Yelp as a Learning Tool

The reason I like Yelp as a learning tool is because it allows students to interact in a meaningful way; writing reviews for restaurants is fun and students will want to express themselves correctly. It's also easy. However, since you're talking about going on and spending money, this idea will be most appropriate for older students. If you wanted to use the site for younger ages, you could use the site to teach restaurant vocabulary, but I'm still inclined to use the site for older students. Another reason is that many Yelp users are young and use idioms and colloquialisms. However, this is an opportunity to teach these aspects of language. If you wanted to find real language as it's used by real people, you can find it here in bulk (as opposed to succinct Twitter and Facebook postings). Students will find restaurants interesting, especially if they are visiting from other countries and will enjoy reading up on local restaurants and writing reviews for places they've been. You could also organize a class trip somewhere small, like a coffee shop (as long as you call in advance so as not to terrorize the baristas) and have everyone review the same place afterwards. I think this would give students a sense that they are a part of a community and allow them to practice some very common and important vocabulary. You could use Yelp as part of a food/restaurant unit, a New York unit, or while teaching students how to judge something. Yelp is free to use, reading and writing. It allows students to have some fun and read something interesting while looking at real language. That's valuable.