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Englicious [Online], University College London. Available from the World Wide Web: <http://www.englicious.org/> Free subscription. Supplementary resources available at < http://www.youtube.com/user/engliciousgrammar>
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Englicious is a new online library of resources for English language teachers that has been designed by the Survey of English Usage at UCL. It offers not only lesson plans and activities for use in the classroom, but a collection of Continuing Professional Development resources for teachers, all aimed at supporting the teaching of the new National Curriculum in England. There is a particular focus on spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG), and especially on preparing pupils for the Year 3 and Year 6 SPaG tests, but users will also find materials covering many other aspects of English Language at both a primary and a secondary level.
In addition to its specialised focus on grammar teaching, Englicious promises teachers several other innovative features. Central to many of the exercises offered by the site is the corpus of spoken and written English gathered by the Survey for English Usage. The corpus provides authentic quotations to illustrate points of grammar; it also allows users of the site to complete interactive exercises using examples that change each time the questions are attempted, challenging students to apply their knowledge to unseen problems rather than simply memorising the small number of questions offered by a standard textbook.
The commitment to teaching grammar through real examples of English in use is just one aspect of the site's foundation in descriptive linguistics. Throughout the various resources there is an emphasis on encouraging pupils (and teachers) to think about the language they...