Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Songs/music:
Angels Online
Karaoke English
Movies, clips/trailers:
English Trailers
learnenglishfeelgood
ESLjunction
ESL Discussions.com
EnglishPage.com
ESL Blues
Grammar Bytes!
Grammar Games
Grammar Movies
UsingEnglish Quizzes
English Club
English Pronunciation
CNN News
English Express
Reading Strategies
Experience a Story: Listen to stories, read and view pictures inspired by our collections created by
visitors like you.
Tell a Story: Become a storyteller as you write and record a story inspired by works in the museum’s
collection.
Picture a Story: Create your own work of art using objects and characters found in some of the
museum’s most noteworthy paintings.
Sample
Funbrain
Spelling City:
Voycabulary: enter URL, and words on site hyperlinks to online dictionaries, thesauri, etc.
WebWorkbooks
WordAhead
10 Vocabulary Builders
1. Did you know that in Microsoft Word, a reference library, translator, and a list of
synonyms is a click away? Here’s what you do (with PCs): right click on a word and
you will see a tool box. By choosing “Look Up,” you get automatic access to
dictionary definitions and a translator that will translate to or from English and a
selection of other languages. By moving the mouse to “Synonyms,” you can see a
list as well as a thesaurus link. Click on the synonym to replace a word. A good
exercise for students is to provide a list of words that they find synonyms for. Then
discuss the subtle differences between the words. Also useful is to have students
turn on the readability statistics. Here's how:
• Click the Office button in MS Word 2007.
• Click Word Options.
• Click Proofing.
• Under "When correcting spelling and grammar in Word," check the box for
"Show readability statistics."
• Explain to students the results, which are displayed after spelling checking
(Click Review tab and Spelling & Grammar or by pressing the F7 key) a
document. An instructor could tell students to revise and check spelling
and grammar again until their writing reaches a given grade level.
2. To learn about word collocations try these two websites that “map” word
associations: Think Map Visual Thesaurus http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ ,
Visuwords Online Graphical Dictionary http://www.visuwords.com/.
3. Web Workbooks
http://www.webworkbooks.com/vocabulary/vocabularyworkbook/index.php is a site
with sections that give word etymologies and illustrative sentences; word drills for
vocabulary study; roots, suffixes, and prefixes; words that are commonly misused
and misspelled, and interesting anecdotes about word origins.
4. Three Web sites that students can use when they are using the internet and
encounter words that they do not understand or that they want to pronounce are
Lingro http://lingro.com/, and Voycabulary http://www.voycabulary.com/, and VozMe
http://vozme.com. With Lingro, copy and paste a URL, and the words on the Web
site become links that can be clicked to get definitions, hear pronunciation, and
translations. Registered users can create word lists that are converted to flashcards
to study. Voycabulary similarly converts words on a Web site to links that with a click
can be looked up in many types of online dictionaries, including a thesaurus, an
antonym dictionary, Wikipedia, even a medical dictionary. With VozMe, copy and
paste words or type in entire passages to hear pronunciation (though it is a
computer voice). The site also gives the option of downloading the text as an .mp3
sound file.
8. Gamesare a fun way to learn, practice, and reinforce new words. Free-ENGLISH
http://www.free-english.com/Games.aspxhas six interactive vocabulary games
including one for matching slang expression to meanings, one for understanding
differences between near-synonyms, and a reverse idiom dictionary game. The
games are free but registration is required. There are also grammar, listening, and
spelling games. A site with interactive games for beginners is located at
http://www.vocabulary.co.il/. There are word searches, crosswords, and matching
and scrambled word games.
9. Ever have an idea or concept in mind but can’t think of the word? That can be
annoying! OneLook Reverse Dictionary http://www.onelook.com/reverse-
dictionary.shtmlmay help. Type in a description to get a list of words. You can also
explore related concepts, generate a list of words in a category, even cheat on
crossword puzzles by typing in puzzle clues and finding words if you only know
some of the letters.
10. Last, a site that has been featured on the national evening news is Freerice.com
http://freerice.com/. The developer of the site has secured sponsorship so that each
word that visitors to the site get right, 20 grains of rice to the United Nations "World
Food Program. A recent technology list serv participant wrote this about Freerice:
"Freerice.com is an excellent web site, but the easiest level is still too
difficult for many students. I created this screencast as a way to help students
-- young and old -- experience a higher degree of success with the easier levels
of Freerice. You can see the screencast on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3pOWrBTS_A . You can download several
version of this screencast in a ZIP file. One of these versions runs well on older
Macintosh computers -- as far back as 1994. The other is for viewing on the iPod
and iPhone. I've uploaded the ZIP file to the Internet Archive. You can download it
from this link. http://tinyurl.com/5zw7wt."
Freedictionary
rong-chang list
Using English.com
Other sites
Go English
Idiomsite
Self-Study Idioms
A4ESL Quizzes
English Banana
English Club
English Daily
English Galaxy
English Page
English Works
ESL Gold
ESL Lounge
ESL PartyLand
ESL Wonderland
Go4English
Learn English
Learningline
TV411
ESLTower.com
China 232
Citizenpod
Discovery Channel
ELLLO
English Idioms and Slang (discontinued but past postings still available)
ESLPodcards
Grammar Girl
In English
Many Things
NPR
US Citizenship Podcast
Still can't find an online site for students to practice a specific English skill or
grammar point?
see Ressources pour le college (some headings are in French, but there is an enormous list here)
How it works:
Instructor records model; student records self; shows students' pronunciation in comparison to a model
by audio waves (waveforms) on two parallel tracks
2. Audacity
How it works:
Demo *
Audacity Manual
Tutorial
TeacherTube videos
Mow-tor Mail
Gamespot
Gizmoz
Odd-cast
PowerPoint -- Online templates:
Game templates online
Verb tables
Vocabulary flash cards
• http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/PPT-games/ and
http://teach.fcps.net/trt2/links/powerpointgames.htm and
http://www.littlewoodscasino.com/education-resources/power-point-games.htm and
See Roger Drury Phrasal Verb Dictionary and many other video and PowerPoint projects on his home page
My recent student video projects: “Speaking with the Stars” and “Successful Job Interview” and video resume
(not posted)
See TESOL EVO Video Sessions for many ideas on integrating video, see my pages Using Video for list of video
sites, and Using Movies to Teach English
Recommended text: Using Authentic Video in the Language Classroom, Jane Sherman, Cambridge Handbooks
for Language Teachers and article “Using Video to Develop Writing Fluency in Low-Proficiency ESL Students”
World-English WebQuests
E-books (free online books for reading online or for download) for reading
(and listening on some sites):
http://www.rong-chang.com/ (more than 300 stories beginning and intermediate level with audio)
http://tarheelreader.org/
http://www.download-esl.com/
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
http://www.ebooks.com/
http://www.free-ebooks.net/
http://e-library.net/
Some Resources to Better Understand Technology Integration in General and
to Stay in the Loop:
4Teachers.org Teach with Technology
EdutopiaArticle: The Word and the World: Technology Aids English-Language Learners
EON Foundation Check out the Teaching English in a Mobile and Networked World and The Living Classroom
Network Initiatives.
Language Learning & Technology Journal for Second and Foreign Language Educators
Mashable http://mashable.com/
PC World, http://www.pcworld.com/
StumbleUpon, http://www.stumbleupon.com/
T H E journal http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/subscription/default.cfm
Tech Learning Great ideas for integrating technology in the classroom, software tips, and computer news. Can
subscribe to free online publications including Technology and Learning magazine, Educators’ e-zine, and Digital
Media in the Classroom (a quarterly e-book)
The National Institute for Literacy's Technology electronic discussion list (NIFL-Technology) and other e-lists
http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/discussions.html
The U.S. Department of Education study with the first-ever data on distance learning in elementary and
secondary schools (2005)
tucows http://www.tucows.com
Video examples of integrating technology in the adult education (including English language learning) classroom,
see the OTAN Video Gallery
ZD net http://www.zdnet.com