Using compound sentences. Techniques > Use of language > Syntax > Sentences > Using compound sentences. Method | Example | Discussion | See also. Method.
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Transition to single spacing. In the early 20th century, some printers began using one and a half interword spaces (an 'en quad') to separate sentences. This standard.
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Although over the years there have been shifts from thin client to thick client and back again, the rationale for the shifts is typically the same.
E-mail, a form of asynchronous computer-mediated communication, has been called "the mother of all Internet applications" (Warschauer, Shetzer, and Meloni, 2000, p.3). Since the evolution of networks, computers can offer foreign language (FL) learners more than drills: "they can be a medium of real communication in the target language, including composing and exchanging messages with other students in the classroom or around the world" (Oxford, 1990, p.79). Indeed, FL teachers are just beginning to sense the impact this medium is having on their profession, through the careful examination and creative integration of this tool into their classes. In a single decade, we have seen many innovative ideas for the use of e-mail in the FL classroom. Because there are so many, it is often difficult to keep track of what these innovations are and how they might benefit the language learner. This article aims to provide an overview of the various uses for e-mail in FL learning. In the first section of this article, we describe the advantages that have been referred to in the literature about the use of e-mail in foreign language learning contexts. Following the explanation of the possible benefits to FL learners, we provide an overview of the different types of contexts and possibilities for communicative interaction through e-mail that have been attempted inside and outside of the FL classroom and then discussed in the literature. Extends Language Learning Time and Place As many researchers have noted, e-mail extends what one can do in the classroom, since it provides a venue for meeting and communicating in the foreign language outside of class. Because of the nature of e-mail, FL learners do not have to be in a specific classroom at a particular time of day in order to communicate with others in the foreign language. They can log in and write e-mail from the comfort of their own room, from a public library or from a cyber-cafe, and these spatial possibilities increase the amount of time they can spend both composing and reading in the foreign language in a communicative context. Rankin (1997) notes that the additional interaction in the foreign language provides FL learners with more input than they would be able to expect from class time, which typically amounts to not more than four hours per week in most high school or college settings. Provides a Context for Real-world Communication and Authentic Interaction By connecting FL speakers outside of the classroom, e-mail also provides a context for communicating with other speakers in authentic communicative situations. Interaction via e-mail lends a feeling of reality to students' communicative efforts that may seem artificial in a classroom setting. This communicative interaction is much like spoken language because of its informal and interactive nature. Yet, unlike face-to-face communication, e-mail is in written form and this can serve the language learner well. As Schwienkorst (1998) stressed, "The major advantage of written communication is ... the possibility for each learner to preserve the entire communication ..." and to have for future use "an enormous sample of his or her own efforts in the target languageƒ" (p. 125). Expands Topics Beyond Classroom-based Ones. Language teachers often have to follow a rigorous schedule in terms of content and/or grammatical topics to be presented and practiced in a semester or marking period. Large chunks of time can rarely be spared for free communication. E-mail gives learners an additional context for discussion that can be -- but does not necessarily have to be -- linked to topics being covered in class. Promotes Student-centered Language Learning. E-mail allows for communication between students in a context where the teacher's role is no longer at the center (Patrikis, 1995). In e-mail communication, FL learners can experience increased control over their own learning, since they can choose the topic and change the direction of the discussion. The end goal is to communicate with another person in the FL rather than to produce a mistake-free composition. Encourages Equal Opportunity Participation Beauvois (1997) reported that computer-mediated communication increased total class participation to 100%. Others have noted that students reticent to speak in face-to-face contexts are more willing to participate in the electronic context (Beauvois, 1995; González-Bueno, 1998; Warschauer, 1995). Connects Speakers Quickly and Cheaply E-mail allows students to communicate with native speakers of the target language without the high cost of traveling abroad (Hedderich 1997; Roakes, 1998). Before the advent of the Internet, it was not possible to communicate so immediately and so frequently with native speakers or with other learners. Suggestions for Incorporating E-mail into Foreign Language Classes The benefits of e-mail for foreign language learning and teaching presented above provide little fodder for debate. Indeed, most would agree that e-mail can provide a wealth of advantages to foreign language learners and teachers. In this section we present a wide variety of activities that have been used successfully by FL teachers. We have divided these activities into group and one-on-one e-mail exchanges. Group E-mail Exchanges E-mail offers students a practical opportunity to interact with others in the target language. Students can create their own mailing lists or the teacher can set up a class e-mail list or listserv. Allowing interested outsiders to subscribe to a class e-mail list can create additional opportunities for authentic communication with other target language speakers beyond one's own familiar classmates (Gonglewski, 1999). Activities can be planned for use within a class or between two or more classes in different locations. Students can also join discussion forums outside of their regularly planned course. E-mail has been described as a conversational writing medium, a crossbreed language with elements of both written and spoken language (Moran & Hawisher, 1998). Because it is separated from face-to-face contact, the high pressure of such immediate demand for production is lessened, and learners can take their time formulating their thoughts, much like they might do in written composition. As decelerated conversation, e-mail communication "provides an excellent first step to help students prepare for the face-to-face classroom discussions as well as the more carefully conceived and polished written compositions instructors ultimately expect from their students" (Van Handle & Corl, 1998, p. 129). E-mail Interaction within the Class When e-mail communication is kept within one class, the teacher can easily connect communicative tasks to the topic currently being covered in class and thereby extend the learners' communicative time and involvement with that topic. Instructors can design e-mail assignments as pre-class, post-class, or supplementary activities. In this section, we describe e-mail tasks that fit into these three categories. Pre-Class Activities Frequently it is difficult for students to engage in an activity in a foreign language class without preparation ahead of time. A pre-class e-mail assignment can take care of the groundwork and save valuable class time. Examples are given of ways in which the teacher might prepare students for writing, listening, and speaking activities. E-mail can provide a context to prepare students for longer written assignments. The teacher can tell the students, for example, that their next writing assignment will be to write a brief biography of a famous person of their choice. Through e-mail exchanges the students can collaborate on a list of potential subjects for this assignment in order to save valuable class time. Another way learners can use e-mail for pre-class preparation is to share background knowledge on a topic before a listening comprehension exercise. The teacher can provide students ahead of time with the subject of a listening comprehension lecture, e.g. the celebration of Thanksgiving in the United States. Before listening to the lecture in class, students can share via e-mail what they know about this traditional holiday, including their own personal experience or their questions about it. E-mail is ideal for preparing ahead of time for class discussions. Ramazani (1994) tells of an activity called "The Weekly Essay." A few days before the class meets, his students e-mail each other essays that they have written about a particular reading. In this way the students are better prepared for the class discussion of the essays. Ramazani (1994) uses another e-mail activity to prepare his students for class ahead of time. He asks them to submit short, one-sentence summaries of a reading. Next he organizes these ideas on a handout that he then uses in class for both brainstorming and stimulating class discussions. Similarly, the teacher can assign a debate topic and ask the students to begin to discuss it via e-mail. When the time comes to form debate teams in class, the students will already have a satisfactory understanding of both sides of the issue and will be able to make a more informed decision about where they stand. A French-English Tandem Exchange An example of a tandem exchange is that carried out between JP, a native speaker of French living in France, and C, a native speaker of English living in the US (Meloni, 2001). The two learners met on the listserv of the French-English subnet of the International E-Mail Exchange Network (cf. Benenson, 1997; Brammerts, 1995) and began a one-on-one correspondence. They established no fixed schedule but they tended to exchange e-mail messages once or twice a week. Each message that JP and C wrote was bilingual, half in French and half in English. The focus was more on content than on form; however, they did occasionally ask each other language questions or point out recurring or irritating language errors. An English-German Tandem Exchange Söntgens (1999) describes several tandem e-mail exchanges that took place between British and German university level students. Responding to the difficulty students had in working autonomously, he introduces the concept of "double-tandems" which paired up two sets of partners in e-mail correspondence. While the innovations eliminated problems in typical tandem arrangements (e.g., one partner slacking off in writing), the double tandem created some confusion regarding guidelines on the order and frequency of correspondence with the different partners and who should correct whom (Söntgens, 1999). (c) E-mail Between an Individual Foreign Language Learner and a Native Speaker Being involved in an e-mail exchange with a native speaker may be the most advantageous type of exchange for a language learner, since, while maintaining the unrehearsed communicative context, learners receive plenty of authentic target language input from their exchange partner. In this context, the learner's comprehension can soar. In addition, teachers have reported that language learners writing to native speakers are more eager to self-correct their own grammar because the communicative aspect motivates them to make themselves understood (Kendall, 1995). Such exchanges can be unstructured or structured. Three descriptions of unstructured exchanges and one structured exchange follow.
Students become 'thieves' in this lesson as they use a previewing strategy to 'steal' information from textbooks and other nonfiction texts before actually reading them.