Title: English Central
Url: http://tr.englishcentral.com/videos
Date: 11.9.2016
Reviewer: Behice Ceyda Cengiz
1) Availability of Membership/Subscription (Phone, email, social media)
https://www.facebook.com/EnglishCentralTurkey/
https://blog.englishcentral.com/
2) Whether registration is required for the access to the materials, worksheets etc.
One needs to register and log in to view the videos uploaded on the website. Without registration, one can see only few videos and browse different courses about different topics.
3) Authorship (Contact/ information about the author/institution/website owner)
Since it is the website of a company, biographies of team people are provided.
4) Site description and content (Short description of website, purpose, language skills, materials and activities, learners proficiency level, age )
In the website, there are more than 10.000 videos (as stated so) about a wide range of topics. One can choose one of the three levels (e.g. beginner, intermediate, upper level) and either choose videos or courses to attend. There are also private (one-to-one) lessons one can attend (not free, most probably). In the videos, subtitles are also included. One can click on the words and see the word category (e.g. noun, verb, etc.), phonetic transcription, Turkish translation, example sentence, audio recording of the word’s pronunciation. One can also record his/her voice and get feedback regarding one’s pronunciation and fluency. In the videos, some words are underlined. After the video ends, there is a fill-in-the-blanks activity, which requires learners to type in the underlined vocabulary. Different subjects are addressed in the videos, which are about academic English, business English, media English, social English and travel English. There are also videos for young learners. Apart from these subjects, other headings include grammar, pronunciation, communication and different exams (TOEIC). In addition to the videos, there are different courses one can choose to attend, which include different videos with different subjects and levels. There is also a mobile application of English Central.
5) Up-to-datedness (Updated time and current links)
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6) Accuracy (Accurate information, bibliography, language accuracy)
The language used on the website is accurate. No bibliography is provided.
7) Presentation (Organization/navigation, user-friendliness, technical aspects, graphics, advertisement)
It is a user friendly website. It is easy to navigate and find what you are looking.
8) Usefulness (For teachers / students – in class or out class activity)
It is useful for teachers who are looking for videos to use in the classroom. It is also useful for students who can use the website outside the class for learning new vocabulary and practicing pronunciation.
9) Overall rating
1 Very Poor (Not recommended)
2 Poor (Not appropriate)
3 Adequate (Acceptable with adaptation)
4 Good (Appropriate for use)
5 Excellent (Highly recommended)
1 2 3 4 5
