NCTE's Comprehensive Resources for Navigating Complex Classroom Discussions

In today's diverse and dynamic educational landscape, fostering open and thoughtful discussions on complex topics is more crucial than ever. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) recognizes this need and offers a wealth of resources designed to support educators in facilitating meaningful conversations that promote critical thinking and civic engagement. 

NCTE provides an extensive collection of web-based materials aimed at equipping teachers with the tools necessary to address challenging subjects effectively. Find them on:

https://ncte.org/resources/

TalkEnglish.com

TalkEnglish.com is a free online platform designed to help users improve their English speaking, listening, and comprehension skills. It offers a wide range of resources, including:

Speaking lessons: focused on improving conversational skills for various contexts such as business, travel, and daily life.

Listening lessons: helps users improve their listening comprehension by providing audio conversations with transcripts.

Grammar lessons: covers essential English grammar rules and structures.

Vocabulary resources: provides lists of commonly used English words and phrases.

Interactive exercises: offers quizzes and practice exercises to reinforce learning.

The website is aimed at both beginners and advanced learners looking to enhance their English fluency, with structured lessons and practical tools.

https://www.talkenglish.com/

Dialogs for everyday use

Short situational dialogs for students of English as a foreign language. 

This is a collection of 30 situational dialogs which focus on a wide variety of communicative and natural encounters in English. Each dialog is accompanied by language notes that provide useful information on grammar and intonation patterns.

Free to download:

https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/dialogs_for_everyday_use_508.pdf

Let’s Settle This by @nealagarwal

Project by Neal Agarwal, an American creative coder, designer, and entrepreneur. He is known for creating a number of popular interactive web projects that explore a wide range of topics, from science and history to art and culture.

"Let's Settle This" is a web-based project that presents a series of controversial questions and allows users to vote on their preferred answer. The project is designed to highlight the diversity of opinions that exist on a variety of topics and to encourage users to think critically about their own beliefs.

The questions presented in "Let's Settle This" cover a wide range of topics, from politics and religion to pop culture and everyday life. Some examples of the questions featured on the site include "Should pineapple be on pizza?", "Is it ethical to eat meat?", and "Should the government provide universal healthcare?".

Once users vote on a question, they can see the percentage of votes for each answer and how their vote compares to the overall results. The project also includes a feature that allows users to suggest new questions for future editions.

https://neal.fun/lets-settle-this/

Learn-English.Org

Learn-English.Org is a free website for learners of English to develop competence in these four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

You can navigate the activities by category, by skill, and by level (CEFR A1-CEFR C2).

Learn-English.Org has articles relating to a variety of different topics. 

https://www.learn-english.org/

MakeBeliefsComix.com

Make Beliefs Comix is a creative writing platform, a useful resource in helping students  express themselves and communicate. It offers a free set of tools and hosts free ebooks that the can use onlne or download. 

These printables can be used with students enrolled in literacy and ESL programs and provide an educational resource for teaching language arts.

If you are interested, visit:

https://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ 

City Walks

With this website you can take virtual walks through large cities. You can walk during the day or at night, with or without city sounds and during COVID or before the start of the pandemic. 

You will find it interesting to describe the environment of various cities, build dialogues that can take place in these spaces, etc.

On Twitter

https://twitter.com/AristomenisGeo1

Visit:

https://citywalks.live/

Elsa Speak. English pronunciation app

English pronunciation app that helps you improve your English speaking skills by providing instant feedback from proprietary artificial intelligence technology.

As schools remain closed and education continues to be disrupted, this company offers ELSA PRO for free to all K-12 students globally. If you are an educator and would like free ELSA PRO access for your students you can submit your interest through this form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdDs5fJbd81fdRFIuP95R94uCZnyXfSL2CG5Hmma03LOUxJ-g/viewform

More information on:

https://elsaspeak.com/en/

You can download this app on:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/elsa-speak/id1083804886

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=us.nobarriers.elsa

The Guide to Common Fallacies

The Guide to Common Fallacies is a series of short videos from the PBS Channel. Each video covers a different common fallacy.

Visit:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtHP6qx8VF7dPql3ll1To4i6vEIPt0kV5

Fichas de expresión oral en inglés (A2 MCER)

Recientemente presentamos la última publicación del CEFIRE de Elda en torno a la evaluación y aprendizaje de lenguas. Una de sus secciones está integrada por distintos modelos de fichas de expresión oral para la enseñanza y aprendizaje de alemán, árabe, español, francés, inglés, italiano, portugués, ruso, valenciano.

Estas fichas se refieren al nivel A2 del MCER. Las presentamos tanto en formato más adecuado para su impresión directa (PDF) como en formato ODT en el caso de que queráis personalizarlas o editarlas a vuestro gusto. 

Así mismo, es posible seleccionar aquellas fichas consistentes en monólogos, diálogos o conversaciones entre tres personas. En cada uno de los casos, los temas abordados por ellas se pueden encontrar al inicio del documento.

El modelo original seguido se debe a la profesora de alemán de la EOI de Alicante Isabel M. Orellana.

Como muestra del este trabajo, incluimos a continuación un enlace al documento de diálogos para lengua inglesa:

http://cefireelda.edu.gva.es/myel/descarga/ingles_dia.pdf

Para acceder a fichas sobre otras lenguas, os invitamos a acceder a través de este enlace:

http://cefireelda.edu.gva.es/myel/ES_exp-oral.html

ElementalEnglish.com

ElementalEnglish.com is a free online resource for English language lessons, with a focus on practical conversation and pronunciation. 

Created by Larissa Majlessi, this resource teaches how native speakers speak in everyday life.

http://www.elementalenglish.com/

On YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/elementalenglish/videos

On Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/elementalenglish

On Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/elementlenglish

Podcast (iTunes): 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/english-pronunciation-language/id465174263

Using English for Academic Purposes @UEfAP

Amazing guide by Andy Gillet, English language and educational consultant. The objective of this resource is to help students in Higher Education learn some of the linguistic and cultural practices involved in studying or working through the medium of English.

Introduction (video): 

http://www.uefap.com/intro/uefap.htm

Web: http://www.uefap.com/index.htm

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/UEfAP

Viralelt

Awesome site by Ian James (@ij64) where you can find short and engaging viral clips with ELT lessons planned around them.

The aim of Viralelt is harness their emotional impact to generate language in the ELT classroom. Each video on Viralelt is accompanied by 10 conversation questions and a listening activity.

Most of the activities are aimed at upper intermediate to advanced adult learners of English.

https://viralelt.wordpress.com/

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/ij64

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

Which one doesn't belong?

Website created by Mary Bourassa, high school math teacher from Ottawa (Canada) dedicated to providing thought-provoking puzzles for math teachers and students alike. 

There are no answers provided as there are many different, correct ways of choosing which one doesn't belong. It is open to new submissions by teachers from all over the world.

(Source: http://wodb.ca/about.html)

Also an interesting resource for class discussions.

You can find it on: http://wodb.ca/index.html

The Story of Stuff

Very interesting video on the consequences of our economic practices and their impact in environment. In English (subtitled in Spanish). A good proposal to encourage debate in the classroom

 

Useful Expressions in English

List of commonly used English expressions available for free to beginners up to advanced users by IH Bristol. 

Expressions to use in speaking and writing and how to use them properly.

http://www.ihbristol.com/useful-english-expressions

Writefix

This site by Enda Toumey, an Irish teacher who has been teaching for about 27 years in Ireland, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, is a fantastic open resource aimed at people who are learning English and taking the IELTS or TOEFL exams. 

It is divided into several parts:

1. How to write Argument and Opinion IELTS essays and lots of example essays;
2. Writing about Graphs and other essays (Problem and Solution, Cause and Effect);
3. Speaking for IELTS Speaking and PET Speaking tests; and
4. Your IELTS essays! A place for you to upload your IELTS essays and help other people with their writing.

Lots of other links and activities are provided.

http://writefix.com/
You can also visite its YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/mrwritefix

YapOutLoud

La nueva herramienta de pronunciación de Yappr te permite grabar frases en inglés, te proporciona retroalimentación inmediata sobre tu desempeño. Se te evalua cada palabra que dices, te da la oportunidad de volver a grabar la frase y ver la mejora de tu pronunciación a lo largo del tiempo.
http://es.yappr.com/practice/YapOutLoudLanding.action

Training videos

In this section you can watch 9 training videos on teaching speaking (with John Kay, teacher trainer):
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/transform/teachers/training/training-videos