Teaching English in the Network Age is an ongoing series of articles written by Edward Tanguay for the English Language Teachers' Association Berlin-Brandenburg.  The purpose of this series is to alert English teachers of the exponential growth of the Internet and the coming impact this will have on the profession of English teaching, and to give English teachers specific advice on how to develop habits now which will allow them to improve their effectivity in an increasingly networked world.

English Teachers, Prepare Yourselves for the Digital Age By Edward Tanguay, M.Ed. TESOL Berlin, Germany May 16, 1997

Article No. 1

In this article, Edward draws on his experience of English teaching and Internet consulting to discuss the future of English teaching as the world enters an increasingly digital age. This article was written for English teachers who have a growing sense that the Internet is becoming more and more important for their professional careers. It tells them why the Internet is important to their profession, what they can expect in the years to come, and how they can prepare themselves as English teachers in the digital age.

On a spring day in 1992 in Philadelphia, I pressed my Enter key and listened to the familar string of tones from my modem as it logged into the Temple University computer. This was nothing new for someone who had grown up with computers. But this day was one I will never forget: it was first day I ever logged into the Internet.

As an English teacher, my Internet connection back in 1992 meant that I could send a grammar question out to 500 English teachers around the world and have at least 10 replies in my mailbox the next morning. It meant that I could sit at my desk in Philadelphia chatting with a colleague at Purdue, she typing on the top of the screen and I typing on the bottom, at no cost. It meant contacting the Amerika Haus in Berlin via E-Mail which led to a teaching position at Potsdam University. It meant finding information on almost any topic for the courses I was teaching.

Yes, the Internet is good for English teaching. And it is going to get better--exponentially. In this article, I want to tell you why, and make some forcasts on what the digital age holds for English teaching.

My forecasts for the future of English teaching are based on three hypotheses:

1. That which can be digitized, will be digitized.
2. English instruction can be almost fully digitized.
3. English instruction is more efficient when teachers use a digitized medium.

1. That which can be digitized, will be digitized.

Nicholas Negroponte in his book Being Digital draws a distinction between atoms and bits. A book, for instance, is composed of atoms whereas an E-Mail is composed of bits. The difference between atoms and bits is that atoms take a long time to be sent from place to place and are relatively expensive to duplicate. Bits, on the other hand, can be sent around the world in a matter of seconds and cost nothing to duplicate. If you want to send a book from Berlin to New York, it will probably cost you about $10 and will probably take about 7 days. If you want to send a digitized book from Berlin to New York, it will cost you nothing and will get there in 5 seconds. For English teachers, the benefits are enormous. For the business world, the profit margins are unbelievable. This is why everything that can be digitized, will be digitized.

2. English instruction can be almost fully digitized.

What can be digitized and what can not? Text, pictures, voice, and video can all be digitized. Text can be typed in, pictures can be scanned in, and voice and video can be recorded digitally. But this is not all. Interactive conversations can be digitized. Interactive environments, for instance, a classroom, a train station, or a business meeting can be digitized. Since English instruction consists primarily of text, pictures, voice, video, conversation, and interactive environments, English instruction can be almost fully digitized.

3. English instruction is more efficient when teachers use a digitized medium.

Digitalization increases student-centeredness. If a student writes a digitized document and gives it to you to correct, you can add notes to the document just as you can to a regular paper document. The difference is that the student can then click on your digitized notes, e.g. "use present perfect here" which takes him to an interactive, multi-media lesson teaching him about the present perfect tense and when to use it. Connected to this is a grammar chat room with students and tutors who discuss and answer questions about grammar. The student learns what he needs to know when he needs to know it.

Digitalization increases accessiblity. Particularly in English for Specific Purposes, and more particularly in non-English speaking countries, specific material in English is fairly hard to come by. For instance, let us say you are teaching English at a company here in Berlin which produces flags. They need to learn vocabulary which has to do with flag production. You simply need to log into the Internet and type in the key words "flag production." You will get a number of web sites of English-speaking flag production companies with information on their products. Print these out and use them in your class. Write an E-Mail to the company and ask them to send you a catalog. Ask them what else is available on the Internet regarding flag production. Also, send an E-Mail to the 13,000 teachers in the English teachers news group and ask if anyone has experience teaching English at companies involved in flag production.

Digitalization removes geographical barriers and saves time. For those of you who teach business English here in Berlin, how long does it take you to commute to work? How long does it take your students to travel to class? If both you and your students could switch on your PCs and conduct your English lessons via video conference from your homes and offices, how much total time would it save all of you? And if you could do this, why not add students in Japan and Singapore as well? Digitized English teaching removes the geographical barrier which frees up time for both the teacher and the students.

Digitalization brings like minds together. Back in the 17th century, Leibniz and Newton developed Calculus independently of one another. If they had lived today, they would have met by now in a newsgroup and would already be exchanging ideas via E-Mail. The ease which the Internet provides to meet people with similar interests, professions, backgrounds, and experiences is unparalleled in human history. There are people in the world who are teaching the same kinds of classes you teach, have similar students, and are working on similar projects. The Internet makes it possible for you to meet, communicate, and work on projects together with them.

So what is the function of an English teacher in the digital age?

The function of a English teacher in general is to communicate to students the concepts and skills necessary to function well in situations which involve reading, writing, speaking, listening, and social skills. Anyone who has seen virtual reality interactive-CD language programs such as Who is Oscar Lake can imagine that as these products improve, they will soon be able to convey the basics of language instruction quite efficiently to any student who is privileged enough to have access to a well-equipped computer. And with the exponentially increasing speed at which bits can be pumped through the rapidly multiplying fiber optic cables and satellites of the Internet, more and more English students world-wide will be able to interact with language teaching videos and virtual worlds which will bring them to a relatively high level of proficiency, especially since other people will be running around through these virtual worlds as well, talking to each other, getting help from each other, and practicing language functions in contextual situations. These services will be paid for through advertising--students will learn the phrase "I would like a Coke, please" because Coca Cola sponsors the program. This means that high quality computer language instruction will be free for anyone who has a fast enough Internet connection.

When I mention these visions to English teachers, some of them are afraid that computers will someday replace English teachers. This will not be the case. There will always be a human on one side of English teaching and another human on the other, it is just that the computer between us is getting more and more effective, which improves our teaching and improves the students' learning abilities. Humans are powerful and computers are powerful, and together, they are are extremely powerful.

My point in this article is that if you are an English teacher, you need to get more and more involved with computers in order to continue to improve your teaching skills. The following are my suggestions for English teachers in order to prepare themselves for the digital age (ranked in order of importance):

1. Get access to a computer with an Internet connection.
2. Learn how to search for information on the World Wide Web.
3. Learn how to send and receive E-Mail.
4. Learn how to join and participate in news groups, and find colleagues with similar interests.
5. Learn how to attach documents and other files to E-Mail.
6. Learn how to create, publish, and update a home page.
7. Learn how to type with both hands without looking at the keyboard.

Future visions of English teaching:

1997: Instant Interactive Publishing: Publishing an article on English teaching will be a matter of clicking your mouse button, and your readers will be able to respond to and discuss your article immediately. The article you are now reading was originally written for and published in the ELTAB-B Newsletter, a small, paper publication for a local Berlin teachers association. In order to publish it, I had to save it to a diskette, print it out, put both in an envelope, write the address, lick the stamp, take it to the post office, and pay for the postage. After a day it arrived at the editor's office. She had to bring it into the her word processor, reformat it, print it out, send it to the publishers, wait until it was printed, take the newsletters to the post office, and of course, pay the publishers and the post office.

Now, what I also did, was right before I printed this article out and took it to the post office, I uploaded it to the Internet and posted it to various English teaching lists and news groups, which immediately made it available to thousands of teachers around the world (which cost nothing). What this means is that by the time the members of ELTAB-B here in Berlin receive their paper newsletter and are reading this article, the online English teaching community will have been discussing it via E-Mail for two weeks, triggering conversations in teacher's lounges from Japan to Australia, and perhaps encouraging others to write related articles. Many will have written me back, visited my home page, and contacted me regarding other English teaching interests. In addition, this article is always available online--it will never go out of print. Nobody will ever have to "request a reprint" and wait a week and spend money to get it. They simply have to log into the Internet and type in http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tanguay/english-teachers.htm which will bring this article up on their screen in seconds, ready to read, respond to, print out, or send to other colleagues via E-Mail with comments.

1998: Online Education: Universities will offer full English courses online. Class texts will be available via download, class lectures available via streaming audio and video, students and teachers will interact via E-Mail and online teleconferences. For an example of such a multimedia class, visit the HCCS Technology Center in Houston at http://198.64.57.10/tgcccc/hccs/rb1360.htm.

1998: Custom English Teaching News: Push technology software will provide you with the ability to have an up-to-date custom, interactive news source right from your desktop which will send you English teaching news only on the subjects you want. You simply enter your interests one time and the software will roam the web for you sending you articles which are of interest to you. For an example of push technology, check out http://www.pointcast.com. With this software, I get daily news delivered to my PC everyday from two Internet magazines, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

1999: Instruction on Demand: Anybody with a credit card and an Internet connection will be able to choose from numerous online English tutors and get instant instruction or help via video conference. The database available to them will contain a picture of the teacher, a short video of their teaching style, nationality, teaching background, degrees, areas of expertise, and price per time unit. Video conferencing via personal computer is already a reality and quite affordable. Information about inexpensive video cameras for video conferencing can be found at http://www.connectix.com. Free trial software to run video conferences can be found at http://www.vocaltech.com.

2000: Interactive TESOL Conferences from Your Living Room: English teachers will attend and participate in International TESOL Conferences live from their WebTV in their living rooms. News on the development of WebTVs can be found at http://www.ruel.net/webtv_news.html.

2001: Virtual English Instruction: Streaming Virtual Reality over the Internet will provide English teachers with the ability to simulate any type of teaching environment. The English teacher in Berlin and the English student in Japan will both put on their virtual reality helmets and walk together through a virtual New York, pointing out the sites, buying items, riding the subway, and more. Various functional situations such as being accosted by a stranger, asking for directions, and meeting people can be practiced as much as the student would like. You can visit a virtual New York today at http://www.planet9.com/vrmnhtn.htm.

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The World Wide Web is currently doubling itself every four months and getting faster. This is going to have a tremendous impact on the way we teach English. Prepare yourself for this by developing skills today which will improve your English teaching in the digital age.

Edward Tanguay Berlin, Germany E-Mail: tanguay@rz.uni-potsdam.de Personal Web Site: http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tanguay

Further reading:

• Being Digital, Nicholas Negroponte. Vintage Books: New York, 1996.

• E-Mail for English Teachers: Bringing the Internet and Computer Learning Networks into the Language Classroom, Mark Warschauer. TESL-EJ: Vol. 2 No. 1 March 1996.