Using Multimedia in the Foreign Language Classroom | Page 19

considered an important post-reading activity. Having to deal with a summary of the
reading text, students approach it with the knowledge they have already acquired.
Thus, the task does not only become easier but it also becomes a purposeful, real-life
activity. Moreover, the teacher, has the chance to select which words to erase and thus
use the text as a conscious-raising activity (see 1. 3. 3 above). Once again, students
click on the relevant hyperlink and are presented with a Hot Potatoes jcloze activity.
Similar to what has been referred to about the Hot Potatoes activities above, the
activity is interactive and provides students with hint letters which provide scaffolding
in the case students need it.
Activity 8 (see appendix IX, p. xiii) helps students practice extensive reading
by supplying them with another authentic text from the internet which is about life in
England at the time the Tower of London was built. According to Nuttall (1982:127)
extensive reading is the easiest and most effective way of improving reading skills.
Moreover, students are once more given the chance to appreciate the use of the www
as a source of interesting and relevant source of information.

4. Conclusion

This part provided a rationale for an effective use of computers in ELT and

demonstrated how this can be realized, in the form of a model lesson. As it was
shown, the adoption of an ‘aims-first’ approach which suggests for an exploitation of
computers when they are more effective in teaching than other technologies, can
become multiply beneficial to students as it can not only increase their motivation, but
it can also contribute to the better achievement of the curriculum’s aims and
objectives. In addition, it gives students the chance to learn how to use a computer
within a purposeful context which, although not an aim in itself, is considered a
necessary skill in today’s world.

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