The Internet TESL Journal

Introducing EFL Students to Chat Rooms

Jo Mynard
Joanne.Mynard [at] zu.ac.ae
Zayed University (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)

This article contains four lesson plans that show language learners how to use chat rooms for language learning purposes. This paper covers the following:

A. Pedagogical Rationale

Chat rooms are reported to have a variety of benefits to language learners:

B. Difficulties Language Learners Have with Chat Rooms

The following lesson plans aim to minimize these difficulties by first allowing students to practice using chat rooms with peers and teachers.

C. Lesson Plans for Four Activities

Activity 1: Introduction to Chat Rooms in the English Class

Objectives

At the end of this class, the learners should be familiar with the following:

Procedure

1. Use two computers to demonstrate how chat rooms work to the class - don't let the students start using them yet. Type a message on one computer and have a student type a reply. This will work well if you can use a projector to show the computer screen to the class.

2. Give out the following discussion prompts to small groups of students. The discussion may be limited with lower level learners but it should get them thinking about the benefits of chat as a language learning tool.

3. Get feedback on the discussion and write up some key points on the board. You may want to pick up the following: Get the class to try to work out some solutions to the problems identified in question 4. Examples: 4. Now it's time for students to enter the chat room and try it out. Model the procedure at the front of the class then encourage pairs of students to go to the computers and try it for themselves. Make sure they learn all the basic functions just as you did (type a user name and profile, enter the room, post a message, exit the room). Don't give them a specific task to do - just let them explore. You may find that they practice by posting messages in their native language.

5. Once everyone has had the chance to fill in their user name and details, enter the room, post a message, read other messages and leave the room, ask the students to leave the computers and come back to their original seats.

6. Pick up on new vocabulary that students may have encountered. This will depend on the chat room you chose but it may include the following: profile, post, members, ignore, whisper, user, details. You may want to prepare a handout - a matching exercise or a picture of the chat room or something else that will help them next time.

Activity 2: Asking and Answering Questions in a Chat Room

Objectives

At the end of this class, the learners should be familiar with the following:

Procedure
  1. Tell the students that they are going to interview the other students in the class in a chat room but first they are going to prepare some questions on paper (or computer). Put the students into groups of about four to do this and try to get them to come up with about six questions. Don't correct their grammar but do encourage them to seek answers to their vocabulary and spelling queries without your help. This will help them to be more independent.
  2. Larger classes will require you to make sure that a number of chat rooms are set up. Tell the students how to get into the chat room you have allocated them and ask each other questions and type answers. Don't give them any other instructions - just let them try it out.
  3. When there are about 20 minutes of the lesson remaining, show them how to print off the chat room transcript, exit the chat room and bring the transcript back to their original groups.
  4. Tell them that with the help of their group members they have to identify the following from their own contributions:
    • Find an example of a grammatically correct question.
    • Find an example of a grammatically incorrect question.
    • Find a spelling mistake.
  5. They should correct the mistakes as a group or with some help.
  6. Get students to identify the following from other people's contributions:
    • Find an interesting question and the answer.
    • Find a confusing question.
    • Find a new word.
  7. Write on the board an example or two of a confusing question or a grammatically incorrect one similar to ones the students made. The class should correct it.
  8. At the end of this exercise, every student should have identified some thing they can improve on next time.
Variation

Activity 3: Interviewing You in Chat Rooms

This activity is similar to activity two but this time students interview you. This will give them the opportunity to ask different types of questions and also force them to focus more on accuracy. Students will also feel they are getting some individual teacher attention.

Preparation

You will need to set up several chat rooms in advance to have as few students as possible in one room so that they get plenty of opportunities for their questions to be answered. This will require you to be present in each room simultaneously. This is not as difficult as it sounds depending on your own keyboard skills and the amount of virtual memory on your computer. I have managed to be in five rooms at once and still be waiting for students to catch up with me. Remember they are beginners and will be processing a lot of information. They will be probably checking their spelling and grammar and thinking aloud before they post anything. They will also be slowly reading the questions that other students post. As students get better at English and chatting, you will not be able to keep up with them, but initially this works really well.

Objectives

At the end of this class, the learners should be familiar with the following:

Procedure
  1. Tell the students that they are going to interview you in the class in a chat room but first they are going to prepare some questions on paper (or computer). Like before put the students into groups of about four to do this and try to get them to come up with about six questions. Depending on how creative your class are, you might need to brainstorm some possible topics they can ask you about first. Again, don't correct their grammar and encourage them to seek answers to their vocabulary and spelling queries without your help.
  2. Show the students how to get into the chat room you have allocated them and post questions for you and answer your questions. You can give them some feedback on their questions and mistakes just as you would in a face to face situation.
  3. When there are about 10 - 15 minutes of the lesson remaining, ask them to print off the chat room transcript, exit the chat room and come back to their original groups with the printout.
  4. Like before, students should work with their groups on identifying a few errors and correcting them and also noticing some new vocabulary and guessing the meaning.
  5. Write up an example of an error that the class are making a lot and help the class to correct it and identify similar ones.
  6. Finally, go through the class objectives to see if they feel they have met them.
Variations

Activity 4: Guess Who!

Objectives

At the end of this class, the learners should be familiar with the following:

Procedure

D. References


The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VIII, No. 2, February 2002
http://iteslj.org/
http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Mynard-Chat.html