Study English on the Web
General E.S.L.
Sites suitable for beginners are marked with a 
.
-
USA Learns is a project of the U.S. Department of Education. It
offers free instruction at beginning and intermediate levels in
listening, speaking, reading, and writing in a simple and engaging
format. Lessons focus on practical skills related to everyday life,
family, health, and the workplace. There are classroom videos,
story videos, news feature stories, and many interactive practice activities.
- ESL Gold has everything you could want for learning English. There are hundreds of lessons for speaking (including common phases for conversation, & role play/conversation topics) grammar, vocabulary, idioms, pronunciation, reading, writing, etc, and most lessons include audio. There are also hundreds of quizzes, good links to other ESL web sites, and textbook recommendations.
- Real English uses authentic videos (of interviews with ordinary English speakers on the street) to teach basic listening, vocabulary, and grammar skills in a meaningful context. Each interview video is accompanied by a series of related short audio or video segments that are used in matching, sentence completion/construction, and other exercises. The registration process for this site is a bit cumbersome, but the quality of the videos and exercises make it worth the trouble.
- English for All has five exciting video stories about workplace situations. After watching a video segment from the story, you can practice vocabulary, grammar, listening comprehension, and "life skills" based on the segment. There is a simple way to get a native language translation of any word you don't understand. You can also print out video scripts and exercises.
- The ESL Resource Center offers practice in reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, spelling, idioms, pronunciation, and listening (with audio).
-
Web-Book's
Interactive Audio-Picture English Lesson lets you practice simple vocabulary
by matching pictures with words. It also includes an audio component,
which allows you
to hear a word and select the corresponding picture. The
internet picture dictionary,
and Learning Network's Funbrain
game are set up in a similar fashion, but offer no audio. Similarly,
Vocabulary Match Game
offers illustrations with corresponding audio, but no interactive
practice.
- About.com's English as 2nd Language Pages have all sorts of practice for English students, including listening, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, writing, and TOEFL. Some of the lessons include audio recordings, featuring speakers of both British and American English.
- E-Z-slang features recorded conversations that incorporate lots of natural-sounding examples of slang, idioms, and “reduced” speech (“wuh-d’yuh-mean?”). Each conversation comes with a written transcript, definitions of the slang/idioms/reductions, additional sentence examples, and a practice quiz.
- The Idiom Connection offers explanations of hundreds of idioms, together with quizzes to practice them. No audio.
- Interesting Things for ESL Students has games, quizzes, exercises and lots of other activities. Includes many audio recordings: for example, listen to songs in the Listening Room as you try to fill in the missing words in the text version, or work on pronunciation through various listening exercises.
- English Language Listening Lab Online offers short authentic interviews/monologues with English speakers from a variety of countries. There are listening comprehension quizzes, photos, and transcripts for each conversation.
- OM Personal offers more than 50 conversations on a variety of topics, (in both American and British English), along with a transcript, Spanish translation, photo, and completion quiz for each conversation.
- Live Mocha lets you view a photo, hear corresponding audio, see the word/sentence in English, and see a translation. There are various quiz modes for listening, reading, and sentence construction based on each series of photos. Registration is required but it's free.
-
MCED Services offers easy lessons on prepostions for
beginning level students. The lessons use audio, photos,
and simple text to teach about location of objects, signs,
calendar skills, and appointments.
- At 1-Language.com each grammar lesson begins with a short audio segment, a page of text explains the grammar lesson, and then students can practice new skill using several interactive practice exercises.
- English Skills, by Natasha Cooper, is a commercial site, but it offers a useful free sample lesson (with audio) on scheduling appointments. A similar site, English Practice, offers a sample lesson on social introductions.
- Lauri's ESL Website offers short conversations and listening passages with interactive exercises to test comprehension.
- CBC/Radio-Canada uses radio and TV stories, (on distinctly Canadian themes), with interactive exercises, to help students practice vocabulary and listening comprehension.
- Learning Edge, a Canadian site, offers feature stories and practical life-skills lessons with animated video, text and audio.
- Ventures, Touchstone, Interchange, and Connect are textbooks produced by Cambridge University Press. The publisher offers additional on-line practice for each chapter of these textbooks. [You can use the practice activities whether or not you have the textbooks.] The activities are well-designed, fun to use, and cover a broad range of levels and skill areas, including listening, grammar, sentence construction, and vocabulary.
- English for Your Health, from Queens Library, is a health literacy curriculum for beginning level students. Students listen to a short audio clip (and read along if they choose), then click on the answers to questions about what the have heard. Activities feature topics such as following instructions for taking medications, describing symptoms, and emergency vocabulary.
-
At Language Guide
you can wave the mouse over a picture and hear the word
pronounced. There are also bilingual grammar lessons for
Spanish,
Portuguese,
Chinese,
and
Turkish speakers.
- Communicating at Work is a project of the Asian American Civic Association of Boston. It features audio dialogs and videos of common workplace scenarios, such as communicating with co-workers, customers, and supervisors, asking for clarification, cultural differences, reporting problems/progress, etc. The language level is fairly advanced. Lessons are quite detailed and include practice quizzes.
- English Club features a wide range of lessons and quizzes at various levels. Not all of the lessons include audio, but many do.
- Getting Started With Superpages shows students how to apply literacy and computer skills while learning to use Superpages.com (an expanded on-line phone book featuring information about businesses and people across the country). In the five self-paced lessons, students listen to audio of on-screen text, learn about browser navigation, keyword searches, and other computer skills, and practice new skills in real-life contexts.
- Merriam Webster’s Visual Online Dictionary presents very detailed images/audio related to 15 (mostly academic) themes, such as science, the arts, and society, enabling students to see and hear the pronunciations of more than 6,000 words. There is a search feature, and also exercises for practicing selected vocabulary themes (image to text--no audio). For advanced level students. (Includes somewhat intrusive advertisements.)
- At English Listening Lounge, students select an English “domain” (American, international, academic, or narrative), select a level and topic, and are given a choice of listening passages (monologues), spoken in authentic English by ordinary people. In a box at the bottom of the screen, students can click on “transcript” and read along, or click on “questions” to see a list of comprehension questions. (Answers are accessed by clicking on “Q/A”).
- REEP World offers short stories about immigrants’ experiences with healthcare, work, and life in the US. You can listen and read the stories, then check your understanding. (Note: The stories are narrated by immigrants who speak English with an accent. It may be easier for beginners to skip the first section, which offers audio only, and go to the next section where you can read along with each sentence in the audio.)
- Net Grammar offers ten comprehensive study units that are organized around a series of grammar objectives, but that include listening, reading, and writing practice too.
Pronunciation
- E.L. Easton offers the Authentic American English Pronuniciation site where you can learn pronunciation by listening to audio recordings of the sounds of American English. (Requires RealPlayer)
- At Train Your Accent, you can listen to short recorded speeches on various topics. Each speech comes with two transcripts. One shows the speech in formal written English, and the other highlights all of the instances in which the speaker uses more natural-sounding English.
Listen & Read
- English Baby offers audio recordings of fun, authentic conversations on contemporary topics (popular culture, sports, travel, etc.) between college-age speakers. They are challenging because they include lots of idioms, slang, reductions, and cultural references-just like most ordinary conversations between native English speakers. It provides explanations of new vocabulary and expressions, and gives you a chance to test your comprehension of each conversation. Ello offers a similar set of authentic audio recordings with short comprehension quizzes.
- Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Café offers lots of easy-to-use audio exercises for practicing listening skills at all levels. (Requires RealPlayer)
- At Focus English, you can listen to audio recordings of all sorts of conversations, then practice the vocabulary and expressions in interactive exercises. (Requires RealPlayer)
- The California Distance Learning Project has news stories (some recent, some not), and information about voting, safety, and jobs that you can hear on audio, and sometimes see as video recordings, while you read along. After you listen to/read each story you can try a variety of listening comprehension and vocabulary exercises. Almost all of the print at this site is also available on audio, so it's a great study site for students who have limited reading skills.
- The Voice of America Radio Service has news and feature stories on a wide variety of topics. The language level of normal broadcasts is fairly difficult, but you can read a transcript while you listen to the audio recording. Or you can listen to news in "simple English" (spoken at a somewhat slower pace) with a transcript to follow along with.
- The Learning Resources site uses video or audio clips of CNN news broadcasts along with the written story (you can choose to read the original story or a simpler, "abridged" version) to teach reading and listening comprehension. Each news story has vocabulary and comprehension exercises to go along with it. You can also write down your thoughts on the issue and send them in to share with other readers online. (Recommended for advanced levels.)
- The GCF Everyday Life Project offers interactive practice to help students build confidence with vocabulary and functional literacy skills. It’s fun, attractively designed, offers full audio support and is built around realistic life situations such as using an ATM machine, making a deposit, or reading safety information.
- Simple English News presents a range of news and feature stories each in a short paragraph that you can listen along with.
- News For You is a weekly newspaper for adult literacy students. The on-line version allows students to listen and read along with selected news stories. You can choose to hear the whole story, or click on individual sentences. Wave over key vocabulary words and you will see a definition. Suitable for ESL students at advanced levels.
- English Express presents short (Canadian-themed) news and feature stories for ESL students at various levels. Each story offers text, audio, and related visuals.
US Citizenship
- The Jones Library offers ten citizenship lesson guides (based on the textbook "Citizenship: Passing the Test"). There is also a plain language step-by-step guide to becoming a citizen, and information on requesting a fee waiver.
- USCIS offers official information on naturalization requirements, the application, and the test.
- CLINIC has translations of the 100 civic questions into many languages.
- UScitizenpod has audio recordings of the 100 civics questions & answers. The site also includes good sample interview recordings at various levels. But be aware that examples of some of the civics questions used in the audio interviews are based on the old test, not the new one, and the dictation test examples you find here are not authentic (they are not based on the current USCIS vocabulary list).
- Insight Media offers a great dictation practice test (with audio) at their LibertyBook site (click on the “student” section, then select “dictation.”) The site also offers a multiple-choice quiz of the 100 civics questions (text only).
- NewCitizen.US has information about steps you can take after becoming a citizen (such as registering to vote, getting a passport, or sponsoring family members).
- At Lynne Weintraub's SpellingCity page, you can study the words on the writing (dictation) test. Spelling City reads each word for you, spells it aloud, and uses the word in a sentence. It can generate a worksheet to help you practice writing the words. SpellingCity also uses the writing test list to make spelling games to play on line, and word puzzles to print out. When you're ready to take a test, you can listen to the words, type in the letters, and check your results. If any are spelled incorrectly, you can continue to practice and take a new test on the words you're having trouble with--until you've got them all right.
- The Minnesota Literacy Council offers a free on-line citizenship course that includes audio practice with the civics and literacy tests and videos that show beginning-level students answering personal interview questions. (Note: The practice questions here require students to read & select from multiple choice answers, and type in dictated sentences. In the real USCIS test, civics questions and answers are spoken - not written - and the writing test uses pencil and paper - no typing.)
US Culture
- America.gov is an ever-changing series of photo galleries, videos, books, (that you can view or download), a feature magazine, news, and other resources maintained by the U.S. Department of State. A great place to start is “I am America,” a visually stunning video tour of the landscapes and people of the US.
- The creator of the Life in the USA site, Elliot Essman, has put together information (from his own point of view) on many different aspects of US culture for immigrants and visitors to the US.
- Valuing our Differences: Celebrating Diversity is a web site that offers information on a wide range of US holidays.
- EduPASS offers information on American "social customs and cultural differences." The information is aimed mainly at international college students, but immigrants (and their tutors) can also find some interesting discussion/reading topics here.
- New to America offers information (at a fairly high reading level) about topics of concern to new immigrants such as: social security, health insurance, taxes, medicine, immigration forms, etc.
TOEFL
The following sites offer TOEFL practice tests and or instruction. They're free, but some of them require you to register:
- Free English offers high quality, authentic practice with the new TOEFL iBT test format, with full reading, writing, listening and speaking sections.
- MBA Center offers a free iBT “diagnostic” test (registration required).
- Princeton Review offers a sample iBT lecture with questions.
- TOEFLPod offers a variety of 10-20 minute lectures and conversation podcasts. Each one is presented at a slow speed, followed by explanations of various terms used in the lecture/conversation. Next, the same lecture/conversation is read at a rapid speed (similar to real TOEFL listening items), followed by practice comprehension questions. Scripts of the podcasts are available on the website, but, unfortunately, the vocabulary explanations and practice questions are only on the audio.
- The Linguist Library offers a catalog of short audio recordings on many topics, including conversations and academic lectures similar to those on the TOEFL listening test. Transcripts are available, and translations (into mostly European languages) are facilitated on the web site. What the site does not provide is practice questions to test your comprehension. However, if you go through a free registration process, you can use the site to create vocabulary flashcards (based on the audio transcripts you view) and use them to test yourself.
For help with writing essays:
Jones Library card holders can take “Learn a Test”s practice iBT TOEFL test at:
- http://www.joneslibrary.org/ref/tests.html. Your “user name” is your library card number.
G.E.D.
- The official web site of the G.E.D. Testing Service has useful information about the test.
- PBS's G.E.D. Connection is an online course for G.E.D. students. You have to register in order to use it, but it's free, and you can even get your own teacher who will check your work and give you feedback. Each lesson will send you to a different web site to gather information on a topic. Then you go back to the G.E.D. Connection to practice. You can also take a practice G.E.D. test when you're ready.
- Steck-Vaughn aoffers a free on-line G.E.D. practice test.
- The Five Paragraph Essay Wizard offers help on writing effective essays.
- Jones Library card holders can take "Learn a Test"'s practice GED test at http://www.joneslibrary.org/ref/tests.html. Be sure to read the specific instructions page on how to enter your card number so that it will be accepted by the system.
- McGraw Hill offers GED test information and interactive practice pages as a companion to their textbooks.
- GED Prep Info is an easy-to-navigate site with information and practice questions for each section of the test.