#eltwebsites

WEBSITE EVALUATION

This post is about an ESL website called Dave’s ESL Cafe.  I am going to evaluate the website from different perspectives.

·         The name of the website: Dave's ESL Cafe

·         Its main aim is putting different ESL teachers/students/learners together to share their own opinions, discuss various topics and give some sources for ESL learners and teachers.

·         Target audience: It does not matter whether you are an ESL student or an ESL teacher. In this website, you can find so many useful things. Also, the website has ''stuff for everyone'' section so everyone who is interested in English can visit it.

·         Content: The website has different parts for different audiences. (stuff for students, stuff for teachers, stuff for everyone, etc.) In stuff for teachers section, there are international job-related forums and general teaching forums which have different kinds of topics to discuss by ESL teachers. In stuff for students section, there are grammar lessons(written), some important phrasal verbs, quizzes, etc. In staff for every one section, there are some podcasts, ESL links and today in the history part.

·         Dave Sperling authored this website. All visitors can learn many things about him if they check FAQ: Dave Sperling part. In this section, Dave Sperling answers various questions like ''Who are you?'', ''Do you give presentations and workshops?'', ''Did you write a book?'', etc. As an answer for ''who are you?'' question, he states that he has a BA in Psychology from Pepperdine University, and an MA in Applied Linguistics from California State University, Northridge.

·         Not all the content given in the website has a specific update sign. Yet, we can see when the last data has been put into the forums.

·         The content of the website is different. It contains both educational ESL data and personal opinions. The data which contains some information for ESL learners/students is nearly faultless in my opinion.

·         There are no broken links. All links given on the website can be used.

·         The images used on the website are fine but Dave's ESL Cafe would be a much more appealing page if its design were better. The design is not good enough because it is a bit boring and colorless.

Are you one of those people who checks the updates of their favorite websites manually by typing their URLs one by one? As much as it is inconvenient to do so, it is also a waste of time. So, in order to follow your favorite websites or blogs I suggest you to use an RSS reader.

                                                                                                      Taken from here

What does RSS mean? 

According to Wikipedia, “RSS, standing for Really Simple Syndication, is a type of web feed which allows users to access updates to online content in a standardized, computer-readable format.” Basically, it is a system which informs you when there is a new update on a website. So, an RSS feed means a kind of warning that appears in your reader or account informing you about the mentioned update.

Above is the RSS icon, which means the website supplies you an RSS feed service. While, there are big RSS icons on some websites, on other sites they may not be so obvious, being at the bottom of the page or next to the sub-categories. The picture on the right hand above is taken from the website of Reuteurs and an example of the later. To follow a website through RSS, first you need to use an RSS reader.

What is an RSS Reader and How do I Use It?

In order to follow many websites’ RSS feeds and manage them you will need an RSS reader. An RSS reader is a program which enables you to follow the updates of a website through RSS feeds. There are many options including online readers as well as the offline readers. The reader I use is Feedreader, which has both the online and the offline options. For the online option you need to create an account, while for the offline version you have to download and install the software to your device. Below is the screenshot of Feedreader with the blogs I follow:

In order to follow a blog via RSS, first you need to go to the website and check for the RSS service. If the site supplies such a service, then you need to click on it. After clicking the icon, you will be directed to the rss feed page:

Copy the address of the page to your feedreader, through following steps

Also, please note that the updates which you have not checked yet are in bold letters, which helps draw your attention to them

What are the benefits of it?

While RSS readers can be used for following the news sites or the sites you visit for entertainment purposes, they can be used for improving you professional skills and following the latest developments in your field. Since I am an English teacher to be, I follow English language teaching/learning blogs mostly. One of my favorite blogs is TEFLGEEK. 

One of the reasons I follow the blog is that it gives you an idea about the different and new approaches to follow in the classroom which depends on the experience of the blogger.

 It also supplies you lesson plans for specific objects and activities you can apply in your own classroom.

There are also many useful sources and other ELT blogs suggested on the website.

So, whether you are an inexperienced teacher who is looking for some advice and suggestions from the senior teachers, or you are an experienced teacher who is looking for new approaches or activities you can apply in your classroom, you can follow as many blogs as you want through RSS and manage to keep up to date with an RSS reader!

What does a language consist of? Grammar and vocabulary with a little bit of pronunciation? When do you master a language? When you memorize all the word and their correct pronunciation? Well, then what about discourse? I believe that in order to master a language we need to have a grasp of what the language is. All the course I take and all the thinking I did tell me that the language is a whole with all the systems and the culture itself. So it is important to learn all the language areas with their daily-life uses in real-life situations. Well, learnenglish.de is here to help you with that! 

Developed by The Learn English Network which is a not-for-profit organisation registered in the UK, the website addresses all the learners from any proficiency level.

The purpose of the site is to help the learners learn every aspect of the language along with the culture itself. It aims for you to be able learn the language and use it in your daily life conversations.It contains all language areas: grammar, vocab, pronunciation. It supply basic information for beginners, also some tests and quizzes help you test yourself and work on what you lack. There are also fun games teaching English mostly for beginners. 

The opportunities of chat room or forum helps you contact people around the world and put your English knowledge in use. Also, you have a chance to ask questions that you couldn’t find the answer in the website. 

You can chat with native speakers in written or spoken language for free on many different platforms that one of them would surely be available for you.  What is good about this site is that it sees the language and culture as a whole. Therefore, it has British culture tab on the website. 

Another good and distinguishing thing about it is that not only the site gives you definitions and formal knowledge or pronunciation information about the structures or words but it also gives you different combinations of words and how they are used in a daily life context with an example of real life situation.

It’s useful for learners who self-study English, but it can be useful in creating classroom activities and making it useful for students who learn English in formal setting. As a teacher to be, I plan to use this website, firstly for my own good, but secondly, for my students. It is possible to give students tasks about certain context and direct them to this website and ask them to create a dialogue regarding the concept with the help of the given example.  Or they can learn some cultural concepts from there and prepare a short presentation about it. It opens the doors of a world which has a very rich context, all in one place with a user-friendly interface.