websitereview

ESL Website Review

Website reviewed by: Jessica Holbert e-mail: [email protected]

1. Site description

¨ Title: ESL Lounge

¨ System requirements: Windows 97 or above needed to save and print materials.

¨ Site Author: Neil Coghlan

¨ Subject Areas: Materials and ideas are provided for reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities to be used in the classroom.

¨ Target Audience: The site specifically states that it is designed for teachers of EFL/ESL.

Summary: This site is designed for teachers of EFL/ESL who are looking for materials and resources to supplement their classroom. The site offers a variety of activities for the classroom, all of which are free and reproducible. Most activities come in a printable worksheet format.

2. Content
Educational objectives: The educational objective of this site is to provide educators with free, user-friendly activities to use in the classroom. The activities provided for the students are communicative and promote language learning through interaction with others in the class.

Organization and Content: The homepage of this site gives an overview of both the purpose and practical application of materials provided for teachers. The main links for the site can be found in the sidebar on the lefthand side of every page. The main links found in the sidebar are as follows:

¨ Site Guide: This gives a first-time visitor a brief sketch of the different features to be found on the site, as well as definitions of certain terms specific to the site. There is a general outline of resources and simple directions of how to save the material to a file to be printed when needed.

¨ Levels : 1A-5+ This is the “meat” of the site. There are separate links for materials suitable for all the different language levels. The materials for each level are further broken down into categories* of types of activities. For example, for Level 5 (advanced), there are categories such as; pairwork, themes and topics, reading and writing, conversation and discussion prompts, editing, high level grammar worksheets, and miscellaneous (questionnaires for students about dictionary usage and expectations for their course). The themes and topics option focuses on current events, the current topic being the the recent terrorist attacks. The page provides various authentic opinions on the subject to be manipulated for communicative activities.

*The categories change for each level. For example, for the beginners, there are no editing activities. Instead, there are more appropriate level materials, like flashcards, vocabulary, sentence structure activities, beginning pairwork, surveys, grammar worksheets, games, and error correction. A good amount of activities are geared towards pop-culture, which may or may not be appropriate according to your students.

¨ Boardgames: Here can be found prototypes for creating a board game to match a particular lesson in the classroom, as well as specific ready-to-print and use games. For instance, there are games which focus on specific grammar points, vocabulary, discourse markers, money, and general discussion.

¨ Songs: Lyrics are provided with the idea that the teacher will find and play the song for the class in order to do a listening activity. Advice on how to use song lyrics for teaching different skills, like listening, phonetics, and vocabulary is provided. The song lyrics are organized alphabetically and many have a grammar point associated with them, such as “All My Loving” by the Beatles, which emphasizes the future form of “I will”. A few come with worksheets. For example, the lyrics for “American Pie” come with a fill-in-blank worksheet. The idea is that students listen to the song and fill in the missing words as the song is played. The songs range from “oldies” to more modern tunes. There is a good amount of lyrics provided. You may also make a request to the site for a song to be added.

¨ Pronunciation: The activities for pronunciation are mainly in game form. For instance, word cards can be printed for pronunciation dominoes, where the students must match up words that sound similar to each other. Another activity asks the student to inquire “What’s you name?” in different ways, such as ‘bored’ or ‘surprised’. The other students have to guess that word that describes the manner in which the question is asked. There are also phonemic worksheets.

¨ Links: Here can be found 35 links to educational sites, mostly related to ESL/EFL. There are also links for parents (general education links), songs, student-oriented sites for students to directly access, ESL/EFL teaching qualification information, and jobs.

¨ Teacher’s Forum: This is an interactive forum where teachers can ask for advice, give advice, and post interesting news. It appears to be used frequently, the last posting being three days previous to this review, and last date from July, 2001. Also, there seems to be a good amount of direct responses for requests for help.

¨ Newsletter: There are no examples given of the e-newsletter, which comes out anywhere between 10-20 times a year, but an overview is provided. In it you will find more materials and lesson plans, ESL site news, results of surveys that are conducted on the site, and updates on the discussion forums.

¨ Letters: This is an additional interactive site for teachers. Each month, a different topic is presented. For example, the topic this month is “Use of students’ L1 in the classroom”. You can read the responses posted by other teachers and add your own. The responses this month (there are three) each lean towards limiting use of L1 and express the difficulties of L1 limits in an EFL situation, as well as the inevitabilty of limits for the ESL classroom.

¨ Teacher Tales: There is a picture of the famous painting “The Scream” at the top of this page, which gives the veiwer an idea of what to expect. The tales are mainly those of the humiliating variety and some are very funny. You are encouraged to add your own. Also on this page are polls to respond to, with topics such as “Why do you like to teach ESL?”, “What is your inspiration?”, and evaluation of the site. This is also the place to make a request for materials you would like to see appear on the site that you haven’t encountered. Teachers are also encouraged to post their own acitivities.

¨ Comments: Here you can find 25 complementary comments that teachers have sent in about the site. You are encouraged to send in your own comments.

¨ Site Map: This is a variation on the site guide and provides another way to access links to the site, especially for those who know exactly what they are looking for. It is in outline format, with each heading and sub-heading acting as a direct link. For example, if you are looking for a reading and writing activity for an intermediate class,you can scroll down to the Level 3 heading and click on the “reading and writing” link.

Two other important organizational features: Search and Advertisements

¨ Search: This link is found on the top right-hand corner of the homepage. It is akin to a search engine. A word or phrase is typed in and sites from ESL Lounge, among others, are presented and can be directly accessed. I typed in “pronunciation” and received links to ESL Lounge pages, as well as other web sites. However, the other web sites given appeared to be random and did not apply to pronunciation.

¨ Advertisements: These can be found all throughout the web site. They are on the right-hand side of each page and also intermitently spaced throughout the site. Almost all of the ads are related to education and are appropriately placed. On the “Songs” page, for instance, there is an advertisement for the book Jazz Chants. The author tells us that each advertiser is posted on recommendation according to the quality of the product. The abundant amount of advertising is probably what allows teachers to use the materials for free.

3. Site Evaluation

¨ Objectives: The author of this site does a good job of meeting his objectives. The majority of activities are designed so that students are engaged in communication with other classmates. In addition, all skill areas are addressed. Each level, from beginning to advanced, has activities which focus on reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The layout of the activities is simple and easy to follow for both the student and the teacher. The wide variety of materials also provides teachers with different ways to practice a similar language focus. The song lyrics link, for instance, provides creative and motivating authentic material, which a teacher can manipulate in many ways to match a specific focus.

¨ Layout: The web site is simple in appearance. There are not a lot of pictures or flashy features. This makes it easy to find what you are looking for, as the site has a lot to offer. It is organized very efficiently, as each page has a sidebar which contains the complete list of links available. Most images on the site are provided by advertisers, of which there are many. The multitude of ads does not interfer with viewing. As mentioned above, the ads are placed appropriately and in context.

¨ Assumptions: The materials provided for teachers appeared to be for high school age students and above. This is never specifically mentioned, so elementary school teachers may be disappointed. However, there are links to many sites designed for younger learners. The worksheets and activities that use pop-culture for content may not meet all students needs, particularly those students who do not have a lot of previous knowledge of American personalities.

PROS AND CONS

Advantages	o The materials available for use are free, easy to understand, and varied. o The emphasis of the materials is on classroom interaction and communication.
Disadvantages	o The printable activities come with no graphics. It is up to the teacher to provide visual stimulation and attractiveness to any worksheets.
Strengths	o The web site provides activities which address many different learning styles. o It encourages teacher-to-teacher interaction and collaboration. It provides several different forums for doing so. o It is updated regularly and well-maintained. o It is in the “Top 100 Sites for Educators” o It received a Golden Web award for 2001-2002. o There are links to many sites relevant to the field of ESL/EFL.
Weaknesses	o There is no “Help” feature available. o The search engine feature provided by the site provides many irrelevant links. At times, it does not work at all.

4. Usefulness for ESL/EFL teachers

This site provides a wealth of material for ESL/EFL teachers looking for communicative alternatives to the textbook. The site is easy to navigate and efficiently organized. The activities are relevant and creative and can be applied to all learning levels. Some of the best features are the song lyrics, board games, and teacher forums. I would recommend this site to any teacher looking for new ways to motivate and engage the students.