Review: Word Reference

Word Reference is probably one of the most used free online dictionaries. Maybe because it is close to being complete in many ways. It not only brings you the definition of the words in English, but its main triumph lies in the variety of languages available for translation.

Besides the word by word translation, you can also find examples and collocations, and a direct link to threads in their own forum.

Their is also a direct link to other words that appear in the definition. You just have to click on it. (Parts available will turn yellow when you pass the cursor over).

Both students and teachers can profit a lot from this website, especially their forum. It is very well-organized, divided by languages and categories. I strongly recommend you read the rules before posting a question, so that you don't have any problems with the administrators. It usually doesn't take long for someone to reply and there are lots of users that will give you not only their opinions but also reference in literature. Another interesting aspect is that there are users from all over the world, which enriches even more this experience of sharing knowledge.

Give Word Reference a try: wordreference.com

by Melody Pablos

University of Oxford: Free Podcasts

You don’t need to fly to the United Kingdom toattend lectures at Oxford. A huge variety of lecturesis available on the university’s website. Click on Departments &Colleges (Step 1) and select the field you are interested in and a long list ofspeeches will be displayed.

In one of the lectures, Chaucer, which is particularly interesting for the ones who want to go further on English language and literature, Professor Daniel Wakelin discusses the work of the English poet Chaucer and explains how the poet was one of the first to use every day spoken English as a literary language in the 14th Century.

nd the select Chaucer from the list (Step 3).

Access the podcasts here: http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/


by Denise Emerici

Candies for new teachers: Episode 1

Have you just started teaching English?

If your answer is “yes”, good news: you are not alone! Although I have previous teaching knowledge (I taught Portuguese for more than 10 years!), I ‘ve got to deal with different challenges as I’m a beginner on the matter of English language teaching! Planning my career, gathering appropriate teaching material and keeping on improving my English skills are my current teaching efforts.
You are invited to follow the series Candies for new teachers and contribute sharing ideas. Will you?

Candies for new teachers: Episode I - I know that I don’t know!

When we decided to create this blog we needed to come up with a website hotlist. I had heard about some of them but to be sincere, I hadn’t searched for so much information. Then I realized that being exposed to such interesting material would help me to improve my career. One of these websites is The British Council's Teaching English.

Some sections specifically called my attention. Try clicking on Teacher development (Step 1), then on Continuing professional development (Step 2) and you will find Ideas for planning your career. Apart a video, you can find a chart “Which stage are you at?” where you can assess your journey as a teacher of English:

Choose your stage as teacher and open a webpage where you can find resources and tools that can help you to plan how to improve your career. Let’s see one as an example, click on Newly qualified:

Clicking on the session Planning your development at this stage will you find articles, links and downloads.

Now it is up to you!

by Denise Emerici

Review: Phonetics - The sounds of spoken language

This website is a useful tool for teachers and students who are keen on phonetics. If you feel part of this group, this section of the University of Iowa's website is a must. There you will find both chart and video where you can check how the American English sounds are articulated.

When you select American English, a pop-up window will open. This is what you will see:

You can choose a category from the top menu. The only requirement is to have Flash 7 or higher to be able to see all the content of the website. In case you don't have it, there is a link there for you to download it.

Access it here: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#


by Denise Emerici

Review: Braz-Tesol website

If you are a Brazilian English teacher, you may have heard about the country's largest association of teachers of English to speakers of other languages. If you haven't yet, this tour through their website will help you get familiar with it. We strongly recommend you become a member to take full advantage of all they have to offer.

Braz-Tesol (or BT) is a not-for-profit organization with a membership of over 2,000 professionals, an affiliate of TESOL International (US), IATEFL (UK) and a member of Southern Cone TESOL (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay). (definition from their own website)

Becoming a member is quite simple. Just click on Join Us!, choose from Individual member or Institutional member (in case of a school) and fill in the form. The membership is R$65 a year for an individual membership and R$235 for an institutional one (which gives the institution the right to take 4 members to events).

You get lots of benefits by joining this team, such as printed Newsletter; participation in events at reduced rates; access to exclusive areas of site, including Employment Section; regular communications; access to exclusive content of the Special Interest Groups (SIGs); discounts in courses, etc. You can also become a volunteer and work for BT.

How about connecting to this community now? Go to www.braztesol.org.br

by Melody Pablos