ONLINE EFL RESOURCES
FOR TEACHERS AND
STUDENTS
Lynn W. Zimmerman, PhD
English Language Fellow
A. Xhuvani University
Elbansan, Albania
https://lwzimmerman.wordpress.com/poland-workshop-materials-may-2015/
Lynn.Zimmerman@trainingexpress.es
Your Favorite
• Tell your neighbor your favorite online resource
• A few share
Teacher Resources
• articles about how to teach
• videos demonstrating classroom situations
• lesson plans
• graphic organizers
• worksheets
• quiz makers
• rubric makers
• puzzle makers
Learner Resources
• Quizzes
• Games
• Podcasts
• Videos
• Webinars
• Interactive activities
• Dictionaries, thesauri, etc.
One Stop English (teachers)
• www.onestopenglish.com
• Methods
• Lesson plans
• Skills
• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Teaching various age groups
• Materials
Dave’s ESL Café (teachers and learners)
• http://www.eslcafe.com
• Stuff for teachers
• Idea cookbook
• Stuff for students
• Grammar
• Idioms
• Phrasal verbs
• Pronuciation
• Quizzes
• Slang
British Council (teachers)
• http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
• Lessons
• Activities
• Tips
• British literature
• Teacher training
• Articles
British Council (learners)
• http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/
• Materials
• Exercises
• Games
• IELTS tips and practice
• Podcasts
• UK culture
Cambridge English Teachers (teachers)
• http://www.cambridgeenglishteacher.org/
• Articles
• Webinars
• Interactive pronunciation
The EFL Playhouse
• http://www.esl4kids.net/
• games
• songs
• fingerplays
• action rhymes
• craft ideas
• printable materials
• tongue twisters
• submit your own
American English (teachers)
• http://americanenglish.state.gov
• Resources
• Webinars
• American culture
• Games
• Activities
• Materials
Reference Materials for Learners
• Links to all kinds of dictionaries
• (http://www.tesolgames.com/dictionaries)
• Virtual Thesaurus
• (www.virtualthesaurus.com)
• Interactive phonemic charts with audio… American and
British pronunciation
• http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/pronunciation/phonemic-
chart-and-app
Special Resources for Teachers
• Rubistar Rubric generator
• http://rubistar.4teachers.org/
• Teacher tips for writing good test questions
• http://busyteacher.org/6095-12-teacher-tips-for-writing-good-testquestions.html
• Puzzle maker
• http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/
Independent and Classroom Work
• Skills
• Reading
• Listening
• Speaking
• Writing
Extensive Reading
• Reading for pleasure
• Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org)
• Bartleby (www.bartleby.com)
• Bibliomannia (www.bibliomania.com)
• Online Books Page (digital.library.upenn.edu/books)
• Good Reads (www.goodreads.com)
Reading Comprehension for Exams
• Exam sites such as TOEFL, CAE and IELTS
• have texts with interactive practice tests that students can use to
practice reading comprehension.
• Flo-Joe (www.flo-joe.co.uk)
• ready-made reading quizzes and passages of text with exercises.
• Various levels
• Various topics
• Include strategies and procedures for dealing with texts
Newspaper Examples
• The Sun www.thesun.co.uk
• Daily Telegraph www.telegraph.co.ok
• The Australian www.australian.com.au
• Daily Times Nigeria
http://www.dailytimes.com.ng/
• USA Today www.usatoday.com
Online Newspaper Portals
• Yahooligans!, a child-oriented website
• http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/Arts_and_Entertainment/News/News
papers
• Newseum
• www.newseum.org/cybernewseum Click Front pages
• Free Online Newspapers.com
• http://www.free-onlinenewspapers.com/usa-news-papers-list.html
Create Your Own Newspaper
• Crayon.net
• A tool for managing news sources
• Create a customized newspaper with links to predefined
news sources
• automatically connects to the newspapers of one’s
choice
• extracts news stories from them
Virtual Field Trip Activity
In pairs, choose one of these art museum websites to visit
• The Louvre (www.louvre.fr) – choose English
• The National Gallery (www.nationalgallery.org.uk)
• The Art Institute of Chicago (www.artic.edu)
• The Uffizi Gallery (www.uffizi.firenze.it)
• The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art (www.moma.org)
Listening for ELLs
• Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab (www.esl-lab.com)
• English Language Learning Lab Online (www.elllo.org)
• The English Listening Lounge (www.englishlistening.com)
• BBC English Learning Home Page
(www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml)
• Takako’s Great Adventure
(http://international.ouc.bc.ca/takako)
• Real English Online (www.real-english.com)
Radio and TV Sites: Topics
• Science
• Earth & Sky
www.earthsky.com
• The Discovery Channel
www.discovery.com
• History
• The History Channel
www.historychannel.com
• Literature
• Poetry Archive
www.poetryarchive.org
• MobyLives
www.mobylines.com
• NPR: Books
www.npr.org/templates/topics/
topic.php?topicId-1032
• Commercials
• Funny Commercials
http://funnycommercials.nl
• Clio Awards
www.clioawards.com
• Everyday Life
• BBCs Video Nation
www.bbc.co.uk/videonation
• Sports
• ESPN Sports Zone
http://espn.go.com
• http://espnradio.espn.go.com/
espnradio/index
Radio: General
• World Radio Network www.wrn.org/audio.html
• BBC www.bbc.co.uk
• National Public Radio www.npr.org
• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation www.cbc.ca
• Australian Broadcasting Corporation www.abc.net.au
• Voice of America www.voanews.com/english/portal.cfm
TV: General
• ITN www.itn.co.uk
• ITV www.itv.com
• Central TV www.centraltv.co.uk
• Channel 4 www.channel4.co.uk
• ABC http://abc.go.com
• CBS www.cbs.com
• HBO www.hbo.com
• NBC www.nbc.com
• PBS www.pbs.org
Podcasts for ELLs
• Breaking News English
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•
•
•
•
www.breakingnewsenglish.com/podcast.html
Jokes in English Podcasts www.voiceblog.jp/joke
The Daily Idiom Podcast www.englishcaster.com/blogs
The English Teacher Show
http://englishteacherjohn.com/podcast
TOEFL Podcast www.toeflpod.com
Voice of America’s Special English
www.voanews.com/specialenglish/daily_radio.cfm
Podcasts for Everyone
• National Public Radio (NPR) Podcast Directory
www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php
• BBC Documentaries
www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/tx/documentaries
• CBS News Podcast Feeds
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Podcasting
Audio Books
• Audible.com www.audible.com
• Sherlock Holmes Audio Books
www.pinkgeekaudio.net/weblog3
• Project Gutenberg’s Audio Books
www.gutenberg.org/browse/categories/1
• Repeast After Us – Children’s Stories
http://repeatafterus.com
Video Sites
• Apple Movie Trailers www.apple.com/trailers
• Movietrailers.com www.movietrailers.com
• English Trailers www.english-trailers.com
• The Internet Movie Database www.imdb.com
• CNN (or other news media) video clips
www.cnn.com/video_vault
• Guiness World Records www.guinessworldecords.com
• Brain POP www.brainpop.com
• The Biography Channel
www.biography.com/broadband/home/index.jsp
Interactive Web Pages for Writing
• http://www.rong-chang.com/writing.htm
• http://www.ego4u.com/en/business-
english/communication/business-letter
• http://englishinteractive.net/tablet/writing.html
• http://www.esolcourses.com/content/topicsmenu/writing.html
• http://www.eslgo.com/classes/write/
Wikis
• Some places you can set up wikis are:
• PeanutButterWiki: http://pbwiki.com
• SeedWiki: www.seedwiki.com
• JotSpot: http://jotspot.com
• OddWiki: http://communitywiki.org/odd/HomePage
• WikiCities: www.wikicities.com/wiki/Wikicities
• Wikispaces: www.wikispaces.org
Blog Sites
• Wordpress: www.wordpress.com
• Weblogger: www.weblogger.com
• Diaryland: www.diaryland.com
• Upsaid: www.upsaid.com
• Webcrimson: www.webcrimson.com
• Xanga: www.xanga.com
Writing
• Bee online: http://beeonline.blogspot.com
• Blog-EFL: http://blog-efl.blogspot.com
• The FordLog: www.weblogs4schools.co.uk/TheFord
• Goin’ Upstream: http://goinupstream.blogspot.com
• Mariichigo: www.livejournal.com/users/mariichigo
• The New Tanuki: http://thenewtanuki.blogspot.com
• EFL/ESL Exchange: www.dekita.org/exchange
• Random Thoughts: http://namckeand.blogpsot.com
Children’s E-zines
• EEK: Environmental Education for Kids (Ages 9-14)
• www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/eek/index.htm
• Midlink Magazine (Ages 8-18)
• www.cs.ucf.edu/~Midlink
• Stone Soup Magazine (Ages 8-13)
• www.stonesoup.com/index.html
• Scholastic News (Ages 8-14)
http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews
• WireTap (Ages 14 and up)
• www.alternet.org/wiretap
Pronunication Practice
• Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net)
• Make clips of authentic pronunciation
• Students record themselves saying the same words and phrases
• They compare them ‘side by side’
Podcasts
• Article about equipment for podcasting
• http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HowToStartYour
FirstPodcastEquipmentEditingPublishingAndMore
.aspx
• Article about podcasting
• http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/create-your-own-podcast-what-you-need-toknow-to-be-a-podcaster
• Hipcast
• Liberated Syndication
Video
• Live action videos and stop motion videos can be
•
•
•
•
•
•
motivating.
Jing: http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html
MS Movie Maker: http://windows.microsoft.com/enus/windows-live/movie-maker
Voki: http://www.voki.com/
Digitalfilms: http://digitalfilms.com/
Microsoft PhotoStory: http://www.microsoft.com/enus/download/details.aspx?id=11132
Mail Vu: http://mailvu.com/
Center for Digital Storytelling
• Center for Digital Storytelling
(http://storycenter.org/)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcqiEtjNrA&list=PL2zMrq22Y2tFr8hW7w2hisiuyRVQx6sV
• What did you see? Hear?
• Think about:
• What story would you like to tell?
References
• IRA.NCTE. (2006) IRA/NCTE. Wading through the web.
Retrieved from
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson983/p
resentation.ppt
• Krajka, J. (2007). English language teaching in the
Internet-assisted environment. Lublin, Poland: Maria
Curie-Sklodowska Univeristy Press.
Online Sharing
• Learning Management Systems
• Nicenet
• Moodle
• Canvas
• Edmodo
• Easyclass
• WizIQ
• Google Drive
• DropBox
Nicenet
• http://www.nicenet.org
• Some features:
• List of class members
• Class schedule
• Can copy and paste documents
• Personal messages
• Link sharing
Moodle
• http://www.moodle.org
• WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface
• Some of its features:
• effective email system
• threaded forums
• tracking reports
• electronic assignment and management of papers and projects
• can use documents and presentations in mutiple classes
Canvas
• Offers a free version to educators
• Has a wide range of features
• http://vimeo.com/35336470
• https://canvas.instructure.com/login
• https://ciee.instructure.com/courses/73?invitation=b3f5DH
aixsoseqq2ZGVaNoUVkMEPQl63S08mhdOp
Other Sites
• Virtual learning environments
• Edmodo – https://www.edmodo.com
• Easyclass – http://www.easyclass.com
• WizIQ – http://www.wiziq.com/
Google Drive
• Not an LMS
• Versatile tool for file sharing
• A single place to store, manage, and access all your files,
from any place and on any device where you've installed
Google Drive
• Can use Google Drive to store all file types, including
documents, presentations, music, photos, and videos
Dropbox
• Not an LMS
• Cloud storage and file sharing
• http://www.dropbox.com
Social Media
• Facebook
• Special sites for students
• Twitter
Facebook
• Can set up a special private group for your classes
• Share self-study resources from the Internet
• Add links to useful websites
• Share materials connected to class discussions
• Prepare for the writing paper in Cambridge exams with peer-feedback
• Assign homework and remind students of homework deadlines
• Prepare for end of term tutorials
• Share files and pictures
Social Media for Students
These sites are specifically designed with young
learners in mind
• Fakebook
• FakeTweet
• Edublogs
• Kidblog
• Edmodo
Resources for Twitter
• http://www.slideshare.net/halafawzi/twitter-in-efl-
classroom
• http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitterclassroom
• http://etcjournal.com/2009/12/15/twit-torial/
• Don’t want to tweet online – do "tweets" on post-it notes
Social Media and Your Class
• Set up the rules and guidelines with the students for safe and
appropriate use
• http://www.safekids.com/kids-rules-for-online-safety/
• https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/internet-safety-library
• http://www.gcflearnfree.org/internetsafety
References
• Davis, V. (2014). A guidebook for social media in the classroom.
Edutopia. Retrieved from
• http://www.edutopia.org/blog/guidebook-social-media-in-classroom-vickidavis
• Haase, B. (n.d.). Using Facebook groups with EFL students. Retrieved
from http://www.excel-college.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/UsingFacebook-groups-with-EFL-students.pdf
• Stannard, R. (2011). How English language teachers can go with the
Twitter flow. Guardian Weekly. Retrieved from
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/oct/11/twitter-for-englishlanguage-teachers