Review - Reuter’s “English-To-Go”

NAME: Reuter’s “English-To-Go” http://www.english-to-go.com/

LEVEL AND SKILL:
This sites proficiency scale has five levels. The lowest level however “elementary” was much more difficult then I would have guessed (similar to what most would call “intermediate”). There is little in this site for low level beginners.

The lessons "for teachers" are largely reading lessons. Although they contain activities that incorporate writing, listening and speaking skills, the topic of each lesson is based upon a general-interest type of newspaper article, and each activity is based around this text source.

INTERACTIVITY:
This site has online lessons students can use themselves that practice reading, writing and listening skills as well preparation for IELTS, FCE, TOEFL and TOEIC tests. There is a very useful “hint” button for students to click on when they are having trouble. Students have access to answer keys and can evaluate their own progress.

It also has online activities that supplement the lessons for teachers (which are inaccessible without a paid membership).

Although it does not relate directly to the topic of interactivity, an important feature of this site is that it appears to be regularly updated and offers “new articles each week on current issues” which serves to keep it interactive with world events and therefore relevant to a larger number of students.

ESL/Non-ESL:
This site is designed specifically for ESL/EFL use.

WHAT MAKES IT GOOD?

FEATURES:
-preparation for IELTS, FCE, TOEFL and TOEIC exams
-all the necessary materials are already made.
-online exercises supplementing each lesson for teachers.
-ability to file your favorite lessons onsite (for paid members).
-ability to design your own textbook (for paid members).
-reading activities consistently include pre-reading and post-reading tasks (and often integrate writing, speaking and listening skills as well)
-lessons are supplemented with “structured teachers’ notes”. These include examples of model answers for the different exercises and helpful hints for teaching each lesson.

For Teachers:

Like many sites that claim to offer pre-made lesson plans, this site does not really offer pre-made lesson plans, so much as a script of pre-made activities. That being said, I think this could be very useful because it’s a great source for providing, as well as providing ideas for, a large number of activities based around a single, short, text source.

There are quite a few activities in each lesson, not all of which will necessarily be relevant to your intended learning objectives. In the sample lesson I looked at most closely, “An Eel Pet”, the grammar points (which the lesson aims to practice rather than teach) are listed as being “pronouns and present perfect” but many other structures, and tenses in particular, are practiced in the lesson.

I think anyone teaching a reading/integrated course or even a small group of privates could make good use of these activities. However, I also found that many lessons were very similar in terms of structure, sequencing, kinds of activities involved and texts used. If you relied on this site as the basis of your lessons too often, I think they would become more than a little repetitive.


For Students:

The completely online lessons for students looked like an excellent resource for supplementing in-class lessons, preparing for tests and seemed to be more tasked-based then the lessons for teachers (the free sample lesson for students practiced letter writing).