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How can the use of technology on a daily basis benefit English Language Learners to achieve their full potential?

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How to Use Technology Effectively to Transform Your ESL Classroom

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How to Use Technology Effectively to Transform Your ESL Classroom

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SpeechPeek
BusyTeacher
English Listening Lesson Library Online (ELLLO)
ESLvideo
TEFLnet
FunEnglishGames.com
Tefltunes
Busuu

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A selection of Internet tools that can be highly useful to teachers of English as a second (or foreign) language.

The ever-growing Web has caused the availability of resources for teachers of English as a foreign language to skyrocket over the last several years. Whether you teach in a virtual or traditional classroom, chances are that at least one or two of these resources can help you craft enjoyable and effective lessons.

The sites on this list don't all do exactly the same thing, but each of them may help improve your workflow with your ESL/EFL students. From lesson plan assistance to databases of recorded listening exercises to quizzes based on YouTube videos, these tools can each contribute something special to your classroom.

1. SpeechPeek is an online portal that allows ESL/EFL teachers to create interactive speaking and listening exercises for students to complete and submit remotely. Using peripheral or embedded laptop microphones, students record themselves speaking the exercises you provide, and their results are saved on the site for you to listen to and grade. Teachers have the opportunity record "solutions" to the exercise in their own voices, and a feature of the site allows you to provide personalized feedback to each student on each exercise.

2. BusyTeacher is an extensive repository of affordable e-books, downloadable classroom posters, informative education articles for ESL/EFL teachers and over 10,000 free printable worksheets in dozens of categories. You can find innovative methods for coaching grammar and punctuation, new teaching ideas, timely lessons specific to the season and more. Free online tools at BusyTeacher include applications for creating word search, jumble and letter tile puzzles as well as a daily warmer that you can slip into your curriculum or use as inspiration for fun exercises of your own.

3. English Listening Lesson Library Online (ELLLO) contains hundreds of pre-recorded monologues and discussions on an enormous variety of topics, geared to English speakers at six distinct levels of skill from beginner to advanced. ELLLO recruits speakers from more than 60 countries, helping you introduce your students to a variety of different English accents, and some exercises contain comprehension games as learning aids. The lessons come in video as well as audio formats and can be sorted by topic, skill level or speaker's home country.

4. ESLvideo takes an innovative approach to educational technology and turns something students probably do already into an ESL/EFL learning experience. Users register for an account, choose a YouTube video and then create quizzes based on the video content, which learners can then watch, answer and rate. Quizzes are ranked by recommended level of skill at English and contain a comment section for students to practice their written English. The diverse content on the site has been created by over 1,400 registered teachers, and registration for the site is free.

5. TEFLnet presents its materials mainly in British English, but nevertheless offers a broad spectrum of resources for ESL/EFL teachers in the U.S. and internationally. Features include a worksheet generator, downloadable lesson plans, a discussion board for teachers, basic information about TEFL qualifications and a job board for aspiring ESL/EFL professionals worldwide. The name of the site comes from the acronym TEFL - for Teaching English as a Foreign Language - and the site's founder has helped produce a documentary on the subject , called "Talking TEFL."

6. FunEnglishGames.com is a great resource for ESL/EFL teachers in early childhood education, offering a wide variety of teaching tools aimed at children. Features include a long list online interactive games and printable puzzles, quizzes and worksheets on numerous topics. The site also offers suggestions for fun classroom activities, jokes, anagrams, tongue twisters and a healthy selection of videos focusing on vocabulary, grammar, history and humor.

7. Tefltunes uses the principle that music is a great teaching tool and memory aid educators in the ESL/EFL field instruct students on English grammar and topical vocabulary at multiple skill levels. The full site operates on a subscription basis, but a handful of lessons are available for free so you can test out the concept as a part of your method. Songs can help relax the classroom atmosphere, introduce students to colloquial English and provide an authentic cultural dimension to your lessons. If you've ever had lyrics stuck in your head, you'll understand how this approach works.

8. Busuu provides online interactive lessons in English (and 10 other languages) using photos and recordings by native speakers and other types of audio-visual material. Busuu also offers a mobile app for Android and iOS that contains a vocabulary of over 3,000 words and covers 150 everyday topics in its lessons. Combining classroom work with Busuu work might help engage students in multiple ways.

The sheer volume of educational assistance available from these and other ESL/EFL resources online can seem overwhelming at first, but it shouldn't take long to do a little exploring, become accustomed to the (sometimes unfamiliar) site or app design and start making use of them in your own classroom. Whether you use Web resources as supplemental instruction or online classes are your medium, at least one of these sites is bound to help you make learning English easy and fun.

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8 Great Online Resources for ESL/EFL Teachers

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The ever-growing Web has caused the availability of resources for teachers of English as a foreign language to skyrocket over the last several years. Whether you teach in a virtual or traditional classroom, chances are that at least one or two of these resources can help you craft enjoyable and effective lessons.

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Learning Chocolate
Picto4me
Read&Write for Chrome
Imagine Learning
Seesaw
BrainPop ESL
Vocaroo

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"America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts."

Yesterday in the #ELLEdTech chat, and I discussed technology tools for helping newcomers, which we defined as English Language Learners from other countries who have very low proficiency levels of English. Teaching these students is challenging, especially if they arrive in the middle of the school year and it means rearranging your schedule, which happened to me on more than one occasion. When I first started teaching, I didn't like working with beginner-level ELLs but as time went on, my attitude changed and I came to really enjoy teaching them. It was so easy to see the progress they made and that was really gratifying.

In this blog post, I'd like to share some of the resources that were mentioned in our Twitter chat. In the future, I'll write about other resources for newcomers that are not technology-based. These resources can be utilized by both ESL and mainstream teachers who have newcomers in their classes.

First, though, here is a more complete description of a "newcomer" student, from the Next Generation ESL Project: Curriculum Resource Guide by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education:
Newcomer programs are temporary, transitional programs for recently arrived immigrant ELs at the earliest levels of English language proficiency, often referred to as newcomers(Friedlander, 1991). They are designed to meet the unique needs of this population; among their goals are helping students develop basic English language skills, providing instruction in core content areas in preparation for participation in general education classrooms, developing multicultural understanding and intercultural communication, and guiding students through the acculturation process in American schools (Friedlander, 1991; Short & Boyson, 2012).

* One of Laurah's favorite tools for vocabulary learning for newcomers is Learning Chocolate . She said, "It's great because it involves all 4 language domains with vocabulary practice & has visuals." First you listen to the words and phrases, and then you can play the games for free; if you want to add your own, though, you have to register. There are versions in US English, UK English, Chinese (written versions in traditional and simplified Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and German. There is also a page with links to other sites for learning English .

* "Another great tool to help newcomers to communicate," according to Laurah, "is , a free Google Chrome app. This is great for making word walls or communication boards and allows you to create printable communications boards for varied purposes." A communication board is a grid with images on it, similar to a Bingo or Jingo board. Laurah wrote that explains why this app is good for ELLs.

* Laurah also loves Read&Write for Chrome by TextHelp. "Read&Write for Chrome is great for providing accommodations or read-alouds for students with low proficiency -- it will read aloud documents (tests or quizzes, for example) as well as websites. You can use it for whole text or parts of a text. It also has translation and annotation features." You can see how it works on their website by clicking on the orange icon with headphones in the upper right corner of your screen. A single use subscription for one year is $145 and other options are available as well.

* Imagine Learning is another tool that Laurah says the teachers she works with love. This is a paid program that offers instruction in reading, speaking, and listening skills, grammar, and vocabulary. Translation into 15 languages is available. Other programs are for math, struggling readers and special education students. Ideally used on tablets but can also be used on computers. I couldn't find any pricing info online, which to me implies it's expensive and probably not something individual teachers would purchase on their own.

* , suggested by Shaeley Santiago , is a program for creating digital portfolios. It works on computers as well as tablets and other devices. Students can upload written work, photos, videos, links, and more to make a portfolio. There is a free version and paid versions that offer more features.

* I recommended BrainPop ESL . BrainPop ESL is part of the BrainPop group of programs and is aimed specifically at English Language Learners. It offers videos (with two recurring characters), activities, and games that teach various language skills at 3 different levels. Some free content is available but the paid version offers more material; an annual subscription for 1 classroom is $150. Other plans are also available. (ignore the Chinese text and click on the video) explains all the features on the Brain Pop ESL site.

* In a course I took earlier this year, I learned about . I haven't used it in the classroom but it's a free program that lets you make audio recordings online and is really simple to use. You can record instructions for activities, homework assignments, or messages for students, to name a few possibilities. You can also use Vocaroo for assessment purposes by recording students at the beginning of the school year and then again at the end. You can download the recordings in various formats, email them, or create a QR code for them, which I think is pretty neat.

I hope this gives you some ideas for resources you can use with your newcomers. I'd love to hear what else works well - just add your suggestions in the Comments below.

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"America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts." Yesterday in the #ELLEdTech chat, and I discussed technology tools for helping newcomers, which we defined as English Language Learners from other countries who have very low proficiency levels of English.

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Dual-language online books

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Unite for Literacy provides free digital access to picture books, narrated in many languages. Literacy is at the core of a healthy community, so we unite with partners to enable all families to read with their young children.