ESL Teaching/Learning Resources

Writing

Resources for Writing

Academic Writing

Purdue Online Writing Lab <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/> (OWL) -- special ESL section at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/678/01/; writing resources for ESL students and teachers; includes handouts with instructions and exercises for all areas of general and academic writing, including essays, grammar and mechanics, the writing process, and more

Writer's Web <http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb.html> -- from the U. of Richmond's Writing Center; includes the stages of the writing process and writing in the disciplines, e.g. sciences and social sciences, French

Charles Darling's Principles of Composition <http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/composition.htm> -- links to exercises, sample essays, explanations on The Writing Process, Structural Considerations, and Patterns of Composition

The ESOL Essayist: Writing the Five-Paragraph Essay <http://www.edb.utexas.edu/pbl/ESOL/index.htm> -- a tutorial with explanations, examples, self-tests, peer review handouts, and assessment rubrics; includes Teacher Resources (handouts in Word) with examples of scaffolding activities

SUNY Geneseo's Online Writing Guide <http://writingguide.geneseo.edu/> -- includes GENERAL ADVICE ( What is Good Writing?, Audience & Purpose, Organization, Lucidity & Simplicity, Care & Imagination, Conventions of Writing), PROCESS (Composing, Writing Essay Exams), FORM (Formal & Informal, Grammar & Usage, Common Errors, Myths), REFERENCE (Research & Writing, Writing in a Discipline, Marking Key, Other Writing Sites)

Writer's Handbook  <http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/>  (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison) - Stages of the Writing Process (Getting Started, Drafting, Revising, Proofreading), Common Types of Writing Assignments (How to write literary analyses, lab reports, etc.), Grammar and Punctuation (How to avoid common mistakes),  Improving your Writing Style (How to write more clearly and persuasively), Citing References in Your Paper (APA, MLA, CBE, plagiarism, etc.)

Five Tools For Writing Timed-Essays <http://www.spjc.edu/spjc_usf/hooks/Hooksessay.html> -- Develop skills in the use of a set of specific intellectual tools for writing timed-essays.

Writing Help on Three Levels: Sentence, Paragraphs, and Essays  <http://www2.actden.com/writ_den/tips/contents.htm> -- Good basic rules for intermediate to upper intermediate students

Adam Turner's writing resource web <http://hanyangwriting.tripod.com/> -- excellent guidelines for academic writing, letter writing, email format, TOEFL essay, resume writing, as well as grammar and citations

Web English Teacher <http://www.webenglishteacher.com/writing.html> -- Argument and Persuasive Writing, Autobiography, Biography, and Memoir Writing, Book Reports, Business Letters & Resumes, Creative Writing, Descriptive Writing, Expository Writing, Narrative Writing, Publishing Student Writing, Research and I-Search, Papers, Six Traits and 6+1 Traits Writing, Writing about Literature, Miscellaneous Writing Sites and Ideas

Elements of Style <http://www.bartleby.com/141/> -- by William Strunk, Jr.

Odd Prose <http://munshi.sonoma.edu/jamal/oddprose.html>

The ESL Study Hall <http://home.gwu.edu/~meloni/eslstudyhall> (by Christine Meloni)-- includes WRITING (Punctuation quiz, Writer's Web--online writing handbook--Writing Help for academic/business/technical/fiction/grant/online writing)

Integrating Technology Across the Curriculum:  Internet/Computer Writing Resources <http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/tesol98/home.html>

Graphic Organizers

Graphic Organizers provided by
        Education Place <http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/>
        Graphic.org <http://www.graphic.org/goindex.html>
        WriteDesignOnline.com <http://www.writedesignonline.com/organizers/> -- 5 Main Types: Star/Web, Chart/Matrix, Tree/Map, Chain, Sketch
        EdHelper.com <http://www.edhelper.com/teachers/General_graphic_organizers.htm> -- General (topic-main points - supporting points), Cause-Effect, Storytelling, Misc.

Professional Writing (resumes, cover letters, email, business letters)

CareerLab Letters <http://www.careerlab.com/letters/> - Letter writing skills for adult business professionals.

Saint Michael's College's Student Resource Center  <http://www2.smcvt.edu/src/career/services/resume/resume%20index.htm> -- Writing a Resume; Resume Example; Writing a Cover Letter; Cover Letter Examples 

Adam Turner's writing resource web <http://hanyangwriting.tripod.com/> -- includes excellent guidelines for letter writing, email format

Writing <www.careerlab.com/letters/> -- If you work with adult business professionals interested in learning more about letter writing skills, visit this site and take them WRITE along with you.

Tank 20 <http://www.tank20.com>

Writing Skills <www.careerlab.com/letters/> -- If you work with adult business professionals interested in learning more about letter writing skills, visit this site and take them WRITE along with you. Worthy of a visit. Great variety.

Online Writing Courses & Support

ESL Help Center <http://www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/wwwboard2/wwwboard.html> -- 24 hour help to ESL/EFL students from ESL/EFL teachers

Intercultural Communicative Courses Online (created and formerly run by Ruth Vilmi)

DeVry's Online Writing Support Center  <http://www.devry-phx.edu/lrnresrc/dowsc/>

University of Pittsburgh - English Language Institute <http://www.eli.pitt.edu/>

University of Maine Writing Center Online <http://www.ume.maine.edu/~wcenter/>

Spelling / Synonyms

The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus <http://www.wordsmyth.net/>

Common Errors in English <http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/index.html> -- absorbtion*; accept/except*; accidently*; adapt/adopt*; adultry*; adverse/averse; advice/advise*; affect/effect*; ain't*; altogether/all together*; allude/refer*; allusion/illusion*; alot*; alright*; altar/alter*; alternate/alternative*; alumnus/alumni*; amature*; ambiguous/ambivalent*; amount/number*; anecdote/antidote*; angel/angel*; anxious/eager*; any more*; apartheid; etc.

Literacy/Beginners

Voice tools

SpellingCity.com <http://www.spellingcity.com> -- SpellingCity is an online spelling program to help improve spelling skills; contains over 30,000 spelling words, including plurals, contractions, future and past tenses; uses a REAL human voice that says both the word and the word in a sentence; teachers and parents can enter and save their own spelling lists for their students/children; students can play games with their words or any saved lists; teachers and parents can save and share their lists; the forum allows teachers and parents to share lists and ideas

OpenBook Learning - ESL Instruction <http://openbooklearning.com/ESL-instruction.html> -- for development of sound-symbol relationship; real-life images, digital sound and voice recording, video, animation and interactive point and click screen control; includes content sensitive translation, grammar, vocabulary, video modeling, pronunciation tools, voice recording and comparison, mastery tests and skills tracking (Download:ESL Brochure here)

OpenBook Learning - English Instruction <http://openbooklearning.com/English-Instruction.html> -- text-to-speech word processor; recognizes/corrects phonemic spellings; talking spell check; grammar check;  audio can be slowed for better comprehension;  correct phoneme articulation modeled; picture and animated illustrations for target vocabulary; wide variety of recorded voices:  male, female, adult, child; tracks student progress in real time; voice-mail student instruction and motivation through the OpenBook program, accessible off-campus through OpenBook Teacher and OpenBook Homework; customizable content; student and teacher recording and playback; instant responses

WordQ & SpeakQ <http://www.wordq.com/> -- software tool used along with standard writing software. WordQ suggests words for you to use and provides spoken feedback to help you find mistakes. Users of all ages who have problems writing and editing, particularly those with learning disabilities (LD), can benefit from using WordQ.

Handwriting

Worksheet Library <http://www.worksheetlibrary.com/subjects/languagearts/handwriting/>  --  some free, downloadable worksheets, searchable by subject, grade levels, standards; worksheet for writing, e.g. cursive; sign up for a weekly free worksheet by email

Activities for Writing 
(see also Student E-mail and Web Projects below)

PIZZAZ! Creative Writing and Storytelling Ideas <http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html> -- People Interested in Zippy and ZAny Zcribbling!

Electronic greetings -- select from the following to send virtual cards to friends and teachers: 123Greetings.com, American Greetings' free e-cards, Blue Mountain's free ecards, E-cards, Postcard Gallery; some are animated!

CNN Interactive: Feedback <http://www.cnn.com/feedback/>

Biography Magazine <http://www.biography.com> -- has message boards on movie stars, historical figures, and even mythical and fictional characters, a wonderful writing supplement to a reading unit or course

Learning English on the Web <http://www.lang.uiuc.edu/r-li5/esl/> -- Online activities are broken down into listening and speaking, reading with understanding, and grammar and writing.  In addition there are some great links to other ESL/EFL sites

All Kinds of Writing <http://www.topics-mag.com/writing/writing-page.htm> -- contributed by students to Topics Online Magazine <http://www.topics-mag.com/writing/writing-page.htm > -- Ghost and Spirit Stories, Personal Narratives, Poetry, Essays, Short Stories, Dialogs 

How Stuff Works <http://www.howstuffworks.com> -- This site has explanations for how all sorts of "stuff" works from the mundane to the exotic and provides simple (and often very interesting) resource information for descriptive/process writing (Michael Robb).

Biography.com <http://www.biography.com/index.html> -- A biography is the story of somebody's life.  At this site, you can find over 20,000 short biographies of famous people!  Just type the name of the person you're looking for into the search box at the top of the page. (Click on Features to play some interesting biography games.) PROJECT: After you read a few biographies, write a biography of your friend or classmate.  First, make a list of questions to ask.  For example, you might as where he/she was born, or what their childhood was like.  Or maybe you can ask about their family or an interesting hobby they have.  After you interview him/her, write down all your information into his/her life story.  

Rivertrout.com <http://www.rivertrout.com> -- Do you write many letters? What kind of letters do you write?  Do you write about your feelings, or do you only write about things you are doing?  Do you use email to send your letters, or do you use a paper and pen?  Rivertrout.com is a beautiful site that will give ADVANCED students (or students looking for a challenge_ a chance to read some very well-written letters.  These kinds of letters are called "literary letters."  The writer is like an artist who uses the English language to paint beautiful word pictures.  They talk about feelings and ideas.  Just click on the Fin to read Letters of Hope, the Head to read Letters of Reason, or the Heart to read Letters of Passion.

EnglishSpace <http://www.englishspace.ort.org> -- Over 60 hours of interactive ESL lessons with the support of a virtual community of teachers and learners.  Within EnglishSpace, teachers moderate 'workgroups' - groups of six students who are geographically distant - and play a key role in learning support.   Activities include: sharing answers, creating questionnaires and writing projects with other members.

Going Places <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/goingplaces3/> -- Going Places is an interesting TV show.  Their web site is a great place to visit if you like to travel.  Where do you want to go? Choose one of the five travel destinations.

CRAYON: Create Your Own Newspaper <http://www.crayon.net> -- students can construct a personalized electronic newspaper, creating an opportunity to read on a regular basis

Internet Movie Database <http://www.imdb.com/> -- If you like movies, you'll love this site.  The IMDB is the biggest movie web site and has lots of great information about movies, movie stars, movie characters, and lots more!   You can use the search box to find information.  Just type in the name of a movie, or actor, or character.  You can even find movies that have a special quote or plot. PROJECT:  Choose your favorite movie or actor.  Use the search box to find information.  Write a short report about the most interesting information.  Now tell your classmates about your movie or actor, but don't tell them the name.  Can they guess what movie or actor you're talking about?

Jarek-Krajka's-writing-activities-and-resources (from Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction.  The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI, No. 11 (November 2000).  The following quotations were taken from the article.

• A Letter to a Friend -- "As an introductory activity to writing a letter to a friend, students could be asked to go to www.marlo.com/card.htm, the site where they can send free cards with animated pictures, accompanying music, etc."

• A Formal Letter -- "While teaching a formal letter, after having analysed the model, vocabulary and structures from the book during an off-line preparatory class, students could be asked to visit the site of Amnesty International (www.amnesty.org) or the World Wildlife Fund (http://www.panda.org/home.cfm). While being there, students could read about the real problems in the world around them, and specifically about abused human rights or endangered species."
• A Biography -- "sites where ... sample biographies can be found are the following: http://www.imdb.com/ (the Internet Movie Database), http://www.bham.wednet.edu/bio/biomaker.htm (biography maker homepage with links to biographies databases, guidelines on how to write a biography, etc.)"
• A Description of a Person -- "the key pal connection should be activated, and students asked to describe a person of their choice (a member of their family or some well-known person from their own country) to their key pal and ask for the same. Here, the teacher supervising the class should contact the supervisor of the other class in advance, in order to synchronise the calendar of events and perhaps adjust to the needs of the other class."
• An Arugumentative Essay (Both For and Against) -- "the Ohio University CALL Lab page with topics for study could be used (http://www.ohiou.edu/esl/project/index.html). It has a listing of the most common topics for essays."
  Notices and Advertisements -- "On-line newspapers can be useful here, such as for instance the Daily Telegraph Daily Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk)."
• A Description or Review of a Book, Film or Play -- "In case of this genre, the Internet should be used again as a source of varied, authentic, interesting and current models of reviews of books (Amazon.com, the Internet bookshop - http://www.amazon.co.uk/, films (the Internet Movie Database - www.imdb.com) or theatre plays (London Theatre guide - http://www.londontheatre.co.uk/)."
• A Newspaper Report -- "On-line newspapers are the best source of current information virtually for free. To access a central index of newspapers from all over the world, go to www.onlinenewspapers.com."
• A Personal Opinion Essay -- "the procedure of the on-line writing lesson for this genre would be similar to ... a for-and-against essay. Of course, the formal characteristics, and especially the language and structures are different from an argumentative essay, and this difference should be introduced and emphasised during the off-line lesson focusing on a model and formal features of the genre, done before going on-line."
• A Description of a Place -- "with the help of travel search engines such as www.travelnow.com or www.go.com students should browse through the results of the query for the place of their choice, read and extract the most crucial pieces of information about it."
• Creation of a student web site -- The Fast, Easy and Free way to create website (http://www.webspawner.com/create.webpage.html)

Suggested Activities for Developing Language Skills:

• http://www.astro.com/cgi-bin/atlw3/aq.cgi?lang=e
  If you or your students have no objections to bringing astrology into the classroom, students can type in their birth details and read their personal horoscope.
• http://www.fbi.gov
  Learners can read about the ten most-wanted people in the USA. Good for learning/recycling the language of physical description, and also crime vocabulary.
• http://www.visitbritain.com
  Learners can plan a trip to Britain.
• http://www.derechos.org
  A human-rights site, dealing mainly with South America. Learners can read about the history of the organization, and find about cases of current concern.
• http://www.greenpeace.org
  Students can read about cases of environmental concern worldwide, read a model letter of protest, and write their own letter of protest.
• http://www.lonelyplanet.co.uk
  Students can plan a trip to a country or countries of their choosing.
• http://uk.imdb.com (Internet Movie Database)
  Students can search the database, read reviews, look up movie show times, read and post messages on various film-related topics, and watch trailers for films.
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/
  Students can read weather forecasts for all major cities worldwide. They can compare the predictions here with those given on other weather sites (such as http://www.weather.com or http://www.cnn.com).
• http://uk.news.yahoo.com/
  Students can read up-to-date news from around the world.

Rita-Zeinstejer's-suggested-writing-activities (posted to evonline2002_webheads@yahoogroups.com on Sept. 19, 2003; reprinted with permission)

• go to an agony column (one suggested : www.teenadvice.com) and work in groups to answer letters, do editing, discuss possible solutions.

• work on biographies: do research and compare different sources.

• work on pets and the different choices in countries round the world

• compare celebrations/ festivals and produce reports.

• use sites provided by museums to work with famous paintings, comparing views/ interpretations: writing descriptions, report

• visit Disney virtually and write a letter to a friend.

Barry Bakin's Lessons with ESL Action Photos -- multimedia grammar + writing projects

The Open Diary <http://www.freeopendiary.com/> -- The Open Diary is a great site to practice your reading or writing.  A diary is a journal that you write in every day.  You can write about what you did that day, or you can write about your thoughts and feelings.  It's even a great place to write down new vocabulary or notes from class!  At this site, you can make your own diary, and write in it whenever you want.  You can make it private (only you can read it) or a public (anybody can read it) diary.  Your identity will always be completely anonymous (nobody will know who you are).  You can even make your own special design for your diary!

The Death Clock <http://www.deathclock.com>  -- The famous Death Clock will tell you the exact day that you will die.  It will even count down the seconds for you!  Just enter your birthday and sex, and the Death Clock will give you the bad news.  Check out the Dead Letter Room to read some interesting email.  PROJECT:  Of course, this site is not very scientific. The computer just subtracts your age from the average life span of a man or woman.  It doesn't ask you about your health or your lifestyle. But, IF you really could know the exact day that you would die, would you want to know that information or not?  Why or why not?  IF you knew the exact day, would you live your life differently?  If so, how would it be different?  Write a short report or have a discussion in class.

Celebrity Address List <http://www.amug.org/~scrnsrc/> -- Who's your favorite celebrity?  Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Meg Ryan?  At this site, you can find the addresses of more than 1000 celebrities!  The names are listed in alphabetical order. PROJECT: Find your favorite celebrity and write a fan letter to him/her!  Tell him/her why he/she is your favorite celebrity.  For example, you might write to Keanu Reeves, "I thought you were really great in "Speed."   Of course, if your celebrity is very popular, he/she might not actually read your letter, because they get thousands of letters every week.  But an assistant might read it, and if you ask for an autographed photo, you will probably receive one in the mail!  Read the FAQ for more tips on writing a fan letter.

Practicing handwriting  <http://www.abcteach.com/DNealian/DNealianTOC.htm> -- Practice your handwriting online.

Handwriting Resources  <http://www.love2learn.net/english/handwrit.htm>

Student E-Mail & Web Projects

E-mail and WWW Projects: collaboration on the electronic express <http://www.otan.us/webfarm/emailproject/tesol2002/projects2002.html>

Student Web Projects ("Shopping for Necessities near Saint Michael's College," "Area Restaurants Recommended by Saint Michael's College Students," and "The Most Interesting Shops in Downtown Burlington") created by Christine Bauer-Ramazani's Intensive English Program students in summer 2000 and February 2003.  See them in their original form and published by Topics--An Online Magazine for Learners of English (http://www.topics-mag.com/ ) and read my discussions of these projects: "Integrated Skills CALL Unit: Student Web Projects" in Topics Online Magazine's Teacher's Corner and on the students' web site.  The students used ALL of their skills to construct the information--speaking with NSs for the surveys and interviews they did, writing in different genres/formats--note-taking, email, description, letter, etc., lots of reading and proof-reading, and of course lots of listening to each other and to the NSs they interviewed!

Class Projects in The Teachers' Corner of Topics Online Magazine <http://www.topics-mag.com/teachers/corner.htm> -- Teachers share class projects and teaching techniques.

COOKBOOK <http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/exchange/cookbook/cookbook.html> -- Contribute/find delicious recipes from all over the world. Find out what people in other parts of the world eat

CLASS PROJECTS <http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/exchange/projects/projects.html>  -- Admire what others have done. Experience and enjoy collaborative work

International Writing Exchange (IWE) <http://www.writeit.fi/sys/> -- Ruth Vilmi's IWE offers a unique structured forum with international partners. The courses take place in the DiscussIt Moodle learning environment, and include both synchronous (Skype, chat, and webcasts) and asynchronous learning (forums and email). Learners are motivated by having culture-to-culture, person-to-person interaction. This, together with peer-to-peer and teacher feedback, improves their written and oral language skills. courses are taught in groups or to private individuals in a user-friendly environment, by local teachers and by our own DiscussIt tutors. All our DiscussIt staff are highly qualified with English as their mother tongue.

International Tandem Network <http://www.slf.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/> -- Language learning in tandem partnerships
 

Publishing Students' Work

Below are online publishers that accept and publish students' work.

InterText: The Online Fiction Magazine (http://www.intertext.com/) -- contains over 200 mainstream, science fiction and fantastic stories by contemporary authors; submit your stories at http://www.intertext.com/writersguide.html

Topics Online Magazine for Learners of English <http://www.topics-mag.com/writing/writing-page.htm > -- Learners of English as a second language consider topics of interest to them, express their ideas and opinions and illustrate their writings and drawings and photos. Interactive features include readers' responses, teachers' viewpoints, language help, polls, quizzes and interviews. The "Looking at Language" link includes a discussion of Academic Dishonesty (Cheating on exams), with photos and related idioms. Ghost and Spirit Stories, Personal Narratives, Poetry, Essays, Short Stories, Dialogs; submit your work to topics_mag@yahoo.com.

Using Online Discussions for Writing

1.  Your college's/school's network:

Ask the systems administrator for a space on the network to create a discussion group.  (For example, I used to post all of my class handouts and PowerPoint slideshows in a "Public Folder" with our class title.  It is accessible to all users on the network.  Now I put everything on my Web site under Course Materials.)  Give your students directions (handout) on how to navigate to the space.  Have them practice with the genre of "reactions", which involve summarizing and critical thinking, with personal and other examples as support.  Start a "thread" by posting the topic and a prompt.  Give the students a topic once/twice a week to post a reaction to.  Have the students read each other's comments and post a reaction to them (2-3).  Give them instructions on how to comment/react politely--culturally appropriate phrasing of agreement/disagreement, etc. 

You will need to consider the following factors: What level of accuracy?  Drafting and revising before posting? Spontaneous responses vs. well-thought-out responses?  (Probably finding a happy medium for these is a good guideline.)

2.  Web-based discussion groups

Subscribe yourself to the following free web-based "course management tools" and try them out.  All of these offer discussion or message boards.  Several incorporate features that allow you to teach a whole class online, providing file-sharing, links-sharing, a calendar, voice chat, and more.  There are more free providers, but I've had the best experience with the ones below, in this order.

• Yahoo!Groups at http://groups.yahoo.com/ (free, unlimited)

• Nicenet at http://www.nicenet.org/ (free, unlimited)

Yahoo!Groups has the big advantage that it gives the user the option to have postings sent out as email messages also.  In other words, students don't have to log in each time to read new postings and react to them.  They can do it right from their email manager.  To hold a threaded discussion, follow the same instructions as in 1. above.

Englishforum <http://www.englishforum.com> -- Comprehensive web portal with a wealth of resources for students and teachers of English (ESL/EFL). Interactive Exercises, Message Boards, ELT Book Catalogue, Good School Guide, Web Directory, World News, Learning and Teaching Links, Cool Tools, and more ...

Back to Christine's Links to Useful TESL/CALL Web Sites
Last Updated: May 07, 2008
Christine Bauer-Ramazani.  All rights reserved.  This site may not be mirrored.