Cyber Classroom Application in Language Teaching in Polytechnic

1. Cyber Classroom Application in Language Teaching in Polytechnic ZoyaKonnova Professor, Director of Foreign Languages Department Tula State University, 92, Lenin av. Tula, RF 300600 Olga Timakina PhD, Associate Professor, Foreign Languages Department Tula State University, 92, Lenin av. Tula, RF, 300600

2. Internet-technologies provide a variety of didactic opportunities to perfect University students’ training. However, the teachers still experience the scarcity of specific technical approach in Internet application while teaching students.

3. To solve the stated problem it is necessary to define the functions of the educational information-communication environment, Internet in particular, where the foreign language is taught practically.

4. Depending on the priorities of the student group the English language teacher can easily select among the multitude of different guidelines, activities and work directions provided by the Internet. They are: • Home reading and report preparation infotainment; • On-line dictionaries; • On-line testing; • E-mail technology for developing writing skills; • “CAVOCA” for vocabulary learning.

5. Home reading and report preparation infotainment The students are provided with the “route guide” of the cyber classroom lesson, so as they can choose the comfortable work pace for themselves and, if necessary, go back to the Internet sites they need.

6. “Route Guide” of the Cyber Classroom Lesson academic books: • longman-elt.com catalogue-sites: • worldpress.org • asiaobserver.com newspapers and magazines: • economist.com • ft.com • japantimes.co.jp subject sites: • business.com • fastcompany.com • bpubs.com

7. On-line dictionaries The number of lexical items in on-line dictionaries differ from the lists of 200-400 words to the solid Internet sites containing 4000-8000 lexical items. To see all possible on-line dictionaries, please, go to:

8. On-line testing General English Tests Students should do 2-3 tests to check their basic knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. Business English Tests Business English tests are designed to control simultaneously the knowledge of basic English, economic vocabulary and professional vocabulary.

9. http://www.dialang.orgA sample of Dialang test for controlling reading skills:

10. E-mail technology for developing writing skills To create the competitive information the students’ writing skills should be trained up to the automatic level. When the students do the written tasks in the Cyber classroom, their motivation rises respectively. The students are supplied with the set of tasks in the following directions: Business Letter Practice and Private Letter Practice.

11. Computer Assisted Vocabulary Acquisition(CAVOCA) CAVOCA is an effective computer programme for learning foreign vocabulary. The programme allows to learn the words and their meanings from the context with the minimum time pricing, basing on the word acquisition process in the mother tongue. There are 4 sections in CAVOCA.

12. Section I – Deduction The word to be learned appears on the screen for a few seconds. Next, it is used in three sentences, presented in order of contextual richness.

13. Section II – Usage “Usage” is geared to the second stage of the word acquisition process, consolidation. To further secure the word’s position in the mental lexicon and to further illustrate its exact meaning, two sentences are presented in which the word is either used correctly/appropriately or not. The learner chooses and the computer gives feedback, explaining why the use of the word in question in that particular context was correct or incorrect.

16. Section III – Examples “Examples,” is likewise designed to reinforce consolidation and thus ensure long term retention. The learner is presented with a number of authentic passages selected from large databases containing the word just learned. These passages have been specially selected to clearly illustrate both meaning and use of the word in question.

18. Section IV – Lexical Retrieval In this section, which also serves as a self-assessment test, the learner’s active knowledge of the word is elicited. The learner is presented with 25 sentences, each with one word missing. These sentences have been selected specially so that the blank can be filled by one word only (i.e., one of the words covered in the module). To help the learner and to elicit specifically the word recently acquired, the first letter of the word belonging in the sentence is given. Once the 25 sentences have been completed, the learner’s score appears on the screen and any mistakes are pointed out.

20. To sum it up, the usage of Internet-technologies together with the traditional forms and methods of education in the Cyber Classroom allows to raise efficiency and motivation in a process of foreign language learning. The methodology of IT application in foreign language teaching must meet the principles of communicativeness, authenticity and student’s autonomy.