Well, I have dipped my toes into wiki-world and find the waters not too bad. First, I learned that I could use the services of a "wiki farm" or host the wiki myself on the server for my website. Being a total wiki novice, I opted for a wiki farm — wikia.com. In the week that I've ben building the wiki, I've been very happy with wikis. In addition to an extensive help forum, their response to additional questions is reasonably prompt (within one working day) and helpful. Here's the wiki —http://esol-volunteer.wikia.com — still a work in progress, but I'm pleased with how it's working. Suggestions welcome.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
New URL... Same Blog
I decided I wanted to create a wiki to help my students with volunteer options (more on that later), and found myself back here after way too long an absence. Maybe one reason I've been staying away is that I didn't like the original URL — esolteacherhelp. It seemed presumptuous from one who is still struggling to find the best way or ways. A better name would have been helpesolteacher, but I decided to rename it to my name instead. More on the wiki and volunteering to come.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Keeping Up
Not. Obviously. I'm embarrassed to see that my last post here was more than three years ago! I started this blog as a class assignment at The University of Texas at Austin and resolved to continue it as a venue for working through my struggles and sometime triumphs as a student and teacher. My re-entry into academia in the summer of 2009 has proved to be a roller coaster ride in every sense of the phrase. Every semester I tense with a combination of dread and anticipation on the slow climb upward toward major project/assignment/exam, thrill to the accelerated rush of research, writing, and presentation, and heave a sigh of relief as the semester comes to an end. Then as I disembark, I'm ready to do it again and register for another semester with the best of intentions to maintain a balance in my various roles and responsibilities. Those intentions, like New Year resolutions, soon fall by the wayside. At this moment, I would love to be outside on my bicycle, but as soon as I sign off here, I have reading to do for today's class assignment. And so it goes.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Meaning before details
...or the importance of schema/background activation. Someone on a listserv I subscribe to recommended John Medina's Brain Rules blog. I am so impressed with it, I want to share it here. His 12/30/2009 post, Meaning Before Details, is an important reminder that one should never introduce new information without first giving students a framework on which to organize it. Attaching something new to something old somehow makes it "stick" better. The schema video on their blog (and on Youtube) really brings this home. The first time I watched it, I didn't have a clue what they were talking about. With the schema activation they provide at the end, I understood it perfectly! What are the implications of this for language teaching? The first step of any lesson plan template is "schema activation" or "activate background knowledge," but too often I've thought of this step as a means of merely getting students' attention or getting them interested in what was to follow. I have a tendency to speed through the schema activation in order to get to the real lesson. I had never understood the connection between schema activation and memory by association. I am fascinated with how much is being done lately to apply the findings of brain research to classroom practices.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
How I spent my Christmas vacation
I suspect I'm not the only teacher for whom "vacation" means a time to rethink, reorganize, clear clutter, and make a new and better plan for the coming semester's classes. One habit I'm trying to break is the photocopying/handouts syndrome. It is costly in terms of both time and the earth's resources. When there are extra copies left over, it seems wasteful to just recycle them, so I file them away for future use, but there are problems with this system. First, by the time the topic comes up again, I'm likely to have forgotten about the file. Second, I find I quickly run out of places to keep those files. Third, and most significant I think, is that if I do remember I have the file, I discover that I want to tweak the handout to make it better, so the copies I've so carefully saved end up in the recycle box after all. It would have been better to start with recycling the extra copies or, even better, to not have made them in the first place. Less paper, less clutter, less waste. It's an ideal to work toward.
On the electronic front, I have to confess that I have not yet experimented with the Wii remote faux Smart Board (see previous post), but I did revamp my list of ESL links for students. Instead of having them on a page of our family website, I gave them a home of their own at esolfavorites.com. I've retested all the links and added new ones I've been keeping on a "to do" list for the site, including links to sites for speaking and pronunciation that I hadn't included before. I especially like the Google translation feature that I incorporated on the home page, along with a short summary of my current philosophy of how people learn languages.
On the electronic front, I have to confess that I have not yet experimented with the Wii remote faux Smart Board (see previous post), but I did revamp my list of ESL links for students. Instead of having them on a page of our family website, I gave them a home of their own at esolfavorites.com. I've retested all the links and added new ones I've been keeping on a "to do" list for the site, including links to sites for speaking and pronunciation that I hadn't included before. I especially like the Google translation feature that I incorporated on the home page, along with a short summary of my current philosophy of how people learn languages.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Of cabbages and kings
"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax, of cabbages-and kings…" (Lewis Carroll). This post is a compendium of many things—three best-of collections, two comprehensive online ESL courses, and a finale of a site where you can learn how to create your own faux Smart Board.
First the lists…
Probably the best known collection of lists for teachers is Larry Ferlazzo's blog of Best Websites of the Day for Teaching ELL, ESL, EFL. He continually updates his Best of… lists, and his blog is one-stop shopping for ideas on almost any topic. Type keywords in the search box, and you will probably be served with a cornucopia of ideas and activities. For the best of his best-ofs, click the Most Popular Blog Posts tab in his header. Each entry is annotated, so the user has some guidance to avoid wasting time by going to sites that are not of interest. One site I like from his post for today (Best Websites for English Language Learner Students —2009) is the BBC Memory Share site. I searched for immigration and found this memory, which could be used for a class discussion of culture shock and/or preparation for students' writing about a memory of their own and posting it on the site.
If you find Larry Ferlazzo's site a bit overwhelming, Kim Oliver, ESOL instructor at Austin Community College, has a site that is helpful and a bit less intimidating in scope —Kim Oliver's Links and Resources. Last Saturday she presented her 20 Top ESL Websites at the TexTESOL III Regional Conference, but she has way more than 20 really useful sites! Her home page features a highlighted site of the week, and on the right are links to sites, organized by category and annotated to enhance targeted searching. The site is easy to navigate, with a sitemap and a search box for targeting a specific topic or issue. Looking for practice with count/noncount nouns? A click on the category on the left brings you four sites with explanations, quizzes, and activities.
If you're looking for learning games to liven up students' vocab work or grammar practice, Rong-Chaang ESL Games may be the site for you. The site is organized into five categories: Popular (non-ESL) games, Educational Games, English Learning Games, Grammar Games, and Vocabulary Games. It seems clear and easily navigable, but after you get onto the linked pages, you might find yourself entangled in a myriad of links with no clue as to where to go except Back. Many of the games are designed for children, but adult English learners don't seem to mind. I learned about this site from one of my students after she discovered Learning Chocolate, which is linked from the Rong-Chang site.
Free Online Multimedia Language courses… Is it really possible to learn a language online? I know of two free courses that do a pretty good job of facilitating online learning, including feedback on writing. USA Learns is a multimedia online course developed by the Sacramento County Ofice of Education with the support of the Office of Vocational and Adult Education of the U.S. Dept. of Education. Released in November 2008, the course is now used by many educators as a distance learning option. Learners can sign in independently or as part of a class. It is easy to set up a class, track the progress of individual students, and provide feedback. When learners register (even when they are not part of a class), the program keeps track of their progress so they don't have to start at the beginning every time they go to the site. The program is targeted for immigrant adults with beginning to high intermediate English language skills. It includes practice activities in listening, speaking, reading, and writing couched in life-skills themes to promote success at work and in the community.
I have also found a commercial multimedia course that seems to work well. http://www.busuu.com/ offers courses in English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian. I've been using it for Spanish for a short time and am impressed by the comprehensiveness of the free version. It's a combination social networking/language course site, where members help members via video chat. When I do a writing activity, I get feedback and correction within minutes. Of course there are ads and delicate pressure to sign on for the paid premium version, so there are some features that are not available in the free edition. It's necessary to pay for the premium version in order to hear the audio for the dialogues and download the podcasts. But, the free version does have the video chat option for talking with a native speaker. Another nice feature of the course is that users are reminded if they've been inactive for an extended period of time. Periodically, I receive an email telling me that my "language garden is drying up" and it's time to go back to busuu to do some more work.
Make your own Smart Board… I happened onto this site by chance. It's not something I would ever have dreamed of to search for. Johnny Chung Lee, a researcher for Microsoft with a PhD from Carnegie Melon, has posted instructions—with a video demo— for making any surface a Wiimote Interactive Whiteboard for about $50. Why would you want to do that? So you could project an image from your computer and write on the screen—without leaving any marks behind—and, from the demos I've seen, a lot more. All you need is a computer, projector, Wii remote control, and an infrared pen. The site gives instructions for making the pen, but if you're not that much of a do-it-yourselfer, you can buy one for $29. Lee's software (free) is for PCs, but he provides a link to a site where Mac users can download free software developed for Macs. There's also a users' forum you can go to when you have questions. I don't have a Wii, but I just checked online, and it looks like the going price is $35 for the remote control. Of course this homemade version won't have all the features of a bona fide Smart Board, but it looks like it might be worth playing with. Hmm… maybe that will be something to look into over the Christmas holidays!
First the lists…
Probably the best known collection of lists for teachers is Larry Ferlazzo's blog of Best Websites of the Day for Teaching ELL, ESL, EFL. He continually updates his Best of… lists, and his blog is one-stop shopping for ideas on almost any topic. Type keywords in the search box, and you will probably be served with a cornucopia of ideas and activities. For the best of his best-ofs, click the Most Popular Blog Posts tab in his header. Each entry is annotated, so the user has some guidance to avoid wasting time by going to sites that are not of interest. One site I like from his post for today (Best Websites for English Language Learner Students —2009) is the BBC Memory Share site. I searched for immigration and found this memory, which could be used for a class discussion of culture shock and/or preparation for students' writing about a memory of their own and posting it on the site.
If you find Larry Ferlazzo's site a bit overwhelming, Kim Oliver, ESOL instructor at Austin Community College, has a site that is helpful and a bit less intimidating in scope —Kim Oliver's Links and Resources. Last Saturday she presented her 20 Top ESL Websites at the TexTESOL III Regional Conference, but she has way more than 20 really useful sites! Her home page features a highlighted site of the week, and on the right are links to sites, organized by category and annotated to enhance targeted searching. The site is easy to navigate, with a sitemap and a search box for targeting a specific topic or issue. Looking for practice with count/noncount nouns? A click on the category on the left brings you four sites with explanations, quizzes, and activities.
If you're looking for learning games to liven up students' vocab work or grammar practice, Rong-Chaang ESL Games may be the site for you. The site is organized into five categories: Popular (non-ESL) games, Educational Games, English Learning Games, Grammar Games, and Vocabulary Games. It seems clear and easily navigable, but after you get onto the linked pages, you might find yourself entangled in a myriad of links with no clue as to where to go except Back. Many of the games are designed for children, but adult English learners don't seem to mind. I learned about this site from one of my students after she discovered Learning Chocolate, which is linked from the Rong-Chang site.
Free Online Multimedia Language courses… Is it really possible to learn a language online? I know of two free courses that do a pretty good job of facilitating online learning, including feedback on writing. USA Learns is a multimedia online course developed by the Sacramento County Ofice of Education with the support of the Office of Vocational and Adult Education of the U.S. Dept. of Education. Released in November 2008, the course is now used by many educators as a distance learning option. Learners can sign in independently or as part of a class. It is easy to set up a class, track the progress of individual students, and provide feedback. When learners register (even when they are not part of a class), the program keeps track of their progress so they don't have to start at the beginning every time they go to the site. The program is targeted for immigrant adults with beginning to high intermediate English language skills. It includes practice activities in listening, speaking, reading, and writing couched in life-skills themes to promote success at work and in the community.
I have also found a commercial multimedia course that seems to work well. http://www.busuu.com/ offers courses in English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian. I've been using it for Spanish for a short time and am impressed by the comprehensiveness of the free version. It's a combination social networking/language course site, where members help members via video chat. When I do a writing activity, I get feedback and correction within minutes. Of course there are ads and delicate pressure to sign on for the paid premium version, so there are some features that are not available in the free edition. It's necessary to pay for the premium version in order to hear the audio for the dialogues and download the podcasts. But, the free version does have the video chat option for talking with a native speaker. Another nice feature of the course is that users are reminded if they've been inactive for an extended period of time. Periodically, I receive an email telling me that my "language garden is drying up" and it's time to go back to busuu to do some more work.
Make your own Smart Board… I happened onto this site by chance. It's not something I would ever have dreamed of to search for. Johnny Chung Lee, a researcher for Microsoft with a PhD from Carnegie Melon, has posted instructions—with a video demo— for making any surface a Wiimote Interactive Whiteboard for about $50. Why would you want to do that? So you could project an image from your computer and write on the screen—without leaving any marks behind—and, from the demos I've seen, a lot more. All you need is a computer, projector, Wii remote control, and an infrared pen. The site gives instructions for making the pen, but if you're not that much of a do-it-yourselfer, you can buy one for $29. Lee's software (free) is for PCs, but he provides a link to a site where Mac users can download free software developed for Macs. There's also a users' forum you can go to when you have questions. I don't have a Wii, but I just checked online, and it looks like the going price is $35 for the remote control. Of course this homemade version won't have all the features of a bona fide Smart Board, but it looks like it might be worth playing with. Hmm… maybe that will be something to look into over the Christmas holidays!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Speaking Online
Over the weekend, I found a couple of good sites for speaking and conversation practice and remembered another one I hadn't visited in some time. There are many Internet resources for pronunciation, but I haven't found many that provide speaking practice with feedback. The first two sites listed below are for students to use to improve their pronunciation. The last three are not for students, but they provide ideas for teachers to encourage and facilitate conversation in the classroom.
To start with the basics, there is a fantastic site from the University of Iowa for practicing the segmentals of American English (or German or Spanish, if you prefer): fənɜtIks—the sounds of spoken language. System requirements are Flash 7 or higher and Firefox browser (preferred), but it's worth it for the animation and video. Each of the phonemes of American English is categorized by place, manner, and voice. When the user clicks a phoneme, there are options to hear it, see a video of its production, watch a flash animation of its production, and/or see a written description of exactly what is going on inside the mouth to produce the sound. The written descriptions represent very advanced reading for English language learners, but the animation, video, and sample words would be helpful to learners at any level.
The other pronunciation site I'm going to share is less academic and a lot of fun to use (my opinion corroborated by feedback from my students). It is Oddcast's text-to-speech site, which uses virtual characters to speak text entered by the user. Variations include type of English (US, UK, Scottish, or Australian), a variety of avatars, and special effects (pitch, duration, speed, and more). However, I recommend listening with the effects set to none, as the effects tend to distort the more natural pronunciation rendered with them. The appeal of this is that students enjoy having different avatars repeat a given phrase or sentence, with the result that they get multiple repetitions without becoming bored.
ESL Flow has hundreds of ideas for teachers to use to promote dialogue in the classroom, grouped by Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, and Intermediate. Most activities are in downloadable PDF or MS Word format, but there are also some can be used online. It includes assorted speaking and icebreaker activities, interview topics, and information gap activities. I found some files to be better than others, and there's no way to preview before you download, so it may be necessary to download a few files you don't want before you find the gem you're looking for.
The online journal from TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) has more topics for classroom conversation than I care to count and many, many questions for each topic to keep the conversation going. So if you have a topic you want your students to discuss, it's probably on this site, and the questions provided will help you keep the conversation going without running out of steam. My favorites include What if… and Gender Roles.
An excellent conversation/interview modeling site for teachers shows a series of videos from the Coalition of Limited English Speaking Elderly (CLESE), a project to help elderly refugees in Chicago learn English. Heide Wrigley, Jim Prowie, and their colleagues created three videos as part of the Bright Ideas project. In the first video, the teacher poses a problem (e.g., Your landlord says you did not pay the rent) and asks "What would you do? What would you say?" Students discuss possible solutions to the problem. The second video, Coming to America, shows Heide Wrigley in individual interviews with students, prompting them to tell their stories. Be prepared for tears because these stories are highly emotional. Heide provides good examples of recasting and paraphrasing in this video. The third clip is a comprehensive lesson plan on shopping for fruits and vegetables, which culminates in beginning-level students going on an actual field trip (they pick their own food in the field) and asking questions in English. When they return to the classroom, they discuss differences in prices at the farm they visited with prices advertised in supermarket flyers. I find it helpful to see the student/teacher interactions in these videos. They are valuable models that I can carry with me into my own teaching.
To start with the basics, there is a fantastic site from the University of Iowa for practicing the segmentals of American English (or German or Spanish, if you prefer): fənɜtIks—the sounds of spoken language. System requirements are Flash 7 or higher and Firefox browser (preferred), but it's worth it for the animation and video. Each of the phonemes of American English is categorized by place, manner, and voice. When the user clicks a phoneme, there are options to hear it, see a video of its production, watch a flash animation of its production, and/or see a written description of exactly what is going on inside the mouth to produce the sound. The written descriptions represent very advanced reading for English language learners, but the animation, video, and sample words would be helpful to learners at any level.
The other pronunciation site I'm going to share is less academic and a lot of fun to use (my opinion corroborated by feedback from my students). It is Oddcast's text-to-speech site, which uses virtual characters to speak text entered by the user. Variations include type of English (US, UK, Scottish, or Australian), a variety of avatars, and special effects (pitch, duration, speed, and more). However, I recommend listening with the effects set to none, as the effects tend to distort the more natural pronunciation rendered with them. The appeal of this is that students enjoy having different avatars repeat a given phrase or sentence, with the result that they get multiple repetitions without becoming bored.
ESL Flow has hundreds of ideas for teachers to use to promote dialogue in the classroom, grouped by Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, and Intermediate. Most activities are in downloadable PDF or MS Word format, but there are also some can be used online. It includes assorted speaking and icebreaker activities, interview topics, and information gap activities. I found some files to be better than others, and there's no way to preview before you download, so it may be necessary to download a few files you don't want before you find the gem you're looking for.
The online journal from TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) has more topics for classroom conversation than I care to count and many, many questions for each topic to keep the conversation going. So if you have a topic you want your students to discuss, it's probably on this site, and the questions provided will help you keep the conversation going without running out of steam. My favorites include What if… and Gender Roles.
An excellent conversation/interview modeling site for teachers shows a series of videos from the Coalition of Limited English Speaking Elderly (CLESE), a project to help elderly refugees in Chicago learn English. Heide Wrigley, Jim Prowie, and their colleagues created three videos as part of the Bright Ideas project. In the first video, the teacher poses a problem (e.g., Your landlord says you did not pay the rent) and asks "What would you do? What would you say?" Students discuss possible solutions to the problem. The second video, Coming to America, shows Heide Wrigley in individual interviews with students, prompting them to tell their stories. Be prepared for tears because these stories are highly emotional. Heide provides good examples of recasting and paraphrasing in this video. The third clip is a comprehensive lesson plan on shopping for fruits and vegetables, which culminates in beginning-level students going on an actual field trip (they pick their own food in the field) and asking questions in English. When they return to the classroom, they discuss differences in prices at the farm they visited with prices advertised in supermarket flyers. I find it helpful to see the student/teacher interactions in these videos. They are valuable models that I can carry with me into my own teaching.
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