Monday, March 12, 2007

Submission #6

Name: CNN Distance Learning Adult Education Menu http://literacyworks.org/learningresources/

Level and Skill: Reading and Listening levels 3-6 (Niagara College 3-5)

Interactive: Yes

ESL/Non-ESL: Designed for Adult literacy and ESL purposes

Synopsis: This site is designed to help adult learners of English to improve their reading, spelling and writing skills using real-life stories from the CNN news bureau. Each learning module contains the full text of a recent CNN news story. Learners can choose to read the text, listen to it or view a video clip of the story. An abridged version of the text, perhaps better suited to beginning ESL students, is also available. After having read or listened to the text, the learner can then measure their comprehension by taking a variety of interactive tests such as cloze exercises, multiple choice and vocabulary quizzes.

Overall, the web site is well designed, easy to navigate, and visually stimulating. The reading/listening texts are interesting and topical, which serves to increase the intrinsic motivation of the language learner. In addition, this site is a good resource for instructors to use as a springboard to other class activities or lessons.

5 stars out of 5