Resources for ESL Teachers and Their Students

Web Links to ESL Lesson Plans and Printable Worksheets Web Links to Printable Clip Art Web Links to Online ESL Activities for Students ESL Books and Periodicals with Photocopyable Activities and Lessons Other Recommended ESL Books and Periodicals

Web Links to ESL Lesson Plans and Printable Worksheets

• Absolute Beginner English A syllabus to take students from speaking no English at all, to being able to fulfill basic communication needs. Contains 20 suggested topics, 24 lesson plans, plus handouts and links to free TOEFL preparation and practice .
• Adult ESOL Lesson Plans From Palm Beach County, this extensive collection of detailed lesson plans covers six levels.
• Dave's ESL Café Super! - an on-line community for students and teachers: tips, exercises, word lists, grammar lessons and more. Includes good collections of idioms and slang.
• English Club Lesson plans, handouts, activities, and articles for ESL teachers.
• ESL Monkeys Printable ESL lesson plans, activities and more. Materials have been contributed to the site by teachers and others in the field. Lessons are rated by users of the web site.
• ESL Teacher's Guide Ideas and suggestions for teaching all levels of ESL, including a special section of 11 lessons focused on the pre-literate student.
• ESL PartyLand Ideas and printable materials for ESL teachers. Has ideas for conversations, using music, videos and films to teach English.
• The Internet TESL Journal A website for "Teachers of English as a Second Language." Offers printable lesson plans, classroom handouts, and teaching ideas in addition to articles, research papers and links to other sites.
• Lanternfish Printable ESL lesson plans, flashcards, activities, games, etc. The site is maintained by a group of ESL teachers whose aim is to "bring printable quality resources to teachers and parents."
• OWL (Online Writing Lab) Printer-friendly ESL handouts and activities at the intermediate and above levels. Provided by Purdue University.
• UsingEnglish.com Site uses British spellings for some activities. Some items may serve as springboards for developing your own lessons.

Web Links to Printable Clip Art

• Clipart ETC Over 34,000 pieces of clipart for teachers and students provided by Florida's Educational Technology Clearinghouse.
• Royalty-Free Clip Art Collection for Foreign/Second Language Instruction Clip art designed for use by foreign language instructors. Images are intended to be as "culturally and linguistically neutral as possible." Offered by Purdue University.

Web Links to Online ESL Activities for Students

• Activities for ESL Students There are over 1,000 quizzes, exercises and puzzles on this website. All are interactive online exercises; most of them require the Shockwave player or a Javascript-enabled browser.
• English Idioms and Proverbs An alphabetical listing, with explanations, illustrations and examples. Here's another set of Idioms arranged by topic. Dave's ESL Cafe above, also has good collections of idioms and slang.
• Internet Picture Dictionary An online multilingual picture dictionary designed especially for ESL students. Reinforcement activities include flashcards and word scrambles. Words can be found by letter or categories.
• Randall's ESL Lab Fabulous site with dozens of listening exercises - requires a computer with sound card and speakers or headphones.

ESL Books and Periodicals with Photocopyable Activities and Lessons

• The Basic Oxford Picture Dictionary Teacher's Resource Book: Reproducible Activities by Norma Shapiro, JaymeAdelson-Goldstein, and Fiona Armstrong. Oxford University Press, 1994. Reproducible activities for ESL teachers to use in conjunction with The Basic Oxford Picture Dictionary and The Basic Oxford Picture Dictionary Workbook. R
• Drawing Out: Creative, Personalized, Whole Language Activities by Sharron Bassano and Mary Ann Christison. Alta Book Center Publishers, 1995. Fifty-four activities focus on student drawings as a means for encouraging students to become more communicative in English. Note: Only certain worksheets can be photocopied. Please see book for details. R
• Index Card Games for ESL, Revised Edition edited by Raymond C. Clark, Pro Lingua Associates, Publishers, 1992. Collection of ideas for language-learning games; suggested level is noted for each.
• The Interactive Tutorial, an Activity Parade by Karen M. Sanders, Pro Lingua Associates, Publishers, 1998. These photocopyable Activities for the Adult ESL/EFL Student target beginning and low-intermediate-level students, but can be adapted for others. R
• LifePrints: Teacher's Resource File by Nancy B. Martz, Allene Guss Grognet, Joann Crandall. New Readers Press, 1994. This has reproducible worksheets and activity pages to go with LifePrints student books, levels 1-3. R
• Look Who's Talking! Strategies for Developing Group Interaction : Oral Fluency Practice for Grades Five through Adult by Sharron Bassano and Mary Ann Christison. Alta Book Center Publishers, 1995. Activities for developing group interaction among students at the intermediate level and above. Note: Only certain worksheets can be photocopied. Please see book for details.
• Something to Talk About: A Reproducible Conversation Resource for Teachers and Tutors by Kathleen Olson. University of Michigan Press, 2001. Conversation materials for students at the intermediate level and above. Includes idiomatic language grouped by practical life categories. R

Periodicals:

• Hands-On English Semi-monthly. Contains photocopyable worksheets with ideas for oral activity, leveled-dictation practice, crossword puzzles, teaching ideas, etc. R

Other Recommended ESL Books and Periodicals

• Basic Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy. Cambridge University Press,1993. Concentrates on common grammar problems encountered by beginning and low-intermediate ESL students. Useful for reference and practice.
• Basic Oxford Picture Dictionary by Margot Gramer. Oxford University Press, 1994. Student book containing 1,200 essential words and phrases, illustrated and depicted in real-life contexts. Has a companion Teacher Resource book.
• English for Everyday Activities, A Picture Process Dictionary by Lawrence J. Zwier. New Readers Press, 1999. Illustrated Student book containing sentences that describe simple, everyday processes in detail. Companion audio tape also available.
• Jazz Chants by Carolyn Graham. Oxford University Press, 1978 Chants and exercises to help students with American pronunciation and inflection. Other titles include Small Talk and Grammar Chants; books and audio tapes.
• Longman Dictionary of American English published by Addison Wesley Longman Limited, 2000. Dictionary includes the 2000 most common English words. Authentic language samples are provided for each entry. There are special usage notes for words of similar definition.
• More About the USA: A Cultural Reader by Milada Broukal and Janet Milhomme. Longman, 1996. Information about American culture with vocabulary development, comprehension, and grammar activities.
• Talk-a-tivities: Problem Solving and Puzzles for Pairs by Richard Yorkey. Alta Book Center Publishers, 2002. Conversation activities for pairs and small groups. Includes a variety of difficulty levels with a focus on using info gap strategies. R
• Talk Time Handbook: Conversation Sessions for Volunteer Facilitators and Limited English Speaking Participants by Marilyn Bentson and Elizabeth Mitchell. National Institute for Literacy, 1995. The training manual used in the Talk Time training sponsored by Tacoma Community House.
• Teaching Adults: An ESL Resource Book by Laubach Literacy Action. New Readers Press, 1996. Background information about adult ESL learners and English as a Second Language as well as 61 activities to use in lessons.
• Tutoring ESL: A Handbook for Volunteers by the Training Project at Tacoma Community House. Washington State, 1991. The training manual used in the BASIC ESL training sponsored by Tacoma Community House.
• Zero Prep: Ready-to-Go Activities for the Language Classroom by Laurel Pollard and Natalie Hess. Alta Book Center Publishers, 1997. Lots of easily adapted activities to use in lesson planning.

Periodicals:

• Easy English News Monthly, except for July and August. The paper includes a monthly calendar & explanation of holidays, a discussion of some cultural issue dictionary of words used in each issue, a crossword puzzle, a page of idioms, and advice column. R