English Language Acquisition (ELA): Learning English - Websites

Posted on Educational Technology and Mobile Learning website on 06/05/16.

Posted on 09/02/15 on Educational Technology and Mobile Learning site.

Compiled and reviewed by Med Kharbach, the founder and editor of Educational Technology and Mobile Learning.

By Nik Peachey of PeacheyPublications.com

Posted by Richard Byrne on 09/11/15 on his Free Technology for Teachers blog.

"22frames.com is providing a central place to easily and reliably discover captioned and subtitled videos across multiple video hosts. In turn, an additionally important goal is to drive significant traffic to caption and subtitle friendly video hosts and creators." Helpful for ESL students.

From the Open Education Database (oedb.org).

From ExpertEditor.com

From the California Distance Learning Project to help build reading and life skills.

Vocabulary from the news, stories and more. Choose the language you want to learn in - there's a menu in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Selected and reviewed by Larry Ferlazzo.

From ESL instructor Larry Ferlazzo.

News stories in various ESL reading levels. Also contains lesson plans and activities.

Some apps are for Apple devices, some for Android devices and some for use on the computer. From Cambridge University Press.

"COMMONLIT is a collection of poems, short stories, news articles, historical documents, and literature for classrooms." Organized by themes.

"This website features the entire Connect with English [video] series, practice activities that complement the series, and recommended resources. Watch Connect with English, and complete the practice activities to help you understand the story." Funded by Annenberg Media and produced by WGBH Boston.

"Digital Dialects features free to use games for learning 80 languages+. Within are games for learning phrases, numbers, vocabulary, spelling, verb conjugation and alphabets. This website runs best with Macromedia Flash Player."

"Dreamreader.net is a website created by two EFL instructors with over 20 years of combined experience in the field of language education."

See pictures and hear sound files of everything from tools to animals, office supplies to fruit.

"Learn English for free with 545 video lessons by experienced native-speaker teachers. New classes are added three times a week, covering grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, TOEFL, and more. Join over ten million ESL students worldwide who are improving their English every day with engVid."

Game for learning English from 1-Language.com

Practice your vocabulary and help feed the hungry! This site offers you the chance to learn and practice vocabulary words, whether you are a native speaker or just learning English. For every word you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice to feed hungry people around the world.

"GrammarFlip is an interactive, online resource aimed at helping students of all abilities learn, practice, and master English grammar concepts." Free registration.

Free English grammar lessons and tests.

"This is a handbook covering grammar, punctuation, and mechanics, as well as citation information (including the MLA 8 update). Practice activities are embedded in the pages of text, as well as in separate pages that can be used for in-class activities if desired." Co-authored by Alexis McMillan-Clifton.

"Hemingway makes your writing bold and clear. It's like a spellchecker, but for style. It makes sure that your reader will focus on your message, not your prose. Too often, our words are like our thoughts — innumerable and disorganized. Almost any bit of writing could use some cutting. Less is more, etc. So, the Hemingway Editor will highlight (in yellow and red) where your writing is too dense. Try removing needless words or splitting the sentence into two." It will also give the readability score.

"The English expression community for experts and students."

Links to articles on how to reduce your accent. Check out the other links on the page for information on English grammar and improving writing skills.

Test your listening skills by watching a movie trailer and then answering questions.

Links to many enjoyable sites teaching phonics and other language skills.

A dictionary with pictures! Learn English, French, German, Spanish, or Italian words.

Offers multiple languages, pictures and sound files.

A site with pictures and sound files. Choose your native language, and then the language you want to learn.

Overview and review of online sources by Seth Kershner. From the 02/2013 issue of "College & Research Libraries News", pages 96-99.

Learn languages online. Select your native language from a drop-down menu and then it shows a list of available languages to learn.

Matching game for learning English from 1-Language.com

One of the best online English dictionaries for ESL students.

"Newsela automatically gives each student the version of an article that's just right for his or her reading ability. And an easier or harder version of each article is just a click away."

"A free online Talking English Pronunciation Dictionary - simply mouse over your entry to hear it pronounced. American and British spellings, with alternative pronunciations. Sounds are fast, clear and completely natural, pre-recorded by native speakers."

From the non-profit Literacy Center Education Network.

"Up until now, searching several websites was necessary to find relevant information: search engines, social networks, shopping websites, etc." Can easily switch to searching in other languages besides English.

Listening exercises - easy, medium, and difficult. With questions to test your understanding.

From GCF's LearnFree.org website. Includes videos of the 1,000 most commonly used words in English.

"The non-profit ReadWorks is committed to solving the nation's reading comprehension crisis by giving teachers the research-proven tools and support they need to improve the academic achievement of their students. ReadWorks provides research-based units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages directly to educators online, for free, to be shared broadly."

"Rewordify.com is powerful, free, online reading comprehension software. It helps people understand difficult English faster, and helps them learn words in new ways."

"A site for ESL, TESL, EFL, TEFL, TOEFL, grammar and vocabulary practice."

From the BBC. Includes reading, writing, spelling, grammar, listening and speaking activities.

"The daily news sites for kids, tweens and teens – where you'll find the most compelling, relevant and interesting news". Stories are available in different Lexile reading levels.

From Educational Technology and Mobile Learning.

"Links of Interest to Students & Teachers of English as a Second Language." Maintained by The Internet TESL Journal.

From ProLogo Publishers.

Covers biology, transportation, anatomy, musical instruments and clothing with words in English, Spanish and French.

Online graphical dictionary.

"Welcome to Vocabulary.com, the quickest, most intelligent way to improve your vocabulary. Regardless of your education level or age, Vocabulary.com will help you to master the words that are essential to academic and business success."