Page 73 - Beyond Methods

Maximizing learning opportunities 61
one of the members of the learning community brings to the pro- cess is valuable. They all contribute to this research by listening to each other, asking questions, doing interviews, writing, and con- stantly thinking about how to improve what they are already doing (McCaleb, 1994, p. 143). In fact, such an endeavor can be enriched by moving from the local community to the global community.
CONNECTING WITH THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY
In these days of global communication, one exciting option avail- able for teachers and learners is to bring the global community into the local classroom. They can easily do this by using the Internet as a tool for participatory research. The Internet offers unlimited pos- sibilities for teachers and learners to connect the word and the world. Using the Internet, teachers and learners can easily gain rich and varied knowledge on global matters, and develop their own critical perspectives about them. They can also, if they wish, access useful materials with explicit pedagogical focus on grammar and vocabulary or on reading and writing. For illustrative examples of using the Internet as a tool, see the microstrategies described below. For an easy-to-use guide to language and culture on the Internet, see, for example, Carl Blyth (1998).
In several North American and European countries, individual learners and teachers have ready access to Internet facilities, either at home or at school. In other settings, educational institutions pro- vide common facilities for learners and teachers in computer labs. In countries such as China, Egypt, India, and Nigeria, almost every major city has “Internet Cafés,” where users have Internet access at a nominal cost. Even in places where Internet facilities are either expensive or simply unavailable, there are always the traditional sources of information in the form of magazines, newspapers, radio, and TV, all of which now devote a considerable amount of time and space to issues related to economic and cultural globalization.
How the twin processes of economic and cultural globalization impact the L2 learners’ individual identity is a subject that is wait- ing to be exploited for effective learning and teaching (see chapters 11 and 12 for details). Teachers and learners can start in that direc- tion by following the five recommendations for participatory re- search outlined above and by just stretching their scope beyond the boundaries of the local community. In other words, they can carry