Internet Tools for the ESL Classroom
Presenter: Beth Bogage, San Diego Continuing Education
Email: bbogage@sdccd.edu
Class Website: www.ecc6.blogspot.com
Online Handout: http://www.quia.com/pages/bbogage/alliant
reading
Website Name
Website Address
California Distance
Learning Project
www.cdlponline.org
CNN / Literacyworks
News Stories
Marshall Adult
Education
Description/Comments
This site provides short news stories across 11
topics for reading practice. All news stories have
Related handout @
built-in listening capability, and are accompanied
www.quia.com/pages/bbogage/alliant
by a series of follow-up activities. Many stories
also have a video component.
http://www.literacynet.org/cnnsf/arc This is another site that offers reading material
hives.html
and related activities in the form of news stories.
There are 12 categories from which to choose.
Related handout @
Each story can be read as 1) the original news
www.quia.com/pages/bbogage/alliant
story, 2) the abridged story, or 3) an outline of
the story. Follow-up activities are located in the
upper left-hand corner of each story.
www.marshalladulteducation.org
Excellent website with reading passages for high
beginning to advanced. Each reading includes:
 On the left-hand side, click on
timed readings, audio, pre-reading questions,
“Reading Skills for Today’s
post-reading questions, and summarizing/
Adult”
personalization questions.
Reading (continued)
Website Name
Website Address
Description/Comments
Voice of America
(VOA)
http://learningenglish.voanews.com/
Awesome Stories
http://awesomestories.com/
This site has many news articles with clear
listening support. Each article has a vocabulary
practice activity. Students can also click on any
content word in the article for a Merriam
Webster dictionary defintion (and
pronunciation)!
This is higher-level reading!
For teachers: a good site to give you ideas about
interesting readings / topics to use in your class.
For students: sign up (free), click on Students,
and you can practice reading with listening
support: click on Awesome Radio
Vocabulary
www.spellingcity.com
Spelling City
Quia
www.quia.com
Related handout @
www.quia.com/pages/bbogage/alliant
This site takes your vocabulary material and puts
it online in an interactive format—with “teach
me” audio introduction, spelling tests and a
variety of activities. Teachers should create an
account (free) to save lessons.
Put your vocabulary words online, create
interactive quizzes and games with your lesson
content! Quia can also be used to create your
own class website.
NOTE: This is a fee-site (about $50 annually);
some districts might purchase memberships.
Vocabulary (continued)
Website Name
Website Address
Quizlet
www.quizlet.com
Language Guide
English
Description/Comments
This is a very fast and easy way to put your
vocabulary online for students to practice. The
Example: Beth’s Quizlet page:
site creates audio for anything you type (word or
http://quizlet.com/class/709924/
definition). It’s easy to upload images as well.
 NOTE This site is free!
http://www.languageguide.org/engli Great online vocabulary picture dictionary with
sh/
audio. A variety of basic vocabulary topics (Food,
Animals, Parts of the Body, etc.)
Grammar
Website Name
Website Address
Description/Comments
Learn American English http://learnamericanenglishonline.c Teaches grammar structures from Beginning to
om/
Advanced Levels; most lessons have videos with
Online
Grammar Blog
http://eslgrammarpractice.blogspot.
com/
English Grammar 4 U
Online
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cramup/grammar/exercises
Authorstream
www.authorstream.com
Related handout @
www.quia.com/pages/bbogage/alliant
-(Grammar Ideas and Resources)
and ESL instructor explaining the grammar point.
An online blog that offers a variety of grammar
points for students to practice. Brief explanation
is given for most grammar topic as well.
Students can practice writing in basic grammar
tenses (answers on typed on the site, and
students are given feedback)
Create grammar PowerPoint presentations and
use this site to post them online for your
students! This site creates a URL for any
PowerPoint that you upload, so that your
students can access it online. You can also use
the site to search for presentations from other
ESL instructors.
Grammar (continued)
Website Name
YouTube
Related handout @
www.quia.com/pages/bbog
age/alliant
Website Address
Description/Comments
www.youtube.com
Use YouTube to search for grammar points and
explanations. Some ESL teachers actually have
 English with Stacy
their own “channel” on YouTube, and you can
http://www.youtube.com/user/Engli find a variety of ESL topics that they cover
shwithStacy
through video.
 English with Jennifer
YouTube Channels
http://www.youtube.com/user/Jenn
iferESL
 Holmwood’s Online Learning; You can also search for specific grammar points.
In the YouTube search box, I usually type “ESL” +
offers lessons with various
the name of the grammar, for example “ESL
teachers
http://www.youtube.com/user/Hol passive grammar.” You’ll be amazed at how
many educational grammar videos are now
mwoodsELT
available on YouTube.
Writing
Purdue University
The Purdue Online
Writing Lab (OWL)
Long Beach City College
http://owl.english.purdue.edu
Links on Main Page:
 Non-Purdue Instructors and
Students
 English as a Second Language
 Writing the Basic Business
Letter
 Developing Résumés
http://web.archive.org/web/200812
20224223/http://esl.lbcc.edu/big%2
0list/readingandwriting.htm
This site offers helpful explanation and resources
on academic writing: the writing process,
different genres of writing, style and language,
citation, etc. (Find this in the section for “NonPurdue Instructors and Students”).
There is also an “English as a Second Language”
section with exercises on grammar, punctuation
and academic language.
Writing help and explanation at the sentence,
paragraph, and essay levels.
Stickyball
Resources for ESL
http://www.stickyball.net/eslwriting-exercises-and-activities.html
This site is great for ESL teachers who want to
incorporate more writing into their classes. This
site gives writing lessons for all levels, and also
integrates important grammar structures into
each lesson.
http://www.esl-lab.com/
This site offers hundreds of listening
conversations at various levels. There is also
some practice offered with each conversation.
Listening
Randall’s ESL Cyber
Listening Lab
Related handout @
www.quia.com/pages/bbogage/alliant
Voice of America
(VOA)
Authentic Video Sources
Level 1:
http://learningenglish.voanews.com
/section/level-one/3774.html
Level 2
http://learningenglish.voanews.com
/section/level-two/3935.html
You can Google these to find their
homepages on the web, or you can
search in YouTube.
Find on Google
A variety of listening activities can be found here:
 Reading and Listening (articles)
 Everyday English lessons
 American Idioms lessons
 Business English lessons (Level 2)
I try to use every day videos in my classroom
often, so that students hear REAL English and
usually listen to a variety of people speaking
(i.e., reporter, people interviewed, etc.)
I like short inspirational news stories from
sources like these:
 NBC News “Making a Difference”
 CBS “Assignment America” or “On the
Road with Steve Hartman”
 CNN Heroes
 CBS 60 Minutes – longer video stories
about 12 minutes long; higher level
 Watch Mojo.com
Excellent Online Dictionary for ESL students:
Merriam Webster’s Online Learner Dictionary
 Gives simple definitions, pronunciation; example sentences in blue
http://www.learnersdictionary.com
Excellent Resource for Teachers and Students: www.eslwithjim.wordpress.com
 You can find extensive lists of great ESL websites for all levels
 On the right side, Click on Beginning Level List or
Intermediate/Advanced Level List (Word Files)
 When you click on the file, file name will appear on the left; click to open it.