esl-lounge.com: A good idea stuck in development
I discovered this page when I first had
private students on a pre-intermediate level. I didn't have any material for
listening on that level, so I had to find a quick solution. The site also has options for grammar,
reading, vocabulary, phrasal verbs, pronunciation exercises and even some
simple games, but now I focus on the listening option. It's nicely separated to
different levels from beginner to advanced, plus business English. I have to
say it's been built up nicely. You have a player for the audio file which has
been recorded with native speakers (Or at least they sound like native.) and
the topics are very life like. I would rather recommend them from the upper
class, because recipes, work and personal life based conversation could be
boring for young learners. Every topic has a true or false exercise, and for
second, you have a more extended exercise for the same audio, where you have to
fill in gaps in a text, or choose the right answers for the questions. By
clicking mark answers the page evaluates them in a pop-up window and also
corrects them for the right answers if you make a mistake. If you are still not
sure about what went wrong, you can read the transcript of the audio. The only
problem is, that there are only three pages to choose from at all levels, so my
feeling here is that the whole development of the site has stuck after a while.
Maybe it's because the lack of motivation or money issues or both of them. I
have checked their youtube channel, and they haven't uploaded anything since
2016. The layout of the website is also reminds me to the early 2000's. It does
its job, but not very eye catching at all. If you teach a class or a student for
a longer period, you will soon run out of exercises. Which is a pity, because the
few they have turned out to be useful. At least for me.
https://www.esl-lounge.com/student/