Review of Websites for teaching grammar, Vocabulary, pronunciation and communication skills
“Becoming bilingual is a way of life. Every bone and fiber of your being is affected in some way as you struggle to reach beyond the confines of your first languages and into a new language, a new culture, a new way of thinking, feeling and acting. Second language learning is not a set of easy steps that can be programmed in a quick do-it-yourself kit. No one can tell you how to learn a foreign language, without really trying.”
English is the most
commonly taught foreign language all over the world. As a result of this fact,
materials designed for English language teaching have been increasing
enormously. Besides all traditional resources, technology integrated language
teaching provides many materials for language learning as well. Websites might
be regarded as online teaching tools which can be very effective resources both
for learners and teachers. Many websites are available and have been designed
in order to help individuals learn and teach the English language.
What
are websites?
A website is a collection
of web pages and related contents that is identified by a common domain name
and published on at least one web server. In other words, a website can be
defined as a collection of publicly accessible, interlinked web pages that
share a single domain name. It can be created and maintained by an individual, group
or organizations to serve a variety of purposes.
Educational websites may include games, videos, or websites with resources related to the subject that serve as tools to enhance learning and teaching in the classroom. When it comes to the learning and teaching of English, the educational websites provide much to the learning of the language. It provides activities and resources to master the skills of language learning, it contributes much to the proficiency in language elements, it makes the person highly proficient at handling the language at ease.
There are various components which make educational websites interesting. First and foremost, it should have compelling headlines. It grabs the attention of students and makes it easy for them. So, a compelling, straight forward headline is so important.An educational website must have quality imagery. Defined user pathways are another important component of websites so that the users need not wander around in the website for what they want. Then comes, ease of navigation. Huge content in the website must possess organizational capacity. An educational website must have produced refined and curated content. These are only some of the important components.
Kartal and Uzun (2010)
defined characteristics of websites in three categories. According to them, a
good website should have a good user-friendly design where each part and
section should be clearly seen and easy to use, it should allow for easy
transition between sections, the colour should not tire the eyes, and it should
be able to use some other programs.
An earnest attempt has been
made on my part to take a review on some of the popular and useful educational
websites which provide resources for reaching grammar, vocabulary,
pronunciation and Communication skills.
Websites
for Grammar
Teaching of grammar needs special
attention when compared to all other aspects. It is always the job of a teacher
to make her/his students develop a post attitude towards grammar. Here, two of
the best grammar teaching / learning websites are listed and reviewed.
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar
The British Council is one
of the world's leading teaching experts. It is one among the highly reliable
websites which we can use for studying or teaching English Grammar. They
provide resources which help in revising and practicing one's grammar which helps
them to increase confidence and improve language level. They help the learners
to solve their doubts on verb, tense, and grammar rules in a clear and simple
way. Firstly, the learners have to choose the level, it ranges from beginner to
advanced. They give simple explanations for everything that comes under grammar
along with exercises the learner needs to focus on one particular item, then
he/she can concentrate on that and do more activities of exercises. The Green
blue Combination theme is also attractive.The website has divided the grammar
section into three.
A1 - A2 grammar: It focuses on beginner
and pre-intermediate learners to study their simple grammar lessons.
B1-B2 grammar: This is for the
intermediate and upper intermediate learners of English grammar.
English Grammar reference: This is the reference section where the learners can get enormous examples of sentences to show how language is used and also it has interactive exercises.
Grammar Monster
https://www.grammar-monster.com/index.html
Grammar monster is one of the first grammar sites on the internet. One thing that attracts the visitors is the ease of navigation. Anyone can use it freely. It has divided each item into many sections. It includes Grammar terms,Common writing errors, punctuation lessons, grammar tests and games, parts of speech, etc.
They have also sectioned
lessons for adults and teachers and for kids separately. It also gives tests
according to the level of learners. It is one of the simple websites one can
rely on for learning and teaching English Grammar.
Teaching of Vocabulary
plays a fundamental role in the development of a child's communication and
language skills. The explicit teaching of vocabulary allows students to access
academic language and discourse, and facilitates their comprehension of increasingly
complex texts. A user/ learner can increase his/her active vocabulary by
getting more exposed to the passive vocabularies by regular usage. As children
learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words
that are not part of their oral vocabulary Here, two prominent websites are
mentioned which will help the leal learners /teachers with vocabulary in
English.
Vocabulary.com is one among the great sites for improving one’s vocabulary. One of the attractive features of the website is its outlook. A mixture of blue, white, green and red. The website does not tire one’s eyes. It is an easy-to-use website. The home page of the site has a search tab. It shows possible suggestions of words when we start typing. Then it redirects to the meaning of the words, its pronunciation, its synonyms, its definition and examples. They claim that the more a leaner play, the more the site can adapt its questions to them. They also pitch the site as an alternative to flashcards and memorizing definitions. It has a Dictionary, Challenges, the Vocabulary List, the Choose Your Word Section, etc. The site is free but learners need to sign up for the full version:
Visuwords
https://visuwords.com/recording_system
Visuwords is an online
graphic dictionary. We can use the site for finding the meanings of words. The
site mainly contributes to visual learners as it produces interconnected and
interactive diagrams which show how words associate. The user only needs to
type the word in the search tab to see all associated words along with its
meaning. It is totally a free resource. which doesn't even demand the learners
to sign up.
Websites
for Pronunciation
How important is pronunciation in communication? Well, pronunciation is vital for proper communication because theincorrect use of pronunciation inevitably leads to the message being misunderstood by the recipient. Teaching pronunciation is as important as other language items. Here are some websites which help in improving one's pronunciation.
BBC Learning English
https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/hygiene
BBC Learning English,
offered by the British Broadcasting Corporation, focuses on the pronunciation
of British English. It consists of two courses. The sound of English and Tim's
Pronunciation Workshop.
The sound of English is all
about short lessons on British English sounds and then International Phonetic
Alphabet symbols. It also shows some examples and videos of the position of the
mouth while articulating sounds.
Tim's pronunciation
workshop is all about the practical side. It is for intermediate learners. They
show how English is really spoken. Actually, this website is a collaboration of
experts from ELT who create contents which engages and entertain the learners.
English Club
https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/
English Club is a free
website designed to help peoplelearn English Online. Online resources and
social networks for learners and teachers of English worldwide are available
here. The website seems like created for older kids and teens. It is easy to
use and can get easily navigated. It gives simple and clear notes on
pronunciation and its components. It talks about all important aspects of
pronunciation by providing lots of examples and exercises. They also provide
online language games.
Websites
for Communication skills
At all levels of education,
students must be able to communicate effectively. Without well-developed
communication Skills, children run the risk of falling behind peers or becoming
emotionally weak.
https://www.englishcentral.com/browse/videos
English Central is a paid
website which will help the user to get improved with their communication
skill. English Central’s unique speech assessment technology measures one's
pronunciation against native English speakersand then grades to them relative
to other speakers of their native tongue. It is a user-friendly website.They
provide more than 10,000 video lessons and live sessions with private tutors.
The learners who intend to use this site should follow 4 steps:watch, learn,
speak, go live!
The learner may watch a video a day, based on their interest and note down the difficult words. Then they can learn the word by the help of some exercises. Later they can speak the new word in context and at last they can have a conversation with their tutor privately. This is how it works. It is a good website for the users.
Cambridge English Language
Assessment.
https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/why-choose-us/
Cambridge English is a
popular resource for students who want to learn English. The website has over
175 optionsof online activities for listening, speaking, reading, writing,
grammar and vocabulary. It has different levels - basic, independent and
proficient. This is a website which has a quality. The theme and colour used
here attracts people.
References
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/english-pronunciation-online/#toc_7
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/10-best-grammar-resources-english-language-learners/
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