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Dave Sperling reveals himself as an energetic authority in English as Second
Language (ESL) teaching through his World Wide Web page titled "Dave's ESL Cafe."
During the last 17 years, Sperling has been teaching advanced English subjects at
California State University, Northridge. He is recognized as an expert in ESL
methodology on a global scale as he participates in numerous national and foreign
conferences. During the last five years he served as keynote speaker of ESL matters in
conferences held in Brazil, Thailand, Bolivia, and United States. Sperling published ESL
Cafe seven years ago. He maintains and updates his page using his strong English and
Internet skills, and by the application of input from many ESL professionals who visit
ESL Cafe. Sperling is the author of three books that depict effective use of English
structure in combination with Internet skills.
As in ESL Cafe, his books concentrate on common topics found in ESL texts, in the
techniques of Internet research, and electronic communication among students and teachers. In an interview conducted by one of his fellow professors, Sperling quoted about his book, "Dave Sperling's Internet Activity Workbook shows students how to use the Net to learn and practice their English by communicating with new friends from around the world, asking and writing down questions, searching for specific information and writing that information into their
workbooks, communicating with each other in group discussion activities, writing
paragraphs or essays based on an activity, learning new vocabulary words, and even
participating in theme-based role play activities." His statement summarizes the
facts about his methodology and expertise. Here Sperling exposes one piece of his
professional works that suggests use of calculated guidelines, sound audience knowledge,
and philosophy of ideas concrete to other common ESL texts.
ESL Cafe focuses in assisting worldwide ESL and EFL (English as Foreign
Language) students and teachers. This popular web site offers links to all types of
educational resources, including articles, online ESL publications and courses, teacher
training, grammar, and writing. Many ESL/EFL programs recommend ESL Cafe for
assistance to students and educators for its useful learning and teaching approaches.
Additionally, ESL Cafe has a web guide that links to 3,314 educational listings.
Here we can access information about distance education, financial aid, student projects,
how to meet other teachers, business English, and more.
Dave Sperling says he published his page because he likes to be part of a
revolutionary way of learning and teaching English on a global scale. ESL Cafe
is a web site where students and teachers from many parts of the World converge looking
for great education and training resources. Sperling has gained broad popularity in ESL
Cafe as he communicates a commitment to share his English knowledge with many
people using the Internet as a fascinating way to stimulate learning and teaching. He
focuses on pulling the researcher into his page by presenting simple, diverse, and quality-
oriented materials and techniques.
In his home page, Dave Sperling attempts to market his products by presenting
some positive and constructive reviews of his books conducted by various professional
organizations. Many colleges with English programs advertise their educational programs
in ESL Cafe. These organizations and colleges have links to their main pages from ESL
Cafe, and actively sponsor Sperling's trips to a variety of TESOL (Teachers of English to
Speakers of Other Languages) conferences. In ESL Cafe, Sperling openly discusses the
locations and subjects of his future presentations as they relate to his guest speaker
themes in ESL, EFL, and TESOL matters.
ESL Cafe is user-friendly and continuously evolving with very useful information. This home page displays an extremely functional use of color, evident in striking design elements in
every internal link. The use of color carries methodical and precise manner so that its use brings
a consistent meaning, enhancing the readability of the text for both students and teachers.
This web site offers information in languages, slang matters, phrasal verbs, quizzes, and
discussions forum for learners of English. Sperling constantly updates ESL Cafe using
simplicity and positive approach as the page's general style. He conveys the exact
meaning of his thinking by selecting clear and concise expression of ideas. His preference
for specific and responsive structure of information creates an impression of sincerity. Through
the methodology of this page, students and teachers can create quick systems that facilitate their
assignments and lessons, not to mention the importance of being able to communicate with
peers to share ideas, projects, and approaches.
The integration of a vast amount of educational
resources in ESL Cafe provides a variety of more ESL alternatives than other similar web sites.
Sperling demonstrates his success by projecting to be a goal-minded individual as he has focused on the expansion potential of ESL Cafe by explaining new ideas. He promotes the practice and development of ESL strategies such as learning through pronunciation and lots of grammar embedded in the page and directly from the external links. Throughout the years he has
discussed and talked about the expansion of his page's Job Center to assist ESL teachers in finding jobs overseas. Sperling encourages ESL/EFL teachers to look for worldwide teaching
positions listed in the center. During 1999 and 2000 he wanted to answer the top 200
questions asked at ESL Cafe. In an interview with one of his students about his book he
affirms his unselfish desire to improve his students' command of the English language
using various classroom and Internet techniques.
ESL Cafe provides a large variety of methods and techniques for study, research,
and teaching. Information is readily available for download, save to files or simply to be
added to the favorites. All the contents within Dave's ESL Cafe are educational in nature and
extremely helpful to ESL/EFL students and teachers. Conversely, Sperling has a photo
gallery in ESL Cafe. There we can see photos of his wife Tao, from Thailand, and his two
lovely children, Benjamin and Shannon Alexandra. The photo gallery symbolizes the
warmth and friendly community-attitude of the author. As a result, visitors can find
themselves in an environment that is hospitable, and gathered in a circle of teamwork and
unity.
ESL Cafe is very similar to EF Englishtown (http://www.englishtown.com). This
site provides free Internet service for students and teachers. It contains much help for
every one including a bulletin board with nearly 400 grammar and vocabulary
messages. In addition, it has live chats, a learning fair, and specialty stores where students
and teachers can find outstanding learning and teaching resources. EF Englishtown has
links to financial assistance organizations for students, and to the ESL Home Page. Both,
ESL Cafe and EF Englishtown engage in the techniques of forum discussions to motivate
the sharing of ideas among visitors. Using combinations of these two sites, students and
teachers can access detailed information about almost any ESL topic. Researchers now
have so much information at their fingertips at a faster pace using these two pages than
visiting their local library. In general, more learners and educators appear to be taking
aggressive advantage of their new working knowledge of ESL materials posted in the
Internet. As a result, students, teachers, and educational institutions have had to adjust and
embrace new strategies to learn and teach English as a Second Language using innovative
methods like those pioneered by Dave Sperling.
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References
Bradley, L. (1999). The best Internet Activity available for ESF/EFL students; a book
review. [On-line]. Available: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/
Britto, F. (2001). Dave Sperling's ESL Web Guide. Daily Yomiuri Online. [On-line].
Available: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/wp4el-e/wp4e1001.htm
Brown, J.M. (2001). A language arts website: a learning site for middle school students.
[On-line]. Available: http://students.resa.net/stoutcomputerclass/21a.htm
Johnson, J. (2000). A conversation with Dave Sperling. [On-line]. Available:
http://www.richmondpark.net/events/chat11.html
Krauss, M. (2000). Dave Sperling's Internet Activity Workbook; a book review. [On-
line]. Available: http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/sperlingreview.html
Meloni, C. (2001). Dave's ESL Caf? Wandering the Web Magazine. TESOL matters.
[On-line]. Available: http://www.tesol.org/pubs/magz/wanweb/1998/wanweb9802.html
Riedmiller, T. (1998). Dave Sperling's Internet Guide; a book review. Language
Magazine. [On-line]. Available: http://www.languagemagazine.com/alo/nd98/brds51.html
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Open to the UNIVERSE in 2005 and beyond
Cuidese...que de los buenos quedamos pocos...
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Torpedero de Batey Boricua
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