Tips & Stategies

Search strategies

Use search strategies that can help you narrow down your research: 

(a) to exclude words from your search you can put a dash in front of the word you want to exclude (for example, cake recipe -chocolate will exclude chocolate cakes from your cake recipe search.) 

(b) to search for an exact match you can put your keywords in quotes (for example, cake recipe “carrot” will find only results that have exactly the word carrot.) 

(c) to combine two searches put the word OR between them (for example, cake recipe OR muffin recipe will find results for both cake and muffin recipes.) 

(d) to search for specific sites insert SITE: before the query (for example site:allrecipes.com will find that specific website) 

(e) to search for a website related to another website insert RELATED: before the website (for example, related:youtube.com will find websites similar to that one)

Great Search Engines for Language Teachers  are:

1. Google Scholar (for academic articles)

2. Unsplash (for images)

3. Pixabay (for  images)

4. Flirk (for images)

5. EdX (for online courses)

6. Google Books (for books)

7. YouTube (for videos)

Tip: Always keep in mind that a publication/article/video is considered contemporary if published a maximum of five years by the time we wish to use it as a resource.
So, articles published since 1999 are not a good option for your research!

Just writing things in the google search bar might not always be enough when looking for specific information. To target research and get the information need more effectively, you need: 

  • Be specific using more meaningful words.

  • Reduce irrelevant results – narrow down your search.

  • Use exact phrases.

With these tips, you can perform better queries, which can save time and frustration while finding the exact information you are looking for!