TESL E-Zone Malaysia » Skills

Useful Websites on Teaching ESL Writing

TESLMalaysia Admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:13:23 +0000

Occasionally, ESL teachers would spend considerable time browsing through the internet, hunting for materials or worksheets for their classes. Some would spend hours digging for materials but to no avail. Here are some useful websites that might just help you out.

ESL Galaxy Writing Exercises

ESL Galaxy provides a good collection of ESL worksheets and exercises for writing sorted according to students’ level. You can download the available worksheets and modify it to match your needs.

Using English Dot Com

UsingEnglish.com is a popular website offering lesson plans and worksheets for teachers. Here you can see a list of lesson plans, which can be adapted for Malaysian context.

ESL Gold Writing Zone

ESL Gold offers step-by-step guide to ESL writing based on student’s level. Not that comprehensive but it still contains several activities that are good to build up student’s writing ability.

About.COM Teaching Beginners

This website offers good activities meant for beginning ESL learners. Activities are simple and easy to be executed in class.

Purdue OWL Writing Lab

Another popular website that must be visited and explored. Purdue OWL provides resources for ESL instructors and students. Mainly suitable for intermediate and advanced students.

If you have other websites to share, please post it in the comment sections. It’s good to share!

Lesson Plan: Teaching Argumentative Essay

TESLMalaysia Admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:34:10 +0000

A Form 4 lesson plan on the the teaching of argumentative essay. It gives ideas to teachers on how to use common daily topics like “Tuition: Good or Bad?” to expose students to the concept of argumentative essay.

Download The File

Useful Verbs and Adjectives List for Writing

TESLMalaysia Admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:58:25 +0000

This is a compilation of useful verbs and adjectives that can be given to your ESL students in helping them to describe. You can also create activities based on the words list.

[download#9#image]

Lesson Plan: Teaching Prepositions – Going Places

TESLMalaysia Admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:31:37 +0000

A lesson plan on prepositions for intermediate Form 4 students. Focusing on reading, using games such as “Guess Me If You Can” and “Find me if you can”. The topic is Going Places.

Download the File

Pronunciation: Learn English Vowels

TESLMalaysia Admin — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:16:23 +0000

Learning English vowels can be a great headache for students. English teachers, especially often struggle to find the best way to teach them the correct pronunciation of the vowels.

One way is often to get help from “native speakers”. This is a useful video obtained from YouTube that could perhaps lend a hand!

Plain English Please: Before and after

TESLMalaysia Admin — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:23:03 +0000

Sometimes, we tend to be long-winded when it comes to explaining things in English. The Plain English campaign is responsible of solving this problems. They believe that eeryone should have access to clear and concise information.

Here are some examples of long-winded official writing, with the suggested improvements by PlainEnglish.co.uk.

Before
High-quality learning environments are a necessary precondition for facilitation and enhancement of the ongoing learning process.

After
Children need good schools if they are to learn properly.

Before
If there are any points on which you require explanation or further particulars we shall be glad to furnish such additional details as may be required by telephone.

After
If you have any questions, please phone.

Before
It is important that you shall read the notes, advice and information detailed opposite then complete the form overleaf (all sections) prior to its immediate return to the Council by way of the envelope provided.

After
Please read the notes opposite before you fill in the form. Then send it back to us as soon as possible in the envelope provided.

Before
Your enquiry about the use of the entrance area at the library for the purpose of displaying posters and leaflets about Welfare and Supplementary Benefit rights, gives rise to the question of the provenance and authoritativeness of the material to be displayed. Posters and leaflets issued by the Central Office of Information, the Department of Health and Social Security and other authoritative bodies are usually displayed in libraries, but items of a disputatious or polemic kind, whilst not necessarily excluded, are considered individually.

After
Thank you for your letter asking for permission to put up posters in the library. Before we can give you an answer we will need to see a copy of the posters to make sure they won’t offend anyone.

For more, go to http://www.plainenglish.co.uk

Learn a language with podcasts

TESLMalaysia Admin — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:11:41 +0000

If you’re interested in learning a language, iTunes has a whole section of podcasts devoted to language.

To get there, just head to the Apple iTunes Music Store, then go to Podcast -> Education -> Language Courses. You can get started perfecting your Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or Italian (to name some of the most popular) in no time, and best of all, they’re mostly all free. Try out the fun way of learning a language!