Why use the new media in foreign language education?
The integration of new media into the syllabus offers a lot of advantages. Since new media forms an integral part of our everyday life, pupils have to get aware of the possibilities the new media offers. As teenagers might have used the internet mostly for social networking and to stay in contact with their peer group, the integration of new media in the classroom can also pursue pedagogical aims: Pupils can learn to use the internet as a nearly unlimited source of gathering (useful) information. They can extend their knowledge on specific fields of science which might not be covered by the literature in the school’s library. Furthermore the use of blogs instead of learner’s diaries or book reviews can be an appreciated alternation in the pupil’s schoolday. The interactive aspect of new media is another positive possibility which might be used in school: The pupils can learn to work with vocabulary learning programmes which extend their vocabulary knowledge and also challenge their writing and listening skills in a deepened way. Off course, the communicative aspect is immensely important in school and seems to be problematic to apply to a lesson which deals with new media on the first glance. But on the second glance programmes like Skype or ICQ offer the possibility to get into contact with your interlocutor orally. That offers the possibility to talk to native speakers directly and not only via emails or letters as it has been some years ago. For a deeper understanding of the knowledge and to arouse the pupils’ interests to deal with a foreign language possibly even after school, these programmes seem to be useful. Nevertheless the teacher’s tasks change: They have to prepare their pupils how to deal with the new media and they have to control whether they abuse their freedom to work independently. They are no longer in the focus of interest for the whole lesson but they adopt the role of a moderator. The communicative aspect in class is still very important and conversation should only be allowed in the foreign language.

But there exist some disadvantages which have to be mentioned. The teacher has to elaborate an alternative concept if one of the technical components, e.g. one of the computers, the beamer or a printer does not work. These problems are hard to anticipate as they can appear immediately. Furthermore the lesson should be well-structured as the pupils work more or less independently. To avoid faineance the lesson should be structured in a way that the pupils really have to think of their time management in order to receive the results in time. Another problem might be the availability of sufficient computers also after school so that pupils who do not own their own computer have the possibility to work on their tasks and are not handicapped.

As a conclusion it can be said that the use of new media in school offers a lot of positive aspects for creating a certain diversification in a teacher’s lesson unless he minds the few disadvantages which might appear.