2011년 12월 16일 금요일

Introduction

1) the rationale of creating the project collecting online resources

In my case, English was very boring in my childhood. I don't want to know what the curved, meaningless words means. And there are so many boring things like books, grammar, vocabulary with only white and black, words and paper. So I decided to collect fun and funny web sites that make us study happily-games!-
Everyone loves exciting and interesting games. The meaningless words will be changed because there is a goal-games!- I really hope that there were nobody hate games : )

2) the way you organize online resources, and actually showing

Every websites have different characteristics. There is only common thing that it consist of games. But I try to organize them by skill areas, and I took captures by myself while I explored the web sites.

3) what you have done with your blog as the center of the web resources

It will be a guide for teachers who want to use games in their syllabus.
Take what you want and good luck.

2011년 12월 12일 월요일

English verb tenses

http://www.englishtenseswithcartoons.com/


Area : Grammar
Rate : ★★★★★
Target : Middle and high school students













The owner of this web site says,






Hello and welcome to EnglishTensesWithCartoons.com! A few years ago, when I was studying English, I thought to myself: "Wouldn't it be great if there was a website focused solely on the English tenses?". The subject of English Tenses is a vast and difficult one, so surely it deserves its own special place on the Internet! This is how this website was born.
To make the website more interesting, I enriched each of the 12 tenses with some funny animations (cartoons). So, what is the goal of ETC? In short, to make learning the 12 English tenses as easy as possible! At this stage, ETC is useful, but it still needs some work. So, your contribution is highly appreciated!






Cheers, Mark
Isn't it interesting? The visible verb tenses can improve your learner's understanding of the verb tenses.



At first, there are some explanation and examples about the tense that the learners choose.





And for helping the understanding of the learners, they offer very understandable flash for learners.

I think it is the best web site for learning verb tenses. Isn't it exciting? Whenever you try to teach your learners about verb tenses, the learners don't like the unexplicit and unclear explanation of the verb tenses. But now you can provide them explicit and clear concept of the verb tenses by introducing this web site! Try it!

And also they offer feedback or help for the learners who don't understand well in time.







1)Learner fit : The structured grammatical input fits the learners in terms of level, topic, and activities. And this web provides a means of matching the learners to the grammatical instruction they need. They can select weak parts of the verb tenses.



2)Interaction with the computer : The learners have opportunities for interaction with the computer to provide a variety of explicit teaching, discovery, analysis and production, of course. There are many helpful things for them.



3)Interaction with other learners : THe activities be used to spark conversation and collaborative work focusing on particular grammar points that I want to teach. And it provides an opportunity for learners to focus on form occasionally while communicating about something else. And they can share their thoughts in comment box.



4)Two types of evaluation : It provides feedback to learners about their responses. And the program provide evaluation of learning outcomes through quizzes that provide learners with information about their perfomance.



5)Strategy development : It helps learners develop skills for using corpora for gathering and analyzing language examples. And it provides guidance in assisting learners to develop strategies that will help them work with electronic text outside of class.



How to use?



You can use this web site both in-class and out-of-class. It is well organized, so students can learn grammar on their own. Also it can be useful in-class, but those words in this web site are not large enough to be seen all the students. So in-class, you will need handout or something. Or you just use it a supplement materials that would help your students' understanding.



I recommend you use it as supplement material that can be out-of-class. It's easy enough to understnad.

English vocabulary flash games

http://englishvocabularylists.blogspot.com/

Area : Vocabulary
Rate : ★★★★★
Target : Young kids and middle school students






This web is on blogspot. And it is well made and well organized.

Here will you find many English word lists for learning vocabulary with pictures and sound. And also there are many games that are good for memorizing and confirming the words that learners learned from the lists.

These are lists of some topics which provide interesting pictures and sounds.






And also there are many funny game that can grab students' interests.








This relationship between word lists and games are perfectly effective for your students' learning. And the moving flash can motivate their efforts more but I think it could be possible to print out it and use it offline classroom.


And also the arrangement by topics are very simple and meaningful. Try it and let your learners get some fun.


1)Learner fit
The vocabulary words definately fit the learners in terms of the topics that are covered. And the levels of the vocabulary are very various-beginner, intermediate and advanced-, so you can control it. And the students can see the need for learning the vocabulary words with pictures and sounds. And the words are chosen to match the students' levels of language. Actually this web can control the level of the quiz and vocabulary. And also topics of the vocabulary.
2)Explicit vocabulary teaching
The activities provide explicit instruction to teach vocabulary. And also the pictures and sounds may help the learners' understanding effectively.
3)Interaction with the computer
The activities provide opportunities for interaction with the computer in a way that focuses students' attention on unfamiliar vocabulary. The pictures and sounds will do. So the computer can provide students with help understanding the vocabulary that they do not know.
4)Interaction with other learners
The activities can't guide learners to work with classmates and contribute to online discussions. It is for one person. But if you want to plan for pair activities, you can do it.
5)Two types of evaluation
It provide feedback to learners about their responses and evaluation of learning outcomes through quizzes that give learners information about their performance. But there is not scores but the learners can know where they are wrong.
6)Strategy development
The activities promote good vocabulary learning strategies but not reading strategies. And it provides guidance for students to develop strategies that will help them continue to learn vocabulary on the Internet. They keep using this web for vocabulary learning.


How to use?


I recommend you to use it in-class. It is large enough to see and makes your class more fun and meaningful. Enjoy the games with your students. Or print out them and give them to your students. Make your students find the correct answers, try their answers on the Internet. If the student get all correct answers, give him or her good compensation. For these games, your students will learn vocabulary that you choose more exciting and interesting. So they don't have to learn vocabulary no more!

2011년 12월 5일 월요일

Digdic

http://www.digdic.com/

Area : Vocabulary
Rate : ★★★★
Target : All the students



Digdig offers many things. You can study English regulary with it.
But it is not free. If you want to use it, you should pay 5000won a month.

The three elements which are study, confirm and game support their web.
And your students can study their goal and they can confirm what they learn and repeat it.

So there are many menus for it.
By those, they can choose their goal, and many type of study and vocabulary can be choosable. And also games comparing others in this web offer your students fun!







They are usually for vocabulary.
And there are voca sets for many levels even for 3rd years students in high school.
So everyone who want to study English can use it effectively.

Boring memorizing vocabulary becomes fun and exciting!
Studying with game offers you many useful vocabulary in short time.

You can also use it by your mobile.
Isn't it interesting?

1)Learner fit
The vocabulary words fit the learners in terms of the topics that are covered. And the levels of the vocabulary are very various, so you can do what you have to do. And the students can see the need for learning the vocabulary words. ANd the words are chosen to match the students' levels of language. Actually this web is very good for learner fit.
2)Explicit vocabulary teaching
The activities provide explicit instruction to teach vocabulary. It is simple and easy to learn.
3)Interaction with the computer
The activities provide opportunities for interaction with the computer in a way that focuses students' attention on unfamiliar voca. And the computer can provide students with help understanding the voca that they do not know.
4)Interaction with other learners
The activities guide learners to work with online friends and contribute to online discussions. And other collaborative activities can be possible.
5)Two types of evaluation
It provide feedback to learners about their responses and also evaluation of learning outcomes throughquizzes that give learners information aobut their performance.
6)Strategy development
The activities promote good vocabulary learning strategies and reading strategies can be possible. And it provides guidance for students to develop strategies that will help them continue to learn voca on the Internet.

How to use?
I recomment you just to use it complement material out-of-class.
Just introducing this webs can be effective to your students' vocabulary ability.
They can do their own. There's no need to teach them partly.
If you think it is not enough, just check your students achivement in this web site.
After your class, or after many years ago, students can use this web site as learning materials.

Smarty Ants

http://www.smartyants.co.kr/front/main/default.aspx

Area : vocabulary and reading
Rate : ★★★★
Target : Young kids

It's the online English learning program based on 3D contents for young kids who want to study vocabulary and reading. It's American early English learning program based on the study of Stanford university. And children in U.S.A and Korea both use it so it is global English learning program. And also it offer various levels and they can study on their own. And also it is easy and fun! So they can read, listen and sing in English and their vocabulary ability will also be develped.






But it requires high quality of your computer, so some computers can't access this game. And also it is not free after 3 months. Anyway it is 3D so your students will very focuse on the game. It seems interesting also to adults.



There is a movie for it. Let's watch it and think about how your students like it!












1) Learner fit : The words fit the learners in terms of the topics that are coverd. And the learners can see the need for learning the vocabulary words and the words are chosen to match the learners' levels of language.


2)Explicit vocabulary teaching : It offers explicit and interesting instructionto teach voacabulary.


3)Interaction with the computer : It provides opportunities for interaction with the computer in a way that focuses students' attention on unfamiliar vocabulary. The computer provides learners with help understanding the vocabulary that they do not know.


4)Interaction with other learners : This web guide learners to work with friends online and contribute to online discussions. And there are many creative collaborative activities based on the vocabulary.


5)Two types of evaluation : The activities provide feedback to learners about their responses effectively. And it provide evaluation of learning outcomes through quizzes that give learners information about their performance.


6)Strategy development : IT promote good vocabulary learning strategies and good reading strategies. Also it provides guidance for students to develope strategies that will help them continue to learn vocabulary on the Internet.



How to use?


It is pretty and cute. So though you don't nag them to play this game, they will play this games. Just hold English game contest by this game. Your students will do their best to prepare the contest. Because it is complicated, you have to introduce this game in your class. But after then, set them free. They do well their out-of-class activities.

Power Typing

http://powertyping.com/

Area : Writing with computers
Rate : ★★★★★
Target : All the students

(Not for very young who can't use a computer)

PowerTyping is an online free typing tutor for Qwerty,US standard 101 keyboard and Dvorak keyboard, the US alternative ANSI standard keyboard.
This typing tutor offers free online typing games with other things.
This tutorial is designed to teach, develop and practice, step by step, typing skills. Separate lessons are written for Dvorak and Qwerty. One should go through lessons in sequence because they rehearse keys already learned as they add new ones. Instructions for hand positioning over a keyboard are included in lessons.

Check out the educational typing games. Some are enhanced with music. The most popular typing game is the Barracuda and its less graphical version the BarracudaS. Then there are the Foggies a typing game without boundaries.









Help barracuda keep its river clean. Type words into the box as they appear floating down the river. Barracuda will knock them out. It is a loosing battle and river will grow darker as barracuda slowly looses. When barracuda starts gaining, the river will get bluer.


The Alphabetic Rain typing game focuses on letters. The Falling Words challenges a typist with words or numbers. The latest game The Jibe practices random letters or numbers.




The latest game The Jibe which is my favirite practices random letters or numbers.
You are on the quest for 7 golden eggs. First, you must paint a ghost boat to sail across strange waters. Then, conquer a monster, and finally a golden egg is within reach.
Match three rectangles with the same letters/color vertically or horizontally. Strive to clear the stage to trigger change in number of letters per rectangle. There is an extra bonus for each change.
How to Play is easy.
Select level. Level 1 is the easiest.
Select letters or numbers.
Click "START" button.
Click with the mouse on the white input box and type into it letters appearing in a vertically moving rectangle. When typed correctly, the rectangle will move horizontally in a row and stop.
Align 3 rectangles with the same letters/colors next to each other vertically or horizontally. When aligned, they disappear, and points are added.
Typing text correctly on the way "up" gains extra "1" point.
Aligning rectangles with more letters generates more points.
The game ends when any row is full, or 7 eggs are gained.
Clearing the stage down to 6 rectangles triggers change in number of letters displayed. Such change is awarded bonus points.
Bonus is also awarded for moving from one venture to another.
Selections can be change during the game. Click on a new selection and back on the white typing area to bring a focus back on it. You can go to higher or lower level, or you can change letters to numbers or the other way around. The new selection will take an effect when number of letters is changed from maximum to minimum for that level. Meaning, continue clearing the stage, and the change will eventually take an effect.



Your student can learn and practice typing and also they can learn the words used for it. Let's get two bird with a stone.





1)Appropriate models : it can be good for leveling learners.


2)Explicit instruction emphasizing genre and language : If computer typing is one of the genre, it provides very explicit instruction about it.


3)Interactive help and feedback : There is not help but activities and the computer will provide impromtu feedback for learners.


4)Evaluation : Leaners can see their score.


5)Developing strategies for writing : They should know how to type most easily.



How to use?


There can be the time when you should teach English to your students with computers. In information age, computer is very important material, so we have to teach them how to write in English by typing. Are you agree with me? Then use this web sites. There are many game to develop your students' typing skills. Let them take their own time to practice their typing skills in-class or out-of-class.

Junior Naver English School

http://study.jr.naver.com/english/

Area : Listening
Rate : ★★
Target : Young kids


This is for young kids.
There are many interesting games that can grab your students' attentions.
I will introduce some games of it.

*Number
http://study.jr.naver.com/english/view.nhn?id=game&parentId=1&nid=473&page=1&sort=cnts_id






'Number' is good for learning numbers.
A boy must escape from the place. For that, he has to choose a correct door that is same as the number the speaker say. If the answer is correct, the door is open. But if not, a scary monster will come out of the door. Your student will really enjoy this game learning numvers naturally.
In he beginning of this game, the speaker says in English. Let your student guess what it means. If they complete their games, "You are good! " sign will be popped and it can motivate your students.




New Clothes
http://study.jr.naver.com/english/view.nhn?id=game&parentId=1&nid=409&page=7&sort=cnts_id





Your students enjoy 2 games in this web, the first one is the dressing up game.
I think most girls like this game.
When they dress up the girl in screen, the computer speaks the name of the clothes. So kids will know the words naturally. If you click a clothes repeatly, they can hear the name of it again and again. Then they can get used to the words easily.



The second is the painting game.
When the student paints a color, the computer speaks the name of the color.
So they can learn the name of color easily. The pictures are various and they can even print it out.





1)Learner fit : It can't present English at a level that is appropriate for learners. But usually they are in the beginner level. And it is very interesting.


2)Bottom-up and top-down processing : It can help the learners focus on particular linguistic aspects by topics like colors or numbers.


3)Selective listening activities : It provides students with a purpose for listening games. And it provides the opportunity for learners to practice holding information in their short-term memories.


4)Video : The program present listening with video. And it include attention to paralinguistic and extralinguistic clues for understanding. And there are controls for the student to pause and replay the video.


5)Two types of evaluation : It doesn't include exercises for students to complete while they are listening. But it include comprehension quizzes.


6)Strategy development : It dosent' incorporate opportunities for students to practice the strategies of listening. But it explicitly teaches listening.



How to use?


Just let them know! It could be in-class material, but not that effective. They just motivate your students to use English. Or in part of art class, use the dressing game. Then you can teach them both the name of colors in English and painting!

2011년 12월 3일 토요일

Akinator

http://en.akinator.com/

Area : Reading
Rate : ★★★
Target : Middle and High school students

It is fun!
Let the akinator guess who you think!
Akinator, the Web Genius is an internet game based on Twenty Questions that can determine which character the player is thinking by asking him or her a series of questions. It is an Artificial Intelligence program that can find and learn the best questions to be asked to the player. Created by three French programmers in 2007, it became popular in November 2008, according to Google Trends. While playing "Akinator," the questions are asked by a genie. The game became famous in Europe in 2009 and Japan in 2010 with the launch of mobile apps by french mobile company SCIMOB,reaching highest ranks on app store.

In order to begin the questionnaire, the user must hit the play button and is then asked to input a user name, their age, and their gender. Then, it begins asking a series of 20 yes or no questions in order to narrow down the potential character that the user is thinking of.[3][4] If the answer is narrowed down to a single likely option before 20 questions are asked, the program will automatically ask if the characters is correct. If the character is guessed wrong three times in a row, then the program will prompt the user to input the character's name, in order to expand its database of choices










In my case, he never got wrong!
He answered all my favorite actors.



Wow, I like it!
But it is not that effective for English learning.
That's why my rate is low though it is very very fun.
However, it get their attention definitely!

Let your students try this web site!
And recommend them be friendly with it.
Then they should know expression that can describe people.


1)Learner fit
The language of the reading activities fit the learners in terms of level, topics and activities possibly. And the program provide a means of matching the learners to the appropriate level of language enough.
2)Vocabulary and grammar
The activities don't help learners focus on particular linguistic aspects of the reading.
3)Interaction with the computer
The activities provide opportunities for learners to interact with the computer by Genie in the ramp.
4)Interaction with other learners
The activities don't guide learners to work with classmates and contribute to online discussions. But we can plan to do with it offline by one computer.
5)Explicit language teaching
The activities provide explicit instruction to teach specific linguistic points found in the contexts but not texts. And it doesn't come with materials to help you preteach and develop follow-up activities.
6)Two types of evaluation
It can't provide feedback to learners. But it is kind of quizzes that can be solved if the learner answers correctly.
7)Strategy development

It may promote good language learning strategies. But learners can develop their reading ability by authentic needs.



How to use?

This amazing web site can help your class actively. But I recomment you to give your students homework based on this web site. Let your students choose one character and play with akinator. And allow them write about the character based on akinator. For example, "Wonbin is male and handsome". And share them with all the students. It will be good at both writing and reading.

Nick Jr.

http://www.nickjr.com/kids

Area : Listening
Rate : ★★★★★
Target : Young kids

It's for young kids.

You can choose videos or games of many characters!



Games are simple, clear and very understandable.



And also here are some creating games, too.




Your students can have a fun with it.

But if they are not young enough, it can be boring.

So you should be careful about age of your students.


1)Learner fit
The program present English at a level that is appropriate for learners, young kids. And the program present can grab their attention dramatically.Because it would be interesting.
2)Bottom-up and top-down processing
The activities don't help the learners focus on particular linguistic aspects effectively. But it provides prelistening questions to activate background knowledge and to fill in context. Also there are opportunities for the students to practice both bottom-up and top-down processes, but usually top-down is more.
3)Selective listening activities
It provides students with a purpose for listening. And the activities provide the opportunity for learners to practice holding information in their short-term memories.
4)Video
This program present listening with very funny video. The activities include attention to paralinguistic and extralinguistic clues for understanding. ANd also there are controls for the student to pause and replay the video.
5)Two types of evaluation
The program include exercises for students to complete while they are listening. And the program include comprehension quizzes but not with socores. However, feedback exists.
6)Strategy developmnet
THe program doesn't incoporate opportunities for students to practice the strategies of predicting, inferring, monitoring comprehension, clarifying confusion and providing a personal responses. Actually it focuses on the reaction of the learners.


How to use?

Nick Jr. is a very pretty game. Your students can't take their eyes of it. So it means, they can concentrate easily using their listening. You can use it in-class, too. The tricky kids in your class will turn into the neat students. Let them answer the voice in the web and try to choose correct answers. You can ask them again what they learn in this web. It makes your students more active.

English Club

http://www.englishclub.com/esl-games/vocabulary/index.htm

Area : Vocabulary
Rate : ★★
Target : Middle and High school students.


English club is an interesting website.





You can play crossword games and cloze games.

A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of white and shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages that are written left-to-right, the answer words and phrases are placed in the grid from left to right and from top to bottom. The shaded squares are used to separate the words or phrases.

Squares in which answers begin are usually numbered. The clues are then referred to by these numbers and a direction, for example, "4-Across" or "20-Down". At the end of the clue the total number of letters is sometimes given, depending on the style of puzzle and country of publication. Some crosswords will also indicate the number of words in a given answer, should there be more than one.

A cloze test (also cloze deletion test) is an exercise, test, or assessment consisting of a portion of text with certain words removed (cloze text), where the participant is asked to replace the missing words. Cloze tests require the ability to understand context and vocabulary in order to identify the correct words or type of words that belong in the deleted passages of a text. This exercise is commonly administered for the assessment of native and second language learning and instruction.










In this case, here is the hangman game.




The word to guess is represented by a row of dashes, giving the number of letters and category of the word. If the guessing player suggests a letter which occurs in the word, the other player writes it in all its correct positions. If the suggested letter does not occur in the word, the other player draws one element of the hangman diagram as a tally mark. The game is over when:


The other player completes the diagram:
This diagram is, in fact, designed to look like a hanging man. Although debates have arisen about the questionable taste of this picture,[2] it is still in use today. A common alternative for teachers is to draw an apple tree with ten apples, erasing or crossing out the apples as the guesses are used up.

The exact nature of the diagram differs; some players draw the gallows before play and draw parts of the man's body (traditionally the head, then the torso, then the arms & legs one by one). Some players begin with no diagram at all, and drawing the individual elements of the gallows as part of the game, effectively giving the guessing players more chances. The amount of detail on the man can also vary, affecting the number of chances. Many players include a face on the head, either all at once or one feature at a time.

Some modifications to game play to increase difficulty level are sometimes facilitated, such as limiting guesses on high-frequency consonants and vowels. Another alternative is to give the definition of the word. This can be used to facilitate the learning of a foreign language.

"The origins of Hangman are obscure, but it seems to have arisen in Victorian times," says Tony Augarde, author of "The Oxford Guide to Word Games" (Oxford University Press). The game is mentioned in Alice Bertha Gomme's "Traditional Games" in 1894 under the name "Birds, Beasts and Fishes." The rules are simple; a player writes down the first and last letters of a word for an animal, and the other player guesses the letters in between. In other sources[where?] the game is called "Gallows", "The Game of Hangin'", or "Hanger". Hangman has featured in the 1978 Speak & Spell video game system under the name "Mystery Word" and is sometimes played today as a forum game.


But quizes in here are not explicit so students can have many problems to solve the quizes.
And its plain designs can't grab young kids' attentions.


1)Learner fit
The vocabulary words can be controlled to fit the learners in terms of the topics that are coverd. And the students can see the need for learninf the vocabulary words well. Also vocabulary words are chosen to match the students' levels of language.
2)Explicit vocabulary teaching
The activities don't provide explicit instruction to teach vocabulary.
3)Interaction with the computer
The activities provide opportunities for interaction with the computer in a way that focuses students' attention on unfamiliar vocabulary. And the computer provide students with help understanding the vocabulary that they do not know.
4)Interaction with other learners
The activities can guide learners to work with classmates and but not to contribute to online discussions. I think other collaborative activities we could develop that are based on the vocabulary.
5)Two types of evaluation
It can't provide details of feedback but they are quizzes themselves, also reactions are immediately appeared.
6)Strategy development
When the learners want to know vocabulary of other topic, they can use it again. So it promote good vocabulary learning strategy. But it is not close to reading strategies.

How to use?
This classic and nice games will help you to teach your learners. Well, there is a saying " The simple is the best"! You can print them out and share with your students. Let them decode the puzzles. All play hang man together in-class. It will improve your students' vocabulary skills.

2011년 12월 1일 목요일

Nut Hunt

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/fun-with-english/nut-hunt

Area : Vocabulary
Rate : ★★★★★
Target : Young kids






This game is a great way of learning autumn language and finding out about some of the changes that the creatures of the countryside experience during the course of the year.

Once you’ve finished playing the game, you can add some comments on what autumn is like in Korea and what you can collect in the countryside at this time of year before making an autumn box containing things you might find in your area in October and November.

Children can then search the internet for other autumn words and build up a picture dictionary or perhaps write a diary of some of the things they do in the autumn months.

Happy hunting!


1)Learner fit :
The vocabulary words fit the learners in terms of the topic ; autumn. And the students can see the need for learning the vocabulary words during the game to win. And the vocabulary words are chosen to match the students' levels of language. The level of the words are consistent.
2)Explicit vocabulary teaching :
The activities doesn't offer showing words previously.
3)Interaction with the computer :
The activities provide opportunity for interaction with the computer by a game that focuses students' attention on unfamiliar vocabulary. And the computer provide students with help understanding the vocabulary that they do not know by using games.
4)Interaction with other learners :
This game is for one user. But you can plan the activities for pairs or more. So the collaborative activities are available by your plans for it. And it could be helpful for developing their vocabulary abilities.
5)Two types of evaluation :
The activities provide feedback to learners about their responses immediately. And itself is the quizzes.
6)Strategy development :
They can use this game for other vocabularies offline by using flash cards. So this web can offer how to play flash cards game. Then we can say it is useful for strategy development.


How to use?


Refer the instruction above. I recommend you to do it in-class.