Animation for ESL Teachers

This video below is a great way for learners to work on their conversational lexis and verb forms. I've used this mostly with late teens and adults, and because they can create a narrative structure, they invest much more energy into getting the most out of their language.

You can use this in class, or as homework, for a single, short film, or use it to create something much more ambitious such as a weekly soap opera.

Enjoy!

This video was made by the Emerald Cultural Institute, specialising in English-language teaching and ESL teacher training.

ESL-KIDS.COM - site review

This video looks at www.esl-kids.com, a great site for making classroom activities for kids and beginners. We look at how to make flashcards and activity sheets using key vocabulary.

freerice.com - a review

This month's review is on freerice.com. This site is from the people who mamage the World Food Programme and they offer free exercises on English grammar and vocabulary. It's a simple site and a nice addition to any learner or teacher's online English-language websites. This site was suggested to me by my colleague Des Fitzgibbon.

Listening Exercise with Stories

This is a great (and very large) site dedicated to providing excellent, free resources for learning English. In this video I'll show you how to find their story-telling section where you will be tested on your listening, spelling, vocabulary and grammar. I hope you enjoy ....

Digital Course Books - Is this the future?

Recently in Ireland, St Colman's College in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, announced a deal to replace their students' course books with an iPad and ebooks (http://goo.gl/HZZKG). The deal has gone down well with parents and learners alike. But what is the future of online books? Mike Matas presents his interactive ebook project in this TED presentation. Perhaps this is the future of course books. 

English Language Teachers on YouTube

There are lots of teachers making videos and putting them on YouTube. Some are very good, and in this video I introduce you to two of the best, JenniferESL and Paul. Hope you find them useful.

Free Listening Exercises 1: esl-Lab.com

In this video we look at esl-lab.com, a site run by Utah man Randal Davis. This is a big site and the listenings are complimented by vocabulary exercises and transcripts.

There's a lot here and the 'easy' listenings are really best for B1/2 level. In the video we look at the first listening exercise in the 'easy' section. When you have watched the video visit www.esl-lab.com for yourself.