(download here)
I. Useful Web-based language learning activities/tasks
1. Tutorial
Web Enhanced language Learning (WELL)
The principal aim of the WELL Project (Web Enhanced Language Learning) was to promote wider awareness and more effective use of the World Wide Web for Modern Languages teaching. This site contains an introduction to the Web, entitled Web skills for language learning, written by Charlie Mansfield and Tony McNeill, University of Sunderland: http://www.well.ac.uk/wellproj/booklet/booklet.htm. The WELL Project is no longer an active project, but there are useful archives at the site. The WELL in the Classroom section provides a round-up of the kinds of Web applications relevant to language learning and teaching, while the Case Studies section shows how telematics may be used to support language teaching and learning.
2. Search
Google is an efficient search engine and currently the most popular on the Web. Google is simple to use, and can fulfil your searching needs very quickly. You can also search for images and news items in the world's press by clicking on the Images or News tab above the search box. If you are looking for examples of usage in a foreign language you can use Google to find authentic texts that contain them.
3. Forum
http://www.mailtalk.ac.uk/lists/linguanet-forum.html
An electronic discussion list - also known as a forum - is a way of sharing emails with the members of a group of people with a common interest. The discussion forum on Linguanet Forum is managed by Mailtalk is of particular interest to language teachers. You can join these discussions and access the archives of messages sent in by the members.
4. Blog
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/cs/blogs/mfle/
Weblogs - or blogs for short - behave in similar ways to discussion lists, except that they often take the form of a journal or a collection of an individual's or group's ideas and thoughts, and they offer an easy facility for uploading new material to the Web. Increasing use is being made of blogs in foreign/second language education. Educational uses of blogs include: journals of school excursions, online courses, Webquests, Teacher training materials, and school and college newsletters. The Modern Languages Blog is one such blog site, which gives you the latest news and views on modern languages and also lets you comment on postings.
5. Conferencing
http://www.skype.com/helloagain.html
Conferencing is essentially a synchronous communications system connecting computers that are equipped with necessary facilities. Conferencing enables people to communicate in "real time", i.e. people have to be present (in different locations, of course) at the same time. The software Skype provides a complete Internet conferencing facility: multi-point data conferencing, text chat, and file transfer, as well as point-to-point audio and video. Most important of all, this communications package enables Skype-to-Skype person-to-person or groups of people to talk to and even see each other over the Internet and to share text, graphics and audio documents in real time via a modem or via an ADSL broadband connection freely without cost. With Skype you can also call phones anywhere in the world from as little as 1.2 pence per minute. This will certainly provide another tool for language teachers and learners.
6. Email
http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/FX010857931033.aspx
Email is an asynchronous medium. This means that messages can be read and responded to at a time convenient to the user. This is a huge benefit in terms of timetable management. If the content is a response to a request for information from a group of students, it is likely to contain things of interest to them, in the language of their contemporaries. You will be surprised at their willingness to tackle quite difficult language when they really want to know what it means! Microsoft Outlook Express, which comes bundled with Windows, is one example of an email package. For the language teacher, communication is content, not the means of delivery and checking the extent to which delivery has been successful. This suggests that email, the essence of which is communication, is an important tool.
II. Useful Web sites for language teacher development
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL)
http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/index.asp
This is the site of the global professional association, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL), headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, in the United States, which has more than 13,500 members in over 140 countries and is recognized as a nongovernmental organization (NGO) of the United Nations. Its mission is to ensure excellence in English language teaching to speakers of other languages. As an EFL teacher myself, the site provides me with information on the news and events of the profession from all over the world, and it offers a good source of material for professional issues and professional development.
http://teachers.net/mentors/esl_language/
This site is the place for EFL/ESL teachers from all over the world to meet on the net. It mainly has the following sections: ESL/EFL Chatboard, Lesson Bank, Job Center, Teacher Mailring Center, Effective Teaching Column, and Live Chat at the Teachers.Net Meeting Room. There are many useful materials for teachers and also you can share your information and discuss topics with other ESL/EFL teachers anywhere online.
This site hosts a monthly web journal for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Articles, Research Papers, Lessons Plans, Classroom Handouts, Teaching Ideas & Links are offered. These are certainly good resources for language teacher development.
Response Ability - Mental Health Resources for Tertiary Education
http://www.responseability.org/site/index.cfm
Teachers and schools play an important role in promoting the social and emotional wellbeing (or mental health) of young people - through creating a supportive classroom and school environment, as well as referring troubled young people to counsellors or other professionals. This site provides information to support use of the Response Ability multi-media packages in Australian universities and tertiary colleges, in the fields of Secondary Education or Journalism. Response Ability is an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, under the National Mental Health Strategy and the National Suicide Prevention Strategy. It aims to support the tertiary education of selected professionals, to better prepare them for roles in mental health promotion and suicide prevention, or in raising awareness about these issues. The name derives from the concept of helping people to develop the ability to respond to certain situations they will encounter in their professional roles.
The six essential elements of achievement given at the section Keys to Success on this Web site are: passion, vision, courage, preparation, perseverance, and integrity - which, I think, capture the essence of the quality of a good teacher. The section, For Teachers, offers a number of pedagogical tools specifically aimed towards those in the teaching profession.
http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/insideteaching/
This website is designed to support a community of learning, which includes teachers, professional developers, and other educators interested in learning and in teaching. At the heart of Inside Teaching is the challenge to capture the wisdom of teaching practice. Visit collections of multimedia records of teaching practice. Here K-12 teachers and teacher educators document their practice, reflect on their teaching and build on each other's work. On their multimedia records of teaching practice, you can find videos of teaching, examples of lesson plans, practitioner reflections and narratives, images of student work, and many other documents of teaching and learning. Learn from others' perspectives on using records of practice for teacher learning. This site itself is an environment of learning, a "living archive" that relies upon the contributions of visitors in order to grow and to thrive.