Primarily designed as support material for English for Academic Purposes courses, this interactive CD-ROM includes three main sections. The Big Picture looks at the structure of seven types of academic writing; The Middle Ground focuses on paragraph-level issues; and Up Close addresses more specific features of academic language. The program incorporates many annotated student texts from a range of disciplines and genres. An interactive demo can be downloaded from http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/academic_writing/demo/index.html.
Designed to meet a third through sixth grade language arts curriculum- grammar and spelling, parts of speech and sentence structure, lsynonyms and antonyms, build vocabulary. This incorporates Word Munchers, Schoolhouse Rock/Grammar Rock, Writing Trek. Designed for native speakers, but useful for ELLs.
Students explore and experience a story based on the original work of author Tomie dePaola. They can read the story, hear it read to them by the author, and explore the text and living illustrations. Integrated art activities let students create with the author. Also includes video clips as they explore Tomie dePaola's studio, hear him tell about his childhood experiences, and learn about his life as an author and illustrator. Requires CD-ROM drive. MECC titles are now sold by Learning Company.
Collaborative writing software that allows linked users to write or draw simultaneously in a shared area. Up to 32 people can work simultaneously, writing and viewing each other's writing. Aspects was used in Project CONNECT, a research project that helped weak note-takers improve by watching an experienced note-taker at work during classroom lectures.
Designed for adults who need reading and writing skills; uses extensive audio. Eight units, sold separately. Each unit includes a management component. The units are Duc and Linh (lifeskills math and numeracy, inferences, map reading); New Challenges (signs, maps, compare products, make appointments, make inferences); Grace Under Pressure (career search, basic home repairs, interpret charts and graphs, auto purchasing and insurance); Amazing Grace (test-taking strategies, time management, price comparison, budgeting, writing ads and letters); Joe Moves Up (job attitudes, phone skills, using a catalog, customer service, cooking); KC Makes Choices (emergency first aid, durgs and alcohol, gangs, getting a job, dealing with learning disabilities, reading comprehension); Linda's New Start (job handbook, customer service, comparison shopping, using a timecard); and Day by Day (computing mileage, reading a map, comparison shopping, making a budget, time management, fact vs. opinion).
Thie HyperCard stack from Elizabeth Hanson-Smith asks students to freewrite from four different aspects (narrative, description, analysis, comparison) about the teacher's prompt or one of several computer-generated pictures. The student then chooses key words from the freewriting to organize into an idea web. Writing and the idea web may be printed out. The color version is distributed by Computers for Education, and a black and white version is available on the TESOL/CELIA CD-ROM.
Helps create the plots for ÒBuddyÓ movies. Learners choose from various lists to generate a plot, which they can then flesh out. Requires HyperCard.
Contains 400 customizable letters, memos, press releases, announcements, proposals and other documents covering a broad range of topics for business. American English, unlike many other business English products.
Teaches and tests a wide range of skills covering all Learning Outcomes at Levels 2, 3 and 4 of the Reading and Writing, Oral Communication and Numeracy and Mathematics Streams of the Australian CGEA test. Australian English.
Download this free software program from http://www.churchillhouse.com/english/downloads.html to help students revise for the tricky "spot the error" question on the Cambridge First Certificate Exam (FCE). It's also suitable for intermediate and advanced students who want to work on their grammar.
Tutorial to teach students how to do a class newspaper. Includes brainstorming, grammar, editing, layout, and reporting skills. Available on CD-ROM or disk; includes teacher's guide, 30 student workbooks, and electronic newspaper templates.
A cloze generating program in which students fill in vowels, consonants, or words in a reading passage. A number of short texts are provided and teachers may add passages into the program for students to do.
This Hypercard-based tutorial is designed to prepare upper intermediate and advanced ESL students for success in academic writing courses. The focus of the instruction is on identifying topic sentences, understanding the structure of topic sentences, the function of supporting sentences, the use of transition words and phrases, and common paragraph organization patterns in English. The example texts used in the tutorials are short and generally relevant to student interests. New color version available. A black and white version is available through CELIA.
1996 catalog plus demos of Insight (job choices) and Postcards. Requires Acrobat Reader. CD-ROM.
Eight interactive modules (real-time 'chat,' class e-mail, brainstorming tool, guided peer response or critical reading activity, word processor with dictionary and thesaurus, bibliography manager, file server access/management, automatic class assignment feature) that allow for a wide variety of computer mediated interaction: teacher to student, student to student, student to whole class. Among its many features is that it works in real time, so a class that meets in a lab can hold both large and small group discussion on-line: as a user types a comment, it appears on everyone's screen. Transcripts of all discussions are stored automatically to the server, and can be saved to a disk or printed out for further review. Although some parts of DIWE can be run on individual non-networked computers (primarily the brainstorming, reading, word processing, and bibliography tools), it is most effective when run over a local area network from a file server. The program is not difficult to use, but instructors may find Daedalus training and support helpful in integrating it into an existing curriculum. Unit cost starts at $150 per station; additional customer support options, ESL Teacher Tool, Online Style Handbook, and Foreign Language Tools are also available. Other pricing includes unlimited campus-wide licenses and annual leases. DaedalusMOO: moo.daedalus.com 7777
A four-set series available on CD-ROM or disks. Each graded set has 30 cloze passages grouped in three readability levels. The nonfiction passages use a multiple-choice exercise format. The cloze stories are content-based with literature, science, and social studies themes. The writing practice segment offers activities to improve persuasive, narrative, process, descriptive, and report writing. Sets can be purchased separately for $70 or as a whole for $250. Lab pack of five is $500, of 10 is $750, and a network version is $1000.
Talking word processor which 'says' letters and words as they are typed. Includes a large-text word-processor and drill in identifying letters. Helpful for beginning readers, adults, and children. The Mac version works with a Unicorn Board and Adaptive Firmware Card or IntelliKeys. The MS-DOS version requires Digispeech 201A or later.
This software was developed by an ESL teacher and features all authentic writing. It uses more than 85 essays written by ESL students in which the user has to find and correct the grammar errors. Essays range from high beginner to high intermediate. Users who want more help with grammar can access grammar help pages which will explain the rules hyperlink to other sentences and paragraphs which exhibit the same type of error. Additional exercises and examples are in the accompanying text, "The Grammar HELP! Student Handbook," available from the author/publisher.
Business correspondence package. Over 200 model texts cover all forms and subjects of business correspondence, and extensive help is also provided. British English.
14 modules on paragraph- and essay-writing that cover how to write a topic sentence, develop and arrange details, and use sources in addition to different rhetorical styles from process paragraphs to persuasive essays.
Students create stories based on thematic vocabulary provided in the program's 'story starters.' Students can choose graphics to illustrate their own stories and print them.
A creative writing CD-ROM, which lets you or your students write, direct, and play your own animated shows with talking characters. You select the scene, you direct the actors, you write the dialogue, you choose the music and special effects. You can screen it in the theater by clicking on the projector. There's even an Idea Machine which provides story starters, plot twists, and dialogue suggestions based on the scene you've chosen and the specific personalities of your characters. Uses computerized voices; sometimes you have to fiddle with spelling to get them to sound right. (SA) Formerly sold by Theatrix, it is good to see this title reappear.
Like its predecessor Hollywood, Hollywood High has students write and direct an animated show with talking characters. The settings and characters are high school-oriented, so this is more attractive to teens but less useful for adults than Hollywood. Students select the scene and characters, place and move the actors, write the dialogue, and choose the special effects. Because it uses synthesized rather than digitized voices, they can be odd. It's possible to tweak the spelling to improve the pronunciation, but the point of this is the dialogue among the learners creating the show, not the end result itself. This is not recommended as a listening skill builder, but it's a great tool for discussion at the computer. CD-ROM. Formerly sold by Theatrix, it is good to see this title reappear.
Topics include writing skills for resumes, employment forms, business letters, lists, memos, social security applications, bank account applications, and driver's licenses. Some voice instructions. Also offers an Internet link to useful websites. CD-ROM.
An idea generator and outliner with a large database of ideas and suggestions waitng to link up with your prompts.
A pre-writing program that allows students to organize and arrange ideas in outline or diagram form. Useful for making flow charts to show the logical progression of ideas. Most frequently used for concept mapping and story webbing.
Material is based on a news report that aired just two days after the huge earthquake in Japan of January, 1995. This lesson focuses on practicing advanced level listening skills, and in addition to reading and some writing components, it includes opportunities for pronunciation practice (if a microphone is available) and more. A small shareware fee ($10 US) is requested to encourage the development of additional lessons. Japan Quake is freeware.
Students practice punctuation and capitalization rules by finding and correcting errors in paragraphs or longer text. The bottom of the screen shows a list of the missing punctuation marks and the number of capital letters. While some exercises come with the program, teachers are expected to add more of their own material. It works well to use students' own work as the basis for exercises. Windows version available Jan 1999.
This typing program offers a step-by-step tutorial (written for native speakers, so not very useful by beginners or intermediate level students without a teacher's help getting started), record-keeping so that learners can start up again where they left off, and game options for further practice. The road race typing game is very popular with some learners. Sometimes sold bundled with Correct Grammar by mail order vendors. On CD-ROM or on disks.
A CD-ROM based set of reference materials, including on-line versions of The American Heritage Dictionary, Roget's Thesaurus, The World Almanac and Book of Facts, The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, The People's Chronology, The Hammond World Atlas, and the National Five-digit Zip Code and Post Office Directory. There are hypertext links between most of the materials, so the student can click on a word in the encyclopedia, and Bookshelf will jump to its dictionary where the student can even hear the word pronuounced. Well-designed and very informative, but like most multimedia programs, it really needs an up-to-date Mac or PC.
Word-processor with speech capability (uses a speech synthesizer). Words are spoken as they appear on the screen. The computer stores a list of each user's words in a 'word bank.' Students can see or hear the words in the word bank in a window of the screen while doing additional word processing. Useful for Language Experience Approach activities. DOS version is on disks, while the Mac version is on CD-ROM.
Story-telling and creation. Designed for native speakers.
This program was designed to accompany the writing and grammar series of the same name. Interactive computer tutorials accompany each chapter of the text. With this program students can access a word processor to write assignments collaboratively or independently. Lesson activities are also designed to be done in pairs collaboratively. Computer-based tests for each level use randomly generated questions in a multiple-choice format. A feedback screen on test performance can be printed out or saved for record-keeping purposes. Sample software is free from the publisher. Level 1 and Level 2 sold separately.
Learners choose from a menu of topics to develop an idea and write their own topic sentence, body, and conclusion. Sections include cause and effect, reasons, details, examples, and sequencing. Upgraded for Windows 95/98/2000.
This self-paced program contains 500 stories and letters to edit at three reading levels and three interest levels (youth, teen, adult). Students have access to help in the form of a word list, context-sensitive grammar rules, and clues such as highlighting sentences and words with errors and modeling a correct version of the article. A record-keeping function tracks student progress in working through the skill areas the program addresses: abbreviations, punctuation, subject-verb agreement, irregular verbs, numbers, pronouns, easily confused words, and general editing.
Contains 400 customizable letters covering a broad range of topics for personal use.
This HyperCard stack from Elizabeth Hanson-Smith prompts students step by step in the creation of six styles of poetry and also includes a numer of fiction starters. The poetry styles include Cinquain, Diamonds, Sense Poems (easy, medium and hard) and Haiku. The color version is distributed by Computers for Education, and a black and white version is available on the TESOL/CELIA CD-ROM.
Students select from Mexico, Ghana, Japan, and Turkey as a country of interest, then choose a writing project: narrative, persuasive, compare/contrast, or descriptive. They can view three different multimedia tours of each country to look at the culture, history, and geography. Students take notes in a travel log. The program offers a 'Mail Room' where students write postcards, first in a structured format, then without prompts. Teachers can add more writing assignments. The program includes help in finding keypals on the Internet and a list of websites for online research. CD-ROM. The publisher offers a free demo.
This computer tool is very useful in enabling students to complete such tasks as creating greeting cards, signs, personalized letterhead stationary, banners and calendars. The program comes with lots of interesting pre-made graphics which students can use in the creation of their projects. The new Print Shop Deluxe edition on CD-ROM adds the following capabilities to the previous editions: scalable graphics; color printing; TrueType fonts (which can also be scaled without losing any quality); new styles of ready-made graphics to serve as backgrounds for individual letters or as a border for a whole side of a text; special pre-made headline texts; 'rich text,' which allows users to change fonts, styles, sizes and colors within individual words; a new utility to export Print Shop Deluxe graphics to other programs; and a layout program to facilitate creative mixing of text and graphics. Earlier disk-based version is slightly less expensive.
Students complete stories by writing their own phrases or choosing from prewritten selections. A newspaper can be a class project. Available on Mac and Windows disks or a Mac/Win CD-ROM.
Assists business people, engineers and technical staff with writing their documents, providing five levels of help: 1) Structure and Organization: The Report/Letter Guide helps learners understand text organization and the function of each part of their writing. 2) Grammar and Style: The Style Guide offers examples, help, and self-testing. 3) Model Writing: The Report/Letter Guide is a reference library of annotated model writing specially adapted from genuine reports and letters. 4) The Writing Process: The Process Guide provides an interactive screen for users to set out schedules for their planning, writing, revising and proofreading. 5) The WriterÕs Checklist: This function enables writers to check off each stage of the writing process as they complete it. A demo is available on the website.
Dictionary that can be accessed from within an program. Also includes model letters. CD-ROM.
Updated version of The Right Resume Writer. Formats for chronological, skills and professional resumes. Hints for effective marketing of experiences included. The company now offers Resume Maker, which includes a career planning component.
Internet curriculum service for grades K-8 providing access to teacher plans, discussion groups, on-line chats with authors, thematic guides. Includes an ESL/Spanish department. Articles, books, experts and resources are accessible. Areas include the Math Center and the Writing Center.
The kind of sentence transformation exercises found in the Cambridge FCE and CPE examinations. Each question has two levels of help -a simple hint and then a direct link to the relevant grammar topic in the on-line Grammar Guide. There is also AutoCorrection, which formats the student's input before processing it to avoid 'mistakes' due to forgetting to add a full stop or capitalise the first letter, etc. Comes with 100 pre-loaded questions with room to add many more. 5+ answers for each question. Very easy to use. A demo can be downloaded or the program ordered from the Internet at http://www.classicweb.com/usr/jseng/sean/ls_home.htm. The price includes a site license.
Sound-Write corrects spelling errors on the spot while simultaneously letting the pupil hear what he/she spelled. Includes a 50,000 word vocabulary, implicit help with homonyms, simple 'language experience' queries, and secret tracking of the user's nonstandard spelling. The DECTalk Speech engine from Fonix Corp is included. It provides a human voice that says words in real time, spells them aloud, and reads sentences after they're typed. Demo or full versions can be downloaded from the website. The previous version was called Spell-Well.
Digital English Spanish dictionary including synonyms, verb conjugations and idiomatic expressions, and an interactive computer-aided translator (ICAT). SEER helps students develop and improve full English Spanish bilingualism.
Spell Tutor is an easy to use and fun program for creating, practicing, storing and printing lists of spelling words. The student hears the word as recorded on the Mac by the teacher or other student and then must spell the word using correct case. When finished, the student sees his score and can opt to retake the whole test or just the missed words. The teacher, parent, or student enters a spelling list of up to 30 words of up to 16 letters each. The pronunciation of the word is entered at the same time using a Macintosh sound input device. (i.e. the plaintalk mic which comes with most Macs) Version 1.2 offers the option of allowing the computer to speak the word when the Apple Speech extension is present. Previously entered words can be easily edited. The list is stored and can be printed. Requires a Macintosh computer with a 68020 cpu or better, System 7.0 or better. A Macintosh sound input device (such as the small round mic that comes with some systems) or the Apple Speech Manager extension. At least 1 Meg of free RAM (2 Megs preferred) Headphones are useful in a lab situation. (Addis)
Create animated storybooks. CD-ROM.
Learners use the included picture cards to create a story that they can then tell to their classmates. Learners click on and drag the images they want to the desired location on the page. Students can also type in words. The Deluxe version reads words letter by letter, word by word, or by sentence and supports QuickTime movies. This graphical program will require a task set by the teacher for students to have much language learning benefit from using it. Runs on a CD-ROM under Windows or on the Mac.
A creative tool for kids to write and illustrate their own storybook. Students can choose from hundreds of images and scenery combinations, plus a variety of borders and type styles. They can also add sounds and music to their stories. Story Book Weaver Deluxe on CD offers more graphics and animation, spoken word narration, and both English and Spanish writing capabilities. The disk version is slightly less expensive. MECC titles are now sold by Learning Company School.
Graphic print program in bilingual version lets learners switch between the two languages. Includes teaching guide. Prints cards, newsletters, banners, etc. in color or B&W. Two-way English-Spanish or bilingual/ESL.
This 18-disk CD-ROM program supports the Prentice Hall Regents ESL program for Grades 1-6. Each of the disks links directly to and is fully integrated with a Student Theme Book and provides a variety of interactive activities (using animation, sound, and graphics). Activities include Screen Play: manipulating objects on the screen; Match Game: matching words and phrases; Story Reader: listening and reading; Story Maker: manipulating visuals and text to create a story; Draw and Share: drawing and coloring pictures; Puzzle: jumbled ideas and sentences; Story Completer: choosing words or pictures to complete a passage; Text Analyzer: highlighting portions of text onscreen; Comic-Strip Maker: writing and recording dialogue and creating captions to make a story; and Writing: a word-processor with pre-writing. Theme Connections 1 is oriented toward K-3; others toward 3-6.
A typing program recommended for beginning typists, used at the University of Kansas. Complete keyboarding course that includes spelling, grammar, composition, and punctuation work. Two reading levels. Designed for native speakers. Available on CD-ROM or download.
Word-processor with graphics, sound, and animation add-ons. An interactive cartoon character prompts students through the prewriting process. Best for children, due to the nature of the graphics included. Comes on CD-ROM.
UltraKey is a keyboard skills tutorial that is more appropriate for ESL users than many on the market. The explanation about proper posture at the computer is well done and accessible to at least intermediate level ESL students. The excellent use of graphics and visual prompts also helps. Finally, in the skill check section students have an option of typing in whatever text they desire. This enables students to practice writing sentences at their appropriate level while at the same time building keyboard speed. A demo version is available at the website. Hybrid Windows/Mac CD-ROM, or separate disks versions. Half price on DOS and Apple II disk versions.
Integrated writing and writing instruction program that lets users compose while following directed writing instructions, using story and report starters, or inputting copy for keyboarding development. Word-processing component includes on-line help, spell checking and text-to-speech. The program differs from others in its ability to analyze and report on keyboarding performance. UltraWriter is complemented by a program called UltraWriter Manager which allows teachers to create and edit their own curriculum content for use with UltraWriter. Available on disk and CD-ROM.
Previously entitled Sequitur/GoOn. Students practice arranging sentences of a paragraph in correct order. The computer presents the first line of a text and three possible continuations. Authorable. Teachers can enter texts into the program that students have worked with in class for students to practice on in computer mode.
Free text files from Elizabeth Hanson-Smith. Pre-freshman English course syllabus, assignments, and templates for writing assignments to learn word processor skills as well as composition.
Part of the Amazing English series, the CD-ROM teaches reading skills appropriate to novels plus some essay writing. Hard-bound teacher's manual. Separate CDs for pre-K-3 (Word Stuff = $85), 3-6 (Word Attack = $90).
Integrated suite of programs for looking at how words behave in texts. WordList shows a list of all the words in a text, set out in alphabetical or frequency order. Concordancer shows any word or phrase in context, and KeyWords finds the key words in a text. Various smaller tools and extensive on-line help also included. Distributed exclusively over the World Wide Web at http://www.oup.co.uk/elt/software/wsmith/.
This CD-ROM-based world atlas offers extensive information on countries of the world, including demographic as well as geographic data. Learners can search for specific information about a country. While it is possible to print the information about a country, the program is not selective about what to print, resulting in about 10-15 pages of output.
CD-ROM based writing activities in both Spanish and English versions. Topics include English for You; My First Sentences; Class Journals; Chant, Chant, Chant; Poetry for Young Poets; The Me Disk I, Sentence Writing I, Sentence Combining with Aesop; Sentences to Paragraphs I.
Designed for native speakers, this CD-ROM offers expert advice, step by step instructions, and sample sentences for writing business and personal letters on more than 500 topics. Includes 2000 sample letters. A demo can be downloaded from http://www.WriteExpress.com/download.html
Playing with words. Designed for native speakers. CD-ROM. An online demo is available at http://www.WriteExpress.com/rhymer.html.
Renamed and updated as Report Writer for Science and Engineering Reports.
The program offers drills, learning hints, examples, automatic grading, performance graphs and summary reports. $250 per level, from grade 6-12. Can be installed on a network.
This writing program works with Microsoft Word, Word Perfect and Ami Pro. Learners can start by brainstorming with the concept database, something like an idea thesaurus. This three-level hierarchy starts with a list of concept categories related to the learner's query word. Writers can then move to Section Titles from the selected concept category, then to a list of ideas, words, and phrases linked thematically to the section title. It also works well as a regular thesaurus. Available for Macintosh and Windows.
Topics include Sentences & Paragraphs, Capitalization & Punctuation, Writing Letters, Writing for Fun, Writing to Explain, Writing Process, Writing Descriptively, Expository Writing, Newswriting, and A Writer's Basic Tools. Split screen has topics on one half, word-processor on the other.
Pre-writing, writing, and post-writing activities and skills. Two-disk set to accompany Aaron's The Little, Brown Compact Handbook.
A prompted writing program with pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading exercises. The four domains: persuasive writing, report on information/observation, autobiography, and evaluation can be purchased separately or as a complete series. Separate domains are $70 each. CD-ROM.
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