What I've Learned...

Dear Fellow ESL Small Talk Bloggers,

Starting this blog has been a learning experience for all of us! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to get it started, but I've learned that there is so much more that can be done with a blog.

The first thing we learned was that everyone needed to have a gmail account to access the blog. I think that there's a way to set up the blog such that you would receive an email whenever someone posted a comment on our blog prompting you to visit the blog. (I haven't figured that out yet.)

The next thing that I learned was that each new post generates its own place to post comments. I noticed that most of us commented on the initial blog "Welcome to ESL Small Talk" instead of on the following posts. As I said, we're all learning together.

It's been great reading your posts! I hope that you'll continue to visit this blog and add your comments. It may be possible to start your own post that the rest of us can reply to. I'll be back in June when we can discuss the future of this blog. Until then, celebrate the end of another semester of school! I'm sorry that I'm going to miss CALL's Recognition Night, but know that I am celebrating with you in my heart!

See you in a few weeks!

~Natalie

More links!

Here are some more ESL links with short descriptions. Let us know if you visit any of them and post a short review.

http://www.eslgold.com/listening.html This site has a good video clip selection.
http://aaca-boston.org/caw
We visited the above site in class. It, too, has listening activities and tips on how to handle different situations.
http://www.manythings.org/e/listening.html We also visited this site in class. Dyna liked that it has text that you can read while listening to the dialog.
http://eslus.com/LESSONS/READING/READ.HTM This site has interactive reading activities.
http://www.5minuteenglish.com/reading.htm This site has short reading lessons with vocabulary.

Hope you enjoy visiting the above links! Again, let us know of your favorites and why!

~Natalie

ESL Website to Check Out

Here's a link to a great website for those learning English as a second language:

http://www.esl-lab.com

Click on the above link and it will take you to FUN listening clips in a variety of authentic scenarios! There are also little interactive games that go along with the listening activities.

Once you've visited the site, come back to our blog and write a review of the link. Let us know what you did, or listened to there, and what you think about it.

Looking forward to reading your reviews!

Natalie

Welcome to ESL Small Talk!

Hello to my wonderful ESL students!

As you all know I am a student myself and you all have graciously been helping me with several of my assignments. One of those assignments is to create this blog (this page) as a means for us to communicate about subjects that interest us.

One thing that I know very little about is your current use of the internet. Have you ever visited a blog before? Until I created this page, I had not! Blogging is simply responding to an ongoing conversation that we all can read on this web-page.

I'm looking forward to reading your entries or posts!

~Natalie