ESL Courses online, or computer programs

[mercator]

I'm sure there are past posts on this, but things change in the world of computers pretty quickly.

 

What websites or online systems are out there for our SO's to learn English?

 

I found the MIT Open Courseware pretty nice for Chinese. It's free, and an actual recent college course set from a prestigious school.

 

How about software?

 

I've used Pimsleur Mandarin before I went to China my first time and found I spoke what few words Pimsleur teaches with decent intonation, but the key point is that it was very few words. I didn't learn much written Chinese that way. I also tried a demo of Rosetta Stone Mandarin, and English to see how that is, but it seems an illogical method, based on the demo. Just learning a string of phrases doesn't help you actually learn anything.

 

I'm anxious to find out what you all have tried, whether successful or not.

 

Thanks!

 

Merc

[warpedbored]

Here are a couple a friend gave me.

 

http://www.1-language.com/

http://esl.fis.edu/

[mercator]

On the top of the page between CFL Chat and CFL Gallery is CFL Links. I put about a dozen ESL sites up there.

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Thanks Donahso -

 

That is a good start. I am inclined to track down some good software as well, so any ideas besides Rosetta would be good to know.

 

I talked with my SO today and the topic of English study came up. I told her that she could study on the computer when she is here until she can work (she is anxious to work once she gets here. She does not like to be idle). I told her that the tutors around here are few in number and there are so many Russian and Ukrainian immigrants that have come here that the tutors are backlogged for years. My county is about 45,000 people, and some 1,500 now are first generation from Russia and Ukraine. Last count in 2000, the number was half that, and only a few in 1990. We have 2 and sometimes 3 translators and 1,000 of the 1,500 are on the list for tutoring!

 

So she said I am her English teacher. I've apparently done well so far, so she and I will work on it together. I am actually kind of excited about this as a bonding experience, but I am also apprehensive. I think spending an hour or two together on it every day or two is wise, but more might be too much. Plus if she has software and web sites, she gets a broader knowledge base than maybe I can give her alone, as well as different learning approaches.

 

(I work in government, so I use the census alot. My SO wanted to know the number of Chinese in my area. 2000 census was 200 with some Asian ancestry. My short answer was "almost no Chinese people, dear." My little city (1600 people) has one Phillippina, so she said well I come to America your city has one China person, and we have a baby then two, ok? I said er.. umm.. ok dear. hehe.)

 

 

Merc.

Edited November 8, 2005 by mercator (see edit history)

[IluvmyLi]

If you don't mind me asking, what area of the country do you live in?

[mercator]

I live in the northwestern US

[pkfops]

My personal opinion is that I would prefer a classroom environment so

she can interact with other students and teachers.

 

She may come home speaking Spanish though.

[mercator]

My personal opinion is that I would prefer a classroom environment so

she can interact with other students and teachers.

 

She may come home speaking Spanish though.

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Russian and Ukrainian around here. Not many Spanish speakers, though some do come with other migrant workers for some of the harvests.

[mercator]

Take a look at the MIT open Courseware (MIT OCW)

 

Three full years (6 semesters) of study, plus some other courses that would be of interest to some CFL'ers.

 

All free! Thanks MIT!

 

MIT OCW

Edited November 17, 2005 by mercator (see edit history)

[jim_julian]

Here are a couple a friend gave me.

 

http://www.1-language.com/

http://esl.fis.edu/

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I checked out the 1-language website a few days ago and liked what I saw. Tonight Lao Po and I had our first 90 minute study session using this website. With both of us up in Internet and talking on Skype we worked through the first couple of panels in the first course.

 

The site includes recordings with correct pronounciation which is really helpful. In the first half of session one we covered Subject-Verb-Object sentence structure, pronouns, and the verb "to be". You can imagine the challenge for a 40 year old lady who speaks pretty good English but has never had a formal English course.

 

We are going to spend 1-2 hours a day on this and see where it goes. She is really having a problem finding a good English class in China. They are either too far away (more than 1 hour bus ride), at night which is the only time she can see her daughter, or oriented toward school kids who she fears will move too fast for her.

 

The web thing may be OK ...

[mercator]

I live in the boonies. There is one tutor through a local NGO, but something like 1500 Russians and Ukrainians and a few hundred latinos who are in the queue to take her classes.

 

Online sounds good to me.

[jim_julian]

We spent almost 2 hours on a lesson today Merc ... she is getting good grades on the automatically scored on line tests. It's a big time commitment for me with business and all but I also know that she spends at least the amount of time we do together just going over the lessons herself.

 

As many have said, the Chinese work ethic is amazing.

Edited November 19, 2005 by jim_julian (see edit history)

[tywy_99]

It has a lot to do with the demographics whether a decent ESL class can be found or not. I too live in the "boonies". I enrolled my wife and stepdaughter into an ESL class when the first arrived but the class was geared more towards Latinos. After two weeks, it all came to an end when my wife said, "I come here to learn English but everyone is talking to me in Spanish!"...

 

That was 2 years ago and since then their English is improving. To date, My stepdaughter speaks and understands spoken English better than her mother, when it used to be the other way around!

 

My wife read something on 001 about using the English subtitle feature on TV's to help with the English.