Home > No. 37 Looking Back, Looking Forward
No. 37 Looking Back, Looking Forward (2008年03月10日)
カテゴリー: The Treasure Hunt Club
投稿者: 名ばかり編集長
Marcel Van Amelsvoort
（Kanagawa Prefectural College of Foreign Studies）
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Sometimes it is good to stop and consider things. More than three years ago I started writing this column for the LET newsletter. Over this time things have changed a lot. I think that we can see a couple of distinct approaches to the use of the web with students in Japan over these last few years and I would like to look back this month at some of the best websites I know of for each approach.
Discovery
One popular approach to using websites several years ago could be called the discovery approach. The web was not that new, but computer use in the language classroom was still new and many of our students still didn’t have access to PCs at home. The representative activity of this time was the scavenger hunt or web quest. Typically teachers gave learners a website or a list of websites and a list of things to find on those sites. Some of the most interesting sites to use for web quests at that time were commercially made. They were often lively, full of color and images, and not too text-heavy: perfect for sending students to in search of nuggets of authentic language. I still think such websites can be useful for learners. They can still be places of discovery where students can explore in a relatively manageable space. But with all the sites available on the web now, it’s not hard to find a good one when a teacher needs one. Some of my favorites are still the!
Tabasco sauce site and Face to Face, a site dealing with the experience of individuals after the Pearl Harbor and 9-11 attacks on the US, but sites for high-interest topics (food, health, movies, music, art, culture, etc.) are too numerous to list here. Recently when I need a website for a topic, I go first to Wikipedia and then I look at the list of links available in the article of the topic I am searching.
Tabasco Pepperfest: http://www.tabasco.com/main.cfm
Face to Face: http://www.itvs.org/facetoface/flash.html
Training Sites
Many sites on the web were made for the purpose of teaching language. There are now literally thousands of such sites with many of them focusing on listening, reading, grammar, or vocabulary. The hard part now is to find sites that match the needs of the learners we want to use them with. In a column on listening, I listed the characteristics of good learning sites. I still think this is a good list.
? The content should be interesting.
? The site should be free.
? The site should not require extra or advanced technology or computer literacy to access and it must load fast.
? The site should not require registration nor should the content be hidden between the advertisements.
? The site should be stable (i.e., in the same place next week, next month, etc.).
? There should be some sort of difficulty level labeling.
? There should be some kind of vocabulary support.
? There should be some exercises that encourage learning.
And here are some of my favorite sites:
Randall’s Cyber Listening Lounge has been a service to learners for years. Lots of listening files organized by level and well-supported. http://www.esl-lab.com/
Elllo is a free online listening resource of over 1,000 listening activities designed especially for ESL and EFL students and teachers. Most listening activities include images, an interactive quiz, transcript of the audio and downloadable MP3: http://www.elllo.org/
Quizlet is a site that can be used to learn vocabulary. It’s still relatively new and Japanese language support is not available yet but I think it is a great resource. Put in your own vocabulary and the system will train you and test you. You can also share your lists or try lists made by other users. http://quizlet.com/
Making, Sharing and Interacting
The last approach I would like to mention is the use of websites that focus on student-produced language and computer mediated communication between real people. This is the most exciting approach but also perhaps the most difficult to introduce to learners and certainly the most difficult to control and assess. But it is really activities that allow for student creativity, sharing and interaction that can open up the most meaningful language use (and language learning) opportunities. Some of the easiest could be keypal exchanges or other learner writing interaction. Increasingly, media use for interaction with written or spoken comments is becoming common. This will likely continue. That means that learners will need to have a space, or presence, on the web and that often means a page at on a social networking sites (such as Mixi or Facebook) or a blog.
Keypals for younger learners (6-13) at International Kids’ Space http://www.ks-connection.org/
Keypals for older learners (some caution required) at InterPals: http://www.interpals.net/
Discussion boards for exchanging ideas at Dave’s ESL Cafe: http://forums.eslcafe.com/student/
Voki to create speaking avatars that can be placed on blogs or other websites: http://www.voki.com/
Below are three more links. The first two are lists of sites I’ve come across recently. There are lots of sites here that are worth checking out, all of them chosen by language teachers. The third link is my own blog, where I will continue introducing websites that I think are good and sites I try with my own learners. Stop by if you have time and leave a message.
Larry Ferlazzo introduces one website everyday. And he organizes and archives them. A great resource: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/about/my-best-of-series/
David Deubelbeiss started a site at Ning for EFL teachers and learners. He has also made lists of games, stories, karaoke, and many other web-based activities that you may find useful. Better still, join the group: http://eflclassroom.ning.com/
Marcel’s blog: http://mozuku.edublogs.org/
Thanks to everyone who has been reading the Treasure Hunt these last few years. Good luck with the new school year and see you on the web.
（Kanagawa Prefectural College of Foreign Studies）
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝□■
Sometimes it is good to stop and consider things. More than three years ago I started writing this column for the LET newsletter. Over this time things have changed a lot. I think that we can see a couple of distinct approaches to the use of the web with students in Japan over these last few years and I would like to look back this month at some of the best websites I know of for each approach.
Discovery
One popular approach to using websites several years ago could be called the discovery approach. The web was not that new, but computer use in the language classroom was still new and many of our students still didn’t have access to PCs at home. The representative activity of this time was the scavenger hunt or web quest. Typically teachers gave learners a website or a list of websites and a list of things to find on those sites. Some of the most interesting sites to use for web quests at that time were commercially made. They were often lively, full of color and images, and not too text-heavy: perfect for sending students to in search of nuggets of authentic language. I still think such websites can be useful for learners. They can still be places of discovery where students can explore in a relatively manageable space. But with all the sites available on the web now, it’s not hard to find a good one when a teacher needs one. Some of my favorites are still the!
Tabasco sauce site and Face to Face, a site dealing with the experience of individuals after the Pearl Harbor and 9-11 attacks on the US, but sites for high-interest topics (food, health, movies, music, art, culture, etc.) are too numerous to list here. Recently when I need a website for a topic, I go first to Wikipedia and then I look at the list of links available in the article of the topic I am searching.
Tabasco Pepperfest: http://www.tabasco.com/main.cfm
Face to Face: http://www.itvs.org/facetoface/flash.html
Training Sites
Many sites on the web were made for the purpose of teaching language. There are now literally thousands of such sites with many of them focusing on listening, reading, grammar, or vocabulary. The hard part now is to find sites that match the needs of the learners we want to use them with. In a column on listening, I listed the characteristics of good learning sites. I still think this is a good list.
? The content should be interesting.
? The site should be free.
? The site should not require extra or advanced technology or computer literacy to access and it must load fast.
? The site should not require registration nor should the content be hidden between the advertisements.
? The site should be stable (i.e., in the same place next week, next month, etc.).
? There should be some sort of difficulty level labeling.
? There should be some kind of vocabulary support.
? There should be some exercises that encourage learning.
And here are some of my favorite sites:
Randall’s Cyber Listening Lounge has been a service to learners for years. Lots of listening files organized by level and well-supported. http://www.esl-lab.com/
Elllo is a free online listening resource of over 1,000 listening activities designed especially for ESL and EFL students and teachers. Most listening activities include images, an interactive quiz, transcript of the audio and downloadable MP3: http://www.elllo.org/
Quizlet is a site that can be used to learn vocabulary. It’s still relatively new and Japanese language support is not available yet but I think it is a great resource. Put in your own vocabulary and the system will train you and test you. You can also share your lists or try lists made by other users. http://quizlet.com/
Making, Sharing and Interacting
The last approach I would like to mention is the use of websites that focus on student-produced language and computer mediated communication between real people. This is the most exciting approach but also perhaps the most difficult to introduce to learners and certainly the most difficult to control and assess. But it is really activities that allow for student creativity, sharing and interaction that can open up the most meaningful language use (and language learning) opportunities. Some of the easiest could be keypal exchanges or other learner writing interaction. Increasingly, media use for interaction with written or spoken comments is becoming common. This will likely continue. That means that learners will need to have a space, or presence, on the web and that often means a page at on a social networking sites (such as Mixi or Facebook) or a blog.
Keypals for younger learners (6-13) at International Kids’ Space http://www.ks-connection.org/
Keypals for older learners (some caution required) at InterPals: http://www.interpals.net/
Discussion boards for exchanging ideas at Dave’s ESL Cafe: http://forums.eslcafe.com/student/
Voki to create speaking avatars that can be placed on blogs or other websites: http://www.voki.com/
Below are three more links. The first two are lists of sites I’ve come across recently. There are lots of sites here that are worth checking out, all of them chosen by language teachers. The third link is my own blog, where I will continue introducing websites that I think are good and sites I try with my own learners. Stop by if you have time and leave a message.
Larry Ferlazzo introduces one website everyday. And he organizes and archives them. A great resource: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/about/my-best-of-series/
David Deubelbeiss started a site at Ning for EFL teachers and learners. He has also made lists of games, stories, karaoke, and many other web-based activities that you may find useful. Better still, join the group: http://eflclassroom.ning.com/
Marcel’s blog: http://mozuku.edublogs.org/
Thanks to everyone who has been reading the Treasure Hunt these last few years. Good luck with the new school year and see you on the web.
