British Council for Young Learners

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/

What is this?

• This is a Baritish council website for kids to learn English.
• There are a variety of language learning contents such as language games, songs, short stories and jokes. 

Why is the content good for language learning?

• The layout of this site is very colourful and there are many pictures to attract children's attention.
• This site is easy to navigate for young learners and good to improve learner autonomy.
• It provides printable stories, scripts and worksheets.

How might you use it to foster language learning?     

• Choose a song that is related to the class topic and sing together.
• Do the vocabulary activity before listening to the short story.
• Whenever the story stops, point out some pictures and ask students some comprehension questions. Explain any difficult parts.
• Do the second listening and talk about the story with children.
• Print out the story and do 'shared reading' with students.
• Let them answer the questions below the story box and check answers together.
• Print the activity sheet and get them to complete it.

What limitations should the teacher consider when using it?

• The speed of songs and short stories is uncontrollable with no pause button.
• There is a big gap between kids on this website and EFL young learners.
• The narrators in the short stories say a bit fast for EFL children.

ESL Kids World

http://www.eslkidsworld.com/

What is this?

• ESL Kids World is an ESL children's resources site.
• It provides worksheets, flashcards, games, songs, and powerpoint. 

Why is the content good for language learning?

• High quality printable PDF worksheets for teaching young learners are available.
• Teachers can be offered a rich variety of online grammar games.
• Teachers can find printables, interactive materials. 

How might you use it to foster language learning?     

• Print out the colourful flashcards corresponding to the class topic and use them to introduce new vocabulary before listening or reading activities.
• For interactive activities, use topic-based worksheets to practice the new language 
• Do the vocabulary or grammar game in groups as a follow-up activity in a class.
• Let students do the corresponding games at home improving their autonomy.
• Use powerpoint slides to practice target structures for speaking activities.

What limitations should the teacher consider when using it?

• Some animation after completing a game is a bit violent, for example shooting a person tied with a rope in a barrel.
• Might be better to update some pictures to make them more children-friendly.

Recording Tools

mailVU

http://www.mailvu.com/index.htm

What is this?

• MailVU is a website that allows you to make a video recording of yourself using your webcam and send it to anyone.
• It provides fast and easy recorded video mail to a specific person or a group of people. There is no need for the sender and the recipient to be online at the same time.
• There are only three easy steps for students to use this tool: click, record, send.

Why is the content good for language learning?

• Second or foreign language learners can record themselves and check their speaking ability.
• Students can get a chance to watch their teacher's video to revise their wrong pronunciation.

How might you use it to foster language learning?     

    1. Use this tool for speaking homework

• Get the students to describe their holidays or typical day
• Get them to talk about their family, friends
• Let them introduce their house, school, town or country

    2. Use this tool for checking students' homework

• If there's any reading homework, get the students to read the text after finishing it
• Get them to say difficult words to pronounce from the homework 
• Let them summarize the story briefly if there's any story reading homework

    3. Use this tool for giving teacher's feedback

• Help the students with right pronunciation from their homework recording
• Give some comments or advice to the students about their speaking preparation
• Show the students any good model for their project or homework if necessary

What limitations should the teacher consider when using it?

• Limited recording time: for 10 minutes
• Webcam and microphone are needed

* If you want to record only your voice, then you can try 'Vocaroo'. The features are similar to 'mailVU'. When I was teaching Korean to Warwick university students, I recorded myself reading Korean words and dialogues by using this web tool, Vocaroo and send the recording to the students via email. I thought it was really useful for students to review what they learned.

Vocaroo

http://vocaroo.com/

Storybird

http://storybird.com/

What is this?

• Storybird is a collaborative storytelling website.
• You can make short and art-inspired stories.
• You can share, read, and print your own stories.

Why is the content good for language learning?

• Reading fun storybooks is the best way to learn English for EFL young learners.
• It is easy to read with wonderful pictures.
• After reading, learners can read the story again or create a new storybird.
• It is good to improve learner autonomy when they make their own storybook and publish it.

How might you use it to foster language learning?     

• Read published storybirds with students and let them talk about their opinion about them.
• To make their own storybird, let students choose their favorite topic and ask what kind of story they want to make.
• Get them to choose pictures they like and drag them into the story board. 
• Give them opportunities to say about the picture first and to type the words.
• Publish the storybird if they like it. 
• Give students the website address and let them send the storybird to the student's friends or parents to share it at home.

What limitations should the teacher consider when using it?

• Might be a bit difficult to make a storybird as a whole class because the students' preference can be different.
• Some spelling mistakes can be found published ones.
• Some pictures are too scary for young learners.

Using Podcasts #2

http://www.eslpod.com/website/index_new.html

What is this?

• 'ESLPOD' is the home of many podcasts for ESL or EFL learners and teachers.
• It provides theme-based conversations.
• Subscription is free. You can download the listening files through 'iTunes'. It is delivered to you automatically each day.

Why is the content good for language learning?

• For intermediate and advanced levels of young learners, teachers might choose dialogues from 'English cafe, Daily life, Travel, or Dining' catagories.
• Students can get a chance to listen to English conversation in order to improve their functional skills.
• Students can learn spoken English features such as pronunciation, intonation, speed, pause and tone.

How might you use it to foster language learning?     

• Listen to a dialogue together and ask students what it is about.
• Explain any difficult words or parts that they cannot catch.
• Hand out the script to students and let them practice the conversation in groups or in pairs.
• Practice the key structures of questions and answers by replacing some words.
• Let students in a pair make their own dialogue by using the same topic and the similar structures from the conversation.
• Present their own dialgue as a whole class and choose the best ones.
• For the higher level, while listening to a historical story, pause sometimes and share the main ideas with students.

What limitations should the teacher consider when using it?

• Some episodes with adult topics are not relevant for young learners.
• Might be better to provide children's daily conversations.
• The same comment is repeated in every episode.
• Rather long for children

Using Podcasts #1

Podcast = iPod + broadcast

• A podcast is an audio and/or video file that is 'broadcast' via the Internet and can be downloaded to a computer or mobile device such as an MP3 player for listening/viewing.
• The word podcast comes from combining iPod and broadcast, iPod being the brand name for the Apple portable MP3 player
• Can be set up and used by teachers and/or learners
• Can be used to connect learners to other communities of learners, for example to a class in another country
• The ideas and content can be generated and created by learners, either individually or collaboratively

Using Webquests

Webquests are mini-projects in which a large percentage of the input and material is supplied from the Internet. Webquests can be teacher-made or learner-made, depending on the learning activity the teacher decides on.

http://chalk.richmond.edu/education/projects/webquests/goldenticket/

What is this?

• It is an educational webquest that English teachers and the learners can use.
• It is based on the children's storybook, 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' written by Roald Dahl. 

Why is the content good for language learning?

• All the tasks are related to the story
• Students can get an achievement by doing tasks and get motivated to read the story improving their autonomy

How might you use it to foster language learning?

• Put students in groups of five and let them choose one of the characters(Veruca, Violet, Mike, Augustus, Charlie) and complete his/her character traits
• Report: Students tell the others in their own group what is good and bad about their character
• 'Hot seat' game: The students pretend to be their characters and one of them come to the front and sit on the chair called hot seat. The others ask any questions and the character answers and explains why he/she thinks or behaves like that
• Task: As a group work, make rules about being a good person and make a poster about it in order to get the prize, golden ticket later
• Share the list on their poster with the class and display each group's poster on the wall
• Evaluate and conclude which group should get the 'golden ticket'
• Watch the movie, 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and compare the similarities and differences

What limitations should the teacher consider when using it?

• Some websites in this webquest are not accessible 
• Computer room is needed to do the group work
• Might be better if there are some other tasks to check students' reading comprehension

Using Word Clouds and Word Tools

http://www.wordle.net/

What is this?

• This is a website for creating word clouds, which are made by entering either a text, URL or del.icio.us user name into a field.
• When the text is inserted, this site generates a word cloud based on the frequency of key words in the text or webpage. 

Why is the content good for language learning?

• Word clouds are very easy to create and they can be for English vocabulary activities in the classroom.
• Making students' own word clouds can encourage them to be more interested in reading texts or listening scripts.

How might you use it to foster language learning?     

• Create word clouds of texts before reading or listening and ask them to make predictions about the content of the text based on the word cloud.
• Let them check any new words from the word cloud that they are not familiar.
• For an after reading activity, get students to do oral summary or rewrite a summary of a story from their memory using the words from the cloud.
• Make word clouds from different texts that students have learned and let them match the words clouds with the corresponding texts.
• Get students to generate a dialogue or a short poem with the words from word cloud.

What limitations should the teacher consider when using it?

• Might be nice to make it easier to embed the word cloud for blogs.
• More various layouts would be more helpful.
• Needs to supply an easier way to change word colours.

* I created this word cloud below with 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' text from LoudLit.org. Students can do meaningful activities described above with this.