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Introduction

Computers have become indispensable in the contemporary world as a powerful means for communication and education. Interest in learning languages has increased due to the availability of the Internet, which provides easy access to every possible kind of information, and serves as an effective tool to facilitate learning.

Whatever reasons teachers have for teaching language via the web, the first important point is to clarify the goals for using the internet, e.g. to teach writing, to revise vocabulary or grammar, to prepare projects, to solve WebQuests, or to communicate via email, etc.  It is vital to remember that “little is usually gained by just adding random online activities into a classroom”(11).

Warschauer (11) recommends that teachers provide support , i.e. personal help to learners during activities, getting students to work in pairs or groups, or creating detailed handouts.  The integration of online activities into the course curriculum “rather than adding these on top of the rest of the classroom activities in a disconnected fashion” is another important point (10,11).  Teachers’ contributions remain important for coordinating group planning, focusing learner attention on linguistic aspects of computer-mediated texts, helping students gain linguistic awareness of genres and discourses, assisting learners in developing individual learning strategies, and creating an appropriate atmosphere for language learning.  To fully exploit these opportunities, according to Warschauer (11), the teacher must learn to become a “guide on the side” rather than a “sage on the stage”.

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Method

A quasi-experimental study was conducted on 40 second-year students of medicine who had passed two EMP (English for Medical purposes) courses at the Medicine Faculty of Kashan Medical Science University.  The respondents were asked to fill in a questionnaire on their Internet habits (based on Kung & Chuo, 6).  There were six multiple choice questions in this questionnaire.  The students were also requested to either comment on or volunteer their own opinions or suggestions, but there were none.  The data is presented in percentages and described in the following section.

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Results 

The answers to the first question show where the learners access the internet. 

Table 1:

 

 

 Chart 1:

It can be seen that only 31% of students have access to the Internet at home.  The majority of students get online through the University Computer Systems (92%).  11% of respondents use an Internet cafe, and 12% have Internet access at work or at a friend's house.  It is obvious from the data that many students use a variety of ways to access the Internet, which accounts for the total percentage exceeding 100%.  

The data on how many hours learners spend online is shown below:

Table 2:

       

Chart 2:

 

29% spend one hour a week online, 22% spend three hours, and another 22% spend four hours. Other respondents use the net three, four or five hours per week – 9%, 8% and 10% respectively. 

The findings on the third question are as follows:.

Table 3: 

 

Chart 3:

 

As can be seen in Table 3 and Chart 3, most students use the Internet to send and receive email, as well as searching for information, and for general English language learning – 92%, 80%, and 31% respectively.  Some respondents just surf for fun (20%). 

As can be seen from the Table 4 and Chart 4, roughly half of the students use the Internet to learn EMP.

Table 4: 

 

 Chart 4:

The responses to this question show that learners attitudes to learning EMP online vary.  To put it mildly, this response was rather unexpected since I had introduced many EFL websites for perfecting language skills.  

The fifth question asks what students focus on when using the web to learn EMP.

Table 5: 

 

 Chart 5:

 

As can be seen from the Table and Chart 5, almost all the students go online to read specialized (medical) articles (95%), and 60% of the respondents use it for specialized vocabulary and terms.  Online courses and teleconferencing were only experienced by a minority ( 2%) of the students .

Responses to the 6th question are shown in the next question table and chart. 

Table 6: 

 

Chart 6:

 

The answers are overwhelmingly either useful (73%) or interesting (81%).  Only two students put it as ‘boring’ and none thought it ‘useless’.  Such priorities are promising for the future use of the web in EMP classes for interactive activities.

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Discussion 

There are three different approaches - teacher-centered, teacher-facilitated, and learner-centered - to integrating web-based reading materials into the foreign language curriculum (2).  In learner-centered courses, the learners themselves determine the topics, reading materials and the ways of exploring them.  Students formulate the goals, identify the web-based resources, and decide on the process and outcome.  In other words, learners are self-directed and autonomous (2).  Examples of possible assignments are mini-projects and presentations, etc.  In EMP, when students are doing research and use Internet-based medical English articles, they achieve better results compared to the traditional text-based method (1) which is considered to be a teacher-centered approach. 

WebQuests are also inquiry-based activities designed for the purpose of integration of the Internet into the classroom (7).  They focus on using information and supporting learners’ thinking at the level of analysis, synthesis and evaluation.  They foster cooperative learning, use authentic online materials, promote learner motivation, develop reading skills such as scanning, skimming, paraphrasing, summarizing, and organizing, as well as problem solving skills (3).  This is why WebQuests can be effectively used in a content-based approach to ESP instruction (7).  According to Askari (1), the majority (72.3 %) of students are enthusiastic about using the web for learning English.  In a recently published study aimed at determining students’ perception of the role of the instructor in technology-enhanced language learning (9), students attributed an important role to instructors and perceived that listening and reading skills were enhanced. 

Data collected in another recent study revealed that students had an overall positive attitude to using teacher-selected websites for learning English (6).

When considering learners’ attitudes to working online, one cannot forget an important factor for its success - the students' experience with using computers.  Some learners lack common computer skills or are even computer illiterate.  The main reported reasons for not accessing websites was lack of time and computer illiteracy, and more convenient media forms like TV, newspapers and books to learn English (6).  

Another problem that students face is the linguistic complexity of some of the professional materials which makes the students struggle through texts and discourages them from further reading.  

As has been pointed out, the vast majority of respondents (92%) report going online via the university computer network.  All learners admit spending time on the Internet.  A significant point is that 45% of students (Chart 4) did not visit any EMP websites for the purpose of learning English outside classroom hours.  This would indicate that learners are relatively immature, not keen on learning independently, and apt to carry out only the teacher’s assignments.  

Almost all respondents (95%) had the opportunity to go online to access specialized English articles and 60% of them went online to look up synonyms & definitions for specialized English medical terms (Table and Chart 5).  Most of the 80% of the respondents who use the Internet do so to improve their reading skills.  

The acquisition of EMP vocabulary is assessed by administering regular progress tests. As a rule, students perform well in these.  However, there is no evidence that the target vocabulary was learnt through access to ICT.  Weekly counseling in my office allowed me to talk to each student individually face-to-face. The majority of the students claim that they learn vocabulary by revising bilingual lists of terms in their notebooks.  Only a few respondents used special websites for learning EMP, basically because of some disadvantages of using the Internet.  Some of these disadvantages perceived by the students are slow Internet connections in the daytime, time-consuming ESL activities, and various distractions (e.g. pop-up advertising). .

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Conclusion

The major advantage of using computers in the EMP classes is that there is a wide variety of interactive activities that encourage independent learning.  Generally, the respondents’ attitudes towards learning English on the web have been positive, but learners are reluctant to learn EMP online in their spare time.  

The important factors for successful work online are the learners’ computer skills, their experience in assessing information on websites, and good reading comprehension skills in English.  The main difficulty that the respondents encounter when using the Internet for preparing creative assignments is the linguistic complexity of the materials and students' inability to assess materials impartially.

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References

1. Askari Arani, J. (2004), "The Effect of ICT-based Teaching Method on Medical Students' ESP Learning", Journal of Medical Education, 4:2, Tehran: Iran. 

2. Brandl, K. (2002) "Integrating Internet-Based Reading Materials into the Foreign Language Curriculum: From Teacher-to student-centered Approaches", Language Learning & Technology, September 2002.

3. Dodge, B. (1995) "WebQuests: A Technique for Internet-Based Learning", Distance Educator. 

4. Dodge, B. (1999) WebQuest Taskonomy: A Taxonomy of Tasks. Available online: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/taskonomy.html.

5. Krajka, J. & Grudzinka, Z. (2002), Using the Internet in the Language Classroom to Foster Learner Independence - Ideal and Reality.  Available online: http://www.iatefl.org.pl/tdal/n7krajka.htm.

6. Kung, S. C. & Chuo, T. W. (2002) "Students’Perceptions of English Learning Through ESL/EFL Websites",.TESL-EJ, June 2002.  Available online: http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/tesl-ej/ej21/a2.html

7. Marco, M. J. L. (2002) "Internet Content-Based Activities for ESP, English Teaching Forum, July 2002.

8. Opalka, B. (2002) ICT as a Contributing Factor to Developing Learner Autonomy.  Available online:  http://www.iatefl.org.pl/tdal/n7opalka.htm

9. Stepp-Greany, J. (2002) "Student Perceptions on Language Learning in a Technological Environment: Implications for the New Millennium", Language Learning & Technology, January 2002.

10. Tretyakov, Y.P. "Mutual Instruction in the Global Classroom", ESP World, Available online: http://www.esp-world.info/Articles_3/Global_Classroom.htm.

11. Warschauer, M. (1997) The Internet for English Teaching: Guidelines for Teachers.  Available online: http://iteslj.org/Articles/Warschauer-Internet.html.

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