Resources-ESL

English as a Second Language (ESL)

Activities for ESL Students
This project of The Internet TESL Journal contains quizzes, tests, exercises and puzzles.
Cyberstep
The Cyberstep Project was a multi-year effort to provide distance learning resources for adult basic learners and adult educators. The project was funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and was completed in 2002. From Cyberstep's Web page you can link to English for All--a free Web-based multimedia system for adults learning English as a second language--and other Cyberstep projects.
Developing Phonemic Awareness: Resources (pdf)
Resource handout from workshop presented at Denver/Metro Mini Conference, Feb. 2006. The workshop introduced strategies and techniques to develop better phonological abilities and sound discrimination for ESL students to help them become more fluent and more literate.
Effective Instruction for Adult ESL Literacy Students: Findings From the What Works Study (pdf)
The study was designed to discover the factors that help ESL students develop their reading and communication skills. This summary of the study's findings is by Larry Condelli, American Institutes for Research. See also A Conversation with FOB...What Works for Adult ESL Students, a Focus on Basics interview with Heide Spruck Wrigley, Content Specialist on the What Works Study.
English Learner Movie Guides
Each individual guide is a detailed synopsis of a popular movie that consists of the following: a summary of the plot, a list of the major characters, an extensive glossary of vocabulary and various cultural references, questions for ESL class discussion.
ESL New Teacher Resource Guide
Developed by the California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project (CALPRO)designed to introduce the most important aspects of teaching adult ESL. For California programs, but much of the information is relevant regardless of location.
The Internet Picture Dictionary
The Internet TESL Journal for Teachers of ESL
A monthly web journal containing articles, research papers, lessons plans, classroom handouts, teaching ideas and links.
Listening and Speaking Activities for Adult ESL Learners: Correlated to the BEST Plus Assessment and CASAS Listening Basic Skills Content Standards (pdf)
Colorado Department of Education, Adult Education and Family Literacy, Regional Assessment Trainings, 2007.
This booklet contains 56 listening and speaking activities for use with adult ESL learners. The activities are organized according to the three scoring components of the BEST Plus assessment – Listening Comprehension, Language Complexity, and Communication. The activities are also correlated to the CASAS Listening Basic Skills Content Standards. Each activity in the booklet identifies the real-world purpose, the communication task, and a description of teacher preparation and classroom implementation.
Making It Real: Teaching Pre-literate Adult Refugee Students (pdf)
Effective practices for teaching preliterate adult refugees and techniques and activities that support these practices. It is divided into sections on teaching speaking and listening skills and reading and writing skills. Includes a checklist of language competencies that learners who are new to the language need to know, a section on teaching multi-level groups, and information on resources that teachers and service providers can use.
Making Second Language Acquisition Principles Come Alive in the Adult ESL Classroom (pdf)
Colorado Department of Education, 2007.
Out of Your Seats!: Interactive Games for the Adult ESOL Classroom (pdf)
Out of Your Seats! provides the ESL teacher with descriptions of seven basic “routines” for getting adult learners up out of their seats to practice English in interactive communication. The seven “routines” are: miming, line ups, races, cocktail parties, round robins, catching games and voting with your feet. Each routine in the booklet includes a summary of its primary use, a basic step-by-step procedure, facilitation tips, and suggestions for adapting the routine to multi-level instruction. More than 40 applications for the seven routines are described in the booklet.
Picture-Based Activities for English Language Learning (pdf)
Presented at CoTESOL Conference, November 2-3, 2007.
This booklet contains 30 language learning activities using magazine pictures. The activities are organized by language skill – listening, vocabulary development, grammar practice, reading, writing, fluency and critical thinking. Tips are provided for how to obtain pictures and prepare them for classroom use, how to organize picture files, and ways to incorporate picture activities into a lesson plan. Notes about using picture activities with pre-literate learners, in multi-level instruction, and as preparation for picture-based adult ESL assessments are included.
Practitioner Toolkit: Working With Adult English Language Learners
Provides a variety of materials to help practitioners begin to meet the language and literacy development needs of the ELL students they serve through the following components: responses to Frequently Asked Questions; a first-day orientation guide; lesson plans; and research-to-practice papers on critical topics. The Toolkit is a collaborative effort of the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) and the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL).
Project Connect
Project CONNECT is a web site where adults enrolled in adult education classes can practice their English skills and learn about working, studying and living in the United States-all online using a computer with reading, writing, audio, video, Internet and e-mail activities. Teachers can set up online class groups, send and receive e-mail with their classes and review student work. Project CONNECT is password-protected; users must register using an access code to use this site. Teachers will also need an additional code to be grouped with their learners. Access and teacher's codes are available with the purchase of a license from KET, but you don't have to register to view a sample lesson or take an online tour of the web site.
Recommended Textbooks for Use in the Adult ESL Classroom (pdf)
A list compiled based on Colorado adult educators' recommendations for the FY05 ESL Supplemental Textbook Grant project.
Teaching Reading to Adult English Language Learners (pdf)
Teaching Reading to Adult English Language Learners: A Reading Instruction Staff Development Program was developed with a federal English Literacy and Civics Education grant from the Office of Adult Education and Literacy of the Virginia Department of Education. The purpose of this project was to develop and field-test a series of staff development workshops to support instructors of adult English language learners in constructing an understanding of the foundations of reading in a second language and appropriate reading instruction for adult second language learners. This workshop series is based on a review of the research literature on reading development among adult English language learners in the United States (Burt, Peyton, & Adams, 2003). The workshops can be tailored for instructors of low-level learners, advanced learners, and mixed levels of learners.
Tools for ESL Lesson Planning (pdf)
ESL and Citizenship Programs, Division of Adult and Career Education, Los Angeles Unified School District, 2004 (revised)
The materials in this book were designed for both novice and experienced adult ESL teacher. They were written and field tested by over 30 adult ESL teachers from the Los Angeles Unified School District. Includes techniques and activities that are supported by different language acquisition theories: language as behavior-based, language as transaction-based, or language as structure-based. Several different methodologies are also represented, including the audio-lingual method, the communicative method and the natural approach.
Understanding Adult ESL Content Standards
Sarah Young, Center for Adult English Language Acquisition; Cristine Smith, National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy, CAELA Brief, September 2006
VOA (Voice of America) Special English
The Special English Web site can be used as a tool to practice and improve American English. VOA Special English radio programs are broadcast every day of the year on the VOA network. Each broadcast starts with world news, followed by a short feature report and a 15 minute feature. Radio scripts from feature programs and the matching audio file of the text are available on the site, as well as RealAudio and MP3 downloadable audio files. Special English has a core vocabulary of 1500 words. It uses short, simple sentences that contain only one idea, in the active voice without idioms. Special English broadcasters read at a slower pace, about two-thirds the speed of standard English.