Feroze Kasi
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ESL WEBSITES
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml
This site appears to offers many useful links but I will mention only those links which are related with English Learning which include Learning English, News English, Business English, watch and Listen Grammar and Vocabulary, Communicate, Quizzes. For Teachers and Downloads. Every link has sub links which then leads to exercises, feedback, and list of correct answers. However, the proficiency level of targeted learners is not mentioned with any of the exercises. It can be inferred from the level of difficulty that these exercises are meant for intermediate level learners. It seems to suggest that teacher to adapt the activities according to the level of students. This site is not easy to navigate through.
This is an amazing website which can be recommended for learners of all ages and teachers of different experiences and beliefs. It has multiple links, each of which offers activities for 12 different grades based on age and proficiency levels, for all kinds of learners and teachers. It means that one can find the same activity with twelve different levels of difficulty. It is very comprehensive and complete site which consists of the following major links: BWESL, Crosswords, Word Searches, Flash Cards, Verbs, Songs, Creative Writing, Work Sheets, Phonics, ABCs, ESL Science, Survival English, Business English, ESL for Adults, ESL Articles, Lesson Plans, Holiday Worksheets and ESL Jobs. I like the worksheets the most because they can easily be printed and used in the classroom in case of any problem with technology.
This English grammar site is very fun and helpful reference for teachers of ESL and a wonderful practice and reference guide for high-intermediate or advanced learners. The name of the site is Grammar Bytes and the entry page makes a biting sound as it displays a large, angry monster on which you click to enter the page. Once in the site, there are six main categories to select from; terms, exercises, handouts, tips and rules, feedback, and site creator. The home page is very clearly organized and uses a large font. One does not feel overwhelmed with information and it is easy to navigate through. http://www.eflclub.com
The EFL Club website is targeted to beginners and intermediate students learning English as a foreign language. The home page is visually attractive. There is a directory which includes pictures and titles such as quizzes, songs, stories, games, movies, and handouts for teachers to use in the classroom. The various sites offered are easy to access. It also includes different levels of difficulty, from 1 to 6, which means it can be used with students of different proficiency levels.
Though this site is overloaded with plenty of commercials, it seems to be very useful for ESL teachers and learners. It covers almost all the topics. Learn English Hot link has three main subtitles: English Lessons, Interactive, and Special Interest. Each subtitle has plenty of useful links. For example Interactive consists of ESL Help Desk, ESL Games, ESL Quizzes, ESL Forums and ESL Chat room. I liked the ESL Games which are useful for almost all levels. When I was surfing through the link, I spent an hour playing different games but then I realized I have to complete the assignment. I learned a lot in this short period of time.
http://english-online.org.uk/index.html
This site also has a very clean and well organized home page. It is updated very recently (on 2/12/2007). I found this site one of the best and the most comprehensive resource for learners of all levels. It has separate links for beginner, elementary, intermediate and advanced all of which are very easily accessible and easy to follow. That may be why it is named “English for Everybody”. Additionally, four major links which includes English pronunciation course, English courses for specific purposes, EFL exam practice, and English language Games are offered. There are other sub links also which are very useful such as Learning sources and services, Question of the week, Reading Practice, and ask the Prof. Last but not the least, “What’s new?” offers recent literature added to the site on regular basis.
http://esl.about.com/cs/grammar (www.about.com)
This website is surprisingly rich and accessible through the web portal www.about.com.
There are lesson plans, grammar reference pages and quizzes for all levels, practice tests and reviews. The explanations are simple, yet quite comprehensive. Tables are often used to make things clear and simple for the teachers and the learners. The exercises for grammar review are interesting; learners are given a constructive feedback right away, and this can be great motivation for learners to improve themselves. If in case one clicks on the wrong answer, explanation is give on the spot. It can be suggested to the learners to use it by themselves, because they will have easy and quick access to reference material and a chance to practice and assess their strengths and weaknesses by themselves.
This site is a commercial site but it has some very useful practice exercises on Idioms, Phrasal Verbs, Pronunciation, Slang and above all very interesting and effective quizzes on Geography, History, Science, World Culture, Grammar, Writing, Idioms, Slang, and words. It is user friendly in terms of accessing information. The instructions provided in almost every link are very precise and clear. The quizzes are very useful for learners of all levels.
http://www.eslmonkeys.com/teacher/lessonplans.html
The website is also crowded by lots of commercials and it is not easy to navigate through. However, it provides a wide range resources and free printable learning stuff for ESL learners and teachers. The site has been partnered up with the Bangkok Post’s ESL section to help provide lessons with greater insight into different cultures around the world. The most important part of this site is free ESL lesson plans which are posted everyday by different ESL instructors from all over the world therefore providing a rich resource to inexperienced ESL Instructors.
http://www.favoritepoem.org/thevideos/index.html
This site is simple and easy to follow. It has different poems which can be read and I thought I will be able to watch and listen to it as well but I could not. Sometimes one may encounter links which can’t be opened and lead to frustration and disappointment. The learners should be informed beforehand about such difficulties.
The home page of this site also does not have a lot of commercials. It also seems to be well organized. It has seven major links which are Grammar, Reading, Listening, Vocabulary, Speaking, Pronunciation, and writing. The amazing feature of this site is that almost every activity does not last for more than 5 minutes. It is specially design for short self-study English lessons. That is why I included this site in this annotated bibliography.
This website is well organized which consists of a collection of interrelated ESL materials. The approach of the reading section is “paired stories” which provides two related intermediate level stories based on news articles from various English speaking countries on numerous universal topics. There in a very interesting link to a four page link written by the creator of the materials which explains the development of a material, the philosophy behind paired stories and a description of how they are intended to be used in a class room. This information is useful for understanding the concept of using paired stories but is too extensive to be presented here.
http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~lfried/stories/stories.html
This website contains 19 pieces of writings divided into 3 sections. The first section titled “It Happened to My Stories” consists of 9 stories adapted from the articles that were published in newspapers, The Detroit News. These stories were submitted by the newspaper’s readers who wrote about something that had happened to them. The author then rewrote the stories and created an easy version and a difficult version of the same story. The difficult version has a more difficult vocabulary than the easy version and some sentences are rewritten in a more concise and condensed way in the difficult version. The second writing lists two articles with same recurrent topic published on different dates in the press. The third section titled “Other Readings” consists of eight articles that describe how to do certain things on the internet.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
This site is created by Capital Community College for learning Grammar and Writing. It has a very nice index of links which are very easily accessible. It is very comprehensive covering almost all topics related to grammar and writing. The best part of this site is power point presentations based on teaching grammar and writing but unfortunately I could not open them.
This is site of Internet ESL Journal, a monthly web journal, which comprises articles, lessons, techniques, classroom handouts, games, things for teachers, and activities for students. This journal is updated every month with new articles, materials and lesson plans. The best part of this site is the link which consists of student activities based on ESL teaching programs- the English only and the Bilingual program. The bilingual section consists of quizzes which are based on more than 50 major languages spoken through the world.
This website offers variety of material on various ESL topics. It has separate entries point for students and teachers. The site is innovative and offers attractive graphics to accompany reading. The primary negative is annoying pop ups that accompany reading sections. The teacher materials such as exercises, printable worksheets, material about the holidays are very useful and creative. Some of the reading exercises also teach vocabulary which can support reading.
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk
This is an official site of British Council which is dedicated to English Learning. It is very comprehensive site which offers links for Kids, Professional, Adults, and Teachers. One can find variety of activities which are not only age-appropriate but also level appropriate. The exercises and activities are adapted from real life events and are very skillfully categorized into different proficiency levels and age groups. Every link is very easy to follow. The instructions are very clear but it may not be easy for beginners to navigate through the site without the help of the instructors. It is an amazing learning site which is free of cost and easy to access.
I was initially overwhelmed by the website’s homepage. It is busy with links at the top, bottom and sides of the site. It seems the site owner has everything the site has to offer on the homepage so the user does not miss anything. However, this site is comprehensive site dedicated to mystery stories. It has many features including stories written by msterynet.com members as well as by famous authors like Edgar Allen Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It also has mystery games and discussion groups; further it serves as source on mystery authors, books, films and TV shows providing biographies, program summaries, and information about purchasing books.
http://www.ohiou.edu/esl/english
This site has a clean home page which loads quickly on DSL. There are six different topics but the ones which are relevant to ESL learning and teaching are “Skills” and “Special Interests.” “Skills” has six links:“Grammar”, “Reading”, “Writing”, “Listening”, “Speaking”, and “Vocabulary”. For example, if one clicks on grammar, one finds four choices:Activities (all levels, Basic, Intermediate, Advance).Reference: Special problems in English grammar: Other resources: “Special interest” has eight links: “ESL Links”, “Activities”, “Audio”, “Video”, “Tests”, “Textbooks”, “Students projects”, “Other”. If one clicks on ESL it links to many interesting and learning sites such BBC world service: Learning English, ESL Independent Study Lab, British Council-Learn English and other web directories.The navigation is difficult however; the search box is nicely positioned in the top center of the home page which help the user find what he looking for in the site. When you click on the “Activities” it links to page that lists interesting activities for all levels. The “all levels” list of links takes the visitor to various other grammar and reference sites. Overall the site seems to a repository of links to other sites, some are relevant and some of them have nothing to do with ESL. The user is left on his own to find any of the content. One must patient and persistent while navigating through this site.
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#
This site is comprehensive site for learning the sounds of three spoken languages: American English, German and Spanish each with separate link. It is developed by University of Iowa. It is easily accessible and free of cost. It starts from basic sounds and then leads to more complex sounds. The beauty of site is that one can watch and listen to the sounds and can follow it.