Russell's Teacher Training Website

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/ 

What is it about?                                                                   

Russell's Teacher Training Videos is a great information source for language teaching, learning, and teacher development. There are videos for ESL/EFL and for learning ICT. There are a great number of videos recorded by Russell, teaching us how to use software or websites step by step and also tips for language teaching. In addition to English language teaching, there are also a lot of tools that can be used to teach all languages.

Why is it good to language learning?                                    
Using ICT in ELT is a trend. With the aid of ICT, learning autonomy and learners' motivation can be generate. It also breaks the boundary of classroom and connect learning inside the class to the world outside. Though there are so many advantages, we are sometimes worried about our own ability of using ICT in ELT classroom. This website helps us to learn the technology and also provides us with ideas to use it in language teaching and learning.

How can it be used?                                                              

For Teachers:

1. By watching the videos, we can learn the technology step by step. There are also videos in which Russell shares ideas or tips of using particular websites in ELT classrooms.
2. By taking a look at TOP 20 Training Videos, we can know what other teachers around the world are interested in and use in their classrooms.
3. The videos on this website is updated. Follow the latest videos and we can learn the latest tools or find the latest websites for language learning and teaching.
4. Sign up for the newsletter and you can automatically get the latest useful information from the free monthly newsletter. 

For Students:

1. Here is a part called Videos to Recommend to students. Useful websites for language learning are introduced in the videos. Students can learn how to use these websites by watching the videos. These are also authentic listening materials.
2. When we integrate ICT in some tasks, for example, asking students to record an oral presentation about their favorite tourist attraction by using myBrainShark, students can watch the video to learn how to use the website and review the video whenever they forget any detail.

What are the limitations?                                                     
Though there are a lot of tools and resources, we need to consider the constrains and challenges in our own teaching contexts to adjust the use of ICT in ELT.

More Information                                                                  

• You can also find out how to use the site by following Russell's instruction here. http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/tour/index.html 
• Remember to sign up for the newsletter and you'll get the latest information.

Breaking News English- News English with Interactive Exercise

 http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

What is it about?                                                                    

It's an amazing website. There are English lessons on current news. They are free and ready-to-print. Each lesson is quite complete, including before/while/after reading or listening activities. You can also download the audio files.The website is quite organized, and it's easy for you to see the files you can download and use. 

The database is quite large and updated every 3 days. The topics of the news is various and worldwide. You can find the news related to the topics you want by using key words to search within the website. There are also lessons arranged by themes, like environment, health, technology, or famous people and gossip. Besides, there are plenty of interactive exercises, including hangman, flashcards, fill-in-the-blank, matching, sentence jumble, crossword, no letters, missing words, etc. By doing these exercises, learners can practice the content repeatedly.

Why is it good to language learning?                                    

The lessons are news-based and suit students at intermediate level or above. Students can develop their vocabulary through the lessons and the exercises. The activities in the lesson also help students to develop listening and reading skills, like reading and listening for main ideas or specific details. There are also various kinds of discussions, which provide chances for students to communicate in English. Writing activities are also incorporated in the lesson, like finding collocations, making sentences, or writing a letter. 

How can it be used?                                                              

• For the context that computers or Internet are not available in class, we can print out the worksheets to use. There are plenty of exercises in one lesson, so we might need to modify it to fit our class time. We also can choose different activities to use every time to create different interaction in class.
• The lesson plans are very clear and designed in details. There is warm-up activities, like predicting the words used in the news, or discussing the topic. Various reading and listening activities are also available.  For example, synonym/phrase match, fill-in-the-blanks, discussion.
• For classes with computers and Internet, there are motivating online exercises. For example, the one below is "missing words." We can ask students to read the news first and then play this game to see how much students remember or ask them to predict the words that might be used in the piece of news.

• This website is also a great self-learning resource. Learners can develop their reading, writing, listening skills on line by themselves. Clear answer key is also provided.

What are the limitations?                                                     

• Though the news here is not as long as the one on real newspaper, it suits students with intermediate or higher language level. Since the content is about news, some students who have no interest in news might not be attracted.
• Most of the audio clips are recorded by the same person reading at the same speed, which is easier for students to be familiar with the content, but might give less chances for students to access to English with different accents and at real speed. 

More Information                                                                               
Here are other very useful websites conducted by Sean Banville, who set up the website Breaking News English:

* Business English Materials
* Online Pairwork Dictation
* 105 Ideas for Wallwisher
* Paired / Group Writing Activity
* 21 Ideas for Jigsaw Listening   
* Teaching and Your Health

Bubblr and Bookr – Tell Stories with Photos

Bubblr

Bookr

What is it about?                                                                    

• Both Bubblr and Bookr are projects based on the images from Flickr. Flickr is a website providing people space to upload and share their photos. People can tag or label their photos. Some photos are shared as copyright-free when used for non-profit purposes.
• Using key words to search for the needed Flickr images, users can create their own photo strips with words in bubbles on Bubblr, and photo books with stories on Bookr.

Why is it good to language learning?                                     

1. Language learners can be motivated to read the English photo strips or photo books.
2. By creating their own English photo strips or photo books, language learners can practice writing monologues, dialogues, sentences or paragraphs.
3. In Taiwanese College Entrance Exam, students are asked to write a story based on a comic strip containing four pictures. Bubblr and Bookr are good tools to create similar writing tasks for students to practice writing a story.
4. Students can share their Bubblr or Bookr works on blog, and they can get peer-feedback, which can give them a sense of achievement.

How can it be used?                                                               

1. We can use Bubblr or Bookr to introduce a topic, a grammar rules, or a sentence pattern. With the images as visual aids, learners can be motivated to learn,  understand the concepts easily, or memorize the rules for a longer period of time. Here is an example from the archives. A teacher created a strips to teach prefix and suffix.
  Example1
2. We can also use these two tools to make vocabulary cards or mini picture dictionary to help learners memorize the new words.
3. By using Bubblr or Bookr to create comic strips or story books, learners can practice their English writing skills. Here is an example from the archives. The user used Elmo as the main character to create a story.                                                                                                                                        
  Example2
4. We can also ask students to use Bubblr or Bookr to do a presentation, like introducing the traditions of a holiday from their own country, promoting a trip to a place, or introducing their own city, their favorite singers, etc. One work from the archives shows the St. Patrick's Day in Ireland.
5. After getting feedbacks on their works, the learners can recycle their strips on Bubblr, correct the mistakes, and then publish a new version.

What are the limitations?                                                      

• Though the photos provide visual aids to motivate learners and the photos are tagged, sometimes it takes a long time to find the photos related to the specific topic. Without enough instructions, learners might spend too much time searching for photos that fit their needs and forget to focus on the language they should learn and practice. 
• There are some works that are not appropriate for young learners or teenagers  in the archives. 

Exploring WebQuest: Off to Oz

http://www.xtec.cat/cirel/02/webquests/english/3index2.html

What is it about?                                                                    

It’s a WebQuest introducing Australia to the learners. By using the WebQuest, learners learn through tasks. Instead of looking for the information without appropriate direction, students use the information provided or selected by the WebQuest designers to complete the tasks. In this WebQuest, learners can find out more about the culture and lifestyle in Australia. There are also tasks for practicing English reading, speaking, and writing.  

Why is it good to language learning?                                     

1. The questions in the task connect students’ background knowledge with the new information they are going to learn, lead students to use reading skills including skimming and scanning, and cultivate students ability of comparing and transforming information.
2. With tasks relating to students’ real life, this WebQuest raises students’ learning motivation.
3. The tasks include group work, which gives students a chance to learn through collaboration and negotiation meanings.
4. Various types of writing tasks are provided, including writing a postcard and creating a brochure.
5. The patterns that can be used in an interview are provided to scaffold students’ interviewing skills.
6. Authentic reading materials are provided.

How can it be used?                                                               

1. There are a number of tasks in this WebQuest, and we can choose some of them according to our time and students’ English level.
2. We can also assign different tasks for students at different levels.

What are the limitations?                                                      

1. The authentic reading material from the websites provided by this WebQuest might be still too hard for intermediate students.
2. Students’ ability of paraphrasing and transforming information needs to be trained or they might just copy and paste words from the Internet.

Here are more WebQuest resources:                                                

http://www.fi.muni.cz/ICT4ELT/websites/intermediate/webquests.html