English
as a Second Language Special Collection
Text-Only Version
Teacher/Tutor
Curriculum
and Instruction
Journals and Research
Resources
Miscellaneous
Email
Projects
Projects are either initiated by classes or individual teachers. The word "Email
Projects" was developed in 1994 before the popularity of the world wide web.
At that time (1994), most of the projects were conducted via e-mail. With the
advent of the World Wide Web, most of the projects are now "web projects".
New
Citizen's Vote! Curriculum
This site links to a four-hour voter education curriculum (available in English
and Spanish) called "New Citizens Vote!: An Educational Curriculum About
Voting." The goal of the curriculum is to increase the skills and self-confidence
of participants regarding voting and other local decision-making processes.
The curriculum emphasizes local issues and opportunities for civic participation.
Census
2000 Educational Materials
This site features educational materials that were developed for ESL and Citizenship
teachers to help them inform their students about the census.
California
Distance Learning Project
The California Distance Learning Project focuses on using communication through
computers as a vehicle for student and teacher interaction. For many years,
most distance education has focused on one- or two-way communications through
video and television. Emerging technologies have opened up other avenues for
distance learning delivery. The project goal is to increase access to adult
basic learning services by laying the groundwork for a distance learning infrastructure.
Homebuying
Readiness
This site documents a three-year project, supported by the FannieMae Foundation,
to support the teaching of first-time homebuying readiness to immigrants (and
other adult education students). It includes lesson plans, teacher reflections,
student writings, and related resources. Some of the topics addressed include:
information about loans and subsidy programs for low income buyers, the issues
and responsibilities embedded within tenant/landlord relations, the pros and
cons of home ownership, how to document a non-traditional credit history, and
the various resources and supports available from government housing programs.
"Teacher,
You Got it All Wrong," a poem by Christina Chang, Taiwan
This poem, found on
the website of the Non-Native English Speakers in TESOL (NNEST) Caucus, is about
what’s lost when the purpose of our teaching is social acceptance and success
rather than the expression of who we are and what we think. The NNEST Caucus
aims to create a nondiscriminatory professional environment for all TESOL members
regardless of native language and origin, and to research and promote the leadership
of nonnative speaker members in TESOL and affiliate organizations.
Arts
and Letters Daily
This website can be a starting place for current events lesson planning.
It provides a daily summary of world-wide news, articles, columns, taken from
all kinds of publications on topics like: arts, literature, history, music,
scientific discoveries, etc. In addition, there are long lists of hot links
to major world-wide newspapers, news services, journals and magazines, book
review sources, radio stations, e-zines and more.
Story
Arts
This site is dedicated to the advancement of storytelling as an art
and as a classroom technique. You can download lesson plans and activities that
revolve around storytelling, or you can find and print stories for your classroom
in the Story Library.
Stereotypes
and Discrimination Activity Websites
This page of stereotype and discrimination activities and articles is
a link off "The English Teacher's Assistant" website. The site includes
topical resources for teachers and tutors, with an emphasis on practical classroom-ready
materials.
The
Project Based Learning Place
This page highlights resources, projects and techniques for integrating project
based learning in an ESL class. It includes a downloadable PowerPoint presentation
on project-based learning.
Seattle
Times Civil Rights Photo Gallery
This is a web site devoted to the civil rights movement and the life of
Martin Luther King, Jr. Instructors will find the photo gallery very useful
for teaching ESL students about the civil rights movement.
The
Study Place
The Study Place is a Web-based authoring tool that offers adult educators a
way to create and deliver online learning activities to their adult learners
The Study Place offers forms to create lessons and quizzes, an archive of teacher-created
lessons, and a resources guide that includes state and national competencies.
Instructors can register their classes to take online lessons and quizzes.
Discovery
Channel’s Quiz Center
The Quiz Center allows instructors
to create, edit, and manage quizzes, without any necessary web publishing experience.
The
Change Agent
The Change Agent is a newspaper with articles on news, issues, ideas, and teaching
resources that help educators and learners to make civic participation and social
justice related concerns part of their teaching and learning. This web-based
supplement to the journal utilizes the interactivity of the Internet to provide
additional teaching activities for the classrooms.
The
Change Agent–Immigration Issue
The Change Agent is a newspaper with articles on news, issues, ideas, and teaching
resources that help educators and learners to make civic participation and social
justice related concerns part of their teaching and learning. This issue of
The Change Agent focuses on immigration, with articles and classroom activities
that explore the history of immigration, the pros and cons of becoming a citizen,
language issues, immigrants in the labor force, and other issues. Requires Adobe
Acrobat Reader, free and downloadable via the Web Tools
button.
Web
Power: Enhancing classroom lessons with the Internet
This website illustrates lessons on using the Internet both as a classroom
resource from home and in the classroom as a classroom tool. The resources include
a downloadable handout on using the Web in the classroom. (Requires Adobe Acrobat
Reader, free and downloadable via the Web Tools button.)
The
Working Conditions of Adult Literacy Teachers
This article describes the environmental factors that seem to influence teachers’
abilities to do their jobs well. Factors include the physical facilities where
teachers work, the amount of time and support they have to do their jobs, and
the training or development opportunities they have. The report describes the
researchers’ preliminary findings, based on questionnaires completed by
more than 95 teachers, as well as in-depth interviews with 18 teachers and their
program directors.
Theory
and Practice of Computer-Based Language Testing
This special edition of "Language Learning and Technology Magazine"
features articles, essays, and studies about the use of computer technologyin
testing in ESL and EFL classrooms.
Benefits
and challenges in using computers and the Internet with adult English learners
This article describes many of the ways in which computers and the Internet
are being used in adult English classrooms.
NCLE
ERIC digests
A listing of digests available on-line from the National Clearinghouse for ESL
Literacy Education (NCLE). Topics include: ESL methods and approaches; Assessment
and evaluation; technology in adult ESL; background and policy issues; and workplace
and vocational ESL.
Changing
global economy and the future of English teaching
This article describes current socioeconomic factors and their influence on
English language teaching.
Relationship
between reading and speaking skills
Ann Hilferty, Assistant Professor of English at the Massachusetts College of
Pharmacy and Health Sciences, has been exploring the research literature on
the relationship between the development of reading and speaking skills, especially
with adult ESOL learners. While she assumes that oral mastery, when it exists,
influences reading, she finds that much recent research reveals the influence
of reading on speaking. There also seems to be reciprocity between them, which
may have implications for ESOL instruction.
Changes
Project
From 1997 - 1999, more than 30 adult learners (ESOL, beginning literacy, ABE,
GED, and transition to college) from five Adult Basic Education programs in
western Massachusetts conducted a participatory action research project focused
on the impact of welfare reform, immigration reform and the changing nature
of work on 620 of their fellow adult learners. The work of the Changes Project
paints a picture of the impact of these three issues on the lives of adult learners
at these five programs.
Literacy
Across Cultures
Literacy Across Cultures is an annual publication dedicated to issues regarding
the learning and teaching of reading and writing in a foreign or second language.
It is published in print, on-line, and e-mail versions in association with the
Foreign Language Literacy Special Interest Group (FLL
SIG) of The Japan Association for Language
Teaching (JALT) .
Annotated
Bibliography of Research on Reading and Adults Learning English as a Second
Language
A bibliography and webliography of research on reading and adults learning English
as a second language by NCLE.
Practitioner
Research Reports
This site houses the practitioner research reports for the Virginia
Adult Education Research Network. In each of two years, about a dozen practitioners
researched questions about their own practice, guided by an inquiry process.
Most ESL-focused reports on this site can be identified by their titles; the
Arlington Education and Employment Program is an ESL site. Requires Adobe Acrobat
Reader, free and downloadable via the Web Tools
button, to read the reports.
Learning
From Practice
This is the ESL collection of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy
Education’s (ABLE) Learning from Practice Project. This project provides
professional development opportunities for practitioners interested in improving
teaching and learning by participating in action research and practitioner inquiry.
Annotations describe the focus of each teacher’s research.
Directory
of Online ESL Resources
The National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education (NCBE) and the ERIC Clearinghouse
on Languages and Linguistics (ERIC/CLL) have created this directory of online
ESL resources that are appropriate for all ages — preK through adult. The
directory is designed primarily for use by teachers and students.
NCLE
Resource Collections: Learning Disabilities and Adult ESL
This resource collection both provides background materials about learning disabilities
from K-12 and adult education and gathers the few resources that directly
address adult ESL concerns. While this is not a definitive list of LD materials,
it is representative of what is readily available online and in print.
Literacy
Online
This is the thematic directory for the research collection of literacy.org.
From here, you can link to a "Language, Bilingualism, and ESL" collection.
The site, sponsored by the International Literacy Institute and the National
Center on Adult Literacy, gives information on literacy-related publications,
projects, and websites.
ERIC
Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education
The ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult,
Career, and Vocational Education (ERIC/ACVE) is located at the Center on Education
and Training for Employment (CETE), The Ohio State University. ERIC/ACVE provides
comprehensive information services in these areas:
ESL
Starter Kit
The ESL Starter Kit helps new teachers and tutors with most aspects
of the ESL teaching experience. The six sections of the Kit include Assessment,
Lesson Planning, Classroom Management, and Accessing Resources.
Tools
for Teachers: Internet Evaluation Web Quest
This article by Kathleen P. King, EdD, Fordham University Graduate School
of Education discusses internet evaluation and provides a detailed outline of
a lesson plan for teachers or tutors to teach adult learners to analyze and
evaluate the "inundation" of information on the Internet. Some of the elements
of the lesson plan include: Objectives, Action Plan, Webquest Worksheet Questions
and Sites (includes hot links to sites that students can visit to evaluate on
their own), Webquest Class Discussion Questions, Website Assessment Questions.
E-Square
This link, at the Adult
Literacy Resource Institute in Boston, brings you to an "electronic town square,"
where you'll find storefront entrances to a civic center, a health center, an
early childhood center, a job center, and a library, among others. Each center
gives you access to lessons, teacher reflections, and information related to
the topic.
The
Internet ESL Journal
This is a monthly web-based journal of articles, research papers, lesson
plans, classroom handouts, teaching techniques and ideas, and links for the
ESL/EFL classroom teacher. It contains search capability both for this website
(for contents of previous monthly publications since 1995 as well as for lesson
plans and classroom handouts) and for general ESL/EFL web links.
Activities
for Integrating Civics in Adult English Language Learning
The suggestions for
activities listed below come from years of practice in adult ESL where teachers
were successfully able to integrate language and civics content. To assist practitioners
to develop activities that will serve their classroom needs, NCLE is putting
together a collection of activities for integrating English and civics.
NCLE
Resource Collections: Assessment and Evaluation in Adult ESL
This resource collection provides materials about testing issues, standardized
tests currently in use by adult education programs, and standards initiatives.
Although most of the resources focus on assessment and evaluation in the United
States, relevant documents from Canada, Australia, and Europe are also included.
While this is not a definitive list of assessment and evaluation materials,
it is representative of what is readily available online and in print.
Frontier
College: A Toolbox for ESL Tutors
This book is designed
for tutors or teachers of English as a Second Language. It provides lesson plans
based on thematic units. The Toolbox activities provide tutors/teacher with
ideas for lessons that can be adapted and or expanded depending on the student’s
interest, goals and prior knowledge. The activities refer to a on one-to-one
learning context but can be easily adapted to a group situation. Frontier College
is a Canadian educational Institution whose goal is providing non-traditional
educational alternatives to the urban and rural communities."
NCSALL
Research Reports
The goal of NCSALL's research is to improve practice in programs that provide
ABE, ESL, and ASE services. NCSALL has undertaken the ten research projects
listed on this page. Each project has several studies that build on the same
theme.
Plot
thickens: Beginning level English language learners as strategists
This essay details one teacher’s efforts to identify and incorporate low
level ESL students’ learning strategies into her teaching. The teacher
identifies some areas for further research in how language learning strategies
are developed, supported, and used by adult ESL learners. The essay is a good
introduction to the area of learning strategies.
Wimba
This site is a voice mail board and very easy voice email interface. It can
be helpful for students who are practicing their listening and speaking skills.
Language learning with this site requires a microphone and speakers for your
computer. The language teaching can be asynchronous, meaning that the teacher
and learning do not need to be on the computer at the same time.
Research
Agenda for Adult ESL
This paper, prepared by the National Center for ESL and Literacy Education in
collaboration with the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy
with support from TESOL, outlines a research agenda for the field of adult ESOL.
The paper has three major purposes: to provide funders with clear priorities
for funding; to provide researchers with support for proposing specific projects,
and to provide a focus for discussion about how to improve adult ESOL programs.
OTAN
For Teachers Area
This site is open to teachers
who register for free with Outreach & Technical Assistance Network. It contains
lesson plans, monthly Internet in the Classroom updates, and teacher-related
news for adult education teachers.
Learning
Resources: CNN/SF
The CNN San Francisco bureau and the Western/Pacific Literacy Network (Western/Pacific
LINCS) have partnered to develop an online adult literacy site for learners
and instructors. The Learning Resources site offers web-delivered instruction
using current and past CNN San Francisco bureau news stories. Each story module
includes the full text of each story and interactive activities to test comprehension.
The learner can choose to read the text, listen to the text, or view the broadcast
through streaming video.
Education
World's ESL Center
This site includes a searchable Tool Box of resources as well as links to lesson
plans and learning sites. Many of the lesson plans were designed for use with
children, and need slight adaptation for use with adult learners.
Englishpage.com
This site contains free online English lessons and ESL resources. The site includes
an online newsletter, grammar review, bookstore and 15 English-foreign language
dictionaries (including Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and Arabic).
Valuing Our Differences: Celebrating Holidays: If you concentrate on holidays in the United States that may relate to your students, The University of Kansas has a Web site, Valuing our Differences: Celebrating Diversity, which concentrates on Ethnic, National, Religious, and Other Holidays in the United States.
A Picture is Worth A 1,000 Words
National Institute for Literacy
(NIFL) Links:
LINCSearch - Special
Collections - Discussions
- My LINCS
- Hot Sites
National LINCS - About
LINCS - NIFL Home Page
Western/Pacific LINCS - Eastern
LINCS - Midwest
LINCS - Southern LINCS - Northwest
LINCS
ESL Table of Contents:
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