Hotpotato

What is this?

This is a useful free software to create your own quiz. The quiz can be created in forms of multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence,crossword,matching /ordering and gap-filling exercises.You can download the exercises that you have created or publish them in the web.

you can download the software here:   http://hotpot.uvic.ca/

Why is the content good for language learning? 

•        Good teaching materials for language learning.
•         Instant feedback.
•         The score calculation of the quiz can assist in evaluating students' learning. 
•         It is a kind of drills to enhance memorize. 
•         Fit to the theory of behaviorism. 

How might you use it in a language teaching context?

Teacher can adapt and supplement their teaching materials by adding quizzes

• Pre-task: use the quiz to hold warming-up activity to test students' background knowledge on the topic; 
• Pre-task: use the quiz to review the knowledge learned in  the last class. 
• while-task: teacher can supplement the teaching materials and add more exercises for students to improve their comprehension. 
• while-task: students can be divided into different groups and use this tool to evaluate their work after their presentation. 
• after task: for evaluating the outcome of the learning and for reviewing and reinforcing the knowledge. 

Limitation 

• Time-consuming for designing a quiz.
• Sometimes technical problems occur.
• The layout and format of the quiz is old and lack of interesting.
• Drills are not for students constructing knowledges.
• Lack of interaction and communication in the class.

An interesting website of vocabulary learning

What is this?

This is a pictorial vocabulary learning website which contains vivid pictures, word spelling, pronunciation, parts of speech, translation and small quiz, etc. Besides, the vocabularies are classified into different groups based on daily use topics which covers almost every aspect of our life.  All these interesting form and content are accessable with one click.

Why is the content good for language learning? 

• Fairly detailed and overall classification provides students a large range of vocabularies to learn.

• Involving vivid pictures and sound files is good for students to combine an object with its English spelling and pronunciation.
• Interesting pictures and various colors will stimulate students' (especially young learners) visual sence and increase their desire to learn.

• Words can be saved to account, which enables students to make a word list to review and strengthen memory.

• Additional quizz model enables students to test themself and enhance their autonomy.

  

How might you use it in a language teaching context?

1. Teacher firstly sets a topic for students, for example 'The face'.Then asks students to work in pairs.
2. Students will be firstly asked to move the cursor on the part that they've already known how to speak it in English (eg. eyes, nose, mouth, ears) and check whether their spelling and pronuciation is correct by moving the cursor on those pictures.
3. Then move to the parts that they are not familiar (eg. nostril, ear lobe, temple)and listen to its pronuciation and speak it. Though students can understand the meaning of those words with the help of pictures, if necessary, teacher will explain their usage in a precise way.(eg. expressions)
4. Some interesting relevant classroom activities, like, students work in pair and one of them point a part of his/her face, the other one speaks its name in English.  Or one of them speak a word, the other one need to move that part on his/her face, that's maybe much funny.

Limitation

• Might be only suitable for young learners or beginners.
• Involved in some vocabularies that rarely be used in real-life.
• Not many relevant activities, such as sysmatically listening, speaking, reading or writing task be followed.
• Only some nouns vocabularies which describe one object are avaliable.
• Web design and structure is simple and a little bit not attractive.