About this Tutorial
Weldele, Colleen (January 1999). Palomar College English as a Second Language Online Writing Lab: http://daphne.palomar.edu/esl
This website is a comprehensive online writing source for ESL students. It provides materials for composition development such as articles on various topics, facts, quotes and other writing resources including an encyclopedia, dictionary and thesaurus. Grammar help is available in the form of rules and computer-graded practice quizzes. Students seeking assistance in writing essays for college applications will find guidelines and samples. Additionally, students may receive live assistance from online instructors who have scheduled online office hours throughout the day. The site will be most useful for ESL students enrolled in the academic writing program (ESL 101, 102, 103), but links to grammar quizzes, trivia, reading and geography for ESL students are available and designated for all levels of ESL . Students in regular English courses 10, 50 and 100 will also find resources useful for their grammar and writing needs.
Suggestions for Use
The site is intended as both a reference for students to use independently and as support for instructors with classes in the computer lab.
Students having questions in the course of their writing outside of class may find answers from various resources on the site or communicate directly with any instructor who has online hours. If no instructor is scheduled online or if students have a question that doesn’t require an immediate response, they may post the question on the FAQ board which the next available instructor will answer. These questions and answers are viewable for any student logged in to the ESL web conference board.
Instructors who have classes in the lab can use the site to provide their students with a variety of practice materials on grammar and writing points. Students will find the computer-graded quizzes appealing and non-threatening.
Accessibility
This tutorial achieved levels of accessibility 1, 2 and 3 through the Bobby check on February 24, 2000.
Webliography
The Internet TESL Journal (1995). Self-Study Quizzes for ESL Students. Retrieved August 2, 1998 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/#WRIThese quizzes are part of the "Activities for ESL Students" found in this monthly web journal for ESL teachers and students. The quizzes are sorted by topic (grammar, vocabulary, idioms, homonyms, holidays, geography and trivia) and level of difficulty (easy, medium and difficult). There are hundreds of quizzes, mostly contributed by ESL teachers and some students from all over the world.
Darling, Charles (1998). Interactive Quizzes. Retrieved December 17, 1998 from the World Wide Web:
http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/darling/original.htmPart of the site "Guide to Grammar and Writing," this site contains more than 150 computer-graded quizzes (cgi based and java script) that test grammar, punctuation, spelling and sentence structure. All of the quizzes have links to digital handouts of the rules associated with the item being tested. Though created for non-ESL, college-level students, advanced ESL students of grammar and writing will find the quizzes appropriate and useful.
Bartlett, John (1995 by Bartleby.com). Familiar Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature. Retrieved August 2, 1998 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.bartleby.com/99This is the online version of John Bartlett’s classic collection of famous quotations and their sources. In its ninth edition, it contains more than 9,000 quotations from various sources and time periods. One may search by author, reference or topic.
Infonautics Corporation (1998). Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved January 15, 1999 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.encyclopedia.comAn internet encyclopedia that is a good starting point for research or a place to find answers to basic questions. All the articles are short, therefore manageable, for ESL students. More advanced or non-ESL students may benefit from the many cross-referenced links to articles from the Electric Library. Searching is simplified by typing in a key word or phrase.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac (1998). Retrieved August 2, 1998 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.almanac.comThe online version of The Old Farmer’s Almanac has much of what is found in the yearly publication. Of particular interest to ESL students is the cultural significance, history and folklore of various dates in U.S. history. They also find origins of common sayings in English and questions and answers to all kinds of interesting trivia.
Permissions
The pencil menu bar was designed by Terry Gray, Library, Palomar College. All other contents were found in the public domain.
Sponsors and Contact Information
This tutorial was produced as part of a sabbatical project for Palomar College and as part of the On-line Tutorial Assistance Project under a Telecommunications Model Application Pilot Project Grant of the Chancellor’s Office of the California Community Colleges.The grant was locally sponsored by the North County Higher Education Alliance and led by Palomar and Mira Costa Community Colleges. Project Director, Joan Gipson-Fredin <jgipsonfredin@mcc.miracosta.cc.ca.us>.
Copyright
Palomar College English as a Second Language Online Writing Lab by Colleen Weldele, Palomar Community College District. State of California, Copyright 1999. All rights reserved.