ESL teachers: are you looking for engaging, easy-to-use, and above all, free ESL resources for homework or classroom tasks? Well, look no further, here are 34 professional sites, perfect for homework activities, brushing up on grammar or stimulating conversation. They are all trusted sites with no spammy pop-ups, which you can feel confident in using and recommending to students.
Table of contents
6. Free courses
For more on pronunciation this, check out our mega pronunciation resource here.
Listening
Podcasts are a great no-marking comprehension homework. In additional, the material can be used for speaking practice the following lesson when students explain the topic. Here is my go-to list.
Podcasts
BBC 6 Minute English – without doubt the best EFL podcast on the list. Updated weekly, Six Minute English provides fun and interesting episodes on culture, technology, travel, business and more. They’ll always include at least four new phrases to learn and after listening, students can check their understanding with the transcript. Level: Intermediate. Accent: British
CNN 10 – a news show which condenses world news for that day down to 10 minutes, providing a great way for higher-level students to practice their listening skills. Videos are accessed in the CNN app and students can read the full transcript afterwards to check their understanding. Level: upper-intermediate to advanced. Accent: American
ELLLO – thousands of free English video lessons and ESL podcasts on everyday English conversation. Level: elementary to intermediate. Accent: British
The English We Speak – a three-minute podcast also from the BBC which covers phrases recently adopted into the English language. The podcast also comes with a complete transcript. Level: upper-intermediate. Accent: British.
Culips – an ESL podcast developed to help ESL students learn everyday English phrases. At 20 minutes, podcasts are on the long-side but the conversations are thought through and students are sure to learn something. Level: beginner to advanced. Accent: American.
60 Second Science Podcast – a podcast summarising scientific ideas and news. Despite being called ’60 Second Science’ episodes actually three minutes long, so there’s enough content to set for your students as a quick homework exercise. Level: Advanced. Accent: American.
Videos
Videos from well-regarded Youtube channels also provide great comprehension practice and topics for conversation for upper-intermediate to advanced students. Here are some of the best.
BBC Global – good for history, science and geography.
Wall Street Journal – good for business and technology.
TED – thousands of videos about technology, education, politics, science and culture. I recommend choosing a 10 minute video or less.
TED ED – fun, five-minute long animations on science literature, history and culture.
Reading
Newspaper and magazine articles also provide another easy homework assignment for B2-C1 students. Here are some publications I recommend..
BBC Travel Site and BBC Our Unique World – between these two web-pages you’re sure to find something interesting, inspiring or fun to share with your students.
Guardian – one of the few quality newspaper sites which is not behind a paywall.
Wired – publishes stories about technology, science, business and politics. You’ll normally find something interesting to talk about on this site.
Tech Crunch – merges technology and business, and publishes articles about startups and technology companies.
Forbes – a go-to publication for business stories from the US and the world.
Inc – a millennial business magazine publishing articles about startups, finance, work and technology. It’s a great alternative to the often dry business press.
Grammar
A few useful no-marking ESL grammar sites for post-class review. Level: beginner to advanced.
Perfect English Grammer – hundreds of well-designed gap-fill exercises, going into granular detail on grammar. This site has no popup ads, which is a big plus for me.
Dave’s ESL Cafe – a meeting point for TEFL teachers to ask and answer questions and share resources. A little known fact is that Dave’s ESL Café also boasts hundreds of quizzes on various grammar and vocabulary points, written by teachers.
Grammar Monster – founded in 2003 by British Army officer Craig Shrives, Grammar Monster has since grown to become a library of information on spelling, punctuation, homonyms and more. For students who like retro games, there is also an impressive list of word games with video game characters.
Engvid – hundreds of videos covering all parts of grammar.
Writing
Want a break from marking writing assignments? Encourage your students to find a penpal. Here are some sites. For safety, this is of course recommended for adult students only.
https://www.globalpenfriends.com
Pronunciation
High level students often ask for extra pronunciation activities. Here are some videos to practice outside of class.
Rachel’s English (Youtube) – detailed instruction on American English provided by a former opera singer.
BBC English Pronunciation – teacher Tim gives tips on how to pronounce difficult works. Accent: British.
Youglish – Youglish is a clever service which helps students learn English through Youtube video. All you need to do is type a word or phrase into the search bar and Youglish will find a video of someone using it. Accent: whatever you need.
For more on pronunciation check out our huge pronunciation guide covering all you need to teach countless pronunciation classes.
Free courses
BBC Learn English – the BBC Learning English site has grammar, vocab, listening and reading exercises for intermediate to advanced learners.
British Council – British Council offers free resources including grammar and vocabulary video lessons, business English and IELTs practice for English students. It’s teens site is particularly good with videos and listening practices based around teen issues.
Teen site: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/
Kids’ site: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en
IELTS exam
IELTS Liz has loads of free listenings, readings and speaking and writing questions to help your students prepare.
Listening practice: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-listening/
Reading practice: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-reading-lessons-information-and-tips/
Writing practice: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-letter-writing-essential-tips/ and https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-writing-task-2/
Speaking questions: https://ieltsliz.com/ielts-speaking-free-lessons-essential-tips/
More IELTS resources
Splendid speaking – tips on how to get a good IELTS grade with this podcast which includes interviews with IELTS teachers. Other podcasts include example speaking exams with real students to give listeners more ideas on how to answer questions.
Future learn – a big course provider which offers a free IELTS prep course.
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Andromeda Jones is an English teacher and writer. She is an advocate for teaching English through oral drills and conversation exercises rather than text-books. When she is not teaching or writing, she likes to spend her time trail running and cycling in the Scottish Highlands.
