Holonic Peripheral System Components: A General Systems ...



Language Learning Laboratory by the Advanced Technology

and Information Based on Webs or Internet Facilities

Feiz Ali Maddah

A University English Teacher at Semnan University,

Faculty of Humanities, Foreign Language and Literature Department.

The Islamic Republic of Iran.

f_maddah200l@

Abstract

The rapid growth and World Wide expansion of the Internet and Website facilities which link computers together all over the world into single isolated electronic communication network, is in the process of making widespread computer-based instructions a reality.This is true, largely, to the advent of the World Wide Web (WWW, or simply web), a system for accessing and viewing information on the Internet. In this paper, I am trying to illustrate the practicality of learning a language by the Web, and enlighten the pedagogists.teachers,scholars, and trainers as how to speed up the learning procedures via the Advanced Technology and Information in the schools , colleges, universities and educational centers all over the world.

Introduction

During the past few years, my colleagues and me have been examining how the new ATI can be at the service of the educators And students, specially those who are enthusiastically interested in the development and advancement of their country, and the efficiency of the educational investment either on the economics and human power training which are mostly and repeatedly emphasized by the top authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the government of the other nations. I have been raising this question: Why don’t the university students speak English, in spite of spending more than 2,000 hours on the traditional series of standard course books? Undoubtedly, the fault lies in the tools and educational technology, psychology and technique of teaching procedures.

Design of Experimental Web Learning materials for ESL Learners.

Our work has focused on creating multi-Media learning environments for intermediate level ESL learners. We targeted this group because intermediate-level learners seem to be the audience who can profit most immediately from the web-based courseware. Beginners need the carefully graded and structured material already provided by the text books and may find it difficult to use the Web agt all, because their English knowledge is too limited to cope with the operating instructions of the browser programs. Nor is there a pressing need to develop special materials or advanced ESL Learners because one can easily find many web documents that are interesting and appropriate in the daily life.

Before discussing our work, we want to point out how web documents augment the capabilities of convenient text. Web browsers support hypertext, a form of cross-reference in which a highlighted text selection is link to another document. When a user clicks the highlighted text, the link document, which may be anywhere within WWW, is displayed , . Links not only support immediate access to referenced material, but also permit Web documents to be structured as elaborate “menu and indices”. A simple Programming Language Teaching called” HYPERTEXT MAKEUP LANGUAGE ‘(usually abbreviated HTML) allows authors to annotate documents with these “ hypertext links” and to specify formats. To see a particular Web Documents ,one must provide its Internet Address (called its” uniform resource” locator or URL), which specified both the name of the document and the name of the computer that contain s the document. Usually in initial “URL” leads to a menu or index, and form that point on one can follow hypertext links.

Of course pure display, even equipped with links, is not sufficient for a flexible instructional environment; some way of interacting with students is also necessary. WWW supports limited interaction by means of forms, which are areas of a document (specific usage of HTML) where the user can in a response or select a bottom to link. Once the user has entered some responses, they can be processed by an author – specified programs in order to store them as data and send responses as E-mal, or they can be examined with a view to giving the user feedback about correction.

Invention of EX.CHANGE; An ESL Web magazine

In an initial attempt to implement Language Learning Resources on the web, a number of graduate students at of Illinois at Urban –Champaign founded the ESL Web magazine under the title:” ex. CHANGE;” (Shetzer, l995, Zhao, Li, & Hegelheimeir, l995).Their purpose was to explore ways in which high quality ESL Learning Sources could accumulated, organized, and presented on the Web (see the sample magazine under figure No.l)

The editors of the new magazine considered two common modes of Web Publishing as a possible format for the publication. One was the bulletin board or discussion group, of which Sperling ’s (l995) ESL Graffiti Wall Web Page is an example.

Ex. Change’s Editorial Department

Organized to promote the dual functions of promoting communication among ESL Learners and serving as resource archive. Ex. Change, arranges its content in four editorial departments, or sections: World Culture, Current News and Events, Stories ,and Learning Resources Center. In the World Cultures Section, ESL students write about aspects of their cultures such as birthdays in Germnay , wedding ceremonies in Semnan ,Garmsar, Damaghan, and Sharoud (The famous cities en-route Tehran and Mashad, a Province of the Islamic Republic of Iran). The cultures news may be broaden within a city, village, town or province as suggested by the designer of the instructions. The Current News and Events section reports events that are currently happening in various parts of the world. In the story section, ESL students develop exciting chain stories. The topics of these sections reflect what we perceived to be important pre-occupations of ESL students and were intended to encourage contributions fro readers. The largest section is the Learning Resource Center, which contains reading materials with a comprehensive checking control system, discussion of writing strategies , grammar tutorials , and English conversations that help students learn oral English skills. There are also an English Idiom Bank or Treasure of Expressions links to an online dictionary and some ESL news groups . To enable users to find what they need with a minimum amount of time and effort, the Ex. Change aids its reader by offering a built-in research capability such that users can type in Key Words in order to locate specific materials in past issues of the magazines.

Advantages of Electronic Medium over pint

Nevertheless, “Ex. Change” has proved to have substantial advantages over a traditional paper magazine or boring text -books. As with any other electronic magazine, the time and effort needed to publish articles is reduced tremendously. Communication between editors and writers is through E-mail facilities. All the contributions are submitted and published in electronic form, which makes it easier and faster to get the work done and possible to post new material as soon as it is available. Color- pictures, audio, and even video- tapes and films can be presented as inexpensively as text. Archival material is easy to maintain and retrieve. Perhaps most important, it is possible to build a wide audience without extensive and expensive promotion and advertising project. As soon as “ Ex. Change “ went online, standard Web Search Facilities introduced it to the ESL community, and the magazine was soon limited to various other ESL sites. Readership grew almost overnight to more than l00 individual per day from more than 40 different countries.

Preferences for Audio Formats

The multi-media aspect of “Ex. Change “ is unquestionably popular with our readers in the developed countries. We, however, are not yet sure what kind of audio materials readers actually want. To investigate this question, Li (l995b), one of our colleagues created materials that incorporated text and audio in four different formats. He used short, interesting stories designed to promote the integration of reading, listening, and speaking skills .The first text was registered under the title: Scientists Listen in on Whales”, is a 200-word news article with point-and-click glossary help. Words likely to be difficult for ESL students are highlighted when the students clicks one of these words, it is pronounced aloud (using pre-recorded digitized).Definitions of the glossed words are also given at the end of the reading material.

Templates for Interactive Exerc es.is

Besides the structuring of multi-media materials, attaining adequate interactivity is another problem for Web-base instructon.The greatest hurdle for “HTML” authors is without doubt the cumbersome process required to create interactivities. Web forms do provide instructional useful input formats such as scrollig and non-scrolling text areas, check box buttons ,radio buttons, and pop-up menu (see sample No.2, Netscape Interactive facilities under figure No.2) Daily Access to English as a Second Language.

Li’s (l995a) English as a Second Language Home Page provides a general access for a large section of these materials. It is organized into six sections: Listening and Speaking, Reading and Writing, ESL –related information. Other ESL sites on the web, and ESL learner’s web pages. Each section contains links to ESL materials” Li “ has found or created, including the materials s discussed above. Because this site is well - known and heavily used with the number of files accessed as high as 2,000 contacts per day, we can examine usage patterns (See statistical graph, under figure No.3) to gain some impression of the nature of the Web ESL community and need.

Among the six sections of English as a Second Language Home Page, the listening and the speaking section is accessed most, accounting 36% of total access. About 46% of identifiable accesses come from the United States, and the rest are from more than 40 other countries: Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Israel as significant users of Internet facilities for learning and teaching English as a Second Language (see statistical graph, under figure No.4)

Other ESL Learning Resources for the Web.

Most English language centers and intensive English institutes now maintain their own web ages (ref . the internet Tesol Journal,iteslj,l995).

Bowers (l95),put together ‘ Resources for Teachers of English for Science and Technology. Harris’s(l995),Linguistic Funland list resources for learners and teachers. Sperling’s (l996) ESL center on the Web’s Resource in bulletin like format. The weekly Idiom Web Site of the Comentium group (l995) selects on idiom each week. Li’s (l995a) English as a second Language Home page, provides a general access for a larger selection of these materials. This site is well-known and heavily used with a number of files accessed as high as 2,000 contacts per day.

Conclusion

Technology and Information (or Information, Communication and Technology abbreviated “ICT”) Services are evolving so rapidly that any TESOL courseware on the web must be considered work in progress. We certainly consider our efforts in this light.Though the predicting the future is always a risky undertaking, short-term Web developments are clear. “ Streaming and plug –in “ technologies now under development will soon allow the delivery of good quality audio and video to Web in real time, without a download delay.

References

[l] Bowers ,R (l995) resources for teachers of English for science and technology, ; le;wfi.fr ?est/estl .html.

[2] Comenium group (l995). The weekly idiom. Available: .

[3] Godwin ,J.R.(l994),Language Learning and world wide web. Available :ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/IT94/ Agenda/papers-received ,html.

[4] Harris, K.P .(l995). Linguistic Funland,.. available:.

[5] Li ,R .C. (l995a). English as Second Language Home Page, available: .

[6] Li , R.C.(l995b). Integration of listening , reading and speaking skills; available : project/eslbreg .html.

[7] Shetzer, H.(l995). Ex .Change : Electroic Xross Cultural. Hypertestual Academy of non-native Gatherings in English in M. Waschauer (Ed..), Virtual connections. Manoa. HA: University of Hawaii Press.

[8] Sperling, D (l995). ESL Graffiti Wall ; available : .

[9] Sperling. D. (l996). ESL help center; available:.

[10] The Internet Tresol Journal. (l995). , also Tresol Journal, vol no.6, Winter l996.

[ll] Zhao, Y.Li, C.& Hegelheimer, V. (l995), Ex.Change., .

Figure No .l , An ESL Web Magazine Pattern

Figure No.2,Netscape Interactive facilities

Sample Netscape Interactive Facilities

What would you say?

@ a. So?

O b. You're in big trouble. O c. Which one?

O d. You're setting yourself up to fail.

Radio Button

t:) Features

O Recommendations ~ Price

O Article

Check-box Button

[pic]

Select Your Location

- " i

Africa Asia Australasia Europe

North America South America

Pop-up Menu

[pic]

Scrolling Text

Figure No.3,statistical graph

Figure No.4,statistical graph of Daily Access To ESL Home Page

[pic]

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