 10 units of Quick Way3 are respectively entitled: 1- The first world war 2-Minorities 3- language 4-Human rights 5- leisure 6- Business 7- our environment 8- Women in the World 9- Human Geography 10- African and Arab Writers.

On another hand, Morocco in general is witnessing a kind of gradual development of information technology: computers seem to have invaded most of the houses and the cost of Internet is getting much more available for people either to be connected in their houses or in what is known as cyber net cafes. The integration of technology in the school is no longer such a big hindrance since almost all the high schools have a media room equipped with computers and connected to the web.

For these reasons I have decided to introduce the hot potatoes software for the Moroccan teachers and students of English in order to be used for their exercises in relation to the units they have in the textbook. With reference to the content of Quick Way I have made some sample exercises using the Hot Potatoes software. The data in the Hot potatoes exercises is related to the same theme of the units in Quick Way: similar semantic field, same grammatical structures

Take for instance Unit 9 of Quick way 3 Human Geography we find that it comprises texts of reading related to the following semantic fields: Urbanization, big and small cities, big and small family, rural immigration, population growth The sub-reading skills of this unit are: reading a graph and information transfer, surveying a text in order to recall information by extracting the main idea. Hot potatoes on the other hand can be very useful either to give more practice to students in the same skills or to introduce other different reading tasks such as gap filling, short answers, multiple choice etc always related to the same vocabulary words and themes of the unit. Therefore the following J cloze is an example of exercise entitled Family Planning Policy as follows: J Cloze

(Figure N 1)

In this J cloze, students have a reading text extracted from VOA about Family Planning Policy. The exercise is very clear and students can handle it in an easy way: first there is a title of the text and information about the nature of the exercise (gap filling), and there are clear instructions in the top of the page. Students are required to read the text carefully and from the context try to fill in the blanks with an appropriate word. The key words that may be difficult for students are already underlined and written in bold letter; students have only to pass the mouse curser on the word and they can get the explanation. There is a precise space for the gap to fill in, also there is a hint button {?} which provides the students with a free letter of the answer. On the bottom of the exercise, the students can click a {check} button and thus the correct answers will be inserted in the text while the incorrect ones will be left empty for another trial. The students will be given a final score according to how many correct answers they have. The same text can be used differently: for short answers and this can be done in a J Quiz wherein students are given a text to read and answer some short questions of comprehension. J Quiz is also processed in the same way as the J cloze: J Quiz

(Figure N 2) The same or a different text can be used for listening and either gap filling tasks or short answers or multiple-choice etc. Hot potatoes allows the attachment of a media file either sound or video. This allows reading script to become at the same time listening activities for example. Thus the same J quiz or J cloze that is used for reading can become a listening exercise with similar or different tasks and the students have clear captions and can start listening to the passage as many times as they need. The J cloze below shows a text about family planning policy with an audio file and students at the same time can listen and follow in the text then fill in the blanks with the missing word. J Cloze (With listening file)

(Figure N 3) There are also many grammatical points covered in this unit: using the morethe more/ reviewing comparatives/ reviewing the conditional These grammatical structures can also be well practiced through a Hot potatoes J match as shown bellow: J Match (standard)

(Figure N 4)

This J match is standard and can be very useful for the students to practice comparatives and the more the more

structure. Another type of J Match is known as drag drop wherein items on the right should be matched with those on the left. This drag-drop exercise is more convenient when students are required to match graphics to words as shown in the following example: J Match (drag-drop)

(Figure N 5)

The previous structure the morethe more was applied in this format of drag drop J Match and students have to match the right hand clause with the left hand to form correct compound or complex sentences and check whether their answers are correct or not.

(Figure N 6) As for conditional sentences, they can be either done

through a J Mach or a J Mix as the following example shows: J Mix (Question screen)

(Figure N 7) In this exercise students are required to put the words of the sentence in the correct order in order to form a correct conditional sentence. And of course they can receive some hints or restart if they want to make any change in the ordering of the parts. At the end they can ask for checking their answers and can receive the feedback with the other acceptable responses for that particular sentence if there are any. This looks like this: J Mix (Answer screen)

(Figure N 8)

Hot potatoes software has also a very convenient exercise for enriching vocabulary and learning the meaning of different words through definitions. This can be done simply in a crossword puzzle wherein students are given definitions of words to think about and fill in a puzzle both horizontally and vertically. As the example below shows, on the screen, the student has the instructions on the top, and he has to click on a number in the grid to get the clues for that particular word. He has to write it in the specified space then press enter to be inserted in the chart and when he finishes he clicks on {check} button to receive score and feedback about his answers. We can also notice that there is an icon for timing 14:12. This is optional and can be used not only for this type of exercise but also for all the types of Hot potatoes in order to limit the time for doing the exercises. J cross

(Figure N 9)

Timing is very beneficial and convenient when Hot potatoes exercises are used for testing: either by a teacher or self-testing and preparation for the exams by the students themselves etc. After studying in the classroom, and receiving the grammatical points and the vocabulary words in a certain unit by the teacher, students can be referred to these exercises for more practice and for deepening their understanding of what was going on in the classroom. Slow and/ or individual learners will enjoy it a lot because they can study in their own pace and freely from the external factors of stress and embarrassment. Good and/ or fast learners also will like to do these exercises for more learning and challenge with time or with each other. Inside the classroom, if the infrastructure is suitable, the teacher may use hot potatoes to vary his teaching methodology and techniques by assigning tasks for learners to do individually or in pairs or groups.

Recommendations

&

Useful online references

If teaching is an art,

Using technology in the class is

A part of this artistic talent Even if computers are still restricted to a small fraction of population in the world, the wide spread of internet and the use of computers in education in general and in English language teaching

in particular is increasing in a remarkable way. Yet the use of computers in language teaching is still varying according to contexts. Computers are used as referential tools: students are required, in some contexts, to conduct tasks and project works wherein they can use the computers connected to the net or only the encyclopedia available on CD ROMs as well as the ELT dictionaries which sometimes offer not only definitions but also spoken pronunciation of words as well as practice exercises and activities. In other contexts, computers are already being used for teaching and testing: many software packages are available for language learning and they offer the students the chance to study conversations and texts, to do grammar and vocabulary exercises, and even to listen to texts and record their own voices (Harmer 2003 p.147) Teaching is an art and using technology is a part of this artistic talent; there are no restricted rules or patterns to be followed by whoever is wishing to blend his teaching and make use of technology. Using the Hot potatoes for instance, as a supplement to the teachers work in the classroom is only a simple example of one of the ways of blending language teaching. If the teacher wants to vary his techniques and benefit from the facilities and multiplicity of technology he can benefit from using the computer either connected to the web or disconnected in many ways according to his objectives and the tasks he intends to teach. The web can be a very useful means to encourage communication; teachers can encourage learners to communicate through the Internet either in a one-to-one partnership where individual students from different locations share and discuss interesting ideas and opinions about a variety of issues such as: how do they save the environment, literacy in their countries, problems of youngsters Or it can be conducted in wide area research collaborations, which include entire classes in collaborative projects that encourage schools across the country to collect the data locally and sent it to the central website for compilation and, as Windschitl (1998.p 29) proposes, Students can then access to shared data base to download selected data for analysis Below is a list of references and sites that includes more than 110 addresses, links and websites that a teacher can refer to when intending to use technology in his language class; this is divided in terms of skills.

For vocabulary Students can learn more vocabulary online either by using some online dictionaries, which are sometimes very explicit such as: http://www.wordsmyth.net/ http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm http://www.ldoceonline.com/index.html http://www.babylon.com/ http://www.notam.uio.no/~hcholm/altlang/ Or through some games and activities that aim at developing the students vocabulary such as the Hangman game in the following addresses, which provide an endless number of hangman activities or sites that give more practice in spelling as in: http://kids.ot.com/cgi-local/hangman/ http://users.pandora.be/erwin.ravau/hangman.html http://games.yahoo.com/games/texttwist.html http://www.funbrain.com/spell/index.html (Spelling practice game) http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kids/ (word search games) http://www.tvokids.com/framesets/play.html?game=149& (spelling contest) http://www.primarygames.com/ (alphabet games in Language Arts) There are also endless numbers of crossword puzzles for students and puzzle builders for teachers in the following sites: http://www.puzzleconnection.com/ http://www.puzzles.info/ http://www.puzzlemesilly.com/ http://quizhub.com/ For reading skills The computer, especially when connected with Internet, can give an endless number of texts and paragraphs that can be used for foreign language teaching. These texts can be derived from online newspapers and magazines of the English speaking communities such as the following: USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/ New York Times: http://www.nytumes.com/

Washington Post: http://washingtonpost.com/ The Times: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/ Time for kids: http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/ Time.com: http://www.time.com Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com

Or general on-line newspapers categorized by continents, countries etc in the following: http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/ As well as some news directories in: http://www.newsdirectory.com/ There are some websites, which are basically educational and are directed to learners of English as in the following: http://www.meddybemps.com/ http://www.penguindossiers.com/ http://www.ed.gov/inits/americareads/spidey/ http://www.scholastic.com/kids/games.htm http://www.kids-space.org/index.html: (A story book with folktales) http://school.discovery.com/ (Games and articles about geography/science etc) http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/ (N.A.S.A Homepage: scientific reading articles ) http://www.homeworkspot.com/ http://www.kidscastle.si.edu/ (This page is related to Smithsonian magazine. Topics are categorized in terms of the fields: history, sports, art etc) http://www.kidscom.com/ (Reading through games with pleasure) http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kids/ (Articles on National Geographic) http://www.nga.gov/kids/ http://quizhub.com/ http://www.nytimes.com/learning/ (Articles &quizzes related to news) http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/aesop/ (Collection of Aesop's Fables including a total of 655 Fables with listed morals)

Even if it is not recommended to spend long hours in front of the screen reading long texts, the following sites can be recommended for extensive reading either to be read on line or printed and read as hard material printed on paper: http://www.darsie.net/talesofwonder/ http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/aesop/ http://www.magickeys.com/books/index.html http://www.clta.on.ca/hillsofmexico/usa/homusa01.htm Students can refer to the following site and have infinite number of reading materials related to different themes with

comprehension questions. They also can have extensive reading and speed-reading exercises with keys for personal learning: http://eslus.com/LESSONS/READING/READ.HTM For listening Students can have free access to many authentic listening materials, which fit their level and interest. For instance the VOA (voice of America) or BBC world service through the following sites respectively: www.voa.gov www.bbc.co.uk/schools Students many prefer to listen as they read: read the script/texts while they are listening to the audio files because they hear the rhythm and accent of the language as spoken and written by native speakers. This is available in the program Real English which is a CD-ROM series that comprises over 850-videotaped videos of native speakers from three continents for beginners. Real English programs website www.realenglish.tm.fr is also available online for description and more information. And it applies the hot potatoes format of exercises with real player videos. More information/ examples are available in: http://marziomichael.free.fr/ach2-10.htm http://www.englishlistening.com (the English listening lounge) http://www.esl-lab.com http://www.esl.about.com/cs/listening/ http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/LCRA/ (interactive listening comprehension practice) http://www.spotlight-online.de/ http://www.tapestry.heinle.com (listening exercises online) http://www.bobthebuilder.com/ http://www.learningplanet.com/stu/kids0.asp (Listening through games, such as alphabet game, numbers, and calculation) http://www.sesameworkshop.org/ (games with sounds/pronunciations) Integrated skills Many sites tend to integrate sills in order to be more effective especially when it is a matter of reading and listening skills. For instance we can find the script of many stories accompanied with listening materials that fit different levels of learners and are

narrated in clear pronunciation or with pictures for illustration: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/. http://www.fablevision.com/ (stories in Fable library with narrations which suit the story) http://www.mightybook.com/ (list of books with highlighted words as read aloud) http://www.sesameworkshop.org/ (Stories read with highlighted sentences) http://www.stonesoup.com/ (stories with both choices: listen only or listen and read along) http://www.lil-fingers.com/storybooks/index.html (Stories with symbols on the icon) http://www.peterrabbit.co.uk/ http://www.alfy.com/index1.asp?FlashDetect=True (Stories with movie and sound) http://www.starfall.com/ For speaking Here we can mention some of the programs that comprise pronunciation, phonetic and phonology. Students may be exposed to videos of native speakers to watch and observe the facial movements of speakers and may learn many things: http://www.elt-resources.com (discussion topics) http://iteslj.org/questions/ (conversation questions) http://www2.ice.usp.ac.jp/wklinger/QA/cardgameshome.htm For writing Writing a foreign language includes both form and content. Any meaningful writing should answer the following question: Who writes what? Whom to? Why? ... (Role, form, audience, reason).

The computer through the word processor is very

convenient in helping students write correctly at least as far as the form is concerned. Word processor is in fact one of the biggest advantages of computers in writing languages and probably the earliest computer technology adapted by language teachers. Computers can enhance most aspects of the writing process: they allow easy revision, self-correction, through the spelling check and punctuation as well as some grammatical rules and translations

The following link gives very basic information on how to develop writing skills and it fit all levels. It is also very useful in guiding students through process writing. http://www.paragraphpunch.com/ There is also the following site where there are directives on how to write sentences, paragraphs as well as passages. Some parts are accompanied with pronunciation. http://www2.actden.com/writ_den/index.htm http://www.scholastic.com/kids/games.htm (Writing practice. Students can create stories by themselves as in make your own comic) http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ (Games to learn grammatical forms &improve writing skills) http://www.meddybemps.com/ (for beginners alphabet, phonics, and writing) http://www.tvokids.com/framesets/play.html?game=149& (Reading, writing, spelling ,and typing practice) http://www.tvokids.com/framesets/play.html?game=125& (Listen to the word and spell it) http://www.starfall.com/ ( Alphabet practice with phonics and vocabularies. Students may find it very funny and interesting to write their personal information as well as their diaries on line and they also can read other students diaries through the so-called Live journals. So all that students need to do is to go to the following site and register by having their own account. http://www.livejournal.com/ By adding other peoples names they can share (read and write) diaries with each other. Live journals are very useful for communication between students in the same class/ school/ country or all around the world through reading and writing. Teachers may prefer to make a classroom website academically and intellectually meaningful with appropriate links. Detailed information about the form and content of a classroom page can be found in: www.wmich.edu/teachenglish/subpages/technology/classwebsite.htm For Grammar and structures: Even if most of these sites refer to grammatical structures directly or indirectly, students can receive a lot of help in the basic

grammatical structures in the following: http://www.grammarlady.com/ http://gl.umbc.edu/~kpokoy1/grammar1.htm http://deil.lang.uiuc.edu/web.pages/grammarsafari.html http://www.homeworkspot.com/ (links for practicing grammar/ vocabulary)

The following link is from Canada Victoria University. This page is an index to a range of materials created for students of the regular and online programs. It includes grammar presentations, interactive practice exercises, and help pages for basic writing skills. It is very convenient for grammar practice (parts of speech, tenses, conditional sentences, adjectives and adverbs etc) and can be used even by the teacher as a reference to some model examples and ways to explain grammatical rules. For the students it is a very convenient tool for grammar practice and self-study: http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/grammar.htm Games and activities of different types: http://eslgames.com/ http://www.eslkidstuff.com/ http://games.funschool.com/game.php?g=xw2_ds1&t=j&w=620&h=360 http://www.tvokids.com/framesets/gamePicker.html (Excellent games for spelling) http://www.scholastic.com/ (Teachers page for lessons, activities, and tools) http://www.dltk-kids.com/ (Printable crafts materials) http://www.starfall.com/ http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kidds/ (Students make sentences for the picture in order to create their original comics) http://www.tut-world.com/ (Free worksheet categorized by levels and objectives) For music and song lyrics http://www.lyrics.com/ http://www.lyricstation.com/ http://www.lyricsplace.com/ http://www.lyricsplanet.com/

http://www.lyrics.co.nz/ http://www.getlyrics.com/ For communication and international understanding Teachers as well as parents may like to introduce students to communicate with native speakers and exchange opinions and views about different issues. This may be impossible with the frontiers hindrances and time and distance difference. With computers connected to the net, student can be given the opportunity to met people from all over the world and have fun or discuss topics and share ideas. The following links are very convenient for on line chat and communication: http://www.kidlink.org/index.html (Get friends & introduce yourself online)

http://www.kids-space.org/index.html (Communication with students and teachers)

The following address is helpful for students who want to have practice communicating in English by typing through the conversation with a robot. http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=f5d922d97e345aa1 http://www.kidscom.com/ (Chat and Buzz for chatting in English on line) http://www.kids-space.org/ (Communication space, Kids Space Connection, both kids and school teachers can meet people or find pen pals from around the world) For International understanding such as food, clothes, music etc http://www.kids-space.org/index.html (Childrens traditional costume) As languages are easily learnt when the students participate in the learning process; to learn it do it, teachers may need to vary their teaching by using games and activities that would motivate students and attract their attention to the target language. There are so many references on-line and homepages that are specialized in providing games with educational purposes for learners of English. For instance: http://ten.tokyo-shoseki.co.jp/english-el/e-eigoopenp.htm It comprises 8 links each with a variety of games, stories, songs that cover almost all language skills.

Even if these sites are distinguished in terms of skills, most of them are based on integrating skills especially the reading and listening ones. Therefore this list is not fixed and should not be followed rigidly; rather the teacher should be skillful in deciding when and which link to use according to the activity and the students needs Professional development and lesson planning Teachers themselves can benefit from many online websites as well as homepages to learn more about lesson planning, methodology of teaching different skills as in the following links: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ (For teachers to get hints to teach) http://school.discovery.com/ (A page for searching lesson plans for all subject and students level including teaching tools) http://www.education-world.com/ (For teachers information about lesson planning, professional development, and technology integration) For teaching resources and Useful materials for teachers to download http://www.macintoshos.com/shareware.library/educational/teachers.aids.shtml http://www.froschweb.com/woe/teaching.htm http://www.enchantedlearning.com/ http://www.eslkidstuff.com/ (For ESL teachers. Free download flash cards, work)

Conclusion

"The use of the computer does not constitute a method"

Rather;

It is a "medium in which a variety of methods, approaches,

And

pedagogical philosophies may be implemented"

Garrett (1991)

The computer: To use or not to use? That is the question. Its true that digital revolution has changed the late 20th centurys world and made of it a small town. E-learning and on-line communication represent the most important development in human communication and cognition since the development of the printing press (Harnad 1991). And education itself is no longer that traditional as it used to be relying on a teacher owning knowledge and transmitting it to the learners in a classroom with the blackboard as the one and only tool. Education has become of the fields that benefits and makes use of the newest technological development. But still we should not forget that there are so many parts of the world where access to computer is difficult and in some sub-African continents there are millions of people who have never contacted the computer even in picture and the Internet is impossible. In fact, this portion of

society may represent a majority sometimes and it should not be underestimated. Therefore, even if the American writer Theodore Roszaks argument that putting computers in schools is an unwise investigation and a bad use of money would seem a bit extreme and a sort of exaggeration, still its difficult to argue against it especially with the opinion saying that: there are about as many kids born computer-proficient as there are born piano-proficient or poetry-proficient. It is mere folklore that all children born since 1980 have mutated into brilliant computer-users (T. Roszak 1996:14) The dilemma is really clear and as language educators we may be lost between the two opinions. These computer freaks can be the hope of technology and foreign language learning but they should not be left with the computer alone in order to learn the language since the computer is no more than a machine. Learning has always been a human feature; therefore the teachers role if implemented by technological devises in a context where learners are already familiar with using computers and other technology media, the result will certainly be encouraging and effective learning will take place too. To these children we are hopeful and with them may English language learning become much more technology based. And to those who are still lagging behind and have not yet access to the world of technology, its time to be given a small part of our interest and, for sure, they may prove to do well with these devises. It is a matter of opportunity more than ability.

Bibliography

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Textbooks * Quick Way: Students book (2004)Casablanca: Librairie Al Ouma. * Quick Way: Teachers book (2004)Casablanca: Librairie Al Ouma.

List of Acronyms and abbreviations CALL : Computer Assisted Language Learning CBI : Computer Based Instruction CMC : Computer Mediated Communication MOO : Multi-user Object-Oriented EFL : English as a Foreign Language E- Learning : On- Line Learning/ Electronic Learning

ELT : English Language Teaching ESL : English as a Second Language S.T.T : Student Talking Time TELL : Technology Enhanced Language Learning T.T.T : Teacher Talking Time VOA : Voice Of America

List of tables and figures Key Aspects of theoretical perspectives in CALL P12 Figure N 1 / J Cloze: P24 Figure N 2 / J Quiz: P25 Figure N 3: J Cloze (listening): P26 Figure N 4: J Match (standard): P26 Figure N 5&6/ J Match(Drag-drop) P27 Figure N 7&8 /J Mix P28 Figure N 9 /J Cross: P29

Annexes

*Map of the book

* Abstract in Japanese

Map of the book

Unit Reading Vocabulary Listening

First World War

*Skimming *Sequencing *Recalling *Note making

*Inferring word