Today's website for you guys is Elllo English. Elllo English is one of the largest source for teaching and learning materials on web. It is also known as English Listening Lesson Library Online, where you can learn English naturally! As mention by its name, library, it also means there are lots and lots of listening texts that available for teachers and students to learn the language genuinely. The main focus of this website is listening skill, and the activities include multimedia, free MP3 files, vocabulary tasks, language notes, print page, comprehension exercises and many more. There are a lot of interesting topics to be chosen and cover for different levels of students. What I like the most is that they allow video sharing, where people from all over the world can send their videos to be used as listening texts! This is great because you can listen to many accents of English and their speech rate in their uploaded videos.
The topics introduced are very engaging and interesting, and since it has thousands of listening collections, I am sure it will be hard for you to decide which one for you to choose! The examples of topics are culture, environment, lifestyle, health and sports. The texts are divided into 5 main areas (depends on the text type) which are Views, Mixer, Game, News and Scenes. See the red circle in the image below.
Teaching suggestions:
As this website focuses on listening skill, it is obviously very useful for teachers in their listening lessons. I believed the content in this site is suitable for all levels of students, because the videos are rated to which level they are relevant for. Moreover, for every listening text, there is also audio files for vocabulary pronunciation which is great for students to practice it. It is not only that, the audio also tells the description and meaning of the chosen phrases from the text, and students get to listen to them as many times as they want. If there is no facilities (computers, internet, etc) at schools, teachers can download the listening texts (depend on the topic) and print out the handouts for their students. Some texts are accompanied by visual shows, and if teachers are brilliant they may manipulate them to explain the content of the text to their students.
Another suggestion for teachers is to encourage students to use this programme as an autonomous learning source. Since it gives direct feedbacks for the exercises given, and the vocabulary enrichment are easily to be understood with brief explanation, I feel that it is very beneficial for second language learners. Students can choose any texts that they like and suit their interest before practising their listening skill. They can also challenge themselves by choosing the questions slightly above their level or they can even reward themselves by answering easy questions!
What I like about this website:
1. It has personalisation because students can choose any topic that is related to their interest and become even more motivated to learn the texts.
2. There are audio for each vocabulary item highlighted in the texts and it helps students to improve their pronunciation of words. It serves as a drilling activity if students listen to them for several times.
3. Lots and lots of different topics to be selected by students and teachers, thus provide varieties in the language lesson.
4. Users (teachers and students) are exposed to various accents of people who use English from all over the world.
5. There is a consistency in the arrangement of content, types of activities, audio and visual complimentary in this website.
6. FREE and no need to register!
Some considerations:
1. I feel that the layout of this website is too packed, full and there is not empty space can be seen. The page is full with words and advertisements sometimes can be very annoying as they may distract ones' focus in doing the activity.
2. Not all schools have enough facilities for all students and not all students have internet or even computers at home. For this, teachers can print out the text and exercises for students to do in the classroom and download the audio text for the listening activity.
3. Sometimes the website might not be functional if their serves are overloaded.
That's all for today. Let's learn English in a fun and easy way!
Another suggestion for teachers is to encourage students to use this programme as an autonomous learning source. Since it gives direct feedbacks for the exercises given, and the vocabulary enrichment are easily to be understood with brief explanation, I feel that it is very beneficial for second language learners. Students can choose any texts that they like and suit their interest before practising their listening skill. They can also challenge themselves by choosing the questions slightly above their level or they can even reward themselves by answering easy questions!
What I like about this website:
1. It has personalisation because students can choose any topic that is related to their interest and become even more motivated to learn the texts.
2. There are audio for each vocabulary item highlighted in the texts and it helps students to improve their pronunciation of words. It serves as a drilling activity if students listen to them for several times.
3. Lots and lots of different topics to be selected by students and teachers, thus provide varieties in the language lesson.
4. Users (teachers and students) are exposed to various accents of people who use English from all over the world.
5. There is a consistency in the arrangement of content, types of activities, audio and visual complimentary in this website.
6. FREE and no need to register!
Some considerations:
1. I feel that the layout of this website is too packed, full and there is not empty space can be seen. The page is full with words and advertisements sometimes can be very annoying as they may distract ones' focus in doing the activity.
2. Not all schools have enough facilities for all students and not all students have internet or even computers at home. For this, teachers can print out the text and exercises for students to do in the classroom and download the audio text for the listening activity.
3. Sometimes the website might not be functional if their serves are overloaded.
That's all for today. Let's learn English in a fun and easy way!
