Fun With English

Boredom and lack of motivation are the greatest foes of education. Motivation can be a part of key factors in the acquisition and assimilation of knowledge. Therefore, it is important to provide students with fun activities and exercises so that they can be motivated to learn. Based on the idea of motivation in learning, Clicknlearn provides teachers and students with fun language learning.

Link: http://clicknlearn.net/

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General Description

Clicknlearn is a website that offers teachers and students interactive language lessons.  It provides multiple flash games, grammar activities, vocabulary activities, and reading activities that can be used at home or in class using an e-board. The activities provided on the website are available in four languages; English, French, Spanish, and Valencia. The activities are categorized both by [Spanish] school level and difficulty (easy, intermediate, and difficult). The graded units are focused on different topics and the website also has a wide variety of activities and exercises with sound. Moreover, the website uses integrated approach to language learning, with reading, listening, grammar, and cultural points covered simultaneously.  Printable handouts are also available for teachers to use in classrooms. Besides, each exercise will be given points and percentage when it is completed by the students.

Levels and Age

The activities provided in the website can be applied for students at all levels of English proficiency since it provides content that has been graded into easy, intermediate, and difficult levels. This is suitable for both primary and secondary school students ranging from the age of 8-17 years old. Nevertheless, the activity that is categorized into issue might not be suitable to be applied for primary school students and beginner learners. This is because the content is slightly difficult for them to comprehend.

Examples

1. Lexicon/Vocabulary exercise: This is an example of vocabulary practice from unit 1, easy level, and the topic is ‘My Family’. This exercise is operated through activities such as clicking on the pictures, listen and drag the speaker to the correct pictures, fill in the missing letter, and differentiate the synonyms. 
2. Grammar exercise: Here is an example of grammar exercise on the topic ‘passive voice’. The exercise is presented in the form of multiple choice questions and pictures for visual stimulation. Besides, before students proceed with the exercise, they are presented with the rules of passive voice deductively. Furthermore, if the students give the wrong answer, a clue will be given so that they can again and give the correct answer. This activity is comprehensible and not too difficult. Hence, it can be applied for both primary and secondary school students  at all levels of English proficiency. 
3. Issues: The activities in this category focused on comprehending the content ideas. Lots of reading texts are used here, and the exercise is done through multiple choice questions, Tru/Flase questions, and short answer questions. This category is targeted to secondary school students at the level of intermediate and above since the content is heavy and critical. Below is an example for the topic ‘Anorexia’ (eating disorder). 

Evaluation

Advantages:

1. The activities provided in the website are fun and engaging. Thus, it motivates students to learn English or other languages available in an enjoyable way. 
2. The content used in the website is graded to three levels of difficulty which makes it applicable to all students.
3. Personalisation: The topics included are related to the outside world. Hence, it enables students to activate their current knowledge on the topics, and then apply the new knowledge learned to the outside world. 
4. It also appeals to the students’ multiple skills through the use of flash images. This can help in engaging students to the learning process and stay focus.
5. Besides, it facilitates students to develop their multiple skills in language; reading, listening, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. 
6. It prepares students for interactive learning. Thus, students will be more active and it helps them to acquire the language through hands on, interactive means rather than being passive.

Disadvantages:

1. The website requires access to the internet to be operated. Hence, it might not be useful when the internet connection is not available. Besides, if the internet system is down, the teaching and learning process will be distracted. 
2. Some of the content used in the website may be biased and hence not suitable to be used in some places. For example, in the issue category, there is a topic about ‘death penalty,’ and I think this may not be appropriate to be used in countries that apply such law as it can be controversial.
3. Unfamiliar content. For example, in the ‘passive voice’ exercise, the content used is not global in which it uses lots information related to Spanish culture which other students in other countries might not even know about that information. 
4. Technical problem. For instance, the exercise on topic ‘futures’ contains no clue for students when they gave wrong answer, and thus they wouldn’t know what wrong they did. They could not even proceed to the next step as they have given the wrong answer, but if they go back to the previous stage, all the answers that have written will be missing and hence they have to start again from the beginning.