Evaluation of software

Brief information of this software
Title: Road to IELTS
How to accsess:
http://www.clarityenglish.com/RoadToIELTS/demo/Start-Academic.html
Produced by: British Council
Target skill: vocabulary



Content
Road to IELTS is a preparation and practice to be familiar with IELTS exam. However, it can be also useful for those who are preparing for other English language exams. This program is organized thematically 12 themes such as “leisure & entertainment”, “Language & communication” and “Travel, tourism & transport”. Therefore, the contents of this material would be authentic in communicative based studying. Also, it provides 120 hours of learning materials and six main sections which are vocabulary, reading, listening, speaking, and writing 1 & 2 followed by IELTS exam.




The advantage of this software is that it is easy to use and quick access. Even if it is hard for learner to use it, the instruction of this software can be seen easily through the online video. http://www.clarityenglish.com/program/index.php# Furthermore, the materials of each theme are organized as in the exam. However, this can be used as an additional activity of the classroom when the lesson is related to these topics. Also, it can be engaging and interesting contexts for learning. One of the reasons is that the students can listen to the short conversations related to the authentic materials and guess which words it means on the dialog. The process of learning vocabulary will be good way to imagine the situation in the contexts. In addition, the key phrases to answer the vocabularies that they made mistakes can be checked when they click “FB” above the bottom. It leads to helpful to connect the knowledge that they have already known. For example, the dialog of the word “photography” can be helped when they can listen to the phrase such as “a dark room”, “black and white”, and “films”. Also the section of vocabulary is quite convenient to be used because this task is enough around 10 minutes. Therefore, the teacher can use it as a review at the end of the lesson or at the beginning of the lesson.

On the other hand, the disadvantage of this is that there are no scripts of the dialog. The students has only two ways of learning which continue listening to the dialog what it means or click the bottom “mark” to check the answer. It leads to lack of understanding the context completely. It might be worked as a short review of checking vocabularies which had already learned.

Evaluation of online resources5

Language Guide.Org English




Fruit
http://www.languageguide.org/english/vocabulary/fruit/

Target group: 12~14 years who are intermediate learner of ESL/EFL.
Brief summary: This online resource shows to pronounce when the mouse move on the picture without any click. Above the picture, there is a quiz bottom to answer the question following the listening.
Teaching idea: It is quite simple and easy to use for all students even if some of them are not good at using computer. Also, the students enjoy using because of vivid pictures. Most of these pictures might have been already known in the secondary school, however there are some unfamiliar vocabularies on this page such as “apple core”, “stem” and “peel”. Therefore, this material can be used as a warm up to guess what it means as a beginning of the class or homework to practice to be familiar with these vocabularies at home.

Evaluation of online resources4

Vocabulary can be fun!



SuffixGame
http://www.vocabulary.co.il/suffixes/intermediate/elementary-suffix-meaning/

Target group: 13~16 years old who are intermediate learner of ESL/EFL.
Brief summary: Suffix Game is to draw the line between the suffix and the meaning of it.
Teaching idea: Suffix is learned from the secondary school in Japan. The students feel that it is complicated to remember because of a great deal of these.
However, it would be helpful to increase English vocabularies effectively if they recognize the relationship between word and suffix. Learning about suffixes early has potential to improve reading comprehension at all levels. This online resource can motivate student to understand what each suffix means through the game. The teacher can use this word matching game in order for student to enjoy learning about suffix as a review at the end of the lesson or at the beginning of the lesson.

Evaluation of online resources3

Smart fm




Dictation
http://smart.fm/flash?swf=dictation&lang=ja&goal_id=705

Target group: 13~16 years old who are intermediate learner of ESL/EFL.
Brief summary: This online resource is for building vocabulary through typing the words that the learner listened as a dictation practice in Japanese website. Firstly there are some missing words and typing in the blanks followed what the learner listened. After practicing several questions, secondly they need to type all sentences which are learned just now.
Teaching idea: this resource educates the students to concentrate on listening and having a dictation speedy. They do not need to press space key between words when they answered, therefore, it is quite intelligent device to catch their meaning quickly and correctly. In addition, it can be used as a warm up before today’s lesson because one lesson takes around 10 minutes. The more they used, the more it can be leveled up. It would be supported for the students not only to practice typing English words and improve listening skills but also to concentrate on studying at the same time.

Evaluation of online resources2

Learn That Word




Vocabulary Tutor
http://www.learnthat.org/vocabulary/quiz

Target group: 13~16 years old who are intermediate learner of ESL/EFL.
Brief summary: This website is for building vocabulary through typing the 50 words that the learner read the definition on the screen. It can be shown the letters at the beginning and the end if they press the “clue1 & 2”. Also the learner can listen to the sounds of the word as an answer. If they cannot answer the question, it provide the spelling orally. The camera bottom shows the picture related to the target vocabulary. In addition, the learner can look up the meaning of the vocabulary through the right bottoms such as ”Wikipedia”, and “Visual Thesaurus” .
Teaching idea: It is cleaver device because there are quite a lot of factors. The students can study deeply using these options. Also they can choose the level of target vocabulary, therefore, it can be used by themselves in the classroom. In addition, it can motivate students to be familiar with using English- English dictionary because of showing the meaning of the target vocabulary in English.

Evaluation of online resources1

Picture Vocabulary
http://www.eflnet.com/vocab/dictionary/occupationswordsearch.php

Target group: 12~14 years who are intermediate learner of ESL/EFL.
Brief summary: This website is a cross word game to find the words beside vocabularies of occupations. It will disappear from the collection of vocabularies when it is correct.
Teaching idea: It is simple and not complicated game. It will help to learn the spell because they try to look for the words compared with the vocabularies in the collections many times. Even though some of the students are not good at memorize the words, they can enjoy leaning by heart through playing the games. Probably there is variety of the students who have different level of vocabulary. However, the game provides equal opportunity to have fun for all types of students. Also It might be fun if the teacher give them a specific time to compete how many words they found.

Evaluation of course book

Brief information of this course book
Title: New Cutting Edge Pre-intermediate
Author: Sarah Cunningham & Peter Moor with Jane Comyns Carr
Publisher: Longman
Publication Date: 2005
For whom: Adolescents
Level: Pre-intermediate level which is A2 to B1 level of the common European Framework. (IELS 4~5).
Method: Communicative approach

1, Strengths
Communicative:
New cutting edge is focusing on Topic-based syllabus which includes through and comprehensive work on Grammar, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, and the skills of Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing. Furthermore, it is suitable for students studying in multilingual classroom situation.
Appearance :
Vivid pictures of every pages prevents students from bored. In addition, Clear index separated not only modules but also each skill is helpful for the teacher to use it. Familiar persons and topics for students such as an actor ”Orlando Bloom” and a sport brand “Nike”, is used.

Teacher-friendly:
Teachers’ resource book can be helpful to make a lesson attractively. The book shows not only how to use but also how to teach using this textbook effectively. Therefore, the teachers who are especially young teachers can be sufficient supported from this text book. It would be a highly reliable course book.

Additional materials:
This book has strong supportive materials which are mini-dictionary attached the course book, class CDs, students’ workbook students’ CDs, teacher’s Resource book, test, videos, and companion website (http://www.pearsonlongman.com/newcuttingedge/pre-intermediate/cef.html).

2, Weakness
Affordable:
There was no information of price as a new book in the internet. However, if the teacher wants to prepare also above these additional materials, it will be costly.

3, Potential
Realistic:
The book provides approximately 120 hours of teaching including 15 topics. Companion Website (can be seen worksheet, webquests, and benchmark). The topic is authentic related to real life for the students such as “Leisure and life style” and “At rest, at work”. In addition, the variety of materials of this new cutting edge can lead to saving time for the teacher to create every lessons.

4, Suitability
Interesting:
The aim of this book is to motivate learners by basing module around up-to-date topics of international interest. Students are encouraged to learn more about the world and other cultures through this book, and personalization is strongly emphasized. Accessing to the internet and the search for the information is one of the activities as a further lesson can be chosen from Companion Website prepared lesson plans.

Hi, there!

Hello, everyone. I followed you guys who have uploaded in Blogger.

This is the first time for me to learn how to teach technologies and use the latest materials in the classroom. And also that is the first subject of this spring semester. I'm glad to have such a great

opportunity to learn and use technologies in the class! Using technologies is now quite popular with many people all over the world. I use a computer everyday for checking facebook, skype, and mailbox. Nowadays, there are the useful websites that are able to study English in the Internet!! I'm the one of the users of those websites. I hope to be able to be familiar with using technologies and materials through this class:)