ESOL Websites

As part of the BBC World Service, BBC Learning English has been teaching English to global audiences since 1943, offering free audio, video and text materials to learners around the world.

Signing Savvy LLC focuses on creating cutting-edge, easy-to-use sign language learning tools. The founders of Signing Savvy include educators, interactive media designers, and sign language experts representing over 40 years of experience in sign language education.

USA Learns is a free website that helps adults learn English online. This popular website, visited by more than 7,000,000 adults around the world, teaches English by providing engaging videos and educational activities. Learners have the opportunity to learn English independently or with the support of their teacher.

Learning Chocolate is designed to help you memorize English (both US & UK!), Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), German or Spanish vocabulary in an easy, fun way that really works. All the exercises use pictures, sounds, and games to make learning a new language as fun as enjoying a piece of chocolate!

This free website has helped students worldwide improve English grammar and vocabulary skills since 2003. There are seven levels of instruction: blue, red, yellow, green, purple, orange, and violet. Begin when you are ready.

  • Part of Randall’s ESL Cyber Lab
  • Listen, Practice, Follow-Up (More Practice)
  • Technology including basic computers
  • Reading-including many ESL Activities
  • Math
  • Career Resources
  • Sound of Letter
  • Example in Word
  • Picture of Word
  • ESL Lesson Plan
  • Photocopy Worksheets
  • Lesson Planning Help
  • Links to Videos, Online Interactive Games
  • List of iPad ESL Resources

Short videos on teaching specific tutoring techniques to studentsenvironment that makes learning flexible and accessible

  • Tips for working with students
  • Troubleshooting Ideas
  • Homework Ideas
  • Brainstorming
  • Icebreakers
  • Lesson Plans by topic including: Conversation, grammer, Money, Jobs…
  • Printable Activities including games, worksheets, quizzes

                                         Starfall

Starfall Education Foundation is a publicly supported nonprofit organization, 501(c)(3). We create free and low-cost experiences whereby children can successfully learn through exploration. On the Starfall website and in Starfall classrooms, children have fun while learning in an environment of collaboration, wonderment, and play. We teach through positive reinforcement to ensure children become confident, intrinsically motivated, and successful.

             Storynory – Audio Stories for Kids

FREE audio stories for kids, including fairytales, original stories, myths, poems, music, history and audiobooks all read beautifully by professional actors.

Starfall Education: Kids Games, Movies, & Books Pre-K-3

At Starfall, children have fun while they learn – specializing in reading, phonics & math – educational games, movies, books, songs, and more for children K-3.
There are also some great features available that give you the option of downloading the audio to your computer, listening to “catch phrase” explanations, translating text into different languages (especially helpful for your ELL students!), and more.

                                            Oxford Owl

After registering for a free account, you have access to over 250 children’s audio books that can be used in the classroom.  The book text is not part of the presentation, so students will not be able to follow along as it is read to them.

                                             Immersive Reader

Immersive Reader is a free tool that implements proven techniques to improve reading and writing for people, regardless of their age or ability. Immersive Reader can improve reading comprehension and increase fluency for English language learners. 

Built into Immersive Reader, Picture Dictionary enables students to view a picture representation of a word they click on. Students can combine with Read Aloud for multi-sensory processing, a technique to aid reading and comprehension.

                                                       Rewordify

Rewordify is a free on-line tool that simplifies difficult vocabulary in a written text. In a nutshell, Rewordify will analyze an English text (or an entire website) and then automatically highlight all the words it considers are too difficult. Rewordify.com is powerful, free, online reading comprehension and vocabulary development software. 

It helps people understand difficult English faster, helps them learn words in new ways, and helps teachers create high-interest learning materials from any English text passage. Rewordify is simple to use. Just copy any digital text, go torewordify.com, and paste the text into the text box at the top of theRewordify page. Rewordify will redisplay the text providing your students with a few different ways to handle difficult words.”

                                               Into the Book

Into the Book is a reading comprehension resource for elementary students and teachers. We focus on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing.

Into the Book is a multimedia package designed to improve elementary students’ reading comprehension, as well as their ability to think and learn across the curriculum.

Based on current research, the project focuses on eight learning strategies: using prior knowledge, making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring, summarizing, evaluating and synthesizing.
Into the Book includes:
  • student website featuring interactive reading comprehension activities.
  • teacher website featuring video clips, posters, teacher guides, lesson plans and a matrix linking each activity with Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts.
  • nine 15-minute classroom videos teaching children how to be strategic readers.
  • the Behind the Lesson video series including nine 10-minute professional development videos that model effective ways of teaching the learning strategies.