ESL School

... often feel stuck on can be quite demotivating. While progress may have seemed fast in the early stages of language learning, the route to the more advanced levels is more circuitous and time-consuming.

Part of the solution lies in helping students understand learning patterns and in providing them with clear and achievable targets. But I think an extra boost can be achieved if they start to use their language in the real world. In the distant past, kids often had penpals to achieve this aim. I wrote a weekly letter to my French penpal, Marie-Cécile, for eleven years. Nowadays, communication is quicker and more interactive with the Internet.

Epals (http://www.epals.com/community/) is a wonderful site encouraging collaborative communications among classrooms worldwide. According to its homepage: Over 7 million students and teachers are building skills and enhancing learning with ePALS. Established in 1996, the ePALS Global NetworkTM has 122,576 classroom profiles bringing people in 191 countries together as cross-cultural learning partners and friends.

There are projects, penpals, and opportunities to join a forum or to set up a weblog. This seems to me to be just the kind of activity to motivate intermediate students and see just how useful their English skills can be. A class could plan and set up a project of its choice or participate in current activities. Existing projects have message boards where students can make their own comments, such as the one I found from a student in Russia: I'm Russian and I live in Siberia. Everybody thinks it's the coldest place in the world and so on! Believe me, we don't live with bears together! It's just a stupid stereotype! If you want to know more about my country, ask me.

I think this a wonderful example of the way the Internet can enhance learning and help motivate students to continue and deepen their studies.