Online ESOL course recommendations?

Hello-

I'm on a search for online courses for DL ESOL programs for adult learners.

Here’s a dream list based on the features from LiveMocha (the former version), Openlearn, Burlington English, USALearns, and SkillsTutor:

  • a variety of activities, including video and audio, to cover all language skills and maintain interest
  • easy-to-master navigation
  • beginner through advanced level
  • records of progress accessible to students and teachers
  • role plays videos for which students select a role and record their part in the conversation, and teachers can check and give feedback
  • students able to upload recordings of themselves
  • teachers able to record audio and written feedback on speaking/writing exercises
  • pronunciation analysis, feedback, and automatic link to tutoring based on errors found
  • personalized word lists that are created according to errors students make on vocabulary quizzes. The words in the list link to the lessons they came from, and have quizzes to study the words
  • peer communications

...and not unattainably expensive for regular, non-fee-based programs. 

I'll settle for something that has some of these features. smiley

Are there any courses you and your students particularly like? 

Thank you in advance!

Comments

Hello Diana,

I have seen www.langvid.com (the url www.endvid.com also works) used in several settings.  My introduction to the site was as an off-line video solution for use on a secure corrections education tablet.  The website is comprised of over 500 videos by a group of teachers.  The videos are pretty basic, with the teacher standing in front of a white board and delivering 5 to 20 minute lessons in ESOL.  The site contains post video view quizes and the potential for student/teacher interaction.  It's pretty "hip" and deals with cultural integration topics as well as basic language skills.

Hope this is helpful.:)

-- Heather Erwin (SME for Correctional Education Group) 

Thank you very much, Heather! I've used some of those videos -- they can be quite useful to help students strengthen particular skills. 

I'm sorry -- I should have been clearer. I'm looking for complete soup-to-nuts courses that can be used as a teacher might use a textbook, such as USALearns.

Thanks for starting this thread, Diana, and thanks to the rest of you for your input.

 I took a look at the engvid videos and found them, well, certainly at quite a high level. It seems the students would need to understand and know a fair amount of English to find them useful. Also, after browsing around the site a bit I landed on one entitled "How Not to Learn English." My head started to swim, because the teacher in the video had written on the whiteboard several things, like “Study in a place Not free from distractions.” What?

 In thinking it over I realized it is a double negative makes a positive, and the teacher, David, is actually making a bit of a joke; he is saying that you DO need to study in a place free from distractions. At least I think this is what he is saying. He is funny and has a nice way about him, and this kind of joke may work in a class. On a video, however, it’s just not clear.

Being able to understand and appreciate humor in another language, as well as to understand that the double negative makes a positive requires a fairly sophisticated learner. I’m saying this not to criticize, but to point out how difficult it can be to learn English on one’s own and how it often equires quite a high level of English.

I don't know of any online course  that is as basic and moves as systematically through beginning, intermediate, and advanced as the free online course, USA Learns at www.usalearns.org. Whereas it does assume a little English, and the ability to decode, it is more basic than most online courses I’ve checked out, which seem truly to be written for college students who already know a fair amount of English, rather than adult learners.

Any suggestions from anyone else out there?

Miriam

adult ELL SME

Hi Diana

AMES NSW in Australia have a series of online ESOL courses at different levels and some on specific skills at higher levels:
http://ames.edu.au/courses/online-english-courses

I haven't used these myself, but have seen them demonstrated and they looked quite good.  I have used the precursor to their 'Living in Australia' series which was geared towards our national adult ESOL curriculum and had a very Australian focus. I imagine that the newer ones make even better use of latest technologies.

Cheers,
Lesley

Hi Lesley-

Thanks very much! It's obviously well thought out, and I'd love to utilize it. Though it's certainly worth the cost, it's unfortunately too expensive for the programs I work with. Anyway, it's great to see what's out there. 

Best, 

Diana

I have been absent from this list for a while, developing an approach that is based on creating a multi-media 

distance learning program for adult ESL students. Below is an outline and I look forward to any comments.

MULTI MEDIA ESL DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAM AND LIBRARY

Many adult immigrants in the US need to learn English as a Second or Foreign Language and to prepare for the US Citizenship test.

But, because of a variety of reasons, they are unable to attend classes in adult education learning centers.

A program based upon a Multi-Media Distance Learning Library can meet the needs of these English learners.

The program could include:

  1. Regular attendance in a class with a teacher or volunteer tutor at least once a week.
  2. Homework assigned according to the level of each student.
  3. Materials in the library: textbooks, videos, audios, and a list of free online lessons (the "flipped classroom").
  4. Teacher contact via Skype or cell phones to keep in touch with students at home.
  5. Teacher visits to homes to help students.
  6. Training and recruiting of Volunteer Tutors.

For those students who do not have computers at home, there is a program called Computers for Families that provides low-cost and even free computers to selected families.

Funding to start a Multi-Media Library can be obtained from grants provided by many Foundations.

References:

1. Internet sites for ESL

ESL Websites for Students - ESL Program Resources - SUHSD ...

sweeth2oesl.weebly.com/esl-websites-for-students.html‎

  2. Information: Computers For Families | Santa Barbara, CA | non-profit

Providing computers, Internet access and training for Santa Barbara County students whose families cannot afford to purchase them.

3. Grants: Google – “Grants for ESL Distance Learning”

Example: Grants Will Allow ESL Program to Create - Pitt Community College

www.pittcc.edu/.../130826-ESL-receives-two-gra...‎

Pitt Community College

Grants Will Allow ESL Program to Create ... funding for the creation of instructional videos and another for distance learning programming.