Inma Alcázar

EFL teacher and lifelong learner interested in the potencial of ICT in foreign language learning, edublogger and tweeter.

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Digital Games: Learning English by Playing

Apr 24, 12
“Games are a more natural way to learn than traditional classrooms. Not only have humans been learning by playing games since the beginning of our species, but intelligent animals as well” (Clark Aldrich, Learning Online with Games, Simulations and Virtual Worlds, 2009).

Playing is an important part of human development and life. We learn by doing, socializing exchanging ideas and collaborating with our peers. However, we grow up and all of a sudden – voilà – school appears and playing takes a back seat. What has happened? Teaching, understood as instruction, does not consider it relevant for learning.

However, in spite of this negative picture, there is still hope as ICT is changing the way we perceive games and particularly videogames. They are becoming to be considered powerful and valuable tools for learning.

Videogames play an important role in children and teens’ life. What we call 'technology', they call it 'life'. Therefore, why not gamify our language class? Do you need more reasons for it?
Digital games are...
Good for learning, developing strategies and skills to solve problems in context and critical thinking.

Autonomous learners.

Motivating for students.

Emotional engagement.

Situated learning, social learning, students become the centre of attention.

As part of European Schoolnet's project 'Digital Games in Schools. A Teacher's Handbook' was published in 2009. The handbook is intended for those teachers interested in introducing digital games in their teaching practice. Therefore, it provides useful information about the benefits of digital games for learning as well as tips on how to use them as educational and motivational resources.

The handbook will be very helpful as an overview of this issue. Nevertheless, if you wish to explore the possibilities of videogames for second/foreign language learning, I recommend you to visit Graham Stanley and Kyle Mawer'blog Digital Play. The blog is really easy to navigate and offers a wide range of activities and lesson plans based on digital games to accomplish different language learning objectives while having fun.

In the following video, Graham Stanley talks about the ways gamification can be used in the English classroom and shares some ideas for adapting games for language teaching. If you want to have access to the full version, click here.

An interesting educational digital game which will be launched next summer is Wikiduca. This is the project of two creative Spanish young minds, David Anthony and Anton Popovine, who decided to work on this educational browser-game to help children learn English vocabulary through videogames.

Starting from the idea that children love video games, fantasy worlds and solving mysteries, David and Anton propose exciting quests and minigames for them. As children increase their vocabulary words, they gain more powers and new missions within the game. The key point is "learning by playing".
Wikieduca is basically based on a business freemium model, that is, most of the content will be free except a small part of extras. You can read this news in Spanish.

For further reading:
Why Children Should Play More? by Scott Steinberg
How Can a Digital Game for Learning Be Defined? by Patricia Felicia
Language Teaching and Learning. Online Digital Games and Gamification by Graham Stanley
Using Interactive Fiction for Digital Game-Based Language Learning by Joe Pereira.
Six Computer Games to Use in an English Language Classroom by Lindsay Clandfield.

Other websites where you can find useful digital games for your classes:
Playfic: an online community for writing and playing interactive fiction.
Games for change: learning games to change the world.
Inanimate Alice: a digital novel which includes teachers' resources.
Charles Dickens Life and Victorian London
A detective story.
Via: Online Colleges Guide
Collaborative project: A Wall of Books to celebrate World Book Day

Apr 13, 12

23rd April is World Book and Copyright Day, an initiative from UNESCO to celebrate world literature and promote reading. This year, Mª Jesús García San Martín, a creative English teacher who I really look up to, has had the brilliant idea of celebrating this day by creating a collaborative wall of books using Pinterest.

Everybody is invited to join and take part in this project. The aim is to create a literary wall full of book recommendations to promote reading.

If you would like to become a contributor, just register on Pinterest or sign in with your Facebook or Twitter account to pin your favourite book and explain the reason why you like it and other people should read it. All the pins can be embedded in the school or classroom blog, website and wikis.

Información en español sobre el proyecto en el Blog de TIC en lenguas extranjeras.
English with Music

Apr 26, 12
Can you imagine a world without music? No tunes, no songs, no melodies, no singers or concerts. Music surrounds us and it is an important part of our lives, as well as of our students' lives. They are enjoyable, motivating, full of examples of real English and, therefore, very effective tools for reviewing vocabulary, grammar structures, pronunciation, culture and dealing with social issues in upper-intermediate and advanced classes.

What is very important to bear in mind before choosing a song are the objectives, the resources we will use and the activities we will use so that students can achieve their goals and develop the different language skills.

Try not to choose songs that are popular among teenagers because, although they may love and enjoy them, they will already know the lyrics and the activities you have carefully prepared may become an absolutely flop.

Digital resources for our classes
Tune into English is one of my favourite sites because it offers a section for teachers and another one for students. In the teachers section you will find lesson plans created by teachers to use different kinds of songs in your classes. Those lessons plans are in word format, what means that you can adapt the activities to suit your students' needs. Within the students area, students will find a lot of games, resources and links to learn more about music and learn English through songs.

TEFLTunes is a great place to find song ideas for teaching grammar and topics. However, not all the resources provided are free. There are free lesson plans but if you want get full access, you will need to subscribe and pay £10GBP.

Lyrics training is another great tool for students to improve their understanding of lyrics. The site includes YouTube videoclips which are organised in different levels of difficulty and cloze-type activities to complete the whole song.

What I do not like so much about it is that it includes a wide range of songs and some of them may be not suitable for pre-teens or teenagers.

Contribute with your ideas!

Interesting articles about this topic:
- Teaching English through Songs in the Digital Age by @ELTchat
- Liven up Classroom with Music by @eva2001
Collaborative writing

Feb 16, 12
New week, new exciting tasks! This week I have been exploring some digital tools for collaborative writing in the English class. The first activity consisted of selecting one of the four pictures in each column, three columns in total, and write a 50-word story-starter based on those pictures.

These are the three pictures I chose and my short story:

It was a beautiful sunny morning on Coconut island. Nina woke up with the idea of enjoying the exciting school trip to the city of Pombo. She had breadfast, hastily kissed her mum and raced off to take the school bus. Nobody could imagine that that would be a day for sorrow and grief...

Written under each picture, there were some tools we had to explore and share our thoughts on what at least one tool is for, how can we use it, what age group is the tool for and what are its advantages and limitations:
The Story Kitchen
Creative Writing Prompts
Story Starters
Five Card Flickr Stories
Bitstrips
Pic-Lits
Storybird
Zooburst
Dreamdoze
Oh Life
Future Me
Letter Pop
One of the tools I liked the most was Five Card Flickr Stories, an interesting website based on the Five Card Nancy game which lets you pick five pictures from a group of images from Flickr and get some inspiration to write creative stories. Would you like to read my story? Could you continue it? Could you write a different story with the same pictures?
Five Card Story: Through the Bare Land
a Five Card Flickr story created by Inma Alcázar

flickr photo by Serenae

flickr photo by bionicteaching

flickr photo by IKnowHowToWhistle

flickr photo by bionicteaching

flickr photo by Serenae
Strolling down the narrow streets of Katmandu where not much happens, legend has it that a mysterious woman dressed in black used to wander through the forest. All the villagers were completely frightened. No birds, no crops, no flowers grew in the area, just death and desolation.

I think this website is a great tool for secondary school and Bachillerato students (15-18) to develop their creative writing skills through these visual prompts. It is true that students can do this without technology. However, what this tools adds to education is the possibility to receive feedback from other students. In my opinion, this fact is very motivating for them since they are writing for an audience, not just for the teacher.

How can we use it in the English class?
- Collaborative writing: publish your own student and share it in your English class blog with your students. Ask them to write two or three more lines each to the story.
- 5 pictures = a lot of stories: go to Five Card Flickr Stories, choose five inspiring photographs, embed them in your class blog. Divide students in groups of three and ask them to write their own collaborative story using those pictures.
- Creative writing: as in the previous activity but letting students to choose their own pictures.
- Twitstory: ask students to write 140 characters stories based on five pictures, chosen from Five Card Flickr Stories, using a class hashtag. Embed students' stories in the class blog using EmbedTweet. Students vote their favourite one.
After exploring these great collaborative website, our amazing teachers asked us to put collaboration into practice. They provided us a list of sites designed to allow multiple writers to participate in a kind of collaborative literary experimentation:
- BubbleUs Brainstorming made simple
- Entri Get feedback on rough drafts / Jot down ideas and share through Twitter
- Google Docs Collaborative writing
- LiveTyping Collaborative writing
- MixedInk Collaborative writing for groups
- Novlet Collaborative writing of nonlinear stories
- ThinkFree Online Virtual office / Edit documents in your web browser
- TypeWithMe Collaborative writing
- WriteBoard Sharable web-based documents
- Zoho Writer Online word processor - create, connect, collaborate
We had to read other teachers' stories, choose one story starter I had liked and contribute to it using one of the previous tools mentioned. I chose Vicky Theodoraki's story about The Sanders and their strange neighbour, Mr Tucker, using Just Paste It, a cool tool for collaborative writing. What I liked about this tool is that you don't need to spend time signing in, just start writing, include pictures or even a video, and share the link to encourage more people to contribute to it. This was our story:

The loving Sanders family had just moved to a provincial town. Little did they know that their life would soon take a sinister turn. Their new neighbour Mr Tucker, an elderly man, had an unworldy quality. Howls and all sorts of weird sound would often come from his house.
Last night, while they were having dinner in the garden their daughter Margaret screamed: 'Have you seen that? Look! There is an odd shadow coming out of the wall. I mean, out of the wall where there isn't a hole.'
"What in the world is that?" cried Mother Sanders. Fearful, she quickly escorted her family back into the house. Dinner in the garden had sounded like such a nice idea, but now it seemed a much safer choice to be inside. Who could they talk to? What could they do? What was it that they saw?!
When they went inside they could hardly sleep. They kept on talking about the odd shadow that Margaret saw and then Mother Sanders had an idea. She decided that in the morning they will go over to Mr. Tucker's house an ask him to come for a visit. The point was to try and find out what he was like and what were the howls and weird sounds that were heard from his house.
The family had a restless night and could hardly wait for morning. As soon as dawn broke and the first rays lit up the little town, they were up and about, eager to solve the mystery of their mysterious neighbor.
They arrive to Mr. Tucker's house and knock the door, but nobody respond then they decide to enter. It's dark inside still but they have a light. They look across the room and see in the middle a beautiful glass vase on a table and a painting on the wall. They call Mr. Tucker but nobody respond. This is very mysterious.
Suddenly there was some noise under the table. They all jumped up but it was just a cat. When their daughter wanted to caress it, the cat ran away. Then the daughter shrieked - the painting on the wall moved.
The moment they realised there was an unmarked door set in the wall, it creaked open. Mr Sanders stood in the doorway for a moment before he popped his head through the narrow oak door. He decided to enter the pitch-dark corridor.
He disappeared in the darkness. His wife wanted to follow him there but SLAM - the door closed and they could not open it again. Mr Sanders was on his own in the dark.
- Would you like to know more about digital storytelling? Visit 50 + Web 2.0 ways to tell a story, a wiki full of ideas which was created by Alan Levine.
- What other ideas can you come up with for using these tools?
Electronic Village Online 2012: Classdigitools

Jan 14, 12
New year, new resolution: to take any opportunity I can to improve my professional development. No sooner said than done! Seven days ago I joined Electronic Village Online Sessions 2012 which are free virtual courses. For five weeks teachers will connect to others teachers from all over the world, will discuss different topics related to the ELT world, collaborate and dare to work out new ideas and activities which can spice up their teaching practice.

One of the sessions I have enrolled in is Digital Tools with a Purpose in the Classroom. Throughout the first week we had to complete several tasks:
- TASK 1: Join the group online meeting place: Edmodo and Wiki.
These two learning environments were absolutely new to me, but I have not had many problems so far since they are really intuitive. It just took me some time to explore them and know where I had to publish comments or share my portfolio, this blog.

Edmodo is a virtual learning environment which includes several tools to share documents, pictures, videos, audios, links and others to foster participation, colaboration. As it is private and there are no age restrictions, we can use it with students from any educative level.
- TASK 2: Exchange introductions and become familiar with the group environments.
- TASK 3: Explore different online tools:
This time we were asked to introduce ourselves using different tools, interact and provide feedback to other participants. There is so much creativity in the group! I was really impressed by some teachers who expressed themselves through poems, songs and really nice presentations using a great variety of tools such as Glogster, Voicethread (two of my favourite tools), Dvolver and Sliderocket, among others.
For this task I preferred to use Stupeflix, an online video editing service similar to Animoto. However, instead of just 30 seconds, it allowed me to create a bit longer presentation for free. In addition to this, Stupeflix is very easy to use and straightforward. You only need to sign up, upload the pictures you would like to include in your video, add text, choose or upload your own music and share it. This is the video I produced using this tool:

Another tool I decided to explore was http://flavors.me, a free service with an appealing interface. What I like about this tools is that it allows you to gather all your social activity in one place.
- TASK 4: Create and/or share our digital portfolios. As you can see I have decided to use my blog as my digital portfolio since it is where I have been writing about topics related to ELT, sharing links and teaching ideas for three years now.
The idea was that we:
collected the digital resources we produced along the way.
kept a space for reflection on our learning and the tools we get to know about.
received feedback from our peers in what we had been producing.
started our journey as a lifelong learner.

TASK 5: Go on a web safari about technology integration. This time we were asked to check the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) which illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 and reflect upon where we are nowadays and where we would like to be according to our own education context. We added our thoughts to our Edmodo Group Discussion:

I love this useful and detailed matrix you have shared with us! Generally speaking, I would say I'm in the adoption / active level. As I mainly teach one-to-one and small groups with different learning abilities, it is not always easy to integrate technology in the way I would like to do it - collaboratively. Some of my students use technology outside the classroom just to revise some language aspects previously seen in class. Others love using web 2.0 tools like Glogster, Blabberize or Xtranormal for writing and speaking tasks.

In the near future, I would like to work in a secondary school where I have the opportunity to move ahead and use technology to enhance collaboration and participate in projects together with other schools.

Achieving the transformation stage is another of my goals, I would like my students to work more independently and provide them learning activities which help all of them to succeed. However, we should not forget that technology is just a means for students to achieve their learning objectives and not an end in itself.In the near future, I would like to work in a secondary school where I have the opportunity to move ahead and use technology to enhance collaboration and participate in projects together with other schools.Achieving the transformation stage is another of my goals, I would like my students to work more independently and provide them learning activities which help all of them to succeed. However, we should not forget that technology is just a means for students to achieve their learning objectives and not an end in itself.
- Discuss our own ideas on how we can use those tools with our students. I am afraid I will not have enough time to complete this task on time. Nevertheless, I would like to share with my colleages some ideas I wrote some time ago about using Glogster in the English class: Do you glog? Reinventing posters with Glogster Edu. It includes:
Waiting for your comments and suggestions!
From the screen to the classroom. Part 2.

Jan 12, 12
Last week, I introduced the amazing work that some great teachers are producing to work with films in the English class. They are really inspiring to encourage other teachers to create their own video activities and improve their teaching practice.

This week, I would like to concentrate on different techniques we can use to plan our lessons based on films. Any ideas you would like to add or share? Please, contact me! I will post them in the blog.

How to use them?
We can resort to the old way bringing a film, pressing play, watching it for the whole class and asking students to answer some questions about the film or write a summary of it. But have you wondered if there is any point in approaching the learning of English in such a way? Are you sure your students have learnt something in that lesson?
I think that a more sensible idea to work deeply with films in our classes is to select a short film scene (3 – 4 minutes) and divide the lesson in three parts, including pre-viewing, while-viewing, and post-viewing activities.
Previewing activities are really good to arouse the students’ interest to the film clip they are going to watch.
- Vocabulary: pre-teaching some words which appear in the video and may be unfamiliar to students is essential to avoid interruptions and questions during the viewing process.
- Brainstorming: this is a great technique, and very student-centered. We can use visuals, trailers or film scenes and ask students to speculate about the scene’s details such as the characters, the plot or the setting.
- Predicting:
While-viewing activities: they provide a deeper understanding of the film, and allow to check if students.
- Predicting: the students check if they were right or wrong in their previous predictions about the film.
- Imaging: freeze the scene as something is going to happen and ask students to work in group and try to deduce what will happen next. Elicit from the class what happens.
- Jigsaw predictions: divide students into two big groups and sit down back to back in two rows. Only students in group B can watch the video, while students in group A will be able to listen to the video only. When the video ends, the teacher asks students in group A to interpret the meaning of what they have heard. Once they have finished reconstructing the story, students in group B tell students in group A what actually happened.
- Video ON/ Sound OFF: play the film scene, but this time with the sound turned off. Ask students to write a short narrative text predicting the content of the scene. They do this activity in small groups. You can show them some questions on the overhead projector or on the digital blackboard to guide them. Once they have finished, they read their stories and vote for the funniest story. After that, they watch the scene with the sound on to know what really happened.
- Ordering events: play the video and distribute a worksheet to students with a series of events from the video. Ask them to put them in order, as they happen in the film. The students watch the video a second time to confirm the correct order.
Post-viewing:
- There is no need to leave grammar out of a video-based lesson. We can use sentence examples which appear on a video to introduce a grammar point and ask students to deduce the rules and uses planning different kinds of activities. How we teach grammar is really important since grammar is necessary so that students achieve accuracy in English. So, we need to be creative and produce student-friendly, student-centered activities which develop students’ curiosity in how English works. You will find a lot of ideas in Claudio Azevedo’s blog Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals
- Production of the next scene script: ask students to write a dialogue between two characters of the movie which take place after the part of the video they have previously watched. To do this, they can use some free web 2.0 tools:
- Writing a movie review for the school (online) newspaper.
- Discussion group activity: ask students to choose sides around the topic introduced in the video and take a in-favour/against position from others in the classroom to debate it.
- Watching videos can also enhance some pronunciation aspects which students have difficulties with, such as connected speech, word stress and sentence intonation, among others. They are a really good source of authentic listening material.
This is my lesson plan sample on excuses and relationships using the film scene I found in Claudio Azevedo's blog.
Lesson plan (economical with the truth

View more documents from Inma Alcázar
Some websites where you can find videos and information about films to create your own activities:
- Free Online Movies
- The Hyde Tube: huge collection of short films.
- Aniboom: animated films.
- Documentary Tube: documentaries.
- CLIL: history, science and so on.
- IMDb: great information about films, film stars, and a lot of more.
- Film Scripts
If you found this post useful, you may also like:
- Harmer, Jeremy; The Practice of English Language Teaching (2007), 4^th edition. Person Longman.
- Stempleski, S. & Tomalin, B., Film (2001), Oxford University Press.
- Intercultural Training with Films by Christine Roell.
- ESL PartyLand Video Activities
From screen to the classroom. Part 1

Jan 04, 12
Films have always been a great source of ideas and an excellent resource we can use to suit our English classes, motivate our students and help them develop their listening, speaking and writing skills.

Apart from that, films are a highly valuable source of authentic language since they are full of vocabulary, expressions and structures that native speakers use. They are perfect to bring the English-speaking world into the classroom.

The question for teachers is what kinds of film clips we can use, what for and how to use them.

What kinds of films can we use and how?
Did you know that there are some absolutely fabulous teachers’ blogs which can inspire you to create your own activities to suit your students’ needs? Through their blogs they share their own materials just for free and give useful tips on how to create your own ones.

One of them is Film English, a wonderful project started by Kieran Donaghy, an English teacher at UAB Idiomes Barcelona, whose aim is to promote the use of film in the language classroom. In this blog you will find lesson plans around different topics such as jobs, money and greed, football and values, among others.

Claudio Azevedo is another teacher who I have inspired me and I have learnt a lot from. He publish his own resources in two blogs:
- Movie Segments for Warm-ups and Follow-ups which includes a series of movie segments to be used to brainstorm and prepare students for the topic that will be discussed in class.
- His second blog, Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals, is full of creative ideas and challenging activities to introduce grammar in our classes.
What can I say about Jamie Keddie’s Lessonstream website? Well, he is a really creative and enthusiastic teacher and this can just be seen by visiting his new website full of free lesson plans based on films for different levels and aims.

Next week, I will publish the second part of this post with more ideas and examples on how to work with films in the English class.
It's Christmas time!

Jan 06, 12
Christmas is just around the corner! No matter what religion or place in the world you live, Christmas is a celebration all children and teenagers love and cannot be ignored.

This is a lesson plan I have produced.

LEVEL: pre-intermediate / intermediate
OBJECTIVES:
- VOCABULARY: revise Christmas vocabulary.
- GRAMMAR:
- CULTURE: learn about Christmas traditions in other countries around the world.
- WRITING: for students to develop their creativity and plan the writing of a poem.
- READING: for students to develop strategies to understand general and specific information about different Christmas traditions around the world in order to carry out specific tasks.
- VIEWING: extract specific and global information from a Christmas commercial to perform required tasks.
TASK 1: WARM-UP ACTIVITIES.
Chat about Christmas and traditions. Ask your students what kinds of activities they usually do, what special dishes they eat, what is their opinion about the over-commercialisation of Christmas and so on.
Display the wordle with Christmas vocabulary on the overhead projector and ask students to place them into the correct category FEELINGS/ACTIONS, THINGS, FOOD. Discuss how they relate to Christmas.

TASK 2: WRITING AN ACROSTIC POEM
Ask your students to write their own acrostic poems using a Christmas word.
Poem written by Laura (2º E.S.O.)
If you have many students in your classes, it would be a great idea to ask them to create a class poems book using GoogleDocs and publish the document in the class blog. Students vote on which is the most original poem.

TASK 3: READING COMPREHENSION: Where in the world?
Pre-reading: ask students to predict a series of facts related to the celebration of Christmas in different countries.
Post-reading: once they have read the text, they confirm their predictions.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ce_Ctkntk7JHu6j0lC7IhtnK9uNKte0x4ZH3oqdTSbM/edit?hl=es by Inma Alcázar
If there are students from different countries in your class, ask students to write five questions to know about how their partners celebrate Christmas in their countries.

TASK 4: VIDEO ACTIVITY: John Lewis Christmas Advert 2011 - This is a wonderful advert I discovered in Pilar's blog some weeks ago. I think it is great, not for listening but for developing their viewing and oral skills. There is not speech in the advert, just scenes which are part of the child's story.
Pre-viewing: create a series of screen shots using Vidinotes and ask students to predict what the story is about.
While-viewing: check that they have understood the ad with a series of questions about the video. The activity is corrected orally.
Why was the boy so nervous?
What was he really waiting for?
What activities did he do to kill time?
How did his parents feel?
What is the slogan for the advert?
Post-viewing: ask students what was the worst gift they ever received. Then in small groups (3-4 students) they read the description of some unusual Christmas presents and put them in order from the best to the worst explaining the reasons for the order they have chosen.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/language-assistant/essential-uk/christmas by Jo Budden

To all, my best Season's Greetings! Enjoy, dream and be happy!

Halloween Teaching Ideas and Resources

Oct 31, 11

The spooky, scary Halloween festival is just round the corner! These are some activities and ideas which came to my mind after reading The English Raven Halloween lesson materials design challenge. Are you ready to invite your students to plan your school Halloween party?

Open publication - Free publishing - More halloween

Activity D2

What activities would you like to organize and participate in at the school Halloween party?
	Halloween Recipe Contest
	The 50 Word Fright Contest
	Traditional Halloween Games
	Costume Contest
	Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Halloween
	Spooky Halloween Storytelling Night
	Jack O'Lantern Workshop

pollcode.com free polls

More ideas and activities:

50 Word Fright (scary stories).
Read the story and put the section in order - It's teachers magazine.
Halloween ideas - The British Council.
The Best Websites for Learning about Halloween by Larry Ferlazzo.
18 Educational Apps for Halloween by Shelly Terrell.
Halloween resources - ESOL Courses.
Halloween recipes - They Draw & Cook.

Verbling - Let's practice English with native speakers in real time

Sep 30, 11
The Internet has revolutionised not only the way people communicate but also the way we learn foreign languages such as English.

Gone are those days when learning how to speak this language in a non-speaking country was quite challenging. The only contact we had with English was through music, books or our teachers. There were like twenty-five, thirty students in my class so we did not have the chance to practice.

Nowadays everything is much easier and there are a lot of online alternatives to language classrooms to improve our oral skills. A long time ago Karen Schweitzer and I wrote about some online language learning communities we can join in to practice English with native speakers:
- 10 Learning Communities for ESL Students
- Language Social Networks. Don't Stop Learning!
However, this year a new site, Verbling, has been launched. Verbling is a free live video service for chatting only available in English and Spanish at the moment, since it is in its beta test phase. Nevertheless, they will expand the possibilities soon.

Two of the great features of this new online language learning site, compared to other alternatives, is that it includes video and you can instantly connect to a partner. You do not need to spend time looking for a partner to practice since once you join the site, the system match you up to a parner taking into account your skill level and interests. Then you start chatting in one language around a topic for five minutes and halfway through the session a timer tells you to switch off to the other language. In this way both people get practice. All you need is a microphone, a webcam and an email address.

What is not so good about the site is that it does not include the option to disconnect the webcam just in case you do not want other people watch you. However, on the other hand, I think the webcam is a great option because it allows us to see the other person's reaction to our words, grasp new vocabulary easily and so on. And, finally, it would be great as well to have the possibility to choose your partner's gender and age.

The site is not meant for under 13.

More information about Verbling:
Verbling wants to be a next-generation language learning service
Verbling helps you learn language through live video chat
Más información sobre Verbling en español:
Trueque de lenguas
Cómo hablar inglés con nativos gratis y de forma instantánea. ¡Verbling!
BAAM GAME

Oct 29, 11

Games are a great way to learn and motivate our students. I knew about this one just some weeks ago when I was looking for a cinema game on the internet to finish my didactic unit on Films and Passive Voice. I could not find the game but David Deubelbeiss from ESL Classroom 2.0 gave me the clue to create my own one.

Furthermore, you can use the template and adapt it to any vocabulary, conversation topic or grammar point you can imagine. If you like the idea, you can download the templates or other teachers' BAAM games from the following website. The idea is very simple and I think it really motivates students to take part in.
BAAM! Cinema Trivia Game

View more presentations from Inma Alcázar.
All the pictures on this powerpoint are not my property. They have been taken from different sources. Therefore, if any picture is under your copyrights please, send me an email and I will remove it within 48 hours.
Do you glog? Reinventing Posters with Glogster Edu

Oct 02, 11
Posters have always been considered a valuable resource to stimulate students' creativity as well as an opportunity for teachers to know what students' have learnt. Do you remember when we created posters using a cardboard, crayons, coloured pencils, pictures taken from magazines, and so on?

Much time has passed since then and with the revolution of technology we have "discovered" many useful tools which can make learning more engaging for our students. Don't our students spend most of their free time at their PCs? So, why not combine the effectiveness of web 2.0 tools to give them more autonomy to create their own projects in which they will be the speakers, the writers, the editors, and the introduction of interesting topics our students are interested in?

If you are curious to find out how technology tools can enhance your teaching and involve your students in their English learning process, you should use Glogster Edu:
It allows teachers and students to create digital posters.
It is free.
It is safe.
You can add pictures and graphics from the Internet or from your own computer.
It is possible to add videos from the Internet or from your own computer.
You can record your own voice, so it is perfect to record an interview, a speech, a recitation of a poem or a song.
You can write your own texts to express yourself.So, Glogster Edu is wonderful for creative projects but also for reflections on cultural and social topics.
I honestly think this is one of the easiest tools I have worked with and the possibilities to incorporate it in the English class are endless. In addition to this, as Glogster Edu was created with an educational purpose in mind, it ensures that all the content students view is appropriate. You can supervise our students' projects as well and both you and your students can comment on each other's glogs, print them and embed the glog in your classroom blog or wiki.

What are you waiting for using it?
TUTORIALS:
GlogsterEdu Video Tutorial by Copiague Middle School.
GlogsterEdu Tutorial by Traci Blazoski (Google Docs).
GLOGSTERS CREATED BY TEACHERS:
To introduce yourself to your students by Sean Banville.
To show your students's works - Ozge Karaoglu's kindergarten students telling their stories.
To create your own digital portfolio by Ozge Karaoglu.
To introduce grammar tenses by Sunrise651.
Lesson Plan on Food for primary students by Sunrise 651.
GLOGSTERS CREATED BY STUDENTS:
Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Phones by xoxoMadzxoxo.
Helping Family by s9sy2gh.
Portfolio by Nurin Adlina.
Create an interactive cookbook (Webquest final task) by Rubilime.
Greatings from the World Project
A Trip to London - Maria Markaki's Class.
The Airport Project by Mireia Molina (4º E.S.O.)
TEACHERS' NETWORKS:
Education Glogster - Ning Network.
MY STUDENT'S GLOGS

Ángela -6th Primary

Laura - 1st ESO

Lucía - 1ºESO

MY GLOG

This is a Glogster I created myself as an example for 1º Bachillerato students' project at the end of a didactic unit dealing with Rudyard Kipling, conditional sentences and the situation of people living in developing countries. The purpose of this project was that students wrote their own poems based on Rudyard Kipling's poem If and recorded them, and wrote a short biography of Rudyard Kipling.

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CUADERNIA - an educational materials generator

Oct 31, 11
It has been almost two years since I started writing this blog and it is incredible how much I have learnt from many great teachers I have met on the net. Writing was not easy at first. What could an almost new teacher say? However, I have enjoyed a lot having "this little window" to share what I have learnt, my educational worries and tips to introduce technology in the classroom. After a long busy year without time to update the blog, I am back to introduce you a valuable tool to create educational digital books, CUADERNIA 2.0.

This fantastic free authoring tool, created by Oscar Guerrero Sánchez and his team Entornos Innovadores, is at teachers' disposal in the website of the Education Department of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). Up to now, it is only available for Windows and is offered only in Spanish language. I hope there is an English version, as well, in the future so that teachers from all over the world can benefit from it.

Cuadernia is really easy to use, even for those teachers who do not have much computering knowlege, and it has real potential for helping to make our lessons more engaging and dynamic. You do not need to be a genius to create complementary material for your English lessons, you just need to know your students' interests, motivations and needs to generate activities which are relevant for them. Many times course books include many general topics and they may be useful for English teachers who teach in a big city, for instance, but not for teachers working in a village. This is just one of the reasons I believe that creating our own material or adapting it is worthwhile.

One of the tools you can use to create your own materials is Cuadernia 2.0 which allows us to create 21 different kinds of activities using a background, text, flash images, pictures, videos as well as speech bubbles, augmented reality objects and some free applications to change your archives to different formats.

The software is available in three different versions - an online version, a downloadable version for your PC or laptop and another one to save it in your USB. If you decide to use the online version, you have to take into account that it is not possible to save the digital version directly. You will need to export it to your PC to be able to save it and finish your digital book later.

Lorena Pinillos Chávez has published an easy to follow tutorial (20 pages) that shows you how to use Cuadernia. However, you will find a more complete tutorial (81 pages) in the website of the Education Department of Castilla-La Mancha.
Some of the main advantages which Cuadernia offers are:
- It provides an attractive learning environment for students.
- It is not just a tool for teacher to create their materials and share them with other teachers, but also a collaborative tool for students. Have a look at "Estrategia pedagógica con Cuadernia" by Eva M. Perdiguero Garzo.
- It includes a broad range of resources to assist in the autonomous use of the programme (tutorials, videotutorials in Cuadernia Youtube Channel).
- It includes a forum where teachers can express their opinions about the software and help to its improvement as well as a facebook group.
  In the Educative Digital Objects Library (Librería ODEs) you will find some didactic units not just for the English Class but for other subjects as well.
What I do not find so easy using this software is:
- Inserting the digital books in a blog.
- using other types of formats, you need to change them using the applications offered.
You can download some EFL materials created with Cuadernia:
English (Primary).
E.O.I (Official Language Schools in Spain).
English Pronunciation Resources for Students and Teachers

Sep 30, 11

Given the many different places that "native" English speakers hail from, there is no such thing as perfect English pronunciation. That said, knowing how to pronounce words is an important part of learning any language. If you are struggling with pronunciation or know a student who is struggling, the following free resources may help:

SpokenSkills - SpokenSkills offers many different resources for ESL teachers, language professionals and students, including vowel sounds, consonant sounds, audio and video clips, and listening comprehension podcasts.

Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary - This online learning dictionary from Merriam-Webster provides 15 free sessions of perfect pronunciation exercises for ESL students. Each session includes practice with words, phrases, and sentences.

New English File - This Oxford University Press site offers pronunciation practice for beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate, and advance
d level English language learners. Students in each level can check their pronunciation of English sounds against audio files and play games to reinforce learning.

Fonetiks - Fonetiks offers comprehensive pronunciation guides for nine different varieties of the English language. Other site features include an online English dictionary with instant sound, minimal pair practice, an interactive reading course, a list of words that are difficult to pronounce, and a pronunciation guide for names of people and places.

Inogolo - Inogolo is an online American English pronunciation guide for ESL and EFL learners. The guide includes pronunciations for the names of people, places, and things.

Howjsay - Howsjay is a talking online dictionary that contains audio pronunciations for more than 130,000 English words and phrases. If the word you are looking for is not contained in the dictio
nary, you can post a question about the word on the site's comment board.

English Interactive - English Interactive links to a wide range of sites that offer English pronunciation practice. Other site features include interactive vocabulary practice with audio and conversation resources.

American English Pronunciation Practice - Charles Kelley, a textbook writer and ESL enthusiast, created this page for ESL and EFL students who need pronunciation practice. The page includes listen and repeat videos, tongue twisters, and game-like minimal pair practice using Flash and MP3 files.

Write Back Soon - Radio Lingua Network provides several different podcasts for English learners, including this phrasal verb podcast known as Write Back Soon. The podcast series consists of eight archived episodes that help ESL students understand and practice phrasal verbs.

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab - This online listening lab is great for students who need speaking, listening, and pronunciation practice. The lab provides short listening quizzes and activities for beginner and intermediate students as well as videos of long conversations and interviews for more advanced students.

Phonetics Flash Animation Project - This online project from the University of Iowa features animated libraries of phonetic sounds of English. An animated diagram, description, and audio file of the sound being used in context are available for each English consonant and vowel.

KanTalk - Created specifically for English students who need spoken English practice, this online community offers a space to practice conversations and share recordings and videos.

Busuu - Busuu is an international language learning community for people who want to practice English and other languages with native speakers. The site's integrated video-chat-application makes it easy to chat with anyone you meet on Busuu.

SharedTalk - SharedTalk is a free Rosetta Stone community that provides both voice and text chat for members who want to practice their language skills online.

Livemocha - Livemocha is a popular online language learning community that supports six different languages, including English. Students can use the site to find language partners, user-made videos, and other ESL resources.

AddLang - AddLang makes it easy for students to practice pronunciation with native English speakers over Skype. Students can also practice their English with other AddLang members using MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and AOL Messenger

UsingEnglish.com - The English Language Discussion Forum on UsingEnglish.com has a special section just for students who want to discuss questions related to pronunciation, phonetics, and other aspect of speech. The forum also offers an "Ask the Teacher" section for students who need additional help.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about pharmacy technician certification for PharmacyTechnicianCertification.com.
PLAYCOMIC, more than a simple comic creator

Sep 30, 11

It has been a long time ago since I wrote my last post, due to lack of time. However, today I found an incredible comic creator tool which I would like to share with you. It is called PLAYCOMIC and it has been designed and created by Antonio Muñoz Germán in order to help stu

dents to develop their writing and oral communication skills in English and in Spanish.

There is a great amount of characters and backgrounds students can choose from, so the possibilities to create different kinds of situational dialogues is almost endless. They will be able to create their own comic strips, finish one of more than 40 stories included, transform a comic into a narrative and viceversa, fill the balloons with their own dialogues and add as many pages as they want to.

Teachers will benefit as well from this software since it includes a didactic guide with a series of methodological principles, as well as educational suggestions for different kinds of activities using comics, and a detailed guide to learn how to use this tool.

Well, I hope you find time to explore and try this tool with your students because it is really worth it.
10 Learning Communities for ESL students

Oct 02, 11

Participating in an online language learning community is a good way for ESL students to improve speaking and writing skills. The average community provides language partners to chat with in addition to other learning tools. Here are 10 online learning communities that can be joined for free.

EnglishForums.com - EnglishForums.com is the world's largest EFL/TEFL social network. Students can use the site to learn English, meet new people online, and ask questions about grammar, vocabulary, letter writing, and essays.

SharedTalk - This Rosetta Stone site is a free language exchange community. Visitors can learn and practice English with various language partners via voice chat and text chat.

Unilang - Unilang is an online language learning community with many different free language resources. Members can learn, discuss, and practice English and other languages with Unilang's text and voice chat.

English, Baby! - This English language learning community makes it easy to learn English with downloadable audio lessons and other learning materials. Community members can also use the site to find pen pals and language partners.

Hello-Hello - Hello-Hello is a good place for ESL students to find native speakers to practice with. The site also provides free English lessons developed in collaboration with the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages).

Mixxer - This free educational website was created for language learners who want to practice their writing and speaking skills with other people around the world. Mixxer users can write a blog post and have their writing corrected or chat with other users via Skype.

MyHappyPlanet - ESL students can practice their language skills with native speakers on MyHappyPlanet. Other site features include free videos and English lessons.

Parlo - Parlo is an interactive language learning site that provides free resources in addition to fee-based courses. The site is a good place to find pen pals, music from the English-speaking world, and diagnostic tests to determine your skill level.

xLingo - xLingo is a language exchange community for people who want to learn and practice English and other languages. The site makes it easy to find a language partner and build skills with free online flashcards.

LearnHub - This site offers several online learning communities for ESL students. LearnHub visitors can join an existing community or become a community leader and start their own.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to BusinessSchool. She also writes about online degree reviews for OnlineDegreePrograms.org.
20 Free Online Libraries and Reading Rooms

Oct 31, 11

Reading online is a great way for students to practice and improve English reading skills. There are many free libraries and reading rooms that allow you to read books, articles, historical documents, and reference materials online. Here is a list of 20 online libraries worth exploring:

The Free Library - The Free Library by Farlex features over 5 million articles and books that are viewable online. The site provides literature for business, health, humanities, law, recreation, science, communications, entertainment, social sciences, and general interest.

Project Gutenberg - Project Gutenberg is the largest single collection of free ebooks on the web. Within this site, browsers can find and read over 30,000 online books.

University of Virginia Library - The University of Virgina Library provides more than 2,100 ebooks that are available free to the public. The ebook titles include classic American and British fiction, children's literature, American history books, Shakespeare plays, and other documents.

The Online Books Page - This library, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, provides access to free books around the web. The site houses listings for over 35,000 books that are readable online.

Bibliomania - Bibliomania offers over 2,000 free fiction books. The site also features reference books, quotations, dictionaries, nonfiction, and biographies.

Baen Free Library - This online library features a number of free online digital books. The books are viewable in a variety of ways, including HTML download, Microsoft reader, Rocket ebook, and Rich Text Format.

Bartleby.com - This site provides free online readable books for reference, verse, fiction, and nonfiction. The literature on this site is searchable based on type, author, subject, or title.

Internet Public Library - The Internet Public Library offers links to catalogs of books that are free to read on the Internet as well as magazines, journals, and newspapers from around the world.

ReadPrint - ReadPrint is a free library of books for teachers, students, and booklovers. The books are completely free, easy to read online, and feature thousands of stories, novels, and poems.

Stanford University - The Stanford University HighWire Press features a large archive of free full-text journal articles dating back to January of 1994.

Free Online Books - With over 5,000 free ebooks, Free Online Books is a good place to find the books you're looking to read. This online library of books features many genres, including children's, fiction, autobiography, nonfiction, and much more.

Online Books 4 Free - Online Books 4 Free features over 9,200 free ebooks for students, researchers, or just enjoyment.

PublicLiterature.org - PublicLiterature.org offers a way for users to read a collection of public domain books, poetry, audio, and tutorials. This site also features a modern book blog with sample works form great authors around the globe.

Page By Page Books - This free online book site features hundreds of classic books that are accessible free online.

Historical Text Archive - The Historical Text Archive features hundreds of high quality articles, books, and links to a wide variety of historical subjects. Founded in 1990, Historical Text Archive is among the oldest history sites on the web.

Questia - Questia offers free book profiles, encyclopedias, journals, magazines, newspapers, and books that can be read online.

Free-eBooks.net - Free-eBook.net provides ebooks, magazine articles, and other resources for download or online viewing. The categories featured in this digital online library range from advertising to youth.

ChestofBooks.com - This free online reading room allows you to read books online. The books can be searched or users can simply browse through the titles.

Many Books - Many books provides more than 24,000 free ebooks that are searchable by author, title, category, and language.

DOAJ - The Directory of Open Access Journals is dedicated to increasing the availability of scholarly and scientific journals. The site has over 4,000 journals that cover a wide variety of languages and subjects.

California Digital Library - The California Digital Library features over 8,000 journals, databases, and other online resources. The interface is a little difficult to maneuver through but once you get the hang of it you can find links to all sorts of free online journal articles.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online classes for OnlineClasses.org.
Virtual Social Networking Conferences in November 2009

Oct 31, 11
From November 5th to 8th, 2009, there will be an open-knowledge event, Social Networking, organized by AVEALMEC and ARCALL, two LatinAmerican associations, one based in Venezuela and the other one in Argentina, interested in promoting the use of ICT in the language classroom. It will be completely online and free, and its aim is to encourage practioners to reflect the role of communities of practice as social networks in ELT.

Many of the best ESL/EFL teachers and ELT professionals from different parts of the world have been invited:

George Siemens -Canada

Etienne Wenger -U.S.A.

Vance Stevens - United Arabic States

Nik Peachey - United Kingdom

Charalambos Vrasidas and Maria Solomou - Cyprus

Nicky Hockly - Spain

Erika Cruvinel and Ronaldo Lima -Brazil

Rita Zeinstejer and Paula Ledesma -Argentina

Nellie Müller Deustch -Israel

Carla Arena -Brazil

Graham Stanley -Spain

Jennifer Verschoor, Evelyn Izquierdo and Erika Cruvinel -Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil.
All of them will be sharing their experiences and expertise with participants and will help us grasp abetter picture of how social networks can be used in the language teachingand learning field.
I think it will be a great experience to have the opportunity to discuss about the concepts and theories around social networks, communities of practice, the Web 2.0, experiences in the classroom, as well as about the use, advantages and drawbacks of social networking tools.
DON'T MISS IT!
Docking at the Right Harbour

Oct 31, 11

Have you ever had problems to find useful resources on the net for teaching English? Have you ever wonder what are the best ESL/EFL resources, the best Edubloggers in the English teaching field? Many times when we want to use Internet as an education tool, we get lost due to the great amount of information contained on the net. In order to avoid this, Gorka Palazio, professor of the University of the Basque Country, has developed two great sites: English Harbour and English Tube.

English Harbour, a RSS website where you will find a selection of the best content for English teachers and students. This tool captures the last posts of top English edubloggers. Therefore, you can be up to date with these teachers' experiences in the classroom and with advances in new technologies applied to English teaching. But the advantage of visiting English Harbour is not only to read interesting post written by other ESL/EFL teachers or ELT proffessionals, but also to interact with those teachers who are interested in the same topics that you are. In this way, we are contributing to create a real learning virtual community, which can be expanded Twitter. The URL of Twitter is English Harbour.

However, if you are looking for new resources, English Tube can add visual spice to your University lessons mainly. After class, your students can continue learning English at home, in a cyber café or wherever they wish, watching videos on this site. The videos, which have been taken from the major video services such as Youtube, Blip, Vimeo, Veoh or Metacafe, are organized by level (beginner, intermediate and advanced) and by skills (grammar, listening, speaking and writing).

One thing I love about English Tube is that its content is really well-organized. Besides, it is an interactive site in which students can leave their comments on the videos they have watched. I hope that this is only the first step to expand and create a bigger English Tube full of videos for primary and secondary students, as well. A great idea would be that all those useful videos included subtitles, and there was an option to show or hide them depending on the student's English level.
Expocampus 09 Palazio
View more presentations from palazioberri.
20 places to study english grammar online

Oct 31, 11

If you are looking for a fun and interactive way to study English grammar, you can find almost everything you need on the Internet. There are exercises, tests, study guides, quizzes, and many other materials that make studying English grammar both simple and entertaining. Here are 20 resources to try:

Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) - The Purdue OWL offers a wide variety of exercises in grammar, punctuation, and spelling for English students. The exercises cover everything from basic grammar rules to advanced grammar understanding.

Daily Grammar - The Daily Grammar site provides grammar lessons and reviews that make it easy to study English grammar. Reviews cover parts of speech, parts of sentences, and mechanics.

GrammarBook.com - This free online site for English usage rules has fun and interactive quizzes and videos for reviewing grammar rules. This is the perfect way to learn and refresh your English grammar skills.

FlashcardExchange - The FlashcardExchange provides several pre-made flashcard sets that grammar studiers will find extremely useful. This site can also be used to create and share original English grammar flashcards.

Chomp Chomp - This free grammar site provides interactive exercises for testing your grammar knowledge. The exercises include accompanying handouts to increase retention.

Online English Grammar - The Online English Grammar site provides a list of free online tests and games for practicing grammar. Most of the grammar tests and games are designed for intermediate to advanced users.

HyperGrammar - HyperGrammar, a University of Ottawa site, has free grammar lessons with an end-of-lesson review test for testing knowledge and finding the weak spots in your grammar knowledge.

Newroom 101.com - Newroom101.com provides thousands of free exercises for writers, students, editors, and other people who want to study or review grammar.

English Exercises Online - English Exercises Online has a collection of online grammar quizzes that can be used as study aids. The quizzes are mainly fill-in-the-blank and multiple-choice and offer a guide for difficulty.

Oxford University Press - The online practice grammar guide from Oxford Press University features free online practice tests for basic to advanced studiers. The tests make it easy to figure out the grammar skills you have perfected versus the skills you still need to improve.

The Online Grammar Guide - This free online study guide is specifically designed for advanced English users. The guide, created by Jack Lynch, covers all grammar subjects from A versus An to Who versus Whom.

SpeakSpeak - SpeakSpeak provides advanced English grammar practice exercises for learning or studying grammar. Simply review the exercises and take the online tests to find out what skills you need to review.

English Grammar Exercises - These online exercises were written by an English teacher at College Claparede to provide grammar practice for advanced students.

Guide to Grammar and Writing - The Guide to Grammar and Writing features interactive quizzes and overviews for advanced English grammar study. The site also contains college level vocabulary lists and quizzes.

Quizlet - This free online flashcard site features 74 pre-made flashcard sets for studying English grammar. Users can use the flashcards to learn, familiarize, and test terms and usage.

Cengage Learning - This online study center features practice tests for learning and reviewing English grammar rules. Within this site users will find free practice tests for everything from apostrophes to subjects and verbs.

Learn4Good - Learn4Good, a free English study and exercise site, features grammar practice for SAT, PET, FCE, CAE, and more. The site lists and explains some of the more difficult grammar concepts and allows you to put your knowledge into practice with review tests.

Nonstop English - The Nonstop English site features advanced exercises for ESL students who are preparing for the TOEFL.

Activities for ESL Students - This site for ESL students provides a large collection of self-study grammar quizzes. Users can simply browse through the quizzes and pick the level that will challenge them.

The Tower of English - The Tower of English is a site created for ESL students to study and learn every aspect of English.
This post has been written by education writer Karen Schweitzer. She writes the Business School Guide for About.com and has been serving as an advisor to Business School as well. She also writes about online courses for OnlineCourses.org.
SpellQuizzer - Help your students master their spelling

Oct 31, 11

Today, I was contacted by Dan Hite, a corporate software developer, who talked to me about his useful educative programme for Windows, SpellQuizzer. SpellQuizzer helps students that need help learning their spelling and vocabulary words and it has very nice features.

SpellQuizzer was not designed with any one spelling curriculum in mind. In fact, it should compliment virtually any spelling curriculum since you create your own custom spelling lists. Teachers can enter their students spelling words into the software and record them by speaking into a microphone. After that, the students can listen the recorded words and type them. The software has a built-in spellchecker that recognizes both US and UK English spellings.

Another great feature is that the spellchecker warns the user when creating a spelling list if they enter a word that appears to be spelled incorrectly. Because of this safeguard it's reasonably safe to let students create their own spelling lists guided by the curriculum they are working on. If the teacher or parents creates the lists in SpellQuizzer, it's always a good idea to try to make the sound recordings amusing for the child. Funny phrases or voices make this tool funnier for the child and help to keep them engaged.

There is a video demo you can watch, click here. Besides, you can also find a page of free downloadable spelling lists with audio recordings for use with SpellQuizzer, click here. Finally, you can belong to the community web site which has discussion forums and a place where SpellQuizzer users can upload and download one another's SpellQuizzer spelling lists, click here, I mean, SpellQuizzer users can easily export and import SpellQuizzer spelling lists to share with other SpellQuizzer users. Because of this members of homeschool groups can share their lists rather than everyone having to record their lists individually (assuming everyone is on the same curriculum).

This software is not free, it costs $29.95 to download the software, but the creator has generously offered Sharing Learning readers the opportunity to get a free copy of the software to the first five people who contact him referring to my blog. To get your free copy of SpellQuizzer fill out the contact form, click here. Be sure to mention that you are a Sharing Learning reader and educator and use an email address associated with an education institution when requesting a free license. You have also the opportunity to download a 30 days free trial to know how the software works. After this time, you have to pay for the service. It costs nothing to try out SpellQuizzer and once you have purchased you can still request a full refund if you are not completely satisfied during the first 60 days after purchase.

I don't earn any money spreading this information, I'm just passing along this information for teachers who are interested in getting this useful software with their students or children.
Speak N' Spell

Oct 31, 11
If you students need help with pronunciation, listening and writing, Speak N' Spell can be the perfect software to recommend them and use in the classroom. How does it work?
The first time you open it, if you want to add a specific word list for your students you have to open the Word Maintenance, clear the table and add your own words saving your own list. Doing this, they can revise this dictionary (add or delete words), use their own set of words (clear the table and add words), or load a plain text file with words. They can also save the word list to a plain text file. Make such a file one word per line and save the file with a ".txt" suffix."

There are several levels of difficulty in which your students have to guess the word they hear:

Easy: words with three letters.

Medium: words with four to six letters.

Hard: words with seven to ten letters.

Hardest: words with more than ten letters.

Mixed: any word included in the dictionary can be pronounced.
How to use it in the classroom? An Speak N' Spell Game
1. You will need the Speak N' Spell Software, a computer or laptop and a projector to play this game with your students.
2. Divide your students into two groups and explain that they are going to play Speak N' Spell game. First, they will hear a word and then, they have to guess what word is it in turns.
3. The teacher, then, presses the new word key to listen it. The first student who guesses it correctly has to raise his hand, spell the word and make a sentence with it. This depends on your students' level. Sometimes it is difficult for beginners to create a sentence, therefore, you can give them the chance of just spelling it.
4. If the student's answer is right, his team win a point.
5. The winner is the team that get the highest score.
To Teach or Not to Teach Grammar? - That is the Eternal Question

Oct 31, 11
This morning, while browsing around the net, I stopped on an ESL forum post that called my attention and made me think:

"I think that grammar is useless for learning to speak fluently...what do you think?" someone said.
This topic has been quite controversial for decades. Should or shouldn't we teach grammar? If the answer is affirmative, how and when should we teach it?

In the late 1970s, Chomsky, Krashen and others pointed out that the learning of a language should be like a child ´s natural acquisition. I mean, when we start speaking our mother tongue, we don ´t think or care about grammar rules. Besides, it has also been documented that teaching grammar step by step has had little effect on speaking production, that is, many people who have studied English learning grammatical rules, can ´t communicate effectively. We are not allowed to teach English to children at school because there is an age, until nine years old more or less, in which language is acquired in a natural way. But, does it work with adults who start learning a foreign language?

In the late 1980s another approach appeared, the Communicative one, which made emphasis on authentic materials instead of "traditional textbooks". This new approach, which was the product of the dissatisfaction of many educators and linguists with the audiolingual and grammar-translation methods, emphasized other really important disciplines like Pragmatics (negotiation of meaning, social context, interaction...) or cooperative learning. This is because learning a language is much more than communication, it also represents a cultural background. What is the role of grammar in this approach, then? Grammar plays an important role, as well,within this approach, but it is learned into a context, not explaining grammatical rules, since students motivations to learn the new language come from their desire to communicate in real life (travelling, at work, etc) fluently. Teaching is not essential any more, but learning. A strong point of the Communicative Approach is that it focuses on the student's process of learning and this is a great advantage. However, as the other teaching approaches and methods, it also has its disadvantages.

The Communicative Approach developed into the Task-based Language Learning Method (1990s), I mean, this method was within the framework of the Comunicative Approach and focused in the use of real language, allowing students to do meaningful tasks, like buying flying tickets in a travel agency, conducting an interview, etc., using the target vocabulary and grammatical structures. A task is " a piece of classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning, and in which the intention is to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form. The task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its own right with a beginning, a middle and an end." (Professor David Nunan) Is it possible to integrate grammar in this method in an effective way? It is, but not focusing on form but inferring the grammar rules from the context.

There is not a "perfect method" for teaching or studying a foreign language. However, I think it is very important to give our students as many opportunities as we can to use the new language but without avoiding grammar all time since different people have different learning styles at different times. Therefore, as there are not quick recipes, why not to use the best of each approach or method to engage our students? We learn languages listening but we learn to improve our level, our communication style also via grammar. And what is the point of fluency if we do not set a context? How would you explain these situations?
- Quarter of a Million Chinese Live on Water
- Include Your Children When Baking Cookies
- Stolen Painting Found by Tree
Listening, writing, speaking, grammar, pronunciation, meaning, context... Everything is important when teaching or learning a language.
My English Images - when a picture is worth more than a thousand words

Oct 31, 11
A lot of researches have been done over years on the importance of using visuals in the ESL/EFL classroom for our students' learning process since images allow them to infer, deduce and provide the context to clarify the meaning of written texts.

A great resource for teachers that I discovered three days ago is My English Images, a website created by F. Michael Kloran, an English teacher and illustrator living in Japan with a very personal style who has decided to create this site to make other teachers' life easier.

In this site you will find a collection of ESL resources, mainly pictures and worksheets to spice up your classes, which have been grouped into different categories:
- Conversation
- Grammar
- Vocabulary
- Pronunciation
- Games
- Images
All the worksheets include and introduction and clear explanations about how to use them in the classroom. These materials are copyrighted but you can download them for free in PDF version. Beside, if there is something you cannot find here or you would like to make the author some suggestions, you can contact him in the e-mail address provided in the site.
Language Social Networks - Don't Stop Learning!

Sep 30, 11
Due to the globalized world we live in, many people decide to learn a foreign language for different reasons and purposes. The best opportunity to learn it is being immerse in the context the language is spoken but not everybody can afford to live in a foreign country. However, learning English has never been so easy, interactive and social since social networks appeared on the net! ESL/EFL students spend a lot of time surfing on the net, maybe more hours than they do studying therefore, why not provide them with opportunities to practice and learn real English with native English speakers or ESL/EFL students from other countries in a communicative setting?

Social networking can be an excellent reading and writing practice which can be completed with other communication tools like Skype, since Skype allows you to speak in real time. This is a great way of producing fluent speakers! Besides, with social networking students can learn more about English culture since they can be in touch with native speakers who can share photos, videos or audio files with them.

English Social Networks
- Babbel: it is a language learning social network where you can improve your language skills chatting with other Babble users, many of them native ones. As it is said in this website "Babbel already has more then 250,000 users from over 200 countries that learn English, Spanish, French, Italian and German." You only need to register in order to start communicating with other learners. Besides, you can also choose an online course if you are interested in learning grammar or vocabulary.
- Busuu: it is a free online community for learning languages where users have access to more than 150 highly audiovisual leaning units covering a wide range of day-to-day topics. The language material is currently available in French, Spanish, English and German but further languages will be added soon. Additionally, the users have the possibility to directly improve their language skills with other native speakers of the community. Via an integrated video-chat, users can practice their skills while being at home. They are a Madrid based start-up and launched the website in May 08. By now, more than 100,000 users from over 200 countries have joined this great website and they have been nominated Official Project of the UNESCO during the International Year of languages.
- Italki: is a social networking site that helps people learn languages in a fun and interactive way by connecting members for language exchange. The site initially went live in December of 2006 (making us one of the earliest players in this space), and has experienced tremendous growth such that we now have about 440,000 members from more than 200 countries, speaking over 100 languages. One of italki's earliest and most popular features is "Answers", where members can ask questions about learning languages and other members of the community respond. Many students have used italki to get help with their homework and to find recommendations on textbooks and other study materials. In May of 2008, italki added "Knowledge," a publicly editable wiki of language learning content, which we hope over time, will become just like a free public textbook.
- Livemocha: Livemocha, with more than 2 millions of members offers a great number of languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Hindi, Japanese and it is the most popular language learning site! Students can write or speak about a topic and receive feedback from native speakers on the network. According to Shirish Nadkarni, chief executive of the company, the name Livemocha refers to the relaxed atmosphere of a coffee shop, the perfect place for chatting with native speakers while drinking a cup of coffee at home.
- Palabea: it is another social network for practicing, communicating and learning foreign languages which uses audio and visual tools as learning aids (podcasts, videos, etc). Palabea has created virtual classrooms where all users can upload or create content, I mean, if you are a teacher you can record videolessons, podcasts or create documents. However, if you are a student, you can search for a language course or communicate with speakers from all over the world in audio or videoconferences.
However, if you are interested in creating and customize a free social network for communicating with your student, Ning makes it easy. You can create your own social networks just in a few minutes, adding the content you want and have your students participating and learning. In EFL Geek 3.0 blog you will find very useful information to know how it works.

Tweets

Tweets

Profile
- @mjgsm De nada, gracias de vuelta jeje. ¡Me encanta el blog y siempre aprendo algo nuevo! :-)
  
  May 24, 12 from TweetDeck in reply to mjgsm Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @pacogascon De nada, me ha encantado la actividad para que los alumnos aprendan aspectos sociolingüísticos utilizando twitter.
  
  May 24, 12 from TweetDeck in reply to pacogascon Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Digital Games: Learning English by playing http://t.co/qEJVKlhR #EFL #ELT #eltchat
  
  May 24, 12 from TweetDeck Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Estudiar por el placer de aprender. Enseñanza reglada vs iniciativa propia gracias a Internet http://t.co/UEp5YTJZ #enredfamiliar #MOOC
  
  May 24, 12 from TweetDeck Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @azulsiculo ¡Buenas!¿Qué tal va el final de curso? No se si te has enterado ya de las Jornadas iTIC 2012. http://t.co/qVcuW8nA Hay streaming
  
  May 24, 12 from TweetDeck Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @becksdad You're welcome, Neil! I like your lesson plans, they are coherent, student-centred and include interesting topics.
  
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- Designer Lesson - lesson plans created by two EFL teachers http://t.co/JIXgnwsS #EFL #ESL #eltchat #ELT
  
  May 24, 12 from TweetDeck Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- "Dilemas pedagógicos en tiempos de internet. ¿Cual es el sentido socioeducativo de internet en nuestras vidas?", un post de @cristobalsuarez
  
  May 24, 12 from TweetDeck Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- #Recomiendo leer: Twitteamos en #Cockney3, una experiencia 2.0. muy interesante de @pacogascon http://t.co/cgKN7QDY vía @bp20it @mjgsm
  
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- ¡Sharing Learning News está disponible! http://t.co/PCYeQOS0 ▸ Historias del día por @bamarcia @Nando_J @AnaCristinaPrts
  
  May 24, 12 from Paper.li Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Designer Lessons - student-centred lessons plans for #EFL teachers, created by #EFL teachers | @scoopit http://t.co/3gDhmlPL #ELT #ESL
  
  May 23, 12 from Scoop.it Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Hacia el colapso de internet (si un genio no lo impide) http://t.co/pNv2wUi5
  
  May 22, 12 from TweetDeck Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @vcuevas ¡Gracias! :-)
  
  May 22, 12 from TweetDeck in reply to vcuevas Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Mi blog, Sharing Learning, en huelga digital #22M #SOS22M #huelgadeclase http://t.co/MAwsdUt3 ¿Quieres unirte? http://t.co/8C7otumG
  
  May 22, 12 from TweetDeck Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- ¡Sharing Learning News está disponible! http://t.co/PCYeQOS0 ▸ Historias del día por @SoyPblicaCLM @sguilana
  
  May 22, 12 from Paper.li Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Education is the most effective weapon against ignorance,intolerance and poverty.Defend state education and stop privatisation! #SOS22M #22M
  
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- @InterinosAB @marona1013 @jcmisanz @anarosaleda Gracias por RT y feliz jornada hoy. :-)
  
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Info

Info

Profile
- Inma Alcázar
  
  Profesora y filóloga especializada en las TIC aplicadas al aprendizaje de lenguas. En búsqueda activa de empleo.
  
  Primary/Secondary Education | Valencia Area, Spain, ES
  
  Summary
  
  Desarrollo profesional en la enseñanza del inglés como segunda lengua en educación primaria y secundaria, capacidad para el uso de las nuevas tecnologías aplicadas a la enseñanza de idiomas extranjeros y habilidades para el trabajo en equipos interdisciplinares.
  
  Specialties: EFL, TIC
  
  Experience
  - 2012 - 2012
    Colaboradora externa. / Cenoposiciones
    
    Diseño y creación del programa del curso de experto: La educación bilingüe en España.
  - Oct 2010 - Aug 2011
    Profesora de inglés / Academia Quirón
    
    Clases de inglés con alumnos de 3º, 4º E.S.O., 1º Bachillerato, 2º Bachillerato y curso de acceso a la Universidad para mayores de 25 años.
  - Oct 2010 - Jun 2011
    Profesora de inglés / Independiente
    
    - Profesora particular de inglés con alumnos de 1º E.S.O. y 2º de Bachillerato. - Apoyo. - Actividades comunicativas. - Actividades con TIC.
  - Jan 2011 - May 2011
    Profesora de inglés de apoyo escolar (actividades extraescolares) / Colegio Calasanz
    
    Profesora de apoyo en la asignatura de inglés con grupos reducidos de alumnos desde 6º de Primaria hasta 2º de Bachillerato. Personalización del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje.
  - Jul 2010 - Jul 2010
    Profesora de inglés / Geddis Daniel Peter Spencer
    
    - Profesora de inglés con alumnos de 10 a 15 años en los cursos de verano organizados por el Ayuntamiento de La Roda (Albacete) junto con otros profesores nativos. (80 horas). - El curso tiene como objetivo la comunicación oral a través de juegos y otras actividades orales para desarrollar la competencia comunicativa.
  - Jul 2009 - Jul 2009
    Profesora de inglés / Geddis Daniel Peter Spencer
    
    - Profesora de inglés con alumnos de 10 a 15 años en los cursos de verano organizados por el Ayuntamiento de La Roda (Albacete). (80 horas). - El curso tiene como objetivo la comunicación oral a través de juegos, conversaciones y otras actividades tanto en el aula como al aire libre.
  - Feb 2009 - Jun 2009
    Profesora de inglés / Independiente
    
    Profesora particular de inglés con alumnos de 2º, 4º y 5º de primaria.
  - Jul 2008 - Jul 2008
    Profesora de inglés / Geddis Daniel Peter Spencer
    
    Profesora de inglés con alumnos de 10 a 15 años en los cursos de verano organizados por el Ayuntamiento de La Roda (Albacete) junto con otros profesores nativos. (80 horas). El curso tiene como objetivo la comunicación oral a través de juegos y otras actividades orales para desarrollar la competencia comunicativa. Julio.
  - Sept 2007 - Jan 2008
    Profesora de inglés / Centro de estudios Erasmus
    
    Clases de apoyo de inglés en el Centro de Estudios Erasmus en Salamanca con alumnos de distintos niveles de primaria y secundaria.
  - Jul 2007 - Jul 2007
    Profesora de inglés / Alcazul
    
    Profesora de inglés con estudiantes de 1º y 3º de E.S.O en un curso de verano organizado por Alcazul en Casas de Fernando Alonso (Cuenca). (20 horas)
  - Jul 2006 - Aug 2006
    Profesora de inglés / Independiente
    
    Profesora particular de inglés con estudiantes de Bachillerato durante el verano.
  - Jul 2005 - Aug 2005
    Profesora de inglés / Independiente
    
    Profesora particular de inglés con estudiantes de E.S.O y Bachillerato.
  - Jul 2005 - Jul 2005
    Profesora de inglés y monitora / Instituto de inglés PAE
    
    - Profesora de inglés y monitora de cursos de verano con niños de 5 años del instituto PAE. - Juegos, manualidades, canciones...
  - Jul 2004 - Aug 2004
    Au-pair / Independiente
  - Jul 2003 - Aug 2003
    Au-pair / Independiente
  - Jul 2002 - Aug 2002
    Au-pair / Independiente
  Education
  - Universiadad de Salamanca
    
    Licenciada in Filología Hispánica
  - Universidad de Salamanca
    
    Licenciada in Filología Inglesa
  - Universidad de Salamanca
    
    C.A.P.
  Additional Information
  - Websites:
    
    Blog, Scoop.it
  - Interests:
    
    Idiomas y nuevas tecnologías, leer, el teatro, la música, viajar...

Inma Alcázar

Digital games are...

Five Card Story: Through the Bare Land