General interest

 

Linguanet's Virtual Language Centre. Perhaps the best starting point for anyone interested in exploring language resources on the Internet. Sponsored by BECTa and the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (CILT), it has extensive information on language learning, training and professional development, research and even a discussion group and inquiry service. There are also links to over 200 other language sites.

Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (CILT). Projects, initiatives, courses, conferences, publications and research.

Computers in Teaching Initiatives (CTI) Modern Languages. Focuses on computers in language learning. A useful place to start on a search of language resources on the web.

A Language Professional¹s Guide to the World Wide Web. An online article covering all the Net basics with useful links to other sites.

Computer assisted Language Instruction Consortium.

British site on language teaching.

Technology Tip of the Month. Deborah Healy's tips are good for teachers who would like to know the basics about using email, the internet and other technologies in the classroom.

Using the Web for Learning. Good for thinking about the potential of the world wide Web for learning with practical approaches explained.

Searching for China. Linked to the site above, activities on this site are created as "models for ways to integrate the World Wide Web into classroom learning."

 

Online materials and resources for lessons

 

ESL lessons online. A collection of ready-made lessons with contributions from teachers all over the world. The lessons are not necessarily related to computers or the internet.

English-to-go. This site was once entirely free. You now have to pay a nominal fee to view the archived lessons but one lesson per week is without charge. All of the lessons are based on recent newspaper articles and include warm-up exercises, vocabulary, post-reading activities etc. There are sections on Business, Culture and the Environment. Includes sections on Environment, Science and Technology.

Lessons based on CNN. Students and teachers can find complete lessons with online quizzes and real audio and real video segments.

ESL Partyland. An outstanding non-commercial site with ready-made lessons with music, film and more. Ready to use conversation cards.

Sarah and John's Tefl Pitstop. Free lessons and materials online.

BBC bitesize GCSE revision guides. These are intended for use by students aged 11-16, and cover Biology, Chemistry, Maths, History and Geography. The language is clear, and the explanations concise. It also includes tests for self-study.

BBC World Service. From this page you will find many news links and audio clips.

BBC Learning English. This is an excellent site with vocabulary exercises related to the week's news stories, online quizzes, telephone skills, fascinating articles about language, interviews with audio clips, EAP and more.

Epicurious. A food and travel site that could be used in many ways to create a lesson. Use the search tools to find travel and food information within the site.

http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~itesls http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes. Information on use of the Internet and languages in general; quizzes on grammar and all other kinds of items to do with language teaching. Lots of materials useful for classroom work or self-study for students.

The Daily Page

Useful information/biographies on famous people

Voice of America. This site has real audio. There are hourly news reports and a special English report (read more slowly and very clearly) for EFL students.

The Onion. Humorous newspaper-style articles which can be used for classroom texts. These texts are well written, but completely untrue.

Bandersnatch. This site is similar to the Onion, but contains more difficult articles, so it is only suitable for very advanced students.

Dave's ESL Café. American site for information on grammar. A 24 hour helpdesk is available, and there are discussions and conferences on teaching English as a foreign (second) language.

Tales of Wonder. An award winning site for lovers of stories from many cultures, which may be suitable for primary teaching. Scandinavian, Irish and Central European stories are represented, as well as stories from other cultures. May be useful for primary teaching.

Let¹s Learn English. Excellent site for primary CLIL.