My slideshow about using word clouds in the language learning classroom, presented as part of the Virtual Round Table online conference on March 26th, 2011. http://www.virtual-round-table.com/

1. Not just a pretty cloud: Using Wordle in the language classroom Presentation by David Dodgson VRT Conference March 26th, 2011 Image by Extra Medium

2. What are ‘word clouds’? A visual representation of text Most frequent words show up the largest Can be made from your own text or website url Most popular word cloud sites include Wordle, Tagul, Tagxedo and Wordsift Image: eltpics

3. Today’s presentation

4. Today’s presentation What are ‘word clouds’? A quick survey Vocabulary Previewing/predicting a text Support for language production activities Text analysis Image: eltpics

5. A survey example

6. A survey example

7. Vocabulary: A new topic

8. Vocabulary: Collocations

9. Vocabulary: Collocations

10. Word Clouds for Vocabulary Make a word cloud for target vocabulary Display and check what students already know Ask students to match words and make phrases TIP: repeat a word to make it appear bigger TIP: use ~ to keep words together e.g. get~up Image: eltpics

11. Predicting & previewing: A reading activity (title)

12. Predicting & previewing: A reading activity (text)

13. Predicting & previewing:A fairy tale

14. Word Clouds for Predicting & Previewing Use as an advance organiser Predict content/focus of text Highlight familiar and unknown words TIP: right click on an word before publishing to remove it Image by alexgorstan

15. Support for language production:Dictogloss

16. Support for language production:Dictogloss

17. Support for language production: Scrambled sentences

18. Support for language production: Scrambled sentences

19. Support for language production: Scrambled sentences

20. Word Clouds for Supporting Language Production Use to support writing and dictogloss activities Use to ‘scramble’ single sentences/questions Make a guessing game with a descriptive text Make a word cloud with several sentences for a ‘speed writing’ activity Image: eltpics

21. Text Analysis: Review your writing

22. Text Analysis: What’s on the blog?

23. Word Clouds for Text Analysis Make word clouds with students’ own writing Compare the word clouds and most common words Make word clouds from your class/school blog regularly and compare content Image by akakumo