Elllo English

What is it?
Hello hello elllo! This time around, I'd like to introduce a fabulous tool which is called Elllo English. It is one of the largest source for teaching and learning materials on the net. Now, how amazing is that? This tool allows the students to learn language naturally through listening to authentic materials. There are thousands and thousands of texts with interesting topics available on Elllo English. Those texts are divided into six main sections which are Views, Mixer, Games, Videos, Scenes and News. Additionally, there are two more sections under Mixer which are called Songs and Talking Points. In each section, there are a range of activities provided, with loads of additional stuff such as the transcription of the listening task, free MP3 files, multimedia, vocab tasks and language notes. The printable version of the activities are included as well. In addition, almost all texts are provided with audio explanations of vocabulary items. Besides that, the students could also benefited from video sharing, a feature that allows them to upload a video about their thoughts and opinions regarding certain text. Not only that, they could listen to other videos of people from all around the world sharing their opinions as well.

Suitable for:
I would say that Elllo English is suitable for secondary school and college/university students since the listening task might seem too complex for primary school students.

Activity Suggestions:
This tool is definitely could be used as a listening activity material. The teachers should choose the appropriate videos according to their students' levels. Additionally, the students could also be encouraged to use Elllo English outside school period so as to encourage towards greater learner autonomy.

The Link:
http://www.elllo.org/english/home.htm

The Snapshots:

Views

Mixers

Games

Videos

Scenes

News

Songs

Talking Points

Advantages:

1) Authenticity. This tool provides authentic materials of listening activities. The English language that are used in the videos are all real, and it is very important for students since they can learn how to use the language in their daily lives.

2) Pronunciation. Elllo English includes audio files for vocabulary pronunciation. This feature is so great because students can learn and practice the correct pronunciation of certain words. Moreover, the definition of the words are also provided, and thus will be useful for helping the students to thoroughly understand the texts.

3) Variety. Since this tool offers thousands of interesting topics, there will be a variety in language learning process. Thus, it will make the learning process more fun and enjoyable.


Disadvantages:

1) Server down. If there are too many users, the system will be overloaded and thus make the tool nonfunctional. It will surely distract the learning process.

2) Crowded layout. The layout is too packed and crowded. Sometimes, it is confusing as well since there are too many things sprawled on one page.

3) The videos cannot be downloaded. What a shame, because the videos are interesting.

Though there are some limitations of this tool, they are all not that worth concerning. So, teachers, go for it! Anyways, as usual, this is the help provided by Russell Stannard regarding Elllo English.

The Link:
http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/elllo/index.html

Zimmer Twins + Vodpod

What is it?
Zimmer Twins is a movie maker tool that is very interesting to be used for language learning. It is quite similar to another tool that I have introduced before this - Dvolver. But, Zimmer Twins is way cooler than Dvolver (I think!). Using this tool, the students can create an amazing quality of cartoon animation (seriously!). Zimmer Twins provides several story starters which enables the students to create their own movie endings. Or, they can even creatively create their very own animated movies from scratch. It is easy to use and a video on how to make a movie is even provided by Zimmer Twins. With a little guide, I bet that the students will be able to use the tool successfully.

Suitable for:
In my opinion, this tool is suitable to be used for learners of all ages and levels. However, this tool might be too complicated for young learners (primary school students), so, I guess secondary school and college/university students would be much more benefited from it.

Activity Suggestions:
There are several ways of using Zimmer Twins in the classroom. For instance, the students can be asked to watch a starter video and finish the story however they would like. Ideally, the activities should be carried out by students in pairs so that communication between students can be maximised. Besides, the teachers can also ask them to create animation movies from scratch to encourage their creativity. Besides that, the teachers themselves can use Zimmer Twins to introduce new topics for language learning. After that, the students will have to apply whatever they have learned in a form of movies. How fun the teaching and learning process would be!

The link: http://www.zimmertwins.com/

Treasure Hunt | Zimmer Twins

- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Advantages:

1) It will give so much fun to the students. They will enjoy something light and easy like creating a movie. Therefore, they will engage in the activity until the end.

2) Increase creativity among the students. Zimmer Twins will allow the students to work and think creatively in order to create an animation movie.

3) Personalisation. Since there are loads of choices offered in Zimmer Twins, the students are free to choose whatever they think the best for their movies. It is very important as it allows the students to use language to express their own ideas, feelings, preferences and opinions comfortably.

Disadvantages:

1) Irreversible. Once the movie is saved, it could not be altered anymore. So, no changes can be made if there're some mistakes in the movie. Besides, the bubbles provided in Zimmer Twins have been restricted to certain amount of words only. Thus, the students could not write long sentences in the bubbles since it has word limits.

2) We cannot embed the video to the blog or other website directly. Instead, you have to use other tools that can give the embed link of your video, so that you can embed your Zimmer Twins movies in your blog. The tool that I used is Vodpod.

3) Subscription. In order to share the completed movies or view other movies, the users have to purchase a VIP membership, thus it would not be convenient for language learning if all students have to become the VIP members.

Although the disadvantages are quite a turn-off, especially regarding the subscription, I still believe that Zimmer Twins is a really great tool that can be a huge help for language learning. Since we can use tools like Vodpod, the teachers could embed the movies created by the students to the classroom's blog or teacher's blog. Therefore, the movies can be viewed by all, and the subscription thingy would not be a matter anymore. By the way, Vodpod is totally free, and you need to sign up and after that, it will give a 'tour' on how to use the tool. Cool. Anyway, here's the link:

http://vodpod.com

And, as usual, here is the help from Russell Stannard that you might need regarding Zimmer Twins. But, bear in mind that the Zimmer Twins does not work the same like it did in Russell's video anymore. It is totally free then, no VIP membership whatsoever.

The link: http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/zimmer/index.html

Wordle

What is it?
Wordle is a briliant tool that can create beautiful word clouds from the text that we provide. It is really cool because in just one click, we will get a beautiful word clouds. It works on all texts, no matter how long the texts are. From the word clouds, we can distinguish between the most common words to the least common words used in the text, according to their sizes. Not only that, Wordle provides other functions as well which enables the users to change the font, layout and also the colour of the word cloud.

Suitable for:
This tool is suitable for learners of all ages and levels since it is very simple to use.

Activity Suggestions:
I would say that this tool would be very useful for the teachers to prepare a pre-reading activities. This is because, it will be a great help for the teachers to introduce a new text to the students as Wordle will help the students to generate their thinking to get the ideas regarding the text which will then build their comprehension towards the text.

The Link: http://www.wordle.net/

Advantages:

1) It's ABSOLUTELY free! No hassle, no sign-up required, just copy the text and paste it on Wordle and in just a click, it will be nicely done for you. Your job is only to get it printed and distributed to the students.

2) Vocabulary. The students will learn new vocabulary in an easier way since the words are clearly stated in the word clouds.

3) Communicative activity. Using wordle, the teachers can create a medium of communication for students in the language learning process. For instance, they could be asked to discuss and share their ideas to guess the real text for the word clouds. Thus, it will help them to increase their speaking skills.

Disadvantages:

1) You will have to have java player, or else it won't work, no matter what computers you are using.

2) If the text is too long, the words tend to jumble up in several sizes. So, it might cause the students to be confuse since there are loads of words in many sizes.

3) If big words are clear and easy to spot, small words sometimes are too small and hard to be identified and read.

So, teachers, please please please, try to use Wordle. I guarantee that the students will enjoy the lesson much more! And as usual, here is the link to Russell Stannard's video regarding Wordle. If you need more information and help, please help yourselves by clicking this link:

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/wordle/index.html

British National Corpus

What is it?
British National Corpus (BNC) is an amazing concordance tool that consists of 100 million words of English written texts and spoken transcriptions, sampled from a comprehensive range of text types. In fact, it is one of the most important corpus in the field of linguistics. This tool is really great because it can be used to learn about aspects that we did not know about a particular word. We can also check our understanding about the word's meaning with the help from BNC. Moreover, BNC also provides several options, for instance, to know if a word can collocate with other set of words; and we can also check whether it is grammatically right in some specific context or not. To search for a word, we have to type the word or phrase in the search box. After that, the result will show up to 50 selected examples of the use of the word.

Suitable for:
I believe that this tool is suitable for secondary school and college/university students of all levels.

Activity Suggestions:
BNC can be used in the classroom for vocabulary enrichment among the students. Additionally, it will be a great help for the students to find the right collocation, especially to assist them in writing process.

The Link:
http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/



Advantages:

1) It is absolutely free! No sign-up required, just type the words, and it will do the job straight away.

2) The example of the use of the words are authentic. It is good for the students since they can use it the their daily lives.

3) The students will be able to learn the correct use of words using this tool, thus it will be very beneficial for them, especially for their writing.


Disadvantages:

1) It is too complicated since a lot of features and options are offered.

2) The layout is too plain and it is too wordy as well. I guess it would not work in attracting the students.

3) There is no audio file available for each word. This means that the students could not be able to learn the correct pronunciation of the words.

While BNC serves as a great corpus tool, I think that it should only be used once in a while during the learning process since I am afraid that the students will get confused seeing too much information provided in BNC. However, it is still up to you - the decision is yours.