A new method of studying English via the Internet is about to be launched in Europe and Japan. It is a virtual language school, where everyone can talk to anyone else, just as in a normal classroom, and where a teacher is constantly available. This is the first school of its type, according to EF Education, the language-teaching company that is developing it. The students are represented on screen by graphic figures, and can raise their hands, or express thoughts and feelings through facial expressions. Dialogue takes place over the Internet using a microphone.

‘Studying individually via the Internet easily becomes impersonal and boring’, says Matthew Lewis, language expert at EF. ‘Our system gives the tuition a social dimension, which could formerly only be obtained in an actual classroom’.
The course will be available 24 hours a day in ‘Englishtown’, the site where the virtual school and its campus are situated, and students can choose whatever time suits them best. The teachers are all native speakers of English, and work from EF’s language centres in the UK, USA, and Australia.
Both teachers and students are represented on-screen as graphic figures. Students can choose figures which resemble them in hair and eye colour, hairstyle, and other forms of identification. The teacher uses a whiteboard during tuition, and can talk to individual students or to the whole class simultaneously. Students can also talk to one another, whisper, or send notes in the form of e-mail. Classes will be kept together under the same teacher for the duration of the course, but there will also be the possibility of individual studies.
The educational method uses interactive multimedia books, a special type of software written in the new Java programming language. The books will be available over the Internet and have been developed in collaboration with Sun Microsystems.
There are several other features to the virtual campus, including a ‘cafeteria’ where students can meet and talk, and a reference library.

Multiple sensory channels
‘Because our parent company, EF Education, has offices in forty countries, we hope to obtain a mix of students from all over the world when the concept is launched in the first half of 1997', says Mats Ulenius, Marketing Manager of EF Multimedia. The school, to be known as The EF Internet English School, will be able to handle 1,000 students simultaneously, dividing them into groupings based on previous knowledge and study objectives. Target groups are adults and teenagers who want to learn either everyday English or some form of specialised English.
According to EF, multimedia education is a very effective method of study. Students can simultaneously speak, write, listen, and see pictures. This opens several sensory channels, which means that they remember considerably more than if they were studying using only books.
Requirements are a computer with a Pentium processor, a 28,800 bps modem, a microphone, the software, and a password. Costs are claimed to be significantly lower then for conventional courses with a native teacher.
The EF Internet English School made its first public appearance at the Milia 97 multimedia exhibition in Cannes, France./ins

Caption 1: In the new Internet language school, teachers are available on a 24-hour basis from EF language centres in the UK, USA, and Australia. Classes will include students from all over the world.

Caption 2: Teachers and students are represented as graphic figures on-screen, and can talk with one another just like in an ordinary classroom.


For further information please contact:
Tim Kerr-Dineen
EF International Language Schools
Kensington Cloisters
5 Kensington Church St
LONDON
W8 4LD
Tel: +44 (0)171 795 6645
Fax: +44 (0)171 795 6625

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