Helpful ESL Resources

Since we don't have a specific focus for this week's blog (such as listening), I decided to search for what I really need- lesson plans! I do not have any textbooks or any idea what the first step would be to make a plan, other than choosing your topic. I will definitely need some in the beginning to guide me through my teaching process. Below are 5 resources I found:

1) Teachers' Corner

Teachers' Corner has some great lesson plans

http://www.theteacherscorner.net/lesson-plans/reading/index.htm

It has lesson plans for a variety of subjects (ex. Writing, Math, Social Studies, etc.), thematic units, seasonal items, printable worksheets, and more.

2) TEFL.net

http://www.tefl.net/esl-lesson-plans/

This resource also has  ESL lesson plans. It has a tool that makes your own worksheets, all you have to do is type in what you're looking for and the site builds one for you. Pretty neat! This site also contains authentic reading material and teaching tips. All very useful.

3) Super Teacher Worksheets

 http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/comprehension.html

This resource is suggested for Grades 1-4, which fits into my context perfectly. This page is mostly focused on reading comprehension, but they do have writing and grammar exercises to explore. I love how this resource includes famous children's characters such as "Dr. Seuss" but also contains current, cultural characters of today such as "Barack Obama."

4) Real English

http://www.real-english.com/ 

This resource has ESL video exercises. The term "real English" is recommending that one should learn "real English" in the "real world." The videos show every day people on the street, doing daily activities that any of my learners would do. The videos come from a mix of resources: some are original Real English videos and others are You Tube. The below link is a great example of a video for a beginner, "What's your favorite color?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rw-KjV4HrI

 

5) ESL Resource Center

 http://eslus.com/eslcenter.htm

This source is easy to navigate and covers important focuses: Grammar, Reading & Writing, Vocab & Idioms, Spelling, Pronunciation, Listening. It also contains games, random articles, clocks and calculators (which are all handy while learning English). 

Any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated! 

Speaking Resources for Beginning ESL Students

Hi all, 

I just wrote about "obstacles to teaching speaking" on our discussion forum. Horwitz had mentioned many important points including: authentic speaking vs. "display" speaking, how error correction/lack of correction can impact one's oral proficiency, anxiety both for the student and teacher, and the difficulties in grading speaking. All the more reason to find great resources that can help us overcome these challenges in the classroom! Below are five that I found. 

1) ESL GOLD

http://www.eslgold.com/speaking.html

 This one focuses on "speaking situations" which I think is extremely important. You can never predict what kind of situation you'll be in and should be prepared for it. Scenarios, phrases for conversation, etc. There's a great selection of topics here. This site also provides articles, videos, and quizzes so students can self-test themselves. Most of the units have audio links and you can also choose the level you're at or want to work on (beginnning-advanced).

2) ESLgo.com

 http://www.eslgo.com/resources/sa.html

This site is pretty basic. It contains role-play lesson plans. Ideas on what to have your students talk about (ex. like and dislikes). As a teacher I would use this resource for ideas on role-play activities and have them present to the class. I think my students would have a lot of fun with it.

3) You Tube: ESL- Show and Tell 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkFMewAsLfU

This video is of an instructor in his Grade 1 class, so very similar to my context. Show & Tell would be a fun, simple way, to work on my students' speaking skills. I really like his teaching techniques. He has a "grab-bag" and each student comes up to pick something out of it (so they do not know what they'll have to talk about). Students like the mystery of it and the attention up in front of the class. As the teacher notes, "it forces them to speak real English."

4) Spoken Skills

 http://www.spokenskills.com/student-activities.cfm

 This resource is dedicated to speaking. It also contains a learning lab. I like how they separate consonants from vowels (something I would want to cover with my students), include every day English (authentic material!), and English for specific purposes.

The best part about this resource is that the student can record him/herself. The student listens first to the recorded speech, then practices by recording what they had just heard. A great tool!

5) BBC Learning English

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/

This resource focuses on pronunciation and gives useful tips. It includes pairs of words that have the same letters but make different sounds,  Example: "Book" and "Do." Students would have to click on the two separate words to hear the differences. In my Micro-Teaching Activity I had given my students the names "Craig" and "Greg" as options to an answer. In this case the words have different letters but make the same sounds. It would be in cases like that where I would want to use this site to help my students learn distinctions.

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!