June 3, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Read The Words which is on The Best Listening Sites For English Language Learners list, just announced a big upgrade of their site, and it looks good.
Read The Words lets you convert any text – from a document, blog, or website – into audio with your choice from a variety of voices. You can then embed the voice player into your site. Unfortunately, it only lets you record something for no longer than 30 seconds for free — you have to be a paid member for anything longer.
May 18, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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State Of Debate is another excellent learning game from the BBC. It’s accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners, and, as strange as it sounds, it’s basically an online video game where you have explain why you’re not wearing a “hoodie.”
Don’t worry about the description — it’s an excellent listening and reading game.
I’ve placed the link on my website under Word and Video Games.
May 10, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Big Art Alphabet is from the Liverpool Museums in the UK, and provide an artistic way for Beginning English Language Learners to study the alphabet. Audio support is provided for the letters, and words are used in sentences (supported by both images and audio) as well.
I’ve placed the link on my website along with a ton of other alphabet activities under Alphabet (ABC’s).
May 7, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Obviously, talking with a “chatbot” using artificial intelligence is a poor substitute for conversation practice with a real human. In fact, at the level these bots function right now, I don’t think they’re particularly useful for anything than an occasional fun practice opportunity in the computer lab — except for one that I’m aware of, and I’ll share it at the end of this “The Best…” post.
As always, though, I’m happy to be shown a different perspective.
This list shares what I think are the best chatbots out there. I’m going to have my students try them all out later this month, and will report their assessments. The main difference that I can see is that, though most are text-only, the first two provide audio for the “bot side” of the conversation.
Here are my picks for The Best Online “Chatbots” For Practicing English (the first and the last ones are my favorites):
Why not try talking to EFL Classroom’s bot?
My Bot asks questions and answers them by showing text and providing audio through a computer-generated voice that isn’t that great.
During Christmas time, you can talk (text-only) to Santa Bot.
(By the way, I learned about these first two from Özge Karaoğlu, an EFL teacher in Turkey)
You can talk to a virtual Bear Bot
You can talk to a — I kid you not — “Socratic Zen Conversationalist.”
Pasadena City College has developed the ESL Robots Project. Students first listen and read dialogues related to shopping, getting an apartment, and dealing with a hotel clerk. Then, students use the information they learned to “chat” with virtual staff in each of the three settings. It’s quite an innovative exercise.
George is a “chatbot” recommended by Alicia Rey. One feature that I neglected to mention in that post is that you can email a record of your conversation with the “bot.” It doesn’t actually have its own url (you’d have to copy and paste it on a blog or online journal from the body of the email), but it could be a very useful asset for English Language Learners and their teacher.
Now for the site that I believe brings some added value –Virsona. It’s a relatively new tool that lets you re-create and interact with historical figures. I think it’s a brilliant idea. Users decide on a historical or fictional figure, and program a “talking bot” that visitors can chat with using text. The site is still in the experimental stage, and the bots that were available were very limited in their ability to communicate. However, if and when the site develops and more people participate, this part of the site would certainly be accessible to English Language Learners. Creating your own talking bot would take a student’s learning to an entirely different level. The process seems fairly complicated now, but if they simplify it a bit it seems to me that high-level Intermediate and Advanced English Language Learners would be able to do it.
Nik Peachey has also written a useful post about it, in addition to a lesson plan using the site.
David Deubelbeiss at EFL Classroom 2.0 has been working on some innovative ideas regarding chatbots and English language teaching. I’ll be writing a separate post about that in the future, and then be adding his resources to this list.
ESL Robot lets you practice your English with an avatar.
Suggestions and feedback, as always, are welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
May 6, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Many English Language Learner teachers and students are familiar with Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab. It’s provided high-quality listening exercises on the web for a longtime.
It’s now gotten even better with the addition of videos. Video Snapshots for ESL/EFL Students show short video clips along with comprehension quizzes for students to take.
I’m adding the site to The Best Listening Sites For English Language Learners.
Thanks to Ressources Pour Le College for the tip.
April 3, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
April is “Financial Literacy Month” (which is news to me). In recognition of it, Brainpop is offering a series of their financial-related movies for free during April.
You can find them at Brainpop Spotlight: Financial Literacy.
March 27, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Denver Post Media Center has many slideshows accessible to English Language Learners, along with interactive graphics.
I’ve placed the link on my website, along with many other similar sites, under Multimedia Resources From News Outlets.
March 21, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
David Deubelbeiss has posted a very good document for ESL/EFL teachers sharing ideas for listening activities to do in the classroom.
Even thought it’s for teachers, it’s so good that I’m adding it to The Best Listening Sites For English Language Learners.
March 12, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Google is just beginning “Google Voice” which, as Mashable puts it, is like “Gmail for Voicemail.” It allows users to make phone calls (free in the U.S.), leave voice messages and also generate an automatic written transcript of the message.
Since the service isn’t public yet, it’s unclear how accessible how it will be for English Language Learners to use, but the speaking, listening and reading advantages are obvious.
Check out the Mashable post (and also one at TechCrunch). You can request an invitation from Google to use the service here.
March 10, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
I’ve posted about “chatbots” before — online virtual “people” that can carry-on a reasonable conversation with an online user. The best provide audio as well as written responses. They can provide excellent writing and listening practice to English Language Learners.
In fact, I’ll soon be posting The Best Chatbots For English Language Learners list.
Today, though, I learned about an intriguing “bot” that I thought I’d write about now. It can incorporate “emotional cues” like laughter and and yawning. It’s also an opportunity for ELL’s to develop some additional vocabulary about these emotions.
Check out the Text-To-Speech Bot With Emotional Cues and let me know what you think.
March 7, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Yesterday I posted about a new site called English Speak that appeared to have some potential, but was having technical difficulties when I was trying to access it.
Well, it’s working now, and it really is good. Among other resources, it has 100 listening lessons (framed as dialogues) that give you two different speeds in which to listen to them.
I’m adding the site to The Best Listening Sites For English Language Learners.
February 27, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
An insurance company has developed a very engaging interactive to help people learn more about health and safety issues related to their home. The spoken language and instructions is probably accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.
I’ve placed the link on my website under Life Skills.
February 8, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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I know I’ve written a couple of posts about this topic already, and it’s also a bit late, but I’ve recently found some more resources that I think might be helpful to English Language Learners. It’s certainly an engaging topic.
Here are my picks for The Best Sites For Learning About The Hudson River Plane Crash:
The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom has a good interactive on the crash.
The Associated Press has an informative interactive, too.
The Wall Street Journal published an excellent video about it that’s perfect for ELL’s. It has good footage of the plane, along with an animation. But, most importantly, it includes the audio of the communication between the pilot and the air traffic controller along with the transcript showing-up on the screen (very clearly) as the words are spoken.
The New York Times has, as usual, published a number of good online multimedia pieces about the crash, particularly one on tracking the flight.
I learned about a good ELL lesson plan created by Karenne Sylvester on the U.S. Airways river landing. It’s a good frame for a number of current events topics, so it’s worth a look.
Here are some videos from Newsday.
CBS News has a series of interactives called Miracle On The Hudson.
The New York Times also has an interactive on the raising of one of the plane’s engines from the Hudson’s bottom.
As always, feedback is welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
February 1, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Phrasals For Fun is another good listening game/activity from the British Council. Players listen to short conversation and then have to answer a few questions about it.
I’ve placed the link on my website under Word and Video Games.
January 25, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
I have nearly 9,000 categorized links — all except for a few accessible to English Language Learners — on my website.
It’s designed for self-access by students. Many classes at our school use it, including our daily after-school ESL computer lab. My understanding is that classes throughout the world use it, too.
You can read a more extensive description of each page here.
I’d also encourage you to read articles I’ve written that describe how, in my opinion, computers can be most effectively used with English Language Learners and other students.
I have approximately twenty separate pages on my website. Links become obsolete pretty quickly on the Internet, so I verify links on my site about twice each year. My “system” is to verify links on one page each week and, then, when I’ve gone through all of them, start again.
I thought it might be useful to create a “The Best…” list highlighting what I think are the most useful sections of my site. After all, nine-thousand links can be an intimidating number to both students and teachers alike.
Here are my choices of The Best Sections On My Website (not in order of preference):
I have less than one hundred links under Favorite Sites. These are the ones that I think — out of the 9,000 — are the best for English Language Learners. You can’t go wrong with any of them. Most are best for Beginning and Early Intermediate ELL’s, though many are also suitable for Intermediates.
I also like the substantial Citizenship section. You can find many accessible links related to government and civics that are very helpful to students at any language level preparing to take the U.S. Citizenship test.
You can find links to literally thousands of “talking stories” for Beginning English Language Learners under Stories.
Writing is another good section for Beginning ELL’s.
The links under Health are appropriate for any level of ELL, though a small number might not be suitable for very young students.
Word and Video Games is filled with English-learning games for all levels. You might want to read about how I use the online video games that are listed there as a language learning activity.
You can find a ton of tools and examples of how students can easily create their own online projects at Examples of Student Work.
Students enjoy a lot of online Geography games.
There are also a lot useful links on the Teacher Page.
I began to create a The Best Websites page adapting all of my “The Best…” lists. However, I found that it was just as easy for my students to access them directly from my blog, especially since I had them all organized in one place. After putting versions of twenty of the lists on my website, I just couldn’t bring myself to do 170 more.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
January 16, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
I’ve created a ton of “The Best…” lists so far — nearly 170 over the past thirteen months, in fact. Based on a number of requests I’ve received from teachers, I’ve decided to review all of them and come-up with a new series of lists including “The Best Sites For K-12 Beginning English Language Learners”; “The Best Sites For K-12 Intermediate English Language Learners”; “The Best Sites For Older Beginning & Early Intermediate English Language Learners”; and “The Best Sites For Older Intermediate English Language Learners.”
I thought that lists like these might make it a little easier for teachers, particularly newer ones — newer to teaching or newer to using technology in their teaching. Then, at their leisure, they can explore all the other more specialized lists, including the ones on Web 2.0 applications.
Of course, links to all the sites on these lists can also be found on my website, along with thousands of others.
I’m starting off with one focusing on K-12 English Language Learners. In compiling this list, I tried to really focus on highlighting sites that would be easy-to-use and engaging to both a younger Beginning English Language Learner and to someone who was new to computers. They all have audio support for text and, with only one exception, they also have visual support. Only a couple require registration (though the top-ranked site lets you do so if you want to keep track of what exercises you’ve done (and registration takes seconds). Of course, they all are free-of-charge.
Here are my ranked picks for The Best Sites For K-12 Beginning English Language Learners:
Number fourteen is from Houghton-Mifflin and is called WordBuilder. It has a zillion vocabulary exercises and helps students learn both spelling and pronunciation simply in context.
Number thirteen is BBC Bitesize Literacy. It has a number of great activities and games related to basic literacy.
Number twelve is Spoken Skills. It provides good, clear, listening practice, and also provides users the ability to easily record what they hear and play it back for comparison.
The original number eleven site has gone out of business.
Number ten is WordBuilder from I Know That. I think it’s the best site out there for phonics practice. And, yes, it has the same name as another “WordBuilder” site on this list. Like with all I Know That activities, when you click on it, an annoying pop-up asking you to register shows-up. Just click on “Maybe Later” and you’ll automatically proceed to the exercise. I’m also including the Social Studies page at I Know That. It has tons of different kinds of map games that are informative and fun.
Number nine is Kiz Club, a Korean site that has a ton of talking stories on a wide variety of topics.
Number eight is Literactive. It has hundreds of talking stories and other interactive activities. It’s free, though you have to register (it only takes a minute to do so). My students really enjoy this site.
Number seven is a text-to-speech tool, which my students have found very helpful in learning pronunciation. There are a bunch out there, though I personally prefer AT&T Labs.
Number six is an easy translation site. There are many on the Web. These translating tools all work in a similar way – they let you copy and paste words or sentences, and then pick the language you want it translated into. The translation then appears on the screen. Some also let you translate entire webpages. Jeffrey Hill at the English Blog rates Google’s tool as the best among the ones he has tried- by far. I trust his judgment, which is why I’m choosing Google Language Tools.
Number five is The Language Guide, clearly the best dictionary on the web for Beginning ELL’s. It’s easy to navigate, and has excellent images, audio, and text.
Number four is Mingoville. It’s an exceptional site from Denmark designed to teach Beginning English Language Learners. There are many interactive exercises and games, it’s very colorful, and there are both listening and speaking activities, including a voice recording feature. You can experiment with it as a guest for a few minutes, but then you have to register. It’s completely free, and registration takes about twenty seconds.
Number three is is Starfall, the established site that is rivaled by no other in providing accessible literacy activities to Beginning English Language Learners.
Number two is Henny Jellema’s Online TPR Exercises. You’ve got to see this site to believe it. I can’t imagine the amount of work that went into creating the exercises. However, as he cautions, it’s critical to combine using his online activities with real-life Total Physical Response lessons.
And now, for my choice as the number one pick for K-12 Beginning English Language Learners is…U.S.A Learns. It’s an incredible website to help users learn English. Even though it’s primarily designed for older learners, it seems very accessible to all but the very youngest ELL’s. It’s free to use. Students can register if they want to save their work and evaluate their progress. It’s a joint effort of the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE), Internet and Media Services Department and the Project IDEAL Support Center at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. I know they’ve been working on this for quite awhile, and it shows.
Here are some new sites for this list:
Strivney is a free new site for beginning readers (it has a special section for English Language Learners) with 1,000 interactive exercises and games. You need to register for most beyond the sample exercises, but it’s super easy to do so. The site also has printables you can use to reinforce the online activities.
ESOL Courses has a good, basic introduction to English.
Brainpop ESL has some decent activities. I wouldn’t included it on this list if you had to pay for it but, for now at least, it’s free.
English Central, of course, is an incredible place to practice reading, speaking, and listening.
I know others might feel differently about the sites I’ve placed on this list, and their ranking. Feel free to offer feedback and make other suggestions. I’m all ears!
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
January 1, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
I’ve posted quite a few times about various web tools that allow students to type in words or sentences and then have the computer “verbalize” them. You can find the best of these sites at The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners — 2008. They’re excellent applications for English Language Learners to help develop pronunciation skills.
Now, here’s the weirdest text-to-speech site ever — Talk To The Plant.
Heinz Ketchup is sponsoring this site that is supposed to determine if talking to a tomato plant will make it grow larger.
On the site you see a picture of two plants (one is a “control” plant). You type in a “message of love” to the non-control one and both you and that plant hear it spoken. You can see for yourself if these “messages of love” have made a difference.
Of course, it could also be a rather unusual way to either introduce or reinforce some of the methodologies of scientific experimentation.
December 23, 2008
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Burger King recently began an advertising campaign where they supposedly found isolated communities around the world who had never heard of a hamburger, and then got people to do a taste test and say Burger King’s “Whoppers” were the best.
You might reasonably ask, “What does this have to do with English Language Learners?”
Well, one of these offensive ads (which are drawing criticism from many corners) features Hmong villagers in Thailand. Regular readers of this blog know that many English Language Learners at our school are Hmong refugees.
The ad is available on YouTube which, of course, is blocked by most schools. However, I will be uploading it it to Edublogs TV later this week when they’re done upgrading the site, and you will be able to view it there.
Here is a blog post from the Wall Street Journal about the ad, which includes a letter written by a Hmong-American.
Here is an excerpt from a comment made on a Hmong chatboard about the ad:
Perhaps, any exposure is better than some exposure, but aside from
that, this commercial has absolutely nothing for Hmong people to feel
proud about. The producers of the commercial went around the world
looking for the most archaic civilizations in existence, and found the
Hmong living in Chang Mai. This series of commercials by BK are not
intended to highlight the cultural uniqueness of these so called
“whopper virgins.” Instead, these commercials paint these cultures as
primitive and out of touch from the modern world. While there is
something to be said about, and perhaps even be proud of, a culture’s
ability to remain autonomous despite the encroaching world, that is
not the aim of these commercials.
Agencies fighting world hunger have also criticized the ad.
I’ll be having my students watch it — without first giving them my opinion. It’ll be interesting to get their reactions — both before and after reading some of the critiques of the ad.
By the way, in searching for information about the ad today, I found that The English Blog had written about it last week, and I must have just missed it.
December 22, 2008
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
David Deubelbeiss from EFL Classroom 2.0 contributed a great addition to The Best Websites For Learning About Martin Luther King.
The site is from the King Center, and it provides audio of King’s famous “The Drum Major Instinct” speech. In addition to the audio, it shows the text (in an artistic sort of way) on the screen.
I’m also adding The Do’s And Don’ts of Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr’s Legacy from Teaching Tolerance. It provides some excellent guidelines for teachers.
December 18, 2008
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The University of California-Davis has developed some wonderfully entertaining, informative, and accessible music videos about food safety issues. They’re closed-captioned, and many, if not all, are not sung very fast.
I’ve placed the link on my website under Food.
