Free online ESL Teaching Resources
Free Online Teaching Resources
Banks of free online teaching resources tend to vary in quality; moreover, because these sites are so diverse, categorization by proficiency level can be inconsistent. Still, used with care, such resources can definitely be of value. Please note that some of these sites are also listed on the Online Interactive Students Materials Page because they identify distinct sections for each of students and instructors; however, you may also want to examine the other sites listed there (but not mentioned here) because some of them could prove useful in the hands of a creative teacher.
General-use sites
Adult Learning Activities from the California Distance Learning Project
( http://www.cdlponline.org/ )
Designed for self-access, these numerous and slick materials (typically with both reading and listening options, plus associated learning activities) are specifically intended for Adult Basic Education not ESL students, but they could definitively interest ESL teachers working at CLB 5-6 or higher. For in-class use, teachers would need to highlight and copy desired reading materials and then paste them into Word or WordPerfect; the audio (RealAudio format) seems not to be downloadable but could readily be re-recorded.
Audio for ESL/EFL
( http://www.manythings.org/el/ )
A modest site that includes 7 American folk songs that can be downloaded and played in class using the Real Audio player (free download for ‘Basic’ version). At the time of listing, this site had not been updated since 2004, but the songs (plus interactive online interactive cloze activities) are potentially useful.
Azar Grammar Exchange
( http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/azar/grammar_ex/index.html )
Online Resource for ESL Teachers and companion website to the Azar Grammar Series, providing a forum where teachers can share ideas, questions, and grammar-teaching materials.
BBC Skillwise
( http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/index.shtml )
Skills-based BBC site full of worksheets, fact sheets and fun on-line games and quizzes to help practise spelling, punctuation, grammar, reading comprehension, etc. There is also a section for tutors which provides further teacher support and ties materials into curricula in the U.K.
Best of the Reader
( http://bestofthereader.ca )An online series of e-books called Best of The Reader. The content is based on some of the best stories from the last 27 years of the newspaper. There are 12 e-books and a 2010 calendar of special days and holidays, and a teachers' Guide. The material is organized by topics: People and Jobs, Special Days and Holidays, Many Ways to Help, Families, Keeping Safe, Sports, Amazing Stories, Canada’s Aboriginal People, and Word Games and Puzzles, Recipes, Canada and Your Health. Each e-book has 6 to 8 stories with exercises and an answer key. Photographs, maps and illustrations are also included. The stories are written at three levels of reading ability, according to the levels Acosta developed for use in The Westcoast Reader.
Business Emporium
( http://www.emse.fr/~yukna/business/businessemporium.html )
Business-oriented vocabulary quizzes, tests, eccentric and ESL Business lessons as well as tools to help teach or master the T.O.E.I.C (Test Of English in International Communication). Fun yet informative activities with detailed instructions for tomorrow's class, homework or tutorials in Business English.
Canadians and Their Government
( http://www.pch.gc.ca/special/gouv-gov/cont-eng.cfm )
A resource guide containing ready-to-use material for various types of learning environments. The activities use creative tasks, role-playing, research and discussion-oriented tasks to illustrate how government works. The information provided within the guide gives a comprehensive and concise explanation of how Canada has developed, and continues to develop, as a strong democratic country.
CBC Podcasts
( http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/ )
Free, downloadable MP3 files for potential use as part of listening activities; even broken into parts and well scaffolded, probably useful no lower than CLB 5.
Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks
The CCLB lesson plans were compiled as part of a cross-Canada project. ESL teachers submitted samples of successful lesson plans for learners at Stages 1 and 2 of the CLB (CLB 1 –8). These lessons outline ideas for activities and tasks to help learners develop CLB competencies in all four skills.
CNN Student News
( http://www.cnn.com/studentnews/ )
Student-oriented CNN site with podcasts, transcripts, one-pagers, maps etc.
Compleat Lexical Tutor
Under the ‘Tutorial’ title on the left—you will find links to resources and tools for teaching ESL vocabulary. In the middle, there is also a ‘Research’ list with tools for use in analyzing the vocabulary of texts.
Dave’s ESL Café
One of the oldest and most enduring sites for ESL teachers, including an ‘Idea Cookbook’(in the menu on the left) with lists of materials under a series of headings such as ‘Business English’, ‘Games’, ‘Grammar’, etc; these are mostly explanations of activities (often quite detailed), not actual worksheets.
E. L. Easton's English Online
A teacher's resource website with links to materials for teaching such as country profiles, holidays, libraries and museums, pronunciation, sports and teaching ideas as well as links to online courses in English and other useful ESL websites.
English-4U
( http://www.english-4u.com/index.html )
This site offers very slick downloadable PDFs of lesson materials (in both student and teacher versions, the latter including a lesson outline and answer key); while these colour materials may lose some impact when printed in monochrome, they do look appealing provided that teachers can locate the right theme to match their educational plans. Much of the material on the site is not free (see Subscription-based Online Teacher and Student Resources list), but there is a good deal that can be accessed either by any visitor or by those who register for free , without a paid subscription.
English Lessons Online
( http://www.smic.be/smic5022/ )
Belgian-based website which gives teachers free access to more than 100 vocabulary and grammar resources, interactive quizzes and exercises, ready-to-use handouts and lesson ideas.
English Teaching Materials
( http://englishteachingmaterials.com/default.aspx )
This site contains documents for teaching English as a second or foreign language. Teachers may find ideas regarding teaching games and activities, classroom English expressions (along with translations in Korean), study tips for English language learners, and tips for teaching English.
ETNI Teacher Ideas and Projects
( http://www.etni.org.il/index.html )
The Israeli English Teachers Network site appears to be designed for teachers of high school students, but has some Lesson Plans that all teachers might find useful(e.g. Book Reports, Computer Applications, Crossword Puzzles, etc).
ESL Lesson Plans/Activities and Resources
( http://www.csun.edu/~hcedu013/eslplans.html )
Mainly a teacher's resource website but also has links for ESL students. Includes links to CNN Newsroom and Worldview for ESL, Conversation and Questions for ESL/EFL classroom, ESL Lessons and Games, ESL Teacher Connection, Dave's ESL Web Guide, etc...
ESL Lounge
( http://www.esl-lounge.com/siteguidetop.shtml )
A large selection of downloadable lesson materials (graded according to 7 different levels, not related to the CLB but relatively clear: http://www.esl-lounge.com/siteguidelevels.shtml ). Some materials are in Word but most are in PDF; permission is given for individual, non-commercial classroom use.
ESL Teachers’ Board
( http://www.eslteachersboard.com/ )
Some useful material available via the links in the ‘ESL RESOURCES’ list: teaching tips and techniques (most for children, some for older learners) under ‘ESL Lessons’; various exercises under ‘ESL Printables, Handouts’; and links re. free software or materials under ‘Free Stuff for Teachers.’
ESLhome Teacher Page
( http://home.earthlink.net/~eslteacher/index.html )
A good compendium of links for teachers to materials from various sources on the web, including lesson plans, thematic units, teaching methods and ESL home pages. One section of the ESLhome website.
GVTV
( http://gvtv.ca/ )
Hundreds of video stories about issues, people and ideas shaping Greater Vancouver. Learners from CLB 5 and up can search for stories and videos on various topics.
Historica: History by the Minute
Historica Minutes: one-minute movies from Canada’s past, Footprints: stories of Canada’s athletes, Radio Minutes: short dramas on various Canadian issues and personalities. All for Upper Intermediate to Advanced (CLB 5-7) students.
Holidays on the Net
A teacher's resource for holiday celebrations on the World Wide Web. This site provides information on each holiday celebration including its history, as well as related activities.
Hot Potatoes
A suite of software tools for teachers to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. On September 1, 2009, a freeware version will be released.
Internet Projects for Learners and Teachers of English
( http://www.wfi.fr/volterre/inetpro.html )
A compilation of links to websites for Internet projects from around the world.
John and Sarah’s TEFL Pitstop
( http://www.lingolex.com/jstefl.htm )
Once you get past the links to advertisers like Oxford Seminars and edHelp.com, there are links to games, resource books, and other contributions at various levels by ESL/EFL teachers.
Lanternfish
( http://bogglesworldesl.com/ )
This site includes (among other resources) a wide range of quite well organized free downloadable worksheets in Word format. The Terms of Use specify: “You may use any resource, including photocopies, for the purpose of teaching and distribution to your classes. You may not redistribute them, electronically or otherwise, in any other form, package, or collection.”
Linguistic Funland
( http://www.linguistic-funland.com/ )
A list of various links to resources for language teaching and learning, linguistics study, and other miscellaneous resources.
National Film Board of Canada
( http://www.nfb.ca/explore-by/title/ )
Hundreds of films that are viewable online for free, available for potential use as part of listening activities; the films vary widely, so that careful selection is required with respect to appropriate scaffolding and matching to the proficiency level necessary for pedagogically effective listening/viewing.
National Public Radio
News, podcasts and other high-quality but also high-CLB-level recordings (you will find little other nothing that would be suitable for students below at least CLB 5).
Oral English Activities
Oral English activities for adult learners (developed and field tested in an EFL setting in China); seem to be generally at least CLB 4; plans and procedures for role-plays, discussions etc., organized according to a variety of topics.
Oxford Teachers’ Club
( http://www.oup.com/elt/select?url=/eltnew/teachersclub/?oup_jspFileName=teachersclub.jsp )
Signing up for a free subscription to this site provides access to purpose-designed supplementary materials for use with ESL materials from the Oxford University Press.
Pizzaz
( http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html )
According to a note on the home page, “PIZZAZ! is dedicated to providing simple creative writing and oral storytelling activities with copyable (yes, copyable!) handouts for use with students of all ages. Permission is given to use these resources for in-class, non-profit use only.”
Puzzlemaker
( http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/ )
Teachers can create different types of puzzles online such as mazes, crossword puzzles, word searches, cryptograms, etc. Puzzles can be saved online or printed.
Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab
A site with recordings of “everyday conversations with adult and children's voices”, rated at “easy”, “medium” and “difficult”, and supported by vocabulary tips, vocabulary work, and interactive comprehension questions. The audio files may not be downloaded, but they can be used in class; the print materials supporting them can be downloaded and printed out for student use (see full details in “Randall’s Copyright Notice”). Note: there are few if any truly low-level materials here; the “easy” listening passages tend to be at least CLB 4-5.
RCI – Radio Canada International
( http://www.rcinet.ca/rci/en/ )
Upper Intermediate to Advanced (CLB 5-7) learners can read national and world news, listen to web radio and daily/weekly programs on immigration news and stories, plus much more.
Shaggy Dog Stories
( http://www.antimoon.com/other/shaggydog.htm )
Downloadable MP3s of 10 shaggy dog stories; potentially useful, but no transcripts available.
Simons ELT Activity Land
Simon Mumford’s English Language Teaching (ELT) website with original word games, drills, speaking and grammar practice activities, all written by him. A heavy emphasis on decontextualized grammar potentially made fun by using games and puzzles. British English.
StoryCorps Audio Archive
( http://www.storycorps.org/listen )
Literally millions of life-history recordings in the form of free, downloadable MP files for potential use as part of listening activities; even broken into parts and well scaffolded, probably useful no lower than CLB 5.
Teaching English: Tips, resources, materials, downloads and more…
( http://www.teachenglish.ws/resources/ )
This is a rather general site for EFL materials developed in Japan, but instructions for some potentially interesting games (click on ‘Game ideas’ in the menu on the left); also, an appealing ‘Bingo Card Generator’ to make bingo cards with words, phrases etc.
Ted Power English Language Learning and Teaching
( http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/phono.html )
This pronunciation website helps to identify common errors based on language background and recommends resources for practice.
TEFL Magic
( http://www.tefl-magic.com/ )
A British-based website with teacher-designed worksheets on English Skills, Good/Bad, Numbers/Statistics, Everyday Life, Business English, Health/Body, Idioms/Phrases, Travel/Countries, as well as information about the ESL teaching experiences of the author.
TESL English Lessons from the Internet TESL Journal
( http://iteslj.org/links/TESL/Lessons/ )
Mainly a teacher's resource website but also has links for ESL students, such as reading comprehension activity, vocabulary games, advanced English skills for ESL students, etc.
TESOL Tasks
( http://www.tesoltasks.com/ )
Free worksheets designed for teen-aged ESL students. The page owner notes that, as posted, the sheets are not in a printer-friendly format, but that they can readily be printed by highlighting the desired lines, copying, and then pasting into Word (and we’ve tested that technique: it works fine, for ordinary text and even for tables). “The materials found on this site may be copied and/or adapted for use in the classroom or for private study. Any other use is strictly forbidden.”
Tower of English
A guide to the internet with about 300 fun and interesting websites in 34 different categories.
University of Iowa: Phonetics
( http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html )
Animated mouth diagrams and sound files for how to pronounce specific sounds (separate sounds, plus sounds within example words: typically initial, medial and final positions). The materials are designed for online use, not downloading, but they do illustrate the sounds very clearly and could therefore be well worth using in class via a WWW link.
Using English in China
( http://www.xiangtan.co.uk/teachers.htm )
Web page of a British teacher who worked in China for 4 years. Teacher resources include Lesson Plans at higher levels (CLB 6+), plus links to English Newspapers Online, World Headlines, Online Translation and Dictionary Tools, Quote of the Day, Article Database, Watching English and Foreign TV Online For Free, and Chatting Online with ICQ.
Voice of America
( http://www.voanews.com/english/index.cfm )
Streaming audio of news reports and other programs; specially simplified versions in the Special English section: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/index.cfm (with transcripts and downloadable Real Audio and MP3 audio files).
VoicePrint – Canada’s Broadcast Reading Service
( http://www.voiceprintcanada.com/ )
Authentic listening to top stories — international, national, regional and local — from more than 600 Canadian newspapers and magazines. For advanced level students – CLB 6 and up.
Volume 41(1) of English Language Forum
( http://eca.state.gov/forum/vols/vol41/no1/ )
Downloadable MP3s (plus PDF transcripts) for 4 Blues songs.
Westcoast Reader
( http://www.westcoastreader.ca/ )
Archived copies of issues of this award-winning monthly newspaper for CLB 1-4, including Teacher’s Notes.
Western/Pacific Literacy Network: Learning Resources
( http://www.literacynet.org/cnnsf/index_cnnsf.html )
CBS and CNN new stories, in both full-length and abridged versions (plus outlines), including RealMovie and RealAudio files for online viewing /listening (can also be saved to a computer for use offline).
Mainly for teaching children
Children Only ESL/EFL Games
( http://www.childrenonlyesl-efl.com/mainpages/maincategories/gameshomepage.asp )
Quite detailed instructions for printable games of various kinds, suitable for young learners: Board Games, Action Games, Counting Games, etc.
Exchanging Letters with the World
( http://www.angelfire.com/ut/elww/ )
An EFL teacher-developed website for a pen pal-type project where elementary and possibly high-school students write letters about themselves and exchange them with students in another country.
Genki English (commercial site)
Elementary School English Games, Songs and Lesson Plans and Ideas! Self-described ‘Leading Site for ESL teachers in elementary schools’ in Japan. As seen on NHK TV.
Language Works
( http://www.lang-works.com/ )
An on-line curriculum for young learners which uses flashcards with no audio, starting at Beginner Level 2 and going to Intermediate Level 4. The syllabus for the curriculum includes units entitled Noun Wizard (nouns), Action Wizard (verbs), Lesson Wizard (nouns , pronouns and prepositions), Game Show (Q & A activity), Role Plays and Photo Talk.
The EFL Playhouse
This site offers suggestions for “educational games, songs, fingerplays, action rhymes, craft ideas, printable materials, tongue twisters” etc for use with children learning ESL or EFL. While potentially quite useful as a memory-refresher, the site provides only basic “ideas” for activities, not detailed instructions.
Way Ahead
( http://www.macmillanenglish.com/younglearners/wayahead/wayahead.html )
All about a new resource for young EFL learners from MacMillan, including a selection of downloadable tests from the first level of the Way Ahead Teacher's Resource Book.
Resources for literature-based teaching
Great Books Online
Classic books and poems for free downloading; includes short poems by Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Gerard Manley Hopkins.
The Gutenberg Project
( http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page )
Over 100,000 online books are now available from Project Gutenberg and its partners.
The Online Books Page (University of Pennsylvania)
( http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/ )
Over 35,000 free online books, updated regularly.
Warnings: The following list is provided for information only; also list items have been selected with reasonable diligence, all such decisions are somewhat personal and TESL Canada in no way recommends any specific sites as suitable for any particular purpose. Additionally, many sites contain advertisements; TESL Canada in no way endorses any products or services so advertised. In both respects, teachers must rely on their own judgment.
Moreover, these sites may well not be entirely permanent. As a result, a much-appreciated exercise that was ‘there’ yesterday may be ‘gone’ today! Where possible and permitted, users are advised to download and save a copy of any material that they expect to re-use. And if you do discover that a site listed here has moved or simply disappeared, please email us at info@tesl.ca .
Also, be aware that—even when you are authorized to download and use materials from a site—if you and your colleagues really love a worksheet or whatever, it is highly unlikely that you will be allowed to make a link from, for instance, your school Website straight to that specific material; doing so could be considered to be bandwidth theft! However, it is normally just fine (as on this page) to establish a link to the overall site in question.
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