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Resources for integrated skills

Great source of interesting materials and resources to enhance language skills.

The Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection of The Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center, Inc., represents much of King's life and work spanning from 1944 to 1968. Encompassing approximately 10,000 items, the collection allows insight into Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s thoughts, personality, ministerial preparation, organizational skills and strategic planning during the Civil Rights period.

This ESL listening Web site created by Randall Davis helps ESL/EFL students improve their listening comprehension skills through practice with self-grading quiz pages.

In the nineteenth century, the Grammar Translation Method predominated ESL/EFL teaching. In that era, translating literary texts from the second/foreign language to the students' native language was one of the main learning activities. But when this method was replaced by the Structuralism Approach, during the 1960s to the end of 1970s, literature was no longer used. Structuralism Approach was concerned with correctness of grammatical form and not with content, interpretation of the written word or style.

Film English is the brainchild of teacher, trainer and author Kieran Donaghy ( Kieran's LinkedIn profile). Kieran teaches at UAB Idiomes Barcelona, part of the Univiersitat Autònoma de Barcelona. The site promotes the innovative and creative use of film in English language teaching and learning. All of the lesson plans revolve around the use of video and film to teach English. The site promotes cineliteracy, the ability to analyse moving images, and considers cineliteracy as a 21st century skill which our students need to learn. In addition, the lessons promote critical thinking in the language classroom, and  encourage learners to reflect on values while learning a  language. PrintFilm English has become a very popular resource English Teaching bank and is visited by over 80,000  teachers every month and there are over 2.5 million page views a year. It has received critical acclaim winning various awards, including winner of Best Individual Blog and Runner-up in The Best Use of Video in the 2011 Edublog Awards; the 2011 TEFL.net  Site of the Year; and British Council Teaching English Featured Blog of the Month.

Film English by Kieran Donaghy features a media lesson on Human Rights and street art. This time a lesson is designed based on an award-winning video for Amnesty International by Carlos Lascano. On this section, you can find the link for the video to project in the classroom and a worksheet with activities mainly designed to generate discussion among the members of the group. The activity is intended for students in upper-intermediate level onwards. These activities will reinforce the listening and speaking skills.

The game contains quotes and pieces from the short biographies of four human rights activists. Students should match the piece with the correct character and thereby build up a brief description of each person. Educational goals: :: To learn about some of the individuals who have fought for human rights in different countries; :: To stimulate interest in human rights heroes; :: To develop skills of handling and ordering information; :: To promote respect, responsibility and engagement about human rights.

The Internet TESL Journal Dimitrios Thanasoulasakasa74 [at] hotmail.com www.geocities.com/glossologos/ In this paper, we will briefly examine a variety of techniques, strategies and macrostrategies which teachers can employ in order to motivate their students. As Dornyei (2001: 116) notes, 'teacher skills in motivating learners should be seen as central to teaching effectiveness'.