Exploring Resources for EFL Teachers

    Over the course of this semester I was able to explore various resources for English teachers that could help make lessons much more exciting or simply assist the educator. Some I discovered accidentally, but some I used or got to know when preparing for my class assignments. In this blog post I wanted to share the 3 of the resources that I found and enjoyed, so that others could hopefully take inspiration from them too.

    Resource 1

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/     

    The first resource I wanted to talk about is the "British Council Learning For Kids" website. I came across it, when preparing my skills Lesson Plan. It is a very useful webpage covering a wide range of topics and themes. You can find exercises for listening, writing, speaking, spelling, vocabulary, grammar - pretty much anything you might need for an ESL classroom with kids. I still feel like I have not been able to explore everything it has to offer. Outside of online games and resources, you can also find things you can print and give out to the students. I especially like the games, where you match the words to the pictures. They provide a great way to refresh vocabulary knowledge and there's a huge variety of topics on the website. I used one when creating a space themed lesson plan - it was a great and fun exercise to put at the beginning of the lesson to get students in the mood of the theme. The only issues that I could think of for this website are the level of difficulty and the lack of ability to edit. Each exercise would only work for a very specific age-group and level of English ability. There's no segregation as far as levels are concerned, so it's sometimes difficult to find the right exercise for your group. As I also mentioned, there's no edit option, which is totally understandable, but it would be amazing to be able to add or subtract to and from these exercises. That way every teacher would be able to modify them for their own needs. Other than those two issues, I absolutely love and recommend this website. There's so many resources on it, such a wide variety of topics and exercises for any part of language you can think of.

    Resource 2

https://www.youtube.com/c/LearnEnglishwithJessica/videos

    There's many different YouTube channels that are targeted at English students and teachers, but this one in particular caught my eye - "Learn English with Jessica." First of all, I appreciate the variety of content. The videos are many different lengths. Whatever the preference is, both longer and shorter content is available. Secondly, I really like the animation and its style. It's nice to look at, colorful, and really paints the picture of the world that the video wants to transport us to. Lastly, I also appreciate the variety in topics and levels. While the videos mainly teach vocabulary, are focused on everyday English and how it is used, there is a wide range of different topics. I've also noticed that some videos would be more appropriate for older kids, but there's some for younger students too, like the Christmas episode. As far as the disadvantages of the resource go, I am not a huge fan of the organization of the channel. While you can use the search engine to look for particular topics, which is very helpful, I wish the videos were also organized in playlists based on levels, or themes. Unless you know exactly what you're looking for, it's not that easy to navigate the website. Finally, as much as I like the variety of topics, there is not a huge number of videos on the site and most of them seem to target teens, even older teens maybe. That being said, new content is being uploaded almost daily, so with some time the channel will grow into a very expansive resource. While this channel has its limitations, there's still a lot of value and variety that can be very useful to help your students learn everyday English or to conduct a themed vocabulary lesson, which is why I am sure I will use this site in the future.

    Resource 3

https://www.englishgrammar.org/    

   The final website I wanted to share is called simply "English Grammar." I came across this website when I was preparing myself for the Pedagogical Grammar course. The main advantage of the website is that it's easy to navigate. It is grammar themed, so that already narrows down the content quite a bit. You not only have a search option, but there's also the "topics" section on the left, which makes looking for materials much easier. Another advantage is the amount of ready-to-go online exercises for various grammatical themes. You can find multiple exercises on almost every grammatical aspect that you can think of. That being said, the website also has a lot of limitations. First of all, not all sections of the site are very useful. I tried using the 'grammar checker' for fun and it did not work properly. The videos section is also not the strongest part as it only has 2 videos and 1 doesn't even work. Another issue is that there's not much variety outside of online multiple-choice question exercises. This website has very specific tools that can be useful, but it's not the most varied resource. That being said, I still found myself enjoying this website. I only really use it for those multiple-choice exercises and that's definitely its strongest point, but it is still a valuable page to know, if you want some grammar revision, exercises, or ideas.

    In conclusion, there are tons of incredible resources for any English learner or teacher out there on the internet. Whether it's websites, YouTube channels, or any other form, they all can help inspire creativity and make lessons a more interactive and enjoyable experience. They can also simply make a teachers job so much easier in difficult times. I'm really glad I was able to find these resources and I'm sure when I become a teacher myself I will remember to utilize them for myself and my students.