Appendix B: Online Resources for Students and Teachers Of ESL
Aardvark’s English Forum
englishforum.com
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This website contains resources for students such as dictionaries (language, idioms, quotes, etc), a message board, world news, exercises on
English learning skills, as well as a web directory. This site also includes a section for Teacher Resources.
Randall’s Cyber Listening Lab
www.esl-lab.com
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“This is considered one of the best sites for developing listening skills. Students can use it for self-study or in-class work. Dialogues are
divided into categories—easy, medium, difficult and sometimes also very difficult. Many exercises require a plug-in (Basic Real Player).
Students can listen to a dialogue and then answer multiple choice questions to check their comprehension. There are also vocabulary-building
exercises on the dialogues. Student can access the script if they can’t understand what they hear.”
Dave’s ESL Cafe
www.eslcafe.com
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This famous website contains a wide variety of links to teacher and student resources including information on jobs, schools, etc.
Specifically, there are student resources that include a language hints, idioms, phrasal verbs, pronunciation, quizzes, and slang. There is also
a student discussion board. Teacher resources include endless ideas for teaching ESL on a variety of topics and content areas.
Karin’s ESL Partyland
www.eslpartyland.com
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This website contains ESL quizzes over a variety of language topics, discussion forums, lessons, and links for students. For teachers, this site
includes lesson plans, reproducible materials, and activities for in-class use.
Interesting Things for ESL Students
www.manythings.org
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This website has word games, puzzles, quizzes, exercises, slang, and proverbs that are dedicated to help students improve their English
language knowledge. Check it out!
The Internet TESOL Journal
Iteslj.org
This extensive website offers a wide variety of ESL resources for both students and teachers. The student section is “Activities for Students”;
these activities can be completed in class or at home. The teacher resources include lessons, techniques, games, resources, and links to other
ESL websites.
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English Language Centre Study Zone
web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone
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This website is from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It has exercises for various “levels” that include explanation. The
topics include grammar, reading, vocabulary and puzzles.
“This Canadian site contains readings, vocabulary work, puzzles, and grammar. The readings are at five different levels of difficulty, getting
longer as they get harder. But even the advanced ones are short narratives that can be read in a few minutes. Some are based upon urban
legends, some on folk tales. The format presents the story on one side and the comprehension questions on the other. At the fourth level,
following the comprehension exercises, there is a grammar exercise. For example, students change statements about the plot from active
voice to passive.”
English Page
www.englishpage.com
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This website includes tutorials and exercises covering a wide variety of ESL topics. It also includes dictionaries, a bookstore, and a student
forum.
“Who else wants to speak better English?”
www.better-english.com
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This website contains ESL exercises with a focus on grammar exercises. These are some explanation of the topic areas as well.
Guide to Grammar and Writing sponsored by Capital Community College Foundation
grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar
This website has quizzes and explanations over topics such as word and sentence issues, paragraph and essay writing, and grammatical
constructions.
English to Go
www.english-to-go.com
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“This is a site that users must join. There’s a free guest membership, but teachers who want to use its “instant lessons” must pay $7.50 a
month. “Instant Lessons” are photocopiable news stories from Reuters News Agency, accompanied by pre-reading activities, exercises and
post reading activities. These are very interesting but rather advanced. This site also sends free weekly teaching tips to those that want them.
English-Zone
www.english-zone.com
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This site contains activities for grammar, idioms, spelling, verbs, writing, basic skills, holidays, pronunciation, and reading. There are also
worksheets to print for a variety of topics.
Ingles Mundial
www.inglesmundial.com
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This website offers a variety of ESL activities for beginning, intermediate and advanced learners. It also has a “Teachers Lounge” with lesson
plans for the various levels.
English 4 U
english-4u.de
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This website offers explanations on grammatical constructions as well as exercises. There are also quizzes, crosswords, and vocabulary
exercises.
Story Archives
www.literacynet.org/cnnsf/archives.html
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“This CNN site has news stories on many different areas of interest. Students can choose the complete story or read the abridged version.
They can also watch a video as they listen to the story being read. The video and sound are available for either the full or abridged version.
The videos are small but still a nice addition. Exercises follow the readings. There is an instructor page to consult.
The OWL at Purdue
owl.english.purdue.edu/owl
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This website offers free writing help and teaching resources on a variety of topics including the writing process, job search writing, research
paper writing, grammar, citations, as well as content area writing. This site also offers tips on teaching writing.
Icon Language
www.iconlanguage.com
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This program was developed by Mary Beth Guinan in collaboration with Truman College. The website offers information about Icon
Language including its history and premise, how to incorporate it in your teaching and how to order it. Check out the Icon Language/Instant
English website for more information on this unique approach to teaching English.
Websites for Vocabulary
Building
www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/palmasola/rvocabindex.htm
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This website is for grade levels 3-5. It provides explanations and exercises for word study skills.
www.citycol.com/basic_skills/
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This website is for more than just vocabulary building. It offers quizzes on an array of English grammar, punctuation, and spelling
skills. It also offers reading, writing and math activities. It is interactive and worth checking out to use with students in the computer lab!
http://literacyworks.org/learningresources/
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This website offers reading and listening exercises in vocabulary and comprehension. The stories are interesting and relevant to real
life; they are intended for adults.
www.sara-jordan.com/links.shtml
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Scroll down to the “Geography Game”. This website is useful for teaching geography and geography vocabulary. It is an interactive
game that offers a variety of ways to test students’ knowledge. It also offers a link to “printable maps”. Check it out! ☺
http://p3.csun.edu/p3access/mod-litread/multmean.html
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This website offers information on literacy problems that your students may have. It gives strategies to assist these students.
www.resourceroom.net/comprehension/vocabactivities.asp
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This website provides an explanation and strategies for effectively teaching vocabulary. It also provides explanations and activities
under “Word Parts”.
*Adapted from information provided in the ICCB’s Winter 2006 issue of Excellence in Adult Education and Family Literacy
Using Technology in the Classroom
Integrating the Internet into the Classroom
www.lclark.edu/~krauss/usia/home.html
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This online course uses a Website and electronic discussion forum to teach participants to successfully integrate Internet resources into the
classroom. The course includes a survey of Internet sites plus activities to improve teachers’ search and evaluation skills. It also teaches
participants how to create their own games and quizzes and post them on the Web. This course costs $250 or $410 (for CEU credit);
however, there are some “free” resources available on the course websites. The Summer 2007 course runs from July 9-27. Expect to spend
approximately two hours per day on assignments. Krauss’s credentials and list of links to good ESL sites are impressive. His course is
probably very good, but it is expensive.
Making the Virtual Classroom a Reality
Master of Online Teaching Certificate
http://www.ion.illinois.edu/courses
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Although these courses are designed for teaching online courses, they may provide some added knowledge on integrating technology in your
classroom. Furthermore, this is a great FREE way to gain some professional development in this “hot” field. The Master of Online Teaching
Certificate program consists of 6 courses; these courses are free for City Colleges of Chicago instructors. The courses cover a wide range of
topics from an Overview of Online Teaching to an Online Practicum that allows you to practice what you have learned. The credit is awarded
in the form of CEUs; however graduate credit can be obtained through the University of Illinois, Springfield. Completion of the entire
program, IF YOU CHOOSE THE GRADUATE CREDIT OPTION, is approximately $2000. However, IF YOU CHOOSE THE CEU
OPTION, the courses are FREE.
Technology Related Books Available in the Curriculum Coordinator’s Office
How to Use the Internet in ELT written by Dede Teeler and Peta Gray
This book covers a variety of topics including the Internet in teacher development, as a materials resource, as a classroom tool, for activities,
and as a course book. Check this book out if you are interesting in learning more or exploring new options for using the Internet in your
classroom.
The Internet written by Scott Windeatt, David Hardisty, and David Eastment
This text provides activities for all ESL levels through the Internet. The book is divided into three sections: Core Internet Skills, Focus on
Language, Focus on Language Skills.
Sites for creating a blog, for interactive resources, and for managing student
performance
www.tipod.lycos.com
Build a blog or website for Free.
www.blogger.com
Build a blog for Free.
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www.pcanswer.com/articles.buildablog
Provides an explanation on how to create a blog.
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www.education-world.com/a_tech/techtorial100.pdf
Provides detailed explanation on how to create a blog for a class. Site provides sample blogs and link for more information.
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www.quia.com
This website offers a 30-day free trial and after the 30-day free trial access costs approximately $49 per year. If there is enough
interest from instructors, Truman could purchase subscriptions. This website has an instructor zone and a student zone. The instructor
zone allows teachers to create activities, quizzes, calendars, surveys and course webpages. Quia also can grade quizzes and manage
student performance data. The student zone allows students to play activities, take quizzes and view their performance data.
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funbrain.com
This website is designed for the elementary school teacher/student; however, there are plenty of resources/games/activities that could
be applied to the ESL classroom. View the games by grade and see for yourself! ☺ Have fun!
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trackstar.4teachers.org
“TrackStar is your starting point for online lessons and activities. Simply collect Web sites, enter them into TrackStar, add annotations
for your students, and you have an interactive, online lesson called a Track. Create your own Track or use one of the hundreds of
thousands already made by other educators. Search the database by subject, grade, or theme and standard for a quick and easy activity.
There is a fun Track already made for each day of the year, too!”
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quizstar.4teachers.org
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Quizstar allows teachers to create quizzes for students to take and review online. It provides report management tools and much more.
For students, they can take quizzes online and review their scores.
notestar.4teachers.org
“NoteStar is an Internet utility to assist in the preparation of research papers. Teachers and students can set up research projects with
topics and sub-topics. Students may then take advantage of NoteStar's many features to collect and organize their notes and prepare
their bibliography page.”
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rubistar.4teachers.org
“RubiStar is a free tool to help teachers create quality rubrics. While many teachers want to use rubrics or are experimenting with
writing rubrics, they can be quite time-consuming to develop. RubiStar is a tool to help the teacher who wants to use rubrics but does
not have the time to develop them from scratch. RubiStar provides generic rubrics that can simply be printed and used for many
typical projects and research assignments. The unique thing about RubiStar, however, is that it provides these generic rubrics in a
format that can be customized. The teacher can change almost all suggested text in the rubric to make it fit their own project.
For example, if RubiStar suggests for a multimedia presentation that "The student includes at least three slides" for the highest rating,
the teacher could change that to read "The student includes at least 5 slides" or "The student includes a title slide with the authors'
names; a table of contents with links to all slides that follow, ..."
RubiStar also does away with the tedious typing of similar content across all the various quality rating. When you choose a category to
evaluate, all the quality ratings are filled in and are ready to customize.”
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