Using The Internet and
Media in the Classroom
Part I – Internet Sites
Part II – Different Internet Media
Part 1
Internet Sites
Internet Sites
A few Canadian websites with links:
• TESL Ontario: www.teslontario.ca – ( and Contact!)
• TESL Canada: www.tesl.ca
• Internet TESL Journal: http://iteslj.org/
• Durham College: http://www.dcuoit.ca/EN/main/learnersupportcentre/external_res
ource_links.html#writing
4 Skill Categories
• Listening Sites
• Reading Sites
• Speaking & Pronunciation Sites
• Writing & Dictionary Sites
Listening Sites
CBC Archives
http://archives.cbc.ca/index.asp?IDLan=1
• Many Topics: People, Conflict & War,
Life & Society, Arts & Entertainment, Politics &
Economy, and more
• Topic Index, Clip Index, On this Day, Great
Interviews Index
• Links & Additional clips -bottom on each page
Sample Listening:
http://archives.cbc.ca/science_technology/natural_science/to
pics/663/
• Practical Application and Activity
Additional pages for Teachers:
http://archives.cbc.ca/for_teachers
– divided by grade and “all grades” assignments
CBC Ottawa
http://www.cbc.ca/ottawa/esl/index.html
• 10 lessons – 3 levels
• Pre-, Listening and Post exercises
CBC Manitoba – EAL
http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/eal/about.html
• Weekly lessons
• Pre-, listening, post exercises
Voice Print
“Canada’s Broadcast Reading Service”
http://www.voiceprintcanada.com/
Sample Listening:
• grocery specials
http://www.voiceprintcanada.com/content/view/147/147/
Historica Minutes
http://www.histori.ca/minutes/section.do?className=ca.histori.minutes.e
ntity.ClassicMinute
CBC Podcasting
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/index.html?region#on
– The best of CBC’c national Radio One shows,
CBC TV's The Hour, & regional podcast
magazines+
– Information and broadcasts from across Canada,
including Toronto This Week
– News casts can be
• played once a week (they change)
• saved on the computer(s) you are using
– These are longer listenings (times are listed)
• Pre-listen to set up questions
• Students can take notes on them
• Students can make up questions for each other
• Leads to cultural awareness and good postlistening discussions
Very interesting topics!
Vinyl Café
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/pastpodcasts.html?44#ref44
• Stuart McLean is one of Canada's most popular
and acclaimed storytellers. As the host of The
Vinyl Cafe—which is both a popular CBC radio
show and a series of bestselling books—he has
created a national institution.
• A radio show which can expose the students to
a “clear” Canadian accent and to cultural
aspects, including family issues, neighbours,
growing old…
BBC
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/teac
hingenglish/index.shtml
ABC
•
http://abc.net.au/tv/btn/teachers/esl.htm
Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab
•
http://www.esl-lab.com/index.htm
– Levels: Easy, Medium, and Difficult
– Many topics, cultural, every day conversations
– Pre-listening, Listening, Vocabulary, idioms, multiple
choice, close and replay features as the students do
the exercises, helpful cultural
tips, too
Reading Sites
Vinyl Café: Story Exchange:
http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe
Can be used as in-class or home readings.
• Not in any specific order or topic, but are
interesting and very Canadian.
• The archives started in January 2006
Sample Reading:
http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/story_exchange.php?vStoryID
=41
“Away from Home” – Michelle Thompson
"Away From Home"
by Michelle Thompson from Cobourg, ON
Sep 20, 08
I want to preface this letter by saying that I have been meaning to write
it for a while. In fact, I’ve been thinking about writing it for over a year
now. This letter is a story about a family, not unlike the one you read about
every week on your show. This letter is about my family.
My name is Michelle Thompson, and I am 19 years old. I am going into my
third year of studies in Engineering at Queen’s University in Kingston,
Ontario. My family lives on Rice Lake, about half an hour north of Cobourg,
Ontario; about 2 hours away from the University.
Both of my older sisters went to Queen’s and my brother, in the 11th
grade, is sure to follow. Now 2 hours doesn’t seem like much, but I am so
busy with school work and sports that I don’t get to visit home very much.
I miss my parents, but there always seems to be something in the way.
Stuart, you have to understand that we are a CBC family, through and
through. In each of our cars, CBC Radio One is the first programmed
station on our radios. In middle school, while other kids listened to the Top
40, I listened to As It Happens, and Quirks and Quarks. Every morning in
high school that I had early band practice, my father would turn on
Ontario Morning and I would find out what was going on in my province, and
around the world.
In the glove boxes of each of our cars, my father has meticulously placed
those little paper pamphlets you get from the CBC building in Toronto. The
ones that have every CBC radio station across Canada listed by town and
subdivided into provinces; just in case we found our selves unexpectedly
lost in the forests of British Columbia or the barren tundra of Nunavut, we
would still have the CBC.
Last summer, I drove back with my father from a family vacation in
Newfoundland, and I couldn’t tell you the route we took or the roads we
traveled on, but I could almost guarantee that I know the sequence of
radio tunings it took us to get home. But most of all, Stuart, our family
loves the Vinyl Café.
We go to church most Sundays a few minutes away from our home. After
every service we would practically run to the car, garnering our share of
strange looks from the Minister and the choir, just to be able to hear the
start of your story about Dave and Morley. When we got home, we would
often sit in the car with the radio going until there was a break in the
story. My dad would run into the house, full speed, to turn on the radio in
the kitchen, so as not to miss anything important. He would then walk
down the hallway, turning on the radio in the living room and his bedroom,
so that the entire first floor of our house was broadcasting the Vinyl
Café loud and proud. My mother would start cooking lunch, and you could
hear my father roaring with laughter pacing about his bedroom and
undressing from his church clothes. My family has a special connection
with the Vinyl Café. I think we all see a little bit of the characters, in
ourselves.
When I moved to University, I lost touch with your show. I know you may
be shocked to hear it, but CBC radio isn’t incredibly popular with the
University crowd. I think its Vinyl Café’s timing more than anything,
Stuart. You must remember that the typical University student is just
entering REM sleep when your show airs on Sunday mornings.
I started to miss your show, and the connection it brought to my family. I
finally found one of the greatest inventions in human history; the Podcast.
Now I can listen to the Vinyl Café in between calculus and physics, and
even during, if the lectures are dry enough. I have subscribed online, and
wait in excitement as every week, a new file awaits me.
I have never told my parents I still listen intently. As a typical teenager,
I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing they have had any
impact on my life.
I am working in Kingston this summer for one of my professors. I don’t
get home as often as a like, and am not used to being apart from them for
this long. I know this may all seem a little tedious to you, but I was
wondering if you could tell them something on your show, when I know
they will be listening. If you could tell them that I miss them and that
even when it feels like a million years away, I love them, and I will be
home soon.
Sample Story Exercises
"Away From Home"
by Michelle Thompson from Cobourg, ON
Sep 20, 08
http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/story_exchange.php?vStoryID=41
Topic:
•
Family/ Leisure/ Student Life
Tense:
•
Verb Tense Review – simple present and past tense, two-part verbs, conditionals,
modals
•
students identify the verb forms, time markers and explain why the tense was used
•
students create and write questions to ask each other based on the story
Pronunciation:
•
Regular past tense endings
•
Irregular past tense verbs
•
modal stress
Follow-up:
•
locate the places on the map
•
look up/trip to library/home research/self-reflection:
– have students do presentations about family life in their countries, student life
in their countries, leisure time activities
Classic Short Stories
http://www.classicshorts.com/
• These are as the title states, including such
stories as W.W. Jacob’s “The Monkey’s Paw,”
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and so on.
Sample Story: “The Monkey’s Paw” WW Jacobs
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/paw.html
Short Stories
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/
– These are stories that are evaluated by: length, age
and star rating
100 Free Short Stories for ESL Learners
– Can be listened to
– Includes: listening, grammar, comprehension,
dictation questions and answers
http://www.rong-chang.com/qa2/index.html
Short Stories to Increase Paraphrasing
Skills
http://jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/97/may/short.html
– Interesting ideas and links to stories
Speaking &
Pronunciation
Sites
The Internet TESL Journal
http://iteslj.org/questions/
– A monthly journal with archives from 1995
– Question lists from every topic/cultural point
imaginable
– Used as:
• Warm ups, topic introductions, closers,
writing topics
– Basic - lead through with the teacher
– Intermediate – group leader assigns questions
– Advanced - left alone with the list of questions
– Use as is, edit in a word document or add to
Sample Questions: “The Environment &
Pollution”
Conversation Questions the Environment &
Pollution
A Part of Conversation Questions for the ESL
Classroom.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Are there litter laws where you live? If so, what is the penalty for
littering?
Do you think cars should be banned from city centers?
Do you think people should recycle newspapers? Why or why not?
Do you think there are lessons to learn from nature?
How has the world changed since you were a child? (technology,
values, environment, health)
How often is garbage collected in your neighborhood?
If humans are really intelligent and not simply manipulated by their
genes like any other animal, why can't they do anything about
overpopulation? …
Train Your Accent
http://www.trainyouraccent.com/symbols.htm
• Listening while reading a transcript with a
specific sounds of everyday speech
highlighted (actual and reduced speech
transcripts):
Sample Accent Training:
http://www.trainyouraccent.com/a-rent-apartment.htm
ESL Gold
http://www.eslgold.com/speaking.html
• 5 levels to choose: beginning (2), intermediate
(2) and advanced (1)
• Many different topics to read and listen to
Sample Listening:
http://www.eslgold.com/speaking/introducing_others.html
A: Paul, this is John. John, this is Paul.
Have you met Paul?
Have you two met each other? Have you two
met each other?
B: No, I haven't.
No, we haven't
Yes, we have.
A: Paul, this is John.
John, this is Paul.
Writing Sites
From basic to advanced:
• http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
• http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/sensen/
For higher levels:
• http://www.writing.ku.edu/instructors/docs/conf
erencing2.shtml
• http://www.sportsci.org/jour/9901/wghstyle.html
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
Dictionaries:
• http://www.m-w.com/netdict.htm
• http://www.ldoceonline.com/
Part 2
Using Different
Sites in the Class
2 Categories
• Using Newspapers - online
• Watching the news – online
Using Newspapers
Online
There are various paper media. Online is clean &
environmental
Print only what you choose, more choice & control
of topics
1. The COMICS  basic – advanced
• Basic  describe the pictures:
– what are they saying?
– what is the occasion?
– what is the meaning?
• Intermediate  is it funny? why?
– verb tense – past + subordinate (noun)
clause formation
• Advanced  relationships between animals
– what is the history of that vegetable?
Sample Comic
http://www3.thestar.com/cgibin/star_static.cgi?section=comics&page=/Third_Party/
comics/mutts.html
There is also a two-week archive for each comic
2. Daily columns  basic – advanced
•
•
•
Choose from a variety of topics, new &
old, based on what is being taught
Short  Basic – Intermediate
choose topics, read, discuss,
agree/disagree, write own response or
question related to given article
Sample Reading: Dear Ellie
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/266733
Using the News
Online
CBC News on the Internet:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/
Faster & easier to plan with:
– can search for recent media files
– repeat at the student’s leisure
– topic can be chosen instead of
waiting for the “perfect” news story.
Sample  home page - short clips
• Video clips at the side of the screen with
the latest news
• 5 pages (screens) with 3 stories/page
• Times are indicated
• Lesson Ideas:
– Watch muted & guess topic by screen clues
and cues, if possible
– Each student chooses a “topic,” listens, and
reports back to class
– Pairs of students listen, compare notes and
report back to class
Sample Photo Gallery
CBC http://www.cbc.ca/photogallery/news/756/
• “The week in pictures”
– Shows a number of photos with short descriptions
Basic  describe the photo
Intermediate  read the caption for key words
Advanced  look and read caption
 rephrase/describe to class and they guess what the
picture is
 Describe to a partner who “draws” the picture
CBC media and recent media
– More recent past than CBC archives
http://www.cbc.ca/news/media/
• CBC Media  Recent Media,
Consumer Life, Science and Tech,
Health, Money, Other recent Stories
Sample Story: Polar Ice Caps Melting 4:23
http://www.cbc.ca/video/popup.html?http://www.cbc.ca/
mrl3/8752/news/features/arcticicemelt2-intvu070820.wmv
The End
Thank you for
coming!