Useful Web Resources
Below is a list of the top 10 most useful web resources I have found for learning and teaching English in a university context in China. All of these web resources are free for students and teachers. Enjoy!
- ChompChomp - This site has accurate, thorough, and easy-to-understand grammar explanations. I often use it to double check a grammar point and to get ideas for teaching grammar to my students.
- Grammar Revolution - This site contains many helpful grammar explanations centered around sentence diagramming.
- Memrise - This site contains user-made lessons to help with vocabulary memorization. Read my review of Memrise on my Language Learning Programs page.
- Breaking News English - This site has more than 1000 lessons about current events and interesting topics in the news. It is a great resource for students to use on their own or for teachers to integrate in the classroom.
- Elllo - This site contains more than 1000 lessons about interesting topics, along with online games and quizzes. Students can use the site on their own outside of class or teachers can integrate the lessons into their own classes. The best part about this site is that it contains listening materials read by both native and non-native speakers. This will be very helpful for students who need to become familiar with a larger variety of English accents.
- Speech Accent Archive - This site contains hundreds of speech samples from native and non-native speakers of English, all reading the same short passage. I used this website in TESL 525 (Teaching English Pronunciation) when analyzing a student's pronunciation, and I now use it in my advanced oral English course in a transcription assignment in which students analyze their own pronunciation.
- IPA Charts - This site contains all segmental and suprasegmental standard IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols. When a symbol is clicked on, you can hear how the symbol should sound. I also used this website when analyzing pronunciation in TESL 525 and now require students in my advanced oral English course to use this website as they work on their transcription assignment.
- Phonetics: The Sounds of American English - This site contains video and diagrams that show how the segmental sounds of American English should be pronounced. The diagrams of the inside of the mouth are especially helpful for students since it is difficult for teachers to demonstrate what is happening inside the mouth when pronouncing some sounds.
- eSurvey Creator - I use this website to create surveys and polls for my students. I collect data about students initially when they first begin taking my course and I continue to collect students' opinions throughout the course, including a final course evaluation. Read my review of this site on my Useful Web Tools page.
- QuizStar - I use this website to create grammar quizzes for my students. Within the private interface of the site, you can create individual accounts for each student and you can create multiple classes in order to keep students' scores organized. Read my review of this site on my Useful Web Tools page.