YAPPR - A new way to learn English

How many times have you tried to learn English or other languages with videos but you could not understand anything? Now, it is possible to improve your language with Yappr, a new free tool developed by Patrick Nee to learn languages in a funny way with entertaining videos which you can choose from different categories such as Christmas, comedy, music or cartoons. Therefore,...

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Lexipedia, where words have meaning and sound

If you teach Languages like English, Spanish, German, French, Dutch or Italian this is the educational tool you and your students need. Lexipedia is a visual tool for learning languages, a mixture of a dictionary and thesaurus, which provides a visual net of semantic relationships and it is free. Besides when you introduce a word it doesn't give you only the meaning but you...

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Are you ready to teach?

Are you ready to teach? Would you like to practise without any risk to your career? Then, you should know Virtual School. Virtual School is a tool which presents environments where the teacher has to take decisions. There are not right or wrong answers but, be careful because your decisions can have consequences for the school environment. The project has been developed...

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Tools for Teaching English

It's no wonder the growing interest of teachers in using tools like Youtube, Blogs, Podcasts, Wikis or other web 2.0 tools in the language classes since NTIC are having a huge impact in education in the last recent years. But what benefits can NTIC provide to our language classes? You will find the answer in the following video: In my opinion, using Youtube in class can be very effective since students are exposed to real English, I mean, to English in real situations; or they can also use this videos to reinforce some English points they have...

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Having Fun with Writing

Writing has never been easy, particularly in a foreign language. They find it difficult and boring. Therefore, why not to ask students to share their own stories through comics and make a class books with their comics, instead of asking them to write boring summaries? Getting students to write personal stories, anecdotes, creative stories or adapt fairy tales to modern times...

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Webquests

What is a webquest? The word webquest is really two words "web" and "quest" (search), that is, "searching on the net". It is a learning activity in which students have to learn to cooperate to solve different kinds of tasks. In this way they learn in an autonomous and funnier way. What is more, it is also a way to integrate technology and problem based learning. Bernie Dodge,...

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NEWS: Education for citizenship in English

Everybody knows that "Education for Citizenship" is the name of the subject designed by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for ESO and Bachillerato students, in Spain. In this subject students learn about how our society works, to respect the others, about human rights. I mean, it promotes human values. However, not all society sectors are happy with the introduction of this subject in education, among them the President of the Valencia government, Francisco Camps, who has decided that all high schools teach this subject in English. Therefore, there...

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WHYVILLE, an educational virtual world

Whyville was one of the first educational virtual worlds focused on children and preteens learning. The site was created in 1999 by teachers from the CALTECH whose methodology is based on a social constructivist approach. In this safe virtual world children have to choose an avatar just to move around Whyville, where they will find games to play , places to visit, stores...

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Halloween game rules and resources for children

Halloween is very near and it is because of that, I have decided to make a game related to this festival after teaching my students some vocabulary and ideas about this special celebration in some English speaking countries. I would like to share it with you, therefore if you want to download it, just click on this link. I hope you like it! You only need two dices and counters. GAME...

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Using flashcards in class

What is a flashcard? A flashcard is a card which has a picture on one side and the word in the other side, or the picture and the word in one side.What are they useful for? They are really useful for many things, it depends on the vocabulary or grammar point you are teaching to your students. You can use them to introduce new vocabulary or to ask your students to tell a story...

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ESL PRINTABLES WEBSITE

ESL Printables is the most complete ESL resources website I have found up to now. It was created by Victor Gayol, a Spanish English teacher, who had the brilliant idea of creating a database with resources for ESL/EFL teachers. Teachers from all over the world upload their masterpieces, I mean, their own worksheets, powerpoints, games, online exercises and leave comments...

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NTIC APPLIED TO ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING. USEFUL RESOURCES AND SOFTWARE FOR INNOVATIVE TEACHERS.

In a society where we are exposed to a wide range of Information Technology and which has changed a lot in recent years, NTIC are really important to ‘revolutionize’ teaching methods and didactic contents in foreign language teaching. Thirty years ago the main aim was that students could learn grammatical points but nowadays the aim has changed and, communicative competence is considered more relevant. NTIC are not a method in itself but a mean that helps to create the methods and pedagogical approaches which can be applied. Only those who are...

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USING VIDEOS IN CLASS

Using a video in class has not always been really appreciated by administrators in education since they considered it as something used by teachers when they did not have anything better to do, or when they had not prepared their lessons. But using a video in an appropriate way can be really useful for your students because they can learn English in a natural way and associating...

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