Monday 5 December 2011

MailVU

WHAT is MailVU?

MailVU is a website which combines the apllication of both email and video. Learners can just simply record a video with a webcam and send the video to others via email. They can even share it among friends. For more details, just visit the link attached below:

http://mailvu.com/

To make a video, just hit the Record button and Play it once you finish. After that, you can Send or Share the video through email and other platforms.



ADVANTAGES:

(a) Again, it is FREE!
(b) The application is easy.
(c) The duration for video-recording/ making is long (10 minutes).
(d) Develop speaking skills.
(e) Appropriate for all levels students.

LIMITATIONS:

(a) Need to sign up for an account.
(b) No downloading for the videos.
(c) No embedded videos on other websites or blogs if learners do not have an accout.

Sunday 4 December 2011

Elllo

WHAT is Ello?

Elllo or the English Listening Lesson Library Online is a multi-purpose website which provides a variety of teaching and also learning materials such as Mixers, Videos, Games, Songs, News and so forth. All these are very useful for both teachers and students as teachers can employ the activities provided as their lesson plans whereas students can learn by selecting interesting activities. To obtain further infomation, click on the link below:





There are different categories as described in the website above: Views, Mixers, Games, News and so forth. Some of them are described as below.


1. Views

There are lots of recordings and transcriptions provided for listening activities or practices. Both teachers or students will find these very flexible and reliable either as a tool for teaching or learning. Some recorded audios or videos do have their own subtitles. Besides that, there are also quizzes provided to assess students' learning.

2. Mixer

Mixer is composed from different accent of English language all around the corner. The recordings are recorded based on a variety of people speaking English with their own accent. It is good for both teachers and students to learn listening to Englishes all around the world. Apart from that, there are also comprehension activities and vovabulary learning at the end of the task.

3. Games

The tasks provided in this category function almost the same as in the Views category. However, the games focus on  3 language skills which are speaking, reading and vocabulary learning. These games may help to scaffold beginners or young learners.

4.  News

In this category, there are a lot of broadcasting found, either with the UK or US language. There are listening comprehension and vocabuary quizzes for those activities too.



ADVANTAGES:

(a) It's FREE again!
(b) Provide a wide range of learning and teaching activities/ materials.
(c) The activities expose students to a variety of English accents. Students get to learn real English in the
     world.
(d) Instil autonomous learning. (i.e. Students can explore the website themselves and try out the activities!)
(e) Uses CLIL approach (Communative approach).
(f) Develop multiple language skills (i.e. speaking, reading and vocabulary learning)
(g) Allows personalisation (i.e. Allow choices for what suit their (students) interest).
(h) Self-assess and self learning

LIMITATIONS:

(a) The organisations of the contents in the website may need to be reorganised.
(b) Some audios or videos are not in good quality and some of them are disable for downloads.
(c) Unclear instructions for some of the activities/ tasks.
(d) Some of the language used in videos or audios are lack of linguistic accuracy or competency.