Wordia--Online Visual Dictionary

What is this?

This is an online visual dictionary which aims to redefine the dictionary and asks members of the public and celebrity 'orators' to upload videos explaining what words mean to them. You can enter a word in the bar and click 'search'

 

 Then the following is the video about the definition of the word. Play it.

 The right side shows the definition on the dictionary

Also you can see some associated words

Why is the content good for language learning? 

• The video per se is an authentic listening material that can decrease the distance between language learners and native speakers.
• The speakers in the video are funny, hansome, attractive, they are at different ages and have different social background. The definition given by them is much more practical and functional in real-life use.
• It covers a large number of technical items and vocabularies that could be used in real world and the definition is easy to understand. It helps learners to increase their vocabulary volume and language comprehension.
• The definition showen in the right side can give students more detailed and specific explanation.
• The associated vocabularies provide a resouce to extend their understanding.
• Learners can record their own video and definite a word, then upload and share with others.

How might you use it in a language teaching context?

• Teacher collects some new vocabularies first, and searches relevant videos before class. Then show the video to students and asks them to discuss the exact meaning of each word with their peers. Then they need to give their own definition about the words.
• After learning some new vocabularies, teacher can play some videos about some words as a supplement of teacher's explanation.
• Teacher sellects some useful words and distribute them to different students groups. Every student in a group is in charge of a particular word. Teacher asks every students to search relevant video about the definition of that word and then explain it in his/her word to the other group members.

Limitation

• Too advanced to young learners and language learning beginners.
• Some definitions are too narrow and subjective.
• Not all often-used words accompanied with a video.
• Some vacabularies are rarely used.

Wonderful Quizzes ~~Come on

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/quizzes/ 

What is this?

 

This is an online quizz website from BBC learning English. It contains a lot of interesting quizzes on various hot topics.

Why is the content good for language learning?

 

• Some questions in quizzes cover a lot of language points and daily use language that are easily confusable. For example:  The word pairs below

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• Learners can distinguish them through exercising and will be able to use it into real communication.
• Every question is followed by a relevant picture which can indicate the context of the question or give some clues. It is easy to understand and enables learners to make quick decision.
• Learners can take self-test and self-correction, in order to increase their autonomy and achieve self-improvement in language learning. After finishing the quizzes, just 'check the answer', you will get the feedback.
• Every feedback, both correct and wrong, will give learners an explanation or Synonyms of the answer, which motivates learners to learn more.
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• The topics are various and almost cover a lot of subjects in the world. Topic-based quizzes will give learners more  choice to do the quizzes according to their interests.
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• There are several types of quizzes, learners may never feel boring.
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• The quizzes are short (six questions per quizz) and it takes learners only few minutes to do it.
• The cloze test pattern is expecially good for those test-centered learners to do self-test.
• All the quizzes can be downloaded as PDF file.
• The resources will be updated weekly. Learners can do the latest quizzes and know the hottest topics as they want.

 How might you use it in a language teaching context?

 

• Teacher pre-select a topic-based quizz which is relevant to today's lesson and hand it out as a warm-up activity before the class.
• Or after the class, the quizz can be used as a review material.
• For oral English class,
• The quizz can be used as an oral material. Because some of the quizzes have a strong association with daily life communication.
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• Teacher can ask students to do a role play or make up a story or practice a dialogue according to the quizzes.
• 'Beat the keeper' is a flash game combined with language practice. Teacher can apply it into class and encourages students to work in pair or group to play it.

 

 Limitation

 

• The quizzes are not classified based on learners' different level. Some quizzes are not very suitable for young learners or beginners.
• No matched audio materials.
• No topic search bar.

 

 

Slideshare

Halloween 6 (Planning A Party)

View more presentations from Anna Smith.

What is this?

This is an example slide about planning a halloween party from http://www.slideshare.net/.  It was created and shared by Anna from skype English school. Eight slides contain planning ideas, party tips and so on, which provide a lot of interesting activities and useful information. It can be used in English language learning classroom as a activity material and resource.
Slideshare is a website that allows everyone to share his/her slides, presentations and perspectives. Also, it provides rich resources for everybody to watch, download and share those slides.

Why is the content good for language learning?

• The content in this slide is interesting and creative, which provides rich information and cultural background for learners to learn the language as well as western culture, especially the traditional festival.
• Learners may be motivated to search and learn more relevant language and culture in order to implement a specific activity or step in this slide, in other words, it can increase learners' autonomy.
• The slides in this website is totally free and can be embedded.
• Slideshare contains a lot of authentic learning materials and resources which can be used in classroom.
• It allows learners to upload and share their own slides.

How might you use it in a language teaching context?

• Teacher asks students to work in group and prepare a real Halloween party based on given information and tips in this slide. This activity needs the students to understand the target language itself as well as western culture and to work collaboratively.
• Teahcer can play this slide as a demonstration of a task which asks students to design a party or a small gathering in group.  Then, teacher is responsable for explaining the language difficulties in the slide and giving specific instruction of the task.
• Students can select any topic they are interested in (or the topic introduced in class) and create their own slides and share it with teachers and peers.

 Limitation

• This website may not be accessed in China.
• Instructions in some slides are too complicated to understand.
• Teacher need to do some changes in order to make the material suitable for a specific class and teaching context.

CNN Student News

What is this?
This is a news website that contains news videos, transcripts, discussions, newsquiz and daily podcast. All the videoes and relevant PDF files can be downloaded and be regularly updated. It is really a good learning source that can be widely used in language learning context.
Why is the content good for language learning?

• It provides latest news and reports as authentic listening materials.
• The news topics are diverse and have a strong association with learners' daily life and concerned issues.
• The speakers in the videoes from different parts of the world and speak different accents which provides learners a 'pure' English  world.
• The news are categorised by topics, some by areas. Learners can choose what they are interested in easily.
• The transcript can help students understand the news much better.
• The newsquiz allows learners to review what they watched and understood by doing some relevant quizzes. It can be also used as a homework or post-task to do, which will probably foster learners' autonomy.
• Podcast can be downloaded into personal itune or iphone. Learners can get the updated news without accessing computer.

How might you use it in a language teaching context?
 
For example,

•  Firstly, teacher may ask students to search and choose a piece of latest news related to a same topic , say Janpan earthquake.
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• Then watch the news video individually, and then retell the news or describe the main meaning of the news to their parterner.
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• If students hardly understand the news, they are allowed to refer to the transcript.
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• Based on the same topic news:  1.Teacher can arrange a group discuss , for example, ask students to make suggestion about how to help the people in Japan, how to donate money, goods and materials, what will you say to the people in earthquake area. 2.Students can comment on the video and give their feedback. 3.Teacher can ask students to write a reflection passage about earthquake or natural disaster.4.Teacher can ask students to recall what they did and thoughts when Sichuan province suffered earthquake. 5.Teacher can divide students into different groups and ask them to prepare a short news and report it in class. 6.Teacher can ask students to brainstorm how to protect yourself during earthquake.
• Finally, students can do the newsquiz to review the news and relevant topic.

Limitation

• The transcripts are too long and  key words or topic-related words are not highlighted.
• Some videoes are lacking of transcript.
• No subtitle in the video. Only suitable for advanced learners.

TED Ideas worth spreading

What is this?

• TED(Techonology, Entertainment and Design) is a collection of hundreds of award-winning talks videos, the open translation projects and conversations. It can be widely used in language learning context as authentic learning materials and extend training.
• Why is the content good for language learning?
• Learners can access these videos for free.
• TED provides learners abundant authentic English listening and speaking materials, which allows learners to get in touch with English speakers from all over the world regardless of the time and space limitation.
• The videoes are categorised by themes. Learners can search videoes based on the topic they are interested in.
• Most of the videoes are tagged.
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• The content of the talks might associate with learners' main subject or major, which will motivate them to enchance not only English proficiency, but also facilite specific professional knowledge learning.
• Learners can regulate the time bar of a video based on their understanding, which enables them to keep their own learning process.
• Some newest releases videoes will be posted on the homepage. Learners can asscess the updated materials.
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• The topics of the talks per se are good resources for speaking and writing.
• Through observing the speekers' spoken language, behaviour, anddressing, learners will strengthen their presentation skills.
• Language beginners can choose to add subtitle of their L1. In this way, they may feel comfortable and understand easily when they watch it.

How might you use it in a language teaching context? 

• Teacher firstly select an interesting video that can resonate with students interest and concerned topic.
• Then play the video as a pre-task activity.
• Teacher asks students to discuss about the main meaning of the speech.
• If the students can hardly understand the main meaning of the speech, teacher may add L1 subtitle in the video and play it again to help them to understand.
• Teacher can express his/her own opinion towards the topic of the video, and demonstrate how to talk about a topic in an appropriate way.
• Then divide students into different group and ask them to discuss or write a short passage.

Limitation

• Chinese students may hardly understand western jokes in the talks, therefore, they may feel embarrassed when the audience in the video laugh.
• Some topics of the speeches are too technical and professional.
• Not very suitable for young learners.

Listen and Write

http://www.listen-and-write.com/

What is this?
This is a website that can be used to practice listening and writing ability. It contains a lot of video and audio files based on various topics, news, stories, passages, etc. that enables language learners to play and do the following dictation. Three modes(Full mode; Quick mode;blank modes) allow learners to choose flexibly according to their abilities and levels.

Why is the content good for language learning?

• The website provides a range of authentic materials, such as the lastest news, the hottest topics, popular speeches, sharing stories,etc. Students can choose to listen and watch, and do exercice flexibly as much as they want.
• The website collects and gathers various resources from a number of other different websites, which provides students 'one-stop service' and saves them a lot of time and energy.
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• The website enable learners with different levels to find the most suitable materials to use. Learners can firstly choose the levels of difficulty of each item, then choose the mode they like.
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• The website allows students to make their own learning plan and schedule, which will foster students' motivation and autonomy. During the 'listen and write' process, students can control 'autocomplete' or 'autorepeat' as well as the progress bar.
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• The website provides students a relaxed environment to learn. No time limited, no any monitors. Anxiety and others' disturbance will not affect students' learning process.
• Students can keep their own learning record and process as long as they login.
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• Dictionary lookup are available for students to check their spelling error and get an improvement in vocabulary accuracy.

How might you use it in a language teaching context?

• Teacher pre-select a video or audio and choose a certain mode for students.
• Before listening the materials, teacher asks students to have a free discussion about the relevant topic or news.
• Then play the video on class, and asks them to complete the following dictation in pairs.

OR

• Teacher is only responsible for setting the level of difficulties and asks students to complete three dictations in different modes every week.
• The choice of topic and title is random.
• On the last class of the week, teacher asks several students to introduce or retell what they have heared or watched to their classmates.

 

Limitation

 

• The speed in the audio files can not be regulated.
• Every computer should be equiped with earphone.
• It is difficult for students to learn and practice collaboratively.
• High requirement of Internet speed.
• Too many advertisements on the homepage.