Using textbooks (branched off from another topic)

[Jamie (K)]

[Torsten]

Hi Jamie,

You can download electronic documents such as PDF files and print them off so you can read them in the traditional way. I agree with you, textbooks can be an important source for language learners but I would never rely on them as the only source. Also, even before the internet was introduced there had been international pen pal clubs that helped people use the language they were learning. This was possible even in communist countries.

When I was a teenager I learned English by exchanging letters with people from Greece and the US. One thing is more important than the media and means you have at your disposal: Your willingness to learn and your creativity. You might have the best resources available to you but you don't use them properly. Then again, you might not have many resources but you make the best of them or even better: You create your own resources and learning systems only because you want to learn.

TOEFL listening discussions: Why may Martha need money?

[Jamie (K)]

Right. Then we agree that textbooks have a utility that has not been eclipsed by electronic media (yet).

One of the reasons having penpals works so well is that people wind up writing about their lives, and so they end up learning all the main vocabulary they need to talk about what happens to them day to day. That really improved my language way back when. With the Internet there's a problem, though, mentioned by Amy elsewhere, which is that there's a whole lingo made up of abbreviations and nonstandard forms and spellings. People can get this sort of argot burned into their brains almost permanently, and it causes them a lot of trouble if they have to use English in any other setting.

[Torsten]

Hi Jamie,

Everybody is free to pick their penpals in "real life" as well as on the Internet. I don't think the Internet is to blame for the fact that there are people who use "sloppy" or "slangy" expressions or bad grammar. How can you be sure your "real world pen pal" speaks or writes impeccable English? Why is this a problem of the Internet? I think it's the learner's responsibility to make sure they are communicating with people who use correct English.

TOEFL listening lectures: What aspect of USA Today does the professor mainly discuss?

[Jamie (K)]

You're right in one sense, but the reason it's worse on the Internet is that people who are capable of writing in good English actually TRY to write in a type of argot and cultivate it.