QuestGarden

http://www.questgarden.com

A task I designed using QuestGarden

  

What is QuestGarden? What does it do?

QuestGarden is a website designed to help users create a WebQuest [note] without fear of not knowing how to edit web page. By following the examples and standard procedure offered by the QuestGarden, users can attach or embed their photos, worksheets in the WebQuest they make. They can also play with the font, background color and create their own stylish WebQuest.

QuestGarden is also a community that allows users to share and comment on one anothers' work.

[note] Here is a link if you want to explore more about WebQuest.

http://webquest.org/

Why is QuestGarden relevant to language learning?

Teachers can find a variety of well-designed WebQuests on QuestGarden and are free to use them in their own teaching context. They can also adapt WebQuests to suit students' needs such as culture, background, English level, interest, etc. Most important of all, students can benefit greatly from meaningful and interesting learning process.

How can we use QuestGarden to foster language learning in class or outside class?

1. Teachers are free to choose sample WebQuests that suit their teaching contexts.

2. Teachers might be inspired by other teachers' ideas of teaching and want to create their own WebQuests, which encourages creative teaching.

3. Teachers might learn from one another through the process of evaluating others' WebQuests. 

What are the limitations with the use of QuestGarden?

1. It takes a lot of time and effort to carry out a well-structured and comprehensive QuestGarden work.

2. As the main idea of QuestGarden is to build up learners' English repertoire through meaningful and step-by-step tasks, it might take a certain amount of time to see their growth in English.

3. It might be difficult to assess how much learners have learned from the tasks.

 

Breaking News English

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

What is Breaking News English? What does it do?

Breaking News English is a website run by Sean Banville, a dedicated and experienced English teacher. All the lessons on Breaking News English are free and new lessons based on stories currently in the news are released every three days. Teachers and learners can download all lessons and listening files for free and adapt the lessons to suit their own teaching/learning purpose.

Why is Breaking News English relevant to language learning?

Breaking News English is relevant to language learning as it provides both teachers and learners with the most updated reading and listening materials. A lot of interactive activities such as sentence jumbles and matching are designed for learners to use anytime they want, which elicits students' autonomous learning.  

How can we use Breaking News English to foster language learning in class or outside class?

In class

Teachers can select news articles that suit students' English levels and then download the PDF and sound files in preparation for English lessons. They might follow the procedure suggested by the author; however, I recommend that teachers adjust their lesson plans according to the time they have and the suitability of the context.

Outside class

Teachers can encourage students to do the interactive quizzes at home so that they can practice as much as they like, which helps them memorise the meaning of the words and familiarise themselves with sentence structure more easily.

What are the limitations with the use of Breaking News English?

1. Breaking News English shows a lack of interesting and colourful layout and photos.
2. There are not enough interactive and interesting activities provided on this website.
3. Few spelling mistakes can be found in the handouts.
4. As all the sound files are recorded by the same native speaker with the same accent, students cannot expose themselves to the diversity of international English.
5. Some students are not interested in news at all as the topics are sometimes boring and related to serious issues.
6. Students might not know how to use the handouts were it not for teachers' help.

TED

http://www.ted.com/

 What is TED? What does it do?

TED is a non-profit organization devoted to ideas worth spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from worlds of Technology, Entertainment, Design. All TED speech videos were recorded from the two annual TED conferences where the world's most innovative thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less). All of the talks on TED website are subtitled in English and texts of the talks are also available. Everyone can download the videos  from the website for free, share them with friends, or embed them on their website or blog for non-commercial purposes.

Why is TED relevant to language learning?

TED is relevant to language learning as it provides authentic listening and reading materials for both language teachers and students, moreover, the speeches there are inspiring and creative, and thus very suitable for teaching purpose.

How can we use TED to foster language learning in class or outside class?

In class

Teachers can use TED to foster students' listening and speaking abilities. Firstly, they can show students an inspiring speech and ask them to jot down the words and sentences as much as they can when watching the video. Then students will be divided into groups and asked to discuss what they have picked up from the speech. They will need to reconstruct the speech together and share their result with the rest of class. 

Apart from listening and speaking activities, TED can also be deployed in reading and writing activities. Teachers can hand out copies of a selected script and use the script of the talk as an authentic reading material. After the script is taught, teachers can ask students to make sentences based on the new words or sentence patterns they have learned.

Outside class

Teachers can foster students' autonomous learning by giving them a link to a specific talk on TED and encouraging them to listen to it at home. Students can read the script and look up words they don't know in the dictionary if they want. When they feel ready to test how well they have learned, they can try to complete the blank-filling worksheets provided by teachers when listening to the talk.

What are the limitations with the use of TED?

1. Teachers cannot always find speeches that suit both students' language competence and interests.

2. Due to the content and language complexity of TED speeches, it is not suitable for learners with low English level.

3. TED speeches vary in length, so teachers need to choose the ones that are not too long.