An
average class in the USA, has about 25-30 students. A teacher
might have 5 or 6 different 45 minute classes a day. This leaves
less than 2 minutes per student per day. In Hong Kong where I
teach the English language at a secondary school, the school
has 1200 students and 53 teachers. In teaching the English language, my responsibilities include not only to prepare my students for their very competitive public exams, but to teach them how to communicate in English. Communication can take many forms. In a traditional language class the different types of communication might include formal oral, formal written (letters, compositions), reading, etc In today's world the Internet has opened up new facets of communication, via e-mail, ICQ and chat rooms. All of my students have my e-mail
address and ICQ
number. Out of my 132 students, I receive e-mails from about
15 of them on a regular basis. I also have received e-mail's
from about 5 other students in the school. Authentic communication refers to
communication that is practical, genuine and has a purpose. Formal
teacher-student communications are guided by a set of socio-linguistic
rules - by using e-mail those rules are discarded, informal English
is used for genuine communication. E-mail has added another dimension
to communication, and for students (especially of a second language)
it can often be a more relaxed, less stressful and more personal
way to contact their teacher. Especially for these students,
grammar becomes less important and the 'idea' becomes more The above all refers to informal
communications. E-mail can also be used for formal teacher-student
communications - as is being seen across university campuses
in the USA. Course syllabi being available on line, compositions
submitted by e-mail and notes from teachers going out to the
students. While this is all useful and innovative - it is just
an electronic advancement of traditional teacher-student communications
and not 'authentic communication'. |
Jacqueline Renee Cohen teaches English as a Foreign Language at Cognitio College in Hong Kong and is trying to integrate Internet technology into her lessons. E-mail Jacqueline at JAQATAC@iname.com. Watch for more news from Hong Kong in the coming issues of dacs.doc. |