Cyber Classroom Application in Language Teaching in Polytechnic

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Cyber Classroom Application in Language Teaching
in Polytechnic

• Zoya Konnova
• 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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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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.

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Route Guide of the Cyber Classroom Lesson

• newspapers and magazines
• economist.com
• ft.com
• japantimes.co.jp
• subject sites
• business.com
• fastcompany.com
• bpubs.com

• academic books
• longman-elt.com
• catalogue-sites
• worldpress.org
• asiaobserver.com

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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

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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Section II Usage

• Usage is geared to the second stage of
  the word acquisition process, consolidation. To
  further secure the words 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.

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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.

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Section IV Lexical Retrieval

• In this section, which also serves as a
  self-assessment test, the learners 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 learners score appears on
  the screen and any mistakes are pointed out.

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• 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
  students autonomy.