The thing my students always want to know is ... how and where they can practice their new English conversation skills outside of the classroom. Social networks give them that opportunity.
Ning
This social networking gem allows you to create your own free social networking site. As educators it gives us the advantage of being totally self contained ... teachers have administrative control over who has access and to some extent their participation.
For my students they can be part of a social networking site that they have helped to create. The discussion process alone about setting up their member pages/blogs, commenting and sharing, and acceptable and responsible use (ethics) provide invaluable lessons in English usage. The technology now allows for use on iPads, iPhones etc making the network accessible for students wherever their travels take them, and helping to ensure the connections they create in class are continued past the time frame of their course.
As a teacher I can search for a Ning that will provide me information and support for teaching in an ESL classroom such as EFL Classroom 2.0 ( http://eflclassroom.ning.com/directory.html).
Or for an example of a paid social network for ESL learners that is gaining in popularity try -
English Baby!
http://www.englishbaby.com
This is a learning website and social website combined allowing ESL students opportunities to practice their conversational English skills and learn slang with teachers and students. There is more than 1.6 million users with students from China, Turkey, Brazil and Taiwan to name a few. The site has options for social networking through chat rooms and forums, learning English through practicing using audio files and self managed vocabulary lists and quizzes. It also offers a unique feature where celebrities teach a term or phrase and discuss how they learned English if it was not their first language.
These kinds of sites do give students the opportunity to converse with others and build on their conversation skills in English. The lessons range from English lessons through TOEFL tests to real conversations about popular culture.
References
English Baby! (n.d.). Home page. Retrieved from http://www.englishbaby.com/
Ning. (n.d.) Home page. Retrieved from http://www.ning.com/
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing the English Baby website! I work in a school district with a lot of Hispanic students and they certainly lack a lot of services that prevents them from fully engaging in the learning community.
Your welcome. For your students I would recommend going to YouTube and seek out the short videos many esl teachers have created. They are free, fun and educational.
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