Vol. 6. No. 2 M-1 September 2002

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EFL/ESL Portal Sites -- An Attempt at a Comparison

Introduction

The abundance of EFL/ESL sites on the Internet may surpass even Internet-savvy teachers' expectations--a search for either "EFL", "ESL", or "English" will provide the user with a number of sites, made by both professionals and amateurs, individuals and institutions, directed at teachers or students, or teachers and students alike. Most probably, it would be an insurmountable task to try and browse all such search results, evaluate the websites, and decide which of them best suit the user's expectations.

This work is an attempt at a comparative review of a few "portal" sites--which, in general, means sites which offer features for both students and teachers, which cater to many aspects of language learning, provide language practice in many language skills (reading, listening, speaking, writing), include grammar and vocabulary quizzes and explanations, and which are usually available in a self-study mode. Nine such sites are reviewed with the help of a matrix, with functions listed down the left side and site names across the top, so that readers might get a clear picture of what each site comprises. The features chosen for review are related to the following basic areas: Student-oriented functions, teacher-oriented functions, content, general issues, and help facilities. It is hoped that the features and the matrix will serve as useful guidelines for teachers trying to evaluate major EFL/ESL sites.

In deciding which sites to review, a few factors have been taken into account, including the suggestions of the TESL-EJ editors and of teachers trained by the author in various ICT for ELT courses. However, the most important considerations were the versatility of the sites, the wealth of materials available, and the fact that they offer unlimited access to teachers and students alike. It was a conscious decision to consider only sites offering all of their contents for free, since it is my strong belief that sites offering good quality materials entirely for free deserve much praise and publicity.

What follows now is the matrix with the sites marked either affirmatively or negatively for each function or feature. After the matrix, each site is briefly described. Many of the sites focus on some aspect of language learning, and these points deserve attention. Thus, such points are highlighted in short commentaries. As has already been said, it is not my purpose to exhaust the subject, as there are literally thousands of ESL/EFL-related sites on the Internet, and probably more than a few that deserve attention on par with the ones chosen. Instead, in this review I only hope to provide a beginning and a possible foundation or model for the objective evaluation of EFL/ESL portal sites. [-1-]

General Overview

Content

Student-oriented Functions

Teacher-oriented Functions

Links

Help Facilities

Commentaries on Individual Sites

This website is a part of the project known to many teachers as The Internet TESL Journal. It features over 1,000 activities to help students of English as a Foreign Language. The focus of the site is on quizzes, which are interactive (students receive feedback and their quizzes are evaluated by the website), suitable for self-study (the quizzes are written in a number of languages so as to be accessible to students, and to make having a teacher unnecessary to using the website), and which cover both grammar and vocabulary.

An important point about this site is that materials are sorted according to numerous criteria, such as browser requirements (HTML-only, Java script, Flash), L1 background, and content (grammar, vocabulary). The quizzes come in different types, the most frequent being multiple choice and crosswords. As was mentioned, one thing that really sets this website apart are the bilingual quizzes, which are from as many as 27 languages into English. Apart from quizzes, the site also has links to other sites of interest. With its subsite, www.manythings.org, students can enjoy a multitude of materials in self-study mode. Finally, it needs to be stressed that the site also enables teachers to write their own quizzes and contribute them to the website.

These two websites, joined together, are directed mainly towards teachers, a fact which is reflected not only in the name of the sites, but, most importantly, in the content one can find there. Projects (treasure hunts, jokes, quizzes, games), web-based textbooks, articles, lesson plans and classroom techniques form the core of the site. The well-known and acclaimed Internet TESL Journal provides a new issue each month, with articles, research papers, lesson plans and teaching techniques pertaining to all areas of teaching English. Taking into account the fact that the archives of the Journal go back as far as 1995, it is evident that this site collects a wealth of ELT materials.

A really important part of the site is the "Links" section, where websites of interest are grouped into categories and provided with short annotations. If only there were also some rating information, the iteslj.org links would be one of the best links resources on the web. In addition, teachers can add links using an interactive form, after which the submitted links are checked to ensure their validity.

Aardvark's English Forum is an EFL/ESL portal, providing resources, news, links and means of communication for students and teachers. The strong points of the site include the existence of message boards for students and teachers which facilitate pen pal arrangements and teacher-teacher class partnerships. The student discussion forum is extremely friendly in that the page is actively linked to a dictionary, which allows students to double-click any word in the page to get the definition in a new window.

Another important feature is the world news--there are news headlines with pictures on the site, and one can follow links to read full stories on the BBC, CNN or online newspaper websites. It is only a pity that the news items are not accompanied by any language activities or exercises to do in class, as is the case, for example, with The New York Times Learning Section (http://www.nytimes.com/learning). Another noteworthy feature of the portal is the online guide to ELT schools, which enables students to get to know the schools via the web before actually making the decision to study there. The final important feature is the extensive web directory, with a number of categories and a multitude of active, updated, and annotated links.

Teachingfish.com is a relatively new enterprise, but one that is already fairly well-developed with useful features. The site requires registration to make full use of its features, but this free-of-charge procedure allows the user to customize the site by setting their own preferences for the layout and the content of the site. The portal contains articles, games, classroom tips, an online grammar, quizzes linked to relevant grammar explanations, and a job-finder service. As for communication, the portal provides a few discussion forums, such as help, jobs, teaching & living abroad, CALL, and business English forums. The site features flexible and effective searching tools, so finding resources related to some issue or word is fast and easy. Finally, teachers are encouraged to contribute to the site, to get dynamic content for their own websites, and to add links to the database. It is hoped that this new enterprise, with a well-developed website and effective tools, but relatively little content, will develop rapidly in the future.

This is probably one of the best-known EFL/ESL sites, with the author, Dave Sperling, being one of the pioneers of using the Web for enhancing English learning and teaching. As the very name suggests, the site is a café, or as Dave puts it, "The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World". Thus, the site is at its best at linking teachers and students in one of its many discussion forums. For example, teachers can access, among others, CALL, activities and games, bilingual education, and ESP forums. Students can access, among others, cinema, making friends, literature, music, and computers forums. Also, the site allows students to team up in a chat room, which, however, requires registration. As for language content, sections on slang, idioms, and phrasal verbs, and interactive quizzes in many areas will provide some language work for students. Finally, teachers can get teacher development information, as well as a number of resources in the job center, which includes job vacancy listings, a job discussion forum, and a job information journal.

The site is a rich resource of Web-based activities on a number of topics, like art, childhood, culture, describing people, disasters, environment, food, fun, future, history, and news. Each topic is represented by a few quizzes, from one to ten. Each activity has the relevant information listed, such as skills practiced (reading, listening, writing, or reading), language level, the existence or lack of exercises, and whether or not the activities are checked by the computer. The activities are worth attention as they use authentic or semi-authentic web materials as the basis of lessons, and show teachers how to create similar web-based activities to fit the needs and interests of a given class.

This site is one of the most comprehensive and richest ESL/EFL sites on the Web in terms of materials. It features such sections as grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, with different resources in these sections ranging from lesson plans through worksheets to tutorials. The "Learn English Zone" also has ESL help, ESL forum, ESL games, ESL chat, ESL quizzes and ESL pen pals. As for teachers, they have at their disposal TEFL jobs, lesson plans, worksheets, a teacher forum, and articles. A unique feature of the portal is ESL Progress!, a free ESL magazine for students and teachers, with study tips, lessons, and quizzes, and which is available on the website or via email. The special interest zone has materials in such sections as jokes, English for business, English for kids, study abroad, exams, resources, and links. Learners and teachers find it easy to move around the portal not only thanks to the search function, but also due to a convenient natural language tool: A "What do you want to do?" box from which users can choose an answer from a drop-down list of all functions available. [-4-]

Similarly to the case of the first two sites reviewed, namely A4esl.org and Things for ESL/EFL Teachers, TEFL.NET is a teacher-oriented site. It is related to Englishclub.com and created by the same authors. This site dedicated to EFL professionals comprises lesson plans, articles, reviews, lists of courses, EFL links, job advertisements, and professional development information. Teachers can subscribe to Inspire! magazine free of charge and browse it online or receive it by email. Just as in the case of the previous site, not only can users of TEFL.NET search the contents for keywords, but they can also choose a thing to do from a drop-down box answering the question "What do you want to do?". Teachers are encouraged not only to use the website by printing activities or copying the contents, but also to contribute by adding an activity, suggesting a link, or putting their resumes online.

The Language Fun Farm is an EFL portal site on a somewhat lighter note, which is exemplified by the pictures, combinations of colors, and images of people working on the Language Fun Farm (the Farmer, Black Witch, etc.). The site is directed at both teachers and students, and provides language materials in different areas and on different language levels. The Communicate section has online chats, discussion forums, mailing lists and a newsletter to subscribe to, and in this way helps students and teachers to team up. The content of the website is in a humorous vein, so the "News" section has strange linguistic happenings from around the world, while the "Curios" section consists of activities with English that amuse, infuriate, delight, or perplex.

One interesting part of the website is "School House", which gives classroom tips on how to "discover what being a great teacher is really about" in a fresh and inspirational style, unlike traditional methodology manuals.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it must be stressed once again that while there are doubtless other quality ESL/EFL-related websites out there, all the sites that have been chosen for review are worth attention and would be good places to start an examination of the online resources available to ESL/EFL learners and teachers. When looking at the table, it is evident which features each site includes, while the short descriptions highlight the most useful features of each. It is hoped that this way of comparing websites will be useful for teachers seeking guidance about the various features of free ESL/EFL portal sites, and perhaps as a format or model for future website comparisons.

Dr Jarek Krajka, Ph.D
Marie Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland
<jkrajka@batory.plo.lublin.pl>