The best kept secrets of EFL materials production

John AllanScott Webber

TESOL Qatar 2007

How we will proceed

• Introduction• Overview of items

– Brand name– location– Intended use– EFL application– Possible caveats

• Questions

Impetus

• Pressure to create• Experiment fail/succeed• Internet access common• Computers common

Microsoft Office Online

• office.microsoft.com• support for MS Office users• Templates for PPT, Word• Clip art, media• Templates fro PPT, Excel,

Word applications• Media for visual aides• Compatibility issues Compatibility issues

between Mac O/S and between Mac O/S and WindowsWindows

Project Gutenburg• www.gutenberg.org• Collection of copyright free

text & audio books• Sample text to use for reading

or listening activities• Sample audio to use for

listening activities (Audacity)• Time to locate suitable

content• Archaic language

CellSea

• www.cellsea.com/media/vindex.htm• Online video editor• Manipulate images before using them

in your materials• Reformat (gif, jpeg) • Resize, crop, • Colour correct…• Internet reliant

Wikipedia

• www.wikipedia.org/• Open encyclopedia• Current information• Multimedia formats• Inaccuracies• Information gaps

DIGG

• www.digg.com/• Democratic digital media• Up to the minute media• Text, video, audio • Insert into materials• Appropriateness

Dafont

• www.dafont.com• Repository for fonts• Create interest• Themes• Some require licensing

Collins concordance

• www.collins.co.uk/corpus/CorpusSearch.aspx

• Concordance• Collocates• Definition• Examples of use• Sentence cloze• Lack of corpus control

Flickr

• www.flickr.com• Picture repository• Community driven• Locate images• Protection levels• Appropriate

Lorem Ipsum

• www.lipsum.com• Dummy text for layout• Mock ups• Generator• Copy and paste• The text is in Latin

Babblelfish (Altavista)

• babelfish.altavista.com• Online translator• Text, Webpage• Translate foreign sources• Machine translation• Limited languages