In Their Own Words...

Eric Zhou and Cindy Smith,
ESL student from China and Tutor.


Dell Bean,
TFL Tutor.


Virginia Masnicki,
Virginia Masnicki, TFL donor.

Useful Links

Local Interest

Town of Palmer, Massachusetts

Satellite Libraries

Adult Literacy

MCAE: Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education.

Up to date news about federal and state literacy legislation, and public policy information.

National Center on Adult Literacy

The National Center on Adult Literacy, NCAL, which is based at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, was founded by means of a grant from the U.S. Department of Education in 1990, to provide leadership in the development of programs and research for adult literacy. NCAL, along with the International Literacy Institute (ILI) is part of the Literacy Online gateway to resources for the national and international adult literacy communities (litserver.literacy.upenn.edu). The site includes lists of electronic and print publications, and training materials for staff development.
litserver.literacy.upenn.edu/ncal.html

National Institute for Literacy

The National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) is an independent federal organization leading the national effort toward a fully literate America in the 21st century. Information about congressional legislation affecting adult education, programs and services offered by NIFL, and access to NIFL publications can all be found on this site. The LINCS section of this site, (novel.nifl.gov/lincs/index.asp), includes facts and statistics, teacher and student resources, and links regional programs.
http://novel.nifl.gov

The Internet Directory of Literacy and Adult Education Resources

Intended for teachers, tutors, and professionals in the field, the information for this site was originally compiled by Tom Eland, formerly Coordinator of the Minnesota - South Dakota Regional Adult Literacy Resource Center. It is composed of a large directory of selected (but nevertheless plentiful) internet resources, which are organized by subject, alphabetically by name, and by four categories of internet resources: www, gopher, listservs, and other (such as ftp, e-mail and telnet). Subject headings include Adult Basic Education, Bibliographies, Computer Literacy, Family Literacy, and Resource Centers. (http://archon.educ.kent.edu/Midwest/Resc/Litdir/index.asp)

Adult Literacy Resource Institute

The Adult Literacy Resource Institute, ALRI, is a project and staff development center for programs in adult literacy, basic education, and English for speakers of other languages, in the Greater Boston area. It is one of five regional support centers of the Massachusetts System for Adult Basic Education Support, SABES.
http://alri.org

LiteracyLink Homepage

LiteracyLink is a distance learning project produced by PBS, Kentucky Educational Television, the National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL), and the Kentucky Department of Education, and it is sponsored by the Star School Grant program of the U.S. Department of Education. It is designed to help adults to prepare for the General Educational Development (GED) exam.
www.pbs.org/literacy/

Ask ERIC

The ERIC Clearinghouses provide indexing and abstracting services for educational periodicals and documents. This website has a search feature, which allows educators to search for references to articles (some are in full text) on all topics concerning education and literacy. There is a tremendous volume of materials contained here.
http://ericir.sunsite.syr.edu/

The National Adult Literacy and Learning Disabilities Center

This site is geared toward overcoming the learning disabilites which pose a stumbling block to literacy. The National Adult Literacy and Learning Disablilities Center is the result of a collaborative effort between the NIFL, the Academy for Educational Development, and the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities. (http://novel.nifl.gov/nalldtop.htm)

System for Adult Basic Education Support (SABES)

Funded by the Massachusetts Department of Education, SABES has the intent of providing literacy instructors with content and support materials for teaching. Examples of resources posted to the website include bibliographies on family literacy, workplace education, health education, and learning disabilities, a newsletter, publications catalog, workshops, and teacher sharing groups.
www.sabes.org/index.htm

MetroBoston Community-Wide Education and Information Service

MetroBoston is one of a number of communities across the country which are part of the Community Wide Education and Information Service. CWEIS is a national initiative designed to develop and encourage free public access to education and information on-line services using local public radio and television stations as a nucleus. MetroBoston CWEIS provides public and educational information free of charge to members of the metropolitan Boston community. It serves as a gateway to organizations which operate existing services and provides new services for organizations which lack the financial or technical resources to operate their own. The main partners in the metroBoston CWEIS initiative are the Literacy Telecommunications Collaborative, the Community Technology Centers Network, New Visions, and WGBH.
www2.wgbh.org/mbcweis

National Center for the Study of Adult Literacy and Learning (NCSALL)

The National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy is a collaborative effort between the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and World Education. The Center for Literacy Studies at The University of Tennessee, Rutgers University, and Portland State University are NCSALL's partners. The goal of NCSALL is to help the field of adult basic education define a comprehensive research agenda; to pursue basic and applied research under that agenda; to build partnerships between researchers and practitioners; and to disseminate research and best practices to practitioners, scholars, and policy makers. NCSALL is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
http://gseweb.harvard.edu/~ncsall

English as a Second Language (ESL)

Dave's ESL Cafe on the Web

Dave Sperling has produced an excellent site for students and teachers of ESL, EFL (English as a second language, foreign language). Idioms, grammar, quizzes, FAQs, advice from ESL teachers via the help center, and job postings for ESL teachers are just some of the choices offered on this attractive site. (http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/eslcafe.html)

National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education (NCLE)

NCLE is an adjunct to the ERIC Clearinghouse at the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL). NCLE offers online access to downloadable articles, instructions on how to join the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) - ESL listserv, and information on ordering books, bibliographies, videos, and a newsletter, all produced by NCLE. (http://www.cal.org/ncle/)

EXCHANGE: Electronic, Xross Cultural, Hypertextual Academy of Non-native Gatherings in English

A forum for non-native English speakers to share writings, and to access learning resources for ESL. Participants are encouraged to share aspects of their native culture, and to contribute creative writing pieces. One very nice feature is their idiom bank, in which lists of idioms are grouped under a common word and explained. Here one finds idioms such as get around, get ahead, get along, get away with, and get something accross. (http://deil.lang.uiuc.edu/exchange/)

English as a Second Language Home Page

Intended as a starting point for ESL students, this page has links to sites grouped under the headings of listening and speaking, reading with understanding, grammar and writing, ESL schools, and an ESL Teachers' Corner with job listings.
www.rong-chang.com

IATEFL - The International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language.

The IATEFL site has sections on publications for sale (such as materials appropriate for ear-training and pronunciation), sections for special interest groups (business English; teacher development), and a list of direct links to the ESL offerings of well known publishers.
www.iatefl.org

TESOL - Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.

TESOL is active in the formulation of standards for ESL and professional preparation for ESL instructors. (http://www.tesol.edu/index.html)

BBC English

The BBC has constructed an interesting way to enhance the use of radio to learn English. The section Words, Words, Words (which is also available in Real Audio) explains the use of vocabulary in recent BBC news reports, and since the reports are out of the U.K., the use of English is dictinctly British, as opposed to American.
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml