English Exercises Online

Luigi Magnano and I have been working together for the last nine months to produce a comprehensive set of exercises for beginner English language learners (free sign-up required.).

Several months’ work produced initial results which we felt were good, so I was a little deflated when Luigi told me he felt we needed to make a thorough revision of the first exercises. Luigi has a particular vision, and is striving for excellence. When he explained the changes he wanted I had to agree they would improve the exercises.
So far we have revised the first set, which introduces the colours.

Take a look at at the first set Activities With Colours (1) (free signup required to access the exercises) and see if you agree!

Tags: English Language Learners, ESL young learners, Gattegno Method, interactive ESL exercises

In this and subsequent exercises in this Silent Way series we will be introducing commonly used English words. Based around the word “take”, the latest set of exercises to be added to Strivney also introduces “the”,”a” and “another”. The set builds upon vocabulary introduced in the previous Silent Way exercises, which should be tackled first.

See below one of the animations used to demonstrate the word “take”. It is accompanied by audio in the actual exercise.

Register free with Strivney here to access these and over 1,000 other online interactive English Exercises.

As always your feedback is welcome.

Tags: English Language for Beginners, English Language Learners, ESL young learners, Silent Way

Continuing with the development of interactive exercises based on the Silent Way method, we have added a new set which teaches the numbers.

You can see a small sample of these exercises for English Language Learners here. To access the full set, and over 1,000 other interactive ESL exercises you will need to register, free, with Strivney.
We are now working on a set which teaches the clock and time telling skills.
Your feedback is always welcome.

Tags: English Language Learners, Gattegno Method, interactive ESL exercises, Silent Way

A couple of months ago Luigi Magnano asked if I could create some interactive exercises based on Caleb Gattegno’s “Silent Way” approach to language teaching. Though no expert, I am interested in this approach and was keen to try. Luigi and I have since been working in close consultation and have created a series of interactive exercises which introduce the colours and words like “a”, “the” and “and” using Cuisenaire rods as a vehicle.

You can view and use these via this link: Exercises for teaching English to beginners. You will need to register free to access the exercises together with over 1,000 other exercises on the Strivney site for learning to read with phonics and learning English vocabulary.

We welcome your feedback.

Phew!  It took me over two months to complete the latest addition to Strivney.  This was a steep learning curve for me as I learnt how to work with Xerte and Flash to produce the results I wanted.
You can see the first two pages of these easy English comprehension exercises here.  As with all of the resources on Strivney, the material is taught first, and then practised in various ways.  Register free or use your log in details to access the full set.

As I am planning on developing a whole series of these exercises, your feedback and suggestions would be welcomed.

I’m taking time off from adding content to Strivney just now while I learn how to use Xerte, an exciting tool for creating interactive learning content.

Xerte  produces attractive exercises and offers new possibilities in terms of what can be created, like being able to add hot-spots to pictures for drag and drop exercises, but it doesn’t offer some of the flexibility in terms of graphics and audio which Hot Potatoes, which I used to create over 1,000 ESL exercises, offers.

I am also toying with which direction to go in with the learning content I am creating.  More phonetic reading exercises, more exercises for learning English vocabulary, more grammar exercises or a new section devoted to conversational English?  Decisions, decisions………watch this space.

I just added a new set of exercises which teach and practise the names of the members of the family to Strivney, the free website for ESL young learners .

View an example exercise here or access the full set using your log in details.

Tags: family vocabulary

Teacher Monica Cortada felt that the British pronunciation of the phonic sounds in Strivney could be confusing to her students and she very kindly offered to record the sounds for an American version.

Monica is an American native speaker with no particular accent and has a lovely voice.  I am extremely grateful to her for this initiative.

Stage A – Learning the Sounds (American) is now online.  Stage B will follow.

Strivney is proving to be popular with teachers of English Language Learners and I am happy that the new version will make it more accessible for US students.

Thanks so much to Monica for making this happen.

I have just added a series of 14 ESL word search games, covering different topics such as the body, foods, colours, etc.  to Strivney, the free website for ESL young learners. 

The nice thing about these word searches is that each word is accompanied by sound and a picture, making them ideal for helping ESL students to learn new vocabulary. 

Each game links to a crossword with the same words.  The crosswords also have sound and pictures and students get to practise spelling the words they learnt in the word searches.

You can see an example ESL word search here.  You will need to register, free, with Strivney or log in to access the full set of games.

Would you like your child to become bi-lingual? Here is a list of strategies you can use to help your son or daughter become fluent in a second language.  This article focuses on English as a second language but the tips can be used for any second language.  See full article: Teaching English to Young Children.

Tags: teaching English to young children