A4ESL-online quizzes

Website of the day: A4ESL -  a resourceful online quiz website.

What is this?

It is a good website which provides plenty of online quizzes in different categories like vocabulary and grammar and in various levels of difficulty.

Why is the content good for language learning?

• There are thousands of free quizzes designed by those who are interested in English teaching and learning.
• There are a variety of quizzes such as grammar, vocabulary, festival and so on. Because of the clear category, teachers can easily find the quizzes related to their teaching materials.  

• The grammar and vocabulary quizzes are sorted into three levels from easy to difficult. It might suit learners of different proficiency levels. 
• Some grammar quizzes begin with a review of the specific grammar and then a series of quizzes. Students can review the grammar before doing the quizzes. Click here to see one of the example quiz.
• The website provides bilingual vocabulary quizzes, which might help students translate their target language to their mother tongue and vice versa.

Classroom use

• After teaching vocabulary, grammar, teachers can have students do the online quizzes.
• Teachers can have students do the online quizzes related to the history or customs of certain festival like Valentine's Day. Students can learn English and its culture as well.    

Limitations 

• The layout of the website is boring and demotivating.
• The answers to most quizzes are displayed underneath each question. Therefore, some students might just click on icon to see the answer, which teachers might not notice. 
• The website cannot record students' learning progress and the mistakes they have made during the practice. Therefore, students might not learn English in a more systematic way. 



• Most quizzes don't provide explanations when students choose the wrong answer. Students cannot learn from mistakes but doing the quizzes mechanically.    
• There is no consistency of these quizzes in terms of the types of quizzes, the feedback, the layout ans so on. 
• Some quizzes only provide mechanical and boring practices instead of meaningful ones. Besides, there seems no difference whether students do the practice online or in paper-based form.