ESOL/ESL
Websites | Research

Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in the United States
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_53.htm
Immigrants who arrived in the United States after 1995 are culturally assimilating more rapidly than their predecessors, according to a new study, sponsored by the Manhattan Institute, but their English language acquisition may lag behind.

EL/Civics Online
http://www.elcivicsonline.org/
EL/Civics Online is a unique professional development opportunity for ESL instructors and volunteers who wish to incorporate EL/Civics content into their adult ESL classrooms.

MLoTS
http://www.mlots.org
The Media Library of Teaching Skills for adult learning and literacy project is intended to be a large, online digital library of short (under 10 minute) videos of adult education teachers and their classes. Each video will be an example of a state-approved content standard, research-based practice, preferred approach, or specific teaching method or skill. In some cases these will be examples in practice of a particular state's approved curriculum frameworks or content standards. The project began in March, 2007, and is expected to grow as new videos are added to the library.

ESL Resources from Seminole Community College
http://www.scc-fl.edu/adulted/els/

Web Resources (http://www.scc-fl.edu/adulted/els/web_resources/) A list of web sites that provide students with opportunities to practice English skills. Also there are web resources providing students with English practice on work and life skills based on Florida Adult ESOL Frameworks.

Next Step After ESOL (http://www.scc-fl.edu/adulted/els/nextstep.htm)
Resources to help transition from the ESOL program to other educational programs, such as EAP, college credit, vocational, career programs

P E T T Projects - Practice English Tutorials and Tests (http://www.scc.fl.edu/adulted/els/pett) A set of FREE online tools that have been developed by SCC's English Language Studies department to help ESOL students become more comfortable with the listening and reading skills used in functional English assessments.


Citizenship and Civics

U.S. Civics and Citizenship Online
http://tinyurl.com/3ab6aa
Its purpose is to provide a quick and easy path to resources to help instructors prepare students for naturalization and to incorporate civics into ESL instruction. U.S. Civics and Citizenship Online provides links to curricula, lesson plans, teacher assessments, and other instructional material on citizenship and civics.

WelcometoUSA.gov
http://www.welcometousa.gov
Comprehensive list of resources to help immigrants and refugees integrate into life in America. Includes an ESL course locator (http://www.literacydirectory.org/).

Learn About the United States: Quick Civics Lessons
http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/M-638.pdf
A self-study guide for immigrants preparing for the citizenship test. Includes brief, easy-to-follow lessons on U.S. government and history for those that want to go further in their studies.

Civics Flash Cards
http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/M-623.pdf
Colorful, user-friendly study flash cards for immigrants preparing for the citizenship test.

Ben's Guide to U.S. Government
http://bensguide.gpo.gov/9-12/index.html
Although slated as for 9-12th grade and it's cutsey look, the info presented is perfect for those interested in the history of U.S. Government.

Citizenship Lessons
http://aenet.esuhsd.org/Citizenship_lessons/beginning_level.html

US Citizenship and Immigration Services
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis

Citizenship Questions
https://www.casas.org/home/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.showContent&MapID=86
This site provides a listing of citizenship test prep questions

The Naturalization Self-Test On-Line
http://www.us-immigration-attorney.com/Citizenship/citizenship2.htm

US Citizenship Test
http://www.herald-sun.com/votebook/citizenship/citstart.html

US Constitution Online - Citizenship
http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_citi.html

Breaking News English Daily
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/
As the news breaks, teach it - this is the future of English Language teaching. Your FREE ESL lessons include full Teacher's Notes, Student Handouts and Texts, Warm Ups & Cool Downs, Pre-Reading Ideas, While-Reading Activities, Post-Reading Fluency Ideas, Homework, Internet links and more. A complete current affairs lessons resource. Please tailor, evaluate, test and enjoy them in class ... and then come back for more tomorrow. ESL lessons that will never run dry!

Facing History
http://www.facinghistory.org

Interesting Things for ESOL Students
http://www.manythings.org

ESOL Webquests
http://www.call-esl.com/samplewebquests/webquestcontents_htm.htm

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/games/index.html
http://www.vocabulary.co.il/


The English Maze

http://www.englishmaze.com
The English Maze (www.englishmaze.com) is a web-based learning system for ESL students, teachers and schools worldwide. It combines leading language learning theories with cutting edge technology to bring users a unique approach to learning English. With the English Maze, students can improve their pronunciation, speaking, reading, listening and writing skills. The site contains hundreds of hours of material, much of which is free. There is a small charge for other sections of the website. Comprehensive free lesson plans are also provided for ESL teachers.
Definitely worth a look.




Activities for ESL Students

http://a4esl.org
This site has over 1,000 activities to help you study ESL.

Internet Picture Dictionary
http://pdictionary.com/
Flaschards, Fill in the blanks, Word Scramble, Stinky Spelling

ABC Teach
http://www.abcteach.com/
Free printables for home and classroom

English to Go
http://www.english-to-go.com/

Photocopiable lessons from Reuters News Stories

One Stop English
http://www.onestopenglish.com/
Free Resources: -100s of prepared lessons for you to photocopy from the Macmillan courses. Games interactive learner games for classroom use Guided Reader worksheets

Everything ESL
http://www.everythingesl.net/
Featuring 44 lesson plans, 28 teaching tips, 146 downloadable classroom activities, 394 discussion topics, and 55 resource picks

1-Language Online ESL Center
Free, comprehensive ESL site including forums, realtime chat, grammar, writing, interactive quizzes and games, flashcards, audio materials, helplines, mulitlingual content ~ and nuch more!

  ESL Lounge - contributed by Mabel Magarinos, OCPS
Description: Free and printable material for TEFL and TESOL teachers. Grammar, reading comprehension, worksheets.
It is divided by levels. The worksheets are very useful and the pair work activities are good for communicative practice for the students.

Adult ESL Reading Research Bibliography
the bibliography presents a comprehensive review of the research that has been conducted on reading development among adult English language learners in the United States in the last 20 years. Annotations detail the types of studies (experimental, descriptive, practitioner research, or theoretical article), target population characteristics, settings, findings, and implications for practice. The annotations can be easily accessed by topical keywords or by type of research study.

* Adult ESOL Lesson Plans - Lesson Plans for Adult ESOL were written by classroom teachers in Palm Beach County over the past three years. Although originally designed as curriculum resource books, they have been converted to a web based format to provide easy accessibility to teachers throughout Florida and beyond.

Florida Adult ESOL Homepage - Here is the link to ESOL lesson plans and other valuable information. This website was developed by the ESOL Practitioners' Task Force Committee.

AN ESOL Toolkit for teachers - A FREE kit filled with tools to enhance your English language and civics education.

Brookhaven National Laboratory - Welcome to English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. What is ESOL?   ESOL exists under the auspices of the Quality of Life program in Staff Services at BNL.

Center for Applied Linguistics - The Basic English Skills Test (BEST), developed by CAL language testing professionals, is a unique measurement tool designed for adult ESL learners at the survival and pre-employment skills level.

Center for Innovations in Technology - CISE houses a lending library collection in the area of ESOL including books, videotapes, and other materials in assessment, interventions, teacher training, multicultural literature, and cultural diversity/awareness.

Dave's ESL Cafe - The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World.

English as 2nd Language - Complete ESL/EFL sites covering almost every aspect of learning English as a Second Language; Chat, grammar, quizzes, idioms and much more.  Sites typically include in-depth resources for each of the areas included:  Grammar, Listening, Communication and Teacher's Help.

ESL Loop - ESLoop is a collection of sites relevant to English Language Teaching and Learning on the World-Wide Web.  ESLoop began in 1996 as a way to offer teachers and students of English a way to browse the Internet for resources specific to English language teaching and learning.

ESOL Connections - General Esol Resources.

ESOL Resources For ALL - A Resource for students, parents and teachers of English as a Second Language to help locate the resources you need on the web.  These include Journals and Lessons, Translation and Fun Places to Visit.

ESOL Requirements A web page with a chart that specifies the timelines for ESOL training requirements according to teaching.

A Guide for ESOL Teachers and Administrators - Language arts through ESOL.

Harnessing Technology to Serve Adult Literacy - The Harnessing Technology Web pages help adult literacy education (ABE/GED/ESL/ESOL) teachers and learners to use computers, television, audio and video cassettes, and other electronic technology to help solve learning and instructional problems

Learn idioms and phrasal verbs, take quizzes in history, grammar and culture - This is part of Dave's ESL Cafe. Select the links at the bottom of the page to view the different areas of interest.

Links of Interest to Students & Teachers of English as a Second Language - Links of Interest to Students & Teachers of English as a Second Language

National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education (NCLE) - The National Center for ESL Literacy Education (NCLE), the only national information center focusing on the language and literacy education of adults and out-of-school youth learning English, works to support those providing such services.

National LINCS - LINCS is the literacy community's gateway to the world of adult education and literacy resources on the Internet.  The goal of LINCS is to bring adult literacy-related resources and expertise to a single point of access for users throughout the world.

A National Labsite for Adult ESOL - The Lab School is a national state-of-the-art research center engaged in classroom-based research and professional development in adult ESOL.

NCLE ERIC Digests

NCLE has published concise overviews on topics in the following areas:

  • What Works: ESL Methods and Approaches
  • Improving Language Skills
  • Assessment and Evaluation
  • Technology in Adult ESL
  • Family and Intergenerational ESL Literacy
  • Language and Culture
  • Specific Populations
  • Background and Policy Issues
  • Staff Development
  • Program Design
  • Workplace and Vocational ESL

Multilingual Picture Dictionary - The ESL students of Bangor Adult and Community Education would like to help other people by providing this resource for anyone interested in English and other languages.

Randall’s ESL Cyber-Listening lab
http://www.esl-lab.com/index.htm
This multi-media site includes dozens of audio and video stories that offer students vocabulary development and reading comprehension quizzes as well as key vocabulary word definitions and quiz assessment.

Self- Study Quizzes for ESOL Students - Self-Study quizzes for ESL Students including vocabulary, grammar, idioms and much more.

Teaching Tips and Theory of Language Instruction - The ESL Startup Kit is not solely a collection of teaching tips and activities. In this kit, we have tried to synthesize much of the theory of language instruction so that teachers have an accessible introduction to valuable theory that may enrich their practice.

TESOL Publications - Many different publications to choose from.

The Internet TESL Journal - For Teachers of English as a Second Language.  Articles, Research Papers, Lessons Plans, Classroom Handouts, Teaching Ideas & Links.  This is a monthly web journal.

Tips for Tat ESOL Newsletter - Training for all teachers newsletter.

Research Articles

Language Learning & Technology
http://llt.msu.edu/

How Well Are ESL Teachers Being Prepared to Integrate Technology in Their Classrooms?
http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej36/a1.html
This article reports on the experiences of language teachers with their teacher preparation in the use of learning technologies in Puerto Rico. Three focus group interviews were held with 28 pre-service teachers; 9 in-service teachers were interviewed, and a post focus group interview was held with student teachers after they completed their field teaching experience.

The following themes emerged during the analysis of the qualitative data: (a) Course Content must be more than learning to use a program or machine in order for a teacher to be prepared to integrate technology in the classroom; (b) Modeling technology use by teacher educators and cooperating teachers instructs by example, (c) Self-acquisition of technology skills needs to be supplemented by formal training for teachers to acquire the technology skills they need; (d) Access and exposure to technology and Internet needs to be expanded; (e) Practical integration of technology in language teaching requires hands-on-experience throughout the teacher preparation program.

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THE EFFECT OF COMPUTERS ON THE TEST AND INTER-RATER RELIABILITY OF WRITING TESTS OF ESL LEARNERS
http://www.tojet.net/articles/519.htm
This research aimed to investigate the effect of computers on the test and inter-rater reliability of writing test scores of ESL learners. Writing samples of 20 pen-paper and 20 computer group students were scored in analytic scoring method by two scorers, and then the scores were analyzed in Alpha (Cronbach) model. The results showed that the test and inter-rater reliability of the writing samples of the computer group students were significantly higher than the ones of the pen-paper group participants.

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DISCOURSE AND PARTICIPATION IN ESL FACE-TO-FACE AND WRITTEN ELECTRONIC CONFERENCES
http://llt.msu.edu/vol10num1/pdf/fitze.pdf
This study was a comparative investigation of face-to-face and written electronic conferences.
The participants were advanced English as a second language (hereafter: ESL) students. The two
types of conferences were compared in terms of textual features and participation. There was no
statistically significant difference in the total number of words that students produced in an
equivalent amount of time in the two types of conferences. The discourse in written electronic
conferences displayed greater lexical range, and students in these conferences produced more
discourse demonstrating interactive competence. The statistically significant finding of increased
lexical range in written electronic conferences persisted even when the interactive discourse was
eliminated from the conference transcripts and the transcripts were reanalyzed. This finding
suggests that, during written electronic conferences, students were better able to use and practice
a wider range of vocabulary related to the topics. For one of the groups, participation in written
electronic conferences was more balanced among students, while for the other group participation
was about equally balanced regardless of the conference setting. This last finding came as a
surprise and points to a need for further research into variables that might mediate balanced
participation in face-to-face and written electronic conferences.

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ON THE NET - First, You Have to Hear It! ESL Oral Language Practice
http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num3/net/default.html
Oral language development needs two essential elements in order to be maximally realized: comprehensible input (CI) and social interaction (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005). The language learning environment, be it a classroom or other venue, should be structured to include CI as well as encourage the aforementioned two-way communication qua social interaction. In this column, we examine two sites that provide CI for English language learners and also make provision for subsequent two-way interchanges that allow learners to practice their oral output.

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab provides the English language learner with many audio files that offer language sound bites on numerous topics. These sound files are graded "easy," "medium," and "difficult" as a guide for the instructor and/or self-motivated learner. According to the creator of the site, Randall Davis,

"the main goal has been to try to combine pedagogically-sound content while making use of Internet technology to deliver it .... to create listening activities with pre-, listening, and post-listening activities to build content schemata, help check students' understanding while introducing new vocabulary, and then encourage speaking activities to expand on language students have learned." (personal communication, July 14, 2005)

COLLABORATIVE E-MAIL EXCHANGE FOR TEACHING SECONDARY ESL: A CASE STUDY IN HONG KONG
http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num1/greenfield/default.html
This article presents data from a qualitative case study examining secondary ESL students' attitudes toward and perceptions of a collaborative e-mail exchange between a Form 4 (10th grade) ESL class in Hong Kong and an 11th grade English class in Iowa. The exchange was based on a researcher-designed instructional model, utilizing widely accepted theories and methods for modern second language instruction: cooperative learning, communicative language learning, process writing, project-based learning, and an integrated approach.

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