Learning how to drive, and car information in general, is clearly a high-interest topic among many of my students. So, in keeping with my philosophy that the best way to teach English is to find something students are interested in, and then they have to use English to access it, I’ve developed a “The Best…” list on the topic.
I’ve tried to stay away from the many teen-driving sites that are just packed with advertisements.
Here are my choices for The Best Online Resources For Drivers Education & Car Information (that are accessible to English Language Learners). These are not in any order of preference:
The Language Guide “talking” dictionary of car-related vocabulary is a good place to start for Beginning English Language Learners.
Ello has a listening game for English Language Learners related to car trouble and another one on traffic signs.
Here are a series of flash cards designed to teach about traffic signs.
Here are two other drivers education games — one related to the California test and the other to traffic signs.
The CDLP has activities for English Language Learners on cellphone safety, polluting cars, and carjackings.
Here are another two activities for learning about road signs.
Impact Teen Drivers has a number of interactive resources on its site that are accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners.
Ride Like a Friend also has a rule-setting feature that teenagers can use to reflect on how they want their passengers to behave, and another survey on annoying car habits students can complete.
Here’s a listening exercise about buying a car.
What’s My Score has a good guide to Buying A Car.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has its own YouTube channel that has numerous accessible videos, including a series on the “Top Ten Reasons For Failing The Driving Test.” In order to make it usable in most schools, of course, you’d have to upload them to a site like Edublogs TV.
The New York Times has an online game designed to reinforce why it’s not good to text while you’re driving.
Joe McVeigh left a comment with an excellent resource of podcasts relating to driving that are specifically designed for English Language Learners. Check-out ESL Pod.
The All State Great Race, an online driver education game.
Driving Tests has online practice tests for learning permits from many states.
Expert Driving Techniques is a useful infographic.
I’d certainly be interested in hearing other suggestions, so please feel free to leave them in the comments section.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
The folks at ESLPodcast have a number of podcasts in simple English relating to driving and drivers ed. Go to http://www.eslpod.com then, in the Search Podcast box in the lefthand navigation panel, choose transportation from the drop-down menu. This brings up podcasts on such subjects as Getting a Driver’s License, Learning to Drive, Getting a Traffic Ticket, Parking Instructions, Common Traffic Signs, Car Trouble, and Buying a Used Car. All of these are designed for ESL learners.
Thank you SO much for this list! My driver’s ed teacher has been looking for something like this for over a year – it’s so nice to have the sites all put together in one place.
Yap, no need to work your way to find these sites. Kinda interested how to race drive for myself, rally to be specific but I’m sharing this to my students, kinda my own thing and I don’t want to encourage anything.
Another site for Driving practice tests is http://www.freedmvpracticetests.com. This site has instant feed back after each questions.
Another site is http://drivingtests101.com/.
This site provides driving test questions for 12 countries, 278 states/provinces (including all US states), for all vehicle types (car, motorcycles, trucks, buses, etc).
Each test has randomized, rule and sign, multiple choice questions that are very similar or the same to the real written driving test exams.
There are also links to the official driver handbooks for each state, province or country.
Another site for Driving practice tests is http://www.gngdrivingschool.com/.
If you are getting ready for your permit or drivers license I found http://www.practicepermittest.com to be really helpful. They have practice tests for all 50 states and the drivers manuals as well.
Here you can find the Top List of Free Online Driving Test Practice Resources
http://blog.sprint-driving.com/list-of-free-online-driving-education-resources/
Researching for a project. Lot of good information. Still examining options to make it student usable
Stan Troxel here. I am a retired English.Lang.Arts teacher and started teaching Dr. Ed. mid career. I now teach Dr. Ed. in my semi-retirement, for Omaha Safety Council and Edu. Ser. Unit #3. in the Papillion-LaVista School District and the Gretna School District.
Teaching Driver Education I believe also taught me a lot about teaching.
I call myself a Driver Education teacher, rather than instructor, as many a likely to do. I make the point I am trying to save their lives when teaching driver education and help them improve their lives teaching English.
But I am big on crossing teaching or macro teaching.
Where do you want to go? How are you going to get there– what will be your method of mobility? What things need to be checked before and as you start? Who are you taking with you? What is going to be your road map choice of routes? Will you need to make adjustments? Are all your senses and intellect read to make the trip? What will be points of interest and markers you are making good, safe progress?
How will you recognize you are close to your destination?
These questions should be asked of yourselves everyday as you plan you live. If you do this things you will get to the Mall and your dreams will also be fulfilled each year of your life.