Lesson Plans/Activities

Adult Education ESL Teacher's Guide. Although designed for adults, the lessons and activities provided at this site can be adapted for secondary school students. Features include: Beginning ESL Lessons and Accompanying Teacher Training Modules; Intermediate ESL Lessons and Accompanying Teacher Training Modules; and Teaching Non-Literate Adults. All materials and worksheets are provided.

CNN Newsroom & Worldview for ESL. Grammar, vocabulary, and discussion questions for ESL students to be used in conjunction with the CNN Newsroom television program produced by Turner Educational Services Inc. The site includes information concerning how your school can subscribe to the programs and what support is offered from CNN once your school has subscribed.

Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom. A wide range of topics, each with a set of questions, that teachers will find useful as springboards for oral production practice or as prompts for journal writing assignments. Opportunity is also provided for teachers to add topics and questions.

Dave's ESL Idea Page. A special place on the Internet for teachers from around the world to share IDEAS about learning and teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language.

EnglishCLUB Teachers' Room (ESL Resources) The site includes classroom activities, lesson plans and student handouts.

Ernie's ESL/EFL Activity Page. Games and other activities suitable for all levels of ESL/EFL classes.

ESL/EFL Games from the Taiwan Teacher. Although the games are meant for children, many can be adapted for all levels of English language learners.

ESL Games.Com. Games and other ideas for teaching about and learning ESL.

ESL Ideas of the Week. Dan Joslin offers suggestions for using games, the daily newspaper and various writing activities in the ESL classroom.

ESL Lessons and Games. Lessons and activities for enriching ESL classes. The site also includes links to other relevant ESL materials.

ESL Web Guide: Lesson Plans. Dave Sperling of the ESL Cafe presents lesson plans and materials useful to ESL classroom teachers at all levels.

everythingESL.net. Everything ESL is a collection of K-12 lesson plans, geared to TESOL ESL standards, teaching tips, resource links, and discussions for teachers of ESL students.

For Second Languge Teachers. Sponsored by the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers, it features a wide variety of ESL and foreign language lesson plans and activities.

Games for ESL Teachers. Simple touching games, phonics games, circling games, board writing, spelling games, pattern games and vocabulary games.

Handouts for Classroom: TESL. Seventy-five handouts for ESL teachers to use in their classrooms.

How To Teach English With Fun And Games. Manual produced by Ian Hewitt, a Japan-based English teacher. Includes 18 proven English teaching games and successful techniques and variations for ALL levels, plus much more.

Internet TESL Journal for Teachers of ESL. A monthly Web magazine of lesson plans and lesson ideas.

Karin's ESL Party Land. Provides teachers with lessons and printable materials to use in class and students with over 50 interactive quizzes,15 discussion forums, and additional links.

Lesson Plan for Newcomers. Suggestions for those brand new students who have just entered school and speak little or no English. For a companion resource, click on Action Words Activity.

Lessons: TESL Lesson plans and activities for the ESL classroom. Teachers can also find these related categories: Teaching Techniques and Teaching Tips and Ideas.

Links to ESL/EFL Lessons and Lesson Plans. Maintained by The Internet TESL Journal, this is a source for lessons and activities suitable for grades 7-adult education.

Otan Forum: ESL Lesson Plans. A series of ESL lesson plans provided by the California Department of Education's OTAN (Outreach and Technical Assistance Network). Although designed for adult ESL learners, they are easily adaptable for use in grades 7-12.

Pizzaz! A Resource for Scribblers and Teachers of English as a Second Language. Leslie Opp-Beckman's PIZZAZ! is dedicated to providing creative writing activities and reproduceable handouts for use in the class room.

The Quiz Zone. An interactive site featuring carefully selected ESL quizzes and links prepared by an ESL teacher.

TeacherVision.com. Lesson plans and activities for ESL, French and Spanish classes.

Teaching with the Web: TESOL. Activities, resources and materials for using the World Wide Web as a teaching tool in the ESL class.

Teaching Tips: Using Video in Your Classroom. Some ideas are presented on how video can enhance your students' English language learning experience.

Teflers of the World Unite. A site for teachers, with lesson plans that include grammar presentations and vocabulary activities. Also featured are games, songs with learning objectives, an advice center and jobs offered.

Return to Top of Page

ESL Resources

AAA EFL Links. Included in this site are online teaching materials, discussion pages, links to hot EFL sites, other on-line information, and much more.

Ask a Linguist: (The Linguist List). Ask-A-Linguist is a service provided by The LINGUIST list, an Internet network for professional linguists. It is designed to be a place where anyone interested in language or linguistics can ask a question and get the response of a professional.

Boggle's World ESL Resources. For kids and adults, the site offers crosswords, word searches, flash cards, verbs, songs, creative writing, work sheets, phonics, potion book, spell book and a chat room.

California Department of Education Resources for English Learners. The English Learners Web site at the California Department of Education focuses on the education of English learners-i.e., students with a primary language other than English who are limited-English proficient.

Clip Art Collection for Foreign/Second Language Instruction. A series of hand-drawn pictures illustrating verbs, adjectives, and common nouns that teachers can print out and use in the classroom.

Common Errors in English. This site simply and entertainingly explains a number of common spelling and usage errors in English. It was developed by Paul Brians, Professor of English at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington.

Dave's ESL Cafe on the Web. Don't miss Dave's ESL Cafe which is open 24 hour a day for ESL students and teachers from around the world. Scroll down the page and select from a variety of cafe items. You can take an interactive quiz in the ESL Quiz Center, receive help with questions related to English in the ESL Help Center, search for something in the cafe or on the Web in the One-Stop ESL Search Page, share your experiences with others in the ESL Idea Page, read and add your own writings to the ESL Graffiti Wall, or ask a question of Dave on the ESL Question Page. There are also links to other ESL information for both students and teachers, an interactive message exchange, and an ESL email connection.

Developing Teachers.com.This is a web site for the developing language teacher. There are two free e-mail newsletters, a Weekly Teaching Tip, a Monthly Newsletter containing teaching themes, activities, lessons, links, jobs and computer/net links. Teacher training by e-mail is also offered.

EFLWeb (English as a Foreign Language Magazine). EFLWeb is an on-line magazine for those teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language. Includes articles, Web resources, information on books and software, product reviews, events and conferences and more.

ELT Newsletter. Teachers of ESL and EFL can read weekly articles on topics of interest, gather teaching tips from the weekly articles, discuss their thoughts on anything to do with English Language Teaching in the ELT Forum, find links to other sites of interest to English teachers (and learners) and submit articles to for publication here in their weekly column.

English as a Second Language. The site, designed by Anthony Halderman of Cuesta College, provides students and teachers with useful information, lessons, exercises, games, and other resources.

English Forum. This is a comprehensive web portal with a variety of resources for students and teachers of English (ESL/EFL). Included are Interactive Exercises, Message Boards, ELT Bookshop, Good School Guide, Web Directory, World News, Links, and Cool Tools.

English Grammar Links for ESL Students. Do you have a question about prepositions? Do you need to find out how to use the future tense? Do you want to practice for a grammar test? On this page, created by Karen M. Hartman, you will find links to grammar references, exercises and quizzes that can help.

English Grammar Online. Send in your English grammar question and a professional teacher will answer it.

EnglishLearner.Com. Interactive practice for learners of English. The site includes tests, quizzes, crosswords, a mailing list and more.

English Programs Around the World. A directory of ESL school websites in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

English Second Language Resources. Among its many resources, this site includes English language newspapers and magazines, learning spoken English on-line, how to pronounce the English alphabet, grammar, pen pals, English language idioms, quizzes, on-line English classes and much more.

English Teacher's Assistant. A periodical designed for ESL and EFL teachers who wear many hats--teachers who want fresh ideas and activities for teaching conversation, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Subscription information is available.

ESL Emporium A Public Service for Learners of English. Practice your listening skills online, learn a new word everyday by Email, learn idioms, take an online ESL student assessment as a guide for identifying your level of English language ability, and learn how to apply to an American University.

ESL Hub. The site, prepared for ESL students, contains a wealth of interactive activities including an Idiom of the Week, Chat Room, Cool Link Directory, ESL Tutoring and Proofreading Services, Keypal Email Exchange, All About TOEFL, and Colloquial English Page.

ESL-Lounge. The Lounge provides lesson materials which are free and printable and include grammar, reading comprehension, worksheets, song lyrics, board games, pronunciation, flashcards, surveys, role plays for many levels of ESL. Also included is a Teachers' forum and ESL links.

ESL Online Catalog: ESL Software. Listing of ESL software products for Windows, Macintosh, Apple II, CD-ROM.

ESL Superstore.Quick and Easy Access to Over 30 ESL Publishers.

ESL Standards for Pre-K-12 Students. The ESL Standards are clustered by grade level (pre-K-3, 4-8, and 9-12) and address varying degrees of proficiency (beginner, intermediate, advanced) as well as the needs of ESL students with limited formal schooling. The standards use vignettes of actual instructional sequences in which teachers help students meet the standards in diverse settings (e.g., social studies, math).

ESL Through Music. The site provides teachers with tools which may help foster the acquisition of English through music. It Includes teacher-made and tested lesson plans, materials such as books, videos, and tapes/CDs, and articles supporting the use of music in the ESL classroom.

everythingESL.Net. Features resources for ESL, bilingual and classroom teachers working with K-12 language minority students. Includes information, staff inservicing, lesson plans, activities, bulletin boards and more.

EXCHANGE (Online Magazine) This online magazine publishes writings of non-native English speakers from all over the world.

Grammar Bytes! A grammar review by Robin Simmons. The site contains explanations, handouts for students and teachers, and interactive exercises.

Hands-on English Current Events Activities. Current events activities appropriate for adults and high school students learning English as a second language. Teachers are given permission to print, copy and use the activities in their classrooms. Updated monthly.

Holidays. Kathy Schrock provides links to holidays which include Chinese New Year, Christmas, Halloween, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, St. Patrick's Day and Valentine's Day among its links.

Holidays (Loogootee Community Schools). The site provides links to resources for holidays occuring in January, February, April, October, November, December. An index of topics is also available.

Interesting Things for ESL Students. There are quizzes, word games, word puzzles, proverbs, slang expressions, anagrams, a random-sentence generator and other study materials at this web site for ESL and EFL students.

International Lyrics Server. Teachers can find the lyrics to over 56,000 songs.

Learning English on the Web. This site is a starting point for ESL learners who want to learn English through the World Wide Web. Includes listening, speaking, reading and writing activities.

Making Hearts Sing (International Fables). A collection of fables based on traditional values such as kindness, respect and friendship which teachers can print out and use in the ESL classroom. The stories are inspired by tales from China, Russia, Japan, Korea and France.

Mayan Folktales. Stories told to Fernando Peñalosa by don Pedro Miguel Say, a famous Q'anjob'al storyteller from San Miguel Acátan, Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Each month new folktales will be reprinted. Useful as reading material in ESL middle and high school classrooms.

Online Directory of ESL Resources. Presented by ERIC and the National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education (NABE), the site provides an online reference for the most useful ESL resources primarily for teachers and students. The resources can be searched by topic, or browsed by category. The most popular keywords for searches are: Megasites, Online Activities and Sites for ESL students.

Performance and Portfolio Assessment for Language Minority Students. NCBE Program Information Guide Series, Number 9, Spring 1992, prepared by Lorraine Valdez Pierce and J. Michael O'Malley.

Reader's Theater Editions. Reader's Theater Editions are short scripts adapted from stories by Aaron Shepard and others-mostly humor, fantasy, and retold tales from a variety of cultures. The grade levels for performers fall mostly between grades 3 and 9. Useful for enriching the ESL reading curriculum. Among the tales and legends featured are those from the U.S., India, Pakistan, Africa, the Middle East, and Finland. Copying, sharing, and performing the scripts are permitted for any educational, non-commercial purpose.

Resources in Language Testing. Links to everything you always wanted to know about language testing.

Self-study Quizzes for ESL Students. Features multiple choice, true or false and fill in the blanks type quizzes and provides immediaate feedback.

Tales of Wonder (Folk and Fairy Tales from Around the World). Stories from many parts of the world suitable as reading material for intermediate and advanced ESL students.

Teaching ESL. A newsgroup (electronic bulletin board) that deals with issues concerning teaching English as a Second Language. You can read what others have to say about teaching ESL and can even post your own messages.

Teaching with the Web. Prepared by Lauren Rosen, the site is a compilation of ideas for using WWW resources as a teaching tool as well as other links to sites that have pedogogical information.

TEFL Virtual Library. The site was prepared by Kenji Kitao and S. Kathleen Kitao and features Resources, Lesson Plans, Teaching Materials, Student Projects, Reference Materials for Lessons, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), Papers, Articles, and Essays for Teachers.

TESL/TEFL Links Maintained by The Internet TESL Journal TESL/TEFL Links is a mega index of resources for the ESL teacher. It provides links to a wide variety of sites from Associations and Computer Assisted Language Learning, to Games, Poetry, and Song Lyrics.

TESOL Online. TESOL Online, from Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, the international professional association of ESL teachers, includes links to publications available from TESOL, as well as selected articles from TESOL Journal and TESOL Quarterly.

Thanksgiving on the Internet. Thanksgiving links for kids and families.

TOEFL OnLine. Everything you want to know about the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Includes registration information, contact persons, frequently asked questions, and preparation materials and practice questions.

Tower of English. Online reading, writing, and vocabulary activities, an e-mail pen pal page (TowerPals), a chat room, and links to other valuable resources.

TPR (Total Physical Response). Information on the TPR approach to second language learning. The site provides a catalog of TPR books, games, teacher kits, student kits, and video demonstrations.

U.S. Holidays. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, with more to follow.

Valuing Our Differences: A Diversity Calendar. The University of Kansas presents a Diversity Calendar useful in the ESL classroom. The calendar features ethnic, national, religious, and other types of holidays.

Virtual CALL Library. The Virtual CALL Library aims to be a central point of access to the diverse collection of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) software scattered across the Internet and available for downloading.

Web Sites Guides for ESL Students:Using Real-Life English Materials Found on the Internet. The aim of this site is to introduce ESL students to selected pages designed for native-speakers, and to assist them in understanding and using those pages.

Weekly Idiom.New idiom each week with definition and example dialogue.

Yahoo ESL Resources. List of Links to a variety of ESL resources compiled by searchers at Yahoo.

Yuki's EFL/ESL Bulletin Board. At this site you can get information on English teaching situations in other countries and exchange opinions and ideas on EFL with EFL teachers. Students are also able to exchange letters and e-mail. Links to other ESL/EFL sites are also featured.

Return to Top of Page

Go Back To First Page.