Listen to two English teachers discuss the advent of the internet and the importance it has had for them and complete the blanks in the sentences below with up to three words. 0 is an example.
0 Example:
The internet has turned 40 (years old) this year.
1 The Internet didn’t become ________________________ until Tim Berners-Lee started the World Wide Web.
2 The couple’s first contact with the Internet was through a _______________________ back in the 90’s.
3 As the internet became popular when they were already adults, they had to go through that ________________________ and get the Internet and use it every day.
4 Apart from communication the big use they make of internet is to _______________ .
5 With the internet everything is ________________________ , just a click away.
6 ________________________ has also become very popular with the arrival of Skype, so students have a Skype tutor.
7 However much the internet progresses, ________________________ teaching will never disappear.
Image: Reuters
Back in 1969 some US research universities they wanted to connect their computers together by a network and that was the very start of everybody all, you know, all the computers connecting together. It didn’t become worldwide of course until 20 years later, 20 years ago, in 1989 when the British physicist. Sir Tim Berners-Lee he started the World Wide Web.
He started the World Wide Web and that’s when it all really took off, didn’t it?
That’s right.
However, it didn’t really take off for me until I think, the 90s, my first connection with the Internet was actually getting a Hotmail email account, I think that was the same for you, wasn’t it?
Yeah, it’s interesting, isn’t it ‘cos I think as adults, you know, we’re adults who never had the Internet and then we’re also now adults who have gone through that transition – have the Internet and use it, well as a, as a…everyday, don’t we?
And we’re so old that we never had any computers at school.
No, not at all, or university.
So, yeah, so just as I said learnt by getting an email account, you know, when I was living in Indonesia and communicating with family and friends through email.
Yeah, I remember it was 1997 and I got my first Hotmail account, I think Hotmail was the big thing at the time.
Yes, definitely. So emailing is actually still the big part of the Internet for us, isn’t it, emailing?
Yes, we all used to write letters in the past so it’s just a much quicker form of communication but it’s not just emailing now for communication there’s all sorts of things there’s Skype of course, now we do use Skype don’t we?
Yes, for phone calls, very useful. But also not just communication but accessing information is the big thing we use the Internet for obviously.
Yes, because in the past I suppose, well for the news we used to watch the TV or listen to the radio and of course if we wanted any resources or information apart from that, we’d have to go to a library I suppose or buy books and magazines and I think to have everything at your fingertips, a click away, for me that is probably, I don’t know, for me that’s almost more exciting than using email.
Yes, and as teachers we find that we go to the Internet for resources rather than even using our little library of resources for teaching English, everything’s there.
And of course, talking about accessing information, learning and learning English.
Yes, it’s an amazing learning tool, isn’t it? And online teaching has become very popular, hasn’t it?
Yes, I know there are some people that learn, certainly learn English through Skype. They have a ‘Skype tutor’ who they speak to, something maybe we might look into in the future, I don’t know.
But I don’t think teachers are going to disappear. The Internet’s not going to get rid of teaching, is it?
No.
Face to face teaching.
Exactly, that’s by far the best way.
Key:
1 worldwide
2 Hotmail email account
3 transition
4 accessing information
5 at your fingertips
6 online teaching
7 face to face
