English Club.com offers an impressive entry of Language Tools that ESL/EFL learners and teachers can use. The section not only lists online antonym and synonym dictionaries but also two rhyming dictionaries! On Rhyme Zone you can type any word and find a huge list of words and phrases that rhyme or nearly rhyme with that word. I was really excited to discover such an innovative concept of a dictionary. I am trying to think of ways in which I can effectively use this resource for classroom teaching. And, the most relevant and obvious use I see is to teach pronunciation. In my class on teaching pronunciation, we often talked about using a list of different words to practice one particular sound. I feel this website might be helpful in coming up with an extensive inventory of such words.
Alternatively, this resource could be used to make students write small poems or limericks! I don't know for sure if an activity like this would be suitable for learners at the intermediate level. But, I would still like to try it in class, for I strongly feel that associating different words with similar ending sounds can be effective in vocabulary learning.
Another fascinating language tool mentioned on this site is the Make Your Own Wordle tool. Worlde is officially defined as 'a toy for generating word clouds.' The tool can be used to create interactive and colorful electronic flashcards that students can use to learn new vocabulary words or even idioms and proverbs. I am really excited about this tool and can't wait to try it myself!
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