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Internet for English Teaching

Mark Warschauer
Heidi Shetzer
Christine Meloni

Published online by the Office of English Language Programs, U.S. Department of State, 2003

First published (2000) by ©Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL) Alexandria, Virginia, USA

By special arrangement with Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL ) and the three co-authors, the Office of English Language Programs has published an edition of Internet for English Teaching. This edition is distributed through Public Affairs offices of American Embassies. We are pleased to be able to offer this chapter of the book online.

  I n around the mid-1990's, when we first started integrating the Internet into our instruction and research, the Internet was just being introduced into many countries around the world. Today, the Internet is truly a global phenomenon, with more than half a billion users around the world, only one-third of whom are in North America. And indeed, Internet use is growing fastest outside the United States and Europe, in countries such as China, Brazil, and Egypt.

It is thus extremely timely that the Office of English Language Programs of the U.S. Department of State is now republishing our book, Internet for English Teaching. Pedagogical use of the Internet, like the Internet itself, is now a global phenomenon, bringing together students and teachers from around the world. We hope that the republication and worldwide distribution of this book will help bring together, and give voice to, the many talented teachers around the world who are using the Internet in the English classroom. Indeed, we have tried our best to highlight positive examples and models by many teachers throughout the world.

Whether you consider yourself a beginner, intermediate, or advanced user of the Internet for teaching, we hope you will find something of value in this book. We also hope that you will get in contact with us and share your own ideas about the use of the Internet in the classroom. Working together we can promote and share a vision of using technology and English in the service of cross-cultural understanding and human development.

Mark Warschauer
http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw
markw@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine

Heidi Shetzer Helfand
http://www.expertcity.com
heidi@expertcity.com
Expertcity, Inc.

Christine Meloni
http://home.gwu.edu/~meloni/
meloni@gwu.edu
The George Washington University