Using 'Learning Chocolate' to teach/learn vocabulary

What is it, how does it work? (http://www.learningchocolate.com/)


Learning chocolate is a fun vocabulary learning platform on which learners could accumulate new words systematically and autonomously .

Some ideas about how we can use this website

• Use Learning Chocolate and the related exercises as a pre-reading/listening activity to activate students' schemata.
• Teach the new vocabulary in the class first, then ask students to work in pairs and compete to finish the following exercises.
• Make it a a regular homework for students to create their own vocabulary sets (with pictures) on the website and share it with other students. 
• Divide students in pairs and ask one students to pronounce the vocabulary and the other student to do the following fill-in exercise.

Why is this website good for English Language Teaching?

• The vocabulary provided on the website are sorted in a systematic way. (e.g. vocabulary about amusement park, car, etc.)
• All the vocabulary is explained by pictures, so it is very fun and straightforward to learn the new words.
• Various well-designed exercises are followed to help learners practice and memorize the new words.
• Pronunciation of the words are available. 
• The teacher/students are also allowed to add a new set of vocabulary on the web.

Limitations and possible points to improve. 

• No dictionary is available on the website to help learning
• Sine everyone can create and share their product on the web, some of them are not systematic enough or the pictures are not clear enough.
• The account doesn't keep a record of how many new words a student has learned.
• The website is still underdeveloped with not enough sets of vocabulary.

Todaysmeet

Using Todaysmeet to brainstorm
 (http://todaysmeet.com/)

What is this? How does it work? (webpage)


Todaysmeet is an easy-to-use, live chat web-platform upon which teachers could use to open a brainstorm session or collect student's live feedbacks during the class.

Some ideas of how we can use this tool. 

• open a brainstorm session in class to collect learners' ideas. (e.g. their view about grammar, their learning habits)
• First assign some difficult homework for students to do.
• Then make an appointment with the students, asking them discuss about their difficulties online collaboratively on a specific time for half an hour by using this web-tool.
• Following that, the teacher collect the unresolved problems and provide help on the website.
• In order to properly supervise students' work, the teacher could ask students to hand in their homework by email immediately after the on-line session. 

Why is this tool good of English Language teaching/learning?

It is believed that language learning is a socially mediated process, and it is only through better teacher-student interactions & student-student interactions and also through receiving timely feedbacks from the teacher can students become maximally motivated to learn the L2 Language. This web-tool provide us with  new approach to facilitate this process in order to promote motivation and learning autonomy.

Limitations and points to improve

• It requires the access to computer and internet for every students in the class.
• The students might use this tool to copy other's  homework.
• The virtual chat room could be sabotaged by naughty students if the classroom is not properly managed. 

Using Breaking news English (web)

(http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/)


What is this?
Breaking news English is a regularly updated teaching material webpage based on the current news event.

Some ideas of how we can use this website?

• Select some provided warm-up activities to arouse students' interests.

• Select some while-reading/listening exercises to guide students to read the materials.

• Select some after reading/listening exercises to do.

• Let the students to the the sentence jumble /no letter quizzes.

• Ask students to download the mp3 form and listen to the material.

Why is the content good for language learning? 

• The webpage provides teachers&students with a wide variety of well designed exercises and activities which deals with listening, speaking, reading, writing,vocabulary and grammar skills.

• The materials are up-to-date and relevant to people's life, so students will find it meaningful and stimulating to learn.

• There are also a wide varieties of high quality quizzes designed in line with the materials, with which the teacher could use to strengthen  students' language knowledge.

• The news materials could also be downloaded as PDF files or mp3 form.

• The exercises and activities are well organized into warm-up exercises, while-reading/listening exercises and after-reading/listening exercises, so it would be very convenient to use. 

limitations

• The material is always the same genre of news events, so the learners might become unaware of other genres of English.

• It could work better by providing some visuals attached with the news materials. 

Using Lyrics Training

Using Lyrics Training to learn vocabulary

(http://www.lyricstraining.com/)

What is this?  

LyricsTraining is an easy and fun English learning website on which students could learn and improve their  foreign language by learning the lyrics of their favorite songs. 

Some ideas of how we can use this website.

• Select some new vocabulary from a popular song to teach and ask students to learn that song as homework by using the web.

• Ask all students to submit their own version of singing to the teacher. Start a vote for the best singing award.

• After learning the song, students could be asked to try to improve the lyrics of the song: they will be advised to replace some words in the lyrics with better expressions according to their opinions and share the new lyrics with their classmates

• Ask students to sing in chorus in the following class and invite some volunteers to perform individually.

Why is the content good for language learning?

• By linking language learning and students' personal interests in music together, language learners will be easily attracted to learn the language autonomously.

• The gap filling activity on the web is cleverly designed to help learners memorize the lyrics of their favorite songs: it breaks the lyric into sentences and require learners to listen to the songs and fill in the gaps. Only when the gaps in the first line is filled, can a learner proceed to hear the following line of the song.

• By using this tool to learn a foreign language, students' multiple skills could be developed :listening, vocabulary and even pronunciation.

• There are various choices of songs on this webpage and new songs are  updated and uploaded regularly. 

• The gap filling activity can be approached in three different levels in which different amount of blanks are required to be filled: beginner level (10%), intermediate level (25%) and expert level (100%).

• Learners can also sign up and create their own account on the website so that they could keep a record of how many lyrics and vocabulary they have learned. In turn, this record could promote learners' awareness of their own language development and cultivate their habit of learning autonomy.

• Students will feel much relaxed to practice their pronunciation and oral English by learning a song.

Limitations and points to improve

• Not all students are that into music, especially the young kids.

• Some of the vocabularies in the lyrics are informal, ungrammatical or even violent or obscene, the teachers must be aware of and be prepared for it.

• It is difficult  to make sure that students will learn the lyrics autonomously as their homework, it might require the cooperation from students' parents.

• Students and their parents might regard this activity as an entertainment which is irrelevant to language learning.

•  There is no explanation and definition of the the lyrics on the web.