A Language Professional's Guide to the World Wide Web

Abstract

The World Wide Web has recently become a household word, but what does it have to offer those in the language teaching and research fields? This article explains how the Web helps nontechnical users access on-line data without having to learn complicated commands or have extensive backgrounds in Internet technology. This new 'point-and-click' way of getting all that the Internet has to offer may be the long-sought 'killer application' of the information superhighway. Just as spreadsheets and word processing brought the personal computer into our lives, so too will the Web and its browser software, such as Netscape Navigator™ or NCSA Mosaic, make the Internet as user-friendly as our local library. This article takes the reader through some Web sites of interest to language professionals, examines copyright constraints on using Web data, discusses how to get set up for Webbing, and explains how to create individual Web documents.