But when we are on the Internet, that is exactly what often happens. For example, we may find a list of 'Interesting Links', and so we click on one, and enter a brand new website. Going down one level in our RC skills, we can train our students to ask questions about the structure of the website. We can look at topics such as style and formality and authority. And finally, of course, we can look at many questions about the language itself in more detail.
Websites contain infinite variety.
It is part of our job, as teachers, to train students to comprehend, evaluate and exploit websites. We can use a traditional list of RC skills as a starting-point to help us develop a framework for this training. In a future article I shall develop this idea and give practical examples of ELT work that we can do with specific authentic websites. Biography Peter Etherton has served as a British Council EFL Specialist at King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia and an examiner for the Public Services Examinations Unit in Hong Kong and for the University of London. He is a very experienced EFL materials writer, with over 100 titles written.