Introduction
- 1. Introduction Integrating technology into a curriculum requires that teachers and students have access to sufficient software and Internet resources which fit course and curriculum objectives. The Internet is a terrific source for materials which can be used in content-based courses. However, there are three major challenges in using the Internet as a source for classroom instruction: 1) finding (and culling) appropriate sites 2) developing classroom activities which effectively utilize the sites (for content and language instruction) and 3) providing students (and other teachers) dependable and easy access to the sites and the accompanying teaching materials. The following resources provide some help in meeting these challenges. With the explosion in popularity of the Internet in general, and the World Wide Web in particular, one is bombarded by URL's at every turn. Sources for Websites include television, radio, newspapers, magazines, colleagues, friends, and family. Any or all of these can provide sites which can be useful in the classroomBecause the Internet contains such a vast wealth of information with such a variety of media (text, graphics, audio, video), it is becoming an ever more important source for content-based instruction. The sites listed below should be useful for the classroom teacher who wants to collect materials for use in content-based teaching.
- 2. Content based web resources As the development of technologies the teaching and learning process also developed in an advanced manner. Here are some content based web resources , which enhance teaching learning process. Discovery Channel http://school.discoveryeducation.com/ The “Discovery Channel” is known for its educational programs for all ages. The website www.discoveryeducation.com seemed more teacher-oriented. (It was more teacher friendly as opposed to student friendly). There were many resources for teachers to use in their classroom: for example links that helped teachers create puzzles/word games for their class. There were also specific links that were directed/addressed for teachers only: “Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators” as well as links for science fairs that teachers and students can participate in. There were, however, advertisements on the sides of the webpage that led to different educational sites. It also mentions on the bottom of the webpage a contact link, so viewers can contact the makers of the site. Overall this site is educationally appropriate, but more tea http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/?pID=lesson This is a part of the well known website, Discovery Education from Discovery Channel that broadcasts a variety of educational programs for all ages. In particular, Lesson Plan Library, under the heading Classroom Resources, helps planning theme-based lessons for primary and secondary school students http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/ Discovery Education, of Discovery Communications, LLC, is a commercial organization that produces educational materials for people of all ages on a wide variety of content. Available through this company are full curricula, assessment materials, and other classroom resources. The product available directly through this link is a video library of 87,000 short (approximately 3 minute) video clips on a full range of curriculum content areas, all of which are linked to state and national standards. Videos were produced by a large number of reputable producers, including Oceanic Research Group and Discovery Education, between 1988 and the present.
- 3. The New York Times Learning Network www.nytimes.com/learning/ The New York Times in collaboration with Bank Street College created the lesson plans for its’ articles. All the lesson units were created for learners from third to twelfth grade and meet state educational requirements. The expansive news coverage in the New York Times includes reporting in all interdisciplinary areas. It is possible to see how each of the lesson plans are related to the mandated educational criteria by clicking on a link. Furthermore, articles related to the daily lesson plan are readily accessible. Therefore, teachers are able to see how topics relate to different subjects and topics. The homepage consists of a browsing section for students, teachers and parents. The website is appropriate for an EAP class because the topics are thoroughly researched. Learners are able to read about how to conduct research using libraries and the internet. Archives hold articles dated from the beginning of the New York Time’s existence. Therefore, learners can gain a perspective the evolution of science discoveries and the attitudes of society of distinct periods of history. Also, learners can be exposed to language that is both academic and colloquial. Finally, because the website is clearly organized, it is easy to navigate. BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/ This website deals with grammar, spelling, reading, writing, listening and vocabulary. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ This website is fanatic for ESL/EFL students and teachers of many levels. It covers teaching/learning basic grammar and vocabulary skills to more advanced study of worldly events and news. Audio is provided for most of the tutorials and activities that are followed by comprehension questions so that students can monitor their understanding of articles read and informational radio programs. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/ This site introduces the recent news regarding Britain on monthly basis. It consists of articles, vocabulary with brief explanation in the content, one photo, and listening resources for the whole reading and vocabulary. Not only the transcript, but also some small exercises and questions about the article can be downloaded from the Website. Links concerning the topic are also provided on the page, which lead to the main Website of BBC. One of the benefits for English learners is the authenticity of the material. Even though the articles are designed for English learners, the context is based on the recent topics. Besides, both listening resources and transcripts are provided, which would be helpful.
- 4. http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/ This is a reliable source that provides activities, games, and quizzes in a number of problem areas for English language learners.The site is broken down into sections: spelling, grammar, reading, writing, listening, and vocabulary. Each section is further subdivided into topics such as tenses, sentence construction, and even following instructions in the grammar section, and fact vs. opinion, skimming, and scanning in the reading section. British Council http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-themes.htm This is a part of the Website from Learn English Central by British Council. Themes are roughly divided into several categories. General themes are one of them, and are sorted through more specified categories like families with the links connected to several resources. In addition, if there are unknown words in the content, explanation can be availably by double clicking, which is provided by Cambridge dictionary online. The organization of the Website is interesting, as everything is categorized by themes. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/ Teaching English is a website produced by the British Council in partnership with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). This site provides information on a wide range of topics including reading, speaking, listening, writing, pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. It is conveniently organized into four main sections: THINK, TRY, TALK, and TRANSFORM CNN http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ This site provides transcripts for a wide variety of topics, including interviews with celebrities from Larry King Live, information pertaining to current events, and speeches from world leaders. Because the transcripts are pertaining to things that many people from different backgrounds and countries may be familiar with, the material has the potential to really spark the interest of many students. This site may be useful for hearing-impaired people, for those who have difficulty with English listening skills, or for those who simply want to review a transcript of a program they already saw.
- 5. English teachers can utilize any of those transcripts as authentic material in their class activities. It may be useful if students can check the transcript after watching a video clip of the show. Teachers can use them for listening, reading, or vocabulary exercises. As their note says, not all the transcripts are available all the time. Pages are continually updated as new transcripts become available, so if users cannot find a specific segment, they need to check back later. NPR (National Public Radio) http://www.npr.org One of my favorite websites because of its balanced approach to culture and events, NPR.org offers banner links including programs, transcripts, and both written and audio archives, with “left-nav” links to news, health and science, people and places, books, music, arts and culture, diversions, opinions, and blogs. Also currently included in the are links to headlines and topical reports about the Beijing Olympics and the 2008 American election. NPR.org balances its reporting between national/international topics and stories that are local and even individual. For students coming from other cultures, I think the individual stories are particularly important in a classroom setting because these stories highlight a mindset that places individual interests on the same level with international events. http://www.npr.org/transcripts/ In addition, the availability of archived recordings and transcripts is useful for language classrooms because it gives students the opportunity to listen, then read and listen to the same material simultaneously; this allows them an opportunity to improve listening skills while learning about current events and culture. NPR.org also includes a link to information about its API (advanced programming interface), which is the set of declarations of the functions (or procedures) that an operating system, library or service provides to support requests made by computer programs. While this information is a highly technical disclosure about mapping and querying, I found it useful and informative for understanding the background for getting information from a reliable source for CALL implementation in a classroom. Dave’s ESL Café http://www.eslcafe.com/ Although the resources this website has are just enormous amount of information regarding jobs and activity ideas, it would take some effort to make a whole lesson plan just by using
- 6. material here. It will be easier to use it when you just need one game or extension of your lesson plan. Also, it is pretty much governed by the owner, David, who is an actual ESL teacher in California so the website seems to be organized and proofread only by him, which might cause reliability issues. There could be a concern that this website is reflected a lot by just one person’s opinion. It is well organized and visually supported so that people would find it more enjoyable. Dave’s ESL Café is extremely useful for both teachers and students in terms of its extensive information in this field of ESL. It provides a page of links to some important websites so that it acts as a bridge connecting some major ESL websites. An ESL teacher or student does not have to keep the list of all websites separately if he or she knows this Dave’s ESL Café website because it is very easy to move to other websites through using the links. http://www.englishpage.com/ A great resource for English practice activities. There is minimal English to navigate, so this would be an easy site to use as a non-native English speaker. The structure isn’t ideal - sometimes you have to click through a long series of links just to get to a particular activity. English Interactive Quizzes http://esl.fis.edu/vocab/index-e.htm This site is created as a “guide to learning English.” It provides resources for parents, teachers, and ELLs of all ages. This link leads to a page that is designed for beginner English speakers as young as elementary level. The vocabulary activities on this page are based in reading and matching pictures to printed words; therefore, early childhood students (Pre-K and Kindergarten) may struggle with these activities simply because literacy skills at that age level would interfere with independent task completion. Students who have mastered basic concepts of English print, alphabet, and decoding skills would be successful with these activities. Activities are designed according to vocabulary category. Categories include clothes and accessories, body parts, food, feelings, countries and languages, and more. Most activities are designed as picture quizzes, in which students read a vocabulary word, then select the matching picture from set of four. Word quizzes start by offering definitions for sets of vocabulary words, and then students select definitions for each word presented individually from a set of five possible written definitions. Quiz scores are calculated; therefore, teachers could use this as an independent activity for students to complete to supplement instruction and look at quiz scores to informally assess students’ levels of mastery with each vocabulary category. http://www.manythings.org/e/easy.html Kelly, C. I. & Kelly, L. E. (2008). Interesting things for ESL students. This website is a compilation of “word games, puzzles, quizzes, exercises, slang, proverbs” and other activities to support English language learning at all levels. This particular link leads to activities for beginning learners, with heavy emphasis on vocabulary development.
- 7. www.starfall.com This website was designed by Starfall Education, an educational resource company that sells classroom materials. Use of this site, however, is free. It provides a range of differentiated audio-visual games and read-alongs that allow ELLs to practice English alphabet letter and sound recognition, keyword vocabulary, concepts of English print, and reading of connected texts. Connected texts include a variety of genres typical to American school curricula, such as folktales, narratives, nonfiction reports, poetry, and plays Library of Congress www.loc.gov The website of the US Library of Congress provides an immense resource for teachers looking for ideas and extensive references for both students and teachers. The site contains banner links to exhbitions, art and architecture, educational resources, and a library visit planning link. The educational resources link includes lesson plans that are organized by grade-level and historical topic. The “Online Activites” link contains word search activities, map activities, and links that are useful for placing current trends and cultural debates into a historical context. The Library of Congress website can also help teachers develop culturally sensitive approaches to their lessons, since it seems to acknowledge the importance of immigration and Native American culture in the history of the United States. The site allows teachers and students to create a login and user profile, then, using a “mycollection” link, it allows users to assemble resources for research and further examination. The online digital collections and services link offers access to some surprising searchable resources, including historic newspapers, images and photographs, comic books, recordings, sheet music, Braille and audio materials, ethnographic field collections from the American South, and Web site archives that contain, for example, continually recorded US Congressional records. As the website for the de facto national library of the United States of America, which many consider to be the largest library in the world, www.loc.gov offers teachers and students a seemingly unlimited resource. This webliography describes only a minute fraction of what the site offers. www.eslinusa.com/teaching_esl_to_adult_learners.html This site, of no declared lineage, is essentially just a portal to numerous links to other sites containing job opportunities for ESL teachers, some (dubious-looking) ads for online degrees and a number of educational resources for ESL teachers, such as articles on how to use video as a teaching tool, and a link to something called a “literacy list” purporting to contain “Adult Literacy/Basic Education and ESL/ESOL Websites, Electronic Lists, Free Internet Resources, MOO's and more”. If you need to find out what a MOO is, don’t look here, as the link takes you to the web site of WGBH, a public broadcasting station in Boston.
- 8. The link to The Adult Literacy Resource Institute (A.L.R.I.) looked interesting, but having clicked on it, I was then re-directed to yet another more recent link (which I always find annoying, as I believe a good website has to be kept regularly updated). This turned out to be a staff development centre for adult literacy/ basic education and English for speakers of other languages, but confined to the Greater Boston area. One resource I thought somewhat useful for novice teachers was the ESL Teachers’ Guide for beginner, intermediate and non-literate students. It contained very comprehensive materials, well-organised, and with a wide range of activities and exercises that – while they could not stand alone – would be useful adjuncts to other professional teaching aids, and perhaps the source of some ideas for the ESL classroom. www.lang.ox.ac.uk/langlinks/www_services.html I visited this site because of the prestigious nature of Oxford University, and I was not disappointed. This is the renowned Oxford University Language Centre, and it provides resources and services for members of the university and others who need foreign languages “for their study, research or personal interest”. But in fact, it is of interest to anyone with a love for foreign languages and their study, although the offerings themselves may be of more immediate use to teachers and students based in the United Kingdom. The site contains a large number of links to resources for general language learning and audio-visual self study resources (some esoteric – would you like to learn computer-assisted Lakota?), and is a rich source of information. I do not think there is a language in the universe to which there is not a link (Laotian, Aramaic, etc), as well as some highly specialised links such as the one for “Italian for Art Historians” (I immediately thought of Joyce). Some of these links are fascinating, others are just “odd.” It is well worth a visit for the intellectually curious, but a word of caution: it is easy to be side-tracked once you get onto this site, and you may leave it only hours after you had intended to. http://www.zompist.com/thought.html This totally irresistible site lists unlikely phrases from real phrasebooks, phrases which in the words of the compiler, Mark Rosenfelder, represent “sentences you can hardly conceive of ever using, little tidbits of inexplicability”. What trip to Sweden would be complete without being able to instruct the hotel staff to “clean and set this wig”? Imagine what circumstances would compel you to utter “I want a specimen of your urine” when in Russia.
- 9. Conclusion The world wide web or the web resources has a lot to offer, on teaching English , I hope the web resources help in the classroom and learner’s development. Across the site you can find free classroom materials to download , from short activities to full lesson plans, for teaching students. There are also articles on aspects of teaching , and free teacher development and teacher training materials. References 1. Beck,susan.evalution criteria 3 apr 2008 2. Cohen,laura B. and Jacobson , traudi E 3. www.teaching English.prof.org.uk