Online tools for english language teaching

A word of caution: Responses to questions of this nature can be especially personal and sensitive. Teachers should ensure that students never feel forced to answer a question, share their feelings or experiences, or bear testimony. In addition, teachers should help students understand the sacred nature of personal spiritual experiences and encourage them to share those experiences appropriately (see D&C 63:64).
Traditional curriculum design and class planning revolved around the topics considered useful for students. This meant students were to learn the grammar and vocabulary that educators thought students needed to know.
Student input was minimal to say the least.
What we learned from this is why it’s imperative to build lesson plans around activities that all students can feel comfortable with and relate to.
The task-based approach represents a significant paradigm shift since the focus on content has shifted to skills and competencies. So, planning and design aren’t about what’s taught, but why it’s taught.
This approach isolates individual skills and competencies in order to teach material students actually need to know to meet their goals and objectives.
Sample tasks could be ordering in a restaurant, booking a hotel room, or perhaps more advanced tasks like critiquing a movie or voicing their opinions about politics. In this approach, the language taught revolves around the task itself, not the other way around.
For this method to work, teachers must understand their students’ needs and expectations in order to design lessons that help their students succeed. Grammar, vocabulary and language skills are just the vehicles that enable students to achieve their final outcomes.
Before adopting the task-based approach, educators must ask themselves, “Why are my students learning English?”
Educators must then look at ways to help their learners achieve their personal and/or professional goals.
The answers to these questions will help create a program that’s relevant to your students.
Much like the task-based approach, the project-based approach is meant to address students’ real needs by adapting language to the skills and competencies they truly need personally and/or professionally.
The application of this approach begins by determining the one, global objective that the individual or group of students have.
For example, if you’re teaching a business English class, you should look at why students are in the class to begin with and plan accordingly. One time when working for a corporate client, I taught a room full of accountants who were all vying for promotions up for grabs in their company.
Naturally, I taught them differently than I would students interested in learning casual English conversations because of the nature of their jobs. They had to produce specific monthly reports in English for multiple departments in their office. So, we broke one sample report into sections and analyzed each segment. Each student prepared the sections as if they were the real thing.
In class, discussed the difficulties my students encountered, in addition to covering all the vocabulary and grammar needed to complete each section. Their final project was a finished report they could submit to their boss for approval, and the criteria we used to create the report was based their company handbook. It was a lot of work, but we had fun with it.
But what if you have a class full of teenagers who don’t want to be in class to begin with? Start by doing a needs assessment, looking at what they’re interested in and what topics they really need to know.
This assessment will lead to the design of one overarching project that will become the end result of the class, term or course. This project can be anything from an oral presentation to a large-scale production such as a class play. Whatever the case, the project must be comprised of individual tasks that lead students to the goals in the assessment.
Think of the project as their final, comprehensive assessment. Whereas small tests or the completion of individual tasks are cumulative assessments. Just remember, your evaluation criteria must be clear so students know what they’re being graded on.
Oh, and one more thing. The project-based approach works best with a lot of relevant supplemental material like the resources found on FluentU.
FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
By adding a mixture of entertaining videos, natural dialogues and relevant course content, you can revitalize your English lessons and give your students the learning material they need to succeed.
While the previous two approaches focus heavily on the skills and competencies that students need to develop, this approach focuses on what language students actually need to produce. In particular, the actual words that students need to understand in order to conduct specific tasks.

Mobile technologies Portable devices such as tablet computers, smart and feature phones and MP3 players have particular resonance for English teaching in situations where practitioners move between different locations and where learning occurs in isolated contexts. These technologies have the potential to deliver high quality multimedia stored on internal drives or removable memory cards or that can be accessed over wireless and telecommunication networks. Many portable devices feature long-lasting batteries, particularly important where power supplies are only available during certain times of the day. Moreover, some can be powered using solar cells or charged via wind-up mechanisms. Touch sensitive screens and simple menu systems may also be of particular benefit in situations where a lack of familiarity with mice, keyboards and operating systems might inhibit learning. Many mobile devices sport one or more cameras and where there is a reliable internet connection, users can communicate over distance using simple video conferencing tools. GPS functionality and internal compasses also enable users to access and interact with powerful mapping tools. Front facing cameras allow learners to be creative as well as enabling them to trigger the release of information, for example by scanning QR codes (a type of barcode). In-built audio recording functionality allows children to record their thoughts about an area of learning or perhaps interview peers or family members prior to a task.

Mobile phones and other ‘smart’ devices are perfect for developing mobile assisted
language learning (MALL) activities. Clever software can facilitate the delivery of
multi-modal content as well as offering the potential to register user interaction, provide feedback and track progress.
Whilst much of the research evidence focuses on improved outcomes for individual pupils, dialogic pedagogy has far more to offer than improved results on standardised tests. Monologic classroom practices do not engage the social collective, pupils are seen mainly as a collective of disconnected individuals (Watkins, 2005). If, as Watkins recommends, classrooms are to become ‘Communities of Learners’, we must address the affective as well as the cognitive and create learning opportunities through enquiry. Early results from Alexander’s (2006) ‘Talk-to-Learn’ project suggest that a dialogic approach can achieve this as it promotes a more inclusive classroom where pupils who normally do not compete to speak in class gain the confidence to contribute. Dialogic teaching is valued as a process that can promote inclusion of all pupils and has much to contribute to the establishment of communities of learners. Increasingly such learning is recognised as central to personal and social education. The EPPI review of evidence on citizenship education (Deakin et al., 2005) found, for example: The quality of dialogue and discourse is central to learning in citizenship education. Dialogue and discourse are connected with learning about shared values, human rights and issues of justice and equality . . . Transformative, dialogical and participatory pedagogies complement and sustain achievement rather than divert attention from it. In a discussion of pedagogy and dialogue, Skidmore (2006) identifies ‘the affective conditions for learning created by different patterns of teacher–student interaction as a neglected line of enquiry’. What is important here is the tradition of seeing cognition and affect as discrete entities rather than interdependent concepts (Egan, 1983). Egan wants us to question methods of teaching and testing which see education as ‘a process of accumulating knowledge and skills uninvolved with emotions, intentions, and human meaning’ (Egan, 1983: 51). He stresses the difference between ‘knowing a lot’ and knowledge which is meaningful in the lives of learners. Egan wants children to use their imaginations to understand there are different ‘truths’ in the world which depend on historical, social and cultural settings. In addition, Egan (1992: 70) points out that making sense of experience is profoundly mediated by our emotions. Egan’s work therefore provides support for the proponents of emotional intelligence (Gardner, 1993; Goleman, 1996) widely acknowledged as a greater indicator of success in life than scores on standardised tests. The role of dialogue in pupil learning is therefore about more than just promoting better thinking and raised standards. It has the potential to enable student voice to be accessed and legitimated. A programme which values both reason and imagination, where teachers are trained to be ‘attentive’ to what children say, and listen to pupil ‘voice’ is philosophy for children (P4C) (Lipman, 1988). In the next section I argue that the practice of P4C exemplifies good practice in dialogic teaching and learning. technology is finally being integrated into education, its use for teaching and learning still remains a challenge. Despite the fact that many schools today are privileged to have ready access to technology, trained teachers, and a favourable policy environment, the use of technology in the classroom is still low. Some attribute low levels of technology use in education to the pedagogical beliefs of teachers. that said, the potential of technology to enhance learning cannot be overemphasized. The use of technology is something that started a long time ago for students with special needs. For example, brail machines have been utilized for the visually impaired. In addition, special needs programs that help children with autism use technology to enhance learning. By integrating technology into education, educators aim to engender pedagogical change and address fundamental issues that affect learners with special needs. Technology can therefore be seen as both a tool and a catalyst for change., technologies used to improve and facilitate learning can be found everywhere. Leaving other contextual factors to the side – such as unequal access to technological innovations and connected technologies across schools and districts – we can only say that we have embraced technology in education when it is used for both teaching and learning. With the incorporation of technology into schools, the main purpose is to change how teachers and students gather, access, analyse, present and transmit information. This can democratize information in classrooms as well as help differentiate instruction, particularly for students with special needs. technology for students with special needs technology can be defined as an item, piece of equipment or product system that can be used to maintain, increase or improve functional capabilities for any person with a special need. Thus, the incorporation of educational technology can also provide benefits to students with disabilities who may be in a better position to interact with the lesson through technology. Moreover, technology can place teachers in a better position to customize learning for students with special needs.

CONCLUTION

If you’re looking to make learning and memorization more fun for your students, Quizlet could be your online platform of choice! This free education app makes it easy for teachers to create flashcards, study guides, and interactive games for any age and level.

On the Quizlet platform, you will be able to:

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  Make customized flashcards
  
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  Build study sets that students can use for reviewing past lessons
  
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  Craft various types of student assessments, such as a written quiz or a spelling test
  
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  Add your own list of terms and definitions for your learners to study or memorize
  

Working as an online English teacher may require you to be up-to-date with technological trends. By using the best digital tools for your classes, you can streamline processes, boost productivity, facilitate learning, and deliver your lessons like a pro in the virtual classroom!