American English is a reputable and popular language learning website and resource center designed for ESL/EFL teachers and students who aim at enhancing their American English proficiency. It is the repository of engaging teaching resources and classroom materials set up by the office of English language programs in Washington D.C to provide professional development and academic expertise to English language teachers around the globe. The programs include teaching materials, webinars, Massive Online Open Courses (Moocs), English club texts and materials, comics for language learners and online professional English network (OPEN) for teachers.
The website features a large variety of teaching materials based on the four skills ranging from speaking resources, reading passages, writing materials, and listening tasks. For examples, the listening resources include audio books for English teaching that are designed under the theme of ‘shaping the way we teach English’. The listening tab contains a wealth of audio resources that aim at enhancing learners’ listening skills. The ‘other resources’ tab under resources and programs also includes manuals for teachers as well as ‘shaping the way we teach English’ materials, and creative ideas. I recommend a thorough exploration of the website as it also offers several volumes of the English teaching forum which features teaching tips on diverse topics.
The teacher’s corner under the ‘programs and resources’ tabs is a repository for practical activities and advice for English language teachers including how to integrate the four skills and create meaningful classroom assessments. It also offers webinars on creative ways to teach grammar.
The website is an appropriate online resource which assists tech-timid teachers to find effective materials for their CALL classroom. For example, besides the audio books in the listening tab, the website presents tips for teaching English with Comics and graphic novels as a way of bringing variety in the English language classroom. There are pdf files and printable examples of comics and graphic novels that teachers can use as models to design their own or train their students to create attractive learning resources. For online professional development opportunities, the ‘webinars’ tab contains teacher training seminars including recordings of live sessions on topics such as speaking, listening, pronunciation, fun and games, as well as teaching methods. Some of these topics encompass technology-related materials and tips ranging from using students’ portfolios to classroom tools for digital learning.
Lyrics Training is an amazing listening tool that can help your digital learners to enhance their listening skills with fun. It will enable them to learn and have fun as it offers thousands of famous music videos. Teenagers love music so this tool will be particularly interesting for them.
Pedagogical benefits
This website gives learners an amazing opportunity to enhance their listening skills by listening to their favorite songs. Twenty-first century learners are fond of music and are motivated when listening materials encompass music videos. With Lyrics training, your learners can listen to songs while filling in the gaps with the missing words. It offers four levels of difficulty: beginners, Intermediate, Advance and Expert. If a student fails to find the right answer, the song will stop and replay when the gap is correctly completed. Students who get stuck can also click on help to find the right answer. Share this tool with your learners and wait for a positive feedback!
You can also create your own account and access your library whenever you log in.
Below is a list of other language learning websites
1 - My English pages
2 - ESL video
3 - English club
4 - Listen a minute
5 - British Council learn English
8- Oxford ELT
9- Pearson ELT
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