Technology for language learning | it's NOT about what the teacher does with technology Bruce Springsteen: "When we kiss…" Not just going through the motions! You could probably say I've had four different though overlapping careers — in language teaching, language teacher training, technology and ELT management. The first of those I retired from (after 35+ years) a few months ago, though the number of contact hours I was doing was limited; teacher training I'm retiring from at the end of this month; management I got fired from (to the relief of all involved!) I happened to mentioned this in a session a couple of weeks ago and someone (Mati?) Yes! My #1 tip for teachers Every class, every day, every week, every term, every year of your teaching career, try something new and never ever just stick with what you have done before! Trash all your lesson plans at the end of the year: you don't want to use them again next year, with the possible exception of the half dozen that were truly outstanding (see Engage, not entertain, below). Attitude is everything What they had in common:
BBC Learning English - BBC Learning English home page Doing It Differently: Tips for Teaching Vocabulary Every Monday my seventh grade English teacher would have us copy a list of 25 words she'd written on the board. We'd then look up the dictionary definitions and copy those down. For homework, we'd re-write each word seven times. Good, now you know it. Test on Friday and never for those 25 words to be seen again. Poof. Copying definitions from the dictionary we would probably all agree is not an effective way to learn vocabulary. The truth is, and the research shows, students need multiple and various exposures to a word before they fully understand that word and can apply it. Selecting Words Ah, so many words, so little time. My first year teaching, before my tenth graders began reading Lord of the Flies, I went through every chapter and made lists of all the vocabulary words I thought they'd have trouble with, so that I could pre-teach them. When I looked at those long lists, I began to freak out. Then, here's what to do after the students pick their own words: Ranking Words Teaching Words
Scrabble Word Finder - Scrabble Solver and Anagram Helper EnglishLink.Com 100% Free English Lessons No timetables, no fees. Improve your English grammar, speaking, pronunciation, vocabulary, reading, listening and writing. Start learning English now Try our 30-minute example English lesson See how we teach English. Try now Award-winning English training Englishlink is one of the best English education programs in the world...100% free for you! English training awards Moving to Australia Migrating to Australia for school or work? Moving to Australia Moving to Canada Are you going to Canada to live, work, or study? Moving to Canada Become an Educational Sponsor Give the gift of an English education - make your brand an educational sponsor nationally or globally. Promote your brand
Links for translators The resources on this page are all available free (or in free versions) on the Internet. General Dictionaries Cambridge The suite of Cambridge dictionaries are possibly the best online English-English dictionaries available (and with nearly 2m searches a month, among the most popular). Catalan Catalan dictionary from the Enciclopèdia Catalana. Dictionary.com Apart from the good results from its dictionary, the site also provides a lot of other resources (other language dictionaries, thesarus, style guides, links...). Merriam-Webster Not the full Merriam-Webster but useful nevertheless. Multi-language (Foreignword.com) Accesses over 200 online dictionaries in over 70 languages. Multilingual terminology database (EU) European Commission database allowing you to search for translations from and into 11 major European languages. Multiple dictionary search (Yourdictionary.com) Also accesses databases, quotations, thesauri... plus a wide range of interesting links. Encyclopaedias Jobs Organisations
Where to Find Free Books for Students While it is true that not everything in life is free, there is a lot of free stuff out there for those who know where to look. Enthusiastic readers who have browsed the shelves of a local bookstore will concede to the reality that these volumes often cost a pretty penny. Bookworms, students, teachers, and writers alike will appreciate these websites. Public Domain Books Project Gutenberg: This site claims to be the first of its kind to offer free books online. Textbooks Open Book Project: An ongoing project seeking to offer free resources for educators and students. Other Resources Ref Desk: A must-bookmark site for students, writers, teachers, or others involved in research.
Great Website To Develop Students Vocabulary Technology has made it dead easy to learn a foreign language. I can still remember all the difficulties and hardships I went through when I was learning French and German and now that I see all that technology offers to students to learn a new language I just wish I had them back then it would have been not only way easier but more fun too. An important part in the process of learning a language is learning its vocabulary. The richer this latter is the more freedom and possibilities learners have in expressing themselves and communicating messages via the target language. 1- Flash Cards Falsh cards are very important tools in teaching and learning vocabulary. 2- Word Cloud Generators Word cloud generators are also very useful in vocabulary teaching and learning. 3- Vocabulary This website as its name entails is a platform where your students can have free access to a plethora of vocabulary games, activities and exercises. 4- Wordia 5- WordSift 6- Lexipedia 7- Lingo 8- Tag Galaxy 9- Visuwords
Cliche Finder Have you been searching for just the right cliché to use? Are you searching for a cliché using the word "cat" or "day" but haven't been able to come up with one? Just enter any words in the form below, and this search engine will return any clichés which use that phrase... Over 3,300 clichés indexed! What exactly is a cliche?See my definition Do you know of any clichés not listed here? This is Morgan, creator of the Cliche Finder. Or, you might like my crazy passion project: Spanish for Nerds: Learning Spanish via Etymologies! Back to cliches... if you would like to see some other Web sites about clichés? © S. Special thanks to Damien LeriAnd to Mike Senter Morgan's Web page
English Club Welcome to English Teacher Websites Comedy in classroom-bring laughter into lessons During a recent class session, my students stared at me with blank expressions, glassy eyes, pasty and pale skin, and jowls drooping. I think I even saw a string of saliva hanging from the corner of one student’s mouth. I was reviewing plot structure. It was perfect except for the fact that I was boring them to death. Suddenly, the students sporadically kicked and jumped and held their stomachs while laughing. We spent the rest of the class learning plot structure while laughing about episodes of The Walking Dead. Inside a classroom, the air thickens with time and words and problems and thoughts, lots of thoughts. Humor in a virtual classroom enhances students’ interest and participation, according to a study conducted by Ohio State University professors of psychology, Mark Shatz and Frank LoSchiavo. There’s no better way to gain the upper hand than with a twist in words, a light-hearted joke, or an outright laugh. Only one rule really needs to be followed here. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.