English as a Second Language (ESL)

How to use VocabularySpellingCity to meet the needs of ESL students

VocabularySpellingCity helps ESL teachers improve their students' academic English as well as their social English, not just with spelling and vocabulary but also pronunciation and listening comprehension. VocabularySpellingCity has proven effective in helping ESL students with vocabulary, spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and comprehension. It is estimated that nearly 20% of U.S. students speak a language other than English at home. Every day, more families come to live in the U.S., with children being placed in schools where they are required to learn English quickly. Whether they are placed in a part-time or full-time ESL (English as a Second Language) or ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classroom, they are often socially motivated to learn conversational English quickly but just as often hindered academically by a lack of understanding of classroom vocabulary, or academic language. VocabularySpellingCity can bridge the gap to academic language by focusing on pronunciation and comprehension using a thematic approach.

Pronunciation and Context for ESL Students

ESL students benefit from VocabularySpellingCity's pronunciation feature, which allows them to hear words used in contextual sentences, spoken clearly by professional and natural English speakers. Whether using VocabularySpellingCity's ready-made lists that focus on subjects such as math, geography, literature, and science or their own custom word lists relevant to their particular experiences and needs, ESL students enjoy learning English spelling, definitions, and applications using interactive online games. Assign an interactive word list to your ESL student, and open up a world of games, activities, and assessments that will ensure learning. If you have a particular set of words you'd like your student to learn, simply create your own list. It's fast and easy for the teacher, and it's fun and rewarding for the student.

ESL Vocabulary by Theme

In addition to learning by subject, a thematic approach is a great interdisciplinary way to educate English language learners in vocabulary. With VocabularySpellingCity, you can search for word lists by theme. For example, students can learn words associated with everything from Thanksgiving to springtime. If you don't see the theme you are looking for, you can create your own themed list in no time. Simply enter the words, and VocabularySpellingCity does the rest -- giving you definition choices and sentences to go with the words, allowing students to play games with the words, and even testing the students' knowledge of the words. Here is a list of themes that would be helpful for ESL students: Kitchen, bedroom, living room, clothing, animals, food, geography, weather, jobs, money, sports, technology, classroom. You can use these lists or search for other lists with the same title.

ESL in Language Arts

In language arts, ESL students often struggle with topics including capitonyms, sound alike words, multiple meaning words, and other kinds of figurative language. Idioms are a type of figurative language that can be particularly difficult for ESL students, and it's important that students be taught these terms directly, since ideas like "crocodile tears" or "beating around the bush" are difficult for second language learners to understand, even in context. Simply search for or create a list of idioms in VocabularySpellingCity and let the learning begin!

ESL: Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension

English language learners in non-English speaking countries often learn to read written English much more easily than they learn to speak the language or to understand spoken English. This is because they aren't exposed to spoken English on a regular basis. VocabularySpellingCity utilizes both spoken and written English, so students learning English can learn to pronounce words correctly and can hear words in context. After you find or create a word list in VocabularySpellingCity, students can click on the words to hear them spelled out, pronounced, and used in a sentence. Students can create their own flashcards with any list. Simply click on "Flashcards" to see the words and their definitions. Then click on the underlined sentence in blue to hear the word used in a sentence. This is a great way for students to improve their listening comprehension!

Record Keeping for ESL

With a Premium Membership, you have a comprehensive automated gradebook to track your ESL students' progress and monitor their activities. You can view, copy, and print detailed results by topic or by time frame. Another benefit is the ability for a student to electronically submit a writing assignment for you to grade. You can also assign specific lists and activities to individual students, groups of students or an entire class. To learn more, click here.