#teaching references

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English Language Centre: Study Zone

 General information

o    Name of site: English Language Centre Study Zone

o    URL of site: http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/

o    Last updated in 2013

o    Audience: adult language learners at all levels

o    Focus: grammar

o    Look/design: plain. Easy to navigate.

Site summary

This site provides learners and teachers alike with clear, concise grammar lessons. Each lesson gives an introduction to the grammar point along with examples. This is followed by exercises to test the students’ knowledge of the grammar point they just learnt.

Content summary

Each level whether it be upper beginner level ot advanced provides grammar topics, expanding and introducing more intricate functions and features of the chosen grammar point. As the levels progress the grammar points become more advanced and more exercises are introduced to help students get a better understanding and grasp the concept better. Vocabulary and reading exercises are also available to aid in study.

Verdict:

I think this site is an excellent resource for teacher’s to direct their students to for further grammar confirmation. The explanations of the grammar points are designed by language level with concise and explicit examples. I do however think the exercises are too basic especially in the more advanced levels and it would be encouraged for teachers to provide additional exercises along with the ones provided.

       3.5/5

[welcometothefuturetense]

English Language Learning Labs Online (Elllo)

General information

o   Name of site: Elllo, stands for English Language Listening Lab Online

o   URL of site: http://www.elllo.org/

o   Updated weekly

o   Audience: Beginner to upper intermediate learners

o   Focus: Listening and reading skills

o   Look/design: a little dull and outdated. Could do with a revamp. Interface is a little over the place and at times hard to navigate.

Site summary

Description: Elllo is a collection of listening activities. Most listening activities come with a downloadable MP3 file, transcript, and interactive quiz. Elllo offers activities that target specific listening skill, need or interest. The activities are labeled with what level of fluency the students should have in order to attempt the activity.

Content summary:

Students can test their listening skills via a range of listening activities

o   Interviews: natural conversations between various speakers of English- both native and non-native alike.

o   Listening games: the idea of this activity is to help students learn to listen efficiently; understanding the gist of the conversation

o   News centre: helps learn academic English

Verdict:

Most if not all activities would suitable for use in the English teaching classroom. The site offers activities ranging from beginner level to upper intermediate. These activities can help with both listening, reading and comprehension skills as transcripts are provided for each activity. These activities are also very beneficial to the listener as they provide exposure to varieties of English. The site also includes lesson plans that incorporate these listening tasks. Teachers can appropriate these tasks to use for themselves. Teachers could also elicit students to listen to one activity and give a summary of it as homework.

      4/5 rubber chickens

[welcometothefuturetense]

memrise

 General information

o    Name of site: Memrise

o    URL of site: https://www.memrise.com

o    Launched in 2010

o    Target audience: not aimed at children. Intermediate English language learners and up.

o    Focus: Vocabulary building

o    Look/design: an appealing, easy to use interface. The colours aren’t too dull or too bright.

Site summary

Memrise is an online learning tool designed to help learners build their vocabulary and learn helpful phrases in the target language. Memrise offers a number of languages to study from English to Norwegian. Learners can sign up for free and use the resources straight away. If learners wish to progress faster they are able to ‘go pro’ for varying costs. The ‘go pro’ options boasts faster results, analysis of the learner’s learning style, more variety of learning modes, and more importantly more fun!

Content summary

The ‘science’: Memrise’s courses have been designed with maximum learning in mind. You are tested continuously throughout the course and are reminded of the content you’ve already learned at ‘scientifically optimized’ times in order to grow and strengthen your memory. Your progress is monitored as you study and once a word is considered to be learned or remembered is it counted as being in your long term memory. Once this word is remembered it now requires less attention and is now in the ‘review’ stage of the Memrise teaching method. Review words are carefully calibrated ensure maximum retention.

Verdict

I found this site to be efficient in maximizing vocabulary building. Each section can be done as quick or as slow as you’d like, however if you take too long with a word the site will give you hints to help you. The site is easy to navigate for both student and teacher. I can see this site being easily utilized in the classroom as teachers can create their own courses to focus on specific vocabulary.

       5/5 rubber chickens

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Essential Grammar in Use

General:

      Name: Essential Grammar in Use 3rd Edition

      Author : Raymond Murphy

      Audience: elementary students of English

      Year of publication: 2007

      Publisher: Cambridge university press

      Price: $45-$48

      Look/design: the book is a little smaller than an A4 piece of paper and is    red in colour. On almost every page there is some sort coloured illustration which accompanies the text. The pictures are used as both part of the activity and visual stimulus.

Content:

 This book focuses purely on grammar for elementary students of English. It is intended for learners who are beyond the early stages of a beginner level course. The purpose of this book is facilitate autonomous student learning/study however can also be used a supplementary course book.

 The material is organised in grammatical categories, which include but are not limited to tense, articles and questions. There are 115 units in the book and each unit is about a different point of English grammar. The grammar points are not organised by difficulty as students are encouraged to address grammar points they are struggling with rather than tackling them one after another.

 Each unit is two pages. The grammar points are presented and explained on the left hand side and

the corresponding exercises are on the right. The explanations are short and simple, and the vocabulary used in the examples and exercises have been restricted in order to be used at an elementary level. Most acticties incorporate some sort of visual element such as a cartoon or illustration of the action being portrayed assisting in the students understanding of the grammar point. There are also further activities and study guides in the back of the book in order to further assist autonomous learning.

Verdict

Although this book is not specifically designed as a textbook to be used in the classroom or designed around a specific curriculum, the content and activities are flexible enough to be used verbatim or appropriated to fit lesson plans or simply as homework for students. The use of visual elements throughout book also adds much needed flavour to an otherwise monotonous task of learning grammar.

       5/5 rubber chickens

[welcometothefuturetense]

Teaching references

The following posts are part of an assessment which is part of one of my teaching subjects. It includes critiques on one textbook and three online resources that may be used in the Second Language classroom.