NAU CALL

English Daily is an interesting site for English learners because of its vast array of resources. For learners who have an interest in learning about English idioms, learners can discover the definitions of idioms and read examples of them in context. To learn about English language culture or for practicing reading fluency aloud, the Movie Lines section of the site contains portions of dialogue from popular movies. To practice comprehension questions, the comprehension section allows learners to read a passage and to answer questions about it. While the website has many advantages and may appeal to younger learners and business professionals alike, the presentation of the content is not very aesthetically pleasing, and the site is full of advertisements that may distract learners from the content they are attempting to learn. Additionally, the site is not very interactive beyond the news section that allows learner to listen to a news story and to complete cloze exercises. Furthermore, the answers to exercises are presented on the same page as the exercises themselves, so clearly a learner would need to be rather autonomous to use the site effectively. To fully incorporate the site into a classroom, a teacher would benefit from creating supplemental materials such as a learning log in order to track student learning.

Draw something is another game that is kinda like words with friends. One person draws a picture and sends it to their friend who then has to guess what the word is. The game gives you multiple letters to choose from, that form the word with some false letters in there too, so its not just completely random guessing which helps considerably. This game has the same limitations that Words with Friends has although I believe that it can be used with intermediate levels of learners because the letters to the words are provided when guessing and also there are different levels of words one can choose to draw.

ESL Video is a website that pairs authentic videos with comprehension questions. The user selects a video at a particular level and about a particular topic, views the video, and answers questions about what was said in the video. While such a resource could be used in a listening and speaking class, some, or at least one, of the videos could be used in a class focused on reading. To explain, the video only had music for the soundtrack while simple text appeared on the screen for the viewer to read. Of note is that many of the videos feature popular culture, so conceivably these videos would contribute both to language learning and to learning about the culture of English speaking countries. One interesting video features Jimmy Fallon, the Roots, and Carly Rae Jepson playing "Call Me Maybe," and the related quiz asks learners to fill in the blanks in lines of lyrics. Also, teachers are able to create their own quizzes for the website.

Eslpod is a site replete with listening passages for English language students on a variety of subjects. Where eslpod differs from sites such as Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab is that following the listening passage portion of the podcast is an explanation of the vocabulary included in the passage and what the speakers meant in certain portions. This site has the potential to be incorporated into a listening and speaking class in that the explanation portion of the podcast serves as a lecture of sorts. Students might benefit most if required to complete a listening guide while listening to the passage. Eslpod may in fact offer such resources, yet they are unavailable without a membership. Regardless, the podcasts are free to listen to, are clearly articulated, and delivered at a rate to benefit English language students.

Words With Friends is a game that is an online (unofficial) version of Scrabble. Players create words using the tiles they have, and the goal is to play words with high point values strategically in order to obtain more points than the opponent. In a language classroom setting, this game seems most appropriate for high-intermediate to advanced learners, as it definitely helps if players have strong vocabularies. With that in mind, the game can be useful as a vocabulary builder, though it can take some patience on the part of the student because there is no built in dictionary. Another limitation is that the game is currently limited to smart phones and Facebook, so some students may need to sign up for the latter or work in pairs in order for any Words With Friends activity to work.

Voxopop is a social network based on talk groups. Talk groups can be set up by a teacher, and the teacher can invite students to join. Within a talk group, the teacher can set up strands based on an assignment. For instance, a prompt (an initial recording post) might ask the students to record five sentences using the present progressive tense. Students would then record themselves providing these sentences. Some of the major advantages of Voxopop include the ability for students to listen to the audio posts by other students in the class. Also, whereas using phones with Google Voice require students to respond to a listening prompt immediately (in real time), Voxopop allows students to listen to a prompt, prepare their answers, and then record. In this way, the site may be beneficial for students in lower levels. One of the major disadvantages of Voxopop is that it can be a taxing process to get every student in a class signed up. Additionally, students must have access to computers with microphones to complete tasks outside of class. Moreover, rumor has is that Voxopop has a history of being "down" and therefore is unreliable.

My English Lab by Pearson is a supplemental site to the North Star Listening and Speaking and Reading and Writing textbooks. With an access code provided in textbooks, students can access a class website. Similar to BlackBoard Learn, My English Lab provides students with a calendar for assignments and enables teachers to upload content. More than that, My English Lab has many related and supplemental resources pertaining to each unit in the corresponding textbooks. For example, when covering unit one in NorthStar 3 about Advertising on the Air, My English Lab gives students access to all of the recordings from the unit that a teacher might use in class. It also gives students flash card decks with the vocabulary for the unit and sometimes has extra exercises for the students to complete. Depending on the exercises, My English Lab will score these exercises to give students grades. The disadvantages of the site primarily relate to logistics. When students by used copies of their textbooks, the books might be missing the access code. Also, students must have access to computers to make use of the site outside of class time.

Eyercize has significant potential in high-intermediate and high level language learning classrooms. The premise is fairly simple. The site allows users to paste text into a text box. From there, the users can learn to read faster in that the site will sequentially highlight groups of words at a time. The site allows the user to adjust how many words are highlighted and at what speed the highlighting occurs. Teaching language learners and readers of all types to read in such a matter is important in that advanced readers do not read one letter or word at a time, for the most part. Advanced readers take in groups of words and quickly progress through a passage. Eyercize can help learners learn this ability.

The BBC put this website together to help individuals learn languages on their own time. The site offers 12 week on-line language courses for free as well as links to other useful resources for learning a second language. It is an easy website to use and very useful for students who want to do some extensive listening in the language they are trying to learn because it provides links to movies, children's show, news feeds, etc. that the student can listen to.

The quizzes on this site make use of concordance lines to help learners practice vocabulary in the K1 & K2 frequency bands.

The MYWordBook app is a product of the British Council and Cambridge University Press. The app functions as a vocabulary notebook, allowing you to input words, translations, pictures, notes, definitions and example sentences. The app is available for use with Iphone, iPad, Android, and Blackberry. While the app is free, you must pay for the word packs that come with it. A problem with these word sets is that they don't seem to be in any order of frequency or word list. There is the option to create your own word list however.

Claire Siskin's site gives a rather comprehensive list of mobile apps for language learning. The apps categorized according social networking apps, instructional apps, repurposed apps, make your own exercises and general references. For anyone interested in Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL), this is a great place to begin experimenting with different applications.

Free Rice is an online educational game. It can be used for many different subjects, including vocabulary and grammar. It's a fun way for students to practice their skills. To add a motivational twist, Free Rice donates a certain amount of rice for each correct answer. Because the vocabulary words and grammar structures are selected at random by the program, it wouldn't be a very effective learning tool. However, If the students worked in groups, they could learn new vocabulary together as they played, but I don't think this format would be possible with grammar. I think it would serve most useful as a fun way for more advanced students to review material.

Google voice is a resource that can potentially be used in listening and speaking classes. Essentially, it allows the user to associate a phone number with one's Google account. From there, the user can record messages that the caller will hear when he/she dials the phone number. In a Listening and Speaking context, access to recorders for classroom use may be limited at times. However, many learners have cell phones. To complete a listening and speaking task, during class or for homework, learners can call the phone number, listen to the task, and record their responses. Many concerns with Google Voice arise, however. Most notably, the quality of the recording may be muddy. That is, learners may have a difficult time comprehending the recorded message they hear when initially calling. Additionally, the messages recorded by the learners can be difficult for the instructor to understand. Also, whereas recorders allow learners to confirm that their speech has been recorded, on Google Voice, the learners simply hang up and receive no such confirmation--unless the task is done in a classroom setting whereupon the instructor has the list of messages available. Moreover, the learners are not able to listen to their messages or the messages of other students in the class if they are not logged into the instructor's account. As far as the positive attributes, Google Voice attempts to transcribe messages, and while the transcriptions are not always accurate, even when transcribing messages from native speakers of English, the transcriptions are interesting to read nonetheless. Possibly giving learners an incentive such as extra credit for a perfect transcription due to their pronunciation is an option. Additionally, Google Voice does allow the instructor to download the messages if desired, so saving the files is possible. As far as identifying the callers, each voice message is accompanied by the phone number, so collecting students' phone numbers is probably

Most of these are over, but there are still three sessions remaining on learning with an iPad. May be of interest to you.

Our class wiki. During the semester, you will create and maintain one entry for the wiki.

A good resource for sharing presentations.

A brief history of computers/technology in language learning, from the 1940s onward.