"Hello . . . . and first I must say thank you for your wonderful site.

Working with deaf and hearing-impaired students, your site has provided a complete and up-to-date place for listening and language work. I am a teacher of the deaf and speech language pathologist for the Lake Drive Program in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey.

The picture here is using Photo Booth on a MacBook. These students can listen to the lessons and then they can watch as they speak responses to the questions. I am on the left, and my students are watching themselves during the lesson.

I have been working for over 25 years in the field of speech language therapy and deaf education. When I am working with those students who want to train using both listening and speaking skills, I turn to your site for some of the best lessons.

I will use the Pre-listening, Listening, and Post Listening exercises to enhance my therapy. It gives the therapy students pure listening since they can not read the lips of a computer (Ha Ha!) I realize lip reading is an important skill to enhance closure of conversations, when an individual is unable to hear the message, but I am trying to have the student use his or her residual hearing as much as possible.

As for how I spend my free time, I will use my free time to surf the net and find great sites to enhance my students' language and listening development. I also enjoy watching English Premier League Football (soccer), reading with my book club of 12 years, and sitting by the beach down at the Jersey shore."

Ric Dwyer - Rochester, Minnesota, USA Email: ridwyer{at}rochester.k12.mn.us [Top]

I work for the Rochester Public Schools' Adult and Family Literacy Program in Rochester, Minnesota. We are an Adult Basic Education (ABE) program, and we serve about 500 students each day. Most of our students are refugees and immigrants (I'm standing in the back row on the far left in the picture below). We also have quite a few temporary students who study with us while they are visiting the Mayo Clinic.

I teach the following classes: beginning pronunciation and conversation, computer literacy, intermediate ESL, and beginning reading. I use Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab as lab work in my beginning pronunciation and conversation class. My students are expected to use the website for at least 30 minutes each day. I give my students a handout with assigned listening exercises which they are to complete with at least 80% accuracy. I also use Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab for whole group instruction in my intermediate ESL class. My students complete paper versions of the text completion and comprehension questions while I play the audio files.

In my free time, I play bass guitar in an oldies band with another teacher from our school.

Ayman Mahmoud - Sudan [Top]

Hi. I'm an English teacher, and I teach conversation and pronunciatoin. Our class is not very big, and the total of students is about 25, divided into four groups. Our monthly courses focus on developing ways to comunicate in English, so I use Randall's ESL Cyber listening Lab to improve their listening skills. I gave them your site address, and I find that it is very nice work to make teaching as a real situation for them as possible, and your site plays this role. The role is to get them out of the classroom and make them move towards their goals and objectives to speak fluently, which depends heavly upon listening and more and more practice. My big dream is to find modern ways and materials to help those who are not allowd to complete their study in different parts of Sudan. In my free time, I play chess and soccer.

Sandra Goronas - Buenos Aires Email: sgrowns{at}hotmail.com [Top]

I'm currently teaching marketing and advertising to adults at Escuela Superior de Publicidad, in Buenos Aires. I also give workshops related to methodology and professional development.

My students are very much engaged in your site, Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab, especially because of the wide range of listening material and topics the site offers. We use the material either in class or as part of an assignment. They are willing to work, and I also ask them to choose the listening they are interested in working on.

Something unique about me . . . I've been trying to make a difference as a teacher. I enjoy walking, and I also love watching movies!

Otto Escobar - Guatamala Email: info{at}ingles.com.gt [Top]

Greetings from Guatemala, the Land of Eternal Spring as people all around the world called my country.

I teach ESL here in Guatemala to students at ESL Academy. I have worked as teacher of English for many years, and it has been one of the most gratifying experiences in my whole life. I love giving back what I have received from others who have been willing to share knowledge to me.

Our students love using Randall's sites. WWW.ESL-LAB.COM has helped our students develop their listening skills more effectively. Besides using the website exercises, we normally give our students additional worksheets using www.esl-lab.com content. They also combine Spelling and Listening at the same time. We also use the audio portions for students to take dictation. This way they are able to listen, repeat, write and read and conduct conversations at the same time.

Students think www.esl-lab.com is the best site there is on the web for building listening skills. They love using the site. Since the site is free, students with economical difficulties are able to listen to quality material without spending great amounts on money on audio CDs.

Thank you, Randall, for your great effort and for your willingness to share the vast knowledge you have gained in other parts of the world. Your sites are greatly appreciated.

In my free time I listen to music, play the piano, surf the web for useful material for our students and hang around with my best friends. Here is a picture of some of our beginning students in our program.

Instructions on How to Participate [Top]

If you are a teacher, and you would like to be featured here, send me 100-200 word summary with the following information:

1. A short description of where you work and the classes you teach.
2. A summary of how you have used any of my sites to support your teaching and student learning with any comments on how students have responded to the material.
3. A picture of you and/or your students. The picture is optional.
4. Something unique about you and/or what you enjoy doing in your free time.

Randall Davis. All rights reserved.