Website Reviews

(If you want to find more links to sites organized around ESL/EFL or Linguistic topics, go to my teaching philosophy page and read through the working bibliography. Click here and you can contact me.)

Site Name:  Galileo Internet Resource

This site, entitled “Galileo Internet Resources”, is composed of a fairly comprehensive set of links, which cover many aspects of the English language and linguistics. Galileo, an award winning initiative of the University
System of Georgia, maintains the site. This comprehensive index of links is subdivided into 14 different categories. These categories include (but are not limited too): directories, terminology, journals, dictionaries, and grammar. While all of the links included under these categories are related to the English language and linguistics, a majority of them are associated primarily with the ESL/EFL world.  However, it must be noted that a few of the links are concerned with languages other than English. The site is easy to navigate and all the information is presented clearly (albeit the language is a bit difficult) Because of the comprehensive nature and ease of use, we can say that this is a good site for those interested in topics related to the English language and linguistics. However, the site appears to be designed for native speakers of English. The website’s language is quite hard to understand and might inhibit a non-native English speaker from effectively navigating and using the links found within the website. Also, the website was last updated on September 26, 2000. Because of this, much of the new information on the World Wide Web concerning the English language and linguistics will not be found at this site.

Site Name:  NFLRC NetWorks

NFLRC NetWorks is a relatively simple site which allows users free access to a variety of web publications, sample chapters from technical reports, symposium proceedings, website links, and annotated bibliographies. All of the information available is centered on the second language acquisition process and while it is free, users are strongly encouraged to get permission before making multiple copies. The University of Hawaii at Manoa maintains the site with a grant from the National Foreign Language Resource Center. Much of the information available is research intensive so this would not be a good site for second language learners. Also, much of the information available was gathered and/or produced in Hawaii. Because of this, the website user needs to be aware that the information they gather on the process of second language acquisition may need to be tailored to fit into the demographics of their particular second language learning communities.