Listening comprehension: Internet technologies for authentic language learning experiences

Exercise 1. Listen to the text after you've scanned the word list and answer the questions below.

Word list:

enhance netiquette access curriculum

multimedia guidelines infancy implement

dissemination listserves ophisticated

Questions:

1. Why should the Internet play a major role in the foreign language classroom?

2. What does the Internet have to have?

3. What is the most commonly used Internet application?

4. What is the LISTSERV?

5. Why are electronic journals popular?

Exercise 2. Listen and translate the text into Ukrainian orally.

Unit 8. Banner Displays

Exercise 1. Answer the following questions:

Do you think the Ukrainian community is computer-literate?

Are you an Internet-user yourself?

Exercise 2. Study the list of IT terms below:

List of active terms

allocate ads to banner slots	розмістити рекламну об’яву в гнізді банера
application service provider	постачальник програмно-апаратних ресурсів
banner	банер
banner slot	гніздо для банера
be online	знаходитися в мережі
be taken to the site	потрапити на сайт
click on the ad	відкрити рекламну об’яву
develop a web-site	розробляти web-сайт
electronic payment system	електронна система оплати
leased line	орендована лінія зв’язку
make purchases over the web	робити покупки через Інтернет
outsourcing	залучення зовнішніх ресурсів для вирішення власних проблем
place a banner ad	розміщувати рекламний банер
roam the net	блукати в мережі Інтернет
search the net for information	шукати інформацію в мережі
shortcut to specific sites	посилання на конкретні сайти
target the audience	бути спрямованим на потенційних клієнтів
track the electronic signature (IP address)	знайти електронну адресу комп’ютера в мережі
view a web page	переглядати web-сторінку
web surfer	працюючий у мережі

Exercise 3. Read the text and translate it into Ukrainian paying attention to the terms in bold.

Banner displays

Foreign-based and even local businesses are already spending thousands of dollars developing flashy company Web sites, but few businesses are using the Internet to generate income.

Ukrainian Banner Network (UBN) is one of the most experienced companies doing just that. The company, which places banner ads on Web pages, is working hard to convince businessmen that if they know how to use the Internet, the high-tech tool can be extremely profitable. UBN itself is still waiting for those profits. Right now the company is just breaking even, but judging by the growth of e-commerce in the West UBN's management expects fast growth soon.

The company has become the country's largest banner advertiser in terms of "banner displays" — loosely, the number of times a banner ad is displayed to Internet users. UBN is focused on the small but growing e-market in Ukraine and works only with Ukrainian-based or Ukrainian-related sites.

With few Ukrainians online, and even fewer possessing credit cards or other electronic payment systems to make purchase over the Web, e-commerce here is struggling to take off.

But there is another problem stunting the growth of the e-market here — a lack of information about the power of the Internet. Many users have learned to search the Net for information, фтв they realize they could use the Internet to place their own information.

To spread the world, UBN's Web site has a page of tips for budding e-businessmen. First of all, UBN disputes the popular notion that all you need to succeed is a Web site.

Internet non-professionals just think there's a bunch of people roaming the Net who'll see their site and enter it. In reality, nobody is likely to just stumble across your site in the vastness of the Web. A Web address is needed to access a site. No one will come to your Web site unless you advertise it.

That's where banner ads come in. The rectangular and square ads, with text and/or pictures, and shortcuts to specific sites. When you click on the ad, you're taken to the site — and you don't need to know its address beforehand. Banners are usually placed on popular sites, and lead Web surfers to less well known related sites.

UBN's main line of activity is to provide software to Web site owners that automatically places ads in banner slots on Web pages — the actual banner shown depends largely on who is viewing the Web page. UBN's complex software can track the electronic signature (IP address) of Internet users as they browse the Web. If the user belongs to the advertiser's target audience, the advertiser's ad appears in the banner slot — whatever page is being shown.

Although the advertiser has no direct way to access the target's personal details or e-mail, the advertiser can build up a profile of the target's interests, based on the topics of the sites the target visits. With relevant ads appearing on the Web site slots, the target is effectively chased around the Net by ads. The payoff comes if the target actually clicks on the banner. UBN allocates ads to banner slots for its clients for free, but charges for banner shows or clicks on a banner ad.

The power of the Internet allows advertiser to target their audience with more precision than in more traditional media. One book (on advertising) compares advertising in the mass media to throwing a bomb, while Internet advertising is like shooting with a sniper's rifle. You hit the target in both cases, but the expenses are not comparable.

Exercise 4. Study the supplementary list of words below.