What is ELLville?
ELLville is a game and visual collection of resources designed to help ESL/ELL students learn English. We believe Ellville is a unique and appealing language learning concept based on the following factors:
Verbal Focus
While writing certainly has an important place in learning language, ELLville was designed to focus specifically on verbal learning. Speaking with confidence is likely to lead to improved progress with writing. The Ellville Creators noticed that for many students with little or no understanding of English, a basic speaking foundation improved other academic and social situations.
Visuals
Visual heavy content makes learning easier, quicker, and recognizable. The abundance of kid-friendly visuals makes lessons seem more fun and less "work". In addition, visuals are a universal concept-which is key when tasked with working with ESL/ELL students from different countries who speak different languages. Visuals allow for flashcards, quick learning, brain-word connections, and flexibility with presentation. In addition, the visual nature of the ELLville system allows mainstream foreign language teachers to use and apply the illustrations to their own classroom lessons! Why not use ELLville game cards as flashcards to speak Chinese, Russian, or Spanish? Why not use ELLville game ideas to teach the same concepts in French, German, or Japanese?
Interaction
While ELLville may offer some digital components in the future, speaking and human interaction will always be key...whether the content is on a screen or printed paper. It's designed to be a program in which both student and teacher (or groups of students) are in constant verbal communication.
Diversity
Students love to see themselves, their families, and the diverse nature of their new communities reflected in visual learning tools. ESL/ELL students come from different continents and countries all over the world. The illustrated community of the town of "ELLville is designed to represent different nationalities, backgrounds, religions, professions, ethnicities, and personalities.
Relevance
Sometimes it is hard to find visuals or tools that represent important things of today. For example, while looking through the available resources at school, it was concluded that many of the toys and items were outdated. While there was an abundance of visuals for classic toys like jacks, balls, teddy bears, ABC blocks, and rocking horses...the truth is kids today are playing with action figures, playing cards, video games, LEGO blocks, and fashion dolls. These items represent the things that kids are into today. Updated visuals help teach students the words to discuss relevant interests with their peers.
Connection
The gaming nature of ELLville encourages and fosters connections between the teacher and student (and amongst students within a group!) It is a highly interactive program with little time spent on independent screen time, writing, reading, or anything that feels like "work". It allows moments of humor, silliness, creativity, and personality. Students and teachers alike will learn about shared interests, favorites, likes, dislikes, places, and experiences...forming connections and understanding. Students learn words and concepts that are relevant to today, giving them more confidence to discuss popular topics with peers and form friendships.
FUN
ELLville is intended to be fun. It was exciting to see newcomer students connect with the teacher creator of ELLville and look forward to the lessons. The game structure, interactive nature, colorful visuals, and flexibility of the ELLville program is designed to make learning English FUN and help students feel welcome and connected in their new school environment.
