Presentation at FLEAT III · Third Conference on Foreign Language Education and Technology

Accessible authenticity: using Internet resources with school foreign language learners in difficulty

Abstract: The National Curriculum for England and Wales now entitles all 11- to 16-year-olds in mainstream schools, including those with special educational needs, to study a modern foreign language. The 1990s have seen the genesis of a number of projects dedicated to the extension of school foreign language learning across the ability range via appropriate use of information technologies and other strategies.

This paper describes the latest phase in the author's school-based initiative supporting foreign language learners with difficulties and investigating the classroom exploitation of electronic resources originally developed for mother-tongue computer usage in countries where the target language is the medium of discourse. Having successfully trialled on-line and on-disc travel software in French, German and Spanish with 13-year-old lower achievers, the author's project now focuses on the ability of the Internet to deliver other curricular topics (School, Daily Routine, Weather, Health, Arranging Meetings and Holidays) to such learners and to contribute to their reading development, vocabulary knowledge and cultural awareness. The author has extensively searched the World Wide Web, identified a range of relevant authentic texts commensurate with the level, interest and ability of the learners and devised accompanying target-language tasks, which he has successfully deployed in school examinations.

The paper addresses an audience interested in the appropriate use of information and communication technologies in inclusive modern foreign language curricula, with particular reference to secondary education. It has been published in the conference proceedings and reviewed in Swedish in Magnus Nordenhake's conference report.