ESL Internet Sites

The ubiquity of ESL internet sites can be seen with just a simple Yahoo search . The sheer volume of responses you will receive is testament to how the internet is impacting pedagogy in general, ESL learning specifically. There are many great benefits to this for the teacher. Lesson planning has never been easier, nor has researching a subject. If you need a lesson on passive voice for a level six student it is as simple as doing a quick search, and there you have it! Lessons lessons lessons galore! Like magical manna from heaven!

There is of course a dark side to this. There is an old computing axiom that that goes “Garbage In, Garbage Out”. The sad fact is that many of these web sites are in fact garbage. The difficulty for the teacher is to figure out which of these sites are useful, and which af these sites are junk. The ready made lesson plans can be ineffective, or worse, designed in such a way that is contrary to your teaching style. It could be like trying to fit into another person’s shoes. Not always the most comfortable thing to do, What is worse is that it could be a lesson that is not properly targeted to the learning needs of your student or students. The lesson could be too hard, too easy, or just generally dull and uninspiring, having no connection to the world of the students. This is not the way to teach.

Even very good, well thought out web sites can have drawbacks. Teachers can become too reliant on having the students use the web sites, and thus have no way of properly assessing the learning of the students. Plunking a learner down in front of a computer, no matter how great the site is, is not a replacement for a proper lesson. Unless the student understands how the site is connected to real world learning, there is no use for it.

The biggest drawback is finding inaccurate information, and replicating it. English grammar can be a tricky business, and there are many pre-designed worksheets an lessons that do not accurately convey the nuances of the grammar accurately, and can in fact be just plain wrong. Believe me, there is nothing worse than having a student point out errors on a worksheet that a teacher has taken from the internet. Not very good.

So, while there are of course many different ways to incorporate the internet and into your teaching, the texts and lessons you use must be carefully chosen and vetted to ensure that you are presenting an effective lesson to the students.