CREATING AND USING WEBSITES IN ELT CLASSES

Transcription

1 MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CREATING AND USING WEBSITES IN ELT CLASSES ( Diploma Thesis ) Written by: Bc. Lucie Kristenová Supervisor: Mgr. Světlana Hanušová, Ph.D. Brno 2008

2 I declare that I worked on the following thesis on my own and that I used all the sources mentioned in the bibliography. 2

3 Aknowledgments I would like to thank Mgr. Světlana Hanušová, Ph.D. for her comments on my work, for her kind help and valuable advice that she provided me. 3

4 Contents Introduction... 6 I. Theoretical Part 1. The Internet and the World Wide Web The difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web The basic terminology Contributing to the Web Websites E-journals Blogs Wikis Podcasts Social networking websites Conclusion Creating websites Creating a web page Getting online Principles of creating a website Conclusion Creating websites for ELT Pros and cons The web and children Creating and using own online materials Creating materials Writing skills Speaking skills Using created materials Listening skills Reading skills Pronunciation Summary II. Practical Part Computer laboratories The first steps

5 1. 3. Lesson plan 1 - Front page Lesson plan 2 - Working with the word document Lesson plan 3 - Creating accounts Lesson plan 4 - Link About Us profiles Lesson plan 5 - Link About Us personal web pages Lesson plan 6 Halloween party Lesson plan 7 - Link Teachers Lesson plan 8 - Link Classes Lesson plan 9 - Link Revision Lesson plan 10 - Link Our Country First year of creating the website evaluation Second year of creating the website The description of the classes Lesson plan s accounts Lesson plan 12 - Our Team pupils' profiles and web pages Lesson plan 13 - Cities, towns and villages Lesson plan 14 - Czech public holidays Lesson plan 15 - Grammar explanations Lesson plan 16 - Review exercises The second year of creating the website evaluation Using the website in the English lessons Lesson plan 17 - Finding information about classmates Variations of Lesson plan Lesson plan 18 - Self-study Lesson plan 19 - Describing photographs Using the website in the future Conclusion Resumé Bibliography Appendices 5

6 Introduction Computers and the Internet have become an essential part of our lives. The Internet is a very important communication tool and expands into all professions. A good teacher should be aware of that and should take his/her advantage of using the Internet in his/her profession. An EFL teacher should be interested in using the Internet because it could help him/her in gaining the motivation of learners. The Internet keeps not only the teacher up-to-date but also the materials and activities will seem more real and useful for learners. There are millions of websites written in English and innumeracy of those which are created especially for EFL purposes. Using computers and the Internet has become a new teaching skill. The teacher who does not use s or chat rooms for communication with learners outside the classroom would be considered as boring or out-of-date. On the other hand, the teacher who is able to help his/her learners online is considered as a professional among learners. It is becoming more and more common that teachers have an online support for their learners. They very often create their own websites or blogs and put homework, exercises or links for further study there. Teachers who support their teaching online will become very successful in their future career. The main goals of my work are to introduce basic pieces of information about creating own website and how the teacher can work with such a website in the class. Despite the fact that I will mention both advantages and disadvantages of such work in English classes I will emphasize the advantages because I believe that a good teacher will not manage without advanced computer skills in the future. I will focus on the website which I have been working with my pupils on. The theoretical part will contain pieces of information about the Internet and the basic terminology which will be used in my work, I will introduce the basic principles of creating a website, using HTML and the theoretical background in creating a website. I will also mention the connection between language teaching and making a website and using the created website in lessons. In the practical part I will describe the way how I created the website with my pupils. The description will be provided step-by-step with all the difficulties that arose during the process. 6

7 THEORETICAL PART 1. The Internet and the World Wide Web The difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web The word 'Internet' is known all over the world nowadays. Most of us use it everyday and people cannot imagine their lives without it. There are a lot of definitions of the Internet but nobody can define it exactly. There are also many expert books about the Internet with no definition or explanation. D. Crystal, for instance, says that "The Internet is an association of computer networks with common standards which enable messages to be sent from any central computer (or host) on one network to any host on any other." (D. Crystal, 2001, p. 2). "The Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP)." (Wikipedia, January 2008). To sum up, the Internet is an electronic net which connects computers in the whole world and enables the exchange of information and communication. It is worth noting that the Internet and World Wide Web, abbreviated WWW or the Web, are two different things. There are a lot of services which the Internet offers and the Web is only one of them. In brief, it is an electronic book, the pages of which are called websites. The websites contain webpages. The difference between a book as such and the Web is that we can see texts, pictures, films or listen to the radio or different sounds on the Web. Moreover, it enables us to 'travel' to other books all over the world immediately thanks to links. In my thesis, I will focus on the Web rather than the Internet. The first thoughts of exchanging information are dated back to the half of the twentieth century. The service was developed in Switzerland at the beginning of the 1990s. The very first intention was to use the Web for exchanging information among a group of physicists. Then the army, scientists and academics started using it for similar purposes and nowadays it is used in scientific and non-scientific fields as well as by ordinary people. The Web has become the newest media which serves as a book of innumerable sites. 7

8 1. 2. The basic terminology As already mentioned above, the Internet is not the same as the Web. It goes for websites and webpages as well. The Web consists of websites and websites consist of webpages. A website is connected by its webpages with links. Links also connect webpages and websites altogether, they enable us to 'jump' from one webpage to another. To be able to create a website and webpages we need to put HTML File on the web server. HTML File is a text document which is written in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). The HTML is a language used for creating websites or webpages. To put an HTML File on the web server, i.e. a computer connected to the Internet which stores data for websites and webpages, we need to have a website address, i.e. URL (Uniform Resource Locator), for our website. People who have a computer connected to the Internet can visit websites using a web browser. A web browser is a software which can read and decode HTML and shows us the websites with all their components, e.g. images, texts, videos etc. The most common web browsers are Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera. If one is interested in a certain topic and need to find websites dealing with it, one can use a search engine. A search engine is a website which helps to find the websites on the topic required by typing key words. The most common search engines are Google, Yahoo!, Seznam and Centrum. 2. Contributing to the Web Everyone has his/her own reasons for contributing to this media. Some of them are that on the Web one can: - express his/her opinions and wishes - show his/her skills or knowledge - display photos, images, audio/video records and presentations - comment and discuss different topics - make historical records - let other people know about oneself in other ways So if one has decided to be those who contribute to the Web, one can choose the most suitable instrument. I have divided them into the following categories: 1. Websites 2. E-journals 3. Blogs 4. Wikis 8

9 5. Podcasts 6. Social networking websites 7. Others Websites According to the Cambridge dictionary, a website is "a set of pages of information on the Internet about a particular subject, which have been published by the same person or organization, and often contain colour pictures, video and sound." (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 2008). A website is one of the most common instruments of contributing to the Web. Websites as such can be divided into several groups according to their content, purpose, function, language etc. As mentioned above, a website is comparable to a book. People can create their own website freely and put everything they wish on it. For instance, articles, photos, audio/video recordings, links to other websites etc. I will focus on websites and their use in language teaching later on E-journals E-journals are websites where one can find electronic journals. E-journals usually contain articles or entries in chronological order. Visitors can always comment on articles with or without having to be registered. The content of an e-journal depends on its user(s) but they are very often focused on a certain area, e.g. medicine, economics, sociology etc. To find an e-journal, one has to register on a provider's website. The e-journals are usually for free but there are also many of them which require paying a fee. An e- journal provider is, for instance, Using e-journals in language lessons can be a very easy and effective tool for every teacher. Learners can be asked for daily or weekly entries and comments on certain topics or just for noting their plans or new experience Blogs The term blog comes from the combination of the words 'web' and 'log'. Blogs are websites which main idea was adapted from e-journals. Originally, they were created for those who wanted to share their experiences and thoughts in a personal online diary. A blog is usually created by one person but there are also blogs which are 9

10 created by more people, e.g. for educational purposes. On the other hand, one can argue that all blogs are created by more people because everyone can contribute to various forums and inquiries. The disadvantage is that anybody can make an offensive entry in the blog but the creator has got the right to delete it. Other important features of blogs are that they are typically updated daily and reflect the personality of the author. Blogs can contain texts, pictures, links, audio/video recordings and simply everything that one can find on the website. To set up a blog takes about fifteen minutes. One does not need to have neither any special technical skill nor any knowledge of HTML. The blog can be edited from any computer connected to the Internet whereas editing websites usually needs the home computer with all the folds and files for the website. Blogs are usually for free and there are many providers in the market. The best-known is Nowadays, blogs are the most common tool of presenting on the Web. There are a lot of blogs where bloggers, i.e. people who create blogs, discuss their reasons for blogging. Blogger Seth Finkelstein says: " Short Answer: "To be heard". In my view, there are three regimes, roughly: One, few, many. "One" = Diaries. Some people keep their diary on-line, and don't mind if others read it. "Few" = Socializing, chatting. The intended audience is close friends, and events only of interest to that circle."many" = Punditry. The goal is to reach as many people as possible with your ideas." ( Blogs are nowadays also favourite among language teachers, in case they use IT. There are three basic possibilities of creating them for ELT. a) The teacher creates his/her own blog and puts information for learners there b) One blog is created for the whole class and everyone knows the password, contributes to forums or discussions set up by anybody from the class. Learners also publish their essays or any kind of work there. c) Each learner has got his/her own blog. The classmates visit blogs of each other and make comments. Blogs can be used for every writing and reading activity, setting a partnership with another school and nearly for any activity for ELT we can think of Wikis The founder of Wiki, Ward Cunningham, describes it as "a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content." 10

11 ( Wiki means 'fast' in Hawaiian language and the main idea was to create a quick website created by its users. Very often, wikis have got 'empty' links, i.e. the link opens new web page which has not got any entry yet. The aim of empty links is to encourage users to contribute. A characteristic feature of wiki is that its web pages are all linked together. Furthermore, all wikis are similar to each other in design. The best-known wiki is which is an online encyclopedia. Wikis can be focused on various branches of science, art, literature, history etc., but there are also wikis that are not focused on anything special and the content is determined by users' entries. Such wiki is, for instance, This page is based on questions by users and answers on them. Wikis are usually for free, as well as blogs, e-journals and websites. It is said that to set up a wiki is as easy as to set up a blog. One just has to visit a website which provides wikis and goes through the setting process. Such website is, for instance, Web designers see the great disadvantage of wikis in poor reliability of the information. It is true that there are also people who intentionally make mistakes in the articles or try to write nonsense but usually the users correct mistakes they recognize and re-edit such articles. There is a very useful activity in a book How to Teach English with Technology (Dudeney; Hockly, 2007). Learners are divided into pairs, make entries about famous people with few mistakes and others have to read them and correct. This simple activity contains reading (learners have to go through several articles to learn about the person), writing and again reading. Department of English Language and Literature at the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University, Brno uses wikis as a help for students. They contribute with presentations on grammar, literature, methodology etc. which can be further used by other students as a source. I personally would recommend wikis for long term projects, otherwise it would not be worth starting Podcasts Media files for uploading and downloading audio and video are called podcasts. The term stands for 'pod', i.e. portable on demand, and 'broadcast'. Originally, podcasts were used by online radios but they spread to all areas of the Internet. People all over 11

12 the world record themselves talking about various issues, make radio shows, sing their own songs or pass on messages. A podcast can last from few second to several hours, it depends on the speaker's intention. They are still used by radios and TVs as well as by 'ordinary' users for fun. For instance, BBC World Service uses podcasts for their radio broadcast (Stannard, 2007). Podcasts serve as a listening or a speaking tool. This means that one can either listen to podcast other people have recorded or record some oneself. One does not need to have any special technical skill but special devices will be needed. For listening postcasts, one has to download them from the Internet into the computer and then play them using any MP3 player. Microsoft Word processing package contains such player. To record one's podcast, one will need a device for recording the MP3 file format and a microphone. One can publish it on the blog or website or visit any podcast page, e.g. If one wants to present a video podcast, there are a lot of video sharing websites, e.g. In ELT, podcasts are used both for listening and recording. The teacher can use authentic podcasts or those recorded by non-native speakers. In my opinion, the latter is becoming very important these days because unless the learners do not travel to English speaking countries, they will probably use their English with a non-native speaker and they should be aware of, for instance, English spoken by a Spaniard Social networking websites Thanks to wikis, podcasts, blogs and e-journals people can socialize and communicate with each other but that is not of the essence why they were created. The social networking websites are here to connect people by communication and socializing. Such websites are, for instance, chat programs, various discussion groups and websites such as MySpace One usually creates the profile with his/her interests, fears, favourites or whatever and wait for people to come and start 'talking' via chats, discussions or by leaving a message. Among such websites belong also those that can be used for making pen friends in ELT classes. Learners are used to visit chatrooms or meet people on ICQ and starting using such tools in lessons could encourage them to use English outside the classroom. The real disadvantage of such websites is that learners give their personal information to complete strangers and do not know if the person they are chatting to is not a deviant. In 12

13 order to protect learners as much as possible, I would suggest finding teachers who want to try such interactive communication or let learners chat among themselves Conclusion Above, there have been presented the most common instruments for contributing to the Web. All of them can be used in ELT classes because they are popular among learners. However, working with the Internet takes time which teachers usually do not have because such work is still not a part of the curriculum. On condition that the teacher wants learners to publish on the Web, he/she can let them comment on various topics. A very good activity could be done with online newspaper articles, each of which has the possibility to be commented. There are also very short articles and learners comments can be of two sentences. Moreover, they will work with a real language. 3. Creating websites Creating a web page Every nation has got its own language and so does the Web. The basic and bestknown language of the Web is HTML, i.e. HyperText MarkUp Language. HTML is a formatting language which 'tells' a web browser what should be displayed on the web page. The language uses a set of codes, called tags, which are put in angular brackets. An example of a simple web page displayed in the web browser and its HTML code is shown in Appendix I. Other well-known Web languages are PHP and JavaScript which are not formatting languages as HTML but programming languages. They are more complex and difficult to learn but unlike HTML, they can create interactive exercises such as multiple-choice or gap-filling. Appendix II shows a web page in PHP language. To start creating a web page using HTML, one needs a word processor, e.g. Word or Notepad. There are also a lot of HTML editors. They are divided into two groups: WYSIWYG editors, i.e. What You See Is What You Get, and those which need the web designer to know HTML. Creating in the first group is similar to using a word processor. One simply types the text in, chooses colours and fonts, insert images etc. and the editor makes up HTML code. Using such editors, one does not need to know HTML but the disadvantage is that the tags are limited and one cannot use the new 13

14 ones. The best-known WYSIWYG editor is Front Page from Microsoft. When using the second group of the editors, one type in the HTML tags directly. There are a lot of editors in the market nowadays, the best-known is HomeSite. Professional web designers say that a good website can be created by hand, i.e. typing the tags in the editor. I personally think that it is worth learning and using HTML because it is easier to understand and learn other web languages. On the other hand, for those who do not need to create interactive exercises, WYSIWYG editors are sufficient. When I started creating my first web page, I used a WYSIWYG editor which helped me to make the 'core' of the page and after that I started typing the tags in myself Getting online To display the website on the Web, one needs to have some space on a web server. There are a lot of possibilities how to receive it. One can visit, for instance, or register and receive some web space for free. The first disadvantage is that the space on the web server that one can occupy is limited. The second disadvantage is that the URL will contain the name of the provider, e.g. The third disadvantage is that it is the right of the provider to put advertisements on the website, which can completely destroy the design. Other well-known web hosting company in the Czech Republic is There is a monthly or annual fee to be paid. One can create own URL address, in case it is still available, without the name of the hosting company. The great advantage is that nobody can put advertisements on the website without permission of the owner. To upload the website on the web server, one needs an FTP program, i.e. File Transfer Protocol. It can be downloaded from the Internet for free or the web hosting company can provide one. When one has created the website, one should also invite people to see the work he/she has done. One should definitely tell the relatives, friends and colleagues about the web 'contribution' and hope they will like it and possibly tell others about it. A link can also be sent via to people who can be found on a different social networking sites but this is not a very good idea because when I personally receive such s I consider them as spams, i.e. unwanted s, and I delete them immediately. One should focus on people who need or want to see what one has done for their own profit or entertainment. People usually find new pages via search engines, by typing key words. Therefore the URL address should be added on the search engines. Search 14

15 engines such as Seznam ( and Centrum ( have got a link "Add a website" at the bottom. One has to go through the URL registration process which includes typing URL address, short description of the website, key words and Centrum requires contact and a password which will be used for further editing. Yahoo! ( has got a link "Suggest a site" at the bottom of the page and after clicking on it one simply types in the URL. In case of Google ( I had problems with finding the link, so finally I typed in 'add URL Google' in the searching bar and the first link led me to the adding process. Only URL address and key words were required. It depends on the number of URL addresses waiting for being published on the search engine, but it should not take more than thirty days to find the website there Principles of creating a website A website is like a magazine or a book. There are several aspects that should be followed when creating a website: 1. Content 2. Readers 3. Hierarchy 4. Links 5. Images 6. Colours 7. Font 8. Language 9. Netiquette 10. Checking (Hlavenka et alii, 2000) Add 1. The content of a website reflects its aim. For instance, to publish some work, to inform people, to sell products, to entertain etc. After finding the aim, one should think about the precise content. It is worth browsing the Internet and visiting websites with similar content. A website for ELT can be aimed either at teachers or learners or both. One should also decide if the website should be basically for particular learners or for anybody. This does not mean that a website for particular learners cannot be used by others but the content and piece of information would differ. A website would contain subject matter one deals with in the lessons and the lexis would probably be the same as in the textbook one uses. 15

16 Add 2. After setting the aim and the content of the website, one has to focus on the potential readers. Websites of the same content differ, if they are for children, adults or seniors but also for women or men. A website for children should be colourful, with many images and moving animations whereas the same website aimed at adults would not be colourful and there would be a limited number of images, maybe none. I do not think it is possible to create a website for everybody because it could happen that it would not be suitable for anybody. Add 3. There are not many websites which would contain only one webpage. Every website contains several web pages and for better orientation, one should decide what will each of them contain and how the user gets there. As a book has got a cover page, a website has got a front page, i.e. the web page which will load after typing the URL address in the searching bar. The front page should offer the very basic pieces of information which will tell a visitor what is the website about. It should also serve as a 'signpost' which would link all the web pages of the website. Add 4. The links leading to web pages should be on the front page. It is on the left, where web designers regard as the best place for the navigation menu. In order to help the user browse the website more quickly, the links should be on the same place and of the same colour on all the web pages. There are also external links, i.e. those that lead a visitor to another website. External links should be either different from links within the web pages, or there should be a little note that the link is external. The reason is that the user should be aware of opening another website. Add 5. Every visitor wants to see the web page as quickly as possible. It is nice to have many photographs or other images on the web page but the more images the longer the time for opening will be. An appropriate format is another key point. JPEG and GIF are the most common ones. Nowadays, it is not professional to have many images on the web page even when creating a web page for children. The web page should be easy to follow. The images should have a certain purpose and they should not divert attention. One can create his/her own images or download some from the Internet. In case of downloading 16

17 them from the Internet, one should be careful if the author of the picture allows others to use it or not. Add 6. A website psychologist W.L.Wilder emphasizes the importance of colours: "In a face-to-face meeting our bodies and faces portray unspoken meanings. We smile, gesture, laugh, and become nervous. It's these little nuances that help us communicate. A website does exactly the same thing. The difference is: a website does it with color. Colors themselves contain a cornucopia of meaning. They can make us happy, sad, angry, comfortable, nervous, and even trusting. While it seems simple enough to choose a graphic and then design a site around that graphic, you may unintentionally be presenting a derogatory impression. The colors may contradict the content in unintended ways." ( He also claims that one should not use more than five colours and these should be either warm or cool colours. ELT web pages should follow the rules mentioned, even though they are aimed at children. The main reason is that they are supposed to spend some time on the web page and therefore the colours should not cause a headache. Add 7. In the case of font, similar rules as those of colours could be applied. HTML language distinguishes only seven sizes of font but that does not mean that all of them have to be used. There should not be more than three or four types of font on a web page and each font should state for a certain level of importance. As well as in the word document, one can use the bold, italics or underlined font, there are also many font faces, i.e. types of font. However, it is not always worth using unusual types of font even if they may be attractive. In case a user does not have the type of font used on the website, the text will appear in the basic font which is Arial or Verdana. Add 8. Since one will publish the website on the Web, one will have to consider what kind of language will be used. There are many websites that are at least bilingual and the user can change the language as he/she wishes. For the web designers the question of the language is fundamental, because they have to type the code of the language in HTML document. Otherwise it could happen that one would write a text in Czech, the language code would be for English and consequently the web browser 17

18 would not be able to read some specific letter of the Czech alphabet and would show some symbols instead. From another point of view, one should also decide whether the language itself is simple or complex structure sentences are used. An ELT website should use the level of language the learners would understand. If learners are on different levels, the text should be graded accordingly. Add 9. An etiquette used in online communication is not applied only to s or chat rooms but to everything one publishes. Dudenly and Hockly count for the most important 'rules' of netiquette the following ones: Being sure to respect others' opinions. Avoiding 'flaming' ongoing arguments which become increasingly personalised and possibly public. Making sure that files sent as attachments are not too large, as the person receiving the may not be able to download them (Dudeney; Hockly, 2007). I personally consider as the most important to respect other's opinions and differences among cultures. I can communicate either directly, i.e. via or chats, or indirectly, i.e. to comment on some issues, or publish on my own website, with anybody in the world. The person can have different opinions or habits but I have to respect the person as well as he/she should respect me. It is very important to teach learners the tolerance towards differences among people but also to follow the netiquette themselves. Add 10. The last but not the less important step is to check everything one creates. During the process of making the website in the HTML editor one probably will check the work very often. However, things that can work in the HTML editor do not have to work in the web browser necessarily. After uploading the files to the server, one should check the website online, so that he/she could detect and correct any errors immediately. The external links should be also checked. They may happen to be cancelled and such links would seem unprofessionally. 18

19 3. 4. Conclusion Creating websites with or without knowing HTML is easy and I think that everyone could manage it. However, I decided not to teach pupils the ways of creating websites. In the first place, I do not think that it would be easy and interesting for them. It would also be very complex to me because pupils could not work on the same web page in a time. 4. Creating websites for ELT In this part of my work I will describe reasons why teachers of English would not create their own website in comparison with my opinions. I will also discuss the relation between children and the Web from different points of view Pros and cons As all pros have got their cons and vice versa, every person is different and sees things from different aspects. This could not be more true than talking about language teaching. Every pupil is different, learns in his/her own way by using different methods and techniques. If one pupil needs half an hour to learn the vocabulary items by listening, the other can need half of the time by simply reading them. If there are twenty pupils in the class, we will need twenty different methods or combinations of methods to meet every pupil's need. This counts for teachers, too. There are teachers who use Grammar translation method and those who would never use it. When I started using computers in my lessons some teachers claimed that computers are only for entertainment and for me as a teacher, it is a lesson off. Maybe those colleagues, who had such opinions, were used to using the computer room when they needed a lesson off or had an extra lesson for another teacher. To me, such lesson was and still is twice as demanding as the ordinary one. It usually takes me two or three hours to prepare the lesson and check whether the websites work or not, then in the lesson I have to help pupils with both technical and language difficulties and after the lesson I have to check and assess the work that pupils have done. Since I started creating the website with my pupils, I was told many comments from my colleagues and my friends who do not see the point in such work. Their comments were as follows: 1. There is a large amount of ELT materials on the Web which is ready to use. Why do not you use them? 19

20 2. You have to learn so many difficult things to create a simple website. 3. It is time consuming. There are so many things you could do instead. 4. You always have to have a backup plan in case the technological devices do not work or the computer room is engaged. 5. There are already many study materials online and pupils do not use them. Why should they use yours, even outside the classroom? 6. Nobody will appreciate your effort. Now I will try to make a comment on them. I use various ELT materials from the Web but it is always very hard to find the suitable activity for my pupils. Firstly, there are so many web pages containing innumerable amount of materials that it is easy to 'get lost' in them. Even if I have got a few favourite web pages I always try to find some new ones and it takes a lot of time. Secondly, when I finally find a suitable activity for my pupils I have to pre-teach some grammar points or vocabulary items which consequently could spoil the whole activity. On my website I can have texts or various activities that will be on such a language level that my pupils will be able to understand. It is true that I really had to learn, I am still learning and I will learn many things to create a website as the technology develops so quickly that the knowledge I have got today could be useless tomorrow. I personally do not count this fact as a disadvantage. On the contrary it is a challenge. As a teacher I will always have to learn new things. For instance, the lexis is changing and there are grammar rules that were not possible to break a few years ago but today we tolerate some variances. I could be a pundit in terms of English language teaching but to be a good teacher I need to extend my knowledge to other subjects. For my professional as well as personal development, being computer literate is a great advantage. To create a website, I have to learn a great deal of technical skills but I also have to have materials to publish. To have such materials I have to have certain knowledge and to gain some knowledge I have to study different subjects. If I wanted to work as a teacher for my whole life, being computer literate will become a must very soon. Learners already expect from a school to have a website and most of them take online materials for granted. Provided I am able to offer such services I think I will have more possibilities in the labour market. By creating a website I create extra materials which I could find on the Web or simply use a book of extra materials. I already have commented on the first possibility and choosing the latter would be the same. There are many books containing various 20

21 kinds of extra materials and I personally have over forty of them in my office. To choose the right activity from those books is also time consuming because I always want to try something new or more interesting. Usually such an activity is photocopiable, and I have to spend some time on copying. Furthermore, using the Web and contributing to it is an everyday activity for most pupils. By bringing the English lessons to a real life situation, it will definitely motivate pupils and show them that they do not learn for the teacher but to use their knowledge in an everyday life. Every teacher always has to have a backup plan in case anything does not work. There could be an electricity breakdown and a listening activity will not be able to take place, some pupils forget to do their homework and the follow-up activity will be impossible, a teacher of another group falls ill and we will have to teach two groups at a time. There are so many unpredictable situations that can happen any time and we will have to improvise. The comment that the computer room could be engaged seems to me as a way how to avoid the work in a computer room. I am sure that all schools have a system for booking special laboratories and provided I booked the computer room in advance, it cannot happen that it will be engaged. I usually book a certain lesson for a certain date but if I need the computer room for a certain lesson for a longer period of time, I can book it for a month or the whole school year. The argument, that pupils would not use the materials on the website we created, was the strongest for me. I am a kind of person who does not do anything which will not bring any benefits to me or others. I was afraid that pupils could create the website, enjoy that but not to use it outside the classroom. I wished that they would use the website as supplementary materials anywhere and anytime they would need. There are many online exercises for practising grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading etc. but there is no such a website which is created especially for pupils of our school. I took the risk and decided to work on the website for at least a year. Fortunately, my colleagues' predictions did not come true and pupils use the review exercises outside the classroom. I dare say that more than three quarters of pupils have got a computer at home and more than a half of them have got the Internet connection. Moreover, they can also use the computers at school before and after the lessons. That means that all pupils have the opportunity to access the Internet. 21

22 All teachers around the world complain that they are not appreciated for the work they do. I am aware of the fact that I will not get any extra money for creating the website for pupils but maybe the knowledge I gained will help me in the future. I must admit that working on the website has become my hobby and if pupils benefit from the website, it is worth doing. Recently, a boy from the sixth grade told me that he used the website when he was working on his Mathematics homework. He was supposed to draw a graph and he used the information about the population of Czech cities (the work on Czech cities will be described in the Practical part). I took it as a great success. Everyone can decide if he/she wants to spend his/her time on work like this or wants to devote to anything else The Web and children It is not only paradox but also reality that children are more computer literate than most of the adults. A computer has become a new toy for most children and they are used to it from the childhood. They usually started by playing simple games and watching or listening to fairy tales. When I taught an extra lesson in the second grade the other day, I asked pupils about computers and the Internet. There were twenty-one pupils in the class and all of them told me that they know how to start and play various computer games and also all of them had experience with the Internet. I did not expect that because they had learnt reading and writing few months ago. I also asked how could they play some of the online games without the knowledge of reading and writing and I was told that an older sibling or a parent typed in the address. In case the child did not know how to continue in the game, he/she asked for help again or simply started clicking on icons on the screen. The major difference between children and teachers is that children are more experienced in computer skills and the Internet, are eager to explore new things without being afraid of the technology, whereas most teachers are not experienced and willing to work with anything new. It could seem that teachers feel great responsibility for the device. On the other hand, there are teachers who are not afraid of using computers but they feel ashamed to be on the lower level than their learners are, in terms of computer skills (Dudeney; Hockly, 2007). I think that those teachers should remember that they cannot be good at everything and take such learners for an advantage. I experienced 22

23 such a situation when a pupil gave me and the whole class the instructions on downloading ICQ. I did not feel embarrassed and the boy was very happy to help. "While resource books and face-to-face teaching in a language classroom are undoubtedly of great value, one method which works well with very young learners is online learning (OL). OL sites can act as an effective tool in imparting sufficient comprehensible input to prepare the child for a prolonged period of learning. In addition they add an exciting and important element of play." (Viswamohan, 2006). Using online materials and exercises and contributing to the Web is nothing new for majority of my pupils. They are used to mailing, chatting but also making comments on various web pages they visit. Many of them have got their own blogs and some pupils are running their own website. It is natural for them when I say that the work they are about to do will be published. In my opinion, there is no better way how to liven the English lessons up than to connect them with the real life. 5. Creating and using own online materials All activities which could be done through external ELT websites can be done through the website the teacher has made, too. However, unlike an external ELT website, on the teacher's website learners will be in controlled environment. In other words, lexis, grammar and all the activities will suit the learners they are aimed at. There are two ways how to create an online exercise. One can make them entirely on his/her own or use software. Both possibilities require some learning. When using some software one has to know how to use it, install it and learn how it works. Online materials could be divided into two groups according to their usage: interactive and non-interactive. Interactive materials are exercises that are able to react to learners and their work. For instance, when a learner fills a gap-filling exercise, the computer interacts by showing the score. Non-interactive materials do not give any feedback immediately. Non-interactive materials for ELT are especially those which inform, teach or present some knowledge to learners. Materials like these, can be used for grammar explanations, for instance. It can happen that a learner misses the class and needs to learn the grammar covered in the lesson. He/She can visit the website, read the grammar rules, explanations and examples and directly practise if he/she understood the grammar correctly. This process can be used in the same way by a learner who needs to practise a certain grammar point and needs to revise it. Everything is on one website and he/she 23

24 does not need any grammar exercise book or a textbook. A power point presentation is a good way how to present cultural differences, realia, facts about foreign countries etc. but also vocabulary items. For example, if one wants learners to know certain facts about London, one can put the presentation on the website and use it in the lesson. Learners can see the presentation as many times as they wish, they do not need to make entries into their exercise books and moreover they can see images of the places and the text at the same time. Both grammar explanations and power point presentation can be made by learners Creating materials To create a good material learners need all four skills. They have to listen to or read some information so that they would be able to write or speak about it. However, to create online materials the writing and speaking skills are the most important and to use such materials in the lesson, the reading and listening skills are developed Writing skills Pupils usually do not like writing long essays because this is usually only for the educational purpose. The writing should be natural and pupils should see the point in it. Moreover, texts on the websites should not be long because it takes too much time to read and readers do not like reading on the screen. All writing activities which can be done in the classroom can be made for the website purposes. Pupils can create such exercises very easily and after adding them to the website they can also do the exercises online. To motivate pupils to write is not easy. They need to see the purpose of such work. I think that by publishing their work we can motivate them because they can use the materials for learning, for fun, they can show their work to their parents but also to their friends and penfriends by sending a link via . Furthermore, they can also see the progress they have made. For instance, if I ask my pupils to write any piece of text about themselves using simple sentence structures and vocabulary items and grammar they know, I can ask them for the same task a year later and add their texts to the old ones. They will see that their sentences are more complex, the lexis has changed and even the grammar is not the same. 24

25 As mentioned above, the materials for the website can be interactive which is, in my opinion, more attractive to children. Among such materials belong puzzles, crosswords and wordsearches, jumbled sentences but also various quizzes. Suggested activities Puzzles Find the odd one. There are words in a line, say four, and pupils have to find which word does not fit to the others. Usually, they have to work out a connection. E.g. blue big car long. The odd one is 'car' because the other words are adjectives. Guess what it is. This activity is based on a description and pupils guess the thing, animal etc. For example, 'It's an animal. It is big and grey. It has got four legs and a long nose.' (an elephant). Code message. Pupils are given a message in a code and they have to 'uncode' it. They can either puzzle the code out and then find the message or the code can be given to them. An example of a code message written by a pupil from 7 th grade is shown in appendix Code message. The activity is adapted from Project 1, Student's book (Hutchinson, 2003). Crosswords and wordsearches Crosswords and wordsearches are very favourite activities for all children. To create such an activity, it is easier to use some special software. Pupils only type in the words and the computer program creates the crossword or wordsearch. The following variations can be used either for crosswords or for wordsearches. Pupils can translate the words from Czech into English and type the letters in the crossword. There can also be a short definition in English or in Czech and pupils have to puzzle out the word and type it in the crossword. The words that should be typed in the crossword can be pictures. Jumbled letters. Pupils have to put the letters in the correct order and then type the words in the crossword. 25

26 Jumbled sentences Jumbled sentence exercises are excellent way how to practise sentence structure. The words in the sentence are jumbled and pupils have to put them in the correct order. Quizzes Quizzes can be based on a text which belongs to the quiz, can focus on grammar, spelling, factual knowledge or a pupil has to use the Internet to find the answers. Multiple-choice. Pupils are asked a question and they can choose from several answers. Pupils can answer the question on their own by typing the answer in Speaking skills There are many elements which are important for fluent speaking, for instance, pronunciation of different sounds, connected speech, intonation, knowledge of grammar and lexis. To practise and use the skills of speaking, one could use podcasts mentioned in Recording learners and publishing the records on the website can be good practice as well as motivation for learners. Firstly, they can listen to their own podcasts and hear themselves speaking English. It could encourage them to improve the features of speech which they are not good at and as they get used to hear themselves speaking English it becomes more natural for them and they will not be embarrassed to speak. Secondly, the records that learners have made will be further used as listening exercises. To make learners speak, necessary language, such as lexis, grammar, phrases, and knowledge of the subject matter should be pre-taught. Sometimes learners want to talk or discuss but they do not have the words or the grammar they need to express themselves or they do not know much about the topic. Harmer asserts that language, topic and genre are the very basic reasons why students find language production difficult (Harmer, 1991). A 'genre' in language teaching means a style of speech. Scrivener defines it as a variety of speech often characterised by specific choices about style, manner, tone, quantity, volume, directness, choice of words, formality, type of content, etc. (Scrivener, 2005). Learners should be aware of different genres and should be taught to use them, e.g. telling a joke, making a phone call, interviewing, giving instructions, etc. In case that the speaking activity is recorded and further used as a listening exercise, learners will probably write what they will say. Moreover, spontaneous 26