Using Web Content for Lessons

The internet provides a rich source of material for teaching students in a variety of ways. For instance, there are sites which provide grammar information, cultural information, and sample tests. There's is virtually nothing you can't get some information on through the internet.

Keep in mind that the useful content that is out there is, by and large, written with a native speaker in mind. It is also copyrighted material and can't be incorporated wholesale into anything you create and distribute as your work.

There are a variety of ways to make good use of internet resources. One of the best is to use it as a resource for interesting articles to discuss with students of a high enough level to talk about such topic as they are written. Another is to use it as research for your own material. If you are interested in writing a lesson about hobbies or fads, you can get all the background you need before diving into constructing a lesson.

Since there are a plethora of web sites about Japan and Japanese culture, you can use them as a springboard for discussions. Some of the best sites for such uses are:

General Discussion Topic Resources:

What Japan Thinks: This site is dedicated to translating surveys conducted in Japanese. It both provides you with interesting questions to ask your students and allows you to discuss the answers that were given in the survey. The surveys often allow you to discuss a broader topic which is reflected by the answers or questions given in the survey. The shorter surveys on lighter topics are good for warm-ups.

Japan Probe: This site is a one-stop shop for various bits of news going on in Japan. You can use it to find out what is going on in Japan and what your students may be reading about in their newspapers or watching on T.V. News summaries are given with a link to the original source so you can get full articles if you think more information would be helpful.

Wikipedia: While Wikipedia is well-known as a resource for information, the front page is frequently overlooked. Try to give the main page a quick glance once a day for interesting bits of news or trivia that might be useful in finding topics to discuss with students. It's not important to build entire lessons around what you read. The main page can be a springboard for interesting asides or warm-up questions.

Grammar Resources:

Non-Stop English: This site allows students to test themselves. It is a good site to point students to if they have a particular or persistent problem that they should be working on their own to improve. If you don't have the time to give or correct homework, you may want to direct students to the appropriate lesson on Non-Stop English so they can practice there and receive automated correction.

Using English grammar glossary: While many native speakers of English speak English correctly, they may not always know the grammatical terms for everything. In fact, it's not uncommon for students to have superior knowledge of how to refer to parts of a sentence since they have studied English grammar for many years. The Using English grammar glossary will help you keep up with your students questions as well as help you get some background information for lessons in which particular structures need to be practiced.

Standardized testing:

English Test Net: This site has a wide variety of practice tests which students can be referred to for practice or that you can use to help you learn more about the content and structure of the tests your students often take in preparation for creating your own material. The TOEIC section has proven especially useful for my students at times.