BBC Learning
English
The target group
for this site would be intermediate to advanced ESL students who had some
understanding of British culture. There are ways of using this site for less advanced
ESL student groups but I was concentrating on listening exercises for advanced
English speakers.
The website has
many of the characteristics of a large media organisation’s website and has
topical, authentic and current information on issues in the news. I used the
article on the sentencing of whistle-blower Bradley Manning as a focus of my
attention. Each article includes a printed and written text version. One neat
idea was the inclusion of a special audio section on the pronunciation and
definition of unusual vocabulary and expressions from the article eg “burst
into tears” and “eligible for parole”.
A teaching idea
would be to have students present a short report in a newsreader style to the
class recounting the facts of a recent news story after they had read and
listened to the article on BBC learning English.
5minuteegligh
This site is
designed for intermediate ESL students who want to do a quick exercise to
practice their English. Once again focussing on listening skills, the site
offered an array of listening tasks. It is also a meta-site with gateways and
links to numerous other similar sites included at the end of the listening
section. I particularly like the daily word (with definition) which was “pithy”
when I visited. This was pertinent as the site is pithy, in that it gets down
to core learning quickly and effectively. The site also contains some long
winded articles on theory of language learning which might be useful to very
advanced students but seemed a little misplaced on a “5 minute English” site.
When looking for
a teaching idea the lesson Dogs, Dogs,
Dogs represents an excellent listening activity as well as having the bonus
of explaining some unusual English idiom like “To be in the doghouse”.
EnglishClub
The name of this
site is EnglishClub. It appears to be a commercially run site which promoted advertising
from associated English learning and language courses. There is a large number
of advertisements through the site and this feature detracts from an otherwise
impressive set up. The target group for this site is broad and it would offer
teaching opportunities for beginners through to advanced ESL students.
The listening
section of this site is comprehensive and includes exercises based on
dictation, listening to the radio, podcasts, this week in history MP3 with quiz, poetry reading, videos and
songs. There is also a section that contains links to other websites with
relevant listening practice exercises. The samples I tried were authentic and
useful in their presentation and offered realistic use of vocabulary and
accents.
Two teaching
ideas that were imaginative involved the use of poetry and the airline safety
announcements listening tasks. Using poetry can help ESL understand the emotion
or underlying tone in a short piece of written English. Students could retell
the poem including some emotion or feeling to increase the level of interest for
the others listening. Secondly I would use the audio presentation of airline
announcements as a lesson starter for ESL students. Role playing the cabin crew
delivering the safety announcements with a few simple props (mask and
lifejacket) could help transfer the learning acquired from listening to the audio
to a presentation to class members.
ESLgold
The name of this
site is eslgold.com. It also appears to be a commercial site that promotes
advertising of language learning services and products as well as general
advertising. The ads seemed a little less intrusive on this site than some of
the other commercial sites. This site specifically identified a variety of
levels of study for students so they could pick an appropriate place to start
using the listening exercises provided.
I particularly
liked the set-up of the listening lesson which featured a pre-viewing section,
a vocabulary and expressions section, then a short video and a multiple choice
quiz to finish. Previewing an area to focus students is important in maximising
the value of the lesson provided. The site provided self-contained lessons that
a teacher could look at to establish the appropriate level for their students
and then run them as they are set out on the website. This would greatly reduce
preparation time as the teacher would simply have to complete the lesson
themselves to be ready to teach.
Splash – ABC
Early Primary English.
This government
owned media website was specifically designed to give Early Primary teachers
ideas when taking English lessons. It could easily be adapted for use with
intermediate ESL students as a listening lesson resource. Obviously it has a
great application for younger students of ESL.
The site is easy
to navigate and free of advertisements.
In the exercise
called “A song about Koalas” the student is required to read information about
koalas before listening to audio about koalas. This is followed up by a short
writing and drawing exercise (ESL could label body parts). This lesson is ready
to go and requires a short preparation time for teachers who are familiar with
the site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Cunningsworth, A 1995, Choosing
your coursebook, Heinemann English Language Teaching, Oxford.
Dudeney, G & Hockly, N 2007, How to teach English with technology, Pearson Educational Ltd,
Harlow UK.
Tanner, R & Green, C 1998, Tasks for Teacher Education: A Reflective Approach, Addison Wesley
Publishing Company, Boston.
Thurlow, S & O’Sullivan K 2011, Focusing on IELTS: Listening and Speaking (2nd Ed.),
MacMillan Education Australia, South Yarra.
WEBSITES
ABC Early Primary English (Splash) available from
[Viewed 28 August 2013]
BBC Learning English available from
[Viewed 27 August 2013]
EnglishClub available from
[Viewed 28 August 2013]
ESLgold available from
[Viewed 28 August 2013]
5minuteegligh.com available from
[Viewed 27 August 2013]
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