Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Different Online resources

ELLLO is a fantastic resource that I blatantly overuse (just look at my website). I try to put them under headings, like family, pets, places where we live... etc... (I have 10 themes, so far) in this way, the students can listen to a variety of people, discussing a variety of subjects.
I also make use of VOA, although I am sometimes skeptical about the value of the so called special English. However, I like to provide it, just in case it's useful. With VOA, I try to make lesson worksheets, that work on schema building, vocab, phrasal verbs, and comprehension activities. The thing that I try hard to also do with the VOA and some of the guided readers, is to make some online interactive cloze activities.
As you say, video is a great tool, and I haven't gotten too much into making lessons for video segments. I always find that students in Japan have a great need for the transcripts, and it is very hard to find video sites with full transcripts that are available, like the VOA site.
Unfortunately, one disadvantage with VOA is that it is American centric. It would be great to have a similar site for world Englishes.

Another great site for all those who are into Current Topics (which you probably all know already) is Breakingnewsesl.com. It provides lesson plans almost daily.
Ciao
Steven

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