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* When
to double the final consonant
If you're not sure whether to write
'running' or 'runing' or 'biggest' or 'bigest', try this link.
* Spelling
plurals
This has clear tables which show you
how to spell plurals such as 'thieves', 'ladies' and 'potatoes.'
*
English
Homophones
This page has an enormous table of
homophones. These are words with different meanings and
spellings but which sound the same.
* Colorful
Poems:
Read to you with long vowels; needs flash
*Wordblender:
Clusters of words
*Star
Words: High
frequency words; needs flash
*
Magic
Pencil: Need
to download Real Player~Takes a while, but then you get access
to being able to write blends.
*
Sandcastle
Quiz:
Phonics game with phonemes
Little
Animals Activity Center
Grammar
and punctuation
* Webgrammar
This site contains a 'grammar
basics' section with information on parts of speech, confusing
word pairs, common mistakes and idioms. It also has a
section on writing which contains many links to grammar and
writing sites. It takes a while to work out what's in
there.
** The
Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
This is an on-line grammar and
punctuation book. Click on the grammar or punctuation
links on the left side and then the particular point you're
interested in, e.g. commas. You get a list of rules,
exercises with answers and tests with answers. These are
not interactive.
**
Common
Errors in English
Follow the link to the page, ignore
all the writing and click on 'go to errors' at the bottom of the
page. A list of common errors, such as 'accept/except' and
'I me myself' comes up and you can click on the ones you want to
know more about.
***
The
'tools' of writing
This is the part of the excellent Open
University's website on 'The Effective Use of English.'
There are pages on paragraphs, sentences, grammar, punctuation,
vocabulary, learning new words, spelling strategies and
rules. Tons of information and some online activities.
**Online
Writing Lab (Owl)
A very useful site with information
about punctuation, capitals, spelling rules, sentence
construction and grammar. There are some exercises with
answers, which can be printed off.
**Parts
of speech quiz
If you want to learn and
practice your nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs etc. this is a
good site. It will quiz you and give you information if
you get stuck.
Vocabulary
and Dictionary Skills
**Wordsmyth
Type in the word you are looking for
and it will define it. If you aren't sure of the spelling
it will bring up a list of possibilities.
** Dictionary/Thesaurus.com
This is an online dictionary and
thesaurus at your fingertips. It's much quicker than using
a proper dictionary and has other useful sections such as a
translator, a written style guide and a games and puzzles
section.
Various
Quizzes
*** Interactive
Quizzes
This contains about 170 grammar,
punctuation, spelling and vocabulary quizzes. All the
quizzes are interactive, so you can quickly check your
answers. If you need more information about rules, you can
click on 'Guide to Grammar and Writing' at the bottom of the
page to find out about a particular point. Some of the
questions are difficult and some of the rules are hard to
understand because they go into such detail. Apart from
that, it's a great site.
*** QUIA
If the site above seemed too difficult,
this might be the one for you. It contains various games,
such as matching, quizzes and concentration (where you turn over
cards to find pairs) to help you with your spelling, punctuation
and grammar. If you like it, you can even create your own
activities, which might end up being published on their web
page.
ESOL
resources (for students whose first language is not English)
*Teacher's
Page also has ESL
***Fun
EFL / ESL Lesson Worksheets
Original, supplementary,
multi-level worksheets to make learning English FUN!
***
ESL
KidStuff
Resources for kids teachers. Over 1,000 original flashcards,
hundreds of printable worksheets, games, teaching tips and more!
A must see site!
***
ESL
site for learning English
Fun
language-learning site with loads of activities for realtime
chat, Flash games for young learners, flashcards, phonics, and
more. They have received the Netscape DMOZ Cool Site Award for
the ESL category; publishes hundreds of quality pages each
month, and are 100% free and non-commercial.
*** Self
study quizzes for ESOL students
This is a site full of grammar and
vocabulary quizzes for students whose first language is not
English. It has masses of material.
**English
online
Good EFL (English as a Foreign
Language) site with some fun games.
**English
zone
Another good EFL site divided into
areas such as vocabulary, idioms, reading, spelling, reference
etc. Plenty of interactive quizzes.
*** Virtual
Language Center
This is an excellent site from Hong
Kong. Have a good look round as it's full of
information, reference tools, games and activities. Try storyboard
and listen to a song or conversation and fill in all the missing
words.
* Cambridge
sample materials
Here you can sample some good
interactive ESOL activities, such as phrasal verb
practice. Excellent stuff but not much of it.
General
*** BBC
Skillswise
A great new BBC site full of
worksheets, fact sheets and fun on-line games and quizzes to
help you learn and practice spelling, punctuation, grammar,
reading comprehension etc. Excellent, but a bit slow to
load.
***Manchester
City College
Contains many useful resources and
links to help students develop their basic skills. Check
out the 'English' materials in the 'Interactive Activities'
section. Materials are cross-referenced to the Adult
Literacy Core Curriculum.
***Abingdon
and Witney College
Another excellent basic skills college
website containing many useful materials and links. Aimed
more at tutors than students, it is mapped to the Adult Literacy
Core Curriculum and has lots of printable resources.
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