Learning a Foreign Language Faster: Does Using the Internet Help Students?

The Internet Has Many Useful Aspects
Yes in fact, the internet has many useful aspects in English and foreign language teaching or learning. It’s a fine resource for those teachers and learners who like technology. So it definitely can help students to learn a foreign language faster when used properly and with discretion. Whether the internet is a viable option will depend a lot on the type of connection available to you, its reliability and your computer equipment and software itself.


Comic source: http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/gerv/archives/2007/images/internet_dog.jpg

There is an introductory 3-part article of mine on this topic entitled “Effective Ways to Use the Internet for Learning English or a Foreign Language”. Here I give an overview of getting starting in foreign language learning on the world wide web. A great variety of language and other courses, teaching and learning aids, and tutorials are available online in scores if not hundreds of languages. There are also radio broadcasts, news, current events, sports, weather, documentary and cultural events regularly placed on the internet in multi-media formats, with a large number of these having free access.

Some EFL Teachers Have Opted-out of Using Technology
Actually though, there are quite a number of English and foreign language teachers who are “techno-phobes”, that is, those who have opted-out of using technology or the world wide web. The internet scares or repels them for any number of reasons, some of them quite valid, so they stay away from it. This is often a shame, since there is so much good information to be had online for little or frequently, no cost.

Overcoming Initial Fears
For “non-techies” and the technologically-challenged, I usually recommend an introductory course on using the worldwide web for teachers that includes word processing, e-mail basis, power point, uploading and downloading files and information along with a few other PC-use basics. Then they can try an online English grammar course or a short web quest. Once over their initial “fears” of using computers and the internet, many former “techno-phobes” come to grips with dealings online. This is more often than not to their ultimate benefit.

Language Learners Use Portable Digital Devices of All Kinds
Although I teach and use the internet extensively, there are many approaches to TEFL which do not. As technology advances and more and more of our learners use portable digital devices of all kinds as an every-day occurrence, we as ELT and foreign language teaching professionals need to “keep up” as it were, with what learners can use in their quests for competitive knowledge and skills. After all, it’s just another way of reaching our learners by “lowering their Affective Filters”.


Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, prolific writer, expert author and public speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, "If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.

Effective Ways to Use the Internet: Playing games and having fun

More on Using the Internet for English
or Foreign Language Learning

Our six ways of effectively using the Internet to learn English or another foreign language continues with suggestion numbers and five and six of six.

Photo: A curved outdoor pedestrian-only plaza leading to the Plaza de Los Martires in chilly Toluca, Mexico

5. Playing games and having fun

Vocabulary is often referred to as the building blocks of language. Knowledge of vocabulary is one aspect that separates the language learning levels. The more vocabulary you know, the more communicative you are. Here are some unique linguistic sites that help build your language as you “play”:

• The http://www.manythings.org/ site offers “interesting things for ESL students” like songs, jokes, quizzes, word games, puzzles, slang and even podcasts to help stimulate English language acquisition.

• The foreign language course site at: http://www.foreignlanguagehome.com/topics/courses/index.htm has activities in 27 languages including Finnish, Mandarin and Quechua.

• At the Transparent Language site you can play games in any one of more than 100 languages from Afrikaans to Farsi or Guarani to Yoruba. And yes, they have Zulu too. Check out all their listings here: http://www.transparent.com/games/

6. So what language tickles your fancy?

While the selection of language courses, tutorials, news feeds, music and other audio – visual materials online is extensive, ALL the world’s 6912 languages simply aren’t available. Sorry. But hundreds of languages are and here’s how to find you’re interested in if it’s online.

• 108 FREE online foreign language courses are posted at: http://www.word2word.com/coursead.html

• The PARLO language website offers courses in English, Spanish, French and Italian at: http://www.parlo.com/parlo21/home/courselist/courselist_en.asp

• The E. L. Easton Language Institute offers 14 languages online from Albanian to Japanese, Latin to Croatian to Russian and Spanish. The site is online at: http://eleaston.com/languages.html

• A plethora of language learning activities for the world wide web are online for practice activities from the University of Hawaii here: http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/lss/lang/nflrc.html

Although the internet may not be the complete answer to all your foreign language learning needs it nonetheless can be a tremendous resource in your efforts to “Habla Español”, “Parlez Francaise”, or “Sprechenze Deutcsh”. The prestige, financial gains, personal satisfaction, envy and opportunities that frequently follow with knowledge of a foreign language are without equal. Why don’t you start today trying out some of these effective ways to use the Internet to learn a language. Be sure to read the companion article posting “Six Quick Tricks for Learning a Language”. By the way, if you do find Cochimi, Cibemba or Kukapa, please let me know – I’m still looking.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on entering or advancing in the fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language send for his no-cost PDF Ebook, "If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know", by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? Contact the author for a prompt response.

Effective Ways to Use the Internet: How do YOU learn?

Number Two: Become familiar with language learning strategies

How do YOU learn? Knowing this can make the daunting task of English or a foreign language learning less like study and more like play. Are you a Visual – Spatial learner who likes pictures, drawings, graphics and extensive use of color? A Musical – Rhythmic type that would benefit from having your lessons and materials set to music, rhythm or rhyme? Perhaps you’re the athletic type who’d derive more success with learning by motion, movement, mime or even dance? Playing the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (pictured) in the background while studying has been shown to enhance learning in a number of areas. To find out more about your manner of learning visit these sites for starters:

• Learning Styles Explanation http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm

• Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/ilsweb.html

• The Success Types Learning Style Indicator http://www.ttuhsc.edu/SOM/Success/LSTIntro.htm

3. Practice reading skills

Literacy is one of the 21st century’s most innately valuable compound skills. After all, you’re reading THIS now, aren’t you? Few would wish to be illiterate in their new foreign language so practice of reading skills is paramount. Online newspapers, magazines, newsletters and blogs can provide the needed practice and learning materials. Check out these reading comprehension skills sites:

• How to Read Your Textbook More Efficiently http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/lrnres/handouts/1422.html

• Self-study reading lessons http://www.english-to-go.com/

• Read the article in the following address: http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/quiz/read1a.html

In the address that follows, take the quiz to verify your understanding of the reading passage: http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/quiz/read1b.html

4. Help in developing listening skills

Considered to be the most difficult of the language skills to develop, listening cannot be taught. Rather, you must practice, practice, practice and then practice some more. Every week, twice a week I passed a street vendor at the same spot, absolutely clueless as to what he was saying. I knew what he was selling – I just peeked over at his wares. But his entreaties in street Spanish fell on my language-clogged ears for months. Then one evening, without warning, it happened. Just two days before, his cries were the same incomprehensible slur they’d been for months. That one evening however, when he launched into his huckster’s spiel I suddenly understood every word. My listening comprehension skills had clicked in. Why then? No one knows. Especially not me, and I’m a post-graduate-degreed Language Education Specialist!

Practice your listening skills with radio programs in your target language for a change at www.live365.com which has live global feeds 24 hours a day in multiple languages.

Foreign language internet radio and foreign news radio in 27 European, 4 Middle Eastern, 9 Asian languages and audio feeds from 19 African countries are broadcast on: http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-radio.html

We’ll continue with two more ways to effectively use the internet for English or foreign language teaching and learning in the final, part 3 of this article posting.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on entering or advancing in the fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language send for his no-cost PDF Ebook, "If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know", by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? Contact the author for a prompt response.

Effective Ways to Use the Internet for Learning English or a Foreign Language

There are many ways to learn a new language:

You can go live in a country where the language is spoken, attend a formal language course, get a private language tutor or use books and written materials. Other ways to learn a foreign language are to listen to CDs or audiocassette tapes, watch TV, movies and video programs, memorize phrase books, use the Internet or employ a combination of all the above.

But not everyone can arrange to live in a foreign country. Native speakers of the language may not be available. Written or recorded commercial materials may not be available in the language you’re interested in (Cochimi, Cibemba or Kukapa, anyone?) True, many major languages like Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese broadcast TV programs via cable. Even Korean, Catalan, Arabic and Japanese have venues available in cosmopolitan areas worldwide; but the vast majority of the world’s thousands of spoken tongues are simply not at large outside of their local areas. So what’s a prospective polyglot to do?

The Internet
One answer of course, is the internet. Plug “foreign language courses” into an internet search engine like Google, Yahoo or MSN and more than 70 million hits instantly come up. From Afrikaans to Punjabi, and Hebrew to Zulu, thousands of listings lay before you only a mouse click away. How exactly then, can the internet be used to tackle learning a foreign language? Start off effectively by using these six ways:

1. Do an initial evaluation

The first thing you may want to know is where you are in the scheme of learning the language. An initial language skills evaluation is in order; are you a raw beginner? False beginner? Intermediate level? Higher? Let’s take English as a second or foreign language as an example. English proficiency diagnostics tests are free online at:

• General English Test with instant results http://nll.co.uk/test/english.shtml

• Parlo http://parlo.com/ (diagnostic tests in English, Spanish, and French)

• Upper Intermediate Test

http://www.wordskills.com/level/caeform.html

If you score above 80% in this test, you should take the next one and also show your teacher or tutor a copy of the results.

We’ll continue with additional ways to effectively use the internet for English or foreign language teaching and learning in parts 2 and 3 of this article posting.

Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on the lucrative, fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign Language, get your copy of his no-cost, full multi-media, hypertext-linked pdf ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know” by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? Contact the author for a prompt response.