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ONLINE
LEARNING RESOURCES | |||
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Overview | |||
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This document is a
compilation of Internet Resources for the teaching and learning of
English. The sites listed cover a wide range of interest and there is
probably something for everyone. Course Management
Software (CMS) sites are listed separately (at the beginning); other sites
can be found either by using the menu
or by scrolling through the document. | |||
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Course Management
Software | |||
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A
course management system is a software application or Web-based technology
used to plan, implement, and assess a specific learning
process. Typically,
a learning management system provides an instructor with a way to create
and deliver content, monitor student participation and assess student
performance. A
course management system may also provide students with the ability to use
interactive features such as threaded discussions, video conferencing, and
discussion forums. | |||
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http://www.webct.com/entrypage Homepage for WebCT, a
leading CMS system. | |||
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Interesting
open-source, freeware - available at little or no cost! | |||
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http://www.ibritt.com/resources/dc_management.htm A vast selection of
articles on online learning. | |||
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http://cndls.georgetown.edu/facultyguidebook/bb.htm An introduction to
Blackboard, another leading CMS system. | |||
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http://imej.wfu.edu/articles/2000/1/04/index.asp A
paper on the strengths and weaknesses of current course management
systems. | |||
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http://www.towson.edu/~schmitt/courseware/coursesw.html A
website listing most of the main CMS available | |||
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Resource
Sites Menu | |||
Very useful sites
Second language reading and biliteracy
Resources for teachers and
learners
Sites of general use
Free software for creating
exercises
Articles, lesson plans, discussion lists and
various newsletters
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Speaking
Reading
Vocabulary
Writing
Pronunciation
Grammar
Sources
Errors & Mistakes |
Using coursebooks
Storytelling
Observations & Stories from the
classroom
Radio
Video and film
Humour
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Very Useful
Sites | |||
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http://www.cilt.org.uk/where.htm
National Centre for Languages | |||
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Both contain ideas
and resources relating to ICT and the teaching of languages. | |||
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http://www.ict4lt.org/en/index.htm Very
up-to-date, has some material of
substance of direct relevance to language teachers as well as a strong set
of web references to further sites useful for language teachers.
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http://www.nestafuturelab.org/viewpoint/index.htm
Future directions in
language teaching and learning | |||
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Second language reading and biliteracy | |||
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http://www.eurocall-languages.org/resources/bibliography/index.html | |||
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http://www.eurocall-languages.org/resources/bibliography/articles.html | |||
Resources for teachers and
learners | |||
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One of the longest
running, best-known sites for teachers and students – Dave’s ESL cafe.
Range of links to
activities and sites of interest to both teachers and students | |||
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http://cla.univ-fcomte.fr/english/sites/audio.htm
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Site
on life and culture in the UK – a lot of information for students
including bits of advice re study skills etc | |||
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http://www.onestopenglish.com/ProfessionalSupport/Tips/scrivener_tipsmain.htm
A great place to
start off would be with ‘Teacher’s Tips’, a monthly column written by Jim
Scrivener the author of Learning Teaching. This column is part of the
extensive www.onestopenglish.com Web Site which contains lots of useful
material for both teachers and students. | |||
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http://www.britishcouncil.org/languageassistant/index.html
This Web Site
includes more teaching tips as well as the opportunity to look at the
‘Language Assistant’, an online manual designed for teachers starting out
in EFL. | |||
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http://www.etprofessional.com/
You can find some
interesting articles and ideas on this Web site. Although there is a
subscription to get all the articles it is possible, by clicking on the
back issues icon and then individual issues, to read some articles online
for free (for example Click on Issue No. 1 – October 1996 and you can read
a sort piece by John Hunt on Diagnostic Testing). | |||
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Resources for
exploiting The New York Times are available at - includes lesson plans and
guided discussion tasks. | |||
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http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/links/webquests.html | |||
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http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/links/webquest_directories.html
(directories of webquests) | |||
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eLibrary is a
comprehensive digital archive for information seekers of all ages. Users
can do business research, use it for homework, and get background materials for
term papers. Find out about current and historical events…..and more. All
in one vast database designed for both depth of content and simplicity of
interface. | |||
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Lots and lots of very
useful links from Steven Schackne. | |||
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http://www.bored.com/main.html
Bored? Visit bored.com's
top-rated sites. | |||
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http://www.ilovelanguages.com/
iLove Languages
is a comprehensive catalogue of language-related Internet resources. The
more than 2000 links at iLoveLanguages have been
hand-reviewed to bring you the best language links the Web has to offer.
Whether you're looking for online language lessons, translating
dictionaries, native literature, translation services, software, language
schools, or just a little information on a language you've heard about,
iLoveLanguages probably has
something to suit your needs. | |||
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The Tower of English
helps ESL students and teachers quickly find the best places on the
Internet to practice real English. There are about 300 fun and interesting
websites in 34 different categories. Some of these activities can be done
at home, and some can be done in the classroom. If you want to know when
new activities and resources are added, sign up below for the free
newsletter. | |||
Free software for creating
exercises | |||
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You can download free
software which “makes the job of creating stimulating classroom exercises
fast and fun”. The software requires no installation and can do the
following: flashcards, gap-fill exercises, multi-choice exercises, word
jumble, sentence jumble, punctuation exercises and much more. | |||
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http://online_tools.home.att.net/tools.html Another site for free
online tools for teachers, and which has just been expanded, - it’s easy,
free, no ads, no “catches” and no special tools required! | |||
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http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html ESL Independent Study
Lab Michael Krauss’ website contains links to over 225 of the best
internet resources for ESL/EFL students. The Study lab is organized by
skill area (including listening, grammar, TOEFL) and language level (from
beginner to advanced). A simple but effective
collection of resources for the student of English. | |||
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http://www.eatsshootsandleaves.com/
Eats, Shoots & Leaves - A website to accompany the popular book on
punctuation which includes information about the author, Lynn Truss, a
punctuation “hall of shame”, an excerpt from the book as well as an
interactive punctuation game. If you haven’t already got the book, you
can also order from here. | |||
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http://www.rong-chang.com/
Rong-Chang Li's English as a
Second Language site is a great up-to-date entry-point for finding many
links under subject headings such as Listening, Reading, Pronunciation,
Writing, Grammar, Methods, Lesson Plans, Games and more. | |||
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http://www.ompersonal.com.ar/sitemapenglish2.htm
OM Personal an interesting site from Argentina with plenty of listening
and reading material as well as over 200 grammar exercises. Although the
main focus is on Spanish-speaking learners of English, the material here
can be used by anybody: | |||
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http://dir.yahoo.com/social_science/linguistics_and_human_languages/words_and_wordplay/ | |||
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This will keep you
entertained for hours – very addictive! As part of the Yahoo! Directory,
it features a large number of sites relating to linguistics and human
languages. Extremely entertaining and educational. | |||
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Articles, lesson
plans, discussion lists and various newsletters: | |||
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http://www.onestopenglish.com/ProfessionalSupport/grammar/grammar.htm An
excellent site offering a vast range of resources for teachers including
lesson plans. | |||
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http://www.google.com/language_tools
Language Tools has been developed by Google and is very helpful for
anyone looking to translate short passages of text or entire Web pages.
First, the page provides an engine that allows users to search for pages
composed in over thirty languages. The best feature, though, is a
translator that lets users translate text passages and Web pages from
English into five different languages, and several different European
languages back into English: | |||
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http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue.html
John Lawler is a linguistics professor and you can find his masterful
explanations on how language really works on this site | |||
Reading | |||
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http://www.blackmask.com/page.php?do=page Blackmask Online
offers online books which can be downloaded free of charge in various
formats. Categories include Australia, Biography, Fiction, History,
Mystery (Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie) and loads
more. | |||
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http://www.penguindossiers.com/
Penguin Dossiers
is part of the Penguin Readers site (www.penguinreaders.com)
and contains articles for learners of English with a new one added on the
1st of every month. There is a `Factsheet´ as well, with teacher’s
notes and exercises and each article is written at the same language level
as a Level 3 penguin reader. Penguin Dossiers are great for reading and
listening practice, for class discussion, and for learning new vocabulary.
The archive has all the past Penguin Dossiers. | |||
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http://www.ingenious.org.uk/
Ingenious is a clickable picture gallery and
text - the result of a
collaboration between the Science Museum, National Railway
Museum and the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television.
It’s an
educational website that takes a diverse look into the fascinating range
of topics from the world of Science and Culture. | |||
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Web logs, otherwise
known as blogs, are useful for creating
your own online reading pages. There are a lot of guides available
which can help you to create your own blog. One such tutorial is
provided by Vance Stevens –-a well-known ELT practioner – and can be found at
http://www.homestaed.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/blogger_tutorial.htm
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http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Campbell-LiveJournal/ Using LiveJournal
for Authentic Communication in EFL Classes by
Aaron Patrick Campbell | |||
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This site is full of
reading lessons based on Reuter’s news stories. You need
to subscribe, but can do this at ’guest’ level for free. Once you’ve
subscribed you can access a bank of lesson plans and materials that are
both interesting and informative. Apart from using some of the material in your classes why
not take a look through the lessons to see the variety of
techniques used to teach reading? | |||
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http://www.developingteachers.com/articles_tchtraining/read_alex1.htm
An interesting and
thought-provoking article that explores the issue of using (and preparing
students to use) authentic reading texts at Intermediate level. This is
one of a series of articles that you can find at
www.developingteachers.com | |||
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Vocabulary | |||
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The
recognition of the importance of lexis in language learning in recent
years means that the following sites should be of great interest to all
teachers. | |||
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http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r21270/levels/index.html
Free vocabulary level
tests based on the work of Paul Nation. Interesting and perhaps even fun
for students and teachers. | |||
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Free online concordancer
and some other tools | |||
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http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej31/m2.html
A review of the
site | |||
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Wordwizard is
intended mainly for discussing English word origins, phrases or idioms.
There are also many
links to word-related resources. You can also download WordWeb, a
free utility which allows you to look up the meaning of words from within
another program: | |||
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The Atlantic features
two excellent monthly language columns by Barbara Wallraff – Word Fugitives and
Word Court. | |||
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Oxford Advanced Learner's
Dictionary is a quality site. Apart from the online
dictionary, resources include a News Reader featuring articles on people
and events that have recently been in the news, crosswords and vocabulary
exercises: | |||
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http://lse.umiacs.umd.edu:8080/ Linguist’s Search
Engine, a three million sentence
corpus of sentences from the Internet Archive is currently available as
well as facilities to build and search corpora based around search results
from AltaVista queries. It’s unique and worth the
half-hour effort it takes to learn it. You can register for free and get
an account where you can begin to build your own corpus. | |||
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http://www.oxymoronica.com/oxymoralist.shtml Oxymora: The List -
"Any compilation of phrases or quotations that initially appear illogical
or nonsensical, but upon reflection, make a good deal of sense and are
often profoundly true." Enjoy an extensive (and growing) online list of
Oxymora, compiled by Dr. Mardy Grothe from the book "Oxymoronica:
Paradoxical Wit & Wisdom From History's Greatest Wordsmiths." This
stuff is funnier than it sounds. Amusing sidebar articles include
"Oxymoronic Verse," "Oxymoronica Titles," "Grand
Oxymoronic Themes," and "Oxymoronic Samplers" of actors and writers.
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Buzzwords can be
confusing jargon but this website aims to make them clearer. | |||
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This provides a large
collection of games, puzzles and quizzes for helping to improve English
language vocabulary. Packed with synonyms, antonyms, crosswords and other
vocabulary exercises. | |||
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www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorialintro.shtml
Collins Cobuild have developed an interesting language
game which could easily be adapted as an off-line version for use in the
classroom. | |||
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http://titania.cobuild.collins.co.uk/defsgame.html The Cobuild
Definitions Game involves clicking on a button to get a randomly selected
definition extracted from the new Cobuild dictionary. Then try to
guess which word is being defined. | |||
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_name_etymologies
Company Name
Etymologies – ever wonder why Qantas is called Qantas, or how companies like
Adidas, Starbucks and Google got their names? The
answers to these corporate mysteries can also be found at this interesting
free online encyclopaedia. You can also find
the biographies of all the companies listed. | |||
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http://www.word-detective.com/ Evan Morris is the
Word Detective and answers questions on origins of colourful words and
phrases – complete with a large archive: | |||
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Word games | |||
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Etymologic presents
you with 10 randomly selected etymology (word origin) or word definition
puzzles to solve. Some of the answers are improbable, incredible and hard
to believe! | |||
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WordZap is a
fast-paced addictive word game which you can play over the Net or against
the computer. | |||
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http://search.yahoo.com/search/dir?p=hangman Hangman with several
different twists: Celebrity Hangman, Hang Your Ex-Whatever, Hillbilly
hangman, and others: | |||
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Writing | |||
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Online Writing Labs
can be used for your own needs or you can have your students submit drafts
to the labs and receive feedback about their writing from experienced
tutors. Probably the most famous is the OWL offered by Purdue
University: | |||
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http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ This provides a wide
variety of materials for both students and teachers, including over 100
instructional pages on writing skills, ESL guidance, and links to other
writing resources. | |||
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This article entitled
‘Writing for beginners’ begins by looking at why writing can seem
difficult at this level and then goes on to give a couple of practical
suggestions. This is one of a
series of articles that you can find at http://www.developingteachers.com/ | |||
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http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html Writing doesn’t need
to be dry and boring; it can be zany and zippy
– at least according to this Web site. Lots of ’creative writing’ ideas to
make your lessons sparkle – it certainly gives a different perspective to
writing activities for the classroom. | |||
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http://writing.englishclub.com/punctuation.htm
When you think of
teaching writing skills, what do you think of? One area that is often
neglected is the teaching of punctuation. This simple site can be used
both as a reminder to the teacher of how important this aspect can be and
also as a basic resource for students. | |||
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Listening | |||
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A
range of useful sites for those interested in Listening. | |||
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http://www.antimoon.com/other/shaggydog.htm Shaggy dog stories
for ESL learners | |||
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Range of speakers to
listen to from all over the world | |||
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http://www.english-trailers.com/
Movie trailers with
activities for learners | |||
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http://www.uefap.co.uk/listen/listfram.htm Lectures and speeches
with interactive exercises | |||
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http://www.abc.net.au/fly/music/interviews/default.htm An Australian site
that contains hundreds of interviews with musicians from around the world.
Check out which artists they have interviewed by using the alphabetical
search facilities. Use the interviews for general listening comprehension
or make up your own tasks (gap-fill, T/F, comprehension questions
etc.). | |||
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http://www.literacynet.org/cnnsf/ A great site from
CNN. Over 50 news stories categorised under headings such as: crime,
environment, adventure etc. Each story has a range of activities focussing
on comprehension and vocabulary, most of a multiple-choice
format. | |||
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http://www.esllab.com/index.htm Over a hundred
listening extracts with activities from Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening
lab. | |||
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American Rhetoric –.
An index to and growing database of 5000+ full text, audio and video
(streaming) versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings,
lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events, and a
declaration or two. | |||
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Ohio University –
useful for listening practice for more advanced students as well for your
own pleasure. It features many of the best writers of the English
Language: | |||
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www.worldsfunniestbudgie.homestead.com/index.html The World’s
Funniest Budgie - this site has real recordings of a talking budgie named
Victor who understood the English language and could converse on almost
any subject. It began with a parrot intelligence study and is the first
time that it has actually been proved that parrots have a natural sense of
humour. | |||
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The Engines of Our
Ingenuity – is a radio programme that tells the story of how our culture
is formed by human creativity. Written and hosted by John Lienhard, it
is heard nationally (USA) on Public Radio. Among other features, this
website houses the scripts for every episode heard since the show’s
inception in 1988. Streaming audio is available on each of the posted
episodes. Fascinating and enjoyable listening. | |||
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Listening
Exercises | |||
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml | |||
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Pronunciation | |||
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http://janmulder.co.uk/Phonmap/ Phonetic script
writer | |||
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http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/johnm/eptotd/tiphome.htm The English
Pronunciation Tip of the Day has over 160 tips in helping students improve
their English pronunciation with some having sound files. Useful links to
other pronunciation and phonology sites | |||
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Grammar | |||
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Rong-Chang
Li's English as a Second Language site is a great up-to-date entry-point
for finding many resources, including a good set for grammar. | |||
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www.webster.commnet.edu/grammar/ Dozens of digital
handouts on grammar and English usage, over 170 computer-graded quizzes,
and recommendations on writing | |||
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The Grammar Gorillas
is gives fun sentences and asks you to find the noun, verb, etc. It's a
parts of speech game. | |||
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A series of free,
on-line grammar lessons covers all the parts of speech, as well as
punctuation. | |||
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http://www.onestopenglish.com/ProfessionalSupport/grammar/grammar.htm
Do you have a
question about English grammar? See if the answer to your question is
already here and if not send in your question to get it
answered. | |||
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http://www.developingteachers.com/articles_tchtraining/gramm1_jeanette.htm
A short article that
tries to answer two complicated questions: What is grammar? And, How
should we teach grammar? Although it offers no definitive answer the
article is certainly a good place to start and gives another perspective
to the one in Learning Teaching. This is one of a
series of articles that you can find at
www.developingteachers.com | |||
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http://www.hltmag.co.uk/mar02/sart8.htm
Two terms that often
cause confusion are ’inductive’ and ’deductive’ teaching. These terms are
often applied to the presentation and teaching of grammar. Here is an
article that tries to clarify the distinction between these two
approaches as well as the background on the pros and cons of these two
opposing views. | |||
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http://www.eslcafe.com/ideas/sefer.cgi?Grammar
Lots of practical
ideas on how to teach a range of grammatical items - this link page can be
found at the renowned Dave’s ESL
Cafe. | |||
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http://iteslj.org/Articles/Borova-PassiveGrammar.html
Here is an
interesting article about ’Passive Grammar’ which tries to demonstrate
that we all have an innate ability to ’identify’
grammar. The article includes a short ’lesson’ in Bulgarian. There is
plenty of food for thought here. | |||
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Radio | |||
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Radio series with
archived reports Living on earth | |||
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http://www.literacynet.org/cnnsf/ CNN "timeless"
stories- | |||
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National Public
radio- (Try "All things Considered") | |||
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http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/ Speeches:
(international speakers- variety of accents) | |||
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Favorite poem
project- (ordinary people reading their favourite poem- video
format) | |||
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US radio | |||
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/index.shtml Talk About English is
a new magazine-style programme for learners of English from the BBC World
Service. It's broadcast twice a week but can be streamed from the site. An
added bonus is that the script is downloadable in PDF format | |||
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/ is an
enormous site. For example, most
radio programmes can be heard again via the site during the week in which
they were broadcast. Some are archived for longer than that.
For language teaching, see especially the sections named in the top
toolbar: TALK, and WHERE WE LIVE [which has a useful subsection:
Voices] | |||
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Video and
film | |||
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http://www.rolls-royce.com/education/schools/default.jsp Here’s something
for those of you involved in Technical English – a journey through a jet
engine can be found at Build your own engine | |||
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http://travel.discovery.com/fansites/jrmia/video/video John Ratzenberger's
Made in America is an extremely interesting site with lots of video clips
of visits to factories and businesses – | |||
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http://www.english-trailers.com/
Using video as part
of your teaching activities is very rewarding. This a really neat site
which uses film trailers as the basis for language activities. Each
trailer has a summary, a cloze exercise, notes on key vocabulary and a
quiz. There are currently 55 trailers listed, which adds up to a lot of
listening practice. If you create an account (free), you can see even more
trailers and scores can be saved. | |||
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http://cla.univ-fcomte.fr/english/trailers/trailersindex.htm Glenys Hanson
from the Université de Franche-Comté
has created a nice series of video listening exercises based on movie
trailers. You have to reconstitute the text of the trailer, of which all
the letters have been replaced by asterisks. | |||
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http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/filmblog/files/three_negotiation_scenes.doc Jeffrey Hill has some
useful negotiations material using scenes from three movies: Dangerous
Liaisons, Wall Street and Local Hero. There’s a worksheet and script
for each scene and a final role-play exercise. | |||
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http://literacynet.org/cnnsf/home.html The CNN Learning
Resources site -offers web-delivered instruction using current and past
CNN San Francisco bureau and CBS 5 - KPIX (CBS Broadcasting) news stories.
Each module includes the full text of each story and interactive
activities to test comprehension. The learner can choose to read the text,
listen to the text, and view a short video clip of the story. Each module
is designed for ease of use so the learner can use it independently.
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http://www.english-behind-the-scenes.com/ For those of you
interested in video-based learning, check out English-behind-the-scenes
which is “the brainchild of a group of qualified and experienced English
language teachers from diverse backgrounds who, among other things, work
as English language examiners for a prestigious international university.”
They offer a collection of ready-made, user-friendly lessons based on a
range of well-known, thoroughly enjoyable and highly-motivating films.
Titles include Harry Potter, My Big, Fat Greek Wedding and Erin Brockovich
with more added on a regular basis. Lessons are reasonably priced and are
graded according to students' levels:. There is a
free sample available. | |||
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Humour | |||
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http://www.gn.apc.org/rts/subvt.htm Subvertising -
is a site that provides some balance to advertisements in general
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http://www.adbusters.org/home/ Adbusters.org takes
an aesthetic often humorous view of contemporary
advertisements | |||
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www.ai.mit.edu/people/ceb/jokes.doit A random Stephen
Wright joke generator is available here | |||
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http://humor.about.com/cs/advertisinghumor/a/ds020402.htm?nl=1
About.com has an archive of humorous Super Bowl adverts going back to
1998. The majority of these are very funny – use this link: | |||
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http://humor.about.com/cs/advertisinghumor The funny world of
advertising – real, imagined and satirical | |||
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http://www.uglychristmaslights.com/ This site exists to
prove that even though many people love Christmas, not all folks have a
sense of how to celebrate. | |||
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http://www.crazycriminals.com/ Real crimes committed
by dumb criminals will leave you shaking your head at just how stupid
people can be. Take, for example, a man wanted for throwing bricks through
jewellery store windows and making off with the loot. He was arrested
after he threw a brick into a Plexiglas window.-.the brick bounced back,
hit him in the head and knocked him cold until the police got there.
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Interesting Sources | |||
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Here are some key
articles and book extracts that either have fed into the Dogme ELT discussion group or
have been written by members of the group, and which underpin the thinking
behind Teaching Unplugged. | |||
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A Dogma for
EFL, by Scott Thornbury. This is the original
article and the one that triggered the forming of the "Dogme ELT"
discussion group. It was published in IATEFL Issues 153, Feb/March
2000. | |||
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Teaching
Unplugged, by Scott Thornbury. This came out in
It's for Teachers, Feb 2001. | |||
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Grammar, Power and
Bottled Water, by Scott Thornbury. This is an earlier
article of Scott's, but the Dogme spirit is starting to show
itself. It came out in the IATEFL Newsletter 140, 1998. | |||
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Against Dogma: A Plea
for Moderation, by Simon Gill. Simon wrote this in response to Scott's
original Dogma for EFL article. It came out in IATEFL Issues
154 (April/May 2000). | |||
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Teaching without a
Coursebook, by Adrian
Underhill. This appeared in the late 80s (Adrian can't remember where) and
had a "slow-release" effect on Scott. | |||
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Extract from Teaching as a
subversive activity, by Postman & Weingartner. Written in 1969,
this is another radical agenda for education that has interesting
parallels with Teaching Unplugged. | |||
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The Roaring in the
Chimney, by Sylvia Ashton-Warner. This extract comes from Teacher
(first published in 1963). The visionary NZ primary school teacher
Sylvia Ashton-Warner might well be the patron saint of Teaching
Unplugged. | |||
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Dogme out in
the Open, by Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings. This
article celebrates a year of Dogme ELT, and appeared in
IATEFL Issues in June/July 2001. | |||
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McEnglish in
Australia, by Scott Thornbury. A paper given at the
13th EA Educational Conference (English in Australia, Australia in
English) in Fremantle, Western Australia,
October, 2000. Touches on such themes as the globalization of ELT,
positivist/transmissive models of education
vs
dialogic models, and emergent grammar. | |||
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Coursebooks:
The Roaring in the Chimney, by Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings.(Modern
English Teacher Vol 10 No 3, July 2001) This is
the first of three articles and was written in response to an article by
Jeremy Harmer in the same issue. | |||
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Using the
Raw Materials: A "Dogme" approach to teaching
language, by Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings.
Practical suggestions as to how learner language can form the raw material
of the lesson. First published in Modern English
Teacher. | |||
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Dogme and the
Coursebook, by Scott Thornbury and
Luke Meddings. This article suggests
ways that the coursebook could be integrated
into a "Dogme approach". It was first
published in Modern English Teacher. | |||
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Don't mention
the war! Taboo topics and the alternative textbook, by Scott Thornbury. Why
coursebooks - in dictating the
topic agenda - are counterproductive. This article first appeared in IT's
for Teachers, Feb 2002. | |||
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Teaching Unplugged:
One Teacher's Account, by Nerina Conte and Scott Thornbury.
Scott interviews Nerina about her experience
teaching a small group of primary school children without a coursebook.
Instead, they produced their own "scrapbooks". | |||
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Do we have the
bottle? by Jacqueline McEwan: this
is a first-hand account of curriculum change along "dogme" lines
and was first published in the EL Gazette. | |||
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Dogme 95
The film collective whose "vow of chastity" Scott used as an
analogy | |||
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Open Space A
humanistic approach to the organising and running of meetings, workshops -
and classes. | |||
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Rage & hope:Paolo
Freire A site devoted to the
work of the visionary Brazilian educationalist - check at Giroux and co
while you're there | |||
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Another Freire site | |||
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Something
on Critical Pedagogy -masses of articles and links | |||
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Informal Education Homepage - learning
through doing, with a special emphasis on youth work | |||
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CLL
Community Language learning Chinese-based site but you don't need to
download Chinese characters | |||
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More
CLL:includes CLL lesson
plan | |||
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Humanising Language Teaching - the
e-zine
that Mario edits | |||
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The Journal of the
Imagination in Language Learning - another on-line journal worth a
browse | |||
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Adrian
Holliday's Homepage author of Appropriate Methodology & Social
Context etc etc | |||
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Leo van Lier's Homepage:check out Leo
on ecological educational linguistics | |||
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Uncovering
Grammar: a link to MacMillan's Onestop
English site, where you can read up on Scott's book | |||
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and, in the interests
of balance, the Pearson ELT Forum site,
with more stuff on Scott and his books | |||
Methods &
Approaches | |||
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http://www.onestopenglish.com/News/Magazine/Archive/archive.htm
This Web page is
constantly being added to and is an excellent source for all areas of
methodology. There are quite a few articles that look at approaches to
teaching such as The Silent Way, Audiolingualism and Grammar
Translation, as well as articles on a range of issues from ‘Attitudes to
Being Observed’ to ‘What is Standard English?’. | |||
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http://www.englishclub.net/teachertraining/terminology.htm
A look at frequently
used acronyms and abbreviations in the world of EFL. | |||
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http://www.uni-ulm.de/LiLL/5.0/E/teaching/section3.html
What is the perfect
teacher? In Learning Teaching Jim Scrivener talks about three types of
teacher (p6). This article compliments this section of the book and
includes a couple of lists including suggestions on ‘being
effective’. | |||
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http://www.hltmag.co.uk/jan00/sart2.htm
Another article that
looks at teaching styles. This one gives an insight into four types of
teacher and asks the reader to think about which ‘style’ best describes
them. | |||
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http://www.uni-ulm.de/LiLL/5.0/E/teaching/section1.html
‘Learning in later
years’ takes a look at Adult learners and examines why teaching adults is
different from teaching children. | |||
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to Menu | |||
In the
classroom | |||
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http://web.tiscali.it/learningpaths/index.htm
A useful site that
looks at a number of key classroom issues including learning styles,
motivation and attitudes to teaching. Apart from brief articles on some of
the issues there are also a couple of questionnaires designed to explore
teaching styles and beliefs. | |||
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http://www.finchpark.com/arts/complex/index.htm
Language classrooms
are complex places and the roles taken on by a teacher are dependant on
the stages of the lesson, purpose of activity and many other factors. This
article tries to examine some of the ideas surrounding these issues. There
are a couple of very useful tables and diagrams plus an attempt to set all
the theory in the classroom context. | |||
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http://www.onestopenglish.com/lessonshare/
Why invent the wheel
again? Find lots of lesson plans that you can use immediately in your
classroom. If you have any lessons you wish to share just send them
in. | |||
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to Menu | |||
Using coursebooks | |||
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http://iteslj.org/Articles/Ansary-Textbooks/
This is a short
article which takes a look at ways of evaluating coursebooks, although it does not
include any reference to ‘Choosing your Coursebook’ by Alan Cunningsworth.
Tends to be a bit wordy
in places but the basic ideas are quite useful. The site
http://iteslj.org includes lots of other articles on a range of topics.
The archives are split into three categories: lessons, teaching techniques
and articles. | |||
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http://www.teflweb-j.org/v1n1/garinger.html
Another short article
on using coursebooks, includes a short
practical checklist. | |||
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http://www.richmondpark.net/events/chat19.html
An interesting
interview (and online chat) with Roger Hunt called ‘Par for the course’.
The interview/chat focuses on using coursebooks and has quite a few
interesting questions and answers. | |||
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to Menu | |||
Speaking | |||
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http://www.englishclub.net/articles/2001-11.htm
An interesting
article on Communicative tasks for speaking. The article highlights some
of the basic premises and ingredients that go to make up a successful
communicative speaking task. | |||
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http://www.onestopenglish.com/News/Magazine/Vocab/studyskills2.htm
Online lessons
focusing on speaking. | |||
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to Menu | |||
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Listening | |||
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http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Lavelle-Listening/
This short article
entitled ‘Getting the most out of your textbook listening’ is well worth a
read as it not only applies to coursebook/textbook listening
activities but to the skill in general. | |||
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http://listening.englishclub.com/everywhere.htm
This short article is
aimed at students but in fact has a lot of relevance for teachers. It
takes a look at how students can practise their listening skills outside
the classroom in a ‘non-English speaking’ country. There are quite a few
good ideas that can give a teacher (working outside a country like the UK,
USA etc) some ideas on how to help their students outside as well as
inside the language classroom. | |||
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to Menu | |||
Vocabulary | |||
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http://www.onestopenglish.com/News/Magazine/Vocab/studyskills.htm
Lots and lots of
materials focusing on teaching vocabulary at all levels. Whether you teach
British or American English you’ll find something here for
you. | |||
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http://www.teflfarm.com/teachers/articles/lexis.htm
Quite a long article
on vocabulary entitled ‘Lexical Loquacity’ – which was originally (or so
it claims) an assignment for a Diploma course. The article is split into
two sections: the first section takes a look at what is meant by lexis and
some of the recent thoughts surrounding the subject; the second section
looks at the implications for classroom teaching and suggests some
activities that can be used. | |||
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http://www.plumbdesign.com/thesaurus/thinkmap.html
This ‘Virtual’
thesaurus gives a new perspective into the relationship between words.
Once the homepage has loaded click on the ‘loaded, click to launch’ icon
to enter the display. Words will be displayed in a mind map format with
fine lines showing the relationship between the words. Click on a word to
show words related to that particular one while those unrelated disappear
from the display. Users can search for any word or phrase by using a
simple text-entry box. You can also search words based on part of speech,
for example, similar nouns or verbs. | |||
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http://www.worldwidewords.org/
A really interesting
site all about ‘Words’. | |||
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http://www.rdues.liv.ac.uk/newwords.shtml
Are you interested in
new words? Take a look at this site dedicated to Neologisms taken from the
Independent newspaper from the UK. | |||
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to Menu | |||
Errors &
Mistakes | |||
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http://www.dbe.metu.edu.tr/claire/mistakes.htm
A very interesting
article entitled ‘Give me mistakes!’ The author shows through a particular
situation the fear that students often have about making mistakes and the
importance (as far as the learning process goes) of getting/letting them
make mistakes. A key sentence in the article is "I do NOT want correct
sentences, you don't need help
with those". | |||
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http://www.tttjournal.co.uk/back15.html
Here is a short
article on Echoing in the classroom. Although this is mentioned only on
page 16 under classroom management – potential problems it is often an
issue discussed when talking about error correction. The article tries to
be balanced with points for and against, but it is clear with only 4
points for and 11 against which way the author leans. | |||
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to Menu | |||
Testing | |||
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http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/testing.htm
A fairly theoretical
article covering the basic issues behind languages testing such as
validity and reliability, rationale behind different types of tests etc -
a good starting point. | |||
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https://www.onestopenglish.com/Exams/elt_exams_index.htm
This page includes
tips and materials for both FCE and IELTS exams. If your students are
preparing for either of these exams this is a must. The tips here can also
be useful for testing in general. | |||
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http://www.hltmag.co.uk/jul02/edit.htm
This monthly online
magazine brought to us by Pilgrims is packed full of interesting articles.
The July 2002 issue focuses mainly on testing and contains articles on
‘How to cope with exam stress’, ‘Making oral tests more human’ and
‘Humanising exam classes’ as well as an exam questionnaire for teenagers.
If you like what you see here why not take a look at the back
issues? | |||
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IELTS is one of a
range of International tests that many EFL students end up taking. It is
all well and good understanding the theories behind testing but what do
these theories look like in reality. This site is a good place to start
looking at the practicalities and realities of testing as it contains tips
and information as well as exam tasks.nb | |||
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http://www.dialang.org/
DIALANG offers diagnostic tests in Listening, Reading and Writing in 14
languages. Assessment is geared to the 6-point Common European Framework
scale: | |||
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to Menu | |||
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Storytelling | |||
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http://www.hltmag.co.uk/sep00/mart2.htm
This article by
Andrew Wright gives three reasons why storytelling should be an important
part of teaching English. The author gives arguments to back up the points
he makes as well as giving some advice for storytelling. This is quite a
good theoretical starting point for an area which is often seen as on the
fringes of mainstream EFL but which, in recent years, has made a
comeback. | |||
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http://www.developingteachers.com/articles If you’re interested
in using stories in the classroom this is a good place to start. The
article has a good section on the theory and basics of storytelling and
gives plenty of practical suggestions. There are also links to other
articles and useful sites. | |||
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http://www.storyarts.org/index.html
A complete Web site
devoted to Storytelling in the classroom. This site contains articles on
the rationale behind using stories in the classroom, lesson plans and
activities as well as an amazing store of online stories. | |||
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Observations
& Stories from the
classroom | |||
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http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/98/jul/tsui.html
This brief article
appeared in ‘The Language Teacher’ an online magazine from JALT (The
Japanese association of language teachers – affiliated to IATEFL). Short
and to the point this article looks into a few aspects of classroom
teaching such as learner participation, teacher talk and
observations. | |||
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http://www.eltnewsletter.com/back/August2001/art692001.htm
Ongoing teacher
development has been a ‘hot’ issue in recent years. This article focuses
on a range of issues surrounding this topic. | |||
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http://www.onestopenglish.com/ProfessionalSupport/training/competition.htm
We all have stories
from the classroom, some of these stories are funny and some plain
embarrassing and many of them will actually help other teachers who find
themselves in similar situations. This Web page is full of stories from
practising teachers. Read through them, have a laugh, say ‘Ah! Yes, that’s
happened/could happen to me.’ And, if you like send in your own little
anecdote. | |||
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http://www.onestopenglish.com/ProfessionalSupport/Travellog/travellog.htm
Another interesting
page which contains letters from teachers from around the world. In these
letters the teachers try to tell us what teaching is like in the country
in which they work. This material could be very
useful both for teachers who want to go and work in those countries and
for teachers who already do. | |||
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http://www.eflweb.com/experience.htm
This site has a
section where you can read about the adventures and experiences of EFL
teachers from around the world. Not all the stories are about classroom
experiences but this can give a wider picture of what it’s like to be an
EFL teacher. This Website also has
other sections which may be of interest to teachers and trainees – these
include: ‘tip of the week’ – with classroom ideas – and ‘travel zone’ –
which includes lots of information on working in different
countries. | |||