LookWAYup is an online English dictionary that contains a built-in thesaurus and allows multilingual translation to and from five other languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Dutch). Free and easy to use, the dictionary incorporates a vocabulary builder and can be integrated into web sites and web browsers as well as accessed from mobile devices.
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Site URL: http://lookwayup.com/free/
LookWAYup: Online Dictionary/Thesaurus with Spelling Correction
Posted on Monday, February 08, 2010 | Filed under Dictionaries, Vocabulary
Daily IELTS Lessons from IELTS-Simon
Posted on Friday, January 29, 2010 | Filed under Grammar, IELTS, Listening, Reading, Speaking, Study Skills, Writing
IELTS-Simon is a superb blog dedicated to students who are preparing for the IELTS exam. Maintained by ex-IELTS examiner Simon Corcoran from Manchester (United Kingdom), this blog offers practical IELTS study tips and a wealth of free exercises designed to help IELTS candidates refine their language skills before taking the exam. Students who are not planning to take the IELTS test can also use the blog to improve their general English.
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Site URL: http://ielts-simon.com/
Free ESL/EFL Resources from Linguapress.com
Posted on Monday, January 25, 2010 | Filed under Culture, Grammar, Reading, Teaching English, Vocabulary
Linguapress.com, the website of the well-known France-based EFL publisher Linguapress, provides a nice collection of free ESL/EFL resources that include a guide to English grammar, graded reading passages, and themed vocabulary games. For ESL/EFL teachers, the site offers useful teaching ideas and ready-made worksheets that can be adapted for use in class.
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Site URL: http://linguapress.com/index.htm
Free Books Online at PublicLiterature.Org
Posted on Friday, January 22, 2010 | Filed under Listening, Literature, Reading
PublicLiterature.Org is a website where literature lovers can read and listen to classic literary works for free online. It is also a blog where contemporary authors from around the world contribute samples of their work as well as discuss all kinds of issues related to literature.
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Site URL: http://publicliterature.org/
Exemplar: Words in Context
Posted on Monday, January 18, 2010 | Filed under English for Special Purposes
Exemplar is an online corpus of scientific English that allows users to find examples of how a word or phrase is used in published scientific literature. A joint-product of Springer Science & Business Media and the Center for Biomedical and Health Linguistics, the site is totally free to use and can be a great help to all students, teachers, and specialists who need to communicate in scientific English.
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Site URL: http://springerexemplar.com/index.aspx
Fiction Channel
Posted on Sunday, January 10, 2010 | Filed under Literature, Reading
Fiction Channel is a website where visitors can enjoy the literary works of many great writers who write in English, from Shakespeare to James Herriot. Providing texts that range across a variety of types, including fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, the site is especially useful to English learners who wish to improve their reading skills.
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Site URL: http://fictionchannel.tripod.com/index.html
English Daily
Posted on Monday, November 23, 2009 | Filed under Business English, Grammar, Idioms, Listening, Reading, Slang, Speaking, TOEFL, Vocabulary, Writing
English Daily is a free website that offers a wide range of ESL study materials. Besides free lessons and exercises, there are other resources such as downloadable audio clips, high school essay samples, and practical learning tips, all of which are useful to ESL students who would like to improve their English.
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Site URL: http://www.englishdaily626.com/
Daily Grammar
Posted on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 | Filed under Grammar, Writing
Daily Grammar offers free English grammar lessons that have been designed to help English learners at all levels master English grammar and improve their skill of writing in English. Covering important grammar and writing topics, the lessons are followed by self-test quizzes for students to check their understanding right after finishing the theory section.
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Site URL: http://www.dailygrammar.com/index.shtml
Podcasts from The Denver Post
Posted on Saturday, October 31, 2009 | Filed under Business English, Listening
The Denver Post, one of the best-known newspapers in the United States, provides free daily podcasts that summarize events in Denver, Colorado, where the paper is published, as well as national and world news. Besides, there are feature podcasts on music and the theater, plus a video podcast on sports, all of which are free to download and should be useful to any student of American English.
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Site URL: http://podcasts.denverpost.com/
English The International Language
Posted on Monday, October 26, 2009 | Filed under Grammar, Idioms, Listening, Reading, Speaking, Study Skills, Teaching English
English The International Language is a good source of free learning and teaching materials for students and teachers of English as a Second Language. Besides free lessons and exercises on a variety of essential ESL topics, this site boasts a unique Idiom Buster, which tests students' knowledge of 20 random English idioms each time it loads.
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Site URL: http://www.english-the-international-language.com/index.htm
Free TOEIC Practice Tests from TestDEN.com
Posted on Friday, October 23, 2009 | Filed under Listening, Reading, TOEIC
Besides the free TOEFL practice tests, TestDEN.com has free TOEIC practice tests that will be useful for any students who are preparing to take the TOEIC. Offered as interactive, Internet-based simulation tests, these great preparation materials will familiarize TOEIC candidates with the exam and reveal any weaknesses they may have in their test-taking skills that need to be taken care of before entering the exam room.
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Site URL: http://www.testden.com/challenge/free-toeic.asp
Free TOEFL Practice Tests from TestDEN.com
Posted on Monday, October 19, 2009 | Filed under Listening, Reading, Speaking, TOEFL, Writing
TestDEN.com offers free TOEFL sample tests for students who are preparing to take the TOEFL iBT. Available to be taken online, each of these interactive simulation tests takes students through all the four sections of the TOEFL iBT and gives them an idea of how well they would perform on the actual test.
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Site URL: http://www.testden.com/challenge/free-toefl.asp
BusinessEnglishSite.com: Business English Vocabulary and Grammar Exercises for ESL Students
Posted on Saturday, October 17, 2009 | Filed under Business English, English for Special Purposes, Grammar, Listening, Pronunciation, Vocabulary
BusinessEnglishSite.com provides free business English exercises for ESL students at intermediate and advanced levels. Focusing on a wide range of business topics, the exercises will help learners use business English correctly, both in terms of vocabulary and grammar, for everyday communication purposes, as well as improve their skill of understanding business conversations.
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Site URL: http://www.businessenglishsite.com/index.html
The English Learner Website
Posted on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 | Filed under Grammar, Idioms
Designed primarily for beginning students, The English Learner Website contains a useful selection of English learning resources, among which are free tests on English grammar and free lessons on commonly used English idioms.
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Site URL: http://www.angelfire.com/on/topfen/index.html
English Grammar: Explanations and Exercises
Posted on Sunday, September 20, 2009 | Filed under Grammar
English Grammar: Explanations and Exercises by Mary Ansell is an excellent English grammar reference book available for free use online by students of English at all levels. The book covers all essential points of English grammar and provides useful practice exercises designed to help students test their understanding after each lesson.
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Site URL: http://members.fortunecity.com/leanora/gramdex.html
Beginning English for Somali Speakers
Posted on Monday, September 07, 2009 | Filed under Grammar, Pronunciation, Vocabulary
Beginning English for Somali Speakers, written by M. Ansell and translated by S. Shabaab and K. Einte, is a bilingual ESL textbook for Somali learners of English. It is available for free use online and can serve well both as a self-study book and as a source of supplementary classroom materials for ESL teachers.
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Site URL: http://members.fortunecity.com/leanora/somindex.html
Caroline Brown's English Listening Exercises
Posted on Sunday, July 19, 2009 | Filed under Culture, Listening, Vocabulary
Caroline Brown's English listening lessons, which are provided free of charge at one of her websites, can be a great help to English students who need more practice in listening to English. The lessons revolve around a number of culturally important topics and enable students to extend their understanding of British life while developing their listening skills.
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Site URL: http://www.carolinebrownlisteninglessons.com/
Learn American English Online
Posted on Friday, July 17, 2009 | Filed under Grammar, Idioms, Listening, Slang, Vocabulary
Learn American English Online offers free English grammar lessons for ESL students from beginner's to advanced level. If you would prefer to listen to the teacher, Paul Lawrence, explaining the grammar rules, check out his video lessons, which are also free. Besides grammar, the site has many other easy-to-understand, fully illustrated lessons on American English vocabulary and idioms.
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Site URL: http://www.learnamericanenglishonline.com/index.html
Free Vocabulary Builder for GRE, GMAT, and SAT from SoundKeepers.com
Posted on Wednesday, July 15, 2009 | Filed under GMAT, GRE, SAT, Vocabulary
If you are preparing to take the GRE, GMAT, or SAT, it would be worth your while to visit SoundKeepers.com, a free site that provides printable vocabulary lists and excellent companion vocabulary building tools specially designed for candidates of these exams.
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Site URL: http://www.soundkeepers.com/go/16/
Whoohoo.co.uk: The British Dialect Translator
Posted on Monday, July 13, 2009 | Filed under Slang
Whoohoo.co.uk is a free online translating machine that can automatically convert normal English text into a wide range of British dialects, from Cockney Rhyming Slang to the Scottish dialect. While the translation is mainly for fun and not 100% accurate, this is an interesting way for English learners to compare standard British English with British slang as well as to get a feel of how people in different parts of Britain speak English in their everyday life.
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Site URL: http://www.whoohoo.co.uk/
ESLpodTV: ESL Video and Audio Podcasts
Posted on Monday, May 25, 2009 | Filed under Grammar, Listening, Reading, Teaching English
ESLpodTV provides free video and audio podcasts that ESL students can download and use to improve their English in a fun, enjoyable way. The podcasts are accompanied by interactive exercises which give students further practice in essential language skills. PDF lesson plans are available for many of the podcasts, making them ideal for use as teaching materials in ESL classrooms.
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Site URL: http://kibishipaul.com/blog1
Free TOEFL Preparation Materials from MyToeflSuccess.com
Posted on Friday, May 22, 2009 | Filed under Study Skills, TOEFL, Writing
MyToeflSuccess.com is a good, free source of TOEFL preparation materials that TOEFL test-takers would not want to miss. Among the numerous resources offered, visitors to the site will find useful information on the TOEFL test (TOEFL iBT, TOEFL CBT, TOEFL PBT), a selection of sample TOEFL questions, and many practical TOEFL study tips.
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Site URL: http://www.mytoeflsuccess.com/
Practical Hints for Better Writing
Posted on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 | Filed under Writing
The fourth edition of The Write Stuff: Writing Across the Curriculum, published internally by Collin County Community College District (CCCCD), contains an excellent appendix of practical guides to writing in English, all of which can be accessed for free at its website. Entitled Practical Hints for Better Writing, this great section of the publication offers a handy collection of essential writing tips that will be useful to both university students and learners of English as a second language.
Prepared by writing professors at Collin College, these guides will help students improve their writing skills by learning:
Site URL: http://iws.ccccd.edu/WriteStuff/appendix.html
English Pronunciation Pod
Posted on Monday, May 18, 2009 | Filed under Listening, Pronunciation
English Pronunciation Pod is a website that provides free American English pronunciation and accent reduction lessons for English learners at all levels. The lessons are prepared by accent reduction specialist Charles Becker and offered in the form of MP3 podcasts that can be easily downloaded to any portable devices.
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Site URL: http://www.englishpronunciationpod.com/index.html
Free Online English Dictionary with Multi-Lingual Search at AllWords.com
Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009 | Filed under Dictionaries, Vocabulary
AllWords.com provides a free online English dictionary with translation capabilities for English learners at all levels. The dictionary is especially useful to ESL learners those who speak Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Spanish as their first language.
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Site URL: http://www.allwords.com/
