TESOL CALL Interest Section

Software List

Deborah Healey, Editor

Teacher Utilities

Accelerated Reader

Machine: Mac, Win
Publisher: Renaissance Learning
Purchase options: Enterprise-level; contact publisther
Level: Beginning, intermediate, advanced, teacher For: All, Teacher
Description: Enterprise-level reading management software that includes student recordkeeping and computerized quizzes for reading-range-specific books. A Spanish/English version is also available, with 100 computerized quizzes for reading-range-specific Spanish language books and 100 computerized quizzes for the same books in English language. Students receive feedback in the language they select: either Spanish or English. Dual tracking lets educators separate or combine reporting on reading practice in either language. Accelerated Reader for Spanish English can be added to an initial Accelerated Reader Starter Kit purchase for an additional cost. The elementary level (grades 1-3) quizzes are for titles such as Goodnight Moon, Amelia Bedelia, Charlotte's Web, Clifford series books by Norman Bridwell and Magic School Bus series books by Joanna Cole. The Middle Grades Starter Kit (Grades 4-9) includes quizzes for James and the Giant Peach, Stuart Little, The Courage of Sarah Noble, The Great Gatsby, and titles from Betsy Byars, Laura Ingalls Wilder, S.E. Hutton, and Scott O'Dell. Requires a Windows server; clients are browser-based and can be Windows or Macintosh.

Basic Mouse Sklls

Machine: Win
Publisher: Grey Olltwit
Purchase options: $25 membership to download all pgms
Level: Beginning, intermediate, advanced For: All
Description: Easy-to-use, non-threatening program to help computer beginners gain familiarity with moving, clicking, and double-clicking a mouse. It works by having the user click on progressively smaller boxes that move around the screen. Excellent for adult learners as well as for children. A website membership fee allows the download of about 100 different programs, at least 15 of them good for English language learners. Windows 98/NT/XP; not verified on Vista.

Collocate

Machine: Win
Publisher: Athelstan
Approximate single-unit price: 45
Purchase options: site, network
Level: Intermediate, advanced For: All but K-8, T
Description: Collocate works from a textbase of 46 million words, using statistical analyses (t-score, log likelihood, MI) as well as frequency information in order to present a list of collocations. The program will list all the collocations containing the searchword and provides frequency and/or statistical information (Log Likelihood, Mutual Information, t-score). This text analysis software is straightforward to use, and the statistics within the program are there simply to provide the user with different view of the corpus data. Classroom teachers will probably wish to ignore the statistics, while researchers will find them very useful. Results can be saved to a text file or printed.

Crossword Creator

Machine: Mac, Win
Publisher: Centron Software Technologies
Approximate single-unit price: 30
Level: Intermediate, advanced, teacher For: All
Description: Crossword puzzle maker. Includes a thesaurus to help in generating clues. This package received several recommendations and was praised for being easy to use, though it helps to read the documentation in order to take advantage of all the features. Puzzles can be solved on screen, printed out, or exported to a word-processor. Can be downloaded or ordered on CD.

ELLIS Placement

Machine: Win, Mac
Publisher: Pearson Education
Level: Beginning, intermediate, advanced, teacher For: All but K-6
Description: This is an adaptive placement exam that helps evaluate students' skill level in ESL/EFL. Placement includes more than 1,200 validated questions testing the areas of grammar, reading, vocabulary and listening comprehension. According to each student response, Placement calibrates the difficulty of the next question. The student's proficiency level can be accurately established in a matter of minutes. If you are using other programs from the ELLIS product line, Placement will suggest which ELLIS program best suits the needs of each student.

English Word Builder

Machine: Win
Publisher: Caltrox
Level: Beginning, intermediate, advanced, teacher For: All, Teacher
Description: Word find puzzles - word building from a collection of letters in a game format. Includes hundreds of built-in common English words, a timer, and a computer-based way to check words. Windows 95/98/ME/ NT/2000/XP

Imperata

Machine: Win
Publisher: Divace Oy
Purchase options: contact publisher
Level: Teacher For: Teacher
Description: Software that lets teachers control multiple PCs from their own PC. Works as part of a Tandberg lab.

Last Minute ESL/EFL Lesson Plan and Activity Guide

Machine: Win/Mac
Publisher: ESL Pro Systems
Approximate single-unit price: 25
Level: Teacher For: Teacher
Description: Dozens of lesson plans & activities in PDF format, most between 40 and 60 minutes in length. For a variety of skill areas and for three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. PDFs can be used on any platform.

Learning Styles Inventory

Machine: Mac, Win
Publisher: Educational Activities Software
Approximate single-unit price: 100
Purchase options: lab, network
Level: Intermediate, advanced, teacher For: All but K-3
Description: Students go through this questionnaire to analyze their learning styles. The program offers suggestions to enhance studying based on the learner's profile. The profiles for whole class can be stored, so that comparisons of an individual to the teacher or to the class can be printed. Windows and Mac versions have a new interface. Includes spoken questions in both English and Spanish. Windows 98/NT/2000/XP: Mac OS 8 or OS 9.

Markin

Machine: Win
Publisher: Creative Technology
Approximate single-unit price: 40
Purchase options: shareware
Level: Teacher For: T
Description: Markin is a teacher's tool created by Martin Holmes for marking student writing in electronic form. A student's text can be pasted into Markin from an e-mail message or a word-processor file. The teacher can then annotate the text using a set of buttons, footnotes and other kinds of feedback. The marked text can then be exported as a World Wide Web page in HTML format, and sent back to the student. The student, opening the page in a Web browser, will see that parts of the text have been made into links. Clicking on a link will take the student to the teacher's comment or error diagnosis. The program will also automatically compile error statistics for each piece of work which is marked. Download as shareware from http://www.cict.co.uk/software/markin4/download.htm.php. Only short texts can be marked up without paying and registering. Windows 2000, XP, or Vista.

MonoConc Pro

Machine: Win
Publisher: Athelstan
Approximate single-unit price: 85
Level: Intermediate, advanced, teacher For: Teacher, AE, HE
Description: Concordance program. Can load multiple files totaling several million words, then view contents from within the program. Searches can be case-sensitive or case-insensitive, have wildcards, and include non-letter characters such as '-' or apostrophes. Unwanted concordance lines can be deleted, while a multi-line context can be displayed for a given concordance line. A word list function with a frequency count and calculation of the frequency of collocations is also included. Results can be sorted by search word, text order, or first or second word to the left or right.The program comes with an extensive manual that covers basics of concordancing as well as use of MonoConc Pro. A demo is available from the website. Windows 98/XP; not tested on Vista.

Print Shop Deluxe

Machine: Mac, Win
Publisher: Learning Company, The
See also online/mail order
Approximate single-unit price: 25
Purchase options: lab, network, site, teacher's ed.
Level: Beginning, intermediate, advanced, teacher For: All
Description: This computer tool is very useful in enabling students to complete such tasks as creating greeting cards, signs, personalized letterhead stationary, banners and calendars. The program comes with lots of interesting pre-made graphics which students can use in the creation of their projects. The new Print Shop Deluxe edition on CD-ROM adds the following capabilities to the previous editions: scalable graphics; color printing; TrueType fonts (which can also be scaled without losing any quality); new styles of ready-made graphics to serve as backgrounds for individual letters or as a border for a whole side of a text; special pre-made headline texts; 'rich text,' which allows users to change fonts, styles, sizes and colors within individual words; a new utility to export Print Shop Deluxe graphics to other programs; and a layout program to facilitate creative mixing of text and graphics. Sold online/mail order only. Check product requirements carefully to be sure the version you are buying matches your equipment. Windows 3.1 to Windows Vista; Mac OS 7-9, depending on the version.

Question Mark Perception

Machine: Win
Publisher: Question Mark Computing
Purchase options: contact publisher
Level: Teacher For: Teacher
Description: Assessment management system designed for teachers to author a range of items and organize them into exams, quizzes, tests or surveys. Assessments can be set up to be available on a specific schedule and delivered in a variety of ways. The program provides a number of different report types for the assessments. Assessments can be delivered online, via CD-ROM, on PDAs, or on individual machines.

QuizMaker Pro

Machine: Mac
Publisher: Class One Software
Approximate single-unit price: 25
Level: Teacher For: Teacher
Description: The program generates, administers, scores, and archives tests or quizzes with up to 10 different types of questions within a single test. It can be used to print multiple versions of a single test with answer keys for each version. Detailed score analysis by individual, class, or test. New version released in 2009. Windows 2000/NT/XP/Vista; Mac OS X. The publisher was previous call MacMUSE.

Results Manager

Machine: Win
Publisher: Clarity Language Consultants
Approximate single-unit price: 65
Level: Teacher For: Teacher
Description: Comprehensive management and record-keeping program that works with Clarity software. Helps manage user accounts - especially useful with online licenses.

SuperMemo

Machine: Win
Publisher: SuperMemo USA
Approximate single-unit price: 45
Purchase options: early version is free
Level: Beginning, intermediate, advanced, teacher For: All but K-3
Description: This program helps users memorize vocabulary (or other memorizable items, such as spelling lists and irregular verb forms). It spaces repetitions of items in such a way as to maximize learning. ESL version available. Teachers can add their own databases of items for their students to learn. A version that runs un Windows 95/98/NT is free and can be downloaded at http://www.freewarefiles.com/SuperMemo_program_13849.html. The version for XP is commercial, but a demo can be downloaded at http://www.supermemo.com/english/down.htm. Not verified for Vista.

Teachers Value Pack

Machine: Win/Mac
Publisher: Centron Software Technologies
Approximate single-unit price: 50
Purchase options: lab, site
Level: Teacher For: T
Description: CD-ROM with Puzzle Power and Test Creator. Includes lots of puzzle types. Windows 95/98/ME/XP; not verified for Vista.

Teachers' Voices 8

Machine: Win
Publisher: NCELTR
Approximate single-unit price: 28
Level: Teacher For: Teacher
Description: DVD to accompany a book by Anne Burns and Helen de Silva Joyce about teaching practice - latest in the series of publications on action research projects by teachers.

Teaching Templates Quiz Maker

Machine: Win
Publisher: Tac-Soft
Approximate single-unit price: 25
Level: Teacher For: Teacher
Description: 12 different quiz templates, including multiple choice, cloze, fill in the missing letters, flashcards, and mastermind. The program creates HTML files and can compile a set of quizzes into a web archive (.mht file) to keep images and sounds with the text, an .exe file, or an eBook. Quizzes can be encrypted, timed, and submitted to the teacher via email or PHP. Windows 95/98/ME/NT 4/2000/XP. A demo can be downloaded from the website.

Text Machine, The

Machine: Win
Publisher: Text Machine
Approximate single-unit price: 50
Purchase options: lab, site
Level: Intermediate, advanced For: All
Description: Software that makes it easier to correct student essays. The teacher imports the essay into the program's database, then goes through the essay. After the teacher clicks on the type of error from a list, the software marks the error and automatically inserts a mini-tutorial into the endnotes. Because all of the papers are stored in a database, it is possible to gather data across student papers. Windows XP, Vista.

ThoughtOffice

Machine: Mac, Win
Publisher: ThoughtOffice Systems
Approximate single-unit price: 150
Purchase options: network, site license
Level: Beginning, intermediate, advanced, teacher For: All but K-6
Description: Now known as ThoughtOffice, this is an upgrade of the original IdeaFisher. An idea generator and outliner with a very large database of ideas and suggestions to link up with prompts. This includes words and associations and keyword-tagged image associations to help develop ideas. Also included are eXpertTopic Modules with set-ups, questions, images, links and references. Windows XP/Vista; Mac OS X.

Tidy Up

Machine: Win
Publisher: Grey Olltwit
Purchase options: $20 membership to download all pgms
Level: Beginning, intermediate, advanced For: All
Description: Easy-to-use program to help computer beginners gain familiarity with moving, clicking, and double-clicking a mouse. Users click on various household articles to move them back where they belong (hence the title). Excellent for adult learners as well as for children. A website membership fee allows the download of about 100 different programs, at least 15 of them good for English language learners. Windows 98/NT/XP; not verified on Vista.

Total Recorder

Machine: Win
Publisher: High Criteria
Approximate single-unit price: 18
Level: Teacher For: T
Description: Convert audio to digital audio - records streaming audio, microphone and line-in input, CDs, and DVDs and saves the files to the hard drive. The program also converts various digital audio file formats. The Professional version offers more features. A demo version can be downloaded from the website at http://www.highcriteria.com/.

WordGet

Machine: Win
Publisher: VTrain.net
Purchase options: charityware
Level: Beginning, intermediate, advanced, teacher For: Any, Teacher
Description: This free tool automates word collection in several ways (assuming you want selected words to add to VTrain or another program). Words can be collected by loading a text file into WordGet and clicking on selected words, by logging text stored in the clipboard and prompting for comments, and by collecting all the words from a text file. It can also create sentences according to user-defined patterns. Charityware: the author asks that you make a donation to charity if you download this for free. Windows 95/NT/98/XP; not verified on Vista.

Wordsearch Creator

Machine: Mac, Win
Publisher: Centron Software Technologies
Approximate single-unit price: 10
Purchase options: lab pack $60, site/network license $250
Level: Beginning, intermediate, teacher For: All
Description: Creates three types of word search puzzles: standard wordsearch (target words are hidden in a grid of letters), clues puzzles where students see clues to the hidden words, and fill-in-the-blank puzzles where students see a paragraph with the missing words found in the puzzle. Can be solved on screen, printed out, or exported to a word-processor. Download from the website: www.centronsoftware.com

Xclass

Machine: Win
Publisher: Sun-Tech
Purchase options: contact publisher
Level: Teacher For: Teacher
Description: Classroom control software that creates a virtual lab, where each computer screen can be seen and controlled from the teacher's station. Standard and Professional versions (Professional includes controller for video and other media) available.

https://eltexpert.com/softlist/callteacherutility.html
Last updated 25 May 2009 by Deborah Healey, dhealey at uoregon dot edu
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