Web-based English learning and teaching in Taiwan: Possibilities and challenges

Web-based English learning and teaching in Taiwan:

Possibilities and challenges


Wen-shuenn Wu
Department of Foreign Languages, Chung Hua University
E-mail: wswu@chu.edu.tw


In August 1991 Tim Berners-Lee publicized his new World Wide Web project and marked a
milestone in the history of Internet. Since then the modern Internet has created a profound
impact on almost every aspect of our life including, of course, English learning and teaching.
Later, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has rapidly shifted to network-based
language learning. However, the tsunami of web-based language learning and teaching has
come so fast and overwhelmingly that a large majority of English teachers in Taiwan have not
technically or pedagogically prepared for this educational reform. This paper will first introduce
theoretical framework of network-based language teaching. Next, it will present how Internet
can be effectively used in language teaching and learning and also give some practical
guidelines on preparation for web-based English learning and teaching. Then, it will also
explore some challenges that most English educators may face when we would like to apply
Internet to our teaching and how we can overcome those difficulties. Finally, the paper will
conclude with the implications and future possibilities for using Internet in foreign language
classrooms.


INTRODUCTION


Affordable microcomputers became widely available to language learners and teachers
in the early 1980s. Throughout the 1980s computer-assisted language learning (CALL)
widened its scope and gained professional visibility, embracing the communicative approach
and a range of new technologies, especially multimedia and communications technology.
According to Chapelle (2001, p.8), in the 1983 annual TESOL convention, some papers
arguing methodological issues were presented and suggestion was put forward to establish a
professional organization – Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO) –
devoted to the issues involved in language learning technology. By the middle of 1990s,
because the creation of World Wide Web, instructional network was no longer confined to the
network of a LAN in a computer lab.
According to Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, the idea of computer network
intended to allow general communication between users can date back to ARPANET of 1969.
The ARPANET computer network also made a significant contribution to the evolution of
e-mail. However, the creation of modern Internet originates from 1990s; in August 1991 Tim
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Berners-Lee publicized his new World Wide Web (WWW) project and laid a solid foundation
of today’s Internet. In 1993, he created HyperText Markup Language (HTML), a computer
language designed for the creation of web pages, and HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a
primary method used to convey information on the WWW. Since then, the modern Internet has
been booming in almost every aspect of our life including EFL learning and teaching.
Before the growing prevalence of WWW, efficient and convenient emails are probably
the most popular application of Internet on English learning and teaching. Since the 1990s,
many researchers have used email in foreign language instruction (Lunde, 1990; Soh & Soon,
1991; Kelm, 1992), in writing (Hawisher & Moran, 1993), and in comparison of different
communication modes (Mabrito, 1991; Kern, 1995; Warschauer, 1996a).
It can be concluded that because reasonably priced computers were readily available in
1980s, the development of CALL peaked from 1980s to the early of 1990s. Then, the growth of
modern Internet dramatically changed language education and more or less replaced the role of
CALL. The explanation about CALL and NBLT given in the first chapter of Network-based
Language Teaching: Concepts and Practice (Kern & Warschauer, 2000) properly depicted the
changes of CALL in 1980s and 1990s:


This book deals with one form of CALL, what we call network-based language
teaching (NBLT). NBLT is language teaching that involves the use of computers connected to
one another in either local or global networks. Whereas CALL has traditionally been associated
with self-contained, programmed applications such as tutorials, drills, simulations, instructional
games, tests, and so on, NBLT represents a new and different side of CALL, where
human-to-human communication is the focus. Language learners with access to the Internet, for
example, can now potentially communicate with native speakers (or other language learners) all
over the world twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, from school, home, or work. That
learners can communicate either on a one-to-one or a many-to-many basis in local-area network
conferences further multiples their opportunities for communicative practice. (p.1)


Chapelle (2000) also pointed out that although NBLT might be considered one type of
CALL, they are considerably different in terms of the perspective of second language
acquisition (SLA). While pre-network CALL learners in 1980s interacted with a computer
program, users after the middle of 1990s usually interacted with other people in NBLT
activities (p. 204).


THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF NETWORK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING


In the past 40 years, language educators and researchers have built comprehensive
conceptual rationales for language learning and teaching. Is network-based language teaching
also based on a solid theoretical framework that corresponds to the development of language
acquisition theory? Charles Crook (as cited in Kern & Warschauer, 2000) studied
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computer-based educational activities and brought forward three metaphors of computer’s
function in language learning. They are a tutorial metaphor (computer-as-tutor), a
construction metaphor (computer-as-pupil), and a toolbox metaphor (computer-as-tool).
These three metaphors of computer-based educational activities coincidentally have
paralleled the development of computer technology and language teaching respectively.
Table 1 summarizes the trend of language teaching theory and the progress of CALL.


Table 1. Different aspects of CALL in structural, cognitive, and sociocognitive framework






History of computer
development



Structural


mainframes



Cognitive


personal computers



Sociocognitive


networked computers



How is language



Through transmission



Through the operation Through social interaction

understood to develop? from computer users.

of innate cognitive

and assimilation of others’

Internationalization ofheuristics on language speech.








What is the role of

structures and
throughrepetition and
corrective feedback


To provide grammar

input.





To provide








To provide alternative

computers?

and vocabulary tutorials, language input and
drills, practices, and analytic and
immediate feedback inferential tasks;
learners use their
existing knowledge
to develop new
understanding

contexts for social
interaction;
access to existing
discourse communities and
the creation of new ones



Crook’s metaphor of



tutorial metaphor



construction metaphor toolbox metaphor

CALL

(computer-as-tutor) (computer-as-pupil)

(computer-as-tool)



(adapted from Kern & Warschauer, 2000)


A great number of educators and researchers have devoted their efforts to research and
practice of NBLT in 1990s. For example, teachers around the world submitted their CALL
activities compiled by Warschauer (1995) for Virtual Connections, a volume dedicated to
online activities and projects for networking language learners. From learning and pedagogical
perspective, many teachers shared with others their use of e-mail, the World Wide Web,
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computer conferencing, and other forms of computer-mediated communication for the foreign
and second language classroom.


APPLICATION OF INTERNET TO EFL TEACHING AND LEARNING


Because the explosive growth of modern Internet and widespread application of WWW
to EFL learning and teaching from the beginning of 1990s, most English teachers in Taiwan
probably will not ask whether we should apply Internet to our classroom language instruction.
Instead, we may ask how we can make the best use of Internet on EFL teaching. Some
pedagogical applications of Internet to EFL teaching are introduced.


Keypal Exchange for Collaborative Learning


Until the middle of 1990s, the activity of cross-cultural email exchanges facilitated by
language instructors from different countries was a major application of CALL to EFL
teaching. A lot of researchers have been done on comparing participation of class members,
collaboration of language learners, and interaction of students between the computer-assisted
setting and the face-to-face classroom (Cooper & Selfe, 1990; Warschauer, 1996a). For
example, Warschauer, Turbee, and Roberts (1996) examines whether networked computers are
an effective medium of communication for empowering ESL learners in terms of autonomy,
equality and learning skills. Some well-known web sites that offer matching services of email
exchanges to enhance students’ language skills include Intercultural E-mail Classroom
Connections (IECC) and International E-Mail Tandem Network. On the homepage of IECC, it
has the following testimonial: “IECC is a free teaching.com service to help teachers link with
partners in other cultures and countries for email classroom pen-pal and other project
exchanges. Since its creation in 1992, IECC has distributed over 28,000 requests for e-mail
partnerships.” However, it seems that keypal exchange projects have been not so popular in the
past few years. Therefore, teachers who are interested in keypal exchanges may not find ideal
matching classes easily.


Listserv and BBS for Information Sharing


Except email exchanges, two other modes of asynchronous communication are listserv
and bulletin boards. Listserv, or mailing list, is a list of e-mail addresses identified by a single
name, such as listserv@cunyvm.cuny.edu. When e-mail is addressed to a Listserv mailing list,
it is automatically broadcast to everyone on the list. Bulletin board system (BBS) provides a
variety of topical newsgroups or discussion forums in which participants with common
interests can exchange open messages. Most students in Taiwan like to use BBS to share
information with other users island-wide during 1990s. On the other hand, some English
educators prefer to join specialized mailing lists to communicate with experts all over the
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world. Therefore, BBS can serve as a learning tool if students can find a suitable board to join;
listserv can also be used as an effective medium for teachers to seek professional solution.


Web Sites as a Learning Community


The birth of WWW in 1991 has drastically altered facets of CALL and NBLT. Features
and functions of web-based learning environment are greatly different from previous
applications of Internet in the following aspects.


A. Multimedia Presentation. The WWW uses a web browser as a graphical user
interface to the Internet. With rapid progress of information technology, web sites, which
contain pages of text and graphics, have become more sophisticated because richer data types
are now available, including audio, animation, and video (Galbreath, 1997; Doherty, 1998).


B. Dynamic Interaction. Through CGI, Javascript, PHP, ASP, and some other
computer programs, English teachers can add discussion forums or chat sessions to their online
courses and receive feedback from users they have never met.


C. Database-enabled Interactivity. The more advanced application of Internet is the
integration of web sites and database by compiling scripts. Search engines, computer-adaptive
test (CAT), and course management system (CMS) are some examples of database-enabled
interactivity.


Computer-Mediated Synchronous Interaction


A. Instant Messenger. According to Wikipedia, an early form of instant messaging
was implemented on the PLATO system in the early 1970s. ICQ was the first general instant
messenger introduced to the internet, in November 1996. However, two dominating instant
messengers in the early of 2000s in Taiwan are MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. Most
instant messengers can automatically keep a record of a user’s conversations as an XML
format which is useful for instructors and researchers to retrieve their own chat log. An
experimental 4-hour online virtual class with MSN Messenger was arranged by Wu (2004). A
group of 3 to 4 students logged in during a given period to have written synchronous
communication with their instructors. Students are required to type only English; those who
didn’t log in had to access an online supplementary learning web site to read articles and
answer questions given. The result of a survey showed that the learning effectiveness was not
satisfactory, but most students found that they had better interaction with teacher in this MSN
online virtual class.


B. Internet Telephony Skype. Most instant messengers also have audio function.
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With microphone and speaker attached to computers, users can talk their friends far away.
However, the audio quality of conversation is not acceptable compared to global peer-to-peer
telephony software Skype. Skype offers high-quality computer-mediated synchronous audio
and textual communication. Nevertheless, Skype is a new emerging technology and the
potential application of it to language learning and teaching needs to be further explored.


Blogs


Blogs, online personal journals that are frequently updated, have existed in the
cyberspace community since 1998. However, it seems that blogs haven’t received attention so
far here in Taiwan. In a survey I gave to my students both at National Tsing Hua University and
Chung Hua University in the beginning of 2005, 75% of young-generation students hadn’t
heard about what a blog was before I asked them to create one (Wu, 2005). Research about how
blogs can be effectively used in class instruction has hardly been done. Basically, the visibility
of blogs in Taiwan is still poor. Nonetheless, the fact that blogs are sprouting up somewhere
else makes them a potential learning and teaching tool. The cover story of the first issue of
Fortune magazine in 2005 introduces “10 tech trends to watch in 2005”, and blog ranks the
first one. “According to blog search-engine and measurement firm Technorati”, Fortune
reports, “23,000 new weblogs are created every day – or about one every three seconds” (p.34).
With a few simple steps in a graphical user interface, teachers can easily use the blog to
create a collaborative learning environment in which students can peer edit others’ postings
(Mitchell, 2003; Dieu, 2004). Students should be encouraged to comment their partner’s
postings, which can also be shared by other classmates.
In addition, the feature of automatic date-stamping for each post is quite useful.
Students’ emails may, for some technical glitches, not reach their teachers or be carelessly
deleted by their teachers. With the automatic date-stamping function, both teachers and
students know clearly when students submitted their assignments.


GUIDELINES OF WEB-BASED EFL TEACHING


What are the guidelines for English teachers who would like to use WWW in their
language classroom? In order to make effective use of WWW, English teachers should focus
on some basic pedagogical requirements rather than just dedicate ourselves to improving
computer skills. Warschauer and Whittaker (1997) set five following guidelines to help
teachers implement network-based activities into the EFL classroom: (1) consider carefully
your goals, (2) think integration, (3) don’t underestimate the complexity, (4) provide necessary
support, and (5) involve students in decisions. These guidelines are further elaborated below.


Consider Carefully Your Goals


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Some of the possible reasons for using Internet in EFL classroom include increasing
students’ motivation (Warschauer, 1996b) and providing an authentic audience for written
communication. One of the ideal goals is to develop students’ “technology-enhanced literacy
and communication skills in the English language classroom” (Warschauer, Shetzer, and
Meloni, 2000, p.87).


Think Integration


Internet should not be used in an English classroom just because everyone uses it in a
daily life. Instead, English teachers have to think of how web-based activities can be integrated
into the overall design of a course rather than how to use them in an isolated, disconnected
fashion.


Don’t Underestimate the Complexity


Both teachers and students have different computer literacy. Designing your own web
site and integrating it into your language teaching is not as easy as using word processing,
spreadsheets, or presentation software. Without the help of assistants experienced with
computers, an English teacher should own at least basic knowledge of web design such as
HTML and audio editing. Computer literacy of EFL students also varies considerably. While a
few of them have basic prerequisites for CALL, most of them still have difficulty
troubleshooting computer problems. If web-enhanced activities involve cross-cultural learning
projects, exchanges between classes are even more complex considering absent students of the
partner class, holidays, or different time zones if you are going to have synchronous
communication.


Provide Necessary Support


If you are going to offer a web-based English class, students may depend on you to
provide technical support. English teachers who think themselves not qualified enough should
work with the staff of computer center or Internet-literate assistants to offer necessary help.


Involve Students in Decisions


In a learner-centered, network-enhanced classroom, teachers must learn how to shift
their role from an authority to a guide or facilitator. That’s to say, in a project-based and
student-centered learning environment, teachers can try to help students coordinate group
planning, give students language-specific assistance, and help students foster appropriate
learning strategies during Internet-based project activities.


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CHALLENGES OF WEB-BASED EFL TEACHING


Even though web-based EFL teaching seems to have enjoyed a bright prospect because
of potential benefits of the Internet, it is in fact full of challenges and obstacles. The
disadvantages of web-based EFL learning and teaching can be summed up as follows.


Technical Issues


Even if an English teacher has learned how to design a web for web-based class, it may
still not attract enough students to make the best use of teacher’s web site because of the
functions, purposes, and interactivity of it. Employing user-friendly web design software to
create a web site is, to an extent, not that difficult, but integrating database-enabled interactivity
into teacher’s web site is a current trend in NBLT and is also a high threshold to English
instructors without the help of programmers. In addition, when the network traffic stalls due to
many users or some other network glitches, it may take time to access information or browse
the Internet. Most students may feel discouraged if they have to wait long for web sites to
appear. English teachers may also feel frustrated if they are not computer literate to debug
computer- or Internet-related problems in web-enhanced language classes (Singhal, 1997).
One of the possible solutions is that the computer center of universities can offer some training
programs or schools reimburse tuition for English teachers who attend computer courses or
seminars given by professional institutes.


Digital Skepticism


Most EFL teachers in Taiwan are prone to technophobia because of lack of experience
with computers. In addition, not all English teachers praise the merits of technology in the
digital classrooms. Peterson (as cited in Towndrow & Vallance, 2002, p.41) highlighted a
number of negative impacts of computers on education. Some of the doubts are:
(1) information overload can lead to techno-stress;
(2) computer-mediated synchronous communication has generated more text with minimal
interaction;
(3) learners’ disappointment due to a lack of immediate feedback;
(4) without enough CALL training for English teachers, NBLT simply result in learner apathy,
disorientation and abuse.


Time-Consuming


Most EFL teachers who have ever used self-made, web-based language learning
materials in their instruction will agree that it is quite time-consuming to design, edit, and
modify your digital learning materials. Therefore, instructors may resist using Internet-based
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activities or projects that require substantially more preparation time (Lee, 2000). If institutes
that teachers are working for don’t offer funds as an incentive to support their English teachers,
some may feel not worthwhile to spend so much time designing and updating their web-based
learning materials. A rule of thumb to estimate how much time one has to spend in developing
one-hour online materials is multiple three times. That is, it may take you as many as three
hours to prepare a one-hour online material.


Credibility of Web sites


In this information explosion age, millions of web sites we found from a powerful
search engine such as Google are just the tip of the iceberg. For example, I typed “English
learning” as key words in Google to look for web sites; it responded 55,600,000 matched items
found in 0.08 second. Does it make any sense to English learners? Who will browse all these
matched web sites? Are students well trained to judge what features a good web site should
have? Are articles of the web site genuine and credible? Are they unbiased and updated? In
addition, the Internet like a reservoir of knowledge offers access to all types of issues and
topics, some of which are unsuitable for younger language learners (Singhal, 1997).


IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION


Even though there are formidable challenges that we have to face and technology has
also brought some negative impacts on language learning, Internet can also add value to a
student’s learning if this new technology is effectively harnessed. If NBLT is a growing trend
that we can not reverse, we as English educators can be critical of the use of web-based
learning materials in our teaching, but can not become an academic Luddite resisting progress
of educational technology.
Applying NBLT to EFL instruction, English teachers must become familiar with
operating system, common packaged applications (such as Word, PowerPoint, and Media
Player), and web design software (such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver). The basic functions of
computers and Internet are also necessary; some examples are using search engine, transfering
files, and creating digital audio and video files.
Obviously, the computer itself, like any other educational technology (e.g., overhead
projectors, tape recorders, CD players), does not bring about improvements in language
learning. Never can they substitute English teachers. Engaging in CALL and NBLT is a
continuing challenge that requires time and commitment. Internet is just a fast, convenient,
and powerful learning tool; what matters is social interaction behind it.


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