At our Tutors Roundtable on May 12, 2009, we shared many wonderful ideas and resources to help our learners improve their English language skills. Here is a list of some of the titles mentioned at the roundtable:
Chartbook: A Reference Grammar: Understanding and Using English Grammar
Concise clear tables showing features of grammar. Useful for tutors and for presentation to learners.
Person to Person: Communicative Speaking and Listening Skills (Student Book 1)
Recommended for improving speaking and listening skills and for developing vocabulary. Raises a lot of good topics for discussion.
A Conversation Book 2: English in Everyday Life
Recommended for learners at the intermediate and hig intermediate levels.
101 Bright Ideas: ESL Activities for All Ages
Great ideas for tutors of intermediate learners.
Useful web sites
iteslj.org/questions
www.Using English.com
www.Ask.com/esl
www.Englishclub.com
Fun and instructional games
Password
Great for building vocabulary and developing conversation skills.
GramMillionaire
Helps with verb tenses, spelling, and sentence construction.
American Film Database
| Title | Year | Genre | Comments |
| The Wizard of Oz | 1939 | Children, Musical | |
| Casablanca | 1942 | Drama, Romance | |
| It’s a Wonderful Life | 1947 | Drama, Romance | |
| Forrest Gump | 1994 | History, Romance | |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | 1962 | History, Drama | |
| Modern Times | 1936 | Comedy, Social commentary | |
| Singin’ in the Rain | 1952 | Comedy, Musical | |
| The Grapes of Wrath | 1940 | History, Drama | |
| The Graduate | 1967 | Comedy, Social commentary | |
| Gone with the Wind | 1939 | Romance, History | |
| Crash | 2004 | Drama | |
| The Day the Earth Stood Still | 1951 | Science fiction | |
| Rocky | 1976 | Sports | |
| Hair | 1972 | Musical | |
| Splash | 1984 | Romance | |
| Wag the Dog | 1998 | Comedy, Politics | |
| Star Wars | 1977 | Science fiction | |
| Apollo 13 | 1995 | Drama, History | |
| A League of Their Own | 1992 | Comedy, History |
This list of films serves as a basis for conversation about American culture, history and informal vocabulary. Tutors and learners view a DVD at home, then meet to discuss the ideas and content. It’s a fun way to share opinions and experiences.
Do you have any suggestions?
June 26, 2009 at 3:24 pm |
This was a great idea– suggestions from the ones who really know! Glad you posted it here so that everyone can benefit from it.
August 20, 2009 at 9:29 pm |
There is an interesting resource for studying pronunciation. It’s an old poem designed specifically to introduce difficult cases:
http://www.mipmip.org/tidbits/pronunciation.shtml
My problem is that I could not find a flawless rendition of this poem!
None of the text-to-speech programs I tried so far was intelligent enough either to distinguish between two different meanings and pronunciations of “tear” or/and to pronounce “via” properly.
Youtube.com has several clips on that, but even the best I found there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1spqX4sIDo
has at least 2 mistakes.
Does anybody know either a
- flawless test-to-speech program
- or a flawless rendition?
And if the both answers are “No”, could anybody read it properly and record it as, at least, an audio file?
If there’s such a person (Susan ? ), and the person does not know how to create such a file, I will be able to help. (Or the Library might have means to help with that.)
December 12, 2009 at 4:57 pm |
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