New Tools in an Old Trade: Teachers Talk About Use of the Internet in the Teaching of French as a Second or Foreign Language

This paper presents partial findings of a study of teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning French as a second or foreign language using the Internet. Use of an international, on-line discussion list as well as an open-ended questionnaire provided an opportunity for teachers to ‘talk’ about their experiences with the new tools of the Internet. Two main categories emerged from the coding of data. Reported in this paper is the category of challenges related to teaching of French using the Internet. Six sub-categories are described and discussed as follows: the curriculum; resources and information; roles and responsibilities; control and monitoring; training; and access and equipment. The experiences of teachers reported on in this paper suggest that effective use of the Internet in the teaching of French requires an understanding and acceptance of the way in which the tools redefine classroom control, knowledge and the practice of teaching in general.