WEBSITE EVALUATION: English for Everyone

I.GENERAL INFORMATION

The number of ELT websites increases day by day. There are many websites providing language learners with effective learning opportunities thanks to which it becomes possible or easier for the learners to improve their language skills without having trouble reaching the necessary materials. The websites in question- due to the smorgasbord of the exercises they contain- could also be regarded as fruitful resources for teachers who aim at making the content of lessons more dynamic and attractive. The objective of this study is to evaluate one of those websites called English for Everyone. The link is: https://www.englishforeveryone.org/ Rather than talking about all, I will be thinking about and reflecting on exercises of the reading skill.

The Author

Tanner Hock, who is the founder of the website, is a graduate of philosophy department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Being interested in literature, design, and philosophy, he emphasizes the significance of critical thinking, and does claim that a fuller and richer live is possible through learning to read and think critically. He is also the founder of the website called READTHEORY. I also would like to state that Tanner Hock is not the only author of the website that I will be focusing on. There is a team of successful authors contributing to advancement of the website.

The Content

The website constitutes a source for worksheets which could be printed out. There is an index on the left side of the page which contains numerous teaching materials categorized and arranged with regard to proficiency levels. There is also an answer key at the end of each worksheet which I think would be useful for students to check their answers quickly.

The Audience

The website could be beneficial for learners having various aims or backgrounds:

a.       Grade school (K-12)

b.      General Educational Development (GED)

c.       English as a Second Language (ESL)

d.      Others (those who are interested in improving their English language skills)

Registration for access to the materials is not required!

The Purpose

The aim of the website is to provide the audience with effective, accurate, various and concise materials which are very useful for skill building and advancement.

Some Other Basic Features

·         There is no a date that shows when the site has been updated.

·         There are no any errors. The information seems accurate.

·         All the links are perfectly working. There are no any broken links.

·         The images are neither sufficient nor efficient.

How to apply?

The exercises are suitable to be used as in class activities, given as assignments, delivered as quizzes, and so on. Nevertheless, the teacher may need to make certain modifications in accordance with the level of the class, age of the leaners, etc.

II.CRITIQUE

Although the website involves materials to be used for different language skills, I would like to concentrate more on reading comprehension part since I think it is much more well-designed compared to others. The worksheets included in this part encourage the learners to use their ability of critical thinking. Deductive reasoning and logical inference are required for most of the questions prepared for the texts. Furthermore, there are some worksheets teaching the students how to find and focus on details, and how to figure out or interpret the meaning of words.

The editors make it easier for the learners to reach the relevant materials thorough a kind of classification as follows:

a.       Critical Thinking Reading Comprehension Worksheets

b.      Short Story Reading Comprehension Worksheets

c.       Informational Passages Reading Comprehension Worksheets

d.      Technical Reading Comprehension Worksheets

e.      Role Play Reading Comprehension Worksheets

f.        Dual Version Reading Comprehension Worksheets

Each category listed above consists of many different passages and exercises arranged according to their proficiency level. One very important problem of the worksheets, in my opinion, is that they lack enough images, demonstrations and visual aids which might have been more suitable and efficient especially for young learners. The colors and font size may also need to be rearranged as well.

In conclusion, it would not be wrong to say that English for Everyone is a productive and useful website which enables many rich teaching and learning materials. I strongly recommend you to visit it especially if you wish to reach well-structured reading materials.