ELLLO English

ELLLO English comes from the abbreviation of English Listening Lesson Library Online (ELLLO). This website hosts lots of listening exercises with different topics and formats.

The listening activities are divided into five sections which are views, mixer, game, scenes, and news. Each section has different format for its listening materials. For example, the news section contains listening materials in the format of news while the views section is more on people talking about their views and opinions on something. 

There is also a section called ‘Video Lessons’ (as shown in the picture above) where people around the world upload their videos talking about various topics. As the speakers come from different parts of the world, this collection of videos contains speeches with various English accents.

What are the benefits of Elllo English? 

• Elllo English is one of the best resources for listening materials and exercises. Even better, the listening materials are downloadable as audio files and the exercises are available in printable formats. It will benefits teachers in teaching listening to language learners.
• Besides listening, the exercises also cater other language skills such as reading (students read the transcriptions of listening materials) and writing (students write (spell) the answers in the boxes given).
• The website has a neat and organize layout which makes it user-friendly. Basic computer skills are adequate enough for users to operate the website. It also allows users to check their answers at the end of each exercise. As this website is accessible to students, it can be used as a supplementary to what students have been learning in class, thus promotes autonomous in their learning style.
• The ‘Video Lesson’ section is very useful in introducing students to global English. As English language is being used all over the globe, students should be exposed to a variety of accents used across the world. This will prepares them in using English language globally.

Things to consider when using Elllo English in an ELT class:

• The exercises featured in this website do not have pre-listening activities to activate students’ background knowledge. As most exercises come from places all over the world, students may not have the schema on respective topics. Therefore, teachers may want to consider of designing their own pre-listening activities as addition to the listening activities.
• Some exercises in the website are simplified in order to make it easier for students. Although this is good, it may be focusing too much on facilitating students rather than to challenge students’ ability and language proficiency.

For more information on Elllo English, please click here. 

Wallwisher

Wallwisher is an online ‘wall’ where users will be able to write and share their thoughts and comments. This website is similar to the analogy of notice board and stick-notes, where users will write their thoughts and comments on stick-notes and stick it on the virtual notice board (the ‘wall’). The comments will then be shared among the participants of the discussion.

Before users can start sticking their notes, the ‘wall’ has to be created by a host. Then, users who wish to participate in the discussion must enter the virtual ‘wall’, write their names on their stick-notes, and they are now ready to stick their thoughts on the notice board.

The ‘wall’ can then be embedded to users’ web pages and blogs. Users can also share the link of the ‘wall’ by copying and pasting its URL on their websites or blogs, so that their page visitors can open and join the ‘wall’ as well.

What I like about Wallwisher?

• It makes sharing better and broader by allowing users to insert images, music, videos, and webpage onto their stick-notes. Comments and discussions are no longer limited only by words.
• The fact that it is free and share-able makes Wallwisher as one of the best tool in brainstorming and discussion. 

What might be the problems?

• The host does not have the power to control users’ comment until it is shared on the wall. It might result in improper use such as students posting ridiculous answers or explicit comments. Therefore, teachers should make it compulsory for students to write their own names for supervision purpose.
• Depending on how active the discussion is, the ‘wall’ will be packed with stick-notes at some point which makes it look messy and un-organised.

For further information on how to use Wallwisher, a video guide can be found here.


If you like Wallwisher, I would recommend that you have look at TodaysMeet.

Lyrics Training

Lyrics Training is a website that transforms music videos into useful ELT tools. On this website, users (either teachers or students) will be able to listen and watch their favourite music videos from a range of music videos provided. Each music video is included with its lyric, and certain words in the lyric will be left blank. While the music video is being played, students will be given time to fill in the blanks.

What I like about Lyric Training?)

• Songs and music videos are part of teenagers’ life. Therefore, the use of songs and music videos in ELT will make lessons more interesting and help teachers to grab students’ attention. 
• This activity covers all four language skills which are reading (students read the lyrics), writing and spelling (students fill in the blank), listening (students listen carefully for missing words), and speaking (karaoke version are also available for students to sing along).
• Activities are divided into three different levels which are beginner (10% missing words), intermediate (25% missing words), and experts (100% missing words). Hints are also provided if students are unable to get the correct answer. 
• Students can upload their score each time they completed an activity. This will promote the sense of healthy competition where students will try their best to beat the top score, and therefore improve themselves.

In addition, I will put these points into consideration before using Lyrics Training in my lesson:

• In order to play the music videos, stable internet connection is needed. This might be an issue in certain countries. 
•  Some music videos are inappropriate for young learners as it contains explicit images and languages.
• It is usual for songs to use ungrammatical structure such as ‘wanna’ and ‘gonna’, as well as incomplete sentences. This might caused confusion students thus leads towards fossilisation of incorrect grammar.

For more info on Lyrics Training, click here.