The English Blog

Learn English

Here's a useful site for lower-level learners which features vocabulary flashcards in various categories with the pronunciation too.

Learning English - Guide to Free Online Resources

Christopher Salmon, who works at the University of Toulouse, has an created an excellent page of online resources.

Free TOEIC Diagnostic Test

You can take a free TOEIC diagnostic test at the MBA Center. You'll have to register first, however. The complete test takes up to two hours so make sure you won't be interrupted!

Debatepedia

Debatepedia defines itself as "the Wikipedia of debate and deliberation". Among other things, it's a very useful source of arguments for classroom debates on everything from Advertising to Zoos.

ESL and Archie Comics

For comic fans, Archie comics has a short comic strip designed for learning English. A new episode is added every three days. It comes with a podcast, which explains the story, and a learning guide with the podcast script, vocabulary explanations and comprehension questions and answers. On the main site there are also other comic strips and fun stuff to explore.

China232 Business English Podcast

Podcast aimed at intermediate to advanced students of Business English done by two Canadian brothers. They explain a lot of useful words and phrases in a fun talk show style. Free study guides are available on the website.

Heads Up English

Heads Up English  is a website devoted to providing materials for upper-level EFL learners. It's run by Chris Cotter, who teaches in Japan. Each week, he provides two original lessons based on world events - one for advanced students, and the other for upper-intermediate students. The lessons may be quickly previewed online, or they may be downloaded and printed out for classroom use and homework.

Library Survey

Click to take the library survey.

English Gateway is a new site which proposes online vocabulary topics designed for intermediate and advanced ESL learners. The vocabulary topics are based on contemporary readings written by Canadian authors and naturally expose the learners to the idiomatic language in a variety of contexts. Carefully selected exercises further reinforce the new language and develop reading and listening skills. Cultural notes are integrated into each topic. The site also features free exercises and online community.  You have to pay for the topics ($15) but there is one free sample topic available.

WordChamp

WordChamp is a free online vocabulary building and reading tool. You can use WordChamp to:

• read web pages and get translations of unknown words
  
• read text that you copy and paste into the WordChamp web reader page
• quiz yourself with customized vocabulary flashcards
• look up verb conjugations
  

One of the great features about WordChamp is that it's completely online, meaning you can use it from any computer. There is no software to download or install. Anybody can use it for the basic features, but to save vocabulary lists, hear pronunciations, or access assignments your instructor has set up, you'll need to create a free account.

WordLearner

The WordLearner website offers a range of facilities for learners and teachers, including interactive online games and exercises, mobile phone software and customisable printable materials, all of which is designed to help users expand their vocabulary in almost any language of their choice. This is one of the best resources I've come across in a while.

Visual Thesaurus

The Visual Thesaurus is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus with an innovative display that encourages exploration and learning.  To understand the power of the Visual Thesaurus, you really need to see it in action. Type in a word and give it a try!

Crosswords

There are lots of sites on the Internet which allow you to create your own crosswords. Two of the best are Discovery School's Puzzlemaker and EclipseCrossword, a downloadable program which can make interactive web pages.

Teacher's Pet

The Teacher's Pet Text Tool is a free add-on for Microsoft Word that can help you transform any text into a fun classroom activity. Developed by a teacher, here are just some of the things the tool can do: Crosswords, Flashcards, Bingo Cards, Jumbles, Gap Fill/Cloze Tests, and lots more.

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore's film about global warming is an excellent teaching resource. There is plenty of additional material relating to the film on the web but two of the most useful resources are a transcript of the whole film and a 26-page PDF study guide.

Chuala

Chuala is a free, on-line, user-created pronunciation dictionary where you can listen to a model (word or sentence), record your own version and then compare the two.

Japanese Learning English

An original method!(seen on YouTube)

Swivel

Swivel lets you explore data and share your insights with others. Swivel has data about politics, economics, weather, sports, business and more. Useful source of visual material for student presentations.

2007 Marketing Blog Project

This latest edition of the Marketing Blog Project is now finished. 34 students created their own marketing blog using Wordpress. The project home page has links to all the student blogs.

BBC Video Trial

For a limited period the BBC News website is experimenting with using Flash video embedded like this into story pages. The audio and video quality is far superior to the usual video clips available via the BBC News Player which are frankly unwatchable (for decent quality clips visit CNN). You can see the story which goes with this video on the BBC site and I've done a transcript which you can download by clicking on the following link: Download cube_house.doc
If I come across any more interesting Flash video clips from the BBC, I'll add them to The English Blog