Six ed-tech resources for ELL/ESL instruction
Readers chime in with their suggestions for how ed tech can make a real difference in teaching English as a second language By Meris Stansbury, Online Editor Read more by Meris Stansbury February 10th, 2012 One reader’s tip: Know the products that work! It’s usually the editors’ job at eSchool News to create our own “Question of the Week” for our newsletters, but a few weeks ago we received a request from a reader that we ask our followers: “What are some ways technology helps in the education of ELL students?” From award-winning software, to a teacher-created program that needs peer input, our readers offered some useful ways in which technology can help English-language learners and those for whom English is a second language. “One great way technology can help ESL students is to provide online English language teaching drills and interactive lessons in language arts. “I am a Spanish teacher, and this is a totally new endeavor for me.
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The Best Ideas For Using Games In The ESL/EFL/ELL Classroom
I have many “Best” lists related to using online games with English Language Learners, and you can find them all at A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Learning Games. I’ve also written a lot and published a number of posts and resources related to playing non-online games in the classroom, but just realized I had never brought them all together in one place. Here they are (feel free to offer more suggestions!): Here are two excerpts from our book on teaching ELLs: Using Games in the ELL Classroom, Part I Using Games in the ELL Classroom, Part II Awhile back, I invited ESL teachers to send in their favorite games and posted them: The Best Language Learning Games (That Are Not Online) In Pursuit of the Excellent Game is an excellent piece from TESOL on using games with ELL’s. Articles on TEFL games is by Alex Case. Humanising Language Teaching is one of my favorite online journals, and they’ve just published the newest issue. A homemade revision game is by Sandy Millin. This Is Wild! Kaboom!
Grammar Check Online- It's Free|Ginger Software
Corrección gramatical con el software Ginger ¡Su corrección gramatical es importante! Tanto en el mundo en línea como fuera de internet, es importante escribir sin cometer errores gramaticales tontos, errores de sintaxis en inglés o errores de puntuación. Todos sabemos que la comunicación es una habilidad clave para el éxito. Por ejemplo, en el mundo corporativo es difícil obtener un trabajo sin buenas habilidades de comunicación, incluso si el candidato sobresale en su campo. En el mundo académico, la escritura en inglés sin errores está relacionada estrechamente con la obtención de mejores resultados. No más errores gramaticales: corrija la gramática con Ginger El Corrector gramatical de Ginger corrige una amplia gama de errores de uso de la gramática. Corrija su gramática en el camino hacia el éxito: empiece a escribir mejor y más rápido Con el software de corrección gramatical de Ginger, escribir es una tarea fácil y rápida. Concordancia entre el sujeto y el verbo
LatinAmArt
My goal was to create an engaging activity for my elementary Spanish students. Part of any good World Language curriculum includes activities about the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. Another: the geography of the Spanish-speaking world. STEP 1: A simple "artists of Latin America" search gave me names of artists. STEP 2: Using Jigsaw Planet I created jigsaw puzzles of the artworks. STEP 3: Using Thinglink, I uploaded a map of Latin America and attached links to the jigsaw puzzles in the countries where the artist lives/creates. STEP 4: Tackk allows users to embed the URL of Thinglink so I embedded the Thinglink with the map of Latin America and links to jigsaw puzzles. STEP 5: I always give my Tackks a customized title so students, their families, my colleagues and my Professional Learning Community can more easily find them. STEP 6: Tackk allows users to send messages directly the Tackk creators. STEP 7: Sharing is caring, right?!? 1. 2. 3. 4.
Online & Blended Learning: Language Learnin... | Teachability
The portability of a tablet makes it easy to learn on the go. Students using their own personal device or spending time with an iPad in school can benefit from the many educational apps available in the Apple App Store. Children learning a new language can access tons of apps that support language acquisition. These apps combine visuals, audio cues, colorful images and games to grab the attention of students and help them understand the meaning of new words. Kids’ Vocab - Mindsnacks This app is engaging and addictive, with tons of games to help students master the English language. Duolingo With Duolingo students can choose between a handful of different languages including Spanish, French and German. Rosetta Stone You might already be familiar with Rosetta Stone’s language learning program. Knowji The Knowji folks have a handful of different apps that help students learn another language. What are your favorite language learning apps?
Where Do English Language Learners Fit Into the Ed Tech Revolution?
English Language Learners are a growing yet underserved segment of the U.S. student population, and teaching these diverse learners presents teachers with a host of unique and very complex challenges. ELL teachers regularly employ a variety of specialized and unique teaching strategies and best practices aimed at helping their students acquire English and thrive academically. Yet when ELL teachers look to the ed-tech world for novel solutions that specifically address their students’ needs, they often come up empty-handed. As the ed-tech scene has exploded in recent years, most teachers can find apps, tools and resources for nearly every grade level, subject area and skill imaginable. This raises an important question: Why? Despite the lack of dedicated tech tools for ELLs, some teachers have taken to repurposing various apps and other digital resources in creative and useful ways that help their students acquire the language. The Complexities of Teaching ELLs Ed Tech’s Role Newsela
5-Minute Film Festival: 8 Videos for ELL Classrooms
Videos can be an effective tool for teaching and learning English (or, for that matter, any academic subject) if used strategically and not as a "babysitting" device. My colleague Katie Hull Sypnieski and I wrote a previous post for Edutopia titled Eight Ways To Use Videos With English-Language Learners that shares instructional strategies for many kinds of clips. Here are a few of my favorite videos to use with those exercises. Video Playlist: Resources for English-Language Learners Watch the player below to see the whole playlist, or view it on YouTube. Mr. More Resources on How to Teach ELLs With Video For more sources of good videos designed for English-language development, and for ideas on how to use them, visit these websites: The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL (& How To Use Them) is an exhaustive collection that I've developed.
