What is Wordle?

Wordle is an online tool for creating word clouds from passages of text. The more frequently a word appears in the text, the larger it shows up in the word cloud. An example, based on the text on this page can be seen below:

How to make a word cloud with Wordle

Here is a brief tutorial video on how to use Wordle to make word clouds and how to save your images:

How can it be used in class?

OK, so Wordle looks pretty but how can it be applied for teaching? Obviously, it lends itself to vocabulary and reading lessons very well and here are a few suggestions:

• Introducing a new vocabulary topic

Before starting a new unit in the coursebook or a new topic, students can be shown a Wordle image containing the target vocabulary. They can then be asked to speculate on the theme, identify words they do or don't know, make sentences using the words

• For pre-reading tasks
• An accompaniment for wall displays
• Displaying survey results
• Speed sentence writing
• Support for dictogloss and text reconstruction activities
• Text analysis