Software/Website Title: Interesting Things for ESL Students
Website URL: www.ManyThings.org
Grade/Age Level: not age or grade specific
This week I reviewed the language learning website entitled, “Interesting Things for ESL Students”. This site appears to be written by two men, Charles Kelly and Lawrence Kelly, who, according to the website, are teachers at the Aichi Institute of Technology in Japan. While the purpose of this website is not stated, it seems that it is intended to be used as a tool to improve and practice the student's American English.
This website has many pages, covering a wide variety of English learning. These include: Vocabulary, Grammar, Sentence Patterns, Proverbs, Sayings & Idioms, Pronunciation, Listening, Hearing, Reading, Spelling, Podcasts, Songs, Jokes, Crosswords Puzzles, Tongue Twisters, a collection of easy things for beginners, and a link to Voice of America's Special English program (this is, incidentally, how I stumbled upon this website.) This site is organized well and clearly laid out. You won't get lost going through these pages. However, this is not a very attractive website. While there is something to be said for simplicity, this site is visually unappealing. I nearly “judged the book by its cover” and passed this site on by as it just did not grab me by its graphics (or lack thereof). However, on a whim I just tried one of the pages and I was instantly impressed by the activity. Since I like one, it led me to check out many of the other games and activities.
Some of the activities I liked included one on pronunciation (like listening to different words that sound quite similar to the untrained ear-- like “ferry” and “very” and then selecting which word was said) and another game under “Audio Concentration/Memory Game” which is an excellent activity for improving concentration and distinguishing between similar sounds in the English language.
Each different page does provide guides to give you the instructions on how to accomplish the activity. However, I found them to be fairly self-explanatory. Also, the menu is available in Japanese, for the Japanese ESL student. The average language learner would find this site to be interesting, if given a chance. As previously stated, it is visually uninteresting and so a student might not even give it a first chance. I think this website can be very helpful for the student who is wanting to sharpen his/her skills. It offers many opportunities to practice, offering immediate assessment on nearly every activity (telling you which answers were correct and what percentage were answered correctly) . Navigation and it's layout are simple enough to use.
The strengths of this site include a wide range of activities, supplying hours and hours of interesting ways the student can practice to improve listening, reading, spelling, understanding idioms and slang, etc. Another strength could possibly be the lack of graphics. Because of this all the pages should load fairly quickly for the student, regardless of the quality of his Internet connection. But, as I stated earlier, I think this website would be greatly improved upon by seriously upgrading in the “graphic design” area. The content is high-quality, it just needs to improve its looks.
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3 comments:
First of all, congratulations on visible color of yout posting title, ^_^ heh
When looking at the web address, I was wondering how much things it includes. Now I admit it is worthy of the name with ABUNDANT language learning resources! Bookmarked!~ I also found very creative language tools on it. However as you said its interface is a little dull, and not that 'attractive' to young learners.
Thank you for your question on my previous posting. Would you like to tell me your email address?
Hello Jill,
The down and dirty title on the website says it all...no messing around! But I was interested while navigating around the site because of its wide variety. I found the section on Slang and Idioms to be key because this is an area that makes English so gosh darn difficult. After all, what the heck does kick the bucket and hit the hay have to do with their real meanings? The subsection under this main item allows the user to change the idioms into plain English--and what a great resource for language learners.
Also, I noticed the Voice of America (VOA) menu option and it's enrichment activities like quizzes and MP3 files. They would make for productive extensions in higher level classes. (and it would highlight American culture as well as the language.) Thanks for this site~
Ooooooh, I like this site. Perhaps because of the several mentions of its utilitarian nature, I was almost expecting something written in DOS. (I'm showing my age by even referencing it, eh?) In any case, I kind of like the stark, business-like nature of the site. And the breadth of offerings? Wow! good choice Jill. I've added it to my bookmarks.
Also, Denise check this site out for the etymology of 'kick the bucket': http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kick_the_bucket
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