One issue with which many schools struggle is teaching proper English language usage. This is especially true in our multi-cultural, multi-lingual society in South Africa. As someone said ‘tongue in cheek' the most used language in the world is poor English.

When it comes to language teaching, technology is quite limited. You need the human element. Having said that, there are basic aspects of language usage that can be addressed and practised by using computer technology. This can be helpful if you are overwhelmed with work and don't get the time to give personal attention to some of the learners in your class that struggle to put a proper sentence together in English.

Here are some online resources for teaching English as a second language...(nowadays called English Additional Language :-)

• Activities for ESL Students
• The World of English interactive language exercise applets

Learners will need to have access to the Internet. The pages load quickly and are not resource intensive. You will need the Java Runtime Environment installed on your computers. (If you don't have it you can get it here.)

The activities on the two sites are fun to do and can be used for a range of learners, from the very weak to the moderately advanced.

Here is a tip on how you can manage online activities such as those mentioned above:

One of the problems of learners doing online activities is that it is difficult to keep track of what has been done and what not. It is after all not a full learning environment. Here is what you can do. Create a word processing document  (or template) in which you create spaces for recording evidence of what was done. Label the spaces so that it is clear to the learners what has to go into those spaces. Make a copy of this document available to all learners. Instruct them to capture a screenshot of the final screen of the exercise where it gives their score etc. and to paste it into the relevant space. They can save that and also print it out if need be for record purposes.

If you need a free, lightweight screenshot capturing tool, you can get Lightscreen here.

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