An-Najah Staff

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the teachers’ and students’ perspective towards using the internet in learning English as a foreign language. To achieve this purpose, the researcher used the descriptive procedure via which he used a questionnaire for collecting data from the students and the faculty members in the Faculty of Education /An-Najah National University during the first semester 2005-2006.

The results of the study showed that 100% of the students and 90% of the teachers felt that the internet should be used appropriately in the teaching and learning process and in their English classes as well.

The respondents emphasized the fact that the appropriate use of the internet can help students gain higher-order thinking by engaging them in authentic, complex tasks within collaborative learning contexts. A noticeable percentage of 90% of students and teachers agreed that using the internet appropriately can help gain access to a universe of informational resources (including digital archives), establishing contact with students and professionals in other places and cultures, and putting teachers in touch with a broader community of educators in their disciplines.

The findings of the study should be taken into consideration by teachers of English as a foreign language as well as textbooks and curricula designers to regard the positive effects of the internet in their pedagogies, book activities and in their educational collaborative works as well.