U.S.A. Learns - this site provides a free English language course. The site provides adults who have low levels of English proficiency with easily accessible and free English language training. English Course 1 is for beginning level students (ESOL 1). The 2nd English Course level plus the supplementary intermediate Practice English and Reading selections are for intermediate students (ESOL 2). There is also a new US Citizenship course available for those who want to become citizens. The Citizenship course gives you a guide to the steps to citizenship and lessons on civics, reading, writing and interviewing .UPDATED Feb 2018
Pumerosa - this is a bilingual, phonetic and interactive Beginner and Intermediate ESL course for Spanish speaking adults. This resource should be used with caution and only as a supplement to other approaches. Since it teaches English by translating from Spanish it is not the best method for learning a new language. Includes audio track and Spanish text.
News ELA - great site for teachers looking for non-fiction reading material that is appropriately challenging for the level of students. News ELA provide multiple new articles each day with each article available in five (5) Lexile reading ranges; 1000 or more archived articles; high interest topics in categories such as war and peace, science, money, law, health, kids, and arts; common core alignment; and capability for students to take quizzes and check progress. These features are provided free with registration. (recommended by Gail and Barbora) UPDATED Nov 2015
ReadWorks - this free site provides teachers with research-based units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary reading passages online, for free. The ReadWorks curriculum is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and each passage is leveled and assigned a Lexile reading complexity score. This site is free but requires registration. NEW May 2015
Reading Skills for Today's Adults - this revised site sponsored by Marshall Adult Education, provides a library of graded stories ranging between reading levels 16 reading sub-levels aligned to the CCRS. There are over 20 stories per level and all include an optional audio track for reading along. The stories cover topics of interest to adults, including ESOL students, helping them become more informed consumers, parents, employees, citizens and community members. Topics cover areas such as health and wellness, civics, work readiness, community, family, housing, school, shopping, and government. All the stories are adult appropriate and include pre-reading activities (e.g. pictures, questions and terms), comprehension questions, and writing exercises. Select level 1-6 stories for ABE 1, 7-11 for ABE 2, and 12-16 for ABE 3. UPDATED Jan 2021
Reading Skills for Healthcare Workers - the provider of the Reading skills for Today's Adults above is also providing a similar free program for students interested in Healthcare Career Pathways. It slso provides graded stories ranging between nine (9) reading levels ranging from level 4.5 to 8.5 and aligned to the CCRS. There are 25 stories per each sublevel and all include an optional audio track with three (3) read along speeds to help develop fluency. Based on the stated levels, these passages are only appropriate for ABE 2 and ABE 3 classes as well as the higher levels of ESOL. I will further curate this link in a short amount of time. NEW Jan 2021
ICivics Games - learn how government works by experiencing it directly through role-playing games that allow you to explore the thrill of running for president, making laws, Supreme court decisions, sitting on a jury, becoming a citizen, exercising rights and responsibilities of a citizen and more than a dozen other scenarios related to citizenship. Your will learn about elections, immigration, citizenship requirements, U.S. history, constitutional rights, responsibilities of citizens, the influence of media, the balance of power, making laws, arguing court cases, and many other important civics topics. You may play these games alone or as part of a classroom activity or lesson. UPDATED Jan 2020
Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab - this free multimedia site is designed to help English Learners improve their listening comprehension through a variety of audio and video conversations, interviews, and news reports. UPDATED Jan 2021
Learn to Earn Toolkit (ESOL) - a free online resource for intermediate and advanced adult learners of English and basic skills. You are introduced to 10 topic areas of learning for the workforce including critical thinking, English language, oral communication, written communication, reading comprehension, teamwork, diversity, information technology, and social responsibility, with several lessons in each topic. You will explore career possibilities, learn vocabulary in context, and earn badges.. NEW Jan 2017
English for Employment - The Brockton Mayor's office and Brockton Community Access has provided a series of 6 ESL video classes on YouTube that specialize in helping residents acquire English skills and knowledge of job search techniques to increase employment opportunities. NEW Sep 2014 -BROCKTON
Traffic Safety for ESOL Students - this Walking and Bike Safety lesson is for students learning English. There is a student workbook, and two audio segments for students to practice. NEW Mar 2015 - BROCKTON
Real English - this online site provide a series of new English language lessons which use authentic and natural videos of people speaking real English on streets to make the spontaneity of normal English speech understandable for all levels of students. The lessons are all free and new lessons are currently in development. Click on the pink button at the top of the page to use the videos with lessons.
English with Jennifer - This site provides free online instruction using a large number of YouTube videos created by an experienced teacher. Select Playlists if you want to see videos separated into groups of related lessons. NEW Aug 2012
ELLLO (English Listening Lesson Lab Online) - this site provides a variety of natural interviews and monologues with English speakers comprising over 2500 listening lessons from a variety of countries. Comprehension quizzes, photos, and transcripts are provided for most conversations.NEW Jan 2020
Learning Chocolate - this is a vocabulary learning platform for ESOL students which uses pictures like a picture dictionary. There are a large number of categories such as actions, body/health, clothing, community, food, jobs, house, money, school, and transportation as well a many topics under each category. There are several study and test options including practice review, matching tests, fill in, and dictation. NEW Mar 2016 - BROCKTON
ESL Partyland - large ESOL website that provides topic-based ESOL lessons with conversation practice, interactive online activities, and games and quizzes on grammar topics. The teacher section includes lesson plans. NEW May 2011
Short and Long Vowel Sounds - lowest level word lists from the AAA Spelling site that has been conveniently arranged to provide help with specific vowel sounds needed for ESOL and Literacy Level students. See below for additional AAA Spelling and Vocabulary levels for students needing higher level word
lists
Wictionary - This is a free online dictionary that you may use to look up the meaning of any English word. Designed as the companion to Wikipedia, Wictionary has grown beyond a standard dictionary and now includes a thesaurus, a rhyme guide, phrase books, language statistics etymologies, pronunciations, sample quotations, synonyms, antonyms, translations and extensive appendices. It will include not only the definition of a word, but also enough information to understand it. As with all Wikis, it may be edited by anyone following the proper rules.NEW April 2 2011
Vocabulary Drilling for Free Rice - this site allows you to earn free rice for needy countries by practicing your vocabulary. For each word you get correct 20 grains of rice will be donated to the UN World Food Program. Use the Options button to adjust the current vocabulary level for a particular student. You may also choose to have the program remember your previous highest level and amount of rice donated. NEW April 2 2011
Lemons for Literacy - this program is similar to the vocabulary drilling for rice site which precedes this link. It is an initiative produced by Reading Horizons in an effort to cure illiteracy. It provides free vocabulary practice to everyone and the lemonade which results provides free literacy materials for those in need. NEW April 2 2011
English Forum - select the Student's section for a variety of resources for students including an Idiom of the Day, a Quote of the Day, interactive
English language exercises and complete text of well known English novels with dictionary look up.
Breaking News English - this is a large collection of more than 1000 reading articles based on current events, ready to be used as the basis for English Language lessons. New lessons are prepared daily and added to the large archive. All articles include lengthy handouts for use in studying the reading selection. Most of the selections include an audio track for those who like to improve reading fluency by reading along.
Voice of America Special English - this web site is an excellent tool to help you practice and improve your listening and reading skills. These stories are broadcast every day on the VOA radio network. Each broadcast starts with world news, followed by a short feature report and a 15 minute feature. On this site you will find scripts from these programs and the matching audio file of the text. You can find scripts by topic or by the name of the program. There is also an online archive of past stories. Read the text, listen to the audio or read along with the audio to improve your reading fluency. You will learn new information about a variety of
subjects from issues in the news to American history.
The Key: A Newspaper for New Readers - the Key provides free reading material for adults with limited reading skills. These include adults who have not completed their high school education, and those learning English.
English Learner Movie Guides - this site provides guides to popular movies for students of English which include a list of major characters, a summary of the plot, important terms and expressions that might not be familiar to ESL learners, cultural references and questions for ESL class discussion.
Movie Scripts and Screenplays - this site contains scripts of many popular movies. These may be used as content for ESL reading lessons, read along with the movie to increase student's reading fluency or acted out as a listening and speaking lesson.
Internet Movie Script Database - this site claims to be the web's largest movie script resource. As in the previous reference, these scripts may be used as content for reading lessons, read along with the movie to increase student's reading fluency or acted out as a speaking lesson. .NEW March 2012
StoryCorps - StoryCorp is a non-profit initiative that provides people of all backgrounds with an opportunity to record, share and preserve the stories of their lives. Currently 30,000 stories have been preserved at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. ESOL programs may use this site for a number of classroom activities. This may range from listening to a story and using it as a starting point for classroom discussion or writing assignments or having students contribute their own stories to the recording library. The question generator may also be used as a separate way to start discussions and stimulate writing assignment.
Everyday English in Conversation - this link provides a large number of dialogues with normal everyday human conversations full of idioms and natural speech. Students choose from a list of topics and then listen to the audio of the conversation. Some of the dialogues are also accompanied by text versions which allow you to play one line at a time over and over again Other conversations might include audio only and are followed by a fill-in-the-blank dialogue completion exercise.
Immigrant Perspectives on Life in Worcester - this website describes a project in which a class of students from Assumption College used the "Literacy through Photography" (LTP) method to enable ESOL students to express their experiences in the United States through photography and writing. ESOL students from Training Resources of America - Worcester DESE ESOL program, volunteered to be part of this project. Their work can be viewed and celebrated at this site.NEW Jan 2014
Rachel's English - great pronunciation site which uses videos to demonstrate correct sounds and the technical aspects of producing the sound. Select a particular sound from the Sound Chart or Sound menu choices.
Sounds of English - this website features pictures, sounds and videos to help you students improve English pronunciation and listening skills. It also includes exercises with printable worksheets, handouts, teacher tips and other ESL links.
Life in the USA - this site describes itself as "the complete web guide to American life for immigrants and Americans". Students will find information on many aspects of American life and customs.
Internet Picture Dictionary - tool for Beginning language learners to build their vocabulary. Student must select the language to practice from English, Spanish, French, German and Italian. You may select words that are grouped alphabetically or by a topic area. You may practice with a variety of formats including flashcards, fill in the blank, word scramble,
stinky spelling and straight recall.
AAA Spelling Lessons - this site has spelling lessons comprised of 30 lists of vocabulary word for each for levels 1 to 8. The word lists are the same as that used for the AAA Vocabulary Lessons. One of the many options available is to hear the word pronounced and then attempt to spell it. This site should be helpful for ABE and ESOL students.
AAA Vocabulary Lessons - this site has vocabulary lessons comprised of 30 lists of vocabulary word for each for grade 1 to 8. The word list are the same as that used for the AAA Spelling Lessons.
Phonics Sounds Test - this site allows you to practice and review the important phonics sounds and rules. Although there are only 44 sounds used in American English, some sounds can be made by several different spelling patterns. All common spelling patterns helpful in phonics decoding of words are included.
Dave's ESL Cafe - popular ESL website created by Dave Spirling which includes a wide variety of features for students and teachers alike including news, discussion pages, chats, quizzes, e-mail and job postings. Also included are a wide variety of lesson materials on idioms, slang, verbs and quizzes.
English Page - free online English lessons and activities. This is more of an Advanced ESL page with exercises that are more grammar oriented. Great for grammar practice if you find the right exercise but also includes a Reading Room and Listening Lounge to support these aspects of language learning.
News for You - this website is connected with the News for You publication. It includes an archive of a couple of stories from each issue. These stories include an audio track to assist students in reading the story sentence by sentence if desired. It also include a teacher guide and answers to the crossword puzzle.
The Learning Edge - uses a newspaper format to present reading selections on interesting health and workplace topics such the most common interview questions, networking, cold calling, workplace skills, workplace communication, assertiveness, staying employed, nutrition, workplace safety, transferable skills and apprrenticeship.
Communicating at Work - this online course offered by the Asian American Civic Association includes much useful information with audio that helps prepare students for some of the issues and unique communication difficulties found when newcomers start a job in the U.S.
ESL Lounge - Songstop Lyrics - Try using song lyrics to improve reading fluency. Students become fluent while trying to keep up with the song.
Ventures - website for Cambridge workbook series Ventures which includes practice online lessons for the Basic level and levels 1-4.
Activities for ESL Students - this page developed by the Internet TESOL Journal contains a large number of activities for ESL students including grammar quizzes, vocabulary quizzes, crossword puzzles and Bilingual quizzes. There is a good collection of podcasts related to aspects of current events and culture.
Interesting Things for ESOL Students - this site includes a wide variety of activities for ESL students including quizzes, word games, word puzzles, proverbs, slang expressions, anagrams, a random-sentence generator and other computer assisted language learning activities.
Ron Chang Li's ESL Site - Ron Chang Li's website serves as a starting point for ESL learners who want to learn English through the Web. This site links you to several good and free ESL places. Notice the link to 100 free short stories with audio links and exercises.
Larry Ferlazzo ESL Page
English Club - Welcome to English Club, a site to help you learn English or teach English as a second language. Access to all pages is free. You'll find everything from lessons, and videos for students to jobs and lesson plans for teachers, including interactive pages like forums, games, quizzes, chat, help and friends.
Guide to Grammar and Writing - Provides an excellent and comprehensive guide to English grammar, sentence construction, spelling and composition. Also find categories for Forms of Communication, Ask Grammar and Online Interactive Quizzes.
Immigrant Perspectives on Life in Worcester - this website describes a project in which a class of students from Assumption College used the "Literacy through Photography" (LTP) method to enable ESOL students to express their experiences in the United States through photography and writing. ESOL students from Training Resources of America - Worcester DESE ESOL program, volunteered to be part of this project. Their work can be viewed and celebrated at this site.NEW Jan 2014
Written Alphabet - this E.L. Easton site is useful to ESL and beginning students. Students can click on a letter of the alphabet and hear how it sounds. The alphabet song is available for playing and practicing. There is also a link to in depth vowel and consonant sounds.
ESL Bears: Guide to ESL Activities and Exercises - this site claims to be designed for first-year recent immigrant students. The majority of links and activities are appropriate for students from entry-level to intermediate. It is a multimedia site which includes a wide range of listening, vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing activities.
Alphabet Practice - Students will learn or review the upper/lower case letters by clicking on each letter to hear the letter. Try to guess the letter before clicking on the letter.
Learn to Read - this site has several levels of online activities for emergent readers including phonemic awareness, phonics, sight words and stories to read.
Phonics Online - a number of online games provided by Sadlier-Oxford which cover PreK through 6th grade reading skills. Skills range from picture matching to alphabet, long and short vowel sounds, r controlled words, consonant blends, digraphs, diphthongs, prefixes, suffixes, roots, contractions, antonyms, and synonyms.
Phonetics - this site contains animations of the phonetic sounds of spoken English. Each vowel and consonant includes an animation of the the movement of the mouth. A step by step description of how the sound is produced, and video and audio of the sound spoken in context of words. You must select American English from the language offered.
Readquarium - this collection of online reading activities for beginning readers includes sections on phonics and phonemes, sight words, fluency and books, vocabulary and comprehension.
Easy Stories to Read - a collection of online stories for beginning readers.
Idioms - links to various sites dealing with English idioms
Word of the Day - For those who are trying to improve or increase their vocabulary, you might like to try this site. Each day delivers a different word, with pronunciation, definition and example sentences.
Word Games - Several word games which are updated on a daily basis
Change Maker - An online game whereby students can buy something but they will have to choose the correct amount of coins and bills first. Adaptable for U.S., Canadian, U.K., Australian, and Mexican currencies, in degrees of difficulty from amounts less than $1.00 to Big Spenders.
Interactive Money Flashcards - This site contains a wide variety of math flashcards of which the money flashcards are of special usefulness to ESOL students. The program allows your students click on money, add up the coins, enter their amount, and see if they are right.
Story Fun - This site is a "mad-libs" story format. Practice parts of speech such as adjectives, nouns, etc., just have fun making the weirdest stories you can possibly think of and see what's returned to you!
Grammar Gorillas - Students will enjoy practicing and reinforcing their grammar skills with this online game from Funbrain. Both beginner and advanced levels are available.
Linguistic Funland - Links to a large number of ESL/ESOL activities.
Google Translate - this is free language translation program from Google. You can choose the language to translate from and to and then enter or paste the text to translate. Don't completely trust any translation program since they all tend to translate everything literally. Instead, use these programs to help you get the general idea of a block of text or to find the meaning of a particular word.
Babel Fish Translation Program - this is another free program that will translate a block of text or a whole web page from one language to another.UPDATED Feb 2017
Translation Wizard - this is another free program that will translate a block of text or a whole web page from one language to another.NEW Feb 2017
