Breaking News English!

What is Breaking News English?

Breaking News? English? What it is all about? It is all about learning English in a fun and informative way! This is because Breaking News English is a website where you are able to learn something interesting and recent on a daily basis. It makes use of breaking news as the contents of a lesson and offers you various activities about the news on the same day the news break. What is more interesting and attractive for your students other than a lesson on something current and up-to-date? Breaking News English! All lessons offered by this website cover pre-intermediate and intermediate levels which can be done in classroom or independently. And it is free!

How it works?

It is very easy! First of all, go to the website Breaking News English and choose a topic (news title) on the list! For example "World's children care most about education" and select any activity that you want to do! Have fun and gain knowledge about current news and issues! You can also listen to the news recording if you choose to do the listening activities.

This website also offers complete lesson plans and activities that can be carried out in classrooms for example warm- up, pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading activities.

Breaking News English in ELT:

Advantages:

1) This website is specially designed for English language teaching and learning. It offers 26 pages printable activities and handouts for each of the lesson plan and they are free. Besides, there is a new lesson for every two days. So, this website is ideal for a very busy teacher! You can just take the ideas, print the activities, adapt if it is needed and teach your students!

2) Although the lessons offered by this website only cover pre-intermediate and intermediate level, you can always modify the lesson to meet the level of your students. 

3) This website promotes learners autonomy as your students can do all the activities provided at their own free times. Perhaps, you can do one or two activities together with your students in class to familiarize them with the website. 

4) The fact that this lesson is based on the breaking news which is current and up-to-date, it allows your students to enhance their knowledge with recent issues. This in turn, may help them to develop useful points for their writing course.

5) Most of the online activities helps students to improve their listening skill as some activities require them to listen to a recording before answering the questions.

6) Students may also improve their spelling skills and enrich their vocabulary through the activities provided in this websites. 

Disadvantages:

1) Students might cheat while doing the online activities as they can listen to the recording more than one in each activity that required listening.

2) No internet connection.

Wordle and Wordsift

What are Wordle and WordSift?

Wordle and WordSift are two online tools (or toy as they say) that used to generate word clouds. They are usually used to summarize texts or writing and make the most frequent words used in the text appear to be bigger. With these tools, it is easier for people to view the key points in the texts and save times. Each of these tools has their own features that can be adapted into English language lessons to make them more interesting and exciting! Lets meet both of these fun tools!

Wordle: Beautiful word clouds.

"You can tweak you clouds with different fonts, layouts and colour schemes. The images you created with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out or save them to the Wordle gallery to share them with your friends"

So, lets get started! It is easy to use this tool. Just go to the website Wordle and  start to create your own word clouds of any text you want to. You can either copy and paste your text into the box provided or just copy the URL of the sources of your text.  And send them for processing!

Within few seconds, you have your own word clouds. You can personalize the word clouds according to your interest and need and share it with your friends! Below is an example of a word cloud produced using Wordle:

WordSift: Visualizing words.

"WordSift was created to help teachers manage the demands of vocabulary and academic language in their text materials. We especially hope that this tool is helpful in supporting English Language Learners. We want WordSift to be a useful tool, but we also want it to be fun and visually pleasing. We would be happy if you think of it playful  as a toy in a linguistics playground that is available to instantly capture and display the vocabulary structure of texts, and to help create opportunity to talk and explore the richness and wonder of language!"

How it works? Same as Wordle! Click this website WordSift and all you need is to copy and paste your texts and obtain an instant visualization of you text. The most frequent vocabulary will appear bigger.

WordSift is a bit different from Wordle as also provide some information that are related to the most frequent words in the text. For example, the sentences of the most frequent words and synonym.

                             
Wordle an WordSift in ELT:

Advantages:

1) Students can preview text using both of these tools. As the most frequent words appear bigger in word clouds, it helps students to identify  the key vocabulary and predict the content of the text they are going to read. This is important as research suggests that previewing text is a useful strategy for improving comprehension. Besides, the example source sentence in the WordSift, helps students to skim the text and make a complex text become more accessible. Students can also use these tools to preview any text that they want to read at their own times (promotes learner autonomy)

2) You can also develop speaking activity using these tools. Have your students to write their own short stories and ask them to create word clouds of the stories. In pairs, ask your students to show their word clouds to their partners and predict each other's stories. This is a fun an creative way to get your students talking and practice speaking. Their own produced word clouds may also be a motivation for them to talk about.

3) Your students can also use both of these tools to summarize their own writing in order to check them. Identifying redundant words or sentence structure would be easier if they use these tools.

Disadvantages:

1) Some students might prefer something more challenging as Wordle and WordSift might be less attractive and perhaps too easy for them (this is however depending on he level of the students you teach).

2) No internet connection at home might demotivate students to do word clouds on their own at their own times.  

Storybird (Artfull Storytelling)

What is Storybird?

Storybird is another interesting tool shared by Russell recently. It is a tool that allows you to express your imagination through a very creative way. From your Storybirds, you can turn them into short story books, play cards or greeting cards. They can be printed and shared among your friends. It is a great tool to encourage storytelling among students because it is colourful and full of pictures! Furthermore, it is free!

How it works?

First of all you need to sign up to this website. Having an account of your own allows you to save and publish your master piece. Storybird reverse the process of story telling by starting with the image and "unlocking" the story inside. You can choose you artist or a theme, get inspired and start to write your imagination into the canvas! 

Here is a video of a complete tutorial on how to use Storybird:

   

And below is an example of a finished Storybird:

Storybird in ELT:Advantages:1) A fun and exciting way to encourage storytelling among your students because they can express their creativity and imagination like a professional story book author.2) Storybird also offers a different approach to get your students engage in creating their own story by choosing a theme or pictures to get them started. It promotes a reversed process of story telling by starting with the image and "unlocking" the story inside. 3) This tool also promotes the sense of ownership and motivation. As your students create their own story, publish and share them, they may feel like a real author and feel motivated.4) You can also get the students to narrate their stories after they finished and share with the whole classroom. through this, speaking and pronunciation skills can be practiced.Disadvantages:1) Students may get carried away and fails to finish their Storybird (if assigned by teacher)2) No internet connection.

Lyrics Training

What is Lyrics Training?

Have you ever heard about Lyrics Training before? You would be glad because you found this website like I do! This is because learning foreign languages is never been so fun until Russell introduced a cool website called Lyrics Training!

So what it is? Lyrics Training is a website where you can learn foreign languages (currently offers English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Dutch) in an exciting way! it would be perfect tool for your students to learn English language because this website allows the,m to improve their English through their favorite music and songs! Learning English does not have to be dry and full of boring memorization anymore because with Lyrics Training, your students can sing along while doing something useful. The most important part is, this website is free and no registration is required!

How it works?

First of all, go to Lyrics Training website. Secondly, choose any song that you like and select one of the three mastery levels; beginner, intermediate or expert. As the video begins to play, the songs lyrics appear underneath with several blank spaces fro you to fill in the missing words while the song is sung. If you don's know the word, the video stops playing until you can come up with the correct word. It keeps track of the time you take to fill the blanks and the score is given based in the time taken. Click the "Give Up!" button to see words that elude you. You can sing along while you fill in the missing words!

Lyrics Training in ELT:

Advantages:

1) Lyrics Training allows your students to practice English in a fun way because they can listen and sing to their favorite songs while doing something useful. For example, practice listening and spelling. They can also enrich their vocabulary and practice typing at the same time. 

2) It is user-friendly because it has three difficulty levels; beginner, intermediate and expert. This may help your students to choose the level according to their ability (English language proficiency), typing speed and familiarity with the song. 

3) The way this tool works can help to reduce the anxiety level in learning English especially for the lower level students as there is no pressure while filling in the missing words. This is because, the music stops when they get stumped and they can always replay and listen to the songs again in order to get the correct words.

4) It encourage healthy competition between the students as this tool also allow the users to keep track and save their scores. However, in order to enable this, your students have to register and have their own account.

5) You can also create learners autonomy among your students  and encourage them to use this tool at their own time.

Disadvantages:

1) Sometimes, the lyrics cannot be understood despite being replay several times. This may lead to frustration to the students. 

2)Some students may prefer other ways to learn English rather than through songs and music. Lack of interest in music or singing may be a burden for them if you decide to use this tool in your classroom. 

Adobe Connect (Virtual Classroom)

What is Adobe Connect?

I am sure you have heard about Adobe System before and have one of the software in your computer, right?  Adobe System has a long list of software and one of them is Adobe Connect. Adobe Connect is a web conferencing software that is used to share information and presentation through online meetings or online seminars (webinars). This software is usually used by government and corporations as a solution to have a secured online events and collaborations. The best part is, it can also be used for learning purpose as you can carry out online classes with your students at anytime from everywhere! Adobe Connect enable the teaching and learning process to take place like the real life classroom because students can response through screen sharing. Other than that, audio and video conferencing can also be carried out via Adobe Connect and it can be recorded. 

Adobe Connect in ELT:

Advantages:

1) Adobe Connect enable teaching and learning process to take place from any distance, at anytime. This would be a great tool if the you want to have extra or replacement classes with you students while you are away. 

2) Adobe Connect includes notes, chat, and whiteboard that allows students to respond to the lesson that you are teaching. Screen sharing feature also helps you to display the lesson clearly. 

3) Sharing information could also be done through Adobe Connect because it enables you to share files and documents such as worksheets and etc with your students. 

4) Apart from all of the above, you could also have audio or video conferencing in your online classroom. This is a useful feature that offered by Adobe Connect that is perfect for the learners with multiple intelligence. For example, idea sharing through audio or video presentation could be used for students who unable to express themselves via writing (chat or whiteboard).  

Disadvantages:

1) This useful learning tool is that, it is not free and you have to buy it.  However, in my opinion it is totally worth it to buy because online learning experience would be more interesting and exiting with Adobe Connect. 

2) Idea sharing through whiteboard as well as audio response could only be done by one student at a time. 

Intervue

What is Intervue?

Intervue is another tool that shared by Russell recently. Basically, Intervue is a tool where you can use to make a quick video response to anyone or to gather short video interview from anyone online. A webcam is an essential equipment that you need to have in order to operate this tool. Intervue enable you to make the process of gathering opinions from students easier as you no longer need paper or worksheets. All you have to do is set the questions you wish to ask and post it online on you Intervue account and obtain the responses via webcam. Interview for a lesson purpose can also be done through this tool and the most important thing is, it is free! 

How it works?

So how to use Intervue? It is easy and quick and free too! All you need to do is click Intervue and sign up for your own account. You need to provide your email and create a password. The same procedure applies to your students. 

Now you have your own Intevue account and you can start making your own short interview video or set up you own  questions to be answered by your students. You can also view and commet on your students' video responses and interview. 

Intervue in ELT:

Advantages:

1) The main advantage for using Intervue in your language classroom is that it allows your students to practice speaking privately because the recording can only be listened by you and your students. This will encourage your students to practice speaking with confidence especially those who are lack of self confidence to speak in front of their classmates. This in turn will motivate them to practice speaking more.

2) Intervue also allows you to keep record of the video responses that you gathered from you students. You can monitor the progress of your students in any lesson especially speaking lesson by using this tool.

Disadvantages:

1) Intervue has limited recording time which is only 60 seconds. It is a disdvantage for low level students where more time is needed for them to speak promptly.

In conlusion, Intervue provides you a useful way to encourage your students to speak. Guidlines and practice should be prepared by teachers to allows students to speak in Intervue especially for the low level students to speak within the time limit.

Edmodo

What is Edmodo? 

Edmodo is a social network which is almost similar to Facebook. The only difference is that, it created for learning purposes that aimed for teachers and students. It allows teachers and students to have a secure online place to connect and collaborate, share content and educational applications, and access homework, grades, class discussion and notifications. The goal for this tool is to help educators especially teachers capture the advantages of social networking to make the classroom more accessible and flexible for learners. The most important thing is that, it  is free!

How it works?

So, how to set up and operate Edmodo? It is very easy! If you can create an account for your Facebook, than you should have no problem setting up your Edmodo account. You only need to use your email or any preferred username and password and sign up as a teacher! You also will be asked to create a group to enable you to connect with your students.

Once you succeeded, you will be provided a code. This code need to be given to your students for them to sign up and join the group you have created as a teacher. 

Signing up as a students will undergo the same process and your students have to insert the code given to enable them to join your group. 

And finally you are ready to connect with your students online! 

Edmodo in ELT:

Advantanges:

1) Through Edmodo, you are able to have an online classroom with your students. The things that you have no time to do in the actual classroom can be carried out via Edmodo. For example discussions and giving feedback.

2) Edmodo enable you as a teacher to post grades or report about each of your students' performances in the classroom and they can keep track of their own results. Besides, this tool also provide a code for parents' access and parents can also view their children's progress in the school. 

3) This tool will also help to make your classroom more accessible for the students. You can post all the notes and worksheets that you used in your lessons. This definitely will be helpful for your students especially for those who are absence during the lessons because they are not well.  

Disadvantages:

1) Students with no access to the internet might feel discouraged because they are unable to keep their own progress online like their friends.

2) Students might be too lazy to check their Edmodo account everyday.

In conclusion, Edmodo may have a few downside but its benefits in teaching language could not be dismissed. Edmodo may be able to create a new dimension that make a classroom more flexible and accessible for the students. Both of the teachers and students may interact and communicate with each other at any place anytime they feel the need to. This in turn, may help in students development and progress as well as helping both parties create a better teacher-student relationship.