by Jarek Krajka
Maria Curie-Sklodowska University,
Lublin, Poland
jkrajka@batory.plo.lublin.pl

Teaching English with Technology is becoming more and more popular research area. It might have seemed in the beginning that after the initial fascination with computers and the Internet and the resulting outbreak of various forms of technology-assisted language learning and teaching, students would quickly lose interest in them, while teachers would have to try and find new teaching media and instructional aids to initiate and sustain the motivation of students.

However, this does not seem to be true. With more and more researchers probing the field of using the Internet to enhance learning, teachers implementing the ideas, modifying them and coming up with new solutions to some never-solved classroom problems, the field of Computer- and Internet-Assisted Language Learning is constantly growing, with new points of view presented by other researchers, with contributors from more and more countries presenting research findings or practical classroom applications of technology, one might be certain about future development of the field.

It seems that the Journal I have the pleasure of editing also proves that statement. In the thirteen issues published so far, there have been 21 articles, 29 lesson plans, 16 website articles and reviews, 12 technology tutorial articles, 12 software articles and reviews, 3 book reviews, 16 reports from past events, 73 announcements of future events. As many as 70 contributors from Poland, the Czech Republic, the USA, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, Spain, Taiwan, China, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Japan, Latvia, South Korea, Lithuania and Italy have shared their experiences with the worldwide audience of the Journal.

This issue of the Journal, apart from various kinds of articles on a wide variety of CALL-related topics, features contributions from international conference "ICT in ELT – From Technology to Pedagogy. ELTeCS Second Regional ICT Workshop," organised in Poznan, Poland by The British Council, between April 29 and May 3, 2002. The conference was a continuation of the first Regional Workshop on ICT in ELT (Prague, July 2001) and further development of the group activities. It was attended by 16 participants from 9 countries, and led by Abdelmajid Bouziane, Morocco, with an input by all the participants. In this issue of the Journal we can see some conference input, with contributions by Marina Gurbo from Latvia (a lesson plan "A Letter from Holiday"), James Thomas from the Czech Republic (A Word from a Techie article "Extending Vocabulary Knowledge with Computers"), Audrone Daubariene and Jurate Zdanyte from Lithuania ("Internet-Based Learning Activities: Sharing KTU Experience and Ideas"). The contributions present interesting fresh ideas on CALL and it is hoped that in the future the readers of Teaching English with Technology will benefit from proceedings from other conferences and workshops.

Apart from the papers mentioned above, the current issue of the Journal contains two articles: "An Initial Study on EFL Learners' Attitude towards Multimedia Application in Language Learning" by Antonia Lin from Taiwan and "CMC: Its Pedagogical Aspects and Considerations" by Rozina Abdul Ghani and Nuraihan Mat Daud from Malaysia. The former makes a claim that the majority of EFL learners had a positive attitude towards the use of multimedia resources in their language program, appreciating, in particular, opportunities to practice and extend their language abilities. As for the other, the authors discuss English language lessons conducted in a computer-mediated environment, particularly trying to see how best to teach language using the synchronous mode of communication.

Two lesson plans, "Using the Idea of Debate through the Internet" by Takayuki Nakanishi from Japan and "Your Favourite Means of Travelling and Why the Tube?" by Andrzej Zychla from Poland make use of Web resources to enhance learning, provide stimulus for classroom practice and bring the target culture to the classroom.

Two contributions in A Word from A Techie section touch upon two different issues - "Making EFL Conversation Class Participation Grades Transparent" by Eric Prochaska from South Korea describes the use of a spreadsheet and an email merge program to facilitate creation and distribution of class participation grades. "Extending Vocabulary Knowledge with Computers" by James Thomas from the Czech Republic introduces the basics of Data-Driven Learning, with the special focus on concordancing.

Gui Qingyang, China, in the contribution entitled "Mlearning: A New Development towards More Flexible and Learner-Centred Learning" gives the overview of mLearning (mobile learning), comparing it with the current e-learning and giving some possible prospects for the future.

Two contributions in On the Web section differ in scope: "Football Culture.Net, http://www.footballculture.net" is a thorough and informative review of the website by Maria Teresa Ciaffaroni from Italy. On the other hand, the above-mentioned Audrone Daubariene and Jurate Zdanyte, Lithuania, in their article on Internet-based learning activities share ideas about the application of virtual classroom Nicenet, claimed to be an efficient tool in organising students’self-study work and exchanging information.

Finally, the humble undersigned gives a report from conference "CILFE 6 - The Role of Information Technology in LSP Research and Pedagogy," organized in Vilanova i la Geltru (Barcelona), Spain, from January 30 to February 1, 2003. 

The editors of Teaching English with Technology hope that the wide variety of articles presented in this issue will satisfy the readers' expectations and stimulate them to applying the ideas presented in classroom.

I wish you good reading.