Internet

The internet has placed a vast quantity of authentic materials at the fingertips of English language teachers. While, in the past, topical, authentic texts were almost impossible to obtain unless the teacher was based in an English-speaking country, teachers now find themselves spoilt for choice in terms of both audio and text. Some suggestions about ways in which teachers can use material obtained from the net can be found in our article which describes how to create a topical class.

Although nearly all material on the web will be subject to copyright protection, many jurisdictions give specific exemptions for teaching purposes.

Furthermore many schools and institutions now use the net as an ancillary (or even primary) teaching resource.

New vocabulary
IT (Information Technology) and now ICT (Information and Communication Technology) has produced many new concepts in language – verbs, nouns, acronyms, etc. Possibly the most important of these are related to the Internet and internet slang
 * @ = at
 * backslash = \
 * blog = web log
 * B2B = Business to Business;
 * CPU = central processing unit
 * C2B = Client to Business;
 * cyber- as a prefix as in cyberspace, etc.
 * e-business; e-commerce; e-government; e-learning, etc. "e" is for electronic.
 * e-mail or email
 * jsmith@teflpedia.com = jsmith at teflpedia dot com


 * FAQs = frequently asked questions
 * hyper- for hyperlink, etc.
 * forward slash = /
 * google (verb) = search Internet using a web search engine
 * hard disk
 * ISP = internet service provider
 * on line (adverb). The dictionary is available on line.
 * online, on-line (adjectives). An online dictionary. An on-line dictionary.
 * PC = personal computer
 * phishing
 * P2P = Peer to Peer
 * SMS = short messaging service or texting
 * spam – verb and noun
 * texting = text messaging (SMS)
 * URL = universal resource location (a web address).
 * web: the World Wide Web; sometimes written as Web.
 * website, Website, web site, or Web site, often shortened to web or Web.
 * wiki. A collaborative site. The most famous wiki is Wikipedia.
 * WYSIWYG = what you see is what you get.