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Internet Resources for Students and Teachers
*A great resource for all things English is your local library! For books, music, movies, e-books, research articles, workshops and ESL conversation groups, explore the public libraries in your area! ESL EXERCISES AND CLASS MATERIALS
General Exercises, Quizzes and Games
Vocabulary
Pronunciation
Conversation
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ELTOC |
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ELTOC is a non-profit charitable organization, funded by Citizenship & Immigration Canada and private donations.
Share Your Stories & Ideas
Have any interesting, funny, or inspiring stories about your learning/teaching experience? Write them down and send them to us for inclusion in our newsletter and/or website.
Also, if you have developed any good ESL exercises or lesson plans, you can share them through ELTOC's website. E-mail us an electronic copy (MSWord or HTML files preferred) and we'll add it to our resource page.
"Knowledge is of two kinds.
We know a subject ourselves,
or we know where we can find information upon it."
(Samuel Johnson)
Pros and Cons of the Internet
For the ESL learner and teacher, the Internet provides many benefits:
- Easy and speedy access to free, diverse, and high quality ESL materials (provided by a global ESL community)
- Materials that can be downloaded, edited, modified, and printed
- Can find answers to almost any (practical) question and materials on almost any subject
- Participate in a shared community of ESL learners and educators
There are some limitations however:
- Some materials are of poor quality (browse wisely)
- Regional variations and dialects (for instance, you might want to double check that the exercise you are using follows Canadian spelling rules)
- Endless commercial sink holes
- Manage your time wisely as the hours can flyby
Vision Problems
Having problems reading the small text on some websites?
You can make this text larger (or smaller) by changing your browser options. For Internet Explorer users, click on the 'View' menu (located near the top left of your screen) and move down the menu to 'Text Size'. Here you can choose to make your text larger or smaller.
Still didn't work?
If the text remained the same size, then you'll need to change some further options.
- Go to the menu 'Tools' (at the top of the browser) and click on 'Internet Options.' A small box called 'Internet Options' will then appear.
- Click on the 'Accessibility' button located near the bottom right of this box. An additional box called 'Accessibility' will appear.
- In the first section ('Formatting'), click on the following: 'Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages'. A checkmark should appear in the small box.
- Click the 'OK' button at the bottom of the 'Accessibility' box. This will save the changes and close the box.
- Finally, click on the 'OK' button at the bottom of the 'Internet Options' box. This will close the box.
- Now, you should be able to change the text size at will using the 'View' menu and 'Text Size' as described previously.
If required, you can undo these changes by following the same steps.
Searching
Search engines (e.g., google) and directories (e.g., Yahoo) allow you to search the Internet for English and ESL materials. Use keywords like ESL, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and idioms, or, if you are looking for thematic materials, type in the theme or topic name (e.g., hockey rules, etiquette, etc.).
Word of caution: although helpful, these search engines and directories still cast a narrow net. Thus, don't give up if you can't find a resource here.
Often the best way to find new materials is through other sites. Most sites include links lists or their own directories. One excellent example is the The Internet TESL Journal.
Finally, remember to always bookmark when you find a new and helpful site. There is nothing more frustrating than finding and then loosing an excellent resource.
Printing
Fortunately, most ESL websites are in a simple, text format, which is printer friendly or at least cut-n-paste friendly.
Cut-n-Paste
If a site's content is not easily printed, you may have to cut-n-paste the material into a text editor like MS Word or WordPerfect. In addition, once in an editor, the content can be easily edited, rearranged, or modified.
- With your mouse, highlight the text you want and copy (using a right-click on the mouse or the edit menu.)
- Move to your text editor and paste into a new, blank documents (note: images can also be copied using this method)
Hint: Depending on your editor, you can change the format of the text you are pasting. Look under the edit menu for additional paste options.
Other File Types
Some sites will include documents or materials in other file formats. For the most part if you are using a computer with Windows 98 or beyond you should be able to use these files without additional software.
| Extension | File Type | Application |
| .doc | text | MSWord |
| text | Acrobat Reader (not standard) | |
| .wav | audio | Windows Media Player, etc. |
| .mpeg | video | Windows Media Player, etc. |
| .ra, .ram | audio/video | Real Audio |
| .jpeg | image (pictures) | web browser or text editor |
| .gif | image (graphics) | web browser or text editor |