World Languages Assessment

I've never been a great fan of testing and assessment, so I was quite surprised to find some quite interesting and useful resources on the World Languages Assessment website.

For me, by for the most interesting part was the video on demand section which has links to seven 15 minute video clips about different areas of assessment, including technology in assessment and assessing cultural competence.


The video streams quite well and the quality of the low bandwidth version is more than adequate. Once you get past the initial, slightly stuffy, introductions, there are some clips of live classrooms and interviews with teachers which I found really interesting.

The rest of the site is worth checking out too as it has professional development guides, teacher resources and a link to a Ning based discussion forum.

Hope you enjoy this.

Related links:

• Exam Practice
• Try a TOEFL Listening Test
• Try a TOEFL Reading Test

Best

Nik Peachey Read More..

Preparing EAP Students

I've just spotted this wonderful new resource for helping to prepare foreign students for study in the UK. It's called Prepare for Success and has lots of interactive features including video and some online tasks.

The site covers a really wide range of issues that overseas students are likely to encounter when studying abroad including study skills, tips for critical thinking as well as things like dealing with different cultures and working with other students.

Here's a video from 'language challenge' section.



This is a fantastic resource and has some really nicely designed materials which should be useful to any EFL / ESL students, even if they don't intend to study abroad.

The materials were developed by the University of Southampton

Definitely worth recommending to and using with your students.

Best

Niki Peachey Read More..

Free Educational TV Channels

I've just spotted 'Online TV Channels' which has a huge collection of free channels which can be accessed from their website.

There's a large collection of educational channels which look quite useful. They are collected from around the world, so not all in English, so if you are looking for educational materials in other languages this could be a good place for you to come too.
Other sections include;

• Sport
• News
• Cartoon
• Music
• Entertainment

There's also a sort by country feature, so if you want something from a specific country for a specific language or accent, you might find something useful here.

Here's the link to the Educational section
You can find the selection of country sources here

For the rest, just use the navigation bar along the top.

Hope this is useful

Best

Nik Read More..