Resume buku "how to teach english with technology" chapter 2

2. Word processor in the classroom

Why use word processors?

Word processors can be used in many inventive ways, by both teachers and students. Teachers can prepare, create, store and share materials for their classes by using a word processing program, and learners can use a word processing program both in and outside the classroom, to practice writing skills, grammar and other language points, as well as to present their work.

Word processors for teachers: creating materials

In this section, we will look at both of these two ‘teacher’ uses of word processors.

In uses of word processors for creating materials, you can inserting images and links. Two of the things you will probably want to do when creating materials are to incorporate images into your worksheets to brighten up, and to include links to websites which your students can go to for further research or practice.

You also can create form with word processors. For example you can easily set text and multiple choice question in the form then gift it to the student as exercise or assignment. You can choose whether you print out the form first or upload it before you gift to the students.

That explaination above is the example of using word processors for teachers to create the materials. There will be another necessery fiture from word processors which you can use for creating materials.

Word processing activities for learners

Below are a few simple word processing tips worth bearing in mind and sharing with your learners:

• ·     Encourage your students to save their document in a consistent way, naming them with their own name and a description of what the document contains, e.g. Joan Andres – Letter of Complain.doc. in this way both your learners and you will be able to find their work more efficiently.
• ·      With the price of external USB pen drives fallling rapidly, it is advisable for learners to keep a copy of their work on one for themselves, so that your copy at work is master the copy, but another is stored safely off-site.
• ·      Make sure that your check whith whoever ;ooks after your centre’s computers – if you are lucky enough to have such a facility – that files are not deleted on a daily basis. Plenty of good work has been lost this way.
• ·   Be prepared to deal with some computing terminology: hard drive, c drive, printer, word processor, save, print. Before each introductory class, try to identify the computer-related vocabulary that is likely to occur, and make sure that your students understand it.

Using word processors: consideration

There are some potential downsides to using word processor – not the least of which is working with mixed technology ability classes where typing skill (or lack of them) may play a large part in performance anxienty and in the pace at which activities are carried out. Some attention must be paid to not putting too much pressure on your learners to perform too quickly.

You should also not expect great success whith these cycles of revision and peer correction if your learners are not used to doing such activities away from the computers. In short, trying to introduce too much too quickly into your word processing classes may ultimately make them more challenging than they should be, and frustrating for your learners.

Starting with simple activities, such as the ones we looked at in the first section of this chapter, and getting your  learners used to the mechanics of word processing before moving on the more creative side, will help with this process, as will a good grounding in the writing process in the more traditional fashion.