STEM Activity in classroom

Useful websites for English Language Teachers and Learners

Usefull Websites
(Based on English Language teaching and Learning)

CONTENTS

SL No.	URL	Likes	Dislikes	Suitability in our context
01	http://www.english-at-home.com/grammar/linking-words/	English Grammar, Speaking English, Vocabulary & idioms, Real life Eng., Eng. Lessons, Games& Quizzes	No worksheets for practice, Less reading materials, No section for listening, games & quizzes are also not that much resourceful.	To learn English grammar & vocabulary
02	http://www.eslcafe.com/grammar.html	Stuff for Teachers (Idea cookbook), Stuff for students (Grammar lessons, Idioms. Phrasal verbs, Quizzes, Stuff for everyone (pod cast, video lessons,.	Teachers forum, students forum, chat room	To some extent it is helpful for teachers and students but some of the things are not suitable in our context.
03	http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en	Kids games, Listen and watch, Read and write, ABC speak and spell (tricky words), short stories with video, parents corner.	Nothing	To some extent it is suitable.
04	http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en	Pronunciation through rhythm, writing advises, conversation tips, grammar for speaking English.	Home page hazy and content scattered	To some extent it is suitable.
05	http://www.englishforum.com/00/interactive	Interactive exercises, vocabulary quizzes, grammar quizzes	Home page hazy with lots of link	To some extent it is suitable.
06	http://www.free-english-study.com	Speaking, listening, grammar vocabulary	No writing exercises, no worksheets	To some extent it is suitable.
07	http://www.focusenglish.com/dialogues/emotions/emotionsindex.html	English in focuses conversation starters	Less conversation topics, no worksheets, no listening part	Not that much suitable
08	http://englishwithasmile.net	Pronunciation worksheets, grammar, vocabulary, expression, self gradable online exercises	Few Pronunciation worksheets,  no listening section	Suitable in our context to some extent
09	http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en	Listening comprehension exercises, grammar explanation and exercises,  vocabulary  explanation and exercises, printable worksheet	Hazy home page, difficult to download worksheets	To some extent it is suitable.
10	http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/vocabulary/esl-talking-about-work1.html	Grammar exercises and worksheets, spoken English pronunciation practice, video based exercises	Hazy home page, difficult to watch video and download worksheets	To some extent it is suitable.

 

 

 

1.       http://www.english-at-home.com/grammar/linking-words

Likes:

·        Its English Grammar part is very rich. More than 30 features of grammar are there. For example, ‘how to make comparisons’ in English or ‘linking words’, use of ‘if’ in English, how to use ‘use to’, how to use ‘Present Perfect Tense’, Reported speech in English and many more things. If I give a single click on each topic I’ll got a thorough idea about each topic. These will help teachers to prepare lessons for their learners as well as students also.

·        Like its grammar part its *Speaking, *Vocabulary & idioms parts are also rich. From these we can learn the differences between American & British English, how to greet, how to give opinions, invitations, appointments, rephrasing expressions etc. Different vocabularies about kitchen, bedroom, social occasions etc.

·        In this website there is an option to get the weekly English lessons. For this I need to give my email address.

·        There is a ‘Games & Quizzes’ part which I liked most. Specially, the word search games related with cooking, body parts, family, New Year Eve etc.

 

Dislikes:

·        It is appeared that there is no prepared worksheet for practice English grammar.

·        English reading materials are not much resourceful.

·        There is no section for listening and learning English pronunciation.

·        Games and quizzes are also very less.

 Suitability in our context:

·        To learn grammar it is suitable in our context.

·        To learn vocabulary it is suitable in our context also.

My opinion:

 I liked this website because it’s very helpful to learn grammar, vocabulary.  But there could be listening & learning pronunciation part. I would like to add this part. Another addition I want to do is that, prepared worksheets on different grammar lessons so that after reading grammar lessons one can check their improvement.

 

 2.       www.eslcafe.com/grammar.html

Likes:

• In this website I liked most ‘Stuff for Teachers’ part mostly the ‘Idea Cookbook’. Here a teacher can get all the ideas about how to use icebreakers in class( which is very important to make the students attentive in class or to concentrate on teacher), ideas about how to teach vocabulary, how to help students to read, idea on how to get your students writing, talking and many more ideas.
• In ‘Stuff for Students’ grammar lessons are very rich. Specially adjective clause (1-13), conditional sentences (1-9), confusing words, conversational language.
• Lot of online practice quizzes with answer on ESL quiz center. For example grammar, idioms, punctuation, reading comprehension, science, world culture are very interesting.
• In ‘Stuff for others’ Podcasts, video lessons are helpful to improve pronunciation and listening skills.

Dislikes:

·        Though esl café is a huge website with lots of resources but there is no resource for kindergarten students

·         I could not find out anything on Teachers Forum, Students Forum or in chat room.

 

Suitability in our context:

·        To some extent it is suitable in our context such as grammar lessons.  Teachers’ idea cookbook is also very helpful for teachers.

·        Its chat room, teacher’s forum, student’s forum or job forums are not created in our context.

 

My opinion:

I liked the teachers’ idea cookbook a lot. It will be very helpful for me to teach my students in future. But as I am a kindergarten teacher I would like to add something interesting for my young learners such as alphabets (a-z) with proper pronunciation. In the quiz center I would like to change or add the geography and history quizzes instead of US history and geography Bangladeshi history and geography related questions to make it suitable in our context.

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

Likes:

I liked almost all the things of this website. It is specially created to help the little learners to learn English with fun.

·        Kids’ games are very interesting. They can learn new words, spellings. Language games etc while playing games.

·        Listen and watch is also very interesting for young learners. They can watch short stories, rhymes with activities, tongue twisters are the most enjoyable part.

·        In read and write lots of worksheets are available there for learners practice.

·        In abc speak and spell the tricky words are very interesting. Students are getting more interest on this such as ‘ch’,’ai’/’ar’, ‘ng’, ‘oo’ words are there.

·        In the parents corner there are some interesting tips about how to manage their kids or how to help them to read and learn, this things I like also.

 Dislikes:

Though I liked most of the things of this website but the most difficulties I face that it takes too much time to open games and videos.

 Suitability in our context:

It is suitable in our context specially for English medium students. Some of the things are not suitable such as the Chinese dragon New Year or the parent’s forum etc.

 

My opinion:

 

As I am a kindergarten teacher and used to teach students of three to ten years age, I need to make my lessons interesting and at the same time resourceful also. This website will be very helpful to grab my young learners’ concentrations.

 

4.       http://www.teacherjoe.us/index.html

 

Likes:

·        To improve English fluency this website is very helpful.

·        To learn English pronunciations this will help also such as learn pronunciation through rhythm and song by teacher Joe is very interesting.

·        Writing advices are also very good there, for example how to make your introduction exciting or how to make your conclusion attractive.

·        More than sixty conversations tips are there such as conversations about birthday, art, crime, books, charities, children etc.

·        To learn English vocabulary 

·         To learn English grammar for speaking English. As we know that grammar for speaking and writing is different.

·        The most helpful part is for IELTS students test preparations eg. Writing test, speaking test.

·        Teacher Joe’s jokes corner is also interesting to improve listening skills.

 

Dislikes:

·        Its home page is very hazy and the content is scattered. It is difficult to find out.

 

Suitability in our context:

 

For the IELTS students it is suitable in our context. Those who are struggling with English and want to improve their English this website is very much helpful for them. Its American culture, study abroad English are not for our context but again it is helpful for those students who want to go abroad to study.

 

My opinion: 

In this website teacher Joe’s video lessons are very enjoyable and also helpful to improve listening, vocabulary and pronunciations skills. It’s learn to spell English words is also a very good practice.

 

 5.       http://www.englishforum.com/00/interactive

 

Likes:

·        In this website the most useful thing is its ‘Interactive Exercises such as easier exercises, grammar exercises of mixed levels, phrasal verbs, colourful idioms, irregular verbs.

·        Vocabulary quizzes e.g. ‘What animal it is?’, ‘flags and countries quiz’ are very helpful to increase vocabulary and at the same time to enhance general knowledge.

·        IN the self study from internet TESL journal corner grammar quizzes, homonyms, vocabulary quizzes are there.

 

Dislikes:

 

In its home page lots of options are there and it is really difficult to find out the necessary one. Lots of links are there also that’s why sometimes it creates confusion.

Suitability in our context:

Only for the grammar exercise worksheets, quizzes, to learn homonyms and the vocabulary quizzes are suitable in our context. Otherwise all other things in this webpage are not suitable in our context.

 

My opinion:

It is not necessary that all the websites will have all necessary things. This website will help me only with the teaching/learning grammar, vocabulary by doing worksheets exercises or quizzes.

6.       http://www.free-english-study.com

 Likes:

·        All parts of teaching language skills are there in a nicer way.

·        Its Speaking section is helpful for all level of learners because it is designed nicely for beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced level. e.g. for beginner level speaker  greetings, introduce yourself/people, ask information. Identify people etc.

·         Listening is also divided for five levels of learners. I liked its quick links where the listening practices are very effective because after listening story/conversation there are Q/A related to the listening. So one can easily improve his/her listening by using it. Specially I found it very helpful for me.

·        Reading section is also rich. Lots of articles to are there to do reading practices.

·        Grammar section includes almost all grammar lessons. e.g. English tense, adjectives, nouns, active and passive voices clause and phrases, conditionals and wishes, subject/object etc.

·        Vocabulary is for two levels of learner. Beginner and upper-intermediate.in the beginner level there are vocabulary lists about body and health, fruits, drinks, action verbs which are very helpful for beginner level learner. Their upper intermediate levels there are academic vocabulary list (1-14) which are very helpful.

Dislikes:

·        I could not find out anything in its writing section accept some comments.

·        There is no worksheets with the grammar lessons

·        Reading section is not guided in proper way.

Suitability in our context:

 To some extent it is suitable in our context to learn grammar or to improve vocabulary or listening.

 My opinion:

Overall it is nice web site but with few lacking. If possible I would like to add some worksheets with each grammar lesson. To make it more suitable in our context I want to add some reading articles which are related to our country. e.g.  Our Independence Day, Victory Day etc.

7.       http://www.focusenglish.com/dialogues/emotions/emotionsindex.html

 

Likes:

·        This web site is dedicated to helping ESL/EFL learners develop conversational English skills.

·        I liked its English in focus section. There are some conversation starters e.g. giving directions, persuasions, recommendations. There are some printable worksheets which will help teachers to create active conversations among the class.

 Dislikes:

·        Conversational topics are very less.

·        No worksheets are there.

·        No listening part is here.

 

Suitability in our context:
Not that much suitable in our context. Only the conversational starters are helpful for CLT teachers to facilitate active conversation in class.

 My opinion:

 To make this website resourceful I would like to add more conversational topic which will relate to our context. I also want to add worksheets and quizzes on conversation, e.g. pictures of some occasion of Bangladesh then what type of conversation can be possible on that picture etc.

8.       http://englishwithasmile.net

 Likes:

·        Pronunciation worksheets (1-3) on word stress are very interesting. There is online practice option also.

·        In its business English section pay and benefit vocabulary, job vocabulary, management vocabulary are very good online exercises with the solution.

·        Grammar section is more resourceful. It is divided for three levels of learners. e.g Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced.

·        In its vocabulary section I liked its common mistakes.

·        Expressions of embarrassing, Q/A, phrasal verbs are also good.

·        This website contains self gradable online exercises as well as printable teaching resources for students of ESL/EFL. 

·        In its articles corner some of the things I liked such as English prefix, compound words. Together and each other, much many etc.

Dislikes:

·        Pronunciation exercises are very less.

·        There is no listening section in this website.

 Suitability in our context:

 This website is suitable in our context to some extent. But its song corner is not suitable in our context. But the thing is that if we want to practice listening with the English song the song will be in English.

My opinion:

 If it will be possible to add one listening section to this webpage and also to check the pronunciation online it will be more interesting then. In its song corner I would like to add more popular songs to do the listening practice with its fill in the blanks worksheets which will be more enjoyable.

9.       http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en

 Likes:

·        It is a huge website with lot of resources.

·        I liked its listening comprehension exercises by English baby. It was a conversation about a recent Hollywood very popular movie ‘Mission Impossible Ghost protocol’.

·        After each grammar explanation there are exercises which are very effective.

·        Vocabulary explanations are very helpful to improve because of vocabulary exercises. e.g. confusing words, crosswords, matching, multiple choice, opposites, synonyms, paraphrasing.

·        This webpage is resource for teachers for its Download worksheets corner. There are lots of worksheets on grammar. Tests.

·        I liked its writing corner. There are some important tips about creative writing tips, analysis texts, summary writing tips, writing letters etc which will help me and also to teach my students as well.

 Dislikes:

·        Its home is very hazy and difficult to find out.

·        Lots of links are there so it is hard to work with it.

·        Difficult to download worksheets.

Suitability in our context:

To some extent it is suitable in our context. But most of the things in its home page e.g. teacher, pupils, parents etc are not suitable in our context.

 My opinion:

This website is very helpful for teachers as well as students for English language learning. But if possible I would like to design its homepage clearly and nicely and also like to make the download worksheet process easier. To make it suitable in our context, I would like to add teacher-pupils-parents corner for our Bangladeshi teacher-pupils-parents.

10. http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/vocabulary/esl-talking-about-work1.html

Likes:

·        It’s an online English grammar tests/ESL practice site.

·        English grammar exercises and worksheets

·        Spoken English pronunciation practice.

·        I liked its English listening pronunciation practice

·        Its video based exercises are very good.

Dislikes:

      ·        Its homepage is hazy so confusing also.

·        It is difficult to download the worksheets.

·        To watch the video is also difficult.

 Suitability in our context:

To learn grammar, pronunciation and listening practice it is suitable in our context.

 My opinion:

Video based exercises are very good listening and writing exercises. But to make it suitable in our context if it will be possible to add the video clippings in our context it would be better then. Another thing I want to do that is to make its homepage clear.