Wordle

Wordle is an online tool for generating "word clouds" from texts that you like. A "word cloud" or "tag cloud" is a visual representation for text data.

You just choose text you would like to show and Wordle will give a word cloud.

Here is an example.

You can have your learners guess what the text is about or identify the topic. The most frequent words are showed in bigger size.

Font, layout and colour are easy to change. It is easy to make the text attractive. Wordle provides learners with a good opportunity to engage with vocabulary.

If you put one sentence,

it can be an exercise of putting words in the right order.

If the classroom is equipped with enough computers connected to the Internet, learners can choose their favourite text and create a word cloud. They can have their classmates guess the topic or make some grammar questions for their classmates to answer.


It is attractive and could provide a good exercise, however, some learners might find the text distracting or the text can make some people feel sick because of its layout or colour. It would be difficult to get attention for a long time.


Here is the link to Wordle. Give it a go by clicking "create". You should install and activate Java.

http://www.wordle.net/

The text I chose is from the official site of the musical - Les Miserables.

http://www.lesmis.com/uk/