Live Webinar
This webinar was previously run on October 8, 2016 , 10 a.m. CDT
Our wonderful team of e-Volunteers presented the latest tools and websites that can help your learners improve their Grammar Skills. We were talking about interactive and engaging quizzes that test various aspects of English grammar. We also discussed how to create different types of tasks using computer software and your own language materials. Watch the recording and find out how English Online’s community of e-Tutors collaboratively presented this topic. Here are some of the tools that we have discussed:
Ventures 2nd Edition
Ventures 2nd Edition is a six-level, four-skills, standards-based, integrated-skills series that empowers students to achieve their academic and career goals. It offers a wealth of resources providing instructors with the tools for any teaching situation. Easy-to-teach materials make for a more productive classroom.
Touchstone
Touchstone is an innovative four-level series for adults and young adults, taking students from beginning to intermediate levels (CEFR: A1–B1). Based on research into the Cambridge English Corpus, Touchstone teaches English as it’s really used. Touchstone presents natural language in authentic contexts, and explicitly develops conversation strategies so learners speak with fluency and confidence. You can use a student support site with self-scoring activities to practice the language.
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press presents a collection of grammar exercises. Your learners will practice in an interactive way, using a variety of tasks. The program gives a final score and you may try the exercises as many times as you wish.
Hot Potatoes
Hot Potatoes can be used to create grammar quizzes for your students. The activities can be sent to them as email attachments. There are 5 activity types: a crossword puzzle, a cloze exercise, a quiz (multiple choice or short answer), matching (drag and drop), or putting things in order with a mixing exercise. You would have to download this program here There are different fun exercises in Hot Potatoes: Jmatch where you can match things using drag and drop, a drop down menu, or even flashcards so that the students can test themselves, Jclose for fill in the blanks, Jcross for crossword puzzles, and Jmix: where students can drag mixed up words, sentences or phrases into the right order and more.
Grammar checkers
Grammar checkers provide a positive and pro-active way to view grammar rules and how to apply them.There are two main kinds of free grammar checker tools available on the internet for e-learners and EAL/ESL learners. The first is a regular sort of website or online resource that provides learners with explanations and examples of proper grammar rules and usage and/or may also provide places to paste text to check the grammar within the sentence or paragraph. The second is built-in (once it’s installed) and is used as you go. Grammar.yourdictonary.com as a prime example of a great free online grammar checker. This site is an easy way to understand dictionary that offers fabulous example sentences, quotes, has audio pronunciations, a thesaurus and plenty of grammar explanations. It has 8 dictionaries built in. Grammarly.com is used for a built-in grammar checker. It is available in both a free and a purchased (more advanced) format. The free format has a lot of fabulous basic grammar and spell checking capabilities. Once this is downloaded to the user’s computer or device, Grammarly runs in the background and highlights (or pops up) when potential errors surface.
Placement Tests
Using Placement Tests you can find out what is the level of your learner in terms of grammar. These materials are easy to download as well as print out. So you can use them as electronic or paper version.
The following sites may also be useful for practicing Grammar: