HOW DOES USING WEBPAGES PROMOTE LEARNING IN ESL CLASSES?

By Umit SERIN

www.umitserin.com

 

A few years ago, if teachers in the New York City Public Schools were told that  e-mail accounts would be provided to foster communication with their students and coworkers, nobody would have believed it. Today, it is becoming a necessity; everything from a simple announcement to a job application may be performed via e-mail.  We still have a long way to go in order to utilize this service to its fullest potential.  However, while many of our teachers are still in the process of acquiring the skills to use this valuable resource, the importance of the Internet within the classroom cannot be understated.  In particular, recent research suggests that Internet use within the ESL classroom promotes solid advances in language development.

            Although the importance of the Internet for educational use has not been fully explored, it is certain that we have entered a new information age in which students can access an abundance of information online to facilitate the learning process. In the 90’s, the introduction of word processors within the school setting made written assignment easier for students while improving their typing skills. Recently, the emergence of the Internet has revolutionized the classroom, providing teachers with a reliable and exciting tool which encourages the learning process to continue even after students leave school grounds.  From owning a webpage to publishing work that reflects our identities, Internet usage within the spectrum of ESL teaching is a powerful resource for stimulating students’ creativity while sparking a desire to learn.

           

 

WHY USE WEBPAGES?

 

  •       Many high schools, colleges and other educational institutions will expect students to use technology for research, communication and presentation. Those students who are not literate in technology will have to take remedial class, which will result in increases in educational expenses.  They will also graduate later than their peers, as noted in “Uses of Advanced Technology in Remedial Instruction”

            (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/peqis/publications/2004010/6.asp)

  •       By creating their own web pages, students become more involved in the learning process, which increases motivation levels. Web page creation is very popular among students, who take pride in posting their work on their websites.  By implementing this resource, students become more enthusiastic, more independent, more curious and more interested in learning and posting their work on the web for others to read and respond to.

  •       Having web pages will help students gain self-confidence and be more productive. Being able to create something fosters a sense of confidence within students. As students develop their web pages, both at school and at home, they become more independent learners who actively participate in the educational process.

  •       The Internet provides an abundance of information and resources. Through the Internet, students can access different materials either at school or from their home, around the clock. This learning resource is literally “at their fingertips:” all they have to do is utilize the information to publish work on their web pages. (Singhal, M. (1997).

  •       As Walqui explains, “The primary process by which learning takes place is interaction, more specifically, an engagement with other learners and teachers in joint activities that focus on matters of shared interests and contain opportunities for learning.” (Walqui, A. 2002) By using web pages, students can interact both with their teachers and with each other more than ever. Students will have the opportunity to correspond with their peers and critique each other’s work whenever they want. “The vital interaction and feedback that takes place between a teachers and student (or group of students) is not limited to the confines of a classroom.” (Besile, R. (1996) ESL students especially will have the opportunity to share their work and interact with other students from all over the world. This will give them the opportunity to learn about different cultures. Having WebPages along with Internet access will put a modern spin on the pen-pal era, with the onset of the “e-pal era.”

  •       Students will feel empowered to work at their own pace. This way advanced learners do not suffer when teachers attend to their slower-learning peers, and the slow learners will not be forced to move on without internalizing what they learned.

  • The Internet will help teachers assist their students in developing interest in learning and critical thinking. It will change teacher-dominated instruction and increase the students’ desire to take partnership in their learning.

  •       The Internet will also advance higher level thinking:  “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, L.F. (1998). When students perform research online and post the end product for feedback, students will learn to be selective about what is posted and will expand their skills at self-reflection.

     

    From my experience, having web pages allows my students to perform a variety of work options on their web pages, from projects, to homework assignments, autobiographical pieces, and whatever else they wish to post. Dictionaries and other useful tools implement their research and facilitate the learning process. Whenever they want to ask for assistance, my students can communicate with me or with their classmates via e-mail, developing a spirit of camaraderie and teamwork within the classroom. Accessing my students’ work on the Internet allows me to spend more time to read their work and e-mail them feedback.

                Thanks to the web pages students created, my students now have access to their work not only at school but also at home and wherever they are more than ever before. Posting their work on their web pages rather than writing in their source books, provides their friends and family the opportunity to access the students’ work anytime and to provide feedback. When working on their source books, students have a limited audience; in contrast, when students post their work on their web pages, they have larger audience that can contact them and share their ideas with them. Since working on their web pages holds students’ interests, the quality of assignments is not impeded by student boredom or frustration.  Instead, students are more motivated and active than ever.

    BACKGROUND INFORMATION

     

    Currently, I work with one sixth grade bilingual, one seventh grade bilingual and one seventh grade ESL class. Students in my bilingual classes are Spanish speaking. The composition of my ESL class consists of 6 Chinese, 4 Spanish, 2 Bengali, 1 Polish, and 1 Philippine student. Students, both in my bilingual and ESL classes, are grouped heterogeneously according to their English proficiency level. Most of my beginner and intermediate students have been in this country for less than three years, as opposed to a few of my advanced students who have been here for more than three years. Like most immigrant families, most of the parents work long hours and may not have time to work with their children.  Some can’t speak English at all. In other words, the only exposure to academic English my students have is limited to the school environment. Further, most of the students have limited experience with computer technology and none had prior exposure to the Web as an information resource.

     

    IMPLEMENTATION

     

                Even though meeting the needs of my students seems extremely challenging, I rely on technological resources to assist in literacy-based instruction. With the assistance of my supervisor, I was able purchase laptops for each of my students and was sent to the ITHS (Information Technology High school) for training on creating WebPages as a tool to promote language development. I had the opportunity to be trained by one of the pioneers in the field, Ted Nellen. Observing what ESL students at ITHS were able to do, inspired me to implement the program with my students, which, in turn, led me to create my own web page to guide my students in their own web page construction. In doing so, my students and I developed a network in which we can correspond with each other and post our work.

    Before starting to create web pages, parental permission was required in order for my students to be able to publish their work. Parents were very cooperative.  They, too, were excited to hear that they could monitor their children’s progress from home.  Each student received a print out of the HTML codes needed in order to create the main page, which is called an index. By simply copying the codes, the students were directed to an empty web page – the first step in the process. Next, I taught the class the HTML code required for publishing their own work online. Because HTML codes consist of letters, this step was not very difficult, even for my beginners.  Through my demonstration, students were able to begin publishing simple work that included only text.  

     It took us two weeks to create a web page for each child on which they could publish their schoolwork. My aim at first was to eliminate the use of portfolios and eventually phase out source books in the class. “Web folios” would replace both the source books and the portfolios. (T. Nellen )

    In a month, my students were more comfortable using their web pages to publish their work. While at first, I encouraged students to work individually, cooperative learning in small groups became an excellent way to produce projects on assigned topics while developing cooperative skills.   In this respect, The Web was used as the main information resource, a search tool, and as the means for publication of projects.

    Students who were technologically advanced, worked with those who needed extra help. This created a “low anxiety, and stress free environment” in which all of my students- regardless of their proficiency levels -were motivated enough to perform at their highest level.  (Krashen 1982) 

    The second month, my students were comfortable enough to open a web page, post their work on it, and link it to their main page (index) without my help. Most of them learned how to create links to certain resources that they thought they could utilize while working on their projects. They learned how to add background colors and pictures. It was amazing to see that students began to do extra work to post on their web pages at home. I realized that those who skipped homework before we started to work on web pages actually did all of the homework assignments daily. Students became editors. They started to feel more comfortable using e-mail to correspond with each other and express opinions.

    I started to have 100 % attendance. Students were eager to come to the class and go straight to work without my encouragement. After they heard that we have been working on web pages, most of the students in the ESL department wanted to transfer to my class. Students started to spend their lunch periods in the classroom just to work on their web pages. That helped my students’ sense of belonging to the school community. They saw that they, too, can be looked up to and emulated, and that encouraged them to further develop their skills.

                Today my students are comfortable enough to be participate actively in my workshops in which we train other teachers to implement a webpage development strategy within their own classrooms. The feedback that my students receive from the rest of the school community has been positive and encouraging. Seeing the great strides taken by my ESL students – both verbally, educationally, technologically, and emotionally – has motivated other teachers to have higher expectations from their native English-speaking students.  Most of all, I have been inspired by the creativity and enthusiasm of my students as they develop their own WebPages.       

     

    Conclusion

     

    This article has described the integration of Web pages in ESL classrooms. Regardless of their English proficiency levels, students can develop language skills and cross cultural knowledge through both individual and small group work as they learn to publish material on their own websites. From my experience, integrating web pages in the ESL classroom has been a tremendous success. . My students are more motivated and eager to participate in their learning. They access their work wherever they are and use the tools on their web pages to produce and publish a variety of assignments. Taking risks is a major challenge for all ESL students, especially the beginners. Publishing work on their web pages allowed my ESL students to take chances in their learning while building their language and technological skills.

    Using web pages as tools for learning and teaching in my classes is an ongoing learning process, both for me and for my students. I firmly believe that the more we use web pages in our classes the more comfortable we will become as learners and teachers. While doing so, we will continue evaluating and assessing the impact of web page use in students’ language development.  

    QUESTIONNAIRE 

    (Before creating web pages)

    A total of 45 ESL and Bilingual students were given a questionnaire before and after they started to work on web pages. The results for the questionnaire that were given before creating web pages suggest that most of the students did not have computers at home. Those who did have Internet access did not use it themselves. While 33% of the students had e-mail accounts, only 4% of them sent e-mail to their teachers to ask questions regarding the classes or homework assignments. Even though there were a lot of computers at school, 55% of the students did not utilize them to do research. Of 45 students that were given the questionnaire only one student had a web page on which he did not post any school related work.

     

     

    YES

    %

    NO

    %

    Do you have a computer at home?

    19

    33%

    26

    57%

    Do you have home internet access?

    15

    33%

    30

    66%

    Do you have an e-mail address?

    15

    33%

    30

    66%

    Have you ever sent e-mail?

    12

    26%

    33

    73%

    Have you ever sent e-mail to your teacher?

    2

    4%

    43

    95%

    Have you ever done any research on the internet?

    20

    44%

    25

    55%

    Do you have a web page?

    1

    %2

    44

    97%

                          

     

    QUESTIONNAIRE

    (After creating Web pages)

     

    1-How helpful was Mr. Serin’s home page?

    a)     Very helpful

    b)    Somewhat helpful

    c)     Not helpful at all

    2- How helpful was the teacher when you e-mailed him?

    a)     Very helpful

    b)    Somewhat helpful

    c)     Not helpful at all

    3-How helpful was using web pages to do research and post your work?

    a)     very helpful

    b)    somewhat helpful

    c)     not helpful at all

    4-Would you rather keep posting your work on your web pages or in your sourcebooks?

          a) I would rather post my work on my web page
          b) I would rather do my work in my sourcebook.


       

    After students felt more comfortable working on their web pages, they were given another questionnaire to assess the efficiency of using web pages. 75% of the students reported that Mr. Serin's web page has been a very useful tool to help them both with their language development and improve their web pages. 95% of those who e-mailed the teacher and asked for assistance reported that Mr. Serin was very helpful.  All of the students stated that using their web pages to do research and post their work was very helpful.  100% of the students reported that they prefer posting their work on their web pages than in their source books.

     

     

     

    REFERENCES

     

    • Belisle, Ron, E-mail Activities in the ESL Writing Class, The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. II, No. 12, December 1996
      http://iteslj.org/Articles/Belisle-Email.html
    • Kasper, L.F., ESL and the Internet: Content, rhetoric and research. Proceedings of Rhetoric and Technology in the New Millennium, 1998.
      http://members.aol.com/Drlfk/rhetoric.html
    • Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon.
    • Nellen, Ted, The Writing Process on the Internet. January 1997.

    http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/nellena.htm

          Singhal, Meena, The Internet and Foreign Language Education: Benefits and Challenges, The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. III, No. 6, June 1997
    http://iteslj.org/Articles/Singhal-Internet.html

  •       Walqui, A. (2002). Scaffolding Instruction for English Learners: Conceptual framework (p1). San Francisco: West Ed.