Quintura: Visual Cloud Search Engine

http://www.quintura.com/ Quintura takes searching to a new level...up in the clouds. It employs the new cloud technology to provide a more visual search, and also lets you see not just the usual search results, but also any images or videos that are in the selected websites. The images are useful if you need some quick visuals for PowerPoint presentations etc.

It also has an Amazon tab which shows you books available on the subject. It includes a widget building script so you can easily add it to your blogs or wikis (there's a sample in the right hand column).

For second language learners, the clouds help them find the exact information they need if they have difficulty determining effective key words, and the visualization helps them to check that what they have found is what they were indeed searching.

"Visualization becomes the center of user experience replacing antiquated listings and Boolean strings.

Visual Find Engine
While viewing the Quintura Cloud, you can visually navigate and easily refine in order to find relevant information faster and more efficiently!"

ESL: Civics

http://www.elcivics.com/

"Learn EL Civics with great pictures and easy words. Just click on a picture to start a lesson or activity. The following EL Civics units are now available: Statue of Liberty, Washington, D.C., American Bald Eagle, and Gateway Arch. English Language Civics provides an easy way to learn about American history, geography, and culture. New lessons, worksheets, PowerPoint presentations, and videos are added to elcivics.com almost every week."

New Technology: Voice Thread

Did you ever want to share a photo, and get comments back from viewers? Voice Thread (http://voicethread.com/) allows you to post a photo or a diagram and allow for responses from the viewers. There is an extensive series of demos and tutorials, so pop onto the site and check it out. It really is quite awesome.

"A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. They can even be exported to an Archival Movie for offline use on a DVD or video-enabled MP3 player. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world."

• By Voice (mic or phone), Text, Audio file, or Webcam. Simple voice recording within your web browser allows you to collect the voices of an entire group on a single page. All you need is a mic and Flash Player 7+. Capturing voices couldn't be easier.
• Video Doodling allows you to control the playback of a video as you comment using a mic or webcam, giving you the power to voice comment over specific segments of video. Move to a spot, doodle, then move to another, all while commenting.
• The Doodler is a new way of annotating. It captures your drawing as an animation synced to your voice or text commentary. Instead of seeing the final product of your thoughts, viewers can see the actual process. Doodling delivers a sense of live presence.
• Put your VoiceThread on any site you want, or better yet, put it on many. Embedding is easy and allows you to add group collaboration to any website. Whether it's feedback, critique, or group story-telling, collect it how and where you want.

New Hotlist: ESL Vocabulary Plus More!

A new Hotlist for ESL students is currently being created by AELC staff specialists Robin Bosworth and Kristy Laurx. While still being populated, the list will be a resource of Websites for ESL students at all levels. It is entitled ESL Vocabulary Plus More! and is accessible from either the Student Hotlist listing at the top right hand column of this page, or directly from http://tinyurl.com/48ndvd. All Websites have been vetted by Kristy and Robin to be academically sound and applicable for students at the levels listed.

Interesting Blogs on Linguistics and Grammar

GRAMMAR BLOG
http://spandg.blogspot.com/
Grammar Blog approaches language oddities and mishaps with a lighthearted, irreverent tone. Gez Daring, Daniel Gray, and Tom Knowles started this blog as a continuation of the linguistic gibes they shared during their time at the Univ. of Newcastle upon Tyne, in England. Many posts include photographs of errors spotted in everything from literature to signage, to which the bloggers respond with often snarky corrections. Readers contribute their own photos of spelling errors and mistakes in grammar. While this is primary British English, there are useful and clever references to American English as well. You should enjoy and understand this despite the "other English."
MOTIVATED GRAMMAR
http://motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/
Motivated Grammar abandons the traditional idea of grammar as a strict set of rules. Gabriel Doyle, graduate student in linguistics at UC, San Diego, rails against linguistic prescription, or the notion that arbitrary but established grammar standards should be closely followed. Each of Mr. Doyle's posts reads like a self-contained grammar lesson, posting a question, discussing the issue, and arriving at a conclusion. You'll enjoy this one!
LANGUAGE LOG
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll
Professors in linguistics, Mark Liberman of the Univ. of Pennsylvania and Geoffrey Pullum of the Univ. of Edinburgh started this blog in 2003. They and other contributors often touch on popular culture and current events in their discussion of language. With multiple posts each day, this blog covers a broad swath of linguistic issues. Translation and the comparison of language are popular topics on this blog, with one series of recent posts debating why English texts are much longer than their Chinese counterparts. Do some scrolling on this one, and you will be sure to find one of great interest which will give you something to really think about and come back for more. All three of these blogs were listed in the BLOG WATCH Section by Lydia Serota in the Wall Street Journal, Monday, June 9, 2008 in Section R16.

Posted by Robin Bosworth

English Level Test Widget

Here's a quick little Web 2.0 widget from Widgetbox.com for ESL: (http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/english-level-test) which gives you a quick test of English ability level. It is only 21 questions so the end result is less than perfect, but it's a good check of someone's understanding of English. I added it to the bottom of the right hand column of this Blog so you can try it out. You can paste the widget directly from the Widgetbox site to your Blog or Wiki.

I also added a Free English Widget and Learn English Widget. The problem is that there are many widgets, and limited Blog space. Try these out and see what widgets can do to enhance your classroom Blog sites.

New Subject Area: Hotlists for Students

With the coming winter break from classes, students have asked me for lists of good academic Websites they can use when the college is closed. In the right hand column of this Blog is a listing titled "Hotlists for Students". For the first hotlist, instructors Robin Bosworth and Kristy Laurx have developed a list of good sites for all levels of ESL students. For GED students, there are math and reading Hotlists, and instructors Patti Huelsman and Char Rokop offer additional assistance in studying for the Constitution test on the AELC Constitution Blog : (http://constitutionaelc.blogspot.com/)

Hotlists are easy to use:
Click once on the title you wish to use (such as 'General ESL Skills'). This will open the Hotlist. There are several categories listed: Reading, Grammar and Speaking and Listening.
Under each category are several Websites your teachers have chosen for you.
Click on the underlined words of the title you want to try, and it will take you directly to that Website.
Once on the site, you can follow the instructions for using anything on the page. The same information holds true for using the math and reading Hotlists.

Gabcast useage instructions are found on the Constitution Blog.

California Distance Learning Project (CDLP)

http://www.cdlponline.org/ California Distance Learning Project

This free site offers great listening to stories coming from the news, for Adult Basic Education and Intermediate to Advanced ESL learners. Some stories also have a video component. Possible life skills topics include: working, law and government, family, school, health and safety, housing, money, science and technology, services, going places and nature. Some are generic while others have some relevance to California, namely Sacramento County.

In addition to just listening to the story, read at a moderate speed by a native speaker, learners can go over hearing key vocabulary words, mastering their spelling and then utilizing hasic comprehension in a multiple choice format. Some lessons also have a matching game, a what did you learn activity, a writing activity and additional links to other Web sites.

(originally reviewed on this Blog in 2005, this current review is by instructor Robin Bosworth)

11/29/07: Char Rokop was also impressed with this site, and is creating a flowsheet to help students through the vast library of materials this site has available.

Educational Media Collection

http://www.uwosh.edu/library/emc/lp_esl.html

This is a compendium of sites for ESL instructors and students. While I have many of these sites already listed and reviewed on this Blog, it's worth looking at to see what else is out there. Great resource site.

CESOL: Computers for English and Speakers of Other Languages

http://tech.worlded.org/docs/cesol/index.htm

update 11.5.07: American TESOL Institute launches two Websites http://www.tesolabroad.com/ and http://www.tesol-jobs.com/ .

The Computers and English for Speakers of Other Languages website is for teachers who are interested in integrating technology into primarily the adult ESOL/ ESL/EFL classroom. We are advocating a computer-mediated approach that includes but is not limited to:

* teaching computers to ESOL / ESL / EFL students in a way that integrates technology into the curriculum; *using computer technology as a tool for improving teaching English language learning;
*developing project-based, cooperative use of computers and the Internet;
*utilizing software appropriately in the computer-assisted language learning (CALL) lab.

Note: Although there is some links to topics related to distance learning, there are many other sites that cover this topic in greater detail. Do, however, see the new articles on Podcasting.

This is packed with good information and lesson plans and is geared for adult ESL in particular. Very useful.

Podomatic: World News for ESL Learners

http://esl.podomatic.com/ World News for ESL Learners


World News in Slow and Clear EnglishFor English as a Second Language (ESL) listeners.The English is spoken very clearly at about 80% the speed of regular news announcers.

Contact Info
podMail: esl@podomatic.com
Can also be used to find and create podcasts. Excellent for early listening levels.

ESL: Grammar/Verb Conjugator

http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/ Conjugate Verbs Online

WebVerbix is a free on-line verb conjugator. It's an online version of a more feature-packed shareware product called Verbix for Windows. There may not be a lot of uses for conjugating verbs, but for some students, it is helpful. There are ancient languages listed as well as modern.

Writing: ESL, ABE/GED Story Squared

http://www.storysquared.com/ Story Squared

"Want to be creative but don't have the time? Start a story on StorySquared and see where it goes. Friends and family contribute to a story thread that you create. The results can be funny, imaginative, or just plain strange. Try it out now and see!
Start your story “Once upon a time…”
Send it to the people you want to contribute.
You and your friends read the story as it unfolds! "

Above is the lead into this site. It's an interesting tech twist on an old writing technique that would be great for imtermediate and higher level ESL students, and would also obviously work on an online environment. There are public stories that you can add to, or create an entirely new story.

ABE/GED, ESL: Ways to get Started Writing

http://www.litwomen.org/perspectives/2007/prompts_wp2.doc Women's Perspective

This is a lesson plan to get students started with writing. There are pre-writing exercises, and writing prompts.

ESL: The English Learner Movie Guides

http://www.eslnotes.com/ The English Learner Movie Guides

Each individual guide is a detailed synopsis of a popular movie that consists of the following:
a summary of the plot
a list of the major characters
an extensive glossary of vocabulary and various cultural references that even advanced ESL learners would often not understand
questions for ESL class discussion

I really like this site, and it can have a lot of uses in a variety of ESL classes. Movies range from the classics: Wizard of Oz, To Kill a Mockingbird etc. to more contemporary flicks such as When Harry Met Sally or Legally Blonde. The plot summaries are great, but one of the best aspects is the glossary and cultural reference sections. I can see classes studying the plot, vocabulary and other references, and then watching the movie together. What about using It's a Wonderful Life before the holidays? A wonderful tool for speaking and listening activities. Lots of possibilities here.

ESL Hotlist: Writing Plus

http://hills.ccsf.org/~esltech/Lessons/Comp/lab.html


Hotlists are new favorite of mine, and this one is very well organized. This covers many of the areas concerning writing, and also some broken down by levels and subject area. Worth a peek!

ESL: Cool Sites for ESL Students

http://www.uic.edu/depts/tie/coolsites.htm : University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)

ESL Writing Assistance

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/special/esl.shtml Dartmouth Writing Program, Special Writers, ESL Writers

This is more for upper level ESL students, but the information is very clearly written, and easy to understand. I especially liked the American Paragraph and the English Sentence. One page, with good links.

ESL: Writing: Resources

http://academic.reed.edu/writing/esl_resources.html ESL Writing Resources: Doyle Online Writing Lab

Topics include:

English as a Second Language Resources
General Interest sites for ESL students
Basic Tips for ESL Students: Writing for an American Academic Audience (Purdue)
Writing an American Academic Paper (Dartmouth)
Grammar and Style pages for ESL students
ESL Grammar links A few pages identifying the eccentricities of the English language.
ESL Idiom Page Lists, meanings, and examples.
Phrasal Verb Page Lists, meanings, and examples.
Activities and Study Guides
Complete List of English Irregular Verbs (Susan Jones) A list of irregular English verbs with quizzes.
Focusing on Words Learn English vocabulary by studying selected poems and stories.
Grammar Safari (U. of Illinois) Provides ESL students with ideas for practicing the rules of English grammar.
Interactive English Language Exercises Exercises on grammar, vocabulary, and idioms.
Interactive Language exercises on the Web (Ruth Vilmi)
Quiz Center Quizzes on a variety of subjects designed for ESL students: history, people, grammar, slang, writing, world culture, etc.
Self Study Quizzes for ESL Students Quizzes on grammar, reading comprehension, writing etc. geared toward problems frequently encountered by ESL students.

Web Based Lesson Plans for Adult ESOL

One of the great advantages of the Web is that sometimes you find things while looking up other things. This is one of those sites. It wasn't exactly what I was looking for, and I almost left it without further research. It is very well done, and can be used to address state competencies and lesson plans for adult ESL learners. It is conveniently divided into skill levels, from literacy on up, and has a wealth of information and structure that can be used and developed.

"Lesson Plans for Adult ESOL were written by classroom teachers in Palm Beach County over the past three years. Although originally designed as curriculum resource books, they have been converted to a web based format to provide easy accessibility to teachers throughout Florida and beyond. The basic premise for writing these lessons is that if teachers are to be held accountable for student outcomes under performance based funding, it is the responsibility of the School District of Palm Beach County to provide teachers with every tool possible to promote student success.
The lesson plans are designed to be used as a starting point or spring board for the delivery of good sound instruction. They are specifically designed so that teachers can add their own ideas and activities to enhance the basic lessons.
Activity sheets have been developed for most lessons so that teachers can use the lessons even if they cannot access the textbooks listed. None of the activity sheets are copyrighted and can be legally photocopied without the need to obtain permission."

Click on the competency.
ESOL Literacy/Foundations - LCP - A
ESOL Low Beginning - LCP - B
ESOL High Beginning - LCP - C
ESOL Low Intermediate - LCP - D
ESOL High Intermediate - LCP - E
ESOL Advanced - LCP - F