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June 14, 2005
Are You Connected?
Hello everyone!
Have you used the Internet in your classroom yet? If not, you should know that here are some simple things you can do to incorporate it into your teaching. Here are a few suggestions:
Listening: There are tons of sites that are especially designed for the ESL student. Your students can listen to poetry, short stories, radio programs or even music to hear other “voices” and practice their listening skills.
Writing: The use of instant chats has quickly spread all over the world, and you can bet that your students are already using them. Why not schedule chat sessions with your students and have them communicate in English?
Communicating: Many students would love to make a friend in another country, and the Internet is providing a place for them to do just that. No, they DON’T have to join an Internet dating service! There are pen-pal sites that exist solely to connect people looking to communicate with other people learning a foreign language.
If you don’t have access to computers in your school, you can assign any of the above as homework!
Let me know if you're already using these helpful tools, and if not, WHY?
Until next time,
Michelle
Posted by msimmons at June 14, 2005 12:23 AM
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Comments
I also use moodle as an online site for my students. I have seperate courses set up for each of my classes and can upload audio or video I have acquired or produced myself. It has a chatroom, forums, assignments and quizzes all integrated in the system. Additionally it is very easy to install on your server.
Go check it out at http://www.moodle.org
Posted by: EFL Geek at June 14, 2005 01:01 AM
Hello,
We sometimes have our students listen to National Public Radio nad then prepare to give a two minute talk on what they heard or read on the site.
Gary Harwell
Chennai, India
Posted by: Gary Harwell at June 14, 2005 03:37 AM
Over time I've run across several high level students who feel like they've hit a wall English-wise. Lately I've been recomending that they check out non-ESL blogs on topics that they're interested in.
The on-line format forces them to work on grammar, reading and writing but in a natural, social context, which is a lot more inspiring than a solopsistic little worksheet.
I haven't had any students try it yet, but it would be great to see an ESL student actually put together an English language blog.
What do you think- what kind of potential do blogs in particular have for ESL learning?
Posted by: Nigel Fogden at June 19, 2005 02:53 AM
