richard rothstein | Search Results Next February, this blog will be celebrating its ten-year anniversary! Leading up to it, I’m re-starting a series I tried to do in the past called “A Look Back.” Each week, I’ll be re-posting a few of my favorite posts from the past ten years. I first began publishing “Best” lists in at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008 (there are now 1,600 of them!). Here are the sites I identified as the best in their respective categories for that year, along with my original commentary. Best Web 2.0 Application For Education: Tumblr — This “micro-blogging” site upgraded their service this year. The Best Web 2.0 Application For ESL/EFL Learners: VoiceThread — You can upload pictures and create an audio narrative to go along with them. The Best Online Learning Game: This really consists of two music games by the same creator — Luke Whittaker. Best Internet Site For English Language Learners: Henny Jellema’s Online TPR Exercises — You’ve got to see this site to believe it. Dictionaries: Thesaurus:
Magical TEFL | A Resource for EFL Teachers All Things Grammar Quality ESL grammar worksheets, quizzes and games - from A to Z - for teachers & learnersPRESENT SIMPLE Try the interactive version of the above worksheet! Try the interactive version of the above quiz! Try the interactive version of the above quiz! Quality ESL grammar worksheets, quizzes and games - from A to Z - for teachers & learnersPRESENT SIMPLE Try the interactive version of the above worksheet! Try the interactive version of the above quiz! Try the interactive version of the above quiz!
Power Up: Flipping Your Classes NILE and Teacher Training Videos are teaming up again to run the popular PowerUp: Flipping Your Classes course. This is a very popular course with many of the courses in 2018 being completely sold out. In 2016 the course was shortlisted for the British Council ELTons award. Key Principles Behind the 'Flip your Class' course 'This course blew me away, it was more than I expected on several levels and it really got me charged up to plow ahead with flipping. Robert Ransley The Anglo House Academy Los Santos de Maimona, Spain It is a short 3 week course with the following format 1) An opening webinar where I present the ideas behind the Flipped Classroom and then take you through the course. 2) Two weeks of online learning supported by videos all made by Russell Stannard. 3) A second webinar where I release the final course assignment 4) Final detailed feedback The course is limited to 15 places. Power Up Flipped Your Class: More information and how to apply
BBC Learning English - Learning English Olya Sergeeva Update. I was very happy to hear that this post got shortlisted for Teaching English – British Council blog award. If you decide to vote for it (in which case, THANK YOU! :)), let them know by ‘liking’ the post on their facebook page: ow.ly/MrfLk. Levels: B1+/B2Length: 90 minutesCourse type: Business English Materials: Worksheet (also see the Update with a more elaborate version two lines below) If you don’t have Microsoft word, download the worksheet from Slideshare: Update: My colleague Anastasiya Chernetskaya and I have created a longer worksheet which would probably take 120 minutes to cover, or would need a 30-45 minute revision slot during the following lesson. Warmer (page 1-2) 10 mins Lead in by asking the students: have you heard of Quora? I’ve tried this activity a lot of times, and it normally produces a lot of happy chuckles (and often there’s someone who wants to take the cards home). Like this: Like Loading...
50 Essential Resources for ESL Students Learning a new language is always daunting, especially when that language is as full of weird rules and contradictions as English. Even native speakers sometimes have trouble mastering the nuances of tense and grammar. Fortunately, if English is not your first language, there are a variety of ESL resources online to help you master the English language. From speaking to writing, these tools will help you get a handle on English and give direction to your education and career. Don’t let the size of the task deter you from getting it done. Grammar and Usage Use these sites to boost your grammar skills, from verb tenses to noun placement. Purdue Online Writing Lab: The OWL offers a comprehensive repository of practice sheets and linguistic primers for learners at all levels.Dave’s ESL Cafe: ESL teacher Dave Sperling’s in-depth site provides numerous lessons about sentence structure, word use, and more. Spelling and Pronunciation Vocabulary and Writing Quizzes and Worksheets Podcasts
Learn English free with USA Learns! Learn English, anytime day or night. A site for adults to improve English speaking, pronunciation, listening, reading, spelling, writing and grammar. Start Now <a href="signup.cfm" id="bttnStartNow"><span>Start Now</span></a> The perfect way to learn English online! USA Learns is a great way to learn English online by watching interesting videos and completing educational activities.
Monica My name is Monika and after eight years of teaching English I’ve decided to share my more or less wild ideas concerning the process of turning innocent people to the Dark Side – eventually (mwahahaha). Since stereotypical role of a teacher is to oppose a student (at least in non-teaching eyes), I have gladly accepted the exaggerated role of Evil Incarnated much to both mine and my students’ amusement. It really makes things easier in a typical whining situation where the students go ‘ooooohhh, whyyyyy soooo muuuuch homewoooooork’ and one simply states ‘because I’m evil, that’s why’. Not much left for discussion, admit it. I’ve worked in public schools in Poland and private language schools both in my country and in Dublin, Ireland and I think I’ve actually covered all age groups so far, except for kindergarten children and people over 70 years old. The surprising thing is that I really enjoy working as a teacher – tried different jobs, so I’m quite sure that’s the good one! Like this:
The Seven Best Short Animated Films for the Language Classroom - Kieran Donaghy First film can be seen by clicking on link. Animated films are ones in which individual drawings, paintings, or illustrations are photographed frame by frame. Traditionally animated films have been associated with children, however, nowadays they are designed to appeal to everyone. With the increased ease of creating animations, there has been a huge rise in the number of animated films being produced, and the vast majority of these are short animations. Many of these short animated films can be exploited in the language classroom as they are short enough to be used in a single session, offer a complete narrative in a short space of time, have a unique capacity of grabbing and holding students’ attention, and deal with contemporary subjects and issues, such as bullying, racism, sexism, homelessness, and human rights, which are relevant to students’ lives. Here are my seven favourite animated short films for the language classroom. Paperman Paperman is an Oscar-nominated short film by John Kahrs which went viral. Head Over Heels
English Grammar Tests for ESL Students - English Grammar Practice Quizzes Welcome to our English grammar training section, a good place to practice and improve your knowledge of English grammar. The quizzes come in three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The topics covered include verb tenses, phrasal verbs, articles, prepositions, noun clauses, and much more. Start practicing English right now! (B) = Beginner; (I) = Intermediate; (A) = Advanced VERB TENSES (Tests/Quizzes): Commands (Imperative) 1 (B/I)Commands (Imperative) 2 (B/I)Commands (Imperative) 3 (B/I)The Present Continuous 1 (B)Simple Past/Past Continuous? EXERCISES TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH WRITING SKILLS (ADVANCED) Whether you're a native speaker of English or an advanced ESL student, these practice tests will help you to recognize and eliminate common grammar errors. COUNTABLE (COUNT) or UNCOUNTABLE (NONCOUNT) NOUNS: USED TO, BE USED TO, WOULD 1 (B/I)WOULD YOU LIKE or DO YOU LIKE?
On the same page fluentu A picture is worth a thousand words. Nowhere is this truer than in the ESL classroom. Suppose after a verb game or during some reading comprehension exercise, one of your curious students wants to know the difference between “He danced at the party” and “He was dancing at the party.” What will you do? You could probably give a really clear explanation about how one sentence states what happened at a specific place or time, and the other gives background information to establish a scene in the past. And then maybe you’d give a couple more examples prior to showing how the two very similar tenses—past perfect and past perfect continuous—do in fact differ. Or, you could draw a picture of two timelines, one representing each sentence, and have the students describe them. Which would be more effective? Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. The Benefits of Using Visual Aids in the ESL Classroom Reduces Teacher Talking Time 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.