Learning vocabulary just like eating chocolate

Today, I want to share a vocabulary learning website for young learners--learning Chocolate. This website can give you an enjoyable experience of learning vocabulary just like eating chocolate! Go and have a try by yourself: http://www.learningchocolate.com/

What is this?

Learning Chocolate is a website designed to help  young learners learn and recognize new words in an interesting way. Plenty of vocabulary exercises are followed to help consolidate previous learning for students.

How can it make vocabulary learning like eating chocolate?

• The website divide the vocabulary into different categories clearly for various individual needs.

• The colorful pictures can help build connection between the image and the new words.
• Each word has added a pronunciation for learners to imitate. 

• It provides translation of the instruction and different target languages 

• Each vocabulary category has three types of exercises, including matching, dictation and filling with pictures.  

How can it be used in English teaching environment?

• Students can learn vocabulary and do exercises online by themselves after class
• Teacher can use the pictures in class to organize some vocabulary actives in class

Limitations

It is appropriate for beginner learners, because the vocabulary is a little bit easy.

Online English news with a lot of excercises

English news can be taken as a useful material for language learning. I want to share with you a website--Breaking News English which is pretty good for English teaching and learning.

Here is the link of the website http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

What is this?

This website provides some updated news articles on current events. There are plenty of exercises centering on one piece of news from different aspects of training language skills. It offers insights on the English lesson plan for teachers and as well as gives an opportunity for learners to facilitate self-study.

The advantages of this website

• Every piece of news is attached with a MP3 recording for practicing listening.
• Exercises including gap filling, multiple choice, and questions design, which can be used as pre-reading and post-reading activities in class.
• It offers PDF version for printing handouts. 
• The website also provides some interesting exercises including no letters, sentence jumble, and missing words, which strengthen students' memory and improve the ability of retelling the news.   

• In the end of various exercises,a survey form for students can help teachers get feedback of the lesson and adjust next lesson accordingly.
• Some homework are suggested to encourage students continue studying after class.

How to use it to foster English language teaching?

• Teachers can refer to this website when preparing their lesson plan
• It is good for cooperative learning in class, esp. completing the quiz together.
• Students can practice reading skills by reading the news online and do some exercises after reading to check their learning effects.

Limitations

• The website update the news articles every two days.
• the keys and the  exercise are in the same page, so that students are likely to refer to the answers when they have no idea of the questions.
• the quiz only can be done or effective by using computer in class or after class.

Lyricstraining--an excellent tool for practicing English listening skill

I would like to introduce an excellent tool for English learners to practice listening skill.

What is this?

Lyricstraining website contains a lot of beautiful songs in different languages. The songs are presented in video format, so that learners can learn English and enjoy themselves as well. This website can be used by English teachers or by learners themselves in many different ways. You can have a try and experience it by yourself. The link is  http://www.lyricstraining.com/.

Why is the tool good for English language learning?

• The songs are not played in traditional MP3 format but in MP3 format, which would arouse the interest of the language learners when they visualize the singer and the story in the song.

• The website has a good exercise which requires learners to complete the lyrics after listening.Teachers or learners can choose the level of the exercise based on the context or specific needs. They can also choose to withdraw, restart or receive help by clicking the button on the right corner at the bottom. The exercise record the time, words and skipped words automatically for evaluation.

• The songs can pause automatically to wait for the learners' answers, so that learners can take their time to think about it carefully. If the learner still have no idea, they can continue by clicking the play button again. It is convenient for learners to adjust their study progress.

How might you use it to foster language learning?

• Teachers can use this website as a warm-up activity in listening class. Through filling in the blanks of the lyrics, students can review the vocabulary as well as practice listening skill.
• Learners can make use of this website to practice listening skill in their free time after class. They can also practice their speaking skill if they find the song is beautiful and sing with the lyrics. 

Limitations

• Students may distract their attentions from the lyrics, only focusing on the image shown in the video. 
• There is no translation version for beginners to fully understand the meaning
• The resource is limited and the speed of updating is a little bit low.

Self-introduction by using 'Brainshark' software

What is "My Brainshark"?

The website "My brainshark" offers an opportunity to add the author's voice to his or her presentation. The dynamic display and attached explanation make the presentation vivid and attractive to the audience. The above presentation is an example of using "my brainshark" by myself to give you an overview.

The advantages of this website

• The software is user-friendly and totally free for anyone.
• It can be shared in many ways, like embedding in the blog, and emailing to friends or teachers after registration.
• Users can refer to the examples sorted in different categories in the website.
• Users can share their own presentation and change ideas with other users.

How is the website used to promote English learning

1.      Teachers can record a short lecture based on the PPT used in class for students to review the main points of the lesson.

2.      Teachers can ask students to practice their oral English at home by telling stories or expressing opinions with vivid pictures or graphs and then send it to teachers for feedback.

3.      Teachers can present the background information of a particular topic to be introduced in the lesson to arouse students’ interest beforehand so that students may find it easier to settle in the lecture.

4.      Teachers can use it to conduct listening exercise. For example, teachers can narrative an unforgettable experience by showing pictures to impress students and enhance their understanding.

5.      Teachers can ask students to record their pronunciation of some new words and correct the mistakes.

Limitations:

1.      It can record only up to 15 minutes.

2.      It requires students to have internet access and other equipment like microphones.

3.      Registration may need some personal details and take a few minutes to complete.