Professional Documents
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Internet Directory For English Improving Websites
Internet Directory For English Improving Websites
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The Internet Directory
for English Language
Improvement
2008–2009
Second Edition: September 2008
Véronica Gill
Tel.: (514) 873-3781
Fax: (514) 864-4908
Email: vgill@ccdmd.qc.ca
Website: www.ccdmd.qc.ca/en
ISBN 978-2-89470-241-3
Produced by the English-Language division of the CCDMD through contributions from the Canada-
Québec Agreement on Minority-Language Education and Second-Language Instruction
3. Icons 4. Stamps
5. Keywords ESL | Grammar | Listening | Reading | Speaking | Vocabulary |
a. Objectives Writing
b. Themes Literature
The CCDMD designs and develops educational materials for teachers and
students throughout the Québec Cégep system. To accomplish this, the Centre
6. Annotation offers administrative, technical, financial, and instructional support to college
professors so that they may produce their own educational materials.
1. Title
The Directory is organized alphabetically according to the title of each
website.
2. Address
The short version of the site address follows the title.
3. Icons
Image icons describe the format of the materials you will find in
each site.
Reference
• Dictionaries
• Research
• Indexes
• Translation
• Citations
Discussion
• Chat
• Exchange
• Pen Pals
• Blogs
• Forums
Tests
• Quizzes
• Preparing for Exams
– English Exit Exam
– English Proficiency Exams
Activities
• Exercises
• Games
Multimedia
• Podcasts
• Technology
• Audio
• Video
4. Stamps
Stamps identify websites that include specific resources for teachers
or information on government resources, associations, training
programs, and free language courses.
For Teachers
5. Keywords
Keywords help students quickly find websites with specific information.
Keywords are grouped into two categories: objectives and themes.
a. Objectives
Objectives are English-language skills that improve your learning,
comprehension, and ability in core competencies.
ESL, including:
• Official Languages
b. Themes
Themes are topic areas for students with diverse interests and
enrolled in different disciplines.
Art and Images
History and Culture
Literature, including:
• Poetry
• Quotations
• Song Lyrics
• Jokes
News
Science
Social Science
Sports
Technical Language, including:
• Business English
Players Documents
• Flash Version 7+ • HTML
• Windows Media Player • Rich Text
• RealMedia • PDF
• RealAudio • Zip
• RealPlayer • Microsoft Word
• iTunes
Other
• MP3
• RSS Feeds
Browsers • Podcasts
• Internet Explorer
• Firefox
• Safari
ESL | writing
If you are new to essay writing, this site will help you get organized. The
content is a good introduction to basic academic writing and the external
links are well chosen. The site covers choosing and developing your topic,
gathering information, forming a thesis statement, writing the paper, and
revising your writing.
3 Adbusters
http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/
Reading
History and Culture | News | Social Science
Reading
Literature
5 AlphaDictionary
http://www.alphadictionary.com
The site provides links to almost 300 language dictionary sites and more
than 120 subject-specific dictionary sites under Specialty Dictionaries.
Of particular interest is the link to Alpha Agora, where you can register for
an active online discussion group to discuss topics found on the site. You
can also make suggestions or ask questions, talk to other learners, and
read what they have to say.
6 Anglik
http://www.anglik.net
This site lists more than 30 links to innovative and unusual language im-
provement tools, such as learning from song lyrics, newspapers, British
art and the Monarchy, word games, slang, jokes, quotations, and films, to
name a few. The site’s British origins limit its use for Canadian students, but
it’s fun and out of the ordinary. There is also an easy and free opportunity
to make pen pals worldwide.
Grammar | Reading | Vocabulary | Writing
This translation tool is one of the better free services available online. You
can translate a block of text or an entire website, depending on your needs.
Babel Fish translates English into 9 other languages, as well as 12 languages
into English. A word of caution: Any automatic translation tool will make
errors, particularly in sentence structure and grammar, and will entirely miss
certain subtleties of the language. Use Babel Fish as a starting point when
you are having difficulty, and then cross-reference the results with another
tool, a native English speaker, or a good, old-fashioned dictionary.
Reading | Vocabulary
Art and Images | News | Science
Improve your English with exercises and games, or by reading current and
archived articles in the online magazine. Visitors are encouraged to respond
in writing to theme-based articles, and the responses are posted. There are
useful links to sites related to the current weekly theme, and links are updated
as the themes change. You can test your English-language level with Cam-
bridge ESOL Exams and find links to other online grammar exercises.
A dictionary is an essential tool for any writer. Here, users can choose the
dictionary that interests them and search for a word or phrase. If a word
cannot be found in one dictionary, the other dictionaries are automatically
searched. There is also a spelling feature that provides the user with possible
alternative spellings. Canadian and American spellings are both represented
here. The Activities link provides online activities and worksheets.
14 Campus Access
http://www.campusaccess.com/
International and ESL students can practise their English skills on this site
while researching a college career in Canada. One of the main portals for
Canadian students, you will find all kinds of information here on schools,
financial aid, academic life, internships, and even fun stuff (like quick recipes,
fashion, fitness, and student art). There is a job database and information on
teaching English abroad, as well as an extensive listing of reference tools.
Reading | Vocabulary
Art and Images | History and Culture | Science | Social Science
Reading | Vocabulary
Art and Images | History and Culture | Science | Social Science
ESL | Reading
Art and Images
This site is geared toward teachers and CASLT members, but it is an important
resource for any ESL student living in Canada. As a student, joining a major
association in your field is always a good idea because you will gain access
to learning materials, email bulletins, newsletters, conferences, and special
offers. When you become a member of the CASLT, you can take advantage of
benefits and added resources. For students enrolled in a Faculty of Education,
there is a one-year free membership. Students who are members of provincial
language associations may become Affiliate Members for only $15.
If you are not a teacher, you can still use the selection of diverse and ex-
cellent links in the General Resources section. Here you will find games,
puzzles, printouts, test databases, dictionaries, search engines, and classroom
exchange sites.
18 Canadian Encyclopedia
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com
Reading | Vocabulary
Art and Images | History and Culture | Science | Social Science
This site is full of links to everything and anything related to Canadian his-
tory on the Web. Maintained by Dr. Susan Nylan, Professor of History at
Reading
History and Culture
ESL
History and Culture
Manitoba has just changed ESL to EAL, which means English as an Addi-
tional Language. This is in keeping with the theory behind TESOL (Teaching
English to Speakers of Other Languages), since we know that in Canada,
many students learning English for the first time already have advanced
knowledge of one or more other languages.
The site focuses quite a bit on Canadian language benchmarks, and provides
links and downloadable PDF material to help you both evaluate your own
language level and practise self-study. (Language benchmarks describe a
task, such as reading, writing, speaking, or listening, and how well you can
do it.)
Reading | Vocabulary
Art and Images | History and Culture | Social Science | Sports
Archives
http://archives.cbc.ca
The CBC offers a large collection of free radio and television clips to
help you improve your listening comprehension. Enter search terms or
browse the following categories: People, Conflict and War, Arts and
Entertainment, Politics and the Economy, Life and Society, Disasters and
Tragedies, Science and Technology, and Sports. You can also choose a
timeline with entries that are colour-coded by subject. The quality of the
language used by CBC journalists is first-rate, and there is an impressive
variety of topics to explore.
Reading | Vocabulary
arts and images | History and Culture | Science | Social Science
Listening | Reading
Art and Images | History and Culture | Literature | news |
Social Science
This site showcases a unique and imaginative selection of free tools for Inter-
net research in history, including Zotero (which helps you to collect, manage,
and cite research sources in Firefox), Syllabus Finder, Web Scrapbook for
storing a variety of media items, Survey Builder, and Scribe (a cross-platform
note-taking application), as well as several others.
ESL
History and Culture | technical language
This commercial site offers free online exercises indexed by level. Choose a
level and then choose the activities you would like to try. Based in England,
the site is accredited by the British Council.
ESL
History and Culture
The CCDMD designs and develops educational materials for teachers and
students throughout the Québec Cégep system. To accomplish this, the Centre
offers administrative, technical, financial, and instructional support to college
professors so that they may produce their own educational materials.
The Centre is subsidized by the Québec Ministère de l’Éducation, du
Loisir, et du Sport, and is managed by Collège de Maisonneuve. In 2005,
the CCDMD broadened its collaborative efforts to include Anglophone
colleges, as part of the Canada-Québec Agreement.
30 Concept Maps
http://classes.aces.uiuc.edu/ACES100/Mind/CMap.html
Writing
reading
HISTORY AND CULTURE
Writing
Anyone who has a computer and access to the Internet can put together a
website, so it’s important to know how to evaluate Internet sources before you
use them in a research paper. This site provides a list of questions to help you
sort the reliable sites from the rest. Each category of questions has a So What
button that explains why it is important to ask the questions. The links to biased
information and parody sites are fun, and the external links are helpful.
Writing
The questions on this page will lead you through a thorough assessment of
print sources and help you decide whether they are appropriate for essays and
research papers. This process is also great practice in critical thinking.
This little page is a straightforward listing of resources and sites for ESL
learning. There are curricular resources, instructional materials, and a theme
pages area (which for now only includes a theme on Listening). Regarding
the links, it’s a mixed bag, but most of them were functional at the time of
writing. A word of caution: We did not check every site listed here, so you
ESL | Grammar
This site offers more than 400 sequential grammar lessons. Work at your own
pace, choosing lessons from the archive. Although once a provider of free daily
email lessons, this service has been suspended due to technical problems.
Dave Sperling’s popular ESL site is found in almost every ESL directory.
The Café offers a large number of links to material for students and teach-
ers. Many links are commercial. Students have free access to grammar
exercises, a helpline, and chat pages. Some links work intermittently,
perhaps due to high traffic on the site.
Reading | Vocabulary
Art and Images | History and Culture | Literature | Science |
Social Science
This website is being continually updated and expanded, and already con-
tains more than 20 volumes beginning with the year 1000 (yes, you read
it correctly – the year 1000). You can search by volume, keyword, identity,
profession, or geographic region. You can also look up an individual by
Reading | Vocabulary
Art and Images | History and Culture | Science | Social Science
39 e-anglais
http://www.e-anglais.com/
Reading | Vocabulary
Art and Images | History and Culture | Social Science
This is a database of more than 2 million early Canadian texts that have
been digitized (let’s hope they didn’t throw out the originals). The texts
are organized into collections that are searchable according to topic, title,
keyword, and year of publication. Teachers will appreciate the Lesson Plans
area, as well as the fact that the site provides access to an Evaluation
Report of its educational sites and resources.
You will find interesting and well-presented material for studying English
on this site. There is such a variety that it is difficult to describe in a few
sentences. There are headings related to Punctuation, Writing Tips, and
English Tests. You can complete a free assessment and then subscribe
to more learning activities from OEG, or just use what’s available on the
site (which is a lot).
If you happen to be building a website for ESL or other students, there is
free content available here.
42 Edunetconnect
http://www.edunetconnect.com/
This Canadian site, geared to teachers, offers weekly awards to the best
sites providing educational content. The Learning Categories menu presents
a vast array of websites that lead to endless hallways of learning opportuni-
ties in many subject areas. The frequently updated features centred on the
home page target the learner’s curiosity, but the site is literally hemmed
This is a great site for ESL learners. The site provides material of its own, as
well as links to other useful sites. Interesting features include a Pronounc-
ing Dictionary of Common English Names, an ESL Chat Community, and
ESL Writing Blogs.
Follow the link to 100 Free Short English Stories for ESL Learners to listen
to stories as they are read aloud. The reader speaks slowly and clearly,
making it easy to follow as you read the text on the screen. Try the grammar,
comprehension, and dictation exercises that accompany the stories. This
is an excellent resource for improving your pronunciation. You will need
RealAudio or MP3 capability to hear these files. Just be advised that there
are many advertisements on this site.
44 English, Baby!
http://www.englishbaby.com
45 English Club
http://www.englishclub.com
46 English Department
http://the_english_dept.tripod.com/
This page is a subsection of a site that addresses the needs of EFL (English
as a Foreign Language) students. Based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the creator,
Barbara Dieu, is an EFL teacher for secondary-level students. The site has
an international, contemporary flavour. On the home page, you will discover
interesting facts about English, its growth, and its place in the world, as
well as anecdotes from English students.
To get a sense of the scale of this site, check out the unique Site Map
that you can access from the main Go To drop-down menu. The titles are
clickable and you can search almost any topic, including lesson plans,
If you are looking for information about Québec’s English Exit Exam for
Cégep students, this is the place to start. This site of the Ministère de
l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport provides a general introduction to the
exam, explains the criteria for passing it, and posts the exam schedule.
There are links to past exam questions (the readings cannot be provided
because of copyright rules) and to an FAQ document called All You Need
to Know: A-Z. The Marking Guide contains several sample student essays
with explanations of how they were graded.
The English Language Institute (ELI) of UBC contains some of the high-
est quality free material on the Internet for learning English as a second
language. It’s probably better than a lot of the commercial material as well.
The layout and design are great and completely ad-free. Some sections
require textbooks used by students and files at the ELI, but you’ll find plenty
of free content on the rest of the site. Each section provides external links
as an additional resource.
The site is divided into five sections:
• Using Corpora has external links that teach you how to use language da-
tabases to learn the different ways words and phrases can be used.
• Reading offers levels 400 to 600 with pre-reading material, texts, and
exercises. This is a great resource for building vocabulary and, at the
advanced level, learning about some aspects of grammar.
• Writing contains exercises on understanding collocations (words fre-
quently used together), combining sentences, constructing paragraphs,
and using phrasal verbs.
• Speaking and Listening contains transcripts, exercises, and external
links organized by level for beginning to advanced speakers.
• Exam Courses is designed to help you with the TOEFL (Test of English
as a Foreign Language). This section will also help students who want to
improve their vocabulary. It contains exercises on word meanings, commonly
confused words, phrasal verbs, idioms, opposites, and word forms.
This site offers an intensive and comprehensive review of verbs, with great
material to help you learn how and when to use each of the English verb
tenses. The tutorial also covers reading comprehension, vocabulary, and
listening skills. The concepts are presented in stories or texts written by
Vanier students, and the exercises are carefully sequenced. The themes are
international and multicultural, and many of them also focus on current events
in and around Montréal, for young students who are new to the city.
The site is best viewed with a recent browser. There is a wide variety of
options for audio players, but make sure the volume on your computer is
turned way up!
This website is highly interactive; all the learning takes place through ex-
ercises and activities divided into categories. Each category has diverse
activities that take different and interesting approaches to practising Eng-
lish. For example, in Listening, there are audio and video clips that are
accompanied by incomplete texts. Students listen and type as much as
This charming ESL directory is divided into sections: For Teachers, For
Schools, and For Students. Many free resources are available. The site is
frequently updated, so we won’t give you too much information on specif-
ics, as things may change by the time you get there. However, the layout
is easy to navigate and the content is never boring. There are also useful
little tools on each page, such as the Word Look Up feature.
The downside of the site is that most of the multimedia functions only if
you have Microsoft Internet Explorer as your browser, if you have Adobe
Acrobat Reader, and if your pop-up blocker is disengaged. Those of you
with this lucky combination, however, won’t be disappointed.
What a great idea! With the emergence of DVDs and the capacity to watch
movies with subtitles in the language of your choice, sitting down in front of the
TV has never been such an educational experience for language learners.
At this site, a multitude of guides provides plot summaries of popular films,
character lists, glossaries, and brief discussions of cultural references. This
is a fun way to practise reading, and an excellent way to work on listening
comprehension. Each film entry may be downloaded in PDF, HTML, or
Microsoft Word.
The catch is that you need to buy or rent the movie yourself! Don’t expect to
find a free version on the site. If you want to, you can order it online.
The home page of this site lists easily accessible online tests pertaining
to various English grammar topics, special themes, and TOEFL-style exam
preparation. Most tests are organized into levels of difficulty (Elementary,
Intermediate, and Advanced). The site is densely packed with stimulating
and original activities that are fully functional, within which you will be hard-
pressed to find a punctuation or grammatical error.
The language and themes tend to have an American bias, but the creators
of the site seem to have been brought together virtually, rather than through
any geographic connection. To “meet” these people, just click on an image
under the site logo. You will be treated to a detailed history of each instruc-
tor’s professional experience, and, in most cases, you will find links to learning
materials developed by the instructors as well as articles they have written.
The group seems to be a bit of a cooperative, a very interesting and innovative
approach to teaching English. The best part is that (for now), it’s all free.
Take advantage of this great site before the authors implement their com-
mercial plans!
58 eSpindle
http://www.espindle.org
The Education Foundation program involves teacher training and the devel-
opment of teacher guides in printed form. The eWorkshop site represents a
natural progression of the Foundation’s work into technology and multimedia,
providing online learning modules and teaching resources.
The literacy modules offered here are carefully planned and education-
ally sound. Although designed for primary-level students, many are easily
adapted for adult use. The division of material into Emergent, Early, and
Fluent reader levels helps the student to understand the process of learn-
ing to read. Printable material is available in PDF format.
The many high-quality, fast-loading Flash videos are intended primarily to
guide teachers in their instruction strategies. However, these can be fun
to watch, and they provide helpful hints for effective solo learning.
Reading | Vocabulary
Art and Images | History and Culture | Social Science
The site profiles every Canadian prime minister and also focuses on five
main themes related to the office throughout history. A special plus is that
the site includes transcripts of official speeches, categorized according
to political topic. The material is text-based and suited to intermediate and
advanced readers.
If the material is too difficult or if you would like to learn along with your
children, there is a kids’ version of the site. Based on the same content,
this site is more colourful, and includes period photographs, a fact sheet,
and a helpful keyword feature.
There is a Fun section with simple yet effective trivia, matching games, and
a great Picture Gallery that features prime ministers in places and with
people you might not expect! There is also a link for teachers.
62 Free Rice
http://www.freerice.com
Vocabulary
This website is initiated by the World Food Program. As soon as you enter
the website, the main page becomes a vocabulary quiz. The multiple-choice
quiz gives you a word and four options of potential meanings. Every question
that you get correct earns you 20 grains of rice that are donated to people
around the world. The website generates revenue through advertising
space, which makes the donation possible.
Reading newspaper articles every day is one of the best ways to build
your reading and writing skills. The Globe and Mail, a Canadian news-
paper, has a well-developed online edition that covers national and inter-
national news, as well as featuring sections on business and investing,
sports, arts, travel, technology, and health. These pages contain many
surprises, and subscribers have access to RSS feeds.
ESL
History and Culture
vocabulary | writing
technical language
You can look up words and phrases in French or English on the Québec
government’s website of the Office québécois de la langue française. This
is not a translation tool but a resource for finding correct terminology. It is
basically a database of lexicons and vocabulary that, though not exhaustive,
is constantly being updated.
You need to know some French to use the site to its fullest. Be careful to
interpret the definitions in context to ensure they are culturally appropriate
and reflect your intended meaning.
67 Historical Voices
http://www.historicalvoices.org
Listening | Speaking
This site preserves and displays historical events and information in the
form of archival spoken-word recordings. Here, the student can listen to
interviews, press statements, court cases, and many other examples of
actual people caught on “tape.” Some of the audio recordings come with
a transcript so that you can follow the text while listening.
The sources are varied, and so are the formats. If a particular site doesn’t
work for you, check which media player is required. RealAudio is often
employed, as well as RSS feeds for podcasts, but it is not always clearly
mentioned, which can be frustrating for users.
The Education area presents excellent information for teachers, along with
lesson plans to accompany specific audio archives. A word of caution: Test
everything before presenting to your class!
This site has ambitious goals and objectives set out on its home page, but
it still has a ways to go before it lives up to all of these. Nevertheless, the
existing content, despite a few glitches, is worth a look.
Writing
69 HyperGrammar
http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/
Every step of the essay-writing process is covered here. The Table of Con-
tents and Index make it easy to find exactly what you are looking for, and
71 I Love Languages
http://www.ilovelanguages.com
Reading | Writing
History and Culture | Social Science
This award-winning site has been established in some form since 1994. It
has been quoted in both online and print media press on many occasions.
The site is primarily a catalogue of language-related Internet resources,
with many links that are not specific to English. One helpful aspect of the
site is that its commercial listings appear together and are accessible from
one menu, so the student is not obliged to sift through sites that are selling
products and services.
There are a large number of dictionaries, translation tools, and teacher
resources included in the Languages area. In the School area, the student
can find language camps, programs, and universities. There is also a Jobs
area with links to language-related employment resources.
72 Images Canada
http://www.imagescanada.ca/
This site is included here because it has such a varied selection of amus-
ing and unusual offerings that employ diverse learning strategies. It will
appeal to different learners, and exercise multiple skills, including grammar,
vocabulary, listening, spelling, and pronunciation.
Two words of caution: There are a few errors on the site, and not every tool
works perfectly, or has much educational value. In addition, the games and
interactive activities have been designed for different platforms, including
Flash, JavaScript, and various players. Depending on your system, you may
not have success using all of them.
Nevertheless, the site owners should be congratulated on offering a truly
non-profit resource, where the student is never subjected to unwanted
advertising.
Vocabulary
Follow the Students link for information, activities, exercises, and games
to challenge and improve your language skills. Many of the Listening
exercises are based on the American National Public Radio and National
Geographic articles. The site is easy to use and the links are reliable. The
listening exercises use RealAudio.
The site’s new design now also offers many resources for teachers, includ-
ing the possibility of setting up a password-protected class website.
This excellent Web directory of English language sites is one page in Rich-
ard Lederer’s Verbivore site. The Language Links are arranged by topic
in an index at the top of the page. Find links to Etymology, Grammar and
Usage, Language Columns/Online Magazines, Linguistic Links, News-
groups, Puns, Reference, Word Games, Word and Letter Play, and Word
Watching & Vocabulary Development. The links are of excellent quality.
This is an essential site for advanced ESL students, and for anyone who
has an appetite for language.
ESL
technical language
A wiki is a collaborative website where users can contribute and edit the
information. A swicki is a collaborative search engine. A swicki learns
from the interests of the community that uses it – the more users who
consult a certain topic area, the larger the keyword will appear in the list
of contents.
Used with prudence, it will lead to many unexpected places, and will
appeal to the curious. However, since the sites open in the same browser
window, it is easy to get lost.
This particular swicki is the creation of Steve Chadwick from http://www.
examenglish.com/ – a great resource for those preparing for an English
language exam, such as TOEFL, IELTS, and the Cambridge University
exams. Most of the major tests are described in detail so that you will
know exactly what to expect. There are free mini-exams offered, and you
can find testing centres, and purchase learning materials.
Reading | Vocabulary
Art and Images | History and Culture | Social Science
If this Directory has not yet convinced you that Library and Archives Canada
is quite simply a stroke of brilliance on the part of the educational powers
that be in government, visit this site.
We will not even introduce it here, as everything you need to know is clearly
stated on the home page. The visual design is quite a bit more contemporary
and colourful than the usual Archives fare, but the site is still just as rich
with Canadian history and educational resources.
There is something for absolutely every student and teacher. Go there,
NOW!
The English Exit Exam section contains everything you need to know to
pass Québec’s Ministerial Examination of College English, with tip sheets,
explanations of the marking criteria, and sample student essays. There is also
a link to the English Now online tutorial for second-language students.
reading | Vocabulary
art and images | history and culture | sciencE |
social science
A huge repository where you can explore all kinds of historical documents
as well as special collections, including Canadian Genealogy, Multicul-
tural Resources, Aboriginal Resources, a Portrait Gallery, and an Online
Canadian Biography Dictionary. There are many sub-links within this site
so, to avoid missing anything, keep going back to the home page, where
you can access featured exhibitions and browse selected topics.
This is an essential link for ESL students and for anyone looking for reference
material. Part of the Start Spot site, this is an excellent place to find the
dictionary you’re looking for. Find other Start Spot links, including Libraries,
Reading Room and Reference Desk on the left side of the page.
listening
Reading
literature
This small collection of public access literature provides full texts in a for-
mat that is relatively easy to read onscreen. The authors include Charles
Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, and René Descartes. It’s hard to imagine reading
an entire novel onscreen, but literature students may appreciate the ability
to copy the text, hear it read by a screen reader, and search for key pas-
sages and characters.
88 Louvre Museum
http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en
Reading
art and images | history and culture
The Louvre website is very interactive and offers a lot to someone who
is learning English. It has many virtual tours where students can see all
kinds of artwork and read descriptions. Users can also click on the French
language option, which will lead them to the same point where they left
off in English.
Students can create their own personal spaces on the Louvre website to
develop albums of their favourite pieces. Content is organized according
to exhibitions, themes, and other types of activities. It’s a fun website to
explore for people who are interested in art.
listening | reading
If you are looking for new ways to practise English, explore the McCord
Museum, Montréal’s premier Canadian history museum. Although this site
is not specifically for language instruction, it offers an enjoyable alternative
to other reading and listening sites.
Try these links from the home page:
• Keys to History – Games: Practise English with topics about Canada’s
history.
• Keys to History – Thematic Tours: Choose a tour and click on View the Movie
Clip, where you can watch and listen to movies about Canada’s history.
Most activities require an up-to-date version of Flash.
Reading | Writing
Art and Images | History and Culture | News | Science
This site is a media and Internet education resource designed for teachers
and parents, but it will appeal to young adults and children. It’s a terrific
way to improve English while looking critically at media, both the regular
information sources and the accompanying advertisements. Issues such
as media violence, stereotyping, online hate, and information privacy are
thoroughly addressed.
There are educational games, news, blogs, and a resource catalogue.
The Lesson Library in the Teacher’s Area is searchable and allows you to
search topics ranging from alcohol and tobacco use through body image,
diversity, gender portrayal, and ethics.
The attractive site design is well organized, with a colour scheme that
changes from page to page, to liven things up a little. A handy feature is
the Content Cart, which allows you to collect materials as you browse,
sort them, and print them all at once.
92 Merriam-Webster Learner’s
[Pronunciation] Dictionary
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/
93 Merriam-Webster Online
http://m-w.com/
Reading | vocabulary
art and images | History and Culture | Science
This attractive site is a good way to read English while learning about botany
and gardening. The Outstanding Plants and Collections area contains
beautiful images, but most of the text information appears in French when
you click on the thumbnails. This is the case with several areas of the site,
and helpful only for French-speaking students!
Since most of the activities take place at the gardens themselves and not
on the website, we actually recommend you visit in person. An interactive
map on the Greenhouse and Gardens page prepares you for your visit by
providing a sense of the layout, scale, and a sneak peek at the collections.
Bring a good book to practise your reading in an environment of serenity, par-
ticularly in the off-season, when it is free to wander in and walk around.
Be sure to check out the educational signs and posters, where the text
appears in multiple languages. International students may find a taste of
home here, as well as receiving an introduction to the cultural diversity that
is Montréal. Many of the collections are dedicated to the city’s founding
communities and contain special materials, architecture, and, in some
cases, tributes, such as the Hiroshima Peace Bell designed by artist Katori
Masahiko for the Japanese Garden.
spelling | Vocabulary
technical language
This site is useful for those who need to keep up with the changing vocabulary
of the Internet. NetLingo is a Web dictionary that helps explain the online
world of business, technology, and communication. Terms are listed alpha-
betically, and by topics that are regularly updated. Check in often to access
new information, and stay on the cutting edge of language on the Web!
Use this site to improve your listening and reading skills, to research
essays, or to just have some fun. American National Public Radio offers
almost 300 podcasts organized in a topic index, along with supporting
written material.
Writing
Citing research sources from the Internet is an ever-changing art that all
students who write essays and research papers need to master. Have you
ever wondered how to cite a Web page, an email message, or a discussion
board posting? Here you will find easy to follow, up-to-date information on
how to cite Internet sources in Modern Language Association (MLA), Ameri-
can Psychological Association (APA), Chicago, and other citation styles.
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University is one of the very
best university English sites. Purdue makes its material on academic writ-
ing, grammar, spelling, and punctuation available free to English students
anywhere on the Web. There are handouts, PowerPoint presentations, a
newsletter, and lots more for you to discover here.
Note: This is Purdue’s original site. Purdue is working on a new site, and
the pages are listed in this Directory under The OWL Family of Sites.
The OWL (Online Writing Lab) has been around since 1993. Created
at Purdue University, this is the granddaddy of sites offering help and
information to college and university writers. It is very well designed and
easy to follow.
The OWL website is divided into Suggested, Featured and Most Popular
resources. Here are some things you can learn from this website:
• Improve your writing by learning how to develop an outline, create a
thesis statement, and ways to avoid plagiarism
• Learn how to cite your reference sources according to Modern Language
Association (MLA) or American Psychological Association (APA) styles
reading
literature
If you want to improve your English, you have to read, read, read. Project
Gutenberg, named for the inventor of the printing press, is an online project
dedicated to making books whose copyright has expired in the United
States free to readers. (It’s up to users to check a publication’s copyright
status in their own countries.) There are 17,000 free eBooks available in
almost 50 languages. The eBooks are organized using Library of Congress
Classification, and may be searched by author, title, or subject. Files are
available in HTML, Plain Text, or Zip. The site is continuously maintained,
and new material is added frequently.
Take the time to read the License and Trademark information before start-
ing, and try the following links: Online Book Catalog, Offline Catalogs,
and Authors.
If you want to improve your listening skills, Rabble.ca produces and com-
piles some of the very best in Canadian podcasts and online radio. The
podcasts are arranged by theme and are accessible from a list at the top
of the page. Some pages provide a “listen now” option; others require
iTunes to work. The download is conveniently provided with each podcast.
There is a definite slant to the left politically and socially.
Scroll down for brief descriptions of what you can find in each section.
There are too many sections to name them all here, but here is a short list
of offerings to whet your appetite:
Writing
esl
This is one of the very best directories of Web-based ESL material. The
site lists links that are interesting and useful, with a minimum of advertis-
ing and clutter. This is an essential and fun resource for students learning
English as a second language.
There are more than 1,000 activities for ESL students here. There are
quizzes under the following topics: Grammar, Places, Vocabulary, Idioms,
Homonyms, Scrambled Words, and Miscellaneous. The quizzes require
no special software, and they are accessible on portable devices. The site
is a project of TESL Journal, and it uses teachers’ contributions.
Writing
Reading
Art and Images | History and Culture | Literature
Do you need help reading Shakespeare? Are you a visual learner? Here
is a site for you. You will find a wide range of art depicting the work of
Shakespeare, indexed under his titles as well as under the artist names.
The scenes depicted are annotated and linked to other images in the
collection.
This website, created by Sally Jennings, an ESL tutor based in British Co-
lumbia, is not to be passed up. At first glance, it may be tempting to do so,
because the site has an awkward visual design, without the special effects
that recent Flash and top-of-the-line browsers offer. All too often, however,
such sites are heavy on the glamour and low on instructional design.
Reading
Improving your English means improving your reading, but it may not be
easy at first, especially if you are new to the language. SQ4R has been
around since the 1960s and is taught in many college and university study
skills programs. The method breaks down the task of reading into various
steps: It is a useful tool to help native speakers and ESL students improve
their comprehension of any non-fiction text.
Although time-consuming and intensive at first, once mastered, the SQ4R
method will usually take only a few moments. Ultimately, it will enable you
to restructure the way you think about the process of analyzing a text in
any language.
113 Thesaurus.com
http://thesaurus.com
Vocabulary | Writing
This website is a complete course in using English for college and univer-
sity. Content is divided into the following sections: Accuracy, Assessment,
Background, Listening, Materials, Reading, Speaking, Vocabulary and
Writing. Most sections include an introduction, detailed instruction and
exercises for improving skills and confidence in each area. The content
is delivered in clear, informal language, for example: “If you are going to
get as many marks for speaking as writing, spend as much time on it as
your writing.”
This is one of the best sites in the Directory if you are using English for
academic purposes. Check out the sections on note-taking and what to
listen for in lectures – invaluable advice you may not find anywhere else.
Reading
Vocabulary
Art and Images
Voice of America has developed a Special English site aimed at the ESL
learner. News stories are written in simple English, using a core vocabulary
This site showcases primary sources with a focus on World War I poetry,
photographs, and contemporary video and audio clips of interviews with
veterans. Many of the clips are short visual essays that appear somewhat
out of context when viewed alone, but are intended to be combined in the
student’s own work to create virtual seminars. (Be careful how you use
the sources and where you present your work – most of it is copyright-
protected.)
The site structure encourages the development of something called Path
Creation Schemes, a method of collecting and combining diverse yet related
material so that a common theme emerges. A quote on the main page of
vocabulary
Not a very content-heavy website and, at first glance, the graphics make it
appear to be more for a younger audience. There is a section called Daily
Buzzword that is simply the word of the day. Build Your Own Dictionary
encourages users to add words that they’ve invented.
There are three games: Robo-Bee (complete the sentences), BIGBot
(choose synonyms), and Jumble Kids (unscramble the letters given to
form a word). Do not be fooled by their slick appearance (which makes a
nice change from some of the older websites we’ve reviewed) – both the
learning and play components are quite challenging!
Reading | vocabulary
This website provides activities, games and puzzles for ESL students. It’s
divided into seven categories: Brainteasers, Trivia, Crosswords, Hangman,
Word Search, Kids’ Area, and Classic Books. These sections provide many
games and exercises dealing with vocabulary and comprehension.
World Wide Words is an essential site for anyone who wants to learn more
about the English language. Michael Quinion answers questions from Inter-
net fans, and writes articles about the origins of popular expressions and
new or strange words that may not have made it into dictionaries. This is
an excellent site for language learners but, because Quinion writes from a
British perspective and uses a lot of wordplay and strange expressions, it
may be more appropriate for intermediate and advanced students.
Reading | Vocabulary
Science | Technical Language
http://www.ccdmd.qc.ca/en