EFL+and+flikr

**ELL and Flikr**
Flikr is a wonderful Web 2.0 tool that can help students with limited English gain proficiency in their language skills. One of the advatages of Flikr is that it offers few linguistic barriers to participation. Students with minimal English skills can still use Flikr and contribute to the class and see their photos commented on by classmates drawing them into relationships within the class. Flikr's text-based communication is based on short phrases or one word descriptions (tags). Students can see the picture and associate it with the tagged words. For an ELL student this means less decoding of text and more encoding of meaning. For beginning or intermediate ELL students this can be a great tool for learning basic words and phrases.

Some of the ways that ELL students and teachers can use this technology in the classroom include having students practice speaking picture tags, giving directions, learning geographic terms, names of cities, countries, regions, people and more. Teachers can also use some of the added features found in Flikr such as the internal email to help students practice their writing skills by having them find a picture and then emailing the person to ask them a question about their picture. The slideshow feature can allow ELL students to create their own presentations and then write their own descriptions for things and present them to the class, thereby allowing them to contribute to the overall learning experience for them and their classmates. ELL students can use Flikr for show and tell opportunities to practice their conversational English. They can use Flikr to search for words they are learning (such as descriptive adjectives, etc.). Having students leave comments allows them to practice their sentence formation in English. Students can join groups in Flikr that center around subjects that they are interested in. They can post their own photos and leave comments allowing them to learn English in a way that is meaningful to them. Students can also take their own pictures, upload them to Flikr and then use them as conversation starters with other students in their classes. Flikr's use in the ELL classroom is a great Web 2.0 tool that has many positive benefits for the ELL student. <[]>

Other Uses of Flickr in the ELL Classroom (Melissa Lewis) ELL students have trouble using the traditional textbooks in a classroom because there is too much text to decode. Web 2.0 tools can simplify this for students and make it easier for them to learn the English language. Flickr is a great tool that is easy for students to use, has very little text involved, and is visual which is easy for all students to relate to. Teachers may need to help students with the technology background to use Flickr, but most students should catch on quickly.

Flickr can be used as a way for students of different backgrounds to share a journal about their lives. Most ELL classrooms are filled with students from different backgrounds and different countries. Students could upload pictures from their past home, or find pictures using tags on Flickr if they do not have any pictures. They can share these journals with the class and create conversation in the classroom on a subject that they are knowledgeable in. The teacher could also request that students comment on each other's pictures in order to start some writing skills. Pictures will help break down the language barrier.

Flickr can also be used to unite ELL from around the world. The first link below discusses a project that was started in Japan that unites classrooms around the world with pictures and the English Language. Students upload pictures of their lives and students from other school comment on them and practice using English through comments and classroom discussion.

Teachers can use Flickr to create a classroom dictionary to go with any subject area that they are teaching. For example, if they are studying the topic of weather in science, student could search for tags relating to different types of storms and see what the storms may look like and the damage that may result. They can also use the geo-tracking feature to see where these storms are common and can help learn geography in addition to science.

Students could use Flickr as a way to visually represent the plot, setting, and characters in a novel. This is typically easier for ELL students then trying to write in words the ideas they are trying to express. Students are motivated by visual content and Flickr is a great Web 2.0 tool that is free to access in the classroom and has a variety of uses. [] [] []