Sunday, March 4, 2007

Review #6

Name: There is no name but la passerelle is a ‘footbridge’ which suggests a bridge to the English language.
http://lapasserelle.com/lm/pagespeciales/interactivequizzes/index.html

Level and Skill: Level 3 to Advanced (Niagara College) in the skills of Reading and Writing

Interactive: Yes

ESL/Non- ESL: ESL site but it appears it was designed as an EFL site. Also useful for Non-ESL learners.

What makes it good? The site is designed with the possibility of doing many of the exercises without the interactive component. The menu has four choices two of which are Interactive tests and Non Interactive. For some learners who feel threatened by the negative reinforcement of “wrong” flashing on the screen, the non interactive alternative is ideal. Navigating the menu is made easy because the instructions are brief yet sufficient enough not to burden the learner with extra reading material. The interface is clean with no visuals in the exercises that might mislead or cause distraction with the exception of the simple circle and lines of the Hangman games under Language Games. There is a particular emphasis on ESP content for Business English, Medical purposes and Engineering. The level of difficulty ranges in these categories but for ESP learners and teachers alike, many of the activities are good reviews for testing reading and terminology. The Writing Sentences Spell and Write and Word Opposties are timed creating a bit of an incentive. There is a lot of content that delves into English literature, highlighting Victorian Lit. For those Non-ESL learners, these activities are just fun for testing general knowledge. Overall, this site is fairly comprehensive in content, clean (no advertising) and straightforward to use. I would give it 4 stars out of 5.

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