Topics

1.    Authentic Writing!!

2.    Sanako Listening!!

3.    Listening Listening Listening!!

Listening Listening Listening!!

Online resources

1. Elllo      http://www.elllo.org/

The name of this website is “Elllo” and the target group can be university students who study English as a foreign language in Japan. This website provides learners with some listening contents such as daily conversation and lessons. However, it offers not only lessons but also activities such as game. It can be useful to teach English in a classroom because the script is appended in each conversation and lesson. Even if some students cannot follow the contents used in the classroom, teachers can allow them to see the script and adjust level differences in students. In addition, learners do not probably give up listening due to the script and teachers can conduct a class effectively. Also, there are many varieties of listening contents such as news and daily life in this website. Therefore, teachers enable students to have interest in the class if they choose appropriate contents.

       

         

Screenshot taken by <http://www.elllo.org/> 

Reference

http://www.elllo.org/

2.  Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab  http://www.esl-lab.com/

This website is “Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab”. The target group can be university students who would like to study English in foreign countries such as Australia and America in the future. There are varieties of contents such as news, lectures and conversations in this website. It has 2 implications for teaching English in a classroom. Firstly, it provides some activities such as dictation and quiz. Teachers can use these activities for checking the degree of students’ understanding without preparing for “in-reading” questions, so their responsibilities of making questions can be reduced. In other words, teachers can focus on making “post-reading” questions if they do not need to prepare for “pre-reading” questions. Secondly, this site offers practical questions for IELTS. Students can have motivation to study English with IELTS listening practices because they would like to study abroad. Moreover, teachers can make teaching ways based on IELTS, so it enables them to conduct a class readily.

              

               

Screenshot taken from< http://www.esl-lab.com/ > and < http://www.esl-lab.com/credit/creditcardrd1.htm >

References

http://www.esl-lab.com/
http://www.esl-lab.com/credit/creditcardrd1.htm

３．English as a Second language
http://www.eslpod.com/website/index_new.html

The name of this website is “English as a Second language” and the target learners can be university students who study English in Japan. It offers a large number of listening practices through MP 3. For example, students can listen to news, short story, music, lecture and dairy conversation. The strength of this website is convenient for students. They cannot see the images that speakers talk about topic since all listening practices do not come from video. However, all of listening practices use MP 3, so they can down load whatever they need. In Japan, most university students have I-phone or smart phone. Therefore, it is easy for them to download listening practices through their mobile phones. It is so useful for homework because students can practice listening whenever and wherever they need. Accordingly, this website may be effective for outside of a classroom.
 

Screenshot  http://www.eslpod.com/website/index_new.html

Screenshot <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsu2A7gcMBQ >


References
http://www.eslpod.com/website/index_new.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsu2A7gcMBQ

4. TED                       http://www.ted.com/

This website is “TED”. The target group can be university students who study English in Japan. In this website, learners can listen to short stories or speeches by famous people in the world. It has two strengths to teach English. Firstly, students can touch many varieties of English through TED. There are a large number of native-English teachers in Japan, but there are not a sufficient number of non-native English teachers. Therefore, teachers can use TED to focus on not only native-English pronunciation but also non-native pronunciation. From the aspect of EIL, it can be considered as positive way of teaching “world Englishes”. Secondly, most speakers in TED are famous in the world. Accordingly, students may be interested in the speakers and have motivation to listen to the story or speech. In addition, it is easy for teachers to provide students with schema and background knowledge if speakers are famous.

Screenshot taken from <http://www.ted.com/>

Screenshot <http://www.ted.com/playlists/171/the_most_popular_talks_of_all >

References
http://www.ted.com/
http://www.ted.com/playlists/171/the_most_popular_talks_of_all

Sanako listening!!

Software Package (Sanako) 

This software package is “Sanako” which is in the CALL Lab at the Wollongong University College. The purpose of Sanako is to develop learner’s listening skill. The target group can be university students who study English in Japan. Sanako can be regarded as a practical software package because learners can listen to many types of listening practices such as lectures, News items, IELTS preparation and daily conversation, and it is easy for them to use it due to clear instruction. In addition, Sanako provides a lot of questions in different levels from beginner to advance. Therefore, it can be suitable to all learners even if they are in different levels. Furthermore, Sanako provides authentic listening practices. For example, it offers conversation between non-native English speakers and native-English speakers based on real-life conversation. Thus, the contents are authentic. Also, Sanako can pay attention to speakers. It does not focus on not only native speakers but also non-native speakers. Therefore, it can be considered that Sanako's contents are authentic from the aspect of EIL. On the other hand, Sanako has weakness about assessment and learners’ feedback. Sanako provides some questions and answers in listening practices, but only one answer is prepared for each question. Accordingly, learners may regard their answers as wrong answers even if their answers are correct. It might be necessary for teachers to check their answers. However, Sanako does not have positive feedback. In some questions, it provides only answers, so learners cannot review the questions. In order to prevent this issue, it needs some explanation for the questions and answers. This leads to voluntary and effective learning. In summary, Sanako has some critical problems such as assessment and feedback although it has some advantages about practicality and authenticity.

Screenshot taken by

https://software.intel.com/pams/sites/default/files/styles/colorbox_enlarged/public/submissions/screenshots/Sanako%20Study%201200%20SCREEN%20SHOT%203.JPG?itok=v_2WMdyC

Reference

http://expocad.1105web.com/fetc2010/Data/EC/Event/Exhibitors/252/coLogo1.jpg
https://software.intel.com/pams/sites/default/files/styles/colorbox_enlarged/public/submissions/screenshots/Sanako%20Study%201200%20SCREEN%20SHOT%203.JPG?itok=v_2WMdyC

Authentic Writing!!

Textbook (Real writing 1)

This textbook is “Real writing with answer 1” which can be suitable to university students who would like to study abroad and learn English as a foreign language in Japan. The purpose of this textbook is to enhance learners’ writing competency in real-life situations such as writing letters, so it can be identified as a task-based textbook. The quality of this book’s appearance is high since it looks attractive. For example, it adopts a large number of illustrations which can be fascinating to students. Also, it is so colourful, so it allows them to feel comfortable to study. Moreover, target students probably have interest in this book as it focuses on real-life situations and they need to develop English competency for studying abroad. In other words, teachers enable them to have motivation to learn English. In addition, the content of this book can be considered as authentic since it is based on real communication. Also, the level of this textbook is fit for target learners. Therefore, it is easy for teachers to use it in a classroom. On the other hand, the question forms are not appropriate for the purpose although the content is authentic. This textbook should concentrate on improving learners’ writing skills. However, there are a significant number of multiple-choice in the question forms. Accordingly, it might be difficult for teachers to enhance and evaluate their writing skills because of the multiple-choice forms. Furthermore, there are not sufficient extras in the textbook. For instance, it does not provide separate teacher’s book and explanation for the answers, so teachers may need excessive preparation for conducting a class with the textbook. To sum up, this textbook has some improvement points such as question forms and extras although it has advantages which are appearance, interest and authenticity. Therefore, it could be an effective material if teachers can solve weakness of this textbook.

                              

References

Palmer, G. 2008, Real writing 1: with answers, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.