Dave’s ESL Café is a fairly good site. It clearly displays the person responsible for the site. Dave Sperling is an experienced teacher, and has obtained his master’s degree in the area of applied linguistics and ESL. The web site is designed for both the ESL student and teacher. Students can use the site to chat, to find information about various topics of students’ interests, to learn grammatical rules, and to seek for help with grammar or other language related difficulties. The site is quite interactive since it allows the students to browse freely and to comment about any particular area they are interested in (i.e. culture, music, grammar, etc). There are people on hand 24 hours a day to respond to students’ particular problems or concerns on various topics.
Along with being a resourceful site for students, this site is also beneficial for teachers. Teachers can look for current job postings on this site, and can also join in on forums about topics in second language learning.
The web site is also very user friendly. It has many windows to choose from in order to narrow the topics that one is interested in. The graphics use eye-captivating colors to keep the user surfing through the site. There is someone always on hand to respond to the user’s particular problems or comments.
Although the site can be resourceful for the second language learner, there are a few ideas that one must consider when using this site. We know that Mr. Sperling is the person responsible for designing the site, but we don’t know if it is him responding to the users at all times. If it is not Mr. Sperling responding or creating the new information for the site, then we cannot be too sure that the information provided can be too accurate. Also since the information is changing everyday, we don’t know where the producer of the information is getting the new content. There are no sources provided to site the new information.
Overall, it is a good site for second language learners and teachers. It provides a lot of information about various topics, even though some of the information might not list references.
Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening lab at is a site designed for the development of listening and comprehension skills for the second language learners. Randall says he has his master’s degree in the area of TESOL. It would appear that he is an experienced person for designing a web site for second language learners, but one element makes me skeptical about valuing this site as a trustworthy site. This person never mentions his full name. A researcher in any field never forgets to include his/her first and last names when designing a valuable source. We don’t know if Randall is a first name or last name.
Still the site is quite interactive since it allows the user to choose which type of conversation the person wants to listen to. It does not allow the users to engage in a conversation of their own, but since it is only a listening lab, I think it is okay. The lab provides many scenarios from which to choose, like typical phone conversations and stories about people’s lives. It also allows the user to choose a level to participate in (three levels total). The second language learner is able to click on a particular scenario and listen to the conversations going on between at least two interlocutors. It provides the user with accurate examples of conversation in the target language domain. After the conversations finish, the site provides a quiz for the internet user to participate in. The quiz asks questions about the conversations in use, and it provides a summary of the comprehension performance.
Although the site does provide accurate examples of conversations in the TLU, I think the conversations were performed at a pace that is too fast for the beginning second language learner to understand. Even an advanced learner might have trouble answering the questions correctly from the quiz because the conversations are conducted at a fast pace, and the questions for the quiz are very detailed in nature. Beginning language learners might concentrate more on getting the gist of the conversation, rather than trying to understand every detail.
Also, the site doesn’t seem to show how recent the pages were put together. We don’t know whether this site is still under construction, or whether it has been finished. The sole purpose of having this site is only so that second language learners can have models of English conversations to listen to. I would not recommend this site to second language learners because the conversations the user can listen to on this site might be presented in a better fashion elsewhere.