ENGLISH FROM ENGLAND: A VIRTUAL LEARNING JOURNEY

English from England Ltd are UK developers of English language software for young learners who do not have English as their first language. We deliver an interactive web-based course that can also be used by anyone in the early stages of learning English, although later materials will suit older and more advanced students. It is useful for teachers of non-native speakers of English living either within or outside the UK who are looking for listening resources linked to the written word to develop specific linguistic skills.

The website www.englishfromengland.co.uk offers video of English children, filmed in England, who are able to model basic English in a natural, domestic English setting. The website has interactive games that have been designed to encourage and stimulate a desire to learn English based on the opportunity to practise, rehearse and repeat the language being heard. Every session starts with a film of the language being taught. The learner can see the speaker and listen the models simultaneously and can then practice what has been taught by using the online exercises for listening, reading and writing.

The structured materials help learners of English become familiar and confident users of the language. They are suitable for the classroom or for the individual learner. They can be used as a standalone system, as there are teacher’s notes, worksheets and other teaching resources, or they can enhance and complement any existing course by adding a new dimension to any classroom, making lessons real. They can also be set as homework to follow up lessons in class.

The team at English from England, all have specific backgrounds in the use of technology in education. They were all aware of recent developments in computer assisted language learning and realised that through the synergy of their diverse experience they could produce this new tool to aid teachers and learners.The ICT element means that it is flexible. This ensures that it can be used in a variety of contexts with initial guidance from teachers or parents but that children can eventually work independently at their own pace. The child has control of his or her own learning and can practise as often as necessary to ensure personal progression through carefully graded grammatical and linguistic goals.

Online now:

• Unit 1: Greetings; names; the alphabet; simple nouns; numbers to 20; colour adjectives; description of objects
• Unit 2: Who are you? How are you? What’s this? What are these? Based around the verb 'to be' 
• Unit 3: Family and pets; based around the verb ‘to have’
• Unit 4: My home; What’s in my house and what I do here
• Unit 5: My school; What’s in my school
• Unit 6: At school in England; Things I do in my school
• Unit 7: All about me — a revision chapter.