Evaluation of 5 Websites

http://www.uic.edu is such a rich ESL online source for higher level learners, i.e. intermediate. Being established by University of Illinois Chicago, this website, indeed, has been very well designed as, in most cases, it could address a diverse need of ESL teaching and learning. Not only found useful by teachers, it is also beneficial for language learners. For example, ESL teachers can use this for a range of purposes, i.e. as a teaching source or ideas of classroom activities. Students, however, can rely on this website to further develop their personalized skill independently. It promotes learning autonomy. What also makes this website resourceful is because it covers the four major skills along with pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. The cultural contents and the authentic materials it has would enable students to enrich their understanding in using the language in contexts. For students struggling with academic English, this website is highly recommended as it presents clear writing steps of writing sentences, paragraphs and essays. Overall, this is such a one stop, and easy to navigate, ESL online learning.

The second really good website for  fostering, in particular, writing skill is Purdue Online Writing Lab (http://owl.english.purdue.edu). As an online source maintained by Purdue university, this website aims at helping learners excel their academic writing. Unlike the earlier website, its major concerns is only on the development of academic skill, such as essay writing or conducting research. It is especially beneficial for undergraduate and postgraduate students wishing to improve their knowledge about writing styles and convention in writing for academic  purposes.

Not only providing  ESL teachers and tutors with references, it also presents a broad range of writing guidelines for specified purposes or contexts, i.e. writing for nurses, engineering or in social sciences. It also gives sufficient knowledge about research skill, including referencing or citation. 

As the name suggests, the primary focus of this website, http://www.academicenglishcafe.com, is in fostering writing skills. There are a variety of activities that teachers can use for paired, group work, and whole class writing projects. It also allows students to work independently through a number of journal writing topics it provides. The target learners of this website seem to be higher level language learners. As it covers a range of academic essays, both teachers and students may use these as model for analyzing academic writing.  In addition, the website is easy to navigate making it users friendly.

http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/ is another example of university website offering advice on academic writing. It aims at giving precise information to language learners with higher language proficiency. It covers almost all aspects of writing academically such as planning, organizing, and using resources in writing. For those who want to learn about reading strategies when doing research, or to enhance their writing style when editing their essays, they can rely on this website. It will tell you in detail what criteria to check when proofreading your essays. Although it is not an interactive website, teachers would find this resourceful as it gives teaching ideas, for example, in planning their lessons regarding with academic writing. Also, it is very user friendly as it is easy to navigate.

Last, but not the least, online source is http://esl.about.com. A full coverage of language skills and addressing all levels of language learners become its main strengths  Not only giving teaching ideas, and ready-to-use and printable classroom  activities, teachers can use this to address a multi level language class. It does give teachers more flexibility. For instance, teachers can use this website for both classroom and home learning activities for students. It is quite encouraging website as it can help teachers teach students with different learning needs, level and style. However, the website looks “busy” which might not really appeal to some teachers or learners.

Evaluation of a Software Package

 

White smoke 2012 is one of ESL software available online. Its major function is to help language learners to foster their writing skills regarding with spelling and grammar. There are four features or function it provides: writer, translator, dictionary and templates. Each of which would benefit ESL learners to enhance their written English.

Writer, the foremost feature of this software, allows you evaluate why your grammar and spelling are incorrect. The way it works is by firstly writing on the page about anything. Then after clicking the check text  button, you will see on your writing,  a number of underlined words in different color, i.e green, red or blue, indicating that there are some grammatical mistakes or misspelling words that writers should consider.  Above the colored words or phrases, the right spelling will be given as well as the right tenses.  Not only providing with such correction, it will also gives the meaning of the words, their synonyms, and how to use the words in contexts. More interestingly, without having to rewrite the correction, your writing will be automatically “furnished” by clicking the apply changes button. In addition, by simply copying your essays from word processor and pasting them on the software page, you will be surprised at how fast it works in identifying the errors and in providing you the correct words spelling and grammatical issues.

Translator, the second facility of this software, is another exciting function. It works like google translator which allows you translate either words or sentences into a broad range of languages, i.e. from English text Indonesia or conversely. When online, the additional menu of this translating function, human translation button, will connect you to translation companies available in the internet.

The last is template which provides you with different types of writing models in general, medical, legal, and business. This will definitely put you at ease as you already have models to follow when writing, for example, business proposal.

Overall, this software would be a great help if optimally used for writing purposes although by using the free trial version only (www.whitesmoke.com). However, you need to purchase it for longer use.

Note. Clik http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5_L6DBxjDQ to see the demo.

 

Evaluation of a Textbook

Title                 :  Academic English Skills. Reading, Writing,

                           and  Study Skills 

Level                :  1. Student’s Book

Year                  : 2010

Pages                : 72

Edition              : New 

Author              : Richard Harrison

Series Editors    : Liz and John Soars

Publisher           : Oxford University Press (New York)

Evaluating and selecting a suitable textbook for certain courses is quite daunting for teachers (Hemmings & Battersby, 2006) in that it requires teachers’ creativity and other skills (Richards, 2001, p. 260). By applying the criteria proposed by Little John (1998), I found this textbook useful for an English for Academic Purposes (EAP), especially for higher education participants at the beginning level.

There are three main skills this textbook focuses on, namely, reading, writing and study skills. Not only allowing the students to develop their reading skills and strategies through scanning, skimming, and or predicting contents, it also, enables students to conduct research on the usefulness and the reliance of resources. Furthermore, it provides a variety of hand writing skills practices, i.e. making note, summarizing and reorganizing ideas.

With regard to writing skills development, the textbook provides chances for students to learn and practice writing topic sentences, supporting arguments, linking ideas, and using punctuation properly. It also allows students to write a range of texts, like description, formal letters and emails, and comparison as well as to summarize and to edit their own writing, i.e. grammatical mistakes. These would enable students to have a strong foundation in writing.

The author seems to have selected the topic by considering their relevance to higher students’ thinking framework. For instance, the topics of education, daily routines, technology and the rest, are common place. Not only enriching the students' knowledge, the topics would also stimulate the students to relate the topics with their own contexts, i.e. culture.

Each chapter is well structured in that it is started with reading, writing, vocabulary development, pronunciation and, lastly, review. It is easy to follow, even, by beginning teachers as it can be a guidance for teaching steps. The layout, i.e. fonts and combination of appropriate photos and pictures make this textbook eyes-friendly. More importantly, the book seems to be affordable. However, there is a copyright issue in multiplying any of the textbook parts.

Having considered those, this textbook would suit EAP classes.  However, adopting or adapting the textbook “by supplementing and replacing materials or personalizing drills to make them more personalized to students” (Baker, 2013) can be done if necessary.

References.

Baker, A. (2013). Lecture Notes. Selecting and Evaluating Materials. August 12, 2013. School of Education. UOW.

Hemmings, B. & Battersby, D. (1989). Textbooks Selection: Evaluative Criteria, Higher Education. Research & Development, 8:1, 69-78, DOI: 10.1080/0729436890080107. Routledge.

Littlejohn, A. (1998). The analysis of language teaching materials. In Tomlinson, B. (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 149-190

Richards, J. (2001). Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 251-285. (Chapter 8: The role and design of instructional materials)