dacs.doc electric

'hi Ms Cohen, it is Billy Chan from class 4N' 'Hello Billy.' 'What you do now?' 'Right now, I am using ICQ to talk with you!'

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.
I see 132 uniformed students on a regular basis in three classes of 44 students each. It is very difficult to find the time to speak with every student, and on the other side, not every student wished to speak to their language teacher in person.

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.

The students who send me e-mail or contact me via ICQ, are not always the most outgoing student in the class - quite often it is the opposite, the quiet shy student whom never speaks to me in the corridor or speaks up in the classroom. E-mail allows these students to communicate with their foreign teacher in English at their own pace and without pressure. I have received e-mails which
ask me questions, tell me stories, link me to web sites (including one dedicated to 'Kenny' of South Park), clarify the homework and ask me grammar and usage questions. Interestingly, after many e-mail or ICQ communications, these students tend to open up more in the classroom.

I reply to each e-mail I receive, and try to build a rapport with the student. I never outright correct grammatical errors, although I might rephrase a question in my answer - such as "When will you live Hong Kong?" "I do not know when I plan to leave Hong Kong" The main purpose of using the Internet to communicate with my students is for them to realize that the primary purpose of English is communication and not passing exams. This type of communication is 'authentic communication'.

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
important.

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'.

Not just language teachers can access the Internet for affective communication with their students. Teachers, by making themselves available through the Internet, open another door through which a young person can approach a responsible adult. Often students need someone to listen or to ask advice - a teacher can help by responding to their e-mail and pointing them in the right direction - or just by showing they care by responding at all. It might seem like a dangerous idea for a teacher to give her e-mail to all of her students - but of 132 students, only 15 contact me regularly. Only a small percent of students will access such a medium. It is widely recognized that there are very distinct learning styles - some people are more aural, kisthetic or visual. Just as some students prefer to talk to a teacher in the hallway. In the classroom, via the Internet or most often, not at all.