English Resources for Self-learning

Writing Exercises Web Resources

Intermediate Level

Listening Web Resources

Reading Web Resources

Writing ExercisesWeb Resources

Speaking Web Resources

Pre-intermediate Level

Listening Web Resources

http://www.englishclub.com/

This site contains five sections: Learn English, Teach English, ESL Resources, ESL World, and MY English Club. It could be useful for ESL teachers looking for lesson ideas and also for students wanting to improve their English through interactive games and activities. Most of the games work on both Macs and PCs, but the matching game on the site only works on PCs.

http://www.teflgames.com/games.html

This site contains instructions and materials for ESL teachers to use with students in their classrooms. It also has matching games for students to use to practice their English. These matching games work on PCs, but not Macs.

http://www.manythings.org/

This website is called Interesting Things for ESL/EFL Students. It is split into the following sections: Vocabulary, Grammar, Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Other.

http://wiredforbooks.org/alice/chapter1.htm

This site has Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll as a set of audio files that students can listen to.

http://www.cityu.edu.hk/elc/quiz/rcli.htm

In this online listening quiz, students listen to sentences on audio clips and then are asked to type what they heard.

http://a4esl.org/

This site contains grammar quizzes, vocabulary quizzes, bilingual quizzes, and crossword puzzles. Activities are split into easy, medium, and difficult. It also contains pod casts that ESL students can listen to in order to improve their English.

http://www.eslactivities.com/

This site contains a spelling challenge, hangman, word scramble, a reading level analysis page, and pronunciation practice.

http://www.jcckc.net/english/links_games.htm

This site contains a list of links to a variety of websites containing ESL games and activities.

http://esl.about.com/od/englishlistening/English_Listening_Skills_and_ActivitiesEffective_Listening_Practice.htm

This site has a variety of listening activities for beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels.

http://esl-lab.com/elem/elemrd1.htm

This is a listening exercise having to do with a student's day at school.

http://www.hello-world.com/English/EN_English.php

This site has games, songs, and activities that teach a variety of English concepts.

http://www.esl-kids.com/

This is a site of resources for ESL teachers and contains the following sections: Welcome, Flashcards, Worksheets, In-Class, Songs, Games, and Links.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslstudent.html

This is a list of links to handouts and websites that could be useful to ESL students.

http://english-zone.com/index.php

This site has resources and activities for grammar, reading, writing, vocabulary, pronunciation, and conversation. Plus, there are links to other useful sites.

http://www.5minuteenglish.com/listening.htm

This is a series of dialogues and questions about a series of common topics of conversation.

http://www.mingoville.com/

This is a site of interactive English games and activities for children, all centered around a flamingo-filled town called Mingoville.

http://www.englishcaster.com/index.php?cat=36

This is a list of pod casts for ESL students and teachers.

http://www.esldesk.com/

This is a compilation of tutorials on a variety of grammar subjects, dictionaries of different languages, quizzes, common errors, vocabulary lists, reading help, and links to helpful ESL sites.

http://www.englishmedialab.com/listening.html

This site has audio clips of common English communicative phrases about a variety of common topics of conversation.

http://www.download-esl.com/

This site has a variety of printed, audio, and video ESL material available for downloading.

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Reading Web Resources

Reading Text (Hurricanes and Tornadoes)

http://www.geocities.com/yamataro670/hurricanes-tornadoes.jbc.htm

A timed reading activity on hurricanes and tornadoes (5 minutes) with multiple choice style comprehension questions focusing on specific details.

Reading Text (Melting Pot or Salad Bowl) http://www.geocities.com/yamataro670/pot-bowl.htm

A timed reading activity (Melting Pot or Salad Bowl) (6 minutes) with multiple choice style comprehension questions focusing on specific details.

http://www.geocities.com/yamataro670/Meltingpot-saladbowl.jmx.htm

An exercise based on the above reading, where students have to rearrange the sentence parts to form grammatically correct complete sentences.

Reading Text (A Nation of Nicknames)

http://www.geocities.com/yamataro670/nicknames.htm

A timed reading activity on nicknames (5 minutes) with multiple choice style comprehension questions focusing on specific details.

http://www.geocities.com/yamataro670/nicknames.jmx.htm

An exercise based on the above reading, where students have to rearrange the sentence parts to form grammatically correct complete sentences.

Reading Text (VOLUNTEERS AND CHARITABLE COLLECTIONS)

http://www.geocities.com/yamataro670/volunteercollections.htm

A timed reading activity (Volunteers and Charitable Collections) (5 minutes) with multiple choice style comprehension questions focusing on specific details.

http://www.geocities.com/yamataro670/volunteers.jmx.htm

An exercise based on the above reading, where students have to rearrange the sentence parts to form grammatically correct complete sentences.

Reading Text (SENDING CARDS FOR ALL OCCASIONS) http://www.geocities.com/yamataro670/greetingcards.htm

A timed reading activity on greeting cards (5 minutes) with multiple choice style comprehension questions focusing on specific details.

http://www.geocities.com/yamataro670/sendingcards.jmx.htm

An exercise based on the above reading, where students have to rearrange the sentence parts to form grammatically correct complete sentences.

activities for all levels, quizzes, puzzles http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/reading.html

A large collection of reading activities for Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate students.

searchable database for lessons and exercises at all levels; site includes a placement test

http://www.tolearnenglish.com

A large collection of resources divided according to the following areas; Placement Tests, Lessons and Exercises, Clubs, Leisure Time and Useful Tools.

some from CNN, some timed; Santa Monica College Reading Lab

http://homepage.smc.edu/reading_lab/online_readings.htm

A large collection of stories, short-stories and bibliographies with comprehension questions.

adaptation of the popular Reading maze, a classroom activity that has adapted well to the Web

http://www.grahamstanley.com/englishfortourism/units/010/mazes.html

A selection of ‘reading mazes’ where students have to decide which action to take from the given selection and follow the steps to complete the activity.

A selection of Reading Comprehension activities using an active online dictionary

http://www.edict.com.hk/vlc/comp/readcomp.htm

A selection of reading comprehension texts with questions. A special feature of this site is the ‘active dictionary’ that allows students to view the dictionary definitions of in-text vocabulary.

interactive reading exercises

http://www.english-zone.com

A selection of activities focusing on a number of areas, including grammar, reading, verbs, basic skills, pronunciation, idioms, spelling, writing, vocabulary, conversation and some fun stuff.

readings at different levels with exercises (in Hot Potatoes) to recreate the stories and fill in gaps

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/index.htm

A selection of short reading activities for Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate and Advanced levels. Exercises focus on Grammar, Reading, Vocabulary and Puzzles.

Testing Your Reading and Reading Effectively http://www.tsd.jcu.edu.au/netshare/learn/effreading/testyourself.html

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14. The exercise provides plenty of practice with intermediate level listening & reading skills, and can easily be adapted for discussion and/or writing work as well. Both a student and teacher study guide are linked as further support.

http://www.duber.com/thegame/

large collection of resources

http://www.eduhound.com

A large collection of topic-based online educational resources aimed at teaching scientific concepts. Also contains a section on ESL/EFL activities.

16. resources on many different topics, movies, videos http://www.kidsdomain.com/> --

Redirects to: http://www.kaboose.com/index.html which contains a number of articles related to health. Not specifically EFL, but can be adapted to students’ needs.

17.Grammar http://a4esl.org/q/f/

A selection of Flash Quizzes focusing on grammar.

18.Comparison http://a4esl.org/q/f/y/zz96fck.htm

One exercise from the above website focusing on comparative adjective forms.

19.Cloze-Test http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/deathpenalty.html

A gap-filling exercise from the above website on the death penalty.

20.Vocabulary http://a4esl.org/q/h/0101/pc-evilprince.html

A vocabulary exercise from the above website.

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Writing Exercises Web Resources

1. Grammar: Present simple vs. Progressive – This Ex. will increase S. understanding of the difference b/n simple and progressive

http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/roadside.htm

2. Grammar Quiz: Much/Many – Ex. will give practice differentiating b/n using much and many.

http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/skitrip2.htm

3. Grammar: Present simple vs. Progressive – This is a fact sheet explaining the difference b/n P. Progressive and P. Simple.

http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/psvspmts.htm

4. Writing Apologies: this is a forum offering Lesson plan suggestions on how to write apologies.

http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/teaching-english/83301-teaching-pre-intermediate-class-how-write-apology.html

5. Writing: this is a webiste offering different worksheets from developing writing skills, writing personal letters, etc. Requires you to sign up and receive a username and password which are free.

http://www.eslprintables.com/

6. Writing Paragraphs: this is a very basic introduction to writing paragraphs using four different sentence types: introductory, supporting, transitional, concluding.

http://esl.about.com/od/writingintermediate/a/paragraphs.htm

7. Writing Assignments: this website contains short writing assignments (50 wds).

http://esl.about.com/od/writinginenglish/a/a_begwriting.htm

8. Writing: this website offers worksheets that practice both sentence correction and free writing, answers given as well.

http://www.autoenglish.org/writing.htm

9. Grammar Quiz: Common Errors in composition, this is a quiz on common errors students make when writing.

http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/theiyre2.htm

10. Writing: this website contains writing exercise worksheets readymade.

http://www.1-language.com/eslwriting/index.htm

11. Writing: Describing Action in Progress, this website offers instruction on the first steps in writing, writing things that are happening now.

http://www.eslgold.com/writing/describing_action.html

12. Writing: Pre-Writing organizing your ideas, this website shows how to organize your thoughts and make a simple outline.

http://www.eslgold.com/writing/getting_ideas_organized.html

13. Grammar: How/how plus adjective, this is a factsheet explaining the proper usage of ‘how’.

http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/howbemts.htm

14. Grammar: Irregular Verbs (past tense), this is a list of irregular verbs and the rules they follow.

http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/pastverb.htm

15. Writing: Letter Writing Exercise, this website provides a lesson idea, writing letters and emails.

http://esllanguageschools.suite101.com/article.cfm/esl_letter_writing_exercise

http://www.suite101.com/blog/teachesl/have_esl_students_write_letters

16. Writing: Art Safari – Describing what you see, this website takes students on an ‘art safari’ where they write about what they see.

http://www.moma.org/interactives/artsafari/index.html

17. Grammar: Present Simple Question forms, this is a fact sheet for present simple question forms.

http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/presqmts.htm

18. Grammar: To vs. At, this is a fact sheet showing the correct usage for the prepositions ‘To’ and ‘At’.

http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/tooramts.htm

19. Grammar: Past tense regular/irregular verb quiz

http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/dqfbpas1.htm

20. Grammar: Personal Pronoun fact sheet

http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/selfmts.htm

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Intermediate Level

Listening Web Resources

1. A selection of listening activities for the easy, medium, difficult and very difficult levels.

http://www.esl-lab.com/index.htm

2. Listening Exercises on Christmas including pre-listening, listening and post-listening activities.

http://www.esl-lab.com/gift/giftrd1.htm

3. ESL resources for students divided into the following areas; listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary.

http://www.ohio.edu/linguistics/esl/

4. Stories and Poems for listening practice.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcasts-stories-poems.htm

5. Students listen to descriptions and match them to the correct person.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-games-face-match.htm

6. Mixer Listening Activity – features six speakers (with various accents) answering the same question.

http://www.elllo.org/english/Mixer.htm

ELLLO Online Listening Resource

http://www.elllo.org/

7. Listening Memory Game. Games focus on Communication, the Quality of Sound, the Physical World and Scientific Listening.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/listen/activities/memory_game/deploy/activity_memorygame.php

8. Mid-length recordings of one or two sentences for intermediate learners to dictate.

http://www.englishclub.com/listening/dictations-medium.htm

9. BBC Learning English contains various activities on grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation, as well as general and business English.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/index.shtml

10. Voice of America (VOA) Special English News focuses on providing listening activities in American English.

http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/index.cfm

11. English Listening Monthly News Digest – contains summaries of topical news stories with vocabulary reviews, gap fill exercises and comprehension questions.

http://www.englishclub.com/listening/news.htm

12. 5 Minute ESL Listening Exercises short listening exercises on a variety of topics.

http://www.5minuteenglish.com/listening.htm

13. LingualNet: Learning English Through Movies – very little direction provided by site. Teachers will need to develop their own approaches and exercises.

http://www.lingual.net/lingualproductitems/

14. YouTube Videos (YouTube ESL Videos) to help students study English. Categories include business English, grammar, history, idioms, international English, interviews, listening, news, pronunciation, slang, songs, stories, travel, vocabulary and writing.

http://www.manythings.org/b/e/

15. Listening Skills for Intermediate learners includes English online listening comprehension exercises for intermediate level classes including dialogues and quizzes.

http://esl.about.com/od/intermediatelistenin1/Listening_Skills_for_Intermediate_Level_English_Learners.htm

16. Tongue Twisters for pronunciation practice.

http://esl.about.com/od/englishlistening/a/ttwister_master.htm

17. ESL Radio Net – provides authentic listening materials for the ESL community.

http://www.eslradio.net/radio.htm

18. English Listening Lounge – provides listening passages for easy and more advanced listening.

http://www.englishlistening.com/index.jsp

19. Videos for Learning English with comprehension exercises and additional information on vocabulary.

http://www.englishstudydirect.com/OSAC/mediavideo.htm

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Reading Web Resources

1. 25 Readings with different activities for each one (Focuses: narrative elements, prefixes, suffixes, roots, literary devices, summarize/paraphrase, main idea, cause/effect, word relationships, draw conclusions…)

http://www.harcourtschool.com/menus/trophies/activities/reading_skills/gr6.html

2. Easy passages with TOEFL like questions

http://www.readingcomprehensionconnection.com/cgi-bin/dcts1.pl

3. Readings with activities about vocabulary, word selection, multiple choice, sequencing, and conclusions

http://literacynet.org/cnnsf/

4. Cloze texts – provides gap filling exercises at various levels for students to practice.

http://www.parapal-online.co.uk/kids/cloze/cloze.swf

5. Reading strategies/ SQR3 tutorial and practice

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/studyskills/10to14/get/ReadingMedia/resources/index.asp

6. This site provides information on study skills and is divided by age range; 5-9 year olds, 10-14 year olds and 15-18 year olds. For 15-18 year olds, the study skills include writing essays, summarizing and memory skills.

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/studyskills/index.asp

7. Listening (beginner to Advanced) Listen to a radio broadcast read the script and fill in the words

http://www.cbc.ca/ottawa/esl/lessons.html

8. Action mazes (interactive reading exercises) where the students decide the direction and result of the story.

http://www.johnsesl.com/templates/reading/quandry/

9. British Council Reading page (magazines, stories, poems with activities

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-skills-reading.htm

10. Readings (cloze, comprehension)

http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/exercises/main/reading.html

11. Speed reading exercises, extensive reading, science reading

http://eslus.com/LESSONS/READING/READ.HTM

12. News summaries, daily news quiz, word of the day, test prep question of the day, lesson plans

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/index.html

13. Helpful site for a student writing a research paper, connecting readings

http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/researchstarters/index.htm

14. Current events students can submit comments

http://cenewsblog.typepad.com/main_news/index.html

15. Reading texts and dialogues on a wide range of topics with comprehension questions

http://esl.about.com/od/readingintermediate/English_Reading_Comprehension_Skills_for_Intermediate_Level_Learners.htm

16. 365 short stories with crossword activity and a dictation

http://www.eslfast.com/

17. A list of links with descriptions for upper intermediate readers

http://www.fi.muni.cz/ICT4ELT/websites/upperintermediate/reading_le.html

18. Strange news (intermediate news articles without activities, but students can guess if the story is true or false)

http://www.eslreading.org/strange/strangenews.html

19. Reading Strategies – thinking strategies used by readers

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/ReadStrats_20Best.html

20. Reading Resources – list of websites.

http://www.ohio.edu/linguistics/esl/reading/index.html

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Writing Web Resources

1 – Online Writing Lab

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_concise.html

Students can get help on many topics with exercises.

2 – Guide to Grammar and Writing

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

Students can choose from sentence level to paragraph level to research paper level for grammar tips. Also there are PowerPoint slides available on a large variety of topics.

3 - English as a Second Language (ESL) Resources, Handouts and Exercises for Writing

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/

For students, there is a page with links to resources that assist ESL students by answering general questions about the English language and helping with grammar problems, idioms, and academic conventions. It also has pointers to several listservs and MOOs, as well as some online English courses.

4 - Writing Resources

http://www.ohio.edu/linguistics/esl/writing/index.html

Students can learn about the whole writing process through worksheets on various topics.

5 - Study Tools for Hungry Learners (Vocabulary)

http://www.studystack.com/menu-72073

Students can play games with vocabulary words.

6 - Greek and Latin Roots

https://www.msu.edu/~defores1/gre/roots/gre_rts_afx2.htm

Students can learn common Greek and Latin roots and identify them in vocabulary words.

7 - Great English Website (Tenses, Punctuation, Word Usage, Common Writing Errors)

http://www.myenglishteacher.net/previous.html

Students can work through lessons on a variety of English topics, such as tense, punctuation, word usage, common writing errors.

8 - How to Write an Abstract

http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/essays/abstract.html

Students can learn the basics parts and requirements of writing an abstract.

9 - Abstract Writing

http://www.uaf.edu/csem/ashsss/abstract_writing.html

Students learn the basics of abstract writing and can practice writing their own using a worksheet.

10 - Writing Abstracts

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/bizwrite/abstracts.html

Students learn different types of abstracts, qualities of a good abstract, and steps to writing an effective abstract.

11 - Writing up Research: the Abstract

http://www.languages.ait.ac.th/el21abst.htm

Students learn the purpose of an abstract, common problems with abstracts, the difference between an abstract and an introduction and view examples.

12 - Preparing Abstracts and Annotations

http://myrin.ursinus.edu/help/resrch_guides/annotate.htm

Students learn how to write both abstracts and annotations.

13 - Capitalization

http://www.ncsu.edu/ncsu/grammar/Capital3.html

Students can learn the answers to many questions on capitalization.

14 - Classroom exercises Teaching Style and Form

http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/handbook/exercises.html

Students can go through writing exercises, particularly about style and form, and then check themselves with the answer key.

15 - Writing Exercises for Engineers and Scientists

http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/exercises/index.html

Students can work exercises on grammar, punctuation, and usage.

16 - Scientific Writing PowerPoint Slides for Students

http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/presentations/writing.pdf

Students can view PowerPoint slides for scientific writing.

17- Latin Plurals
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/plurals?view=uk

Students learn plurals of English words of Latin and Greek. At the bottom, there are also links to ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.

18 – Links to many ESL sites

http://www.ccsf.edu/Departments/ESL/hot.html

Links to a variety of ELS websites, including general ESL, grammar, vocabulary, composition, reference, and news

19 – Great ESL Writing links for both students and teachers

http://marksesl.com/writing_center.html

20 – Links to writing help for ESL students

http://www.uni.edu/becker/TESOL_ESL2.html#writing

21 – Dave’s ESL Writing Links

http://www.eslcafe.com/search/Writing/

22 - Lesson Plans for English Writing Skills Improvement for ESL Classes (For Teachers)

http://esl.about.com/od/writinglessonplan1/Lesson_Plans_for_English_Writing_Skills_Improvement_for_ESL_Classes.htm

23 - Language Arts Lesson Plans (ESL, Parts of Speech, Speaking, Poetry, Reading, Sentences and Paragraphs, etc.) (For Teachers)

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LAJH.htm

24 - Plagiarism Lesson Plan

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20030904thursday.html

Students can learn about what plagiarism is and write a summary of the article.

25 - IELTS Teaching Resources

http://www.cambridgeesol.org/teach/ielts/academic_writing/activities/step1_planning_ideas.htm

For Teachers

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Speaking Web Resources

1. Tips for Debaters

http://www.actdu.org.au/docs/tips_for_debaters.html

2. Conversation Questions for ESL

http://iteslj.org/questions/entertainmen.html

3. Movie Scripts

http://www.script-o-rama.com/

4. Thai-English Pronunciation Problems

http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/l1thai.html

5. Scientific Presentation (Speaking) PowerPoint slides

http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/presentations/speaking.pdf

6. Speaking Resources – list of websites

http://www.ohio.edu/linguistics/esl/speaking/index.html

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RANDOMS

1. ESL Games (Beginner, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, Advanced)

http://www.lclark.edu/~Krauss/toppicks/fun2.html

2. ESL Games (All Levels)

http://iteslj.org/c/games2.html

3. Mystery to Solve (one minute mysteries)

http://www.mysterynet.com/

4. Logic Puzzles

http://www.puzzlersparadise.com/page1042.html

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