Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

July 17, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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ESL Listservs

I learn a lot from listservs (a list of people with a particular interest who exchange emails within the group). Today I thought it might be helpful to share the listservs that I find helpful in my work teaching English Language Learners. I’ve also put links to these listservs on my Teacher’s Page under Listservs For ESL.

The ones I find valuable include: TESL (Teachers of English as a Second Language), which has has many sub-lists, including ones for K-12, technology, and adult learners; National Institute for Literacy (NIFL), which has, like TESL, many sub-lists; Extensive Reading, which promotes the idea of students reading high-interest books of their choosing as a tool to learn languages; TEFL China, which is focused on English teachers in China but offers helpful information to all ESL teachers; and Learning With Computers, which is comprised of teachers interested in using technology to enhance ESL instruction. This last listserv is part of a larger group called Webheads in Action, which offers a great deal of support to teachers exploring creative ways to use computers with ESL students.

July 17, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Language Dialer

I recently learned about an intriguing new web application that has been developed by a student who was learning a second language (not English). It seems like it can be adapted for English Language Learners, but, since I haven’t tried it yet, I just don’t know how workable it is.

It’s called Language Dialer. It’s supposed to allow language learners to phone in and answer questions from a native speaker of the language that is being. The student, or a teacher, can then listen to a recording of your responses.

It seems like it might be a useful way to encourage English use outside of a classroom. I’ve placed the link on my Teacher’s Page under Audio.

You can also read an article talking about the application written by its developer.

I’d be very interested in hearing from people who have tried this out.

July 16, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

Favorite Sites

I know that with 7,000 links my website can be little overwhelming to students and teachers alike. People often don’t really know where to start.

I suggest that students begin with the Favorite Sites section on the English Themes for Beginners and Early Intermediate. There you’ll find about forty of what I consider the best sites for English Language Learners. Only about five of them require a paid subscription (those are the ones that say “See Mr. Ferlazzo for password”). The rest are completely free. Even the five that require a password have a lot of free samples students can use.

I also have a different Favorite Sites section for Intermediate and Advanced English Language Learners. You’ll find this on my English Themes For Intermediate and Advanced page.

July 15, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Math Page

I’ve already written a post about the Math section on the English Themes For Beginners and Early Intermediate. I’ve placed many links under this category that teach math and provide exceptional opportunities for English Language development at the same time.

I also want to highlight the Math Page on the part of my website that is not specifically designed for English Language Learners. This page is definitely under construction. In addition to having all the same Math links that you’ll find on my English Themes page, you’ll also find over fifty links to what I believe are the most effective and fun online activities to teach all levels of math. These are under the section called “Math Sites To Be Categorized.”

I’ve been collecting these for awhile in preparation for a Math Lab we may start at my school next year.

I’ll be doing substantial reorganization of this page at some point, but thought that people might find it helpful in the meantime. The vast majority of these activities are accessible to English Language Learners though, apart from the ones you’ll find on my English Themes page, they won’t necessarily help substantially develop English language skills.

July 13, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

Make An Animal Commercial

(I posted about this site in June, but it had just been taken off-line. It appears to be functioning again, though)

Make An Animal Commercial with Ellen DeGeneres and the animal of your choice. You can tour Paris with Ellen and what I believe is a racoon, eat at a cafe with Ellen and a turtle, or make other bizarre scenes. In the commercial, the animal will say what you want using a text-to-voice feature.

It is as weird as it sounds. American Express sponsors it. Students love it, and can email the url of their completed commercial, which can then be posted on a teacher’s website for all to see.

I’ve placed the link on my Examples of Student Work page under Student Animal Commercials.

July 12, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

Create A Certificate

In our school, and in my class, we sometimes give students certificates recognizing them for a serious (or silly) accomplishment. I think there’s a major difference between recognizing what students have done and, on the other hand, offering rewards as an incentive to have them do something.

I have links to free online applications that allow you to create attractive certificates. They are on my Teacher’s Page under the Certificate-Maker section.

These links include ones to Certificate Creator and Certificate Center.

July 11, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Hot Potatoes Tutorial

Tim VanSlyke, an ESL teacher, developed a great Hot Potatoes Tutorial on his blog. Hot Potatoes, for those who do not know, is a free software application teachers can use to develop online exercises and tests.

I’ve placed the link to this tutorial on my Teacher’s Page under the section called Create Tests and Exercises. I also have quite a few other free online test-making applications under Student Tests on my Examples of Student Work page.

I believe (though, honestly, I don’t quite remember) that I have these two separate sections because the links on the Student Work page a just a little easier to use, and don’t necessarily require downloading free software.

July 10, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Virtual Zoo

ZooBooks’ Virtual Zoo is a good site for English Language Learners to see pictures and learn basic information about animals. They can also hear the sounds different animals make.

The ZooBooks site also has several other areas that would be accessible to English Language Learners.

I’ve placed the link in the Animals section of the English Themes For Beginners/Early Intermediate page.

July 9, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Another Karaoke Site

Hot on the heels of posting about the great karaoke site yesterday, I learned about another one today. I’m not as impressed with KSolo, though.

It appears to function similar to the other amazing site, SingShot. However, I had a lot of technical difficulties getting it to work. It wouldn’t let me sign-up at first (to be fair, though, their customer service responded promptly to my email and took care of that problem).

Then, I couldn’t get any of their songs to load on two different computers I tried. Maybe the site was just having a bad day.

I’d be very interested in hearing from other people who give it try. I hope you have better luck than me. It would be great to have two sites students can use.

I have temporarily placed the link on my Examples of Student Work page under Student Songs. I’ll remove it if neither I or any other ESL teacher out there can get it to work soon.

July 9, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Musical Game Room

I recently discovered the wonderful New York Philharmonic Game Room. It has eleven games and activities that are accessible to English Language Learners.

These eleven include the Minuet Mixer, where students create and play their own minuets. The url for their compositions can be emailed and posted on a blog or online journal. One thing I hope to try is to have student compose them, and then have them write what they visualize when they listen to their minuet and the minuets that others have posted.

Musiquest is another great activity (there’s no direct link to the game, so you have to go the Game Room’s central site). It’s another one of those online video games that my students and I are so fond of — the player is given several tasks to do via text, and then “points-and-clicks” on things to accomplish the task.

I’ve placed the Game Room on the bottom of the Music and Art section of my English Themes For Beginners page.

July 9, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Grammar Sites

I’ve been asked to write a guest “post” each month on the Learning With Computers blog about the topic of the month. Learning with Computers is a group of ESL teachers who are experimenting with the use of technology in the classroom.

Last month the focus was on grammar, and I thought I’d share what I wrote there with readers of this blog.

There are a ton of sites that focus on grammar. Many of them are mind-numbing lists of exercises and are almost as bad as the useless grammar worksheets that many textbook publishers put out.

Today I’d like to highlight two sites that I think are the best, especially for beginner English Language Learners. They stand-out for both providing text with audio support, and also provide a variety of different activities. My high school students here in Sacramento, California, seem to like them, too.

One is Grammarman Comics, which teaches grammar through the use of attractive online………comics.

The other is Grammar Gold, which provides a series of fun exercises that teach and provide opportunities to practice English grammar.

For more grammar sites accessible to Beginner students, you can go to the Grammar section on my website’s Beginner’s page.

For grammar sites appropriate for Intermediate or Advanced English Language Learners, check-out the Intermediate Grammar category on my webpage.

I hope these are helpful links.

July 8, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

Additions To Blogroll

I’ve added a number of new blogs to the “blogroll” you can see if you actually go to my blog (as opposed to just reading new posts you receive via RSS or email).

This blogroll is a list of the blogs that I’ve found to have the most useful posts related to English language learning. You might want to check them out if you’re not familiar with them already.

July 8, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Geography Photos

Woophy has thousands of student-appropriate photographs from throughout the world. They are easy to locate just by typing in key words.

I’ve placed the link on my Geography page under the Sites That Cover Many Areas section. It’s near the bottom of that category and I’ve entitled it “Geography Photos.”

I learned about this site from a post in Education With Technology blog. That same post lists other links that have more geography photos. I just thought Woophy was the best and easiest for English Language Learners.

July 7, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

Amazing Karaoke Site

I learned about a fascinating site called SingShot from two different blogs on the same day — Language Labs Unleashed and Mashable.

With SingShot you can first pick any of a zillion popular songs. Then, the site will play the instrumental music and show the lyrics on the screen. Each word is then highlighted during the appropriate time in the recording to sing it. Next, you sing it into a microphone on your computer and it’s recorded on the site. You can email the url and post it on a teacher’s webpage. Students can sing it alone or in a group. If you’re ambitious, you can create your own slideshow that goes with the song.

Even better, though, instead of showing a slideshow with the song, when others play your recording the screen can then show the words that are being sung.

If you don’t have a mike, or if students are feeling a little shy, they can also just listen to the other karaoke recordings made by others. They can listen to a person singing and see the lyrics on the screen.

The extraordinary benefit to English Language Learners is incredible. They can practice pronunciation in the less threatening vehicle of a song; they can do it in a group if they want; and they can listen to other native speakers singing it as a comparison.

The songs on the site range from nursery rhymes to popular music, so even students with low-levels of English can participate.

The only issue I have relates to privacy. It appears to me that all recordings are available to anyone who wants to listen to them, and then make comments. This might be a intimidating to some shy students. Many other Web 2.0 sites have a privacy option where you can limit access to your creations. I’m assuming this site also has that option, but I just couldn’t figure it out. I’ll post when they respond to my question about it.

This site will definitely be one of my Top Ten sites of the month. I can’t wait to try it out with my students.

I’ve placed the link on my Examples of Student Work page under Student Songs.

July 7, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Tex-Mex “American Idol”

In yet another bizarre example of viral marketing, a restaurant allows you to pick a picture of a famous person (or upload your own photo), dress them up and pick a country song for them to sing.

That’s not all, though. You can then determine how an American Idol-like trio of judges (including a talking donkey) will judge the singer. Using a text-to-speech feature, a student can write what the judge will say. Then, the url can be emailed to a teacher, who can then post it on a website.

I don’t know how effective something like this is for advertising, but, as I’ve written before, it’s a great tool for English Language Learners.

I’ve posted the link on my Examples of Student Work page under Student Serenades.

July 6, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Edublogs May Be Down During Weekend

I wanted to let readers know that there will be a short time this weekend when this blog will not be available. To quote Edublogs, “To finally, once and for all, fix up our hardware issues we are going to be doing some maintenance this weekend.”

July 6, 2007
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Sound Map of China

PBS has a nice site that gives a Sound Map of China – it shows a map of China with various places to click. When you click on the spot on the map, you see a picture of the place and a simple explanation, plus you hear audio from that location.

I’ve placed it on my Geography page under Asia. It’s about two-thirds of the way down in the category.

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