Pronuncian is devoted solely to American English Pronunciation, with free sound drills, lessons on sound, linking, stress, and pitch. Site also includes forums and weekly podcast. Subscribers also have access to additional listening exercises and quizzes. Teacher tools are currently in beta version and available for a reduced fee. Intermediate to Advanced students.
" My Notes
Help prepare students to learn by using their past experiences. Helps develop grammatical and lexical choices, as well as structure and organization. Developed in Partnership with Stanford University.
"Create flashcards
Create your own flashcards with two clicks. You can use different styles (bold, italic, red/green colour, underline). Add pictures to your cards easily.
Study flashcards
You can study your cards alone or online with your friends. Just use Skype or the integrated chat functionality and see how easy it is. Information about learning in a team
Print flashcards
Print individual flashcards or all of them in two steps and learn them offline wherever you are.
Teamwork
You can comment on each flashcard, track the status of your knowledge, track changes, study online with friends and send messages to them.
Publish flashcards
You can publish your flashcards. Everyone who receives the link to your cards can import them to their account."
Flashcards as a social networking tool! This is a nice way to have students create their own good study habits, and there is an iPhone App available too You can also search for flashcards made by other students. Better than Rosetta Stone.
The criteria to get on this list is extremely similar to its companion list [see Best Places Where Students Can Write for an Authentic Audience]:
* The work required to create the learning and/or teaching object would not be that great, and could be finished in a reasonable amount of time - a few days at a maximum and preferably much, much less.
* The creating and posting process is simple - accessible both to my English Language Learner students and to me.
* Posting the piece does not necessarily require any kind of ongoing commitment for communication - once it's up, it might be interesting to check-back after awhile to see if there have been any reactions (if the site is set-up for that kind of involvement), but it's really just a matter of sticking it up there in a place that gets a fair amount of "traffic" and knowing that it's likely others will read it.
* There seems to be some kind of enforced standards for all the content that's posted on the site. In other words, when students explore it to see models of what others have written, it's unlikely they will encounter something that is inappropriate for classroom use.
"Now that you and/or your students are using wikis and blogs, are you curious what could be added to them? From animated slideshows to collaborative documents to interactive review games, many great (and free) tools are available. As a follow up to my previous post "What Teachers Should and Should Not Be Posting on their Classroom Webpages", I've pulled a master list of embedding options that will hopefully spark your imagination." Some great ideas here for ways to jazz up blogs and wikis.
Homepage of Yaho Reinders. "If you have an interest in innovation in education, in the role of technology, in Learner Autonomy and Self-Access, or in Teacher Education and Second Language Acquisition, you have come to the right place. On this site you will find articles, research reports, bibliographies, a blog, and many other resources. You can also find information about engaging me as a speaker at your conference, or for (staff) development projects."
This is a great place for students to SEE visually how words and expressions relate to each other. A must for the visual learner, but wonderful for everyone. Try an expression like "go out" to see how idioms are related to the original meaning.
An amazing compilation of links to resources in teaching foreign languages and ESOL, including web page translators, dictionaries, and collaborative sites where students and FL teachers can connect.
Not well organized, but packed with fun-learning sites that kids can use on their own, or that teachers might want to incorporate into class projects. Not just for summer!
How a school develops language in a multi-lingual classroom in Chicago. Teacher ensures everyone has a job and tries to build a community where students have pride in their work, know and follow rules. She uses translation (she understands Spanish and Russian). Demonstrates some techniques to build vocabulary and interact with a reading text while listening.
I have put together a Wiki for my students to use. I have stressed that it is not part of their regular course but is there for them to visit and assist them in learning English.
It goes for 16 weeks (the length of their course) and every week it has sections on Reading/Writing, Grammar, Litsening and Speaking. I also included sectioins on TOEFL, Environmental video and Pronunciation. There are exercises (links) for the students and all in all, it is a fun site to visit. If you want to join the Wiki and make material postings... make yourself at home.
Please keep in mind that I AM in Oman and most of my students are young Omani university girls 18-20 years old. They are not the most liberal minded people and not prone to Adult entertainment. They are great students who are willing and eager to learn and a true pleasure to teach.
Check it out and tell me what you think. Positive and Negative comments are welcome. So, send your students, send your enemies and even your enemy's students. Feel free to post bills on the local Metro, buses and outside your favorite adult beverage establishment.
Gary Harwell
www.teachergary.com