april 10, 2007: completion of first series, beginners' versions

• Beginners' versions are now available for Paired Stories 6-10 in the First Series. As with the first five pairs, each story is followed by a glossary containing any words not in the "flesl.net List of Basic Content Words" or the "flesl.net List of Function Words." ( While working on these beginners' version I have added more words — perhaps as many as seventy-five or eighty — to the list of content words.)

• All forty stories now have beginners' versions with accompanying sets of true-false questions. Eventually glossaries for the Second Series Beginners' Versions will be added.

• For more information please consult about the beginners' versions and about function words.


february 20, 2007: error detection "package"


• I have posted an error detection excercise, Error Sheet #1, along with several related "pages." The aim of error detection work is to train students to find and correct avoidable errors in their ESL writing. ("Avoidable" errors are ones which students make, not because they lack information about English grammar, but because they are not putting into practice information they already have.)

•
Altogether there are seven documents in the package:

• Error Sheet #1 (ten items taken from student writing, each containing one or more typical errors)

• Short Key to Error Sheet #1 (one or more correct versions of the errors on the sheet)

• Explanatory Key to Error Sheet #1 (explanation of all the errors on the sheet, with links to the "Grammar Glossary"; prints out to four pages.)

• Multiple Choice Version of Error Sheet #1 (easy to use and correct)

• Key to the Multiple Choice Version of Error Sheet #1

• Quick Start with Error Sheets (instructions for explaining the purpose of error sheets to students; how to use them; how to make your own; prints out to two pages)

• About Error Sheets (background and theory; prints out to five pages)

• All these documents are accessible via the Grammar Directory; "About Error Sheets" and "Quick Start with Error Sheets" are also accessible via the TESL Directory

•In the next few months I plan to post several more error sheets. These will be accompanied, at least, by a short key.

november 30: beginners' version for first series stories, 1-5

•Beginners' versions are now available for the first five pairs of stories in the First Series. Like the Beginners' Versions of the Second Series stories, they are accompanied by true-false questions with answer keys. Unlike the First Series beginners' versions, they are also accompanied by glossaries of "off-list words" (explanations of words that are not on the "flesl.net list of basic content words" or the "flesl.net list of function words." )

• While writing the latest beginners' versions, I added about twenty-five words to the basic content word list.

• For more information, look at "about the beginners' versions" and "about function words."

november 11: beginners' version for second series stories

• Beginners' versions are now available for all the paired stories in the "Second Series." (Beginners' versions are also available for the first pair of stories in the First Series—and, within the next few months, beginners' versions of the other stories in that series will appear.)

• All the beginners' versions are accompanied by a set of true-false questions and an answer key.

• The vocabulary of the beginners' versions is restricted to words on the "flesl.net list of basic content words" and the "flesl.net list of function words." (For more information, look at "about the beginners' versions" and "about function words.")

• Like all the materials on flesl.net, the beginners' versions have been written primarily for ESL students. I hope, however, that they will be useful to native-speaking literacy students and also, perhaps, to students in English-medium elementary schools. (They have been tested successfully on one group of grade-three students.)

• Please send any corrections, comments, or questions concerning the beginners' versions to: contact@flesl.net.

- fl, 06.11.11