SearchIELI/ESL Bookmarks 2008
Selection of ESL Sites (2008)
Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab - Listening activities for all levels, including TOEFL-type practice: Multiple-choice and cloze exercises, transcripts, and pre- and post-listening activities. A few exercises offer slideshows, too. BEGINNING TO ADVANCED
Literacy Network Learning Resources - Advanced vocabulary and comprehension exercises based on CNN News stories you can read and listen to. Most include short video clips. ADVANCED
Interactive Learning Resources - Vocabulary and comprehension exercises based on CNN News stories you can read and listen to. INTERMEDIATE
VOA Special English - With a vocabulary of 1500 words, spoken in short, simple sentences with no idioms, at about two-thirds the speed of standard English, the broadcasts include ten-minute news segments. They feature science, development, agriculture, environment, news events, American idioms or culture, history, medicine, space, important people, and short stories. INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED
Many Things is Multi -Skilled and Multi-Leveled - Thousands of activities for Reading and Grammar practice including games, puzzles, word scramble, spelling, flash cards, etc. ALL LEVELS
Activities for ESL/EFL Students - Grammar and vocabulary quizzes, pronunciation practice as well as crossword puzzles. ALL LEVELS
Puzzles for ESL Students across All Skill Levels - Just what it says.
Dictionary and Thesaurus in Multiple Languages with Audio
Grammar
English Language Centre Study Zone - (University of British Columbia) Click on an ability level to find Grammar, Reading, and Writing exercises.
Interactive Quizzes for ESL Students - (Internet TESL Journal) All levels from easy to advanced.
Self-Study Grammar Quizzes about Places - Includes countries ranging from Australia to Vietnam (Internet TESL Journal).
A Guide to Grammar and Writing - explanations and exercises by Professor Charles Darling of the Capital Community College in Hartford, CT.
Idioms & Slang Expressions
ESL Idiom Page - (Dave's ESL Cafe)
Idiom, Phrasal Verbs, and Slang Quizzes for ESL Students - (Internet TESL Journal)
The Phrasal Verb Page - (By Dennis Oliver, from Dave's ESL Cafe)
Commonly-Used American Slang - (By Charles and Lawrence Kelly, Interesting Things for ESL Students)
Listening
Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab - Listening activities for beginning to advanced students.
The English Listening Lounge - 30 free exercises for beginning through advanced students.
Voice of America - Here you can listen to news and features.
VOA Special English - (see description above)
VOA Millennium Moments - Several special features are available here. You can choose to listen to RealAudio while reading the script for the story.
American Life - Listen to stories about life in America.
Pronunciation
American English Pronunciation Practice - From "Interesting Things for ESL Students" by Charles I. Kelly. Practice minimal pairs, songs, and tongue twisters.
American English As It's Spoken - Listen to sound files of common "contractions and shortcuts used in daily speech", by Ben Holmberg
Reading & Writing
English Language Centre Study Zone - From the University of British Columbia. Click on an ability level to find Grammar, Reading, and Writing exercises.
Interactive Learning Resources - Vocabulary and comprehension exercises based on CNN News stories you can read and listen to. (California Distance Learning Project)
Literacy Network Learning Resources - More advanced vocabulary and comprehension exercises based on CNN News stories you can read and listen to. (Western/Pacific Literacy Network)
Writing DEN - Articles with photographs and sound files, accompanied by vocabulary, comprehension, and notetaking questions at the word, sentence, and paragraph levels.
A Guide to Grammar and Writing - Explanations and exercises by Professor Charles Darling of the Capital Community College in Hartford, Connecticut.
Vocabulary
Crossword Puzzles for Studying English Vocabulary - Charles Kelly has added 155 fun crossword puzzles to the "Interesting Things for ESL Students" site. The first puzzles are small, but they get larger with more words as you go down the list.
Internet Picture Dictionary - Learn and practice basic English vocabulary with words and pictures. Look for words by first letter or by category, or try an activity such as Flashcards, Fill-in-the-blanks, Word Scramble, Stinky Spelling, or Straight Recall.
English Vocabulary Quizzes Using Images - By Charles I. Kelly, from Activities for ESL Students
Easy Vocabulary Quizzes with Pictures - By Charles I. Kelly, from Interesting Things for ESL Students
Interactive Learning Resources - Vocabulary and comprehension exercises based on CNN News stories you can read and listen to. (California Distance Learning Project)
Literacy Network Learning Resources - More advanced vocabulary and comprehension exercises based on CNN News stories you can read and listen to. (Western/Pacific Literacy Network)
Self-Study English Vocabulary Quizzes - From the Internet TESL Journal.
Interesting Things for ESL Students by Charles and Lawrence Kelly.
Troublesome Words Quiz - By Vera Mello, Internet TESL Journal.
Vocabulary Matching Quiz - By Charles I. Kelly, Internet.
Wikipedia (Free Encyclopedia)
Phonetics: The Sounds of American English - From the University of Iowa. This is a fantastic site with graphics, sound, and video. See an animation of mouth anatomy or a video of a native speaker pronouncing each sound. Click on "English sounds library" and then choose the sounds you want to work on.
Discovery Channel Canada - see and listen to lots of wonderful, new video clips on all sorts of interesting topics.
Englishtrailers.com - This is a fantastic, free site that currently offers 55 movie trailers for English listening practice. For each trailer, there is a cloze exercise, a script, and web links with additional questions. Most also have a quiz, and some offer some topics for discussion.
Harper Audio - Hear well-known authors read from their works. The works of famous writers from the past are read by actors. There is a wide selection to choose from including: Kurt Vonnegut, Jane Austin, Charles Dickens, William Faulkner, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edgar Allen Poe, Will Rogers, and William Shakespeare.
lstPerson.org - Read about interesting people, listen to reports and interviews, and read and post comments.
American Rhetoric Movie Speeches - Choose from a wide assortment of favorite scenes from well-known movies. See photos from the movie and read the script as you listen!
National Public Radio - This site features articles, photographs, and sound files from a variety of non-commercial radio programs. Materials are available for an extremely wide variety of topics. All of them offer many sound files for online listening.
The Savvy Traveler - Listen to feature stories about people and places in various parts of the world. Listen to the current program or click on "Archives" to choose topics from past shows.
Living On Earth - Host Steve Curwood "explores our environment, what we're doing to it, and what it's doing to us." You will find many feature stories, interviews, and thoughtful commentaries to listen to here.
Jazz Profiles - Hosted by Nancy Wilson, this program is "a compelling documentary series chronicling the people, places, and events in jazz." Choose "Online Show Summaries" to find a list of jazz artists that have been featured.
Fresh Air® with Terry Gross - "Produced at WHYY in Philadelphia, PA, the show is known for captivating interviews with guests from literature, science, music, film, and more." This is a wonderful source for listening materials, as well as for biographical information.
Radio Expeditions - NPR and the National Geographic Society use state-of-the-art equipment to offer sound and video files on a variety of fascinating feature stories. "The general themes for stories are the natural world and threatened environments, diverse cultures, and exploration and discovery."
Talk of the Nation with Neal Conan - Listen to archived files of listener discussions with guest experts.
Talk of the Nation - Science Friday with Ira Flatow - Listen to callers discuss recent news and events in science.
All Things Considered® is NPR's daily afternoon news program.
Morning Edition® is NPR's morning news show.
Weekend Edition® Saturday is the Saturday morning edition of the news.
Weekend Edition® Sunday is the Sunday morning news program.