Film & ESL

The Academy Awards, or Oscars, is an annual awards ceremony hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence in cinematic achievements in filmaking from the previous year. The first Academy Awards were distributed in 1929. The last one (the 88th ceremony) was held recently, on February 28.

For those who think that film is not just a form of entertainment but a powerful learning tool in the educational process, a tool with many possibilities, some links to a number of sites containing a variety of views, information and resources on cinema and English teaching and learning:

Film English http://film-english.com/

ESOL Courses http://www.esolcourses.com/cinema/vocabulary.html

British Council https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-can-film-help-you-teach-or-learn-english

Film in Language Teaching Association (FILTA) http://www.filta.org.uk/

Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals

http://moviesegmentstoassessgrammargoals.blogspot.com.es/

LearnEnglish Teens (British Council) http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/uk-now/film-uk/

Short of the week https://www.shortoftheweek.com/

Sounds of English

This website is a collaboration between Sharon Widmayer, Ph.D, and Holly Gray, ESL teachers and curriculum developers for over 20 years. 

It's primary goal is to offer language schools, trainers and students tools that make the learning-teaching process easier and more efficient in the field of English sounds and pronunciation.

It includes sections on vowels, consonants and stress and intonation. It also provides with some lessons and activities.

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soundsofenglish

On Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/soundsofenglish/

http://www.soundsofenglish.org/

Grammar posters

Posters are helpful learning tools for visual learners in order to reinforce, among others, grammatical concepts. They provide an awesome teaching resource that can act as a reference for pupils. They can inspire or help provide examples of usage norms, vocabulary and structures covered in class.

What follows is a series of links to other websites you may find of interest if you want to decorate your walls with grammatical content that will encourage, assist and motivate your students.

https://es.pinterest.com/explore/grammar-posters/

http://www.3plearning.com/free-punctuation-grammar-posters-class/

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Grammar-Posters-for-the-Writers-Notebook-447800

https://es.pinterest.com/pin/343399540309202963/

https://www.pinterest.com/explore/carteles-ingleses-935600585945/

https://www.pinterest.com/explore/grammar-posters/

https://static.squarespace.com/static/50b88908e4b012760ada1011/50b88a46e4b0e7e1545b4050/50b88a5fe4b0e7e1545b49dc/1352195359002/Parts%20of%20Speech%20Poster.pdf

http://www.teachthis.com.au/products/view-resource/link/Grammar-Posters/id/399/

Quill

Quill is an open source literacy tool built by a community of educators and developers that provides writing, grammar, and vocabulary activities to middle and high schools students.

Quill Proofreader gives students passages that have grammatical errors placed in them.

Quill Grammar teaches grammatical concepts through sentence writing exercises.

Quill Writer is a two-player activity where students take turns writing a passage together from a shared list of words.

Teachers resources and overview
https://www.quill.org/teacher_resources

Visit:
https://www.quill.org/

On Twitter: https://www.quill.org/teacher_resources
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quill.org
On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG9mgvktG6vxp7XoYEJTiaw
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quill_org/

Online Journals for English Language Teachers (list by Marisa R. Constantinides)

Online Journals for English Language Teachers

View more lists from Marisa R Constantinides

International Day of Women and Girls in Science #WomenInSTEM

In December 2015 the UN passed a resolution to recognise on February 11 each year women's contributions to this field, so today is first International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This is an international celebration of the work of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths)

On UNESCO's web site.
Why so few? AAUW research report

Take a look at this video by Chelsea Ziadie on underrepresentation of Women in STEM. Is it fair? What can we do about it? Surely that is a good debate that is worth having in our classrooms.

Child soldiers. Educational resources

The 12th of February is observed as International Day against the use of Child Soldiers.

According to the UN, thousands of boys and girls are associated with armed forces and armed groups in conflicts in over 20 countries around the world. 

They fight on the front lines, take part in suicide missions, act as spies, messengers, or lookouts. Many girl child soldiers are sexually abused and awarded to male combatants as sex slaves.

Some resources for addressing this topic in the classroom:

http://www.child-soldier.org/child-soldier-resources

http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Teaching-resources/Teacher-briefings/Child-soldiers

http://www.redcross.org.uk/brotherca

http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/static/education/child-soldiers-uganda.pdf

https://www.warchild.org.uk/get-involved/schools/schools-resources

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/sites/default/files/activities_resource_0.pdf

https://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/innocents_lost_curriculum.pdf

Understanding Language: Learning and Teaching #MOOC

Free online course developed by the University of Southampton and the British Council. The course takes place over four weeks and explores second language learning. It considers language classrooms and how teaching affects language learning. Also, it looks at the use of technology in teaching, and its benefits and challenges for language learning.

No prior knowledge is required to take part in the course.

You can buy a State of Participation for this course.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/understanding-language

Join the course on: https://www.futurelearn.com/register

Stay informed on Twitter: #FLlanguage

LinkEngPark

Free to use resource organized according to various levels (from Elementary to Adavanced) where you find ESL audios and videos with English transcript.. It is updated regularly. It can be a very interesting site if you want to improve your listening skills. It offers podcast, audiobooks and videos

http://linkengpark.com/

On Google+

https://plus.google.com/+LinkEngPark/posts

On Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/LinkEngPark/

On YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/user/LinkEngPark