John Kirk
Gorham, Maine 04038
kirkjohnb5@gmail.com
www.aokbasicskills.gratis

2 de enero de 2024

The AOK ILL Website Guide for Children
Table of Contents

Introduction

Introduction
Website localization
Translating websites
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and the European Language Portfolio (ELP)
Student guide to English levels
Disclaimer

Unit 1: Studying
Part A
The CEFR & the ELP

How to use the CEFR and the European Language Portfolio (ELP) plus an example of the ELP

Part B
How to Study English

How to study and organize your work

Unit 2: Vocabulary

Two Free Dictionaries
Vocabulary Games
Vocabulary Games on the Internet

Unit 3: Free English Courses on the Internet

Student Courses

Unit 4: Grammar

English Grammar Sites Using Spanish
Grammar sites only in English.
Other Grammar texts in PDF (Parents)

Units 5-6: Listening and Speaking

Recorded Stories
Speaking Activities
Story Telling
Mr. Bean and Silent Videos (with parents’ help)
Learn with Music
Listening-Speaking Games (with parents help)

Unit 7: Reading

Varied Reading for Students
Vocabulary, Grammar, and Bilingual Quizzes

Unit 8: Writing

Writing for the Student with the Parents’ Help
Robot Tutor Mike

Unit 9: Multipurpose Sites and Learning Links

Multi-purpose ESL-EFL Sites
Students’ Links to other Beginner and Elementary Level
EFL Sites

Unit 10: Studying English with your Family

Some Ideas on how to study English with your Family
Level A1 Elementary EFL Sites for Parents and Children

Introduction

In this website guide – Level A1 Elementary School EFL Sites – you will find a series of suggestions to study reading, writing, listening, speaking, grammar, vocabulary and teaching your child to study English. This guide is designed as a starting point or continuation point to sites that you already might have.

Since elementary school English classes are basically designed as an introduction to English, the sites included here are supportive sites for beginners and advanced beginners, but some include more advanced material for general interest.

Studying English with your elementary-aged child can be a worthwhile experience, but try to ‘Make it fun!’

Website localization

Sometimes you won’t be able to connect to a website because small changes have been made. For example, http://www.eslamerica.us/Grammar.html has changed to: http://www.eslamerica.us/grammar.html. If you can’t connect to a website, try changing the address to the shorter one: http://www.eslamerica.us/ and go from there.

Website Translations

1. To translate a website, open the Google browser.
2. Then go to “Google Translate” and you will see the two translation boxes on the screen.
3. Look right below and you will see the “Google Translate” URL again.
4. Open it and click on the fourth small box to the right which says “Websites”. 5. Click on it and paste the website/URL you want to translate on the left side.
6. Paste in the website you wish to translate.
7. Click the arrow on the right and the English website will open if possible.
8.The new URL will be at the top of your screen.
9. If it doesn’t open, you will need to translate the website piece by piece.
10. To do this, it’s faster to use Chrome as the number of words you can translate is larger.

How to translate small amounts of information

To translate other information, open the Google browser.
Then open Google translator “from English to …
Paste the information you want to translate on the left side of the page.
The translation will be on the right side.
It would be good to reread it, since a translator sometimes makes small mistakes.

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)
and the European Language Portfolio (ELP)

The CEFR is a language learning curriculum with objectives that are easy to understand and the ELP is a language learning tool used to record a student’s growth in a second language and help them plan how to learn the objectives.

In Part A of Unit 1 below, there is a copy of an ELP for children and a simple description of how to use it. It can serve to help your child learn English more efficiently.

And now, with chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Bard, you can incorporate almost all of the CEFR universal language learning objectives and they will give you good lesson plans, exercises, and stories to learn them.

English Levels

Beginner: A1 Intermediate: B1 (not included)
Elementary: A1High – A2 Low Advanced Intermediate: B2 (not included)
Pre-Intermediate: A2 High Low Advanced: C1 (not included)

The following websites which are marked in bold might be slightly better than the other websites, but they are all good.

Disclaimer

John Kirk has written none of the materials or activities in these links. These websites belong to the respective corporations, companies, public institutions, and individuals indicated on their pages. If any of the content on these websites is of an inappropriate nature, please contact Mr. Kirk at kirkjohnb08@gmail.com and he will gladly remove the site from the links he has organized.

Unit 1: Studying

Part A

http://deniscousineau.pbworks.com/f/elementaryportfolio_revised.pdf Here is the European Language Portfolio Junior Version: Revised Edition 2006.

Part B

How to study and organize your work
www.wikihow.com/Learn-English Good ideas for beginners on how to learn English.

Unit 2: Vocabulary

Dictionaries
http://www.ultralingua.com/onlinedictionary From English to … and … to English
http://www.merriam-webster.com/ Dictionary and thesaurus.
https://translate.google.com/ This translator also has speeds which help with pronunciation.

Vocabulary Building Sites

http://www.rong-chang.com/vocabulary.htm A large site for vocabulary building.

http://www.eleaston.com/materials.html A large assortment of vocabulary organized by topic.

http://www.learningchocolate.com/ Vocabulary in color by categories.

http://marocmama.com/14-ways-to-help-kids-learn-vocabulary-in-a-new-language/ Practice vocabulary here with your child.

http://www.vocabulary.co.il/ Kids learn vocabulary

http://esl-kids.com/flashcards/ Some interesting flash card forms to make a vocabulary notebook.

Juegos de Vocabulario (para que los padres ayuden con)

Vocabulary Games (for parents to help with)

http://www.eslgamesplus.com/board-games-cards-games/ Good games for elementary students.

http://bcs.schoolwires.net/cms/lib5/AL01001646/Centricity/Domain/131/Elementary%20Vocabulary%20Games.pdf Jill Hadfield, Elementary Vocabulary Games./

http://www.esl-galaxy.com/games.html A number of downloadable vocabulary games for kids.

http://www.brainpopesl.com/ Levels A1-2. Brain pop. Very nice site – user-friendly and colorful. It has various levels and lots of audio work. It includes reading aloud words and sentences, games, and written work.

Vocabulary Games on the Internet

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/vocabulary-games Vocabulary games on the Internet.

http://www.eslgamesplus.com/pirate-games/ This is a fun website with computer games. Suitable for younger students (elementary or maybe junior high). The vocabulary is according to topics.

http://www.internet4classrooms.com/learn_eng.htm Internet games to teach basic vocabulary (weather, body parts, etc.)

http://users.skynet.be/fa598346/leshoekje/engels-activities-vocabulary-pupils-hoofd.htm Levels A1-2. Grow your vocabulary through different games. It sends you to different sites depending on your need.

http://www.esolcourses.com/content/topicsmenu/beginners.html Basic on-line vocab lessons with games and quizzes.

Free ESL vocabular apps: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/apps-support-ELL-vocabulary-acquisition-monica-burns Free apps for elementary level vocab learning./

Unit 3: Free English Courses on the Internet (with Parents)

Student Courses

http://www.english-online.org.uk/course.htm?name Free British English course for children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42TpxP5wFBg A short course for children who are beginners./

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLx1R39kc38 A short course for children who are beginners.

http://www.sesamestreet.org/ Good learning games & videos for basic skills like numbers and letters, etc. It also has well done art activities

http://www.esl4kids.net/ This site sponsors the EFL Playhouse. Once you go there, click on ‘Take Me There’ for a number of different lesson themes such as ‘finger play’, arts and crafts, or ‘song’. If you click on ‘Songs’ inside the ‘Take Me There’ box, you’ll receive the words to some children’s songs. For example, ‘The Ants go Marching’: http://www.esl4kids.net/songs/ants.html . Then go to ‘youtube’ on a different Internet search engine for the music to the song and you’ll probably get it…

Unit 4: Grammar

English Grammar Sites with Spanish Explanations

http://www.aulafacil.com/cursos/t2520/idiomas/ingles/ingles-repaso-de-gramatica Levels A1-2. 105 grammar lessons

http://www.grammarbank.com/printable-worksheets.html Free worksheets.

www.rong-chang.com/ex/easy_grammar 27 Sets of Easy Grammar Exercises on 9 Grammar forms.

Grammar sites only in English

Some of these sites have good grammar explanations with examples and then exercises to practice the rule being taught .

http://www.1-language.com/englishcourse/ Levels A1-2. The grammar is first presented in context in a dialogue, then well explained with examples, and practiced in normal exercises and then dialog exercises

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-simple-present.php Level A1-2. Great grammar site with exercises.

http://www.eslpoint.com/ Levels A1-2. These grammar materials, compiled from different Internet sites, have been categorized by skill, level and content for classroom and individual learning.

Other Grammar texts in PDF (Parents)

http://www.fulbright.cz/sites/default/files/soubory/resource_book_for_efl_teachers_in_central_asia.pdf This text has good, printable grammar activities.

Units 5-6: Listening & Speaking

Recorded Stories

(Remember to check the multi-purpose sites for listening and speaking activities on p 16. For listening/speaking games….?

http://www.lil-fingers.com/storybooks/index.php Recorded books for children.

http://www.storynory.com/ Free children’s audio stories with the script./

http://www.eslvideo.com/esl_video_quiz_beginning_start.php Beginner’s story audio and reading with quizzes./

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEA969B1FD7AF939D A number of beginner/elementary level ‘Busy Beaver’ cartoons with audio.

Speaking Activities

Questions for Conversation

http://iteslj.org/questions/

http://www.eslconversationquestions.com/english-conversation-questions/topics/ Good questions for conversation.

http://www.quia.com/files/quia/users/donnapm/Games-handout-Rayton2-11FINAL.pdf A number of good speaking activities./

http://www.eslgold.com/speaking/low_beginning.html Good speaking activities for beginners. Also see ‘high beginning’ level.

http://www.k-3teacherresources.com/speaking_and_listening.html#.VdEbW5dcA4U Good Speaking and Listening activities./

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/motivating-speaking-activities-lower-levels A large variety of speaking activities./

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/speak/ Level A1+. Some basic pronunciation activities mixed with reading. /

Story Telling (with parents’ help)

https://tefltastic.wordpress.com/publications/by-topic/kids/yl-stories/ Interesting ideas for teaching EFL children that use stories.

https://www.englishclub.com/kids/ Some basic stories at different levels for kids.

Mr. Bean and Silent Videos (with parents’ help)

https://www.google.com/search?rct=j&q=youtube%20and%20mr.%20bean%20movies Level A1-2. This site has a large number of Mr. Bean movies

http://www.catesolnews.org/2014/09/mr-bean-speaks-american-english/ Ideas on how to use Mr. Bean in EFL class.

http://www.esl-galaxy.com/video.ht Movie names and worksheets including 3 for Mr. Bean videos. To get the movie, simply write its name in Google. Better for children in year 5 or 6 of school.

Learn with Music

(Remember to check the multi-purpose sites on p. 8 for music activities. Many song recordings can be found on Youtube, but you sometimes need to download the lyrics separately on Google.)

http://www.esl4kids.net/ This site sponsors the EFL Playhouse. Once you go there, click on ‘Take Me There’ for a number of different lesson themes such as ‘finger play’, ‘arts and crafts’, or ‘songs’. If you click on ‘Songs’ inside the ‘Take Me There’ box, you’ll receive the words to some children’s songs. For example, ‘The Ants go Marching’: http://www.esl4kids.net/songs/ants.html . Then go to ‘youtube’ on a different Internet search engine for the music to the song and you’ll probably get it…

https://www.englishclub.com/teaching-tips/music-classroom.htm This site has some good, basic ideas on how parents can use music with their children to help them learn English.

http://www.freddiesville.com/songs/ A number of children’s songs sung with the lyrics.

http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/dinsing.html A number of children’s songs sung with the lyrics.

http://www.esl-lounge.com/children-songs.php Good song lyrics for children. You can usually look up the music on youtube.

http://www.rong-chang.com/americansongs/index.htm Childrens songs with lyrics.

Listening-Speaking Games (with parents help)

http://www.tesolzone.com/tefl-games.html Here are a teacher’s favorite top 10 games using only the white board.

http://genkienglish.net/juniorhigh.htm Some good games.

http://www.teachenglishinasia.net/tefl-tesl-games-and-activities-directory Games are organized by age and topic.

https://vk.com/doc208922441_234421911?hash=aeba504703daf66151&dl=e3e0bf41ce2b48f318 Jill Hadfield: Elementary Grammar Games for students at the elementary level of English.

http://iteslj.org/c/games.html Some good speaking and listening games for beginners.

http://cockroachesladybugs.blogspot.com/2012/03/listenings-for-primary-eslefl-classes.html It lists some good sites to build listening skills.

Elementary Communication Games – pdf by Jill Hadfield. Great listening/speaking games for small groups and pairs speaking at the A-1 level. Listening/Speaking Games

http://www.funenglishgames.com/activities.html Games, activities and worksheets.

https://www.englishclub.com/esl-activities/ A number of elementary level games.

http://iteslj.org/c/games.html Good speaking/listening games for beginners. See pages 1-7.

Unit 7: Reading

Varied Reading for Students

Remember to check the multi-purpose sites for reading materials and exercises on p. xxx.

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/short-stories Level A1+. A large number of elementary level short stories that are shown as cartoons with a narrator. You can also print out the story to have it to read.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/emw A1-2

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/short-stories Level A1+ -A2. A large number of elementary level short stories that are shown as cartoons with a narrator. You can also print out the story to have it to read.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFxFZU6fX_0&feature=related Easy English rhymes for young children to listen to and then read.

http://www.cookie.com/kids/story/ Some fun, easy stories for young children.

Vocabulary, Grammar, and Bilingual Quizzes

(Some parents might want to introduce this site to their children.)

http://a4esl.org/ 100’s of different kinds of English quizzes at different levels

http://englishladder.com/ This site requires registration but is free. It has a large number of quizzes.

Writing: Unit 8

Writing for the Student with the Parents’ Help

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3c6tfr Levels 2-6. Learn to touch-type with the BBC.

https://www.rong-chang.com This site has a good writing section for beginners.

www.typingweb Levels 2-6. Learn to touch-type.

www.typingtest.com Levels 2-6. Learn to touch-type.

http://www.esolcourses.com/content/topicsmenu/writing.html Many exercises for beginners./ Muchos de los ejercicios para principiantes.

http://www.eslkidstuff.com/esl-kids-games/writing-games.htm#.V4BPJ6JcA4U This site has a number of writing activities.

http://busyteacher.org/16863-young-learners-7-writing-tasks.html Here are 7 writing activities for children. A parent could translate the site to Spanish if he desired to better understand the explanations.

http://eslkidsgames.com/2013/04/5-esl-writing-activities-for-children.html Here are 5 basic writing activities for children. A parent could translate the site to another language if s/he desired to better understand the explanations.

Robot Tutor Mike

http://www.rong-chang.com/tutor_mike.htm Levels A1-2. An electronic tutor that you can practice communicating in English with through its written answers. Ask Mike about how to learn a language, grammatical terms, languages, culture, government and history.

http://www.rong-chang.com/tutor_know.htm What does Robot Tutor Mike know? (See above for access to the robot.)

Unit 9: Multipurpose Sites and Learning Links
Multiusos ESL/EFL Sitios
Multi-purpose ESL/EFL Sites

These sites have very good activities in reading, writing, listening, speaking, grammar, and pronunciation from the beginner level on up. Some of them have specific information on teaching, such as lesson planning, etc. Please search them for the basic skills and other major topics, as they contain a lot of good information.

http://www.bbcactiveenglish.com/kids-english-zone_information.html Fun-to-watch Kids English Zone programmes include comedy sketches, animated characters and songs. The Kids English Zone books expand on the vocabulary and structures of everyday situations presented in the programmes. The colour-coded sections and simple and clear rubrics make the books easy to use, and colourful characters bring the activities to life. The books are based on the Cambridge ESOL Young Learners (starters) syllabus.

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/ A great site with all the basic skills.

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/teachers

LearnEnglish Kids is the British Council’s website for children around the world who are learning English as a second or foreign language. The site has free resources for children to use both in class and at home, either independently or with family members or friends. You can recommend activities from this site to children to do for homework, or during school holidays. You can also recommend the Parents section of LearnEnglish Kids to parents and carers of children.

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-kids Very good site for the elementary school level.

http://www.agendaweb.org/ Levels 1-6. Many exercises using all the basic skills for different age groups.

http://esl.about.com/od/teachingbeginners/a/ab_beg_intro.htm Some good information.

http://www.rong-chang.com Great exercises for parents with children.

https://www.rong-chang.com/kindergarten/k/kindergarten03.htm

http://www.manythings.org/e/ (Beginners index page.) Various ESL activities for independent study organized by level. This site is for ESL learners and has a lot of miscellaneous material of all kinds for the basic skills from the beginner level. There are quizzes, word games, word puzzles, proverbs, slang expressions, anagrams, a random-sentence generator and other computer assisted language learning activities. Try ‘Easy Things for Beginners’ or over 75 different topics related to the basic skills.

Students’ Links to other Beginner and Elementary Level EFL Sites

https://www.google.com/search?rct=j&q=youtube%20esl/efl%20index#q=YouTube+esl/efl+index&start=20 Youtube ESL/EFL index.

https://www.google.com.ec/search?q=YouTube+children%27s+esl+index&ei=Z3e2WoPfFO-Z_QaX5qHoDg&start=10&sa=N&biw=1047&bih=501 YouTube children’s esl index

larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/09/19/the-best-beginner-intermediate-advanced-english-language-learner-sites Dozens of websites for parents and students. Some of the beginner’s sites are for children. The others are good for adolescents.

http://www.studentguide.org/the-50-best-esl-resources-for-kids/ Many links of all kinds.

http://eflclassroom.com/books/premium/youtubeinclass.pdf First find this site. Then go to ‘Recommended Websites for Teaching English’ (to young learners).

https://webdisk.lclark.edu/krauss/cwis/usia/kids.html Many links for children that you can translate into Spanish using: Google/FireFox.

http://www.colorincolorado.org/ A site for children and their parents in English that can help the children learn the language.

http://www.studentguide.org/50-fantastic-resources-for-new-teachers/ Many links of all kinds.

http://www.eslall.com/learn_english.html See ‘children’ on index page for different children’s sites.

Unit 10: Some Ideas on how to study English with your Family

https://marocmama.com/14-ways-to-help-kids-learn-vocabulary-in-a-new-language/

1 The AOK EFL file: AOK ILL Website Guide I & II has many free, organized websites that you can use with your family members in Unit 10. Sometimes elementary aged children can join in!

The file includes a table of contents which has the page numbers for the basic skills and related subskills, and the sites for beginners have their annotations translated into Spanish. Included are a large number of sites where you can study the basic skills of English through games and lessons.

If you’re using the Duolinguo and/or Anki apps and your English level is similar to that of your family member, maybe you can study together. If your level is below, perhaps they can sometimes teach you, or the reverse may be true. (In Costa Rica 80,000 public high school students are using Duolinguo as part of their school program.)
Have your family member teach you with his/her English text or one from a different year.

Label vocabulary items in the house and study them together.

Download 100’s of easy questions from http://iteslj.org/questions/ and practiceconversation together.

You can both tell stories about something that happened during your day and then repeat what the other person said, asking questions about it.

Practice vocabulary on websites such as those listed in the JBK English files.

Read the news or stories to each other from the websites in the Reading Sections and then ask each other who, what, where, when, how and why questions about them.