ESL Teacher Resources - Link Collection

Love what you do!

Teaching English to speakers of other languages is so much fun!  I feel very lucky to say, "I love my job!". While planning lessons for ESOL students, I usually find some great web-resources for both English language learners and English language teachers. This post contains a collection of links to various English / ESL resources around the net. Feel free to add any you might use :)

San Diego - ESL Classes and Public Libraries 

• **FREE ESL Classes through San Diego Continuing Education** (YES!)
• San Diego Public Library --FREE Media Rentals: Books, Magazines, DVDs and more!
• How to get a library card (resident or temporary free, non-resident $30/year) The library give a temporary card to those with student visas. Everyone should go get his or her card today!
• **Resources for new Americans - in-person services offered by the Library
• Resources for new Americans - web based resources
• Catalog and Databases - start research on a subject
• Map of San Diego Public Libraries (.pdf)

ESL Reference Sources on the web - Dictionaries, Thesauruses and Encyclopedias

• Merriam Webster Visual Dictionary
• Merriam Webster English Learner's Dictionary
• Visual Thesaurus
• Wikipedia - Simple English

I find that including technology in lessons helps to make the learning experience more applicable to the real-world. I would just love to have one of these aaxa jr ultra portable pico pocket projectors because sometimes I think of a great lesson that includes video or images, but I am unable to share that information with the class as a whole. You could make any classroom into a smart-classroom with just a netbook/laptop and this little tiny projector! What a cool gadget! 

Web - Teacher Resource Guides, Lesson Plans and Worksheets / Handouts

• Daily ESL - Conversation Starters (one of my favorites)
• Grammar Handouts from usingenglish.com
• Research Information and Resource Guides from CAELA: ESL
• Boggle's World: ESL for Adult Students

ESL Reference Documents - (.pdf)

     The document + key below provide program and curriculum standards for adult ESL classes:

• ESL - Modern Standards for Adult Education Programs
• ESL - Modern Standards_Key

     ^I highly recommend ESL tutors and teachers read this document. Reading he Modern Standards gave me a clear picture of what to expect from students novice through fluent. A drawback is that its from 1992. I am hoping that an update comes out soon. Please comment with a link if you know any alternate or updated versions. Thanks!!

And now for a little poetry break:

"The Road Not Taken"

By Robert Frost {hear it read aloud}

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.