ESLMag REVIEW
Christine Meloni's Networthy
April 2003 in ESLMag

 

Phil Quirke Supports EFL Teachers
Half way through dinner with a group of TESOLers at the Cheesecake Factory in Baltimore's charming Inner Harbor, it suddenly hit me that the dynamic Englishman sitting across from me was the creator of a website that I had visited and admired. He was none other than Phil Quirke!

Phil Quirke laughingly told us that people are constantly trying to tell him that he has spelled his URL wrong but he assures them that http://www.philseflsupport.com is indeed correct. Think: Phil's EFL Support. His mission is to provide support to candidates studying for a TESL/TEFL Master's degree but anyone who is teaching English will find lots of interesting information at this site.

The Home Page informs you that you will find over 70 pages and 150 links relevant to you and your work. You can take a look at Phil's newsletter, register for his database in order to link up with others whose research interests are similar to yours, and sign up for bulletin board discussions on themes of your choice.
The site is divided into four sections: Language, Teaching & Learning, Planning & Testing, and Study - Reading & Research.

Language:
This page has five subcategories:
Grammar, Lexis, The Skills (four or five?), Phonology, and Discourse.
Each offers papers, articles, and links to relevant sites.

Teaching & Learning:
This page includes papers, links, self-study exercises, and reading lists in the following areas:
Teaching Methodology, Learning, Technology, Independent Learning, and Teacher Development.

Planning & Testing:
The page is divided into Lesson Planning, Testing, Syllabus Design, Materials Production, and ELT Management.
Papers and links go from preparing single lessons to planning entire courses.

Study - Reading & Research:
This page focuses on Reading, Research, Action Research, Writing Better Assignments, and ELT Organizations.

Most Interesting Features
If I were asked to name the two features I liked the best, I would probably say the history of EFL and the journal links. On the Teaching & Learning page under Teaching Methodology, you will find "A Brief History of EFL to ESP" followed by 42 Questions that you can ask yourself after you have read the history. On the Study - Reading & Research page in the Reading subcategory, you will find direct links to many ELT journals with full access to their articles.

Christine Meloni is associate professor of English as a Foreign Language in the EFL Department and senior research associate in the NCLRC at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. She can be reached at meloni@gwu.edu.

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