I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread just for English websites we find useful.

I came across this OU site recently for some English texts, including an excellent one on Search for My Tongue (NEAB Anthology).

OU Moving Words

The poem being read is a lovely resource if you have access to an overhead projector and I like the idea of students using word processors to make their own visual version of poems and their key words. Click on the poem on the main page, then 'media presentation' at the bottom, but also explore 'resources'. There's also a lot more going on on the site than that poem. Alas, our school doesn't have the facilities for much of the other responses - like the Macbeth - but we could make or draw hard copies instead, use Power Point and make a simple video.

A list of English web sites is a really useful idea.

Forsaking modesty, may I suggest my own - Language in Use which, while designed for English Language A level teachers, also has resources for general English teaching of language and has links to other useful English resources.

Wow! Great site!

I have compiled a list of annotated websites for English teachers on my site. However, I have never taught the subject. They really need to be divided up into sub-sections. Any ideas?


http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REVenglish.htm

There are many ways to organise English materials. Are you going to cross reference them?

There is by key stages with sites which relates specifically to the NC. Sites which cross the stages could be mentioned in each category. Then there could be general teaching sites specifically for/by specialists (A Moore's, Harry's Duncan's teachit etc.) and sites by other bodies (such as the BBC or the Guardian) and then other relevant sites in a separate list: such as Internet text sites; pupil useful sites; ESL sites, NC author's sites.. that sort of thing.

Another way is by kind. Text sites by novels, poetry, drama; authors; then writing, reading, grammar, S/L. These could be sub-groups within the key stages instead.

Is that what you meant John or did you mean something more specific than that?

I have added you to my favourites as there are some sites on there I hadn't come across! Cheers.

Hi, John,

There are different ways to organize stuff. Harry's is the most comprehensive - but you won't want to replicate that (I suggest that no one should - he's already done it as thoroughly as anyone needs).

For something much more light and easy to replicate, look at the way I do it on my URLs page - this no way purports to have everything. But it does have more goodies than any teacher can reasonably use (or even use unreasonably).

See www.universalteacher.org.uk/urls/urls.htm#english

For example. just check out:

www.adbusters.org/home/

www.visualthesaurus.com/online/index.html

www.oldbaileyonline.org/

eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/index.cfm

That little selection should interest any teacher.

I have commended this forum to members of a mailing list that Christine and I both use. That (very basic) list server is good for those who want simply to give and take things - but does not allow any kind of emerging debate. And whatever people send is lost almost at once, and they end up re-sending it...

I've put a new guide to researching dialect on my Web site. It's at

www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/dialectresearch.htm

Please send me any comments or suggestions for improvement.

Great idea! I will recommend Questia.com as an awesome library resource.
They cost a bit of money, but it is well worth the fee as they have literally thousands of on-line books, magazines, journals and newspapers.

I have several other souirces I will share as time comes available.

I hope you tell them I recommended you try them out if you join. They may even give a discount for referrals!

Cheers!

Roger

Has anyone considered using concordancers in English language teaching? These useful tools figure prominently in teaching MFL and English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). Used in conjunction with a corpus, e.g. such as the COBUILD Bank of English, concordancers can extremely valuable tools, for example:

- The teacher can use a concordancer to find examples of authentic usage to demonstrate a point of language, typical collocations, etc.
- The teacher can generate language exercises based on authentic texts.
- Students can work out rules of grammar and usage for themselves by searching for key words in context.
- Students are encouraged to be sceptical about explicit rules.

And if anyone tries to tell you that this sounds like the sort of work that goes on only at university level, don't believe them! Secondary school children are quite capable of making intelligent use of concordancers. See Module 2.4 at the ICT4LT website: http://www.ict4lt.org – this website relates mainly to MFL and ESOL but the same principles may be applied to English as MT.

Concordancers are used extensively for creating glossaries and dictionaries. I use a concordancer to check my own writing style. It picks up my over-frequent use of certain words and is also helpful when used in conjunction with a thesaurus. A thesaurus never gives you enough authentic examples of usage to tell you how to use a word with which you are unfamiliar, but a concordancer does - providing you have a decent corpus of authentic texts.

Concordancers can also be very useful in literary criticism. Let’s suppose, for example, you are writing an essay on animal imagery in Shakespeare. You can search for references to different animals in Shakespeare’s works using a concordancer and a Shakespeare corpus and find out what kinds of images they represent, e.g. I did a search under “greyhound(s)” at
http://www.it.usyd.edu.au/~matty/Shakespeare/test.html
(OK, I own a retired racing greyhound – hence the interest). I found:

King Henry IV, Part i
Act 1, Scene 3
HOTSPUR You say true:
Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!

The Taming of the Shrew
Act 5, Scene 2
TRANIO O, sir, Lucentio slipp'd me like his greyhound,
Which runs himself and catches for his master.

Love's Labour's Lost
Act 5, Scene 2
DUMAIN Ay, and Hector's a greyhound.

The Merry Wives of Windsor
Act 1, Scene 1
SLENDER How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I heard say he
was outrun on Cotsall.

Coriolanus
Act 1, Scene 6
MARCIUS As with a man busied about decrees:
Condemning some to death, and some to exile;
Ransoming him, or pitying, threatening the other;
Holding Corioli in the name of Rome,
Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash,
To let him slip at will.

King Henry VI, Part iii
Act 2, Scene 5
QUEEN MARGARET Mount you, my lord; towards Berwick post amain:
Edward and Richard, like a brace of greyhounds
Having the fearful flying hare in sight,
With fiery eyes sparkling for very wrath,
And bloody steel grasp'd in their ireful hands,
Are at our backs; and therefore hence amain.

King Henry V
Act 3, Scene 1
KING HENRY V I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

The Taming of the Shrew
Prologue, Scene 2
First Servant Say thou wilt course; thy greyhounds are as swift
As breathed stags, ay, fleeter than the roe.

Timon of Athens
Act 1, Scene 2
Third Servant Please you, my lord, that honourable
gentleman, Lord Lucullus, entreats your company
to-morrow to hunt with him, and has sent your honour
two brace of greyhounds.

Macbeth
Act 3, Scene 1
MACBETH Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,

The Literary Encyclopedia at http://www.LitEncyc.com provides databases of some 5500 writers, 16,000 works and 1400 topics. Each entry has the potential for listing approved links to other web resources, so if anyone cares to let us know of good sites we will certainly create a link. This publication is a scholarly co-operative and is interested in facilitating English Studies for students and amateurs globally so all other good ideas are most welcome. The Literary Encyclopedia

Robert Clark (Editor; University of East Anglia)

This site on Twelth Night by Andrew Field (schoolhistory.co.uk geezer) looks really practical and useful for classroom teachers.

Hello, at last I did it. My name is Marinella Olivieri, I was born in Milan on 4th February 1945. I feel like a young girl because I am always curious about any kind of topics and I wanto to fully live my life. I am very optimistic about my future. I have got a degree in Foreign Languages and Literature and another in Philosophy and Pedagogy. I am a teacher of English in an Italian High School in Galatina (lecce)- Salento Apulia in the South of Italy. I am also a tourist guide and I organize trips for people who want to come here on holidays. Here there are lots of things to see from architecture, to natural beauties to the wonderful seaside resorts and spa and to enjoy such as food and craftmanship.... it is like Eden on earth. I prepare students and people in general for European certifications. I am blonde with blue eyes and "fleshy". I believe in friendship. I am divorced and I have got two daughters aged 28 and 20. I have got a dog, a cat, a golden fish and a tortoise which lives in the garden. Tha's all for now. We will get in touch by mid June. Bye Marinella

Welcome to the forum. I hope you find what you are looking for. Andy Walker in particular is very good at sorting out member's problems.

He seems to do excellent work.

This was declared unworthy of NGfL status though - the Flash games didn't have a link back to the rest of the site

Just so long as it was for something important

Here's the list of sites I use regularly:

http://teachit.co.uk/

http://www.englishresources.co.uk

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk

http://www.chalkface.net/

http://www.aqa.org.uk

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/frame_activities...._notes/673t.htm

http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/english....shtml#starters

http://www.angliacampus.com/public/sec/english/

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/curric...lans/index.html

http://www.readingonline.org/

http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/index.html

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~maggieoh/Macbeth/index.html

http://www.english-teaching.co.uk/

http://aspirations.english.cam.ac.uk/converse/home.acds

Thank you Thomas.
May we be in touch to discuss topics?
Marinella

Yes indeed!

I have a couple of Web sites to add.

http://www.enhancetv.com.au/index.lasso
Excellent Film resources

http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/home.html
Excellent English resources

Cheers from Australia