The Language Teacher
August 2003
TLT Wired
Kitakyushu JALT My Share:
Web Resources for Wired Teachers
Malcolm Swanson
Monthly presentations at JALT chapters scattered around the country have always provided a rich source of teaching ideas and resources—none more so than the ever-popular My Share sessions. These offer something for everyone, and it is amazing how often even knowledgeable attendees are heard to mutter, "Wow, I never knew that!" This month's TLT Wired column reports on a recent My Share event in Kitakyushu, which focused on web resources for teachers.
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--Malcolm Swanson & Paul Daniels
Kitakyushu JALT My Share:
Web Resources for Wired Teachers
The writer, as first presenter, introduced Hot Potatoes web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/, a suite that includes six applications, enabling users to easily create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching or ordering, and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. This is available for Windows and Macintosh machines (currently there is no OS X version, though it works fine in Classic mode), and can be used for free by nonprofit educational institutions. If you're using Hot Potatoes, it's worth checking the finished pages in a variety of browsers as results can vary. One nice option, if your provider has a FormMail CGI script installed, is that you can get the results of some tasks emailed to you—useful for checking student progress.
Nigel, the second presenter, focused on demonstrating a solid list of EFL resources available online. Most attendees knew many of the sites, but every one of us came away with something we hadn't seen before. First on the list was Google www.google.com, with particular focus on the Images tab in the opening menu—an excellent place to find graphic and pictorial resources.
Next up was Dave's ESL Cafe www.eslcafe.com—as Nigel stated, "This site has everything! The first place to look for ESL-related stuff." For translation of text or websites, he recommended Babel Fish Online Translation babelfish.altavista.com, though there are many others available. Most search engines have similar services.
If you're looking for articles, lesson plans, or grammar quizzes (and much more), the Internet TESL Journal iteslj.org has a huge resource available. This well-maintained site is very fast and reliable—welcome news for teachers who have planned an Internet lesson, only to find their resources have disappeared overnight! Another excellent resource is the BBC and British Council Teaching English site at www.teachingenglish.org.uk.
The ever-popular Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab www.esl-lab.com is a fun and well-made site; very useful for teachers wanting to give their students extended listening practice.
Finally, Nigel introduced the online National Public Radio www.npr.org, which has extensive audio archives of USA news, information, and discussions. Most of the material is very high level, so is probably most suited to advanced-level classes or as a teacher resource.
Next up was Peg, with what was arguably the gem of the evening. The Plumb Design Visual Thesaurus thesaurus.plumbdesign.com is better experienced than described. All I can say is that if you ever wanted a very graphic method of illustrating the relationships between words, this is a jaw dropper! Please take a moment and try it out. It is available as a downloadable standalone player ($39.95) for Windows (98 or higher) and Macintosh (OS X), or as a free online service.
She also introduced SelfAccess www.selfaccess.com, which builds lessons from Reuter's news articles, and the British National Corpus sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk, a self-described "unique snapshot of the English language, presented in a way that makes possible almost any kind of computer-based research on the nature of the language." Lastly she presented Surfing the Net with Kids , particularly recommending Barbara Feldman's weekly newsletter, not just as a resource for teachers in Japan, but for our children as well.
The last presenter of the evening, Dave, introduced an activity for finding key vocabulary words used in class in song titles by using Napster-like Limewire www.limewire.com. "What I do is write the part of speech I want the class to practice, such as 'going to,' 'has been,' 'if you ever,' etc. and get lots of songs that include those words in the titles." As the Kitakyushu JALT Chapter has found, these My Share sessions offer something for every attendee. They're also a good way to bring otherwise reclusive members out of the woodwork, and offer less confident presenters a supportive environment in which to start out.
Note: Reporting of the websites presented at this chapter event does not imply any support or recommendation by the editors of The Language Teacher.
Malcolm Swanson
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