LET’S TALK ABOUT ONLINE AND OFFLINE EDUCATION

Nowadays a lot of people prefer learning languages online rather than getting offline courses. What are the advantages and disadvantages?

With the development of technology and the internet, online language courses are more available than ever before, and increasingly more people are opting for them instead of traditional language classes. The reason why a number of people going for screen-classes can be that some of them found it easier to learn new things through various websites and blogs as they are considered to be more time-saving. In other words, they think online learning comes in handy not only to the students who prioritize time savage but also to the people who want to travel abroad or master language skills for the sake of their career. On the other hand, some think online classes cannot completely overwhelm the advantages of traditional language classes because of the wide opportunities offline teaching can offer. It is true that mastering a particular language in offline classes can be effective, indeed. However, the benefits of e-learning can be more significant.

To begin with, it should be noted that online language classes come with certain downsides. While studying e-lessons, participants may not be able to ask certain questions from a teacher or to know the opinions of others immediately towards the topic. E-language classes fail to facilitate a traditional course atmosphere like interacting with other students in the language that they want to master which helps them to feel as if they are surrounded by foreign speakers. Another problem As it has been known for all, online language classes are often taught through websites or personal blogs of teachers on Instagram or Facebook. Those apps, actually, are considered to be home for lure like entertaining videos or shots of the activities which they feel more into than lessons. In other words, it can be a high possibility of being distracted, which is often the case with children who are easily drawn to the pop-ups illustrating various colourful pictures that appear on their devices. In addition to this, because one can easily switch from one app to another when using a device, they would be more inclined to do something more interesting such as playing mobile games.

Despite these drawbacks, it is still true that people can benefit from the classes taught online in a number of ways. One feature that makes e-language lessons appealing to most people is the comfort they provide. As we said before, online classes are taught by various means which are only available on electronic devices like laptops or telephones. Those devices are considered to be portable which gives people the opportunity of taking advantage of this kind of lesson wherever they can go. The idea of taking e-classes for certain language also has to do with the fact that no extra time is required to get to the spot where the lessons are holding. Because, students attending traditional lessons in foreign languages spend a considerable amount of time on the way to their lessons and sometimes they may stuck in traffic jams which is the way irritating and affect the mood of the students at the same time. Finally, online courses allow users to record the lessons and re-watch them if people could not catch the idea during the process. Regardless of the negative aspects of e-language lessons, the advantages which can be received through them cannot be neglected.

Egamova Rushana Olimjonovna,
Student of the Faculty of Media and Mass Communication,
Uzbekistan State World Languages University