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Review two Websites with CALL materials. Choose sites that appear good (design and SLA principles)and interesting (useful content). Use the criteria we have established in class.
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ReplyDeletehttp://en.yappr.com/welcome/Welcome.action is a fantastic site similar to that of overstream.net, but with more of an international twist to it. Once you navigate to this site, you will see that the site is available in 8 different languages. The premise of this site it to aid students in the listening process through authentic video clips with the option of English subtitles and/or L1 subtitles (coming soon). What is fantastic about this site is not only the authentic video clips, but that students can choose from a variety of genres like:
ReplyDeleteRecent
Most popular (overall)
Most popular (last month)
Highest rated
christmas
business
celebrities
comedy
commercials
election
music
nature
news
provocative
cartoons
sports
films
olympics
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As mentioned numerous times in Ling 487 class, the most important aspect of the CALL approach is not necessarily how great the software/website/technology is, but rather how worthwhile the task objective is. If yappr is being used in class simply because it is "new" technology without any rationale for its implementation, its content validity is decreased. Careful task objective development is the first step in determining if a site like yappr could be used for a particular lesson. Another thing to keep in mind before utilizing yappr is the technical limitations of your environment. Hubbard states that before using such sites, instructors must make sure that there is enough bandwidth for all students to be using the same video in class. Some schools don't have the necessary network configurations for total student access at one time.
For these two reasons, at this point, I would recommend this site to my students as extensive listening practice. Students would be required to watch a video of their choice and provide me a written summary of what they heard. At this juncture, yappr is a good tool for students to practice their listening skills supported by English subtitles. As they become more proficient learners, I would encourage them to "turn off" the subtitles, are rely solely on their listening/visual clues to interpret meaning. YAPPR gets 4 stars in my book!
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http://www.manythings.org/ is another site that I came across over the past years. I find this site (like many others) to be an all inclusive site for any motivated ESL learner. This site offers a broad menu of ESL related exercises, quizzes, podcasts, slang, idioms, reading, spelling and much more. This particular site can be used both in class or autonomously by students out-side of class. If it is to be used in class, as mentioned above the objective of the task has to be the underlying guiding force before tools chosen. With that said, this site offers numerous exercises for teachers to choose from to enhance their overall lesson. And when evaluated based on some of the criteria presented in Hubbard's article, the site seems "hold its own". According to a number of studies cited in Hubbard's text, manythings.org possesses many language learning opportunities for ELLs, offers a number of mediums as to accommodate for various learning styles of students, and provides various meaning-focused activities. However, while yappr.com consisted of 100% authentic material, manythings.org lacks in this realm. However, I think that authenticity sometimes has to be forfeited especially when there is more of a focus on form, which is often the case with manythings.org. That is not to say that manythings.org completely lacks authenticity; there are still many activities pulled straight from the "real world".
I plopped "ESL" into the old Google search bar just to see what comes up first. A garish and chintzy looking site called simply "ESL - English as a Second Language" pops up (rong-chang.com). From there, the most popular link is something called "Practice Speaking English with Robots."
ReplyDeleteAt the robot site there are three robots to choose from: a shopping robot, a hotel robot, and a landlord robot. The robots are voiced in soothing robotic voices. A person can type in their side of a conversation and the robot will respond. Throw them anything a bit odd, though, and here's what happens:
YOU: I am looking for an apartment
Landlord: How many bedrooms?
YOU: Five bedrooms for my monkeys.
Landlord: Too much recursion in AIML.
YOU: What is recursion?
Landlord: I'll ask around and get back to you.
YOU: Do you have a five bedroom apartment?
Landlord: Yes, we still have five bedroom apartments. Do you want to make an appointment?"
Then I tried making some mistakes:
YOU: What to like shopping?
Clerk: I think you already know the answer.
YOU: I buy purse
Clerk: Where can you find the best deal?
YOU: Deal is made at friendly store.
Clerk: Hmmm.
YOU: You like?
Clerk: OK.
As you can see, it may be fun to talk to the robots but it is not very enlightening. Much better on the site are the hundreds of recorded conversations they have available (with transcripts). Any one of these could be used in class -- they are divided by topic.
If you gave your class a task such as "find an apartment" this might be a good place to start playing around and finding the types of conversations you would have in English in order to find an apartment -- i.e. contracts, smoke detectors, rules, etc. In this way it's a treasure-trove of culturally-laden topics that should help students mediate such a task.
Finally, it must be added that the landlord robot is freaky. He is an old, white-haired, balding man with full botox-lips. I wouldn't rent an apartment from him.
-Jonathan Gourlay
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ReplyDeleteShelfari
ReplyDeletehttp://www.shelfari.com
This web2.0 site could be very useful in the ESL / EFL classroom, as it is ideal for providing motivation for reading / writing AND offers REAL-WORLD practice versus just being intended for classroom assignments.
Site Description: Once a student has read a particular book of their liking, they can join this FREE site, set up their profile info and then select the book they have just read for their "bookshelf". They can then rate it / tag it / enter in their "blog-style" review of the book / enter in a discussion forum to discuss the merits of the book / share it with friends (w/ messages) / and explore around for other good books to read. Basically, its a web2.0 version of a book club combining online community, discussions, reviews and personal logs of past/future reading records. I like it though, because not only does it motivate one to want to read more books, but it also involves reading reviews from community members, writing summaries (for the actual Internet community), and interacting through CMC applications like discussion forums. So instead of just having to do yet another class assignment that will never see daylight, this site has "authentic" purpose & allows for the users to interact with the rest of the English speaking online community. One other thing I like is the whole bookshelf idea. It creates a sense of pride - as to what is in "my" bookshelf and it even is encouraging for ME to want to add more and more to fill it up and show it off. (This app resembles Amazon.com with regards to relying on community involvement)
Classroom applications: This could be a fun and REAL activity that an instructor can integrate into the lesson as a post-reading activity. The focus is on reading / writing / grammar / & conversation.
Users: This would be for an advanced and/or possibly intermediate ESL learner and if the students need additional support, this could also be discussed and handled as a group project.
UI: The User Interface is beautifully designed, it's easy-to-use and easy to get around.
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Livemocha
www.livemocha.com
This web2.0 site is a really fun, FREE, e-learning language community site for the ESL / EFL student. Not only does this site have valuable language courses (in English, Spanish, French, Japanese and Italian ) to review & to learn and exercises to practice with, but the site offers language learning through the actual community users.
Site Description: New language learners practice their reading, writing, listening, speaking, grammar, pronunciation, & conversation through a variety of exercises, activities, & CMC applications. And, Native speakers get involved by creating content from their L1, reviewing submitted spoken & written exercises (from new learners), in addition to just being able to have live or message-based conversations with the new language learners. And natives do this, because it’s a reciprocal process where natives of their target language do the same for them (as they too are new language learners), thereby creating a beautiful share and learn dynamic. Basically, the site redefines the idea of a classroom: the community learns together, teaches together, communicates together and builds relationships together. Just to be clear though - It isn’t a replacement for the teacher. It merely offers something priceless that a teacher can’t provide – a community of similar learners OR natives (from around the world) to communicate with / a comfortable casual environment for language sharing and experimenting / & an opportunity to help and learn from others.
Classroom applications: This could be an excellent activity for general language practice and/or for specific language form practice. It utilizes all language skills and gives students an opportunity to interact with natives as well as learners like themselves.
Lesson Information: Students select the appropriate level based on comfort with the material, they can skip or review sections to match their interest / level & choose what types of activities / exercises / conversation methods to put their time towards. There are no time limits for learning – the student controls the pace. The lesson timeframes are based on the individual students preferred pace.
Users: This site supports all levels of users.
UI: The User Interface is beautifully designed, it's easy-to-use and easy to get around.
Technical considerations: For maximum benefits, a microphone and a computer with speakers are required. No dictionaries are needed. (they are provided within the actual application UI)
Learn English with Free Videos http://www.eslvideo.com/index.php
ReplyDeleteThis site has a lot of potential for use in the ESL classroom. The site uses free videos posted on sites such as Youtube and Google Video to quiz its users on a variety of different types of English. The videos are broken down into four basic levels - beginner, low-intermediate, intermediate, and high-intermediate. Within each level, there are a variety of categories - how to, grammar, vocabulary, film trailers, everyday english, interviews, and many more. When you click on a particular video, the video appears with a multiple choice quiz about the content below it. This could be very valuable as supplementary material in an ESL or EFL class.
The site appealing for a few reasons. First of all, making use of sites like Youtube gives it a very current feel, and it also makes the site very adaptable. This contemporary feel helps give an assignment credibility in the eyes of the [young] students. Secondly, the four levels and many sub-categories allow for assignments to be tailored to specific student needs.
The one big drawback is that some of the quizzes don't seem to be too valuable. As Marc mentioned above, the use of technology in and of itself does not necessarily make an activity worthwhile. For example, the first quiz I sampled was one based on a video of U2 performing "With or Without You." The quiz was labeled as a vocabulary quiz for beginners. The quiz questions were multiple-choice sentence completions based on the lyrics(Example: See the stone set in your A. eyes B. ice). Ok, that doesn't seem like that bad of an activity so far. The issue is that the lyrics are featured in the video. So, what was intended to be a vocabulary quiz, turns into a listening quiz and then a reading quiz. So, TEACHER BEWARE, the quiz might be good or it might be trash.
Note to Teachers: The good part about this site is the ease of making quizzes. If you find a video on the internet that you want to use then you can make a quiz that seems appropriate for your situation.
Note to Students: Although some of the quizzes might not be terribly useful, I don't think any of the quizzes would be damaging so if students are looking for a fun and instructional way to mess around on the internet then this site might be a good place to do so.
ESL Gold
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eslgold.com/index.html
This site has the potential to be gold. It is an "all ESL" site with pretty much every aspect of English study featured. Also, besides in English, the site can be accessed in over a dozen other languages. The feature that first attracted me to this site was its function of putting learners in touch with English speakers via services like Skype. And, sometimes, this can be done free of charge. This has tremendous potential. If a student was able to find a free conversation partner, then we could really experiment with a lot of the ideas we have been discussing in class this semester. One of my concerns was how students would find other learners to speak with - here's a way. Also, touching on the pragmatic issue from last week's article, there is no telling what type of people will be on this service. So, teachers encouraging students to use this program should warn them about some of the possible bad situations that they could encounter.
Besides this feature, the site also has what seems like a thousand other things to do. That is actually one of the two drawbacks of the site - there is too much going on. The user interface is a little bit intimidating. I wouldn't say that it's difficult to navigate but it has the potential to scare off a new user. The other drawback is the quality of the material. Overall, it doesn't seem too bad but I have definitely encountered higher quality language learning tools on other sites. For example, in the speaking section, one sub-category is useful phrases in conversation. Like all other categories, it's broken down into high/low beginner, high/low intermediate and advanced. The expressions listed are useful. They are repeated once fairly slowly and then another time even slower. For this to be of more benefit, the phrase should be said at least once at native speaker speed (or something a little bit closer to it) and there should be some sort of context. Decontextualized phrases said in a sort of robotic way would not carry too much benefit.
Note to Teachers: This site certainly has some materials that could benefit students but they need to be chosen carefully. Also, the possibly free live chat function should be tried by the teacher before students are given the "go ahead" to use it for anything related to class. As was previously mentioned, a lesson on pragmatics would be appropriate here. The site also lists textbook recommendations. Again, use these at your own risk.
Note to Students: Try to find a free conversation partner, but keep in mind that you could be matched up with anyone, so be careful.
Website Review 1
ReplyDeletePalabea: The Speaking World (http://www.palabea.net)
Palabea provides a rich online environment for developing an online language learning community as well as participating in accredited online classes affiliated with universities, language institutes, and other schools. The site claims that it is partnered with Deutsche-Welle and BBC: Learning English and is being developed to provide a place for an international community to come together and share in the experience of learning a multitude of foreign languages. Access to this site is free, and all one has to do to join the Palabea community is register with a valid email address.
The site has many great features that adhere to its goal of using social networking and telecollaboration tools to facilitate the learning of foreign languages. Users can search for language exchange partners and participating language instructors and interact with them using an instant messaging platform that also has video chat capabilities. This chatting platform is meant to be used as a space for informal conversation sessions as well as a virtual classroom. These interactions are completely authentic, because they are with real human beings who are using the site for the same purpose – to learn a foreign language. While users learn a language, they must teach a language as well. Learning and teaching go hand in hand and having the opportunity to do both in the same context with the same people could possibly improve the overall online educational experience.
Users must pay for most of the accredited classes hosted on the website, but the site also allows instructors and other participants to upload instructional material in order to make it freely accessible to everyone using the site. Users can create and share traditional documents such as worksheets, vocabulary lists, tests, and syllabi…but that is not all. One can also create and upload educational videos, podcasts, photos, and lectures. All of these features provide for users to both receive input to benefit their own learning and also create output to benefit other learners as well as themselves.
Overall, this site could be a great tool for learning foreign languages if it catches on with enough people and users take it upon themselves to actively participate in rich online language exchanges in both foreign languages and their native languages, generate and share their own language learning materials, and seriously devote themselves to both their own education and the education of a worldwide community of language learners.
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Website Review 2
Just Vocabulary Podcast (http://www.justvocabulary.libsyn.com/)
The “Just Vocabulary Podcast” features a new podcast every 3 days that is around 5 minutes long. Each podcast introduces and defines 2 new English vocabulary words. After introducing 10 new vocabulary words, the site broadcasts a review podcast that readdresses those 10 words. The vocabulary items are of an advanced level and would be mostly appropriate for language learners studying English for academic or professional/technical writing purposes. Some of the vocabulary items are referred to as “GRE” words. Example vocabulary items: implacable, harmonious, inane, potable, vivid, rabble
The general format of each podcast is basically the same. This format has several positive qualities, but also has a few glaringly negative aspects as well. The host begins by introducing a word and using it in several sentences. It is good for learners to hear the word in a variety of environments, but these many of these sentences are largely out-of-context and the general meaning of the word cannot be easily inferred from many of the sentences. Students are not provided any explanation of contexts in which you would commonly and appropriately use the word and this really limits the likelihood of vocabulary recognition and recall.
Next, the host provides the spelling of the word and its definition or definitions. The host then rephrases each definition and provides synonyms and antonyms, which is a good technique to provide learners with several opportunities to discern the meaning of the word if they cannot fully understand the definition itself. The host also provides other information such as the language of origin and the word with different inflections.
One element of a vocabulary definition that the podcast neglects is the part of speech. This is a serious omission because explicitly knowing the part of speech can help learners to categorize and remember words, to correctly use them, and to also apply different grammatical rules to them. For example, one of the podcasts features the word “potable” and provides two definitions for it, but the host totally neglects to mention that “potable” can be used as a noun or an adjective.
The website offers review podcasts, worksheets, and other activities to provide learners with more opportunities to work with the vocabulary items. These other forms of input are necessary for successfully acquiring vocabulary because listening to one podcast alone will not provide sufficient exposure to each vocabulary item to promote future recognition and recall.
www.babbel.com is a very impressive language learning site. What is especially cool about it is the amount of different ways that you can interact with others and practice whatever your target language is.The site offers German, Spanish, French and Italian, and you begin by making a profile. You specify what language you speak and which one you are learning. This enables you to do such things as choose a "tandem partner," which involves selecting a profile of someone with the opposite native and target languages as you, and if they accept your request, you two write exercises together, send them back and forth, and edit each others. Although this could be problematic in some ways, (i.e.-can students not familiar with the linguistic terminology of their L1 provide useful feedback/corrections? This could just be me thinking as someone who is studying language and expects things to be explained in certain ways) I do think this is a useful tool. There are also opportunities to respond to posts under a section labeled "help others," and you can also rate photos people have posted, which include headings, and is good vocabulary practice. Finally, there is a CMC application that allows you to chat in real time with other babbel users, and also a forum to post on. In terms of learning tutorials, they are organized into "vocabulary packages" and organized into categories with such headings as "food and drink," "essentials," and "conversations." You can choose the tutorials in any order that you want, and you go through them completing different types of activities to give you multiple exposure to new words. You can then save words and phrases that you learned into a little bank, and reference them as you wish. This is great for recycling input. Babbel is free, and ideal for someone learning a language on their own or wishing to supplement language courses in fun ways.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.learn-english-online.org/
ReplyDeleteThis site, I was not as impressed with. I did appreciate the more sparse layout, that,although not terribly engaging (and for some reason the only graphic is a very juvenile cartoon of a lion wearing a crown--??), is much less busy and less overwhelming than many free online language learning sites. However, this aside, the site has some aspects that concern me. For one, the input is not carefully constructed--that is, the site claims to be for beginners, which to me implies those with little experience using the language, and the directions and explanations contain vocabulary far beyond any beginners level (such as auxiliary, emphasis, contractions, etc.) and many of the exercises lack proper guidance. For example, one hot potato exercise that is included contains instructions that say: "Write a complete sentence explaining what the item in the picture is. If you don't know what it is, look it up in your dictionary." Firstly, how can someone look up something if they don't know what it is, and secondly, some sort of dictionary assistance could be provided. Also, "a complete sentence describing what something is" is not at all clear. Some of the lessons were better than others, with graphics and opportunities to hear pronunciation, but all around, I think this is not the best resource for people learning English somewhat independently.
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ReplyDeletehttp://learnfrench.elanguageschool.net/
ReplyDeleteThis site has five primary course categories with links: Beginning Lessons, Learning French Grammar, Learn French Words & Phrases, Practice & Exercises, and Other Links (to other French websites). Starting with the Beginning Lessons, the site offers linguistic support through French phonetics and the alphabet. The pronunciation of each letter is written out in English exactly the way it would sound spoken in French, which is a plus for beginners. The Grammar Section has 4 different units- beginning with the Introductory Level to Level 3 (Intermediate) French. Different sections cover the weather, Formal Speech, the verb être, French culture, and current events in France. For formal speech, the site offers not only linguistic support, but also teaches pragmatics. The site also offers multiple ways to say the same phrase. For example, several phrases are given if one wants to ask a person, "What is your name?". This is helpful linguistic support for FL learners. Audio support is also provided, which helps aural learners. The French Words & Phrases has an extensive repertoire of vocabulary that ranges from featuring vocabulary from "outer space" to "parts of car/at the gas station". The latter category of vocabulary is quite useful for students to know- as nearly everyone has to go to a gas station. However, vocabulary for "outer space" is not quite as relevant. Overall the categories provided useful vocabulary, but there were no task-based activities to use that information. I also found that there was no structured input to help students "notice" particular language features. The Practice & Exercises section provided dialogue examples that the learner could read, but not hear. This poses as a disadvantage for L2 learners, as an important part of learning the language also comes from listening. The reading, however, does serve as a good source of input. The Other Links section was not useful, as it only served for marketing purposes. The biggest drawback is the lack of opportunity for students to speak.
For students, this is a helpful site for L2 input. For teachers, I would not recommend this site with the expectation that my students would be exposed to all forms of literacy. In fact, there is very little opportunity for the students to produce L2 output (such as in a synchronous or asynchronous medium). There also aren't many language feature examples for students. Bearing this in mind, teachers would have to provide additional scaffolding and linguistic support. There are some tools on this site that teachers can use, but only to supplement instructional lesson plans.
http://french.lovetoknow.com/How_to_Speak_French
ReplyDeleteThis website had many features to offer- primarily linguistic support for vocabulary, reading, and information about French cultures. Some of the information was only available in English. However, the fascinating feature of this website is its resources for online chatting. The website offers 3 choices for teachers to use listing the first one as the safest- specifically targeted to secondary FL students. The site even extols the benefits of online chatting!
The online chatroom allows the participant to select the native language of the online chat partner, and then specify the practicing (or target) language. The participant may select the country from where they would like their online partner, and the age. Once the students begin the online chat, they choose their target language, and follow a lesson plan that describes what they are to discuss, and it also provides instructions. These online chats may be done with groups of students as well. About 4 scenarios are presented, and the students communicate in a synchronous environment. Bits of advice regarding how to structure conversations are also given in the target language as part of the lesson plan. A link to an online dictionary is also provided in the chatroom to provide linguistic support, which is a huge plus.
Positives: Students have the opportunity to communicate in real time with their interlocuters. They will also be more likely to notice lexical errors, which is meaningful input. There is also opportunity for the negotiation of meaning. Teachers are able to provide more authentic French linguistic (and pragmatic) exposure to their students.
Negatives: Within a structured conversation, it may be more "forced" for students to communicate; therefore conversation may not be as "natural". There needs to be clearly defined guidelines and rules for no usage of profanity, cultural insensitivity, etc. Misunderstandings can easily occur- especially if the interlocuters are from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
Overall, I would highly recommend this website- it differs from other websites that I have seen in that it not only provides a rich source of input, but also a great source of output.
Breaking News English
ReplyDeletewww.breakingnewsenglish.com/0904/090407-media.html
Breaking News English provides authentic materials for ESL reading lessons. Most of the materials come from short news articles. Also, there is a podcast of the news article being read to provide listening practice. Some of the articles are odd or quirky, but they are real and may lead to interesting conversation. The articles/podcasts are accompanied by comprehensive lessons that include warm up discussions to help build schema, vocabulary lists, pre- during and post reading/listening activities. Further activities are provided, such as prompts for conversation related to the article, writing activities, and possible homework assignments. Overall, each article and topic is thoroughly explored within the lesson. Each lesson addresses multiple skills and there is room for flexibility to revise it to fit the needs of the class. I am hesitant to use the podcasts, because written articles read aloud doesn’t seem like an authentic source of listening material.
Visual Dictionary Online
visual.merriam-webster.com/
I have seen multiple picture dictionaries with awful cartoon illustrations of words. Many times they are indistinguishable, but often beginning ESL students refuse to give them up. This FREE online dictionary provides a great alternative and students. It provides realistic illustrations, simple but thorough explanations and an audio clip of how the word is pronounced. It covers a good deal of topics or subjects that are addressed at beginner and intermediate level such as clothing, household items, animals, office and food. There are a few draw backs: the dictionary only contains concrete nouns (it’s too bad there aren’t videos for action verbs) and there is a limited amount of vocabulary. It would also have been great if they had used real pictures when possible. Despite the negatives, the illustrations are still more realistic than what is provided in most workbooks and textbooks.
http://ave.cervantes.es/guia/main.htm?codLanguage=es&charpter=matriculado
ReplyDeleteThe above site is called Aula Virtual de Español- AVE (virtual Spanish classroom).
I had never seen a site like this before in Spanish that provides so much meaningful input for L2 learners. AVE is an virtual program that can be used to complement instruction in three different ways. Presence (in which students are in a classroom and the teacher uses the program as means of instruction); semi-presence (in which students use the program on their own time to complement their classroom instruction); and, distance learning, in which the instruction takes place fully through the virtual classroom and all related activities are completed through this program.
As we’ve come to be aware L2 acquisition requires that learners are given meaningful input in order to have a lexical base to perform any type of task in the target language.
The AVE program has interactive activities that resemble several of the HotPotato exercises we’ve created. Better yet, the program provides meaningful feedback.
For example is students are engaging in the distance learning program, they would be given various “themes” which are essentially subtasks to read and listen to. Many exercises have picture matching and short writing built-in to lexical and grammatical input. If an answer is wrong the program automatically provides a hint that allows for students to recall the information. In case the student never gets the answer, the program has color-coded responses in which it targets the form or part of words that are being studied (for example subject-verb agreement in the ending of words, etc).
The second thing that I found meaningful about AVE is that it is structured in a way that it makes sense to use it semi-presence or in distance learning. Students are guided through a series of “themes” (subtasks) that are each followed by quizzes and activities in which students can test their knowledge. At the same time, teachers can assign HW and students can submitted through the program itself. Similarly, a teacher can instead use the various tools functions that the program offers: chat rooms, discussion forums, and calendars.
Every tool I observed is easy to work with and each page contains a button for “help” that translates instructions where necessary. And there are so many resources given for each theme!
Finally, the program has a culminating task in which students work cooperatively in groups, but I am not sure if the program would have this task built in already or it would be a prompt the instructor gives to the students.
I really liked this program because it offers authentic visual and audio aids that help students in their learning. In terms of actually acquiring the language, teachers would have to structure their teaching and tasks and provide meaningful feedback. The set-up of the program really makes this an easy thing for me to envision.
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http://www.mansionspanish.com/cursobasico/icurso00.htm
The above site is not as advance as the AVE program, but what I definitely liked about this program is that it is far easier to navigate and that it provides input for the very beginning L2 learner. The AVE program targets more intermediate students that can understand more words and sentences. In comparison, the Spanish Course focuses on students ability to hear language and recognize sequences. It is explicitly based on grammar.
Each exercise is preceded by an English explanation of a grammatical structure. Again this might be what some students would prefer, but it depends on the metalinguistic abilities and the learning styles of students. What I definitely disliked about this website is that it offers no pre-programmed feedback. Students listen to podcasts and have visual aids, but in terms of receiving clarifications or hints, the program is has answer keys. I think it is a downfall because students might just go right to click at the answer key before trying to test their knowledge of the presented forms or words.
If I was to use one of the above programs, AVE would be my choice since it has far better organization and tools that allow for student output. However, the downfall with AVE is that one has to subscribe and the website does not provide prices. Therefore, if resources are not available for students, I would use the program in the “presence” way and have students use other tools such as blogger, facebook, and email for producing written output.
http://www.esl-lab.com/
ReplyDeleteThis web site contains a large variety of listening quizzes (general listening quizzes, basic listening quizzes, listening quizzes for academic purposes) 20-minute ESL vocabulary lessons, language learning tips, interviews, etc. The quizzes are very comprehensive, with pre-listening, listening, and post-listening exercises.
There are also movie clips (called video snapshots) that provide additional learning content related to all the listening activities on the site. The videos are about cultural topics and are accompanied by exercises too.
Besides the online activities, teacher can download classroom handouts and worksheets. Great web site for teachers and students, with meaningful activities for all levels.
http://www.sk.com.br/sk.html
ReplyDeleteThis web site is called “English made in Brazil”. It is written in Portuguese and English, and I think this is something good for EFL beginners who are studying in Brazil.
The site has information about the history of the languages, methodology, pronunciation, vocabulary, morphology, grammar, glossaries, links to on-line dictionaries and corpora and other interesting topics. There is also a forum where people can post questions and answers.
It’s a useful site for students to learn about English, to study pronunciation in more detail (symbols, rules, rhythm and vowel reduction, etc) to build up their vocabulary (by learning idioms, proverbs, false cognates, multiple-meaning words, etc.).
The site can also help teachers prepare for their classes. Among other things, there are lots of grammar topics with very good charts showing examples and great explanations. Examples are never too much! Teachers should always go into a class with a bunch of them
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish
ReplyDeleteThis is a well-organized site that provides English instruction for adult learners, children, professionals, and also has sections devoted to Chinese and Arabic students of English. I looked specifically at the Adult Learner section, which provides a weekly thematic unit that incorporates reading, writing, vocabulary, and a little grammar study and listening, into a neat package. One major disadvantage is that no speaking practice is provided, but it seems that the site’s primary goal is to foster English reading and writing.
For the readings which are a part of teach lesson, the Cambridge Online Dictionary provides a full definition and sentence examples when the learner clicks on the unfamiliar word. Podcasts with a complete transcript are also provided for a few of the units. Learners are able to access a wealth of written input sources, including magazine articles, stories, comics, opinion polls, and bits of trivia. There are also links to outside websites that relate to the theme being covered.
While the most recent thematic units are included on the home page, an archive of over 150 units, listed alphabetically, is provided, allowing the learner to select units with reading and listening content that he finds interesting. Themes range from the World Cup to Shakespeare to cryptology to April Fool’s Day.
Specific readings include comprehension exercises and a grammatical focus on forms that occur in the readings, such as use of the passive voice or gerunds. All of the units also contain a word game, usually a cloze activity or matching activity, to help students practice new vocabulary. Each unit also contains open-ended writing activities that allow students to relate their own knowledge and experience to the topic at hand.
Another of the major drawbacks of the site is that while the thematic units are interesting and students have the advantage of selecting between them, there is no real sequencing of learning, nor is there much recycling of a lot of the vocabulary that the learner encounters. However, for students looking primarily to improve their English reading skills, this site provides authentic and engaging readings on a wide variety of topics along with adequate language support and follow-up activities to foster a fair amount of learning.
Trischa Duke
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ReplyDeletehttp://academicenglishcafe.com/default.aspx
ReplyDeleteAcademic English Café has a wide variety of resources for students and teachers of academic ESL to use both in the classroom and on their own. This megasite is a favorite site of my Academic Reading and Writing students, and with good reason. Lessons, activities, and quizzes are categorized by skill, and there is also a large section on academic research and preparation for a variety of standardized tests. Students are able to read and listen to a variety of sources from the internet and then practice composing answers to related academic writing prompts. Printable handouts are also provided.
For teachers, a list of popular ESL/EFL employment sites is included. Particularly useful are the 44 full-lesson modules which include listening links and articles from sites such as NPR and BBC and related journal and formal writing prompts and tips.
Particularly impressive are the photos from National Geographic, Kodak, and NASA that are posted daily to provide writing prompts and the wide variety of quality authentic listening options that students are provided, including:
American Rhetoric's 100 great speeches
Aurora Forum at Stanford University's Audio Library
Aurora Forum at Stanford University's Video Library
BBC Learning English
BBC's Radio 4 Intelligent Speech
BBC's Radio 3 Speech and Drama
Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom
Jokes in English for the ESL/EFL Classroom
MIT Open Course Ware Audio/Visual Courses
MIT Open Course Ware Translated Courses
National Geographic Videos
NPR's FreshAir
NPR's Radio Rookies
NPR's Talk of the Nation
PBS's Frontline
Hong Kong Polytechnic University's EAP Videos on Presentations
Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab
Repeat After Us Recorded Poems
University of California’s Lunch Time Poetry Reading
As a sidenote, I would also like to mention http://www.freetech4teachers.com/, a blog that reviews free internet resources and provides suggestions for using those resources in the classroom. While it is not ESL/EFL specific, many of the technologies covered are adaptable, and the blog serves as a great resource for the time-strapped teacher or for those who wish to keep up with recent developments in computer-assisted learning.
http://www.german-grammar.de/index.htm
ReplyDeleteThis a site that includes grammar reviews, videos, and German literature. It also has a forum and a chat room. The feature I like most, is the audio feature. Every aspect has an audio clip. Everything that is written in German can be heard by clicking on the corresponding audio icon.
There are 35 chapters of language review. Each grammar example can be heard by clicking the audio icon. The videos include audio with scripts both in German (the language spoken in the videos) and English. The literature is all in German, and has an audio option that reads the text in German. In some cases there is an English translation, with both scripts set side by side. What I enjoyed most is a map of the German speaking countries in Europe. The map shows the different major dialects in which German is spoken, and that, of course, is also demonstrated through audio. The same poem is read in the different dialects to show the differences in pronunciation.
I would go to this site to have the audio input. Learning German, I don't get to hear it spoken very often. Students in my situation could greatly benefit from this site. It would also not hurt to brush up on grammar using the reviews, or learn more about different German speaking countries by watching the videos.
As for the chat rooms, there were only two other people when I logged on. I am not sure if that is a very fruitful feature.
www.busuu.com
ReplyDeleteBusuu.com is a free software program that is easy to use and with members from all over the world. This would be a CMC application similar to Skype or MSN messenger in the sense that you can choose to be online or offline, and there could even be video conversations. It is different to them because you can search for specific people and see all their profiles, while in MSN you need to know from other sources your “friends”. I like this web site because students can practice with synchronous communication (or real-time communication), as well as with asynchronous (through emails) for when students are busy with other duties but can use their free time to practice.
When you start with a basic account there are several features that students can use. For example:
- Vocabulary with images in English, French, German and Spanish: learning units that cover daily situations like in the restaurant, finding a job, etc.
- Writing exercises: People can send their written fragments to native users to correct them.
- Reading Comprehension Exercises: They evaluate who well is your comprehension by taking a test on a short conversation.
- Video conferences application for conversations: To practice linguistic expressions with native speakers on-line in form of a chat.
- Interactive Exams: By this they mean that they teach you a lot of vocabulary and/or grammar and then, after finishing a unit, you will be taking the same quizzes that we do in Hot Potatoes, but of course with a better design.
It also has if you wanted a Premium account (for 12 euros per month, 10 for 3 months each, or 8 for 6 months each): more than 3,000 phrases with audio, Audio comprehension exercises, more than 150 units to print in a PDF format, access to 35 grammatical units, more than 150 Audio Podcasts, and more.
A positive aspect about busuu.com is that a learner can only speak with another learner at a time. It will have a green dot if you are online, a red one if you are busy (chatting with someone else), or nothing if you are disconnected. So once you get engaged in a conversation there is no worries if the other person is not paying attention because they are chatting with someone else.
A disadvantage is that responding is not a requirement, I didn’t see any condition that specified that we also need to be participating. The only thing that I see is a ranking for the persons who contribute the most, but I don’t know if there would be any consequence for never correcting other person’s work.
http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/
This website is very similar to busuu.com because here you get to know language learners from other countries, and become penpals with them. Another similarity is that both charge to become a “gold member” and use all the useful and sometimes necessary tools.
In the left, there are the options that the web site includes. For example, in “how to” there is an overview to the “Cornier method,” and how the users can incorporate it when working with others. The authors offer different lesson plans to complete in groups of 2 to 4 people. But this is interesting: if you want to start a conversation with any other user, you need to be a gold member; regular members can only respond. So before I suggest or request my students to subscribe I would subscribe for a month myself and see if it’s worth it. There is also a link for “Search” language exchange partners and one can choose who they want them to be. They can search by L1, L2, country, age, gender, or if they are looking only for email exchange or chat only, among other features.
One educational characteristic that I found is the “Word Games” section which is for all members. For this one there is no special software required and one can create their own games. I like this feature because not only can students look at words but also at phrases like expressions, slang, proverbs, etc. Apparently, there is an online multi-language dictionary embedded in the website that can help students get familiarized with the words.
You can also create your profile and you own a “member notepad” which is like a notebook to take language notes.
One disadvantage that this web site has is that there is no direct software that let users hear each other. In the section “voice chat” they suggest the members to download Skype because of the language variety, or Paltalk which is not so advanced but at least has a good voice quality and it only requires Windows 98 or later PC.
In general I would not recommend this site to teachers or students because there are other online communities with more advanced features and a more welcoming environment (I found the UI design not so attractive and kind of problematic to know its sequence).
In both web sites one drawback would be the lack of knowledge on giving appropriate feedback. Every person is going to have a different “teaching technique” especially because we don’t know what their actual profession is in real life.
http://www.deutsch-lernen.com/
ReplyDeleteThis website is good for review, but it is the equivalent of a grammar book online. The one advantage that it has over the grammar book is that you receive immediate feedback on the grammar exercises. The grammar exercises are like the Hot Potato exercises.
The site has no video or audio. It's all text. It gives the grammar explanations, examples of the grammar in use, and grammar exercises. The user is also given the option to print out the grammar exercises. For lexical support, a glossary is provided.
I do like the navigation and look of the website. Everything is under clearly marked links, so it is difficult to get lost or confused. It is free with registration. Users can join a penpal bank if they would like to interact with another learner or native speaker.
Other than for the quizzes, this site would not be something to refer students to because, as I've mentioned, it is like looking at a grammar book. If the site had audio and/or video resources, it would be a lot more useful because then students would get to hear the grammar and see examples of it in use.