Electronic Text and Teaching English as a Second Language.docVIP

Electronic Text and Teaching English as a Second Language 　　Abstract: Electronic text teaching represents one of many resources that are being integrated into instructional activities, features such as publicness, democratization, anchored referents, and malleability of E-text strongly support such activity. It provides novel, empowering tools for teachers and learners as well as accompanying forms of constructive, literacy-centered discourse; discourse that is in keeping with the needs and goals of the second language and literacy learner. 　　Key word: Electronic Text; Teaching English as a Second Language 　　1 Introduction 　　Providing opportunities for ESL learners to develop English language and literacy skills is a continual challenge and concern for schools. Recent interest in technologies1 as a means of supporting language development has brought ESL teaching professionals around the country to include computers, multimedia, and telecommunications as tools for instruction. 　　2 Goals and Procedure of Teaching English as a Second Language Instruction 　　The ESL professional’s major concern is to design and implement activities that guide learners to attend to the linguistic forms and meaning of content. At the same time they encourage the development of appropriate linguistic and cognitive strategies for understanding and production. A balanced focus on form and meaning is particularly critical for this population. 　　3 Electronic Texts 　　We use the term ‘technologies’ to refer to computers, multimedia, and telecommunications. 　　The term ‘electronic texts’ refers to any information displayed electronically on a computer screen. 　　Electronic texts (e-texts), by virtue of their unique characteristics, play a potentially powerful role in school-based TESL contexts and can be viewed as a good venue for literacy activities in classrooms. They can also serve as rich contexts for the active negotiation of meaning by students in need of this kind of linguistic/cog