Search   Site Index   Directory
  Home   Class Schedules   Apply & Register   Majors, Degrees & Certificates   Resources & Labs   Counseling & Transfer   Calendars, News & Activities

English as a Second Language > Internet Resources

Free ESL web sites Practice with other students Online writing labs
Dictionaries Finding articles & student writing   Especially for teachers
Especially for Spanish Speakers
Making your own tests and flashcards

New to computers or the internet?

Just for fun, start out with J-track 3D,  an interactive overview of real outer space Internet satellites. Hold down your mouse and turn the world around at your command! Then go to "Mouserobics" to learn more details of how to use a mouse and other basics.That's all you will need to use the exercises below. If you want to know more, check out "Learn the Net" or Computer Training Tutorials. (Note: You may be able to translate their pages into your own language by using the Google language tools in item #11 below.)

 

Web Site

Level

Comments

1

Activities for ESL Students

All

TESOL pages. Hundreds of great quizzes and games with answers submitted by ESL teachers.  Covers American culture, grammar, vocabulary, and games.  A fun, clear, informative, and easy-to-use site for students and teachers. Free 

2

Adult and Family Education

All

An easy to use collection of life-skill language and grammar activities for ESL learners as well as some links to other sites on this page. Exceptional for its variety of exercises that include pronunciation and moving graphics. A fun and practical site. Free

3

Business English Course

Intermediate/ 
Advanced

High level grammar and vocabular quizzes, games and exerscises focused on using English at work. Also wonderful links to clear grammar explanations, listening practice and even special sections like "making presentations in English". Well organizied and easy to use. Free

4

Dave's ESL Cafe

All

Online help for teachers and students. Great place to meet other ESL students. Good for idioms and proverbs. Excellent links. Free

5

EnglishCLUB.com

All

British English.  Excellent site for 8 parts of speech, grammar and spelling. Easy to read tables. Fine reference section. Business section includes tips for cover letters, resumes, etc. Free.

6

English Language Center

grammar topic list

All

From the University Language Center in Victoria BC, an excellent collection of grammar and reading exercises at five different levels. Well organized for clarity and accessibility. Unusally good range of exercises on word order and sentence structure. Free

7

English Page

Intermediate/ 
Advanced

Excellent vocabulary and grammar lessons based on real life topics including jobs, the Internet etc. Great for phrasal verbs and verb tense practice - especially conditionals. CNN articles with vocabulary and a bulletin board to post questions. Free

8

English for ALL 

All

This web site features 20 15 minute videos on daily life for a hispanic  immigrant family in Los Angeles. There are also interactive student activities,  and a course management system if teachers want to track student progress. Free with registration

9

ESL Blues

Intermediate

Tired of boring grammar exercises? This is the site for you. Great "Flash" games, animated tutorials and sound effects to help you learn a wide variety of grammar, reading, and vocabulary topics. Free

10

ESL Gold

All

ESLGold provides hundreds of pages of English teaching and learning materials for both students and teachers. All resources are organized by skill and level for quick and easy access. Links to free online practice sites for the TOEFL test. One unique feature - with one click you can translate the whole site into 15 different languages, from Arabic to Chinese to Korean to Turkish. Free

11

Google Language Tools

All

Fabulous, easy to use translation helper. Translate text or put in a web address and translate (with occasional funny errors) a whole web page! Over 80 world languages supported plus a few just for fun, (Want to know how "Elmer Fudd" would say it in Esperanto?) Free

12
Guide to Grammar and Writing

High Intermediate/ advanced

The most comprehensive grammar and writing site we have yet found on the Internet. Clear - even charming - high level explanations of all aspects of grammar and writing with 170+ interactive quizzes. Features downloadable Powerpoint explanations of a wide variety of writing topics such as clauses. Free

13

Interlink ESL Resource Center

All

Contains good exercises in reading, writing, pronunciation, listening and grammar links with good Parts of Speech exercises. Also Games, and a great linking page for studying with music online. Free

14

Interesting Things for ESL Students

All

A fun study site for students of English as a Second Language. Word games, puzzles, quizzes, exercises, slang, proverbs and much more. Free

15

Karin's ESL Partyland

Intermediate/ 
Advanced

Includes cheerful, well designed teacher and student sections.  Oriented to young adults with  75 interactive quizzes, 15 discussion forums,  lessons on a variety of topics including movies, dating etc. There is also a chat room and great links. Free

16

Learning Resources

Intermediate/ 
Advanced

"The best reading/vocabulary site of all" (Kate Giles) Current CNN San Francisco news stories are provided in outline form, simplified form, and full form with audio or video with a variety of comprehension exercises in a very clear layout. Free

17

Phonetics: The sounds of American English

All

A great way to improve your pronunciation! Videos and graphics show exactly how a native speaker moves her tongue and palate to produce the vowels and consonants of English. Created by the University of Iowa Free

18

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening lab

All

Outstanding selection of interactive listening exercises for all levels. Clearly organized and easy to use. Includes long conversations on video, some at an advanced level. Free

19
Road to Grammar All A wonderfully direct, easy to use site with grammar exercises on a long list of grammar topics. It also includes "find the word" puzzles and good links. Free
20

Slang City

Intermdediate/Adv Did you ever want someone to help you with American slang? Use this funny, well- organized site to learn and practice the slang used in modern songs and movies including body part language it would be difficult to ask you teacher about in class! Complete song scripts with slang definitionsincluded on this site ! Free
21 Spelling City   A great place to practice your spelling! You can create your own lists of spelling words or select from spelling word lists that teachers have posted. Site includes several games and a test for each list. Tests even allow you to hear the word! Free.

22

TOEFL Podcasts

Intermdediate/Adv Great collection listening activities created by the Center for Educational Development. Native speakers talk and discuss topics similar to those that will appear on the TOEFL® or IELTS exams. You may listen online or download to an Ipod. Each TOEFL Podcast lasts 10-20 minutes, and has four parts at different levels of difficulty. Free

1.

Especially for Spanish Speakers
Explicaciones en espanol

Pumarosa "Aprende Ingles in 30 Dias"

empezando/intermedio

A great site to help Spanish speakers gain a basic vocabulary and key concepts in English grammar in Spanish. 15 Beginner lessons and 15 intermediate lessons. All new words also offer voice pronunciation. Exercises are translation based. Gratis

2

Especially for Spanish Speakers
Explicaciones en espanol

www.TheIrregularVerbs.com

Todos niveles

Todos los verbos irregulares del idioma inglés. Conjugación, pronunciación, traducción y ejemplos con dibujos divertidos.

Gratis

3

Especially for Spanish Speakers
Explicaciones en espanol

www.TheEnglishVocabulary.com

Todos niveles Vocabulario del idioma inglés, organizado por categorías y tópicos, con traducción al español y pronunciación. Gratis

4

Especially for Spanish Speakers
Explicaciones en espanol

www.ShertonEnglish.com

Todos niveles En este sitio encontrarán recursos de gramática, tales como tiempos verbales, verbos irregulares, adjetivos, adverbios, pronombres, etc., complementados con pronunciación y ejemplos traducidos al español. Gratis

5

Especially for Spanish Speakers
Explicaciones en espanol

www.FunnyLessons.com

Todos niveles Aquí podrás aprender el idioma a través de lecturas con humor. El desafío es doble… tendrás que entender el inglés y además el sentido del chiste. Cada lección cuenta con su vocabulario, pronunciación, etc. Gratis

 

 

Dictionaries
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language online  90,000 words with pronunciation you can hear!
Alpha Dictionaries Search 992 online English Dictionaries at once. Iincludes languages from Afrikaans to Zulu, and special purpose dictionaries from Advertising to Sports.

WWWebster DictionaryMerriam-Webster Dictionary on line

Voycabulary - you can link any page on the internet directly to Websters above; then just click on a word to see the definition



Finding More Articles on the Internet
The On-Line Books Page 25,000+ listings by Author, Title, Subject or Serial

Encyclopedia.com The Internet's premiere free encyclopedia!more than 50,000 articles plus links giving you access to millions of articles and pictures.

Internet Public Library Includes an excellent reference center with an easy to use format  and a huge  collection of online magazines and international newspapers from ESL students' home countries. (Click on "newspapers").   Also over 400 sites with authors' biographies and critiques of their work and 15,000 online titles that can be browsed by author or title
Jobs and Careers Page from the Cabrillo College Library Great variety of career links pre-screened by our excellent librarians.

New York Times Learning Network  Designed for Grades 3-12. Current events of the day from one of America's top newspapers with summaries, vocabulary and current events quizzes linked to the articles with the answers, and a student letter-writing section. 

Topics Online Magazine  Charming link page to a wide variety of ESL student writing online, from personal narratives, to ghost stories to poetry.



Online Writing Labs - Help with writing essays

1.  Paradigm Online Writing Assistant
Wonderful, extremely well written and well designed site. In-depth, very clear explanations of all aspects of the writing process. Great for dedicated students and writers.
2.  Purdue University On-Line Writing Lab Truly outstanding writing site! Very well written handouts on a wide range of writing related topics. Links to super collections of writing resources throughout the Web. Terrific ESL materials. You can quickly search site with electronic index. A great site for any writer.
3. Guide to Writing a Basic Essay A Great overview of all the steps in the writing process. You can download it all in pdf. format and add it to your notebook.


Especially for Teachers
Alta Book Center Materials for Teaching and Learning English

TESL: Commercial Publishers

Teaching English.org remarkably clear, useful and accessible collection of cogent articles and techniques for ESL teachers including a very good explanation of CBI.

Online Powerpoints Quickly downloadable Powerpoint explanations of a wide variety of writing topics such as clauses, parts of speech etc. Well made with sound effects and humor to highlight examples and key ideas.

ESL Teacher Resources from Purdue University, includes links to guides on how to help students write across various academic disciplines.

English Lesson Plans for ESL and EFL English lesson plans for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels including reading, writing, listening, grammar, speaking, pronunciation for adult and childrens' classes as well as Business English.

Spelling City Create your own lists of spelling words or select from spelling word lists other teachers have posted for your students to learn, play games with, and be tested on. Tests even come up with an audio version of the word and an audio sentence of the word in context!

The Compleate Lexical Tutor The amazing academic vocabuary development website recommended by Frank Noji, with concordancer, vocabulary profiler, exercise maker, interactive exercises, and much more.

Drew's Script-o-Rama. THE place to find hundreds of free filmscripts to allow your students to read films you show in class.


 

 

llast revised and updated 3-10-08 Francesca Hampton; frhampto@cabrillo.edu

 
    ESL Home
    Cabrillo College, 6500 Soquel Drive, Aptos, CA 95003, phone: 831-479-6100