As we move into the 21st Century, computers are becoming more and more a part of our daily lives. They are recognized as powerful tools, essential in getting some of the most basic tasks accomplished in the workplace, such as: communicating with colleagues and customers, doing research, and writing proposals. In fact, it could be argued that computer literacy is steadily becoming integrated into what it means to be literate within industrialized societies. Because of its usefulness in literacy tasks and its importance in the workplace, universities are finding places for computers, in labs and classrooms and within curriculums. Most disciplines take the computer, and its multiple uses, as a given part of a student’s academic arsenal in accomplishing a myriad of assignments involving reading or writing.
Given these facts, it seems necessary that these literacy tools find their way into ESL programs and classrooms, where they can have a positive effect on language acquisition and the development of writing abilities in English. However, there are fundamental questions that need to be addressed as instructors work to integrate these powerful tools into their curriculums and classrooms. What advantages does the computer bring to this group of university students specifically? Will computers contribute or distract from the primary goals of ESL programs and composition courses? What difficulties are introduced along with computers? Just how much should computers be a part of a curriculum? In this paper, I hope to address these questions and argue that despite the difficulties, the computer can have a positive impact on an ESL classroom in several ways. Instructors should begin to or further integrate the use of computers into ESL programs where they will contribute to the overall goals of ESL programs and better prepare students for future academic challenges and the increasingly computer dependant workplace.
The use of computers for language acquisition has been around since the 1960’s,and "featured repetitive language drills, the so-called drill-and-practice method" (Lee). With the advent of the personal computer in the 1980’s, students began to "focus more on using forms rather than on the forms themselves" (Lee). But the role of the computer was still limited in regards to writing. With the rise of the socio-cognitive view of instruction, the computer takes on a more communicative role in language acquisition. Instructors begin "to integrate the various skills of language learning (listening, speaking, writing, and reading) and to integrate technology more fully into language teaching" (Warschauer & Healey qtd. in Lee). Computers are not limited to language acquisition exercises, but become an integral part of a student’s literacy development as theorists and instructors find new ways in which to use the computer to extend ESL students’ abilities to communicate in written English .
Alongside the various language acquisition programs, computers have contributed to ESL writing in a fundamental way beginning with the advent of the personal computer in the form of word processing programs. Though this battle seems to have been won already, with the word processor firmly established within most ESL writing programs, it is worth while to take some time to understand the advantages of using such a tool. In fact, the word processor’s seemingly essential place within the ESL writing curriculum today helps the argument for further integration of such computer based literacy tools such as e-mail, bulletin boards, and the internet.
Almost all disciplines within a university will require students to be familiar enough with word processing programs to be able to use them without explicit instruction. This is one reason to incorporate word processing into the ESL composition classroom, but not the only. The nature of word processing can have positive effects on the writing process for an ESL student who is struggling to express him/herself in English. Anxiety creates a big hurdle for any student trying to express themselves in writing, and this is especially true for a student trying to write in a second language. Anything that can take some of this anxiety away from the writing process is beneficial. "Since computer-generated writing is much more ephemeral and less indelible, their writing becomes less static and "final" since it's perceived as more changeable, and thus the students learn to perceive it as a process" (Bilisle). This can help to lower the anxiety level of writing, when the student knows they can easily go back and change what they have written. It allows them to get their thoughts down, placing greater importance on content and rhetorical issues as the write, without sacrificing their concern over grammar.
In fact, Kevin Cunningham, in his study on ESL students’ attitudes towards using computers in the writing process, found that:
They also felt that word processing helps them pay attention to the mechanics of their writing; they reported paying more attention to various aspects of the mechanics of their writing during word processing, but the aspects to which they attended were perhaps not those that might have been expected; they did not pay more attention to spelling and punctuation, but to grammar, vocabulary, and the organization of their papers.
Along with the ephemeral quality of writing on the computer, word processor programs offer several features that could contribute to this attention, one of which is the spell check feature. It can give the student the added confidence that they can produce a text that is free of spelling errors, without agonizing over this aspect of their text. Spelling should be low on the list of concerns for an ESL student working to improve their writing abilities, and this feature allows them to put this concern out of their mind and focus on more important issues while writing their texts.
Not all students are familiar with using word processing programs, but it is a skill that they will need throughout their academic career and beyond. An instructor’s time would be well spent going over the basics of word processing in a computer lab during class time, and not just assume students are familiar enough with word processor programs to take full advantage of them during their writing process. Once students have the basics down such as: taking advantage of the spell check, using basic formatting functions, and saving their texts, they can approach such programs in their free time with confidence, again relieving undue anxiety from the writing process. In Cunningham’s study, "Fully 88% of the students believed the computer helped them to improve their writing skills; 53% found it was not difficult to learn to use the computer." These statistics are favorable with regard to students’ reaction to using word processing in the ESL classroom. With these basic word processing skills as a foundation, students can begin to extend their computer literacy, as well as their literacy skills in general, with an introduction to e-mail and the internet.
Sending and receiving e-mail is not only a useful tool for students to know how to use, but when worked into thoughtful assignments, it can contribute to students’ writing development in many ways. First of all, e-mail can help keep students in contact with each other and the teacher, even outside of class. The informal nature of this kind of communication creates opportunities for students to utilize the language without any academic consequences, while still contributing to their development as writers in authentic communication. Because e-mailing is an authentic form of communication, and because they are talking to fellow students, a shift in priority takes place in the process of writing for the student that can be beneficial to their perception of their writing ability. "When students communicate with each other using e-mail, their audience tends to focus almost entirely on the message itself and much less on the form, grammar, spelling, mechanics, etc." (Belisle). Their priority is to communicate an idea or an experience first and foremost, and not on correctness. They discover along the way, that they are being understood in English by a real audience, despite their lack of attention to correctness during the process. This shift can help build confidence and get students to focus on the communicative aspect of writing in all of their assignments.
These kinds of informal communications can be brought into the context of the classroom through such activities as electronic bulletin boards or list-serves. They are similar to e-mails in their communicative nature and informality, but the content of the messages can be focused on more academic topics. I used bulletin boards while teaching an L1 composition course in a computer lab and found that students were excited about using them. Nancy Kroonenberg used the Dragon Bulletin Board System effectively with EFL students, when she taught at the Hong Kong International School. She used it for both in-class and out-of-class assignments, with positive results (24-25).
Bulletin Boards are easily set-up by the instructor, are as easy to use as e-mail, and allow students to contribute to written dialogues with their peers about specified topics. In these situations, they are forced to extend their literacy skills to communicate, using the language in more controlled ways with regard to organization and syntax than they would in an oral discussion, "Students that are participating in email, discussion groups and the like are going to be using a broader range of English than those who tend to focus mainly on spoken or conversational English" (Fox). This is especially pertinent with regards to improving ESL students’ ability to write in English. Also, in these types of conversations, everyone gets a chance to contribute, which is not possible in an oral discussion.
In the L1 classroom, I found that bulletin board discussions encourage those that are shy, and don’t feel confident contributing to discussion in class, to contribute to these conversations. This observation extends to the ESL classroom as well. Meena Singhal, in her experience teaching English in Japan, points out, "timid or inhibited students can benefit from the meaningful interaction and communication e-mail makes possible" (Singhal). In this way you allow for more voices to be heard, students feel that they have contributed to the class discussion and they leave the classroom with more confidence about their ability to communicate in written English that will carry over to their formal assignments. This kind of activity can be done during class time in a computer lab with minimal instruction, and introduces a very useful skill for students to know.
Another activity using e-mail that can contribute to the EFL classroom, is creating an assignment involving key-pals. This assignment entails matching up EFL students from different institutions with one another. In general, it is between two EFL classes in different countries, but can also be between EFL or ESL students and Americans interested in participating in such exchanges. Key-pal assignments are easy to set up through specific web-sites such as Computer Pals Across the World (CPAW
Another feature of this assignment is the exchange of culture involved. Language and culture are intertwined, and through this kind of interchange, students get a chance to learn about another culture while contributing to their developing writing abilities. "Comparison of own and other cultures help learners to perceive and cope with difference (Liao)." This can be especially effective, if the students involved are learning to write in English in their own country. Exposure to different cultures can only contribute to their growing understanding of English and the cultures which use it.
E-mailing constitutes only one aspect of the internet’s use within the ESL writing classroom. Another and even more exciting aspect is the World Wide Web which has unlimited potential to improve students’ reading and writing skills in English as well as expose them to those cultures that use English. The use of the Web within academia in general is fairly new, and like all new teaching aids, instructors should start simple. Even something as basic as instructor facilitated Web browsing within a computer lab can have positive effects on students’ literacy in English. Victoria Muehleisen discusses this in her article, "Projects Using the Internet In College English Classes:"
Because so much of the material on the Internet is in English, even non-directed activity such as "surfing" the World Wide Web can involve a great deal of reading in English, and it can be a pleasurable, yet effective, way of introducing students to the basic functions of the browser such as the Forward and Back buttons, the Jump function and bookmarks.
The combination of motivation through learning something new and exciting, reading and interacting with texts written in English, and establishing the basic techniques for utilizing the internet, make such instruction worthwhile. Once students’ get more familiar with navigating the web, the instructor can move on to more controlled activities in later sessions. As these skills are reinforced throughout the course, students’ computer literacy increases but also, "teaching students to use the internet effectively teaches them the most fundamental aspects of critical literacy—knowing how to search for, locate, and evaluate information" (Kasper). These basic critical skills will help both their writing within the ESL course, but also any and all future academic tasks.
As students get more familiar with using the internet, instructors can direct students to different sites for any number of productive exercises. For example, as students work to write in different genres within the ESL writing course, the web can be used to expose students to models of different genres, and how they are used in authentic contexts. Furthermore, the nature of the internet will force students to expand their understanding of genres as they come across texts that challenge established forms. Loretta Kasper remarks about this in her article, "ESL and the Internet: Content, Rhetoric, and Research," "Because information is presented through text, sound, and graphics, comprehension is facilitated, concepts reinforced, and learning consolidated, thus better enabling students to articulate knowledge and understanding through various modes of writing." Students are forced to recognize how elements of a text are utilized for specific purposes, to authentic audiences. Through discussion of such models, instructors can begin to help students divorce the concept of genre from rhetorical strategies they can employ within any number of genres, for any number of purposes.
Within content-based, intermediate or advanced ESL courses, where students are improving their literacy skills through reading and writing about concepts within another discipline, internet instruction can be extended into research. Even mainstream ESL writing courses, with a fully embedded computer literacy element, can introduce students to the wealth of resources, all in English, for expanding their knowledge within a desired discipline or interest. Through guided instruction, "The electronic resources made available through Internet technology present students, at the click of a mouse, with a diverse collection of authentic English language texts dealing with a wide array of interdisciplinary topics" (Kasper). Once they become familiar with how to use the web, these resources are easily accessed and usually cost nothing to the student. This can be especially valuable to EFL classes in other countries who have limited access to texts in English (Krajka).
Students are not only getting access to a wealth of English texts while working on the web. As they learn about different areas of interest, "ESL students become actively engaged in the linguistic tasks of reading English, developing vocabulary, and interpreting language structures used in the Internet texts and in the research tasks of searching for, accessing, and evaluating information" (Kasper). Again, we have an instance where students develop both computer and general literacy skills. Also, conducting research on the web, whether it is for a specific assignment or for a student’s personal interest, is both exciting and motivating, as students continue to explore an ever expanding world at their fingertips.
Because students come to the ESL classroom with differing levels of computer literacy, it is important that the instructor ease students into using the computer, especially the internet. However, the instructor cannot waste unnecessary time in the computer lab waiting for every student to catch on, while losing the attention of those students already versed in the basics of the internet. A good way to solve this problem is for the instructor to construct a class website. "This gets students used to the idea of using the Internet for information—if they miss a class or lose a handout, they can find out what the assignment is on their own" (Muehleisen). I utilized a class website in my L1 composition classroom and found that students found it to be extremely useful, as well as being a safe place from which to start any and all web based activities.
On top of putting class notes and handouts on the site, instructors can set up e-mail lists where students can easily get in touch with fellow classmates or the instructor. Instructors can create bulletin boards that students can access easily throughout the semester, both for in class and out of class discussions. Links to sites that will be used during instruction can be established so that students can easily get to them, cutting down on wasted time at the beginning and throughout the lesson, which benefit both beginners and experts alike. Useful sites to improve specific linguistic, grammatical, rhetorical, or content problems can be linked to the class website where instructors can lead students to for further help. And, at the end of the semester, such a site can be used to publish student texts, giving students further motivation to develop their writing skills to create complex and interesting texts for a wide public audience.
Using the computer and the internet within the ESL classroom presents both students and instructors with an exciting and productive literacy tool, but there are dangers and difficulties to using such a new and sophisticated machine. I have discussed the differing levels of computer literacy students come to the classroom with, and this could cause problems, depending on how much of a range there is and what kinds of activities the instructor wishes to present. Further, due to the cost inherent in owning a computer and accessing the internet, there is bound to be equity issues that have led to limited access in the past and continue into the present, introducing issues of class into an instructor’s curriculum development. Instructors must be sensitive to such issues, willing to start with the basics, and present activities flexible enough to accommodate a range of computer literacy levels.
Institutional access to computers and the internet can compound these problems for both instructors and students:
Activities in a single class may be dependent on scheduling the computer lab, and on students finding computers outside the class time to continue their activities
[. . .] Students' schedules might not permit them to return to the computer lab at a time when computers are available to complete their assignments. (Warschauer and Whittaker).
Access concerns are partly dependent on the institution one is teaching at, and it is inevitably up to the instructor to know just how much they can make the computer a part of their course. As for working around students’ schedules, again it is up to the instructor to be flexible with assignments involving the computer, and give students ample time to complete any out-of-class assignments.
When planning activities using computers and the internet, instructors must be aware that:
The nature of the Internet itself can be a disadvantage at times. When lines are busy due to many users, it may take time to access information or browse the Net and technical glitches themselves can lead to frustration. Lack of training and familiarity on part of the teachers can make it difficult to implement the Internet in the language classroom. (Singhal)
Computers are complex machines, but are prone to technical difficulties, especially those machines within a public access lab. They are used all day, every day for a myriad of tasks, and as such tend to have more difficulties than the average home computer. In my own experience teaching in a computer lab, I found this to be the case more often then not. Not only do individual computers experience technical difficulties, but sometimes the entire lab cannot get access to the internet, or a site integral to an exercise is temporarily down. This being said, it is important that instructors come to the computer lab with basic technical skills to overcome simple everyday problems, access to technical support from the institution, a back up lesson if the technology fails, and above all, ample patience.
Despite the difficulties and dangers that go along with it, I believe that the computer and the internet present the instructor of the ESL classroom with a powerful teaching tool. But, after deciding to take advantage of the computer, the instructor must decide how and how much to integrate the computer into their own curriculum. My answer to this would be to fully integrate the computer into the curriculum, without compromising the primary goals of such a class. Remember, this is not a technology or computer course, but an ESL writing course. "The Internet component is not a goal in itself, but it is rather a useful teaching aid, and it should be subjected to the general syllabus to enrich and give variety and authenticity to learning English" (Krajka). When developing activities using the computer or the internet, the instructor should always have writing development and language acquisition in mind as the primary goals. But, this is not to say that the computer component should be tacked on. Students will get frustrated and not see how computer literacy is linked to general literacy if the computer component is not embedded into the curriculum. However, because the internet and its uses within the ESL classroom have not been firmly established, and most instructors have little experience using this technology in such contexts, caution and patience is advised:
It is better to start small and to create the kinds of activities which have a direct purpose and are well-integrated into classroom goals. If these activities prove successful, you can build from there and attempt a more ambitious plan the following semester. (Warschauer and Whittaker)
I believe that as the technology improves and becomes more familiar to a wider range of the population that computer literacy will be inextricably linked to the term literacy itself. Students will need to be able to utilize this complex tool for any number of literacy tasks in the future and it can only help better prepare them for such tasks to present this link early in their academic career. Further, if incorporated in a thoughtful yet tentative manner, the computer and the internet can contribute to a student’s developing ability to write in English and introduce an exciting and innovative element to the class that will help further motivate their desire to succeed.
