English – ESOL

As part of the countywide response to learners’ needs for tuition in English as a second language, the Kerry Adult Literacy and Basic Education Service offers free ESOL classes at beginners level across the county to unemployed adults and asylum seekers. Learners are referred to us by a number of partner agencies.

ESOL Teaching Tips

NALA made a series of short videos of ESOL teaching tips at their ESOL conference earlier this year. They include:

– Teaching ‘ESOL literacy’ students by Angus O’Riordan
– Using synthetic phonics with ESOL or ESOL literacy students by Michelle McGrane
– Linking ESOL to QQI General Learning at level 2 by Svetlana Wilson
– Tips on ESOL teaching and learning using Facebook by Margot Walsh and Laura Rowland

They are all less than 3 minutes long. Click here to watch.

Some good sites to visit:

Are you inter-culturally competent? Find out on this site: http://www.areyouintercultural.eu/

The PESTALOZZI Programme – the Council of Europe’s programme for the professional development of teachers and others involved in education. The website also provides different materials about adult literacy

Research and Practice in Adult Literacies (RaPAL)– the only UK-wide organisation that focuses on the role of literacies in adult life

LESLLA – Research on Low-educated/non-literate Second Language Learners

Listen Write Read – readers for initial literacy students

One Stop English – bank of resources

Excellence  Gateway – a portal to a massive range of resources from the UK across adult education

British Council – modules for ESOL teachers who are not experienced in teaching initial literacy

Euralpha – for anyone who wants to know more about Learner Autonomy

Dyslexia for Teachers of Foreign Languages – a site full of useful information about dyslexia, including a self directed study course for tutors

Refugee Interactive Skills for Employment – a full curriculum, with lesson plans and resources, from the UK.

NALA Training videos page. Video highlights from their ESOL conference 2013. Some really useful tips for ESOL tutors.

ESOL Materials Ireland – authentic ESOL and literacy materials specifically designed with the Irish learners’ needs in mind.

Dave’s ESL cafe – a broad site covering a range of ESL resources for both tutors and learners

Using English – This has printable handouts on both grammar and vocabulary for beginner and intermediate levels.  It  has resources for tutors and learners.

Many Things – This is mainly online games and fun quizzes for learners.

BBC World Service – Very good website for learners and tutors.  Printable resources for tutors with options for pronunciation practice for learners.

BBC Skillswise – Excellent resource for basic word grammar. It has printable worksheets and there are online quizzes for learners.

BBC Learning English This is an excellent self-study site with audio, video, lesson plans and worksheets. It’s particularly good for pronunciation, idiomatic English and day-to-day English for the workplace. It has up-to-date news and sports stories with reports from around the world on a broad range of subjects. Tasks reinforce good learning strategies for listening with good pre-task exercises.

Autoenglish Bob Wilson presents some short video lessons on some topics and on basic grammar subjects – countable/uncountable, comparatives and so on. There are worksheets available as reinforcement for students.

CAELA – Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (USA) Access to information, ESOL research, trends, promising practices and resources. There is a newsletter which you can sign up for and users can submit questions about teaching adult ESOL.

Simply Cracking Good Stories This site came about from a project from Newcastle University (UK) to create engaging and accessible stories for ESOL students with basic reading skills. They do this through running workshops, training non-writers and publishing high quality, simple stories.

Breaking News English There are reading exercises and breaking news stories on a large range of subjects and themes, with good pre and post reading exercises. The site also offers spelling exercises and tips, definitions and a dictionary etc.

http://dystefl.eu Dyslexia for teachers of English as a foreign language.

http://www.eur-alpha.eu/  For anyone who wants to know more about learner autonomy.

http://esol.britishcouncil.org/cpd-modules/teaching-basic-literacy-esol-learners-1 These are three teacher education modules for ESOL teachers who are not experienced in teaching initial literacy, developed by the British Council.

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/node/1515 The English Adult Literacy Core Curriculum, giving an overview of the curriculum, activities, ideas, suggestions and links to materials and research and also ideas for integrating employability.

http://www.areyouintercultural.eu/ What shows that you are interculturally competent?

http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/pestalozzi/home/default_en.asp The PESTALOZZI Programme is the Council of Europe’s programme for the professional development of teachers and others involved in education. The website also provides different adult literacy materials.

http://rapal.org.uk/ Research and Practice in Adult Literacies (RaPAL) is the only UK-wide organisation that focuses on the role of literacies in adult life

http://www.talent.ac.uk A useful site for paper resources for pre-entry levels in English. Many are available in word format so can be adapted for learners accordingly.

http://www.leslla.org/about.htm LESLLA – Research on Low-educated/Illiterate Second Language Learners

http://www.listenwriteread.com Readers for Initial Literacy students

http://www.onestopenglish.com A bank of resources tailored for students of ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and ESL (English as a Second Language)

http://rise-project.eu/resources/ Refugee Interactive Skills for Employment Resources page – a trainer’s handbook with lesson plans, games and materials – aimed at helping refugees improve their employment skills

Are there any sites you find useful that should be on this list? Please email them to your organiser for submission to the Webmaster Committee