Hints:
- Among the electronic media which lend themselves for multilingual use in school, the following must be considered first and foremost: computer (text processing, formatting and design; internet as source of information; e-mail, social networks (facebook, chat rooms etc.) as well as skype and other platforms for written and oral contacts and information), cell phone for sms, smart phones for performing computerized functions.
- The primary focus in HLT is, of course, the usage of electronic media in the language of origin; additionally,these media can also be used in conjunction with other projects (see suggestions 3.3–3.6 in the previous chapter).
- Correct spelling is important when entering search terms on the internet. Consult a dictionary or a machine- generated translation in case of uncertainties.
- If the school has no computers available, the assignments must be structured in a way that facilitates working on them with a computer at home. To facilitate access to a computer for every student, maybe teams can be created.
Possibilities and examples of use:
- Design of a text (poetry, story) or a book in the heritage language (nice layout, perhaps illustrations; possible without internet).
- Introducing the students to the most important search engines and sources of information in the language of origin (wikipedia etc.); go through a few examples).
- Acquisition of information from websites in the language of origin (e. g. about a historical theme; about agriculture, about poems, fairy tales, etc.) The planning of the topics should occur with the students, and the results of the internet research should be integrated into the teaching materials.
- Using e-mail, skype, sms, for obtaining information from the country of origin (relatives, friends).
- Corresponding with a class in the country of origin; see #3.8 below.
- Experiments with translation machines (e. g. with the integrated Google “translator”): enter a short text in the language of the country of origin for translation or vice versa. What happens, which errors can be attributed to what, etc.?