WordSift

WordSift is another kind of  free word cloud.

Though it is not attractive compared to Wordle, it is more academic and provide more interesting opportunities to engage with vocabulary.

One of the advantages of this tool is that the the data can be sorted by A to Z or Z to A, for example.

Another advantage is that, if you click a word, it can create a mindmap related to the word on the "Visual Thesaurus" with images on the left hand.

Here is an example. I clicked on the word "love".

If you place the cursor on the thesaurus, its definition(s) will appear. If you click on a word in the thesaurus, it will show a new thesaurus display beginning with the word you have selected. The users can go further and learn about the words more.

As this is less entertaining and attractive, WordSift would suit learners who want to learn about the words more deeply. I would enhance learners' autonomy, only when they are motivated to some extent. For, as all information is provided in English, some learners might be demotivated or less interested because of the lack of basic English knowledge.


Here is the link to WordSift.

http://www.wordsift.com/

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

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

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/

Triptico

Triptico is a tool that teachers can use to make the lesson more game-like one. It is designed and created by David Riley.

Triptico could be suitable for a wide range of age groups, levels, as well as subjects. The teachers can make the questions easy or difficult depending on the their needs or according to the interest or levels of their students. Not only language teachers but also any teachers of any subjects can make good use of this tool.

The teacher can ask a student to answer the questions in front of the class. Also, s/he can project the materials on the screen and invite the whole class to answer the questions.

The teacher should take the learners' age, levels or even genders into consideration. I find it useful when it is used as a warming-up activity as it provides learners with quick activities. I assume it can gain students' attention very easily, however, the excessive use can make learners bored or make them think that it is useless especially when the learners are older than 15/16 years old or when they consider entrance examinations for high ranked universities. Also, the older girls become, the less interested they become in this game-like activity (of course it always depends on the learner groups).

Downloading is free. Once you download it, you can choose activities from the menu screen. It can make funny sounds when they get a right/wrong answer.

You can also choose your favourite TIMERS or SELECTORS.

Here is what I have made using "What's the Question?". This activity helps learners to build the question by looking at the answer. The teacher are invited to make groups.

It took more time to think about 12 questions than I expected. One reason for this is that I didn't have a clear image of the learners. It will be important to include questions which can help students to remember what they have leanrt as well as questions which will be helpful for their following learning. The teacher also should be aware of the interest of the learners.


Here is the link to Triptico.

http://www.triptico.co.uk/home