The Internet in French Language Teaching and Learning: Positive and Negative Impacts

Abstract

The computer assisted learning technology, like the internet, is considered an ideal aid for language teaching and learning. It provides a learner-centered and functional approach to knowledge but may present an easy but also a culturally limited, learning medium. Only a few studies examine the net benefits of the internet and other computer technologies on students’ desire to learn a romance language in spite of the controversy surrounding their use in mastering a language. I examine the role of computer technology with emphasis on the internet and its associated media in the facilitation of teaching and learning French employing a review of literature, anecdotes from students’ class interaction to point out that the computer enhancing technology, like the internet, is an important but controversial cultural and political tool for teaching and learning the French language.