Recent Posts

A Free Online Course- Exploring English: Shakespeare

A free online course- Exploring English: Shakespeare. Improve your English language skills by looking at the life and works of William Shakespeare and his enduring popularity (starts on 11th January, 2016).

About the Course:
This free online course will look at the life and works of William Shakespeare and take you from his Birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon to the Globe Theatre in London, from where he secured his central place in English literature.

We will look at five of Shakespeare’s plays with the help of actors and experts from around the world. They will explain and explore the universal themes Shakespeare addressed in his work. The plays are: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest and Macbeth.

The video tutor will guide you through the course and look at some of the words and expressions that Shakespeare introduced to the English language. Short quizzes will check your understanding and you’ll be asked to share your ideas and opinions on the topics Shakespeare raises. 

Requirements: 
This course is for people who are learning English and interested in the language and legacy of William Shakespeare. The material is designed for non-native English speakers who have studied English to around intermediate level (approximately B1 on the CEFR).

Where and What Time the Courses will Start:
Courses start at midnight on Mondays (00:00 UTC) on the day shown on the course page. Once a course has started, you will be able to access the course material and study at any time that suits you. You don’t need to be online at the same time as the lead educator or other students. https://about.futurelearn.com/about/faq/?category=course-sign-up-and-completion#faq2250



For more information, visit.

EltBase: Downloadable Resources for English Language Teachers & Learners

 EltBase.com  is a resource database for teachers of English as a foreign / second language. All resources are copyright but free for you to download and use as you wish. Teaching resources are catalogued against an index of language points allowing users to access the database in a variety of ways:

• By browsing or searching for specific language points. For example, a grammar point such as 'present perfect', a function such as 'suggestions', or a skills topic such as 'food'.
• By browsing the different types of resources available - printed materials, online quizzes, matching activities, picture sets and so on.

• By starting with the unit of the book for which you want materials and following the links to the language points covered. 

Resources that relate to an item in the book rather than a language point - a vocabulary exercise that revises or pre-teaches vocabulary for a listening in that unit, for example - are listed on the unit page. (retrieved from http://www.eltbase.com/vtr_about.php)

English Wsheets: Download ELT Printables

  EnglishWsheets is website that you can download exercises, worksheets, handouts, tests, activities, materials, resources, grammar explanations and lessons, vocabulary worksheets, picture dictionary, posters, games and puzzles for kids (children), students and teachers. In short, it is full of what you need for your language classes. Let's discover it! www.englishwsheets.com 

        The screenshot:


Useful YouTube Channels for Teaching English

 In this post, You are introduced some useful Youtube channels for teaching English. They are mostly beased on songs about different kinds of topics. The list is below. Just click on the links. Enjoy them!



Youtube channels for kids and young learners:
1- 3D Alphabet Songs, click.
2- ABC Kid TV, click.
3- Baby Nursery Rhymes, click.
4- British Council Kids, click.
5- British Council Teens, click.
6- Busy Weavers, click.
7- Children English, click.
8- Chu Chu TV, click.
9- Dream English Kids, click.
10- English for Children, click.
11- Fun English, click.
12- Have Fun Teaching, click.
13- Hoopla Kidz, click.
14- Hoopla Kidz TV, click.
15- Kids World, click.
16- Super Simple ABCs, click.
17- Super Simple Learning, click.
18- Super Simple Songs, click.
19- The Learning Station, click.
20- WattsEnglish, click.
21- Wow English TV, click.

What is an Infographic? And What are the Benefits of it?

 Till now, I think you have heard about infographics, or you have encountered with an infographic on any topic. Well, What is an infographic? Let's read about it: 

   "Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends. Similar pursuits are information visualization, data visualization, statistical graphics, information design, or information architecture.  Infographics have evolved in recent years to be for mass communication, and thus are designed with fewer assumptions about the readers knowledge base than other types of visualizations. Isotypes are an early example of infographics conveying information quickly and easily to the masses.(adapted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infographic

Now, look at the following picture. That's an infographic which demonstrates what an infographic is. This image summarizes what we are talking about. You can integrate an infographic into your classes, e.g you can give project works based on infogrophics. 


Created by Customer Magnetism.

The image of this post was retrieved from http://feeddit.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/infographic.png

Test Your Vocabulary: How Many Words Do You Know in English?

 Test Your Vocab: How Many Words Do You Know? The webiste which I am ıntroducing you helps you estimate how many English words you know approximately. You check the words that you know (meanings of the word), and then you give more information about you such as birth year, country, etc. The website will try to estimate your vocab! 

"TestYourVocab.com is part of an independent American-Brazilian research project to measure vocabulary sizes according to age and education, and particularly to compare native learning rates with foreign language classroom learning rates.

It functions by means of a quick three-part test: the first part with a handful of words to determine the general vocabulary level, a second part with a larger but narrower selection of words to determine the vocabulary level with greater precision, and a final (optional) survey to collect statistical information.

The site provides accurate results for virtually everyone, from very small children (with answers input by parents) to professional linguists. It can calculate vocabulary sizes from less than 100 words to more than 40,000 words." (retrieved from http://testyourvocab.com/about)


Perfect-English-Grammar.com: Loads of Grammar Exercises in PDFs

 In this post, I will introduce a website for teaching and practising English grammar: Perfect English Grammar

An English teacher named Seonaid administrates and supports this website. It is full of different kinds of English grammar exercises as pdf. You can download and use them easily. Moreover, there are explanations of grammar rules of English,  and some infographics of some tenses in English. Seonaid gives some piece of advice to improve our English knowledge. You can see them here

Voki: Speaking Characters for Education

 What is Voki? Voki is an educational tool that allows users to create their very own talking character. Voki is created by Oddcast and is located in New York City.

-> Voki characters can be customized to look like historical figures, cartoons, animals, and even yourself! Give your Voki a voice by recording with a microphone, using our dial-in number, or uploading an audio file. Voki characters can be emailed, shared on social media, and embedded on websites and blogs!

What’s with the name?
Voki is a combination of the words “vox” and “Loki”. “Vox” is the Latin term for voice. Loki is a Norse god from Norse mythology. Loki is a trickster who has the ability to change his shape. Fitting name since Voki gives students and teachers the ability to change the character’s appearance and add a voice!







Will Voki always be free? (Free)
Yes, basic Voki will always be free for all educators and students! You can create unlimited Voki characters on your account. Basic Voki users have access to basic Voki characters. Characters with a banner notification are Voki Classroom characters. They are only available to Voki Classroom subscribers.

What is Voki Classroom? (Paid)
Voki Classroom is a student assignment management system for Voki. With Voki Classroom, teachers are able to control their students’ privacy settings. Visit our Products page to see the benefits of upgrading to Voki Classroom.

Many parts of the information given above was retrieved from the website itself http://www.voki.com/about_voki.php 




Riddle: Create Interactive Contents

In this post, you will learn a website which I think you may need it. Riddle. Riddle lets you create:
-Opinion polls
-Lists
-Pop quizzes
-Personality tests

In fact, this website is not directly related to language teaching, but as a teacher, you can use it effectively for your classess! Just imagine what you can do with it! The owners assure that it will be free, forever. They say "We launched Riddle to make life easier for you, the social creators. After all, we know it’s YOU who create the things that make us laugh and cry, think and share."

http://www.riddle.com

Kahoot! Let's Gamify Our Classes!

Kahoot! In this post I will introduce "Kahoot!" What is Kahoot? It is a website or online program which helps teachers to create online game-like quizzes. I learned it from Dr. Gökçe Kurt, my teacher/lecturer from Marmara University. Thanks Ma'am! Meanwhile, if you wonder what the word kahoot means, you can visit this link

As a teacher, when you want to create a game of Kahoot! you visit getkahoot.com and create your free account. When signed in, you see three different types of Kahoot! Quiz, Discussion and Survey. This video shows how to create a Kahoot!.


While creating a Kahoot! you  can add images, screenshots, and videos; set a time limit for each question to create excitement among the students; and have different answer options ranging from Yes/No to 2-3- or 4-option multiple choice questions with potential answers. You can also use Kahoots created by other people. To play it in the class, you choose your Kahoot! and launch it. A game pin will be created. To play Kahoot! students do not need to create an account. They just go to kahoot.it using their mobile devices and enter the game pin, write a nickname and will join.
That's all! Enjoy it!
Some parts of the information given above was retrieved from http://gokcekurt.com/kahoot 
http://joanaflor.com/MorganRitchie/home/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Kahoot_colours-35.jpg

A Timeline of Language Teaching Methods

Language Teaching Methods:
There are many kinds of teaching approaches and methods in language teaching all over the world. Till now, people used these approaches and methods to teach a language and maintain the atmosphere in the classrooms. 
According to academic research, linguists have demonstrated that there is not one single best method for everyone in all contexts, and that no one teaching method is inherently superior to the others. Also, it is not always possible – or appropriate – to apply the same methodology to all learners, who have different objectives, environments and learning needs.
We have shared a timeline of these approaches and methods. You can click on the picture and can see it in the original size. If you want to read more about the language teaching methods, you can visit here








This picture was retrieved from http://blog.tjtaylor.net/teaching-methods 

Wordnik: Smart Words

Wordnik shows definitions from multiple sources, so you can see as many different takes on a word's meaning as possible.

Wordnik doesn't yet allow user-contributed definitions. If you'd like to add a definition, you can log in and leave a comment.

Comments
Logged-in Wordniks can leave comments on word pages, list pages, and user profile pages. To link to another word page from within a comment, use single brackets (like so: [word]). Simple links and formatting are also permitted.
Comments are the place to add new examples of a word's use, short definitions of your own, or simply your own opinion about a word.

Wordnik includes example sentences from major news media (such as the Wall Street Journal and USA Today) and from books from Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive, as well as from other sources across the web, including blogs.

Related Words
What do we mean by “related words”? Our word relationships include synonyms, hypernyms, hyponyms, words used in the same context, a reverse dictionary, and tags. But what does all of that mean?



Lists
There are more than 30,000 lists on Wordnik! Any logged-in Wordnik can make one (or more, or many, many more) lists.

Watch Erin McKean on TED Talks: Go ahead, make up new words!

https://www.wordnik.com
Keywords: online dictionary, wordnik, words, elt tools, elt websites

Creating and Sharing Presentations: SlideShare

SlideShare is a Web 2.0 based slide hosting service. Users can upload files privately or publicly in the following file formats: PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote or OpenDocument presentations. Slide decks can then be viewed on the site itself, on hand held devices or embedded on other sites. Launched on October 4, 2006, the website is considered to be similar to YouTube, but for slideshows. 

The website was originally meant to be used for businesses to share slides among employees more easily, but it has since expanded to also become a host of a large number of slides that are uploaded merely to entertain. Although the website is primarily a slide hosting service, it also supports documents, PDFs, videos and webinars. SlideShare also provides users the ability to rate, comment on, and share the uploaded content. 


Keywords: slide sharing, elt slides, download slides, elt tools, elt websites

Khan Academy: You can Learn Anything

Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization created in 2006 by educator Salman Khan to provide "a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere". The organization produces micro lectures in the form of YouTube videos. In addition to micro lectures, the organization's website features practice exercises and tools for educators. All resources are available for free to anyone around the world.

The Khan Academy started with Khan remotely tutoring one of his cousins interactively using Yahoo Doodle images. Based on feedback from his cousin, additional cousins began to take advantage of the interactive, remote tutoring. In order to make better use of his and their time, Khan transitioned to making YouTube video tutorials. Drawings are now made with a Wacom tablet and the free natural drawing application SmoothDraw, and recorded with screen capture software from Camtasia Studio.

All videos (hosted via YouTube) are available through Khan Academy's own website, which also contains many other features such as progress tracking, practice exercises, and a variety of tools for teachers in public schools. Logging into the site can be done via a Google or a Facebook account for those who do not want to create a separate Khan Academy account. The material can also be accessed through Khan Academy's own mobile applications, which can be found free of charge in App Store and Windows Store.

The videos show step-by-step doodles and diagrams on an electronic blackboard. Not-for-profit groups have distributed offline versions of the videos to rural areas in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Khan Academy also provides a web-based exercise system that generates problems for students based on skill level and performance. Khan believes his academy presents an opportunity to overhaul the traditional classroom by using software to create tests, grade assignments, highlight the challenges of certain students, and encourage those doing well to help struggling classmates. The tutorials are touted as helpful because, among other factors, they can be paused by students, while a classroom lecture cannot be.




Keywords: Khan academy, world-class education, elt, web-based exercise, teaching English, elt websites, elt tools

VoScreen: Improve Your English Through Short Videos

Voscreen helps you improve your English language skills on your own through short video clips. Learning and improving English is more enjoyable than ever with Voscreen video learning environment.

As we all know, English has become a priority for almost every one of us for many reasons. Today, there are more than 2 billion people of all ages trying to learn and improve English across the world. Voscreen has been developed in order to make a contribution to the learning process of these learners worldwide.

Voscreen is an innovative way to help learners improve their English language skills on their own, and provides teachers with the opportunity to help students improve their language skills.

Voscreen is based on Voscreenology, a method and teaching approach developed through meticulous research on mother language learning process and environment.

Just as any six-year-old kid anywhere in the world is able to acquire the essential language skills to communicate in his or her mother language thanks to all kinds of language input available while growing up, Voscreen users can experience and benefit from a similar input environment at Voscreen. All a learner has to do to achieve the goal of becoming proficient in English is to spend 20 to 40 minutes at Voscreen every day.

Following years of studies on language learning process and a huge database, Voscreen team has developed the DLCAV, Dynamic Linguistic Customization Algorithm of Voscreen, which functions and serves as an 'AI Teacher' that enables each learner to get the appropriate input at the right intervals and complete the required repetition cycles for language mastery.

In order not to misguide the AI Teacher, Voscreen users are highly advised to answer a 'Vo-Question' if only they are absolutely sure they fully comprehend the content.

Enjoyable, authentic, rich and free…

Keywords: elt websites, elt tools, improving english, english through videos, clips, voscreen