background preloader

ESL/EFL Cool Resources

Facebook Twitter

LearnEnglishTeens. ESL, English Exercises for Adults, Business English, Idiomatic Expressions.

Songs

Gaming. Removing The Stigma From Edutainment. Education in general and education reform in particular abound in buzzwords.

Removing The Stigma From Edutainment

If you follow conversations concerning technology and its place in the realm of education reform, you’re bound to hear about "accountability," "data-driven assessment," "the flipped classroom," just to start. If you venture further into discussions around actual educational technologies, you’ll likely also come across terms such as “edutainment,” describing products that incorporate games or game-like features.

The premise underlying these products implies that today’s students require entertainment in order to learn. A cynic might argue these products bribe students into learning important topics with the intellectual equivalent of cotton candy, making a mockery of the content itself. This mentality breeds the notion that tech is synonymous with entertainment. Curiosity is a vital part of what it means to be human. Examples are always better than abstractions, so I’ll offer my own experiences. Language Acquisition vs Language Learning. Julio Foppoli argues that as teachers, it is our duty to make sure that our students "acquire" rather than "learn" the language.

Language Acquisition vs Language Learning

According to linguists (i.e. scientists who engage in the scientific study of human language) there is an important distinction between language acquisition and language learning. As you may well have noticed, children acquire their mother tongue through interaction with their parents and the environment that surrounds them. Their need to communicate paves the way for language acquisition to take place. As experts suggest, there is an innate capacity in every human being to acquire language. By the time a child is five years old, s/he can express ideas clearly and almost perfectly from the point of view of language and grammar. The emphasis is on the text of the communication and not on the form. How could you be expected to communicate if you are never given the chance to speak with a real person? Language learning as seen today is not communicative.

Vocabulary

Listening. Lesson Planning. Speaking. Testing. Grammar. Reading. Writing. Exercises to learn English. Kids' Stories, Songs, Games, Educational Activities for Children - Speakaboos. 5 quotes to share with language learners. How to Teach Metaphors, Similes & Personification. Selected Links for ESL & EFL Students. Selected Links for ESL & EFL StudentsMaintained by The Internet TESL Journal The purpose of this page is to introduce students to a select list of links that they will find immediately interesting and useful.

Selected Links for ESL & EFL Students

These may not be all of the very best sites, but these are definitely some of the best. We have not included sites that are difficult to navigate or are cluttered with advertising. For more links, see our complete list of links. A Short List of Good Links Online Dictionary Ultra Lingua's Web DictionaryStemming (English only) Where to Ask Questions Dave's ESL Help Center On-line Grammar Information More Links There are many other interesting pages on the Web.

TESL/TEFL/TESOL/ESL/EFL/ESOL LinksBrowse: Links for Students or Links for Teachers Write to us.Help keep this page up-to-date by sending in reports of dead links. Internet TESL Journal (For ESL/EFL Teachers) Learn English Links.