Friday 9 November 2012

Useful English Resources

Here are some useful links on the teaching of English language.

Type: Grammar
Link 1
http://elt.oup.com/student/practicegrammar/?cc=global&selLanguage=en

The first link (Oxford Practice Grammar) was shared by Mrs Ho-Tan Chor Hong. It features a selection of grammar editing exercises categorised by level - Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. Some of us have tried it and it is a useful resource to teach the new grammar editing format. Learners are expected to identify and correct errors in given sentences.

Type: Oral Communication
Link 2
http://learningenglish.voanews.com/

The second link was shared by Mr Patrick Timothy. He came across a useful resource from Voices of America under English Central that allows following of text and recording of speech. After which, it will compare the recorded speech against the VOA videos and give feedback (limited) on the quality of the speech. It also assesses the words that were spoken incorrectly and allows playback.

Type: Listening and Viewing
Link 3
http://storycorps.org/

The third link was shared at the English Language Teaching Seminar which I attended in August of 2012. Storycorp is a national collection of stories from Americans. It was aimed at providing Americans with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of their lives. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 40,000 interviews from nearly 80,000 participants

I particularly love the section on Animated Shorts where they feature a collection of personal animated stories. The speaker at the seminar shared the short on No More Questions.
In the video, Kay Wang shares her personal stories with her son and granddaughter. Kay had stories to tell—from disobeying her mother and rebuffing suitors while growing up in China to late-life adventures as a detective for Bloomingdale’s department store. Kay passed away just weeks after that interview. Storycorp is an archival of personal stories.

Buyer beware, some stories may not be suitable for our audience as the Americans may reflect a set of values and beliefs that are different from ours. However, many of the audio and video tracks found on the website touch on the universal values of friendship, love and family. 

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