Using a small network to teach internet searching skills to ESP graduate students

Abstract

To be considered literate in the information age, students must develop functional, academic, and computer skills. On the basis of a needs assessment, a computer literacy questionnaire and an English proficiency test, an ESP course was designed for graduate students majoring in art education. Since the students had no access to a computer lab or internet, a small computer network was built in the classroom. The study describes how the small computer network was installed and configured, what internet searching skills were integrated in the ESP course, what training and assessment methods were used, in addition to students’ views on the training module.