In this article， Edward draws on his experience of English teaching and Internet consulting to discuss the future of English teaching as the world enters an increasingly digital This article was written for English teachers who have a growing sense that the Internet is becoming more and more important for their professional It tells them why the Internet is important to their profession， what they can expect in the years to come， and how they can prepare themselves as English teachers in the digital On a spring day in 1992 in Philadelphia， I pressed my Enter key and listened to the familar string of tones from my modem as it logged into the Temple University This was nothing new for someone who had grown up with But this day was one I will never forget: it was first day I ever logged into the I As an English teacher， my Internet connection back in 1992 meant that I could send a grammar question out to 500 English teachers around the world and have at least 10 replies in my mailbox the next It meant that I could sit at my desk in Philadelphia chatting with a colleague at Purdue， she typing on the top of the screen and I typing on the bottom， at no It meant contacting the Amerika Haus in Berlin via E-Mail which led to a teaching position at Potsdam U It meant finding information on almost any topic for the courses I was Yes， the Internet is good for English And it is going to get better-- In this article， I want to tell you why， and make some forcasts on what the digital age holds for English My forecasts for the future of English teaching are based on three hypotheses: That which can be digitized， will be English instruction can be almost fully English instruction is more efficient when teachers use a digitized That which can be digitized， will be Nicholas Negroponte in his book Being Digital draws a distinction between atoms and A book， for instance， is composed of atoms whereas an E-Mail is composed of The difference between atoms and bits is that atoms take a long time to be sent from place to place and are relatively expensive to Bits， on the other hand， can be sent around the world in a matter of seconds and cost nothing to If you want to send a book from Berlin to New York， it will probably cost you about $10 and will probably take about 7 If you want to send a digitized book from Berlin to New York， it will cost you nothing and will get there in 5 For English teachers， the benefits are For the business world， the profit margins are This is why everything that can be digitized， will be English instruction can be almost fully What can be digitized and what can not? Text， pictures， voice， and video can all be Text can be typed in， pictures can be scanned in， and voice and video can be recorded But this is not Interactive conversations can be Interactive environments， for instance， a classroom， a train station， or a business meeting can be Since English instruction consists primarily of text， pictures， voice， video， conversation， and interactive environments， English instruction can be almost fully English instruction is more efficient when teachers use a digitized Digitalization increases student- If a student writes a digitized document and gives it to you to correct， you can add notes to the document just as you can to a regular paper The difference is that the student can then click on your digitized notes， "use present perfect here" which takes him to an interactive， multi-media lesson teaching him about the present perfect tense and when to use Connected to this is a grammar chat room with students and tutors who discuss and answer questions about The student learns what he needs to know when he needs to know Digitalization increases Particularly in English for Specific Purposes， and more particularly in non-English speaking countries， specific material in English is fairly hard to come For instance， let us say you are teaching English at a company here in Berlin which produces They need to learn vocabulary which has to do with flag You simply need to log into the Internet and type in the key words "flag " You will get a number of web sites of English-speaking flag production companies with information on their Print these out and use them in your Write an E-Mail to the company and ask them to send you a Ask them what else is available on the Internet regarding flag Also， send an E-Mail to the 13，000 teachers in the English teachers news group and ask if anyone has experience teaching English at companies involved in flag Digitalization removes geographical barriers and saves For those of you who teach business English here in Berlin， how long does it take you to commute to work? How long does it take your students to travel to class? If both you and your students could switch on your PCs and conduct your English lessons via video conference from your homes and offices， how much total time would it save all of you? And if you could do this， why not add students in Japan and Singapore as well? Digitized English teaching removes the geographical barrier which frees up time for both the teacher and the Digitalization brings like minds Back in the 17th century， Leibniz and Newton developed Calculus independently of one If they had lived today， they would have met by now in a newsgroup and would already be exchanging ideas via E-M The ease which the Internet provides to meet people with similar interests， professions， backgrounds， and experiences is unparalleled in human There are people in the world who are teaching the same kinds of classes you teach， have similar students， and are working on similar The Internet makes it possible for you to meet， communicate， and work on projects together with So what is the function of an English teacher in the digital age? The function of a English teacher in general is to communicate to students the concepts and skills necessary to function well in situations which involve reading， writing， speaking， listening， and social Anyone who has seen virtual reality interactive-CD language programs such as Who is Oscar Lake can imagine that as these products improve， they will soon be able to convey the basics of language instruction quite efficiently to any student who is privileged enough to have access to a well-equipped And with the exponentially increasing speed at which bits can be pumped through the rapidly multiplying fiber optic cables and satellites of the Internet， more and more English students world-wide will be able to interact with language teaching videos and virtual worlds which will bring them to a relatively high level of proficiency， especially since other people will be running around through these virtual worlds as well， talking to each other， getting help from each other， and practicing language functions in contextual These services will be paid for through advertising--students will learn the phrase "I would like a Coke， please" because Coca Cola sponsors the This means that high quality computer language instruction will be free for anyone who has a fast enough Internet When I mention these visions to English teachers， some of them are afraid that computers will someday replace English This will not be the There will always be a human on one side of English teaching and another human on the other， it is just that the computer between us is getting more and more effective， which improves our teaching and improves the students' learning Humans are powerful and computers are powerful， and together， they are are extremely My point in this article is that if you are an English teacher， you need to get more and more involved with computers in order to continue to improve your teaching The following are my suggestions for English teachers in order to prepare themselves for the digital age (ranked in order of importance): Get access to a computer with an Internet Learn how to search for information on the World Wide W Learn how to send and receive E-M Learn how to join and participate in news groups， and find colleagues with similar Learn how to attach documents and other files to E-M Learn how to create， publish， and update a home Learn how to type with both hands without looking at the Future visions of English teaching: 1997: Instant Interactive Publishing: Publishing an article on English teaching will be a matter of clicking your mouse button， and your readers will be able to respond to and discuss your article The article you are now reading was originally written for and published in the ELTAB-B Newsletter， a small， paper publication for a local Berlin teachers In order to publish it， I had to save it to a diskette， print it out， put both in an envelope， write the address， lick the stamp， take it to the post office， and pay for the After a day it arrived at the editor's She had to bring it into the her word processor， reformat it， print it out， send it to the publishers， wait until it was printed， take the newsletters to the post office， and of course， pay the publishers and the post Now， what I also did， was right before I printed this article out and took it to the post office， I uplo
