IN FOCUS
On line language learning:
Technology and teaching working together
Without a doubt, learning a foreign language on-line can be a great
opportunity for many people. But, how can someone learn a foreign language on the
Internet?, How does it work?, What can be expected from an on-line program?
To find out the answers to those and more questions we have conducted the following
interview with Eric Baber, Director of Studies of NetLearn Languages:
 Q. Why did you start your on-line school?
A. I had been a language teacher for a number of years, and then became
very interested in the Internet. One of the main things I found fascinating about it was
the opportunities it offered to allow people to communicate with each other. Not only can you find information about almost any subject you like on websites
anytime you want, you can also use the Internet to find other people who are interested in
the same subjects, and can then exchange ideas with them by e-mail, chat, or voice and
video. I spent some time in chat-rooms, and found that many of them
were full of people who were interested in learning English from the comfort of
their home or place of work, and in particular wanted real, live communication - like in
chat rooms. They weren't satisfied with web-based learning since they
couldn't ask specific questions since they were only working with a machine, not
communicating with another human, so that's when I started offering online lessons. I
first used text-only chat rooms, but soon felt that these were very limiting; to learn a
language you need to speak it and hear it, so when I discovered NetMeeting I found that it
was the perfect tool for my needs. It allowed me to speak to the
students, text-chat with them as well if I wanted to, show them pictures and exercises on
the whiteboard and so on. After I did this on my own for a while I decided
wanted to pursue this further, and so myself and a colleague set up NetLearn Languages in
May 1998, and we've been teaching live online since then.
Q. Tell us how does an On-line language learning program work?
A. The first thing I need to stress is that all our online teaching is
done live, not self-study. The lessons are held using the free conferencing program
Microsoft NetMeeting. This is the program we use for the student and teacher to
communicate. When a student connects to his or her teacher using NetMeeting they can speak
to and hear each other (and other students if it is a group lesson), they can work on
language exercises on screen together which the teacher has prepared, and more. The first
step is for the student to take our online test, so that we can evaluate their level. This
test is free and takes about 30 minutes. It automatically gives the student their results,
and it will also e-mail us the results. When the student has taken the test, (s)he can
decide what kind of lessons they would like. We offer two types:
* One-to-one (private) lessons - in these lessons the student meets online with the
teacher at the times (s)he prefers. We recommend lessons of one hour, and we ask that the
lessons are arranged at least 24 hours in advance so that the
teacher has time to prepare your lesson. Our normal teaching hours are Monday to Friday,
9am to 8pm UK time, but for one-to-one lessons we can usually also be more flexible.
* Group lessons - in these lessons we have a maximum of 6 students in a group. These
students are usually in different countries, so while one student may be in Belgium, the
other students may be in Germany, Brazil, Japan etc! This means that everybody must speak
the language they are studying all the time, since that is the only common language.
Again, in the lessons all students and the teacher can speak to each other and hear each
other. Group lessons are available in two modes: Tuesdays & Thursdays (so the group
meets twice a week, one hour each time) or Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (so the group
meets three times a week, one hour each time). In each mode you can choose between 10
different times. So, for example, a student could choose a class that meets Tuesdays &
Thursdays 13.40 - 14.40, or one that meets Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 17.10 -
18.10. In this sense it's very similar to a regular language school, but with the
difference that the student can study from his/her home or office, or even from a hotel
room if they're travelling and have a laptop. Also, the fact that the classes are made up
of mixed nationalities is a big bonus, since the only common language is the one that
everyone is learning.
Q. What are computer requirements for people who want to learn a language on-line?
A. To study with us, students need a Pentium-class PC with a minimum
120Mhz processor, a good Internet connection of 33.6kbps or faster, a sound-card (if the
computer can play sound then it has a sound-card), and a headset with attached microphone.
All the necessary software - Microsoft NetMeeting, mainly - is available for free from our
website or from Microsoft's website.
Q. Where are your students from?
A. Our student are from all over the world! We've had students from
Brazil, China, France, Italy, Mongolia, Taiwan, the USA, Malaysia, Thailand... You name
it, and chances are we've had a student from there!
Q. What is the minimum age to participate in your program?
A. There is no minimum age, but most of our students are over 18.
Q. Which languages do you teach?
A. We currently teach English, Spanish, Italian, Russian and French, and
will soon also be teaching German and some other languages.
Q. What should a student expect from an on line language course?
A. Students should expect to put in some time and effort, and should
expect to get out a higher language level in all skill areas, as well as having a lot of
fun and meeting new people along the way! In many cases we've found that students who have
met in our classes have stayed in touch with each other after they finished studying with
us - some of them meet online with NetMeeting occasionally, or just stay in touch by
e-mail.
Q. What proficiency levels are the most common among your students when they
register?
A. Most students who study with us are at an intermediate level when they
start, though we have had students with almost any level from elementary through to highly
advanced.
Q. How often can students ask questions?
A. At any time in the lesson, of course, plus after the lesson anytime
they like by e-mailing their teacher. Of course our teachers can't always reply
immediately, but they'll usually reply within a day, and in any event they'll
"see" each other in the next lesson, so the student can ask the question then
again if he or she likes.
Q. How long is a course?
A. A minimum of 2 weeks, up to however long the student would like to
study. Most students study an average of 10 weeks with us.
Q. Give an example of a student problem and tell us how you deal with it?
A. Perhaps one of the most common problems for students is setting up
NetMeeting from a work computer, if their work has a firewall. A firewall is a mechanism
that protects a computer from viruses etc; most firewalls need to be specially configured
to allow NetMeeting's audio to work properly. We deal with this by sending the student or
their systems administrator the necessary information they need to re-configure their
firewall accordingly, plus we can help them live by using the text-chat part of NetMeeting
or ICQ.
Q. How do you see on-line language learning in the future?
A. It's very difficult to predict, but I think we will see a number of
changes: At the moment, many people think that everything on the Internet should be free,
high quality and accessible 24 hours a day. I think we will find that people will realise
that this isn't always possible. While there is lots of free material available on the
net, much of it isn't very good quality, and a person can waste a lot of time finding
different sites, only to find that they aren't very good. I think we will find that people
will start being more prepared to pay money for quality again, thereby saving their time,
and making sure that what they get yields good results.
I don't think online learning will ever completely replace face-to-face teaching for
language learning, but there will be a shift. For example, at the moment many students do
the following: study at a local language school most of the year, then go to an
English-speaking country for 2 or 3 weeks a year to improve their language skills some
more. I think what will happen is that they will study some of the year at their local
language school, but will then choose a language school in an English-speaking country
that will teach them online 2 or 3 weeks before they go to the school, and then again 2 or
3 weeks after they have returned to their home country. This way they can stay in touch
with the language school, and can continue studying with native-speaker teachers, which
isn't always the case at a local language school.
Q. Tell us about a cherished moment.
A. There are two moments or situations that really stand out for me: When
I first started teaching online on my own (this was still in the days of text-only chat),
one of the students was a woman from Albania. This was during the time of the civil war
there, and she had a very difficult life. She knew that she needed English to get a better
job, and this was one of the few opportunities to study English. She studied with me for
about a year, then she and her boyfriend got a job at a university in Germany - which she
probably wouldn't have got without a good knowledge of English. I was very touched that I
had been able to help her in her difficult situation, and that she was able to make a
better life for herself.
The other one is shortly after we started NLL, and I taught a woman in a tiny village in
Brazil. She said she had studied for the Cambridge First Certificate Exam on her own,
since there were no language teachers in her village, and the nearest city was 200 miles
away. She successfully passed the FCE exam, but now wanted to pass the next exam too, the
Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English. She realised she wouldn't be able to study for
and pass this exam on her own, so did a search on the Internet and found us. She was
delighted, because what she felt she was lacking was the real, human interaction when
using the language - self-study just isn't enough, she felt, no matter how good it was.
She studied with us for quite some time, and went on to pass the exam. That again made us
very happy - that we were able to help her in a situation where otherwise she probably
wouldn't have been able to pass the exam on her own.
Thank you very much for your time. Have a great day.
And you! Thanks for this interview
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You can contact NetLearn Languages by e-mail at: Eric@nll.co.uk or visit their web site at http://www.nll.co.uk
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