Learning English as a Second Language Online

Introduction

During the Fall 2002 semester at Eastern Michigan University, the students in Dr. Steven D. Krause's English 328 class were kept so busy with projects and assignments, Dr. Krause joked that his students were learning the art of plate spinning. By midterms, his students realized that they were getting to be adept at balancing numerous projects at once (the spinning plates). This web site is one of those spinning plates. For this particular project, Pete Scranton, Lance Quillen, Brian Rahn, and Megan Myers worked together to evaluate websites that claim to help visitors learn English as a Second Language (ESL). To honor our learned skill of balancing spinning plates (as well as Professor Krause's musical ability in imitating a plate-spinner) we are rating the ESL sites on a scale of spinning plates.

How we rated the sites

Our group's evaluations of nine online ESL sites:

Karen's ESL Partyland (http://www.eslpartyland.com/)
The Learning Edge (http://www.thewclc.ca/edge/)
English-at-home (http://www.english-at-home.com/)
Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab (http://www.esl-lab.com/)
EnglishClub.com (http://www.englishclub.com/)
Rong-chang.com (http://www.rong-chang.com/)
Parlo.com (http://www.parlo.com/)
ESL Independent Study Lab (http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/toppicks.html)
Activities for ESL Students (http://www.a4esl.org/)