Acdemic Writing Support:
Resources for ESL Writers by the University of Minnesota provides valuable resources and guides for English Speakers of Other Languages to improve their English writing and communication skills.
Weatherford College's Academic Support Center provides free tutoring for academic writing assignments.
Digital Skills:
Miscrosoft 360 Help and Learning provides step-by-step guides and troubleshooting help for essential tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams. It also teaches how to install these applications, manage accounts, and use AI features to boost productivity.
Typing offers free, interactive lessons that help learn touch typing and improve typing speed and accuracy. It features engaging drills, games, and specialized tracks like coding and tech readiness to build essential digital skills.
Typing Club offers free, game-like lessons that guide through proper hand posture to build typing speed and muscle memory. It includes engaging videos, animated stories, and specialized courses for younger children, left or right-handed typists, and multiple languages.
Grammar Guides:
Grammar Book provides rules and examples on English grammar, punctuation, and capitalization, along with interactive quizzes to test understanding.
Grammar Bytes! offers detailed explanations, interactive exercises, and various resources like handouts and presentations.
Grammar Monster is an excellent source for ESOL vocabulary lists covering topics with detailed definitions and example sentences. The lists are organized into categories.
Language Learning Apps:
Duolingo is a fun app that offers bite-sized lessons to help learn over 40 languages and practice reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
Elsa Speak is an AI-powered platform for English Language Learners to improve speaking and pronunciation skills. It offers personalized lessons, conversational exercises, and vocabulary building.
FluentU is a language learning platform that uses real-world videos, such as movie trailers and news clips, to teach languages through interactive subtitles, quizzes, and personalized learning.
Online Language Tutorials:
American English Podcast offers audio and video lessons, covering various topics like grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and American culture, to help Multilingual Language Learners (MLLs) improve their skills.
ESL Lab is a free online resource for English language learners, focusing on improving listening comprehension skills. It offers a diverse collection of listening activities, including quizzes with immediate feedback, transcripts, and discussion prompts, all arranged by difficulty level.
Learn English with Vince is a YouTube channel providing English language lessons, covering topics like grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and conversation skills, led by instructor Vince.
Speak English with Vanessa is a YouTube channel offering English language lessons, vocabulary, pronunciation tips, and conversational practice, led by instructor Vanessa.
Vocabulary Lists:
ESL Desk provides vocabulary lists, grammar explanations, ESL quizzes, spelling tests, and reading help tools. The site also offers access to a free library of grammar, vocabulary, and conversation lessons.
ESL Gold provides an academic vocabulary list with definitions to help learners master essential terms for academic success.
Wordnik is a dictionary and thesaurus website owned by Dictionary.com. It has many features, including "Ask Wordnik" (a feature where you can ask questions about English grammar), "A Word A Day" (a daily email containing an example sentence using a word from the dictionary), and "Word of the Day" (a daily email containing an example sentence using a particular word).
5 Strategies for Better Supporting Multilingual Learners by Guillermo Lopez and Amy Getz explains how faculty and staff can make a big difference in students’ learning by using strategies to create a positive classroom and campus environment for Multilingual Learners of English. They shed light on important opportunities for strengthening postsecondary pathways for multilingual learners. Guillermo Lopez and Amy Getz are co-authors of the West Ed and Student-Ready Strategies report “Translating Opportunity: Improving Postsecondary Pathways for Multilingual Learners of English.”
College Ready or Not? Engaging and Supporting English Language Learners in Higher Education illustrates the landscape of ELLs enrolled in institutions of higher education. It explores how ELL students are classified and how these different profiles intersect with the limited range and types of English as a Second Language (ESL) support available at the institutional level. The article explains the very limited practical knowledge base on ELLs in the college setting, with a summary of promising best practices for college faculty across disciplines to consider in their instruction.
DART: A Foundational Digital Literacy ESL Curriculum This resource offers free, beginner-friendly lesson plans specifically designed to teach foundational computer skills to lower-level English Language Learners. It seamlessly combines English language development with essential digital topics, guiding students through everything from basic phone and computer keyboarding to online safety, web searches, and account creation.
Lessons From Multilingual Learners to Improve Student Success demonstrates how institutions can better meet the needs of MLE students. West Ed and Student-Ready Strategies have released a report on how institutions can better support Multilingual Learners of English (MLE) as they pursue postsecondary pathways. The report emphasizes the importance of a culture of care, fostering relationships within the college community, and providing intentional opportunities for MLE students to connect. It also highlights the challenges MLE students face, such as balancing life obligations with school, and the need for institutional leaders to provide support and guidance to ESL instructors.
Listen to students sharing their perspectives on how institutions can better meet the needs of MLE students the following videos:- Multilingual Learners of English Discuss the Importance of a Culture of Care in Higher Ed
- Multilingual Learners of English Discuss Pursuing their Postsecondary Goals
- Multilingual Learners of English Discuss Balancing Life + Higher Education
National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition gives educators access to webinars and workshops focused on ESL teaching strategies, research-based publications about effective ESL instruction and language acquisition, as well as information on policies, laws, and guidelines related to ESL education.
TESOL offers an array of articles, research papers, and publications that cover topics such as lesson planning, language assessment, classroom management, and cultural competence. Additionally, the website provides a platform for teachers to connect through discussion forums, online communities, and networking opportunities.
Translating Opportunity: Improving Postsecondary Pathways for Multilingual Learners of English, examines the opportunities and challenges for MLE students navigating the postsecondary system. The report offers recommendations that can help educators, institutional leaders, policymakers, service providers, advocates, researchers, and funders better serve this diverse population with effective and equitable policies, programs, and structures.
Coming soon!