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1. How do I find what I am looking for on the World Wide Web?
2. How do I exchange ideas with other MFL teachers on the World Wide Web?
3. Where do I find examples of Web publishing by MFL teachers and learners?
4. Where do I find examples of accessible, authentic and appropriate Web texts?
5. How can the Web make MFL learning relevant to my pupils' home life?
6. How can the Web help me create my own MFL teaching materials?
7. Where do I find classroom-ready MFL tasks on the World Wide Web?

Problem 1: How do I find what I am looking for on the World Wide Web?

Problem-solving: Find a links page or let one of the World Wide Web's many general search engines be your navigator! Each has its strengths and weaknesses.

• Google is a very powerful search engine and trawls over a billion web pages. If one of your search results proves to be a broken link, you can still see what the page looked like by clicking on "cache".
• Alta Vista finds texts containing any keyword you enter. There may be none or millions! Use + and - signs to indicate which words must or must not appear in any text. Ask Alta Vista to search for instances of "Je m'appelle" (with quotation marks); that's how Héloïse's Journal was first located. You can also set the language of the text.
• Yahoo returns fewer "hits" than Alta Vista, but categorises them better. There are French and German versions of this search engine.
• Lycos is particularly useful for locating pictures and sounds.

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Problem 2: How do I exchange ideas with other MFL teachers on the World Wide Web?

Problem-solving: There are many professional forums on the WWW where MFL teachers share information and experience. Find out about the following forums.

• Lingu@Net is a discussion group for mainly British secondary school MFL teachers.
• Eurocall is for European computer-assisted language learning researchers and practitioners.
• Calico-L is an American-based CALL discussion group.
• Well List is a forum where the WWW as a MFL resource and delivery medium is discussed.
• FLTeach is an American-based forum for MFL teachers.
• Nuffield Languages Enquiry is a British archive of MFL teaching-related messages.

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 Problem 3: Where do I find examples of web publishing by MFL teachers and learners?

Problem-solving: MFL Teachers' and Learners' websites are many and various. A representative selection is listed below.

• The University of Newcastle upon Tyne School of Modern Languages website includes links to foreign web pages.
• Michigan State University Researcher Claire Bradin lists the Pluses and Minuses of using the World Wide Web in MFL teaching in The Dark Side of the Web.
• Teacher Stephen Glover of Habergham High School in Burnley has created a website entitled Really Useful French Teaching Site.
• Pat Barnett, French Coordinator at Burley Middle School in Bradford, describes and exemplifies pupils' Web work in Year 8 French.

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Problem 4: Where do I find examples of accessible, authentic and appropriate Web texts?

Problem-solving: Although the Web has its fair share of accessible, authentic and appropriate MFL texts, they are hard to track down. Here are some easy French texts to start you off:

• For the topic of Personal Description, consider Journal d'Héloïse. The language is relatively straightforward and the content might serve as a model for pupils' autobiographies.
• For the topic of Weather, see today's Canadian Weather Map. It is in black and white, which is better for some dyslexic learners and for laser printouts.
• For the topic of School Life, browse through the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg's Official Calendar of School Holidays. Its sentences are very repetitive, initiating low attainers to a higher level of language. Its information content could be used to update one Luxembourg school's Table of School Holidays.

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Problem 5: How can the Web make MFL learning relevant to my pupils' home life?

Problem-solving: Reluctant MFL learners sometimes argue that France or Germany will never be on their itinerary. So encourage them to find out about their own country through MFL.

• Find your way around the Tyneside Metro in French, courtesy of the Parisian passenger transport authority.
• Entering UK destinations, look up British Train Times in German, courtesy of Deutsche Bahn.

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Problem 6: How can the Web help me create my own MFL teaching materials?

Problem-solving: Web texts and graphics are copyright materials. You seek permission to use them for educational, non-commercial purposes by sending a message to the website author. If a reply is unforthcoming, you have no right to copy any texts or graphics on the site. Many web authors are only too happy if their creations are used in schools, but you need to ask first. The best solution is to show your pupils how to access the website themselves.

• For pictorial ideas, visit the MFL Graphics website, the Royalty-Free Clip Art Collection for Foreign/Second Language Instruction and UVic's Language Teaching Clipart Library, where downloadable raster (pixel-based) images are available, but for better print quality use CD-ROMs of ClipArt in vector graphic format.
• The Web abounds in town plans, such as this Map of Munich.
• The Web is a good source of charts, such as this Diagram of the German School System.
• There are many online Bilingual Dictionaries.
• Word processing with French Handwriting Fonts and their German Counterparts may help MFL learners decipher foreign scripts.
• The NEAB GCSE French, German and Spanish examination syllabuses, including vocabulary lists, are available online and may be downloaded from the board's site.
• For advice about using ICT in MFL using Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Databases and the Internet, look at David Edwards' Ideas Page.

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Problem 7: Where do I find classroom-ready MFL tasks on the World Wide Web?

Problem-solving: Here is a small sample of what is currently available on the World Wide Web. The UK National Grid for Learning and Virtual Teachers' Centre promise to carry a selection of teachers' home-made classroom-ready materials too.

• Consider these Internet Activities for MFL learners.
• Look at these French Areas of Experience Exercises.
• The BBC offers GCSE Revision Tasks in MFL.
• Visit all the EU countries via the WELL Treasure Hunt.

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© 2001 David R. Wilson