Languaging! Links

Languaging!

The Exploratory Learning and Teaching Newsletter of Dokkyo University

Languaging!Links

Welcome to the Languaging! Links page. We are interested in your suggestions for this page. What are your favorite learning sites? What are your favorite teaching sites? What are your favorite laughing sites? Send us an email or post your ideas in our guestbook.

For Learners	For Teachers
Listening & Speaking	Materials
Reading & Vocabulary	Research
Writing & Structure	Professional

Tokyo Life	Family
Job Opportunities	Here are some sites of personal interest to the Languaging! family.
What's Happening
Getting Around

Languaging!Links
For Learners: Listening & Speaking\|
Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab Listening comprehension activities on Real Audio, from word level to extended dialogues, with material for all proficiencies. Designed for self-directed study. You choose what topic and level you want. Simple and fun. Check it out!
Penguin Dossiers Short listening units and supplemental materials. New topics added monthly. This site has been slowly building over time and is becoming quite extensive and interesting.
BBC Learning English From BBC World Service, with over 60 years experience in English Learning programing. International learners will testify to BBC's English instruction -- for the global reach of its radio programing if nothing else. They offer a wealth of reading and listening materials that are often updated.
The English Learner Movie Notes Movie "guides" or synopses written particularly for those English language learners who fall into the linguistic zone of "frustrated fluency," upper level ESL learners, who need the extra push. An interesting concept, and many films to choose from. Each guide provides scene by scene language support, pulling out idioms, difficult phrasal verbs, etc., to help the learner optimize comprehension.
Rosetta Stone (pay site) What is the best way to learn a second language? "The way we learned our native language," say the folks at Rosetta Stone. Their method "uses thousands of real-life images, written text and voices of native speakers to teach you like a native learner." Rosetta Stone does have very cool programs for over 30 languages! See the free sample lessons. They do have an innovative method.
The Moonlit Road It's Hallowe'en all year long! "Ghost stories haunt the moonlit back roads of the American South. Each month, The Moonlit Road brings you these ghost stories and other strange Southern folk tales, told by the region's best storytellers." This site has monthly feature stories that are available in both text and streaming audio versions. The audio versions change monthly.
Stories of the Dreaming From the Indigenous Australia website: Storytelling is an integral part of life for Indigenous Australians. From an early age, storytelling plays a vital role in educating children. These are stories of the history and culture of the people, handed down orally since the beginning of time, since the Dreamtime. Text and Real Audio.
Atom Films A huge archive of short film and animation. Comedy, drama, strange creations, and more. This site includes many award-winning films from Aardvark Studios (Wallace & Grommit), as well as many award winning amateur productions.
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For Learners: Reading & Vocabulary\|
Bibliomania Bibliomania is ..."Free Online Literature with more than 2000 Classic Texts ... Literature, Book Notes, Author Biographies, Book Summaries and Reference Books ... Classic Fiction, Drama, Poetry, Short Stories and Contemporary Articles and Interviews ... Study Guides for the most popular books and Help for Teachers ... Reference Books, Dictionaries, Quotations, Classic Non-fiction, Biographies and Religious Texts ..." and more! And FREE!
EFL Reading "For Students and Teachers of English as a Second Language." EFL Reading provides free graded reading materials for students of ESL at all levels. Each text is graded by vocabulary, grammar and readability. There are also exercises to improve focus your reading, check reading comprehension, and build vocabulary. All of the graded materials are also linked to the original materials for further exploration.
Tales of Wonder An archive of "folk and fairy tales from around the world. The stories in this collection represent a small sampling of the rich storytelling art that is the common heritage of humanity. Stories from many parts of the world are included here." The site was last updated July 3, 1997, but it is still a great resource.
Wikipedia And now for something completely different: "Welcome to Wikipedia! the free Encyclopedia. We are building an open-content encyclopedia in many languages. In the English version, started in January 2001, we are now working on 313460 articles. Learn how to edit pages, experiment in the sandbox, and visit our Community Portal to find out how you can participate in the development of Wikipedia."
Bartleby.com "Combines the best of both contemporary and classic reference works into the most comprehensive public reference library ever published on the web." Includes an encyclopedia, a dictionary, a thesaurus, quotations, English usage notes, anthologies of fiction, nonfiction and poetry and other reference works.
The Exploratorium "The museum of science, art, and human perception: The Exploratorium's mission is to create a culture of learning through innovative environments, programs, and tools that help people to nurture their curiosity about the world around them." From science and math to art and sports, various interesting content areas suitable for intermediate ESL/EFL learners.
Wayne's World An online, nonprofit natural history textbook dedicated to little-known facts and trivia about natural history subjects. Lots of interesting articles with illustrations and pictures.
Newbury House Online "The All-In-One Essential Tool for English Language Learning." Heinle's Newbury House Dictionary of American English contains over 40,000 entries. With simple, clear definitions, this online tool provides a wealth of sample sentences and idioms. Ideal for English learners.
Merriam-Webster Online The original online dictionary from the original dictionary of American English.
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For Learners: Writing & Structure\|
LinguaCenter "Explore English Grammar and Vocabulary on the Web. Practice your listening comprehension with authentic materials from the Web. Read articles written by ESL learners and submit your own work." An authentic, contextualized approach to grammar learning, the site seeks to provide the learner "with (usually) hundreds or thousands of examples of any particular English word you choose, used in authentic communication." To go straight to the Grammar Safari Page, click here.
Guide to Grammar and Writing An exhaustive resource which includes activities and presentation materials for writing at the sentence level through the essay or report level. They provide writing samples, handouts, power point presentations, and interactive activities and they will answer your questions (or your teacher's questions) about English grammar in the Grammar Log. All free.
The Online Writing Lab OWL is a web site with materials and resources (including handouts, materials, workshops, presentations, and internet resources), e-mail tutoring for brief questions about writing (check out our Frequently Asked Questions), and a free weekly e-mail newsletter about writing. All free.
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant Paradigm is an interactive online writer's guide and handbook written and distributed freely over the WWW. Paradigm is intended to be useful for all writers, from inexperienced to advanced. Gives the writer support in discovering a topic, revising, editing, different types of writing, and documenting your work.
ManyThings.org "Interesting Things for ESL Students." A fun study site for students of English as a Second Language. Has word games, puzzles, quizzes, exercises, slang, proverbs and many more things.
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Languaging!Links
For Teachers: Materials\|
The Internet TESL Journal A monthly web journal for Teachers of ESL. Publishes articles, research papers, lessons plans, classroom handouts, teaching ideas and links. It is always soliciting contributions for "things that are of immediate practical use to ESL/EFL teachers."
Guide to Grammar and Writing An exhaustive resource which includes activities and presentation materials for writing at the sentence level through the essay or report level. You will find writing samples, handouts, power point presentations, and interactive activities and as well as answers your questions (or your students') about English grammar in the Grammar Log.
Online Writing Lab OWL is a web site with materials and resources (including handouts, materials, workshops, presentations, and internet resources), e-mail tutoring for brief questions about writing (check out our Frequently Asked Questions), and a free weekly e-mail newsletter about writing.
The Online Books Page A website with thousands of full-text documents -- fiction, history, contemporary commentary, non-English texts, and more! Need authentic texts for ways to demonstrate vocabulary and grammar in context? This is an exciting resource for teachers and students alike.
The Etext Archives "Home to electronic texts of all kinds, from the sacred to the profane, from the political to the personal. Our mission is to provide electronic versions of texts without judging their content." Politics, fiction, religion, poetry, periodicals, and more.
SIL International For teachers and researchers; free IPA font bank, an electronic dictionary of linguistic terms, phonetic charts, maps, and more! Go to the Ethnology, scan the Puapa New Guinea listing (the most linguistically diverse location on the globe), and then tell me that linguistic human rights is not an important issue!
ELT Web Index of English Language Resources on the WWW. "Your guide to the best ELT, EFL, and ESL resources on the Internet." Well organized and easy to use.
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For Teachers: Research\|
The Extensive Reading Pages "This site is a repository for information on Extensive Reading, with an emphasis on its application to Second or Foreign Language Learning." Includes Information on starting an ER program, model programs, an annotated bibliography (authoritative and exhaustive) and more!
Reading in a Foreign Language Established as an excellent source for the latest developments in the field, both theoretical and pedagogic, including improving standards for foreign language reading. This fully refereed journal is published twice a year, in April and October.
Language Learning & Technology A refereed journal which "seeks to disseminate research to foreign and second language educators in the US and around the world on issues related to technology and language education."
The National Teaching & Learning Forum The on-line edition -- just like the printed version -- "offers subscribers stimulating insight from colleagues eager to share new ways of helping students reach the highest levels of learning."
The Language Teacher The monthly publication of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT, aka, Zenkoku Gogaku Kyoiku Gakkai). TLT articles treat all aspects of language education, particularly with relevance to Japan.
ELT Journal "A quarterly for all those involved in the field of TESOL. Refereed, socially critical, and interdisciplinary, ELT Journal seeks to bridge the gap between the everyday practical concerns of ELT professionals and related disciplines such as education, linguistics, psychology, and sociology that may offer significant insights."
The Internet TESL Journal A monthly web journal for Teachers of ESL. Publishes articles, research papers, lessons plans, classroom handouts, teaching ideas and links. It is always soliciting contributions for "things that are of immediate practical use to ESL/EFL teachers."
Vocabulary Acquisition Research Group This site houses The Vocabulary Acquisition Research Group Archive (VARGA), a bibliography of research in the field of second language vocabulary acquisition. The VARGA project is part of the Centre of Applied Linguistic Studies at the University of Wales, Swansea.; The bibliography is authoritative and a great resource.
The Informal Education Homepage "So what is informal education? Informal education works through, and is driven by, conversation - involves exploring and enlarging experience - can take place in any setting." Over 250 articles on key thinkers, theories and themes in informal education and lifelong learning; a place for discussion and debate; a growing collection of e-texts on informal education and lifelong learning.
The Corpus Linguistics Page Maintained by Michael Barlow, this site is the definition of minimalist. But it is an excellent resource for research on the field that will have largest impact on applied linguistics theory in the next decade. Dr. Barlow is soliciting help in building up the non-English corpus listings and a bibliographic reference section that focusses on Corpus Linguistics and the use of corpora in language teaching.
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Languaging!Links
For Teachers: Professional \|
Japan Association for Language Teachers (JALT) "A nonprofit organisation dedicated to the improvement of language teaching and learning both within Japan and internationally with nearly 3,000 members in chapters and affiliates across Japan as well as members abroad." The Japan TESOL affiliate.
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) "Whether you are trying to make a difference in the lives of your students, teaching newcomers to the field to be the best they can be, or conducting research in the field of ESL/EFL, TESOL connects you to a global community of professionals teaching English as a second or other language."
The American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) "A professional organization of scholars interested in and actively contributing to the multi-disciplinary field of applied linguistics. AAAL members promote principled approaches to language- related concerns, including language education and acquisition, bilingualism, discourse analysis, literacy ... psycholinguistics, second and foreign language pedagogy, language policy and planning ..." etc.
The University Teachers' Union (UTU) A labor organization representing teachers at universities in Japan. UTU members include both full- and part-time university teachers, most of whom are working at institutions in the Kanto region.
The Kanto Foreign Language Teachers' Union Federation (UTUF) "This website aims to provide information about education and teaching in Japan. We seek not only to support our member labour unions, but also individuals seeking information on living and working in Japan as foreign language teachers."
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Languaging!Links
Tokyo Life: Job Opportunities\|
The Japan Research Career Information Network (JRECIN) "Provides free information on public job openings of industrial, academic and public sectors." That is, it lists almost all of the academic positions that come available in Japan, including English teaching positions. Sometimes jobs are listed in kanji, so you might want to scan for "英語" as well as "English."; Updated daily.
O-Hayo Sensei "The world's oldest, largest and most comprehensive jobs-in-Japan magazine." It reports currently available teaching (and other English language related) positions at conversation schools, universities, jukus, colleges, public schools and companies all across Japan. To go directly to the "no-frills" text version of the job list, click here. Updated twice monthly.
TLT Job Information Center Once upon a time, this was a public online job list. Now, unfortunately, The Language Teacher's Job Information Center is only available to members of Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT). Still, a good resource. And even if you ain't, you may know a kind someone who IS a JALT member, and who wouldn't mind lending you the site password which is updated monthly and printed on page 1 of TLT magazine. Updated frequently.
Jobs in Japan This site, with listings of educational, IT- related, and various other employment opportunities (including "hostessing"), calls itself the "mother lode of Japan job info." Updated daily.
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Languaging!Links
Tokyo Life: What's Happening\|
ELT News "The Web-site for English Teachers in Japan."; Yes, indeed. A good resource with real content. Features interviews with teachers and researchers, lesson ideas, book reviews, information on living and teaching in Japan, and more!
Metropolis In New York there's the Village Voice. In Atlanta there's the Creative Loafing. In Tokyo there's Metropolis ... well, maybe it's not all that, but it does have the best events calendar online. Also, you'll find movie listings, restaurant guides, news ... etc.
IndyMedia Japan The Independent Media Center's Japan chapter: "The IMC Network is based upon principles of equality, decentralization and local autonomy." This global organization considers "open exchange of and open access to information a prerequisite to the building of a more free and just society."
Tokyo Progressive "Tokyo Progressive seeks to promote peace and justice by providing access to news, commentary and links not often found in the corporate media. This includes a self publishing facility as well as helping to link people involved in a variety of activist projects worldwide. Forums are available to discuss activist issues, offer new link suggestions, or for just chatting on any other topic. You can also comment on any article." Beautiful people. Beautiful site.
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Languaging!Links
Tokyo Life: Getting Around\|
Zone 81 This site has city train guides and maps, station maps, route and fare calculators. An invaluable resource for getting around. Though not as good as the info your girlfriend can access with her thumbs on her ketai, this is in English. Still, I use it weekly.
The Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) JNTO actually maintains a nice site. But what will bring you back again and again is the interactive street map. You can do both key-word searches and map-based searches. The best map of Japan online.
US Embassy Tokyo Well, it's always good to know where Uncle Sam is ... especially if you're avoiding him. Info on visas and ABSENTEE BALLOTS!!!
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Languaging!Links
Family \|
Dokkyo University A private university in Saitama, Japan (in the greater metropolitan Tokyo area), Dokkyo university attracts students with particular interest in foreign languages and offers programs in German, English, and French, as well as elective courses in several other languages. The foreign language programs are supported by The Research Institute of Foreign Language Teaching, a center for the development of theory and practice within the university.
Tim Murphey's Homepage Tim Murphey of Dokkyo University is the founder, an editor and frequent contributor to the Languaging! newsletter. His research interests include group dynamics in the classroom, the effects of near-peer role modeling on second language acquisition and the use of conversational shadowing by language learners. Check out his homepage for more information on these subjects and more.
Christopher Carpenter's Homepage Christopher Carpenter is a co-editor of Languaging! and the webmaster of the Languaging! website. He is also a part-time instructor of English at Dokkyo University.