Peer Review

Teaching English

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Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: This website is a free resource designed for, but not limited to, non-native
speaker teachers of English by the British Broadcasting Corporation and the
British Council. English is the language used exclusively throughout the website
which contains a forum for teachers to exchange thoughts and ideas about
teaching, lesson plans and materials to aid in teaching, and an archive of
articles focused on the theoretical and historical aspects of teaching English.
To gain access to all of the resources on the site, users must have a computer
with download and audio capability. Teaching English can be used in a
one-computer format for demonstration purposes, and has a feature that provides
links to outside resources which might be useful for teachers.
Type of Material:: Resource
Identify Major Learning Goals:: This module presents a vast collection of models, lessons, articles, and
resources for teachers of English.
Target Student Population:: Teachers of ESL/EFL
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Advanced English

Rating:
Strengths:: The purpose of this module is clearly to help teachers of English learn and
exchange ideas about teaching. The amount of material included in this website
is excellent, with more than 100 articles, and hundreds of lesson plans and
teaching ideas and techniques. The website is organized into three main
categories: Think, Talk, and Try, with featured items from each category listed
on the main page, and an Other Features menu on the right side of the page
with links to each category as well as other sites and contact info for the
module itself. All outside links are relevant to the teaching profession.

Rating:
Strengths:: This module is potentially a very effective as a tool to support teaching and
learning. As it is created for an audience of teachers, the site is not useful
for student independent study, but for teachers, the site is complete, easy to
use, and engaging. Activities and lesson plans presented on the site can be used
by teachers to plan their future teaching. Articles can be used to ignite
thought and discussion about teaching practices. And all downloadable tools can
be printed and used immediately integrated into established learning
environments.

The presentation of the materials in this module can significantly improve
faculty members abilities to teach English. As teaching English is the
discipline focused on throughout the module, all materials can be used to
enhance language learning activities. The goal of the site is easily
identifiable as one that is dedicated to enhance, improve, and support effective
teaching of English. While educators are able to read and print lesson plans
and assignments from the website itself, downloadable items are relevant to the
goal of teaching English, and it is very easy for instructors to write good
learning assignments based on the materials.

Rating:
Strengths:: This website is well organized and very easy to use. All button and links are
clearly labeled and active, and all screens are easy to read. The audio files
are of good quality, and it is very easy for users to locate and click on the
downloadable audio files. Users of this site can understand its organizational
system very easily with the aid of the modules simple yet effective use of a
basic color scheme.

All of the labels, buttons, menus, and text items are clearly stated and easy to
locate and read. There is a consistency among the pages of the website in which
titles of learning activities/materials are presented first, as hyperlinks,
with brief synopses of the activities/materials printed just below. While
navigating the many pages of the website, users will find the Other Features
menu consistently located on the right side of each screen, with active links to
the main pages of each area of the module. Users are able to asynchronously
communicate with other users via a message board, and all users can post
questions and comments, as well as respond to other users questions and
comments. Designed for teachers, this site requires users to do no more than
simply log on and begin browsing the resources available. For teachers, this
website is extremely useful and attractive because of the vastness of its
collection of supporting articles, materials, lessons, and tools for teachers of
English.