Technology and ESL

Hello. My name is Domingo Sanchez and I would like to have some feedback about how to use the state of art technology to help my students to learn English. In the classroom, we have computers, Internet, Rosetta Stone, but pretty much this is all we have. I have the dissavantage of teaching low income Latin Immigrants and they do not have access to the Internet at home. I am flabbergated by the fact that some latinos can live for so many years in USA and not being able to speak English at all. I would like to help my students to reach their full potential and I think technology can be the medium to help them to adavence in their studies, I am particularly interested in Phonetics, Phonology and history of the English language.

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Permalink Reply by John Carman Zoccola on August 9, 2009 at 7:29am

Hi. I admire your enthusiasm and your sincerity. A wonderful place to start, it seems to me, is with Larry Ferlazzo's web blog. He has many thoughts about and many links to ESL and Technology.
Good Luck,
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/

Permalink Reply by John Carman Zoccola on August 9, 2009 at 10:19am

Hi, again. Here's another site. This one is recommended by freetech4teachers.com, another excellent blog:

http://elcivics.com/

Permalink Reply by Beverly Stout on August 29, 2009 at 12:52pm

Hope you don't get this post twice, I just cut myself off (beginner, yeah?). I teach beginning computers at a community college, but am also a board member and volunteer tutor at a nonprofit that tutors adult non-native speakers in English (free). Our website http://www.piell.org has a LINKS page with some useful sites listed. Some I particularly like for listening and speaking are:

Randall's ESL Cyber Lab
http://www.esl-lab.com students can listen to a variety of conversations

The Sounds of English
http://www.soundsofenglish.org good tips and examples with mouth of HOW to pronounce difficult English phonics

ESL Fast
http://www.eslfast.com/easydialogs/index.htm conversations students can listen to

USA Learns
http://www.usalearns.org new to me but am quite interested in possibilities. Students can listen, RECORD and compare. You can even insert your own lessons.

VOICETHREAD
http://voicethread.com solutions for higher ed: http://voicethread.com/about/highered/
This sight is becoming more and more popular with educators. You can have a free, public account, or you can upgrade to a variety of other options. You can EASILY create your own videos from powerpoint, word, jpegs, etc . THEN you can record your voice-over, and STUDENTS can individually add their comments. There are examples of ESL I saw in the free general browsing area: from within the site do a search on Practice your English, two examples pop up you can try. Just click on one and it will begin, you will see what it is about. I think these in the free area are not excellent examples, much better ESL lessons could be designed, but I think you will see some great possibilities here.

Michelle Pacansky Brock blog
http://mpbreflections.blogspot.com/ a wonderful blog by an educator about Web 2.0 activities. I am prejudiced, she is a former colleague at my community college but has been hired out from under us by the Univ. of Calif system to head up their technology department. Great examples and ideas.

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