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This is a useful resource for teachers who want to use Skype in the classroom. The short annotations help seekers decide which lins are most relevant for them. There are resources for teachers looking for classrooms to connect with, for individual learners looking for conversation partners, and much more. I can see this as a go-to source for K-12 and higher ed teachers who need to communicate often (it's free) with people who live far away (it's internet-based).

Live Mocha is an online multi-language community that can be used in a number of ways: Members can write and/or video chat to speakers of their target language, complete practice exercises in all skill areas, and record themselves speaking so other members can review submissions and offer suggestions (if they do not want to do a live video chat). As a teacher, I believe this website is a great resource, especially to supplement in-class materials. Students can sign up (membership is free) and communicate regularly with native speakers of their target language. For a reading and writing class, this website would be a fairly easy one to use in order to set up pen pals. For a listening and speaking class, the role plays and video dialogues could be useful.

Livemocha is a site I personally use to improve my L2. You can learn for free through an exchange program of helping others and in return they help you. On the other hand you can sign up for a personal tutor for a fee.

I opened the Pizza Restaurant "Community" topic. Part 1 is a Listening (using an optional audio segment), and read along section. I didn't see an option for speed and I found the reading to be fast for a language learner, but they can repeat it for multiple readings. Part II is a discussion with a couple of questions, "What kind of pizza do you like and what toppings do you like on it? And "Are there any unique toppings that people put on pizza in your country that reflect your local foods?" Part III is an online investigation with a link to a practice. From their Website: "One of the best ways to improve communication skills is to become familiar with the language by reading, building vocabulary, and discussing what you study in daily conversations. Too often, ESL/EFL students spend time reading about topics that they normally wouldn't use in daily conversation. This site presents short conversation starters or readings that you can study and then try to apply in everyday situations Before anything else, be sure to read the page, Using This Site, to understand the purpose of these materials and how to best use them. The table below outlines current and future topics. Those with links are now available. Write me if you have an idea for a new reading topic."

Since Power Point has lost some it's wonder, especially among younger students, teachers can use Prezi, which is a similar tool used for giving presentations. Prezi is similar to Power Point, but it provides a new and interesting tool for students to explore. Presentations created using Prezi can also be published to the Prezi community for other users to see. This could take some of the hassle of the teacher having to load everyone's presentations before class because they are all available through a website instead. Personally, I find Prezi more confusing than Power Point. However, I haven't dedicated much time to learning how to use it properly. I'm sure if I educated myself on using it correctly it would be worthwhile.

Incorporating CMC activities where students communicate with outside audiences is more difficult for teachers working with children. Kidlink is a moderated website that allows children and teachers to share projects, comment on other kids' projects, and connect with epals. All content is moderated. I have not personally used this website, but it looks like a resource worth looking into for teachers working with children. If nothing else, it may provide some inspiration for creating projects or organizing a similar sort of collaborative activity.

This is a corpus of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). The texts come from spoken interactions between nonnative speakers of English in ELF contexts (i.e., when speakers from different L1 backgrounds must use English in order to communicate).

Free site that matches you with a penpal from one of 133 countries. Could be used to help students find someone to practice their language skills with.

Wondering how to structure a Digital Storytelling class? Trying to figure out what kinds of assignments to give your students? This website is for an ESL Digital Storytelling class at Mira Costa Community College in Oceanside, CA. The course is described, and activity descriptions are provided for each Digital Storytelling project for during a 9 week course (click on the link for Handout under the designated weeks). There are also handouts and instructions for how to use Audacity and Movie Maker. Looking for free images or music online? A nice list of links is on the left side of the screen. I think this is an excellent reference website if you ever plan on designing a Digital Storytelling course for ESL students.

Here's my blurb: If you decide to do a Digital Storytelling project in your ESL class, how do you go about evaluating it? What kind of rubrics do you use? This site discusses 16 types of communication (or genres) and 9 traits for scoring. It provides example rubrics. In fact, it provides a pretty neat rubric customization tool. There are suggestions and sample lesson plans for both formal and informal evaluation, and peer review activities. Quite nice! The resources section contains lots of PDFs about incorporating digital stories into the curriculum. Here's their blurb: DigiTales.us provides ideas, resources and inspiration for families, individuals, schools, organizations, corporations, churches and everyone else ready to discover the power and magic of merging the art of storytelling with the enchantment of using digital tools.

I'm not sure if anyone has posted this already (so forgive me if this is a repeat!), but basically Tumblr is like a blog hybrid that allows you post just about anything (as the site states: "Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos from your browser, phone, desktop, email or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors to your theme's HTML."). The site is very creativity-oriented, and seems like a potentially very useful online resource for students to express themselves creatively, to write and publish for a real audience, to gain exposure to cultural dimensions of the target speech community, and to enhance their digital literacy.

"These video chapters and web resources will assist students with their written and verbal communication skills. Content areas included are grammar, composition, and mechanics from Kindergarten to Grade 12." This site can also help supplement classroom material for students still in the k-12 grades who need to get better at their English language proficiency. This could especially be helpful for students who enter the American school system who speak a different L1 at home.

Sorry, this resource isn't free, but if your ESL program decides they can spare just $5-6/week, then both students and teachers can use the same password to access news stories as well as features such as audio recordings of stories, exercises, crossword puzzles, and definitions of key vocabulary. I taught a weekly current events ESL class for adults, and students loved News For You. Each week there are 7 new stories, and several students would read/listen to all the stories before coming to class. I would pick one or two stories to focus on during the 90-minute class. I made my own activities, but students who wanted to could do the online exercises at a library or community center computer. However, because the stories are written for adults who are learning to read (either ABE or ESL students), the content is not as authentic as a regular newspaper. But the fact that it is motivating and accessible to students and encourages lively discussions in class makes it a nice resource.

This site has ideas, printable materials, discussion forums, and employment opportunities. It shows how to teach Film and Video, teach with the Internet, and using songs and music. You can sign up for free and download a limited amount of worksheets per month from www.education.com/worksheets. You can select by Grade or Subject. These are mostly useful for homeschoolers or in regular children's classrooms. It offers content-based ideas with integrated skills including conversation, listening, speaking, reading, writing, and Vocabulary. The Grammar is practiced in communicative settings. ESL PartyLand is a nice home base for Internet tools including up-to-date addresses for Dave's ESL Café, EF Englishtown, Kent's ESL Wonderland, On-line TOEFL Materials, and Randall's CyberListening Lab. It funnels all these sites into one page for easy reference. Other sites it observes as interesting include The All Music Guide, The Discovery Channel on-line, Earth Alert, and Lonely Planet On-line.

Lots of graphic organizer templates

This is a good resource Kerry! Here are few other ones: http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/ http://www.carla.umn.edu/cobaltt/modules/strategies/gorganizers/index.html http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/graphic_org/ The site below is created by a professor at WVA who co-wrote a number of published articles about using graphic organizers. There are a number of good resources related to using graphic organizers and training teachers to use them. http://community.wvu.edu/~xj002/Graphicorganizers.html

It seems not easy to find a well-design English online community on Facebook. I feel this one is good. And I definitely need more recommendations.

Create your own cartoons with fully posable characters & animals! Upload pictures, create freestyle panel layouts, add sound & voice-over, and much more! Join our growing vibrant community. Pixton is awesome!