Independent Study for English Learners
FREE online English language courses
USA Learns: American English language course for adults provided by the U.S. Department of Education, includes both beginner and intermediate-level modules
BBC Learning English: British English learning modules for both adults and children (BBC = British Broadcasting Company)
FLOW Speak: Downloadable app for English speaking practice
YouTube channels for learning American English
Rachel’s English: American English pronunciation, vocabulary, and situational speaking
Boost Up English: American English pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar
English with Jennifer: Grammar, vocabulary, speaking & reading fluency
VOA Learning English: Voice of America radio news, spoken at 33% slower than normal broadcast speed
Vocabulary
The Britannica Dictionary: My favorite dictionary for English Learners! Its definitions are easy to understand, and it has audio to hear pronunciation
Vocabulary.com: Sign up for free account that makes individualized vocabulary study for you
Quizlet Root words flash cards
Vocabulary-Building Games: A collection of free vocabulary learning games
Dave's ESL Café: Dictionary of slang
a4ESL: Vocabulary quizzes English-only and bilingual
Grammar
Grammar Girl: A YouTube channel that focuses on English grammar and punctuation. If you prefer text instead of video, see this webpage
Linguanaut English Written Course: Grammar lessons
Dave's ESL Café: Grammar lessons and quizzes
a4ESL: Grammar quizzes with 3 levels of difficulty
ESL Lounge: Self-guided lessons
Practice irregular verbs
Match present verbs with their past form
Practice with a jeopardy-style game
Series of irregular verb exercises
Using irregular verbs in sentences
Idioms
Definition and examples of idioms
Pocket English Idioms: Illustrated examples of idioms
The Idiom Connection: What is an idiom? and dictionary of idioms
Dave's ESL Café: Lists, examples and definitions of idioms
Listening comprehension
Voice of America: Practice English by listening to radio news. Includes transcripts if you want to read while listening
Podcasts in English (British English): Multiple levels, with transcripts available
TED Podcasts: TED Talks audio
Breaking News English (British English): Listening and reading comprehension practice using recent news articles
Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab: Listening quizzes
IELTS Listening Test: Practice, Lessons and Tips to improve your score
Down to Business English: British English for business
Excellent ESL 4U: Listening activities
Reading comprehension
Breaking News English: Reading and listening comprehension practice using recent news articles
Excellent ESL 4U: Reading practice
Writing and editing
Grammar Girl: Tips for correct writing.; especially don't miss Grammar Girl's Editing Checklist
Purdue OWL: ESL Online Writing Lab of Purdue University
Excellent ESL 4U: Scroll down for practice writing topics
ESL Writing: A collection of links for practicing English writing
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. is an old-school writing guide
Games for practicing English
Games to Learn English website
Free Rice: Each correct answer donates 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Programme
Ruzzle: Word puzzle game
ESL Games +: Some games are downloadable
Brain Pop ELL free trial
Spanish → English
Learn English from Spanish - Con instrucciones y explicaciones en español
Spanish/English cognates listed alphabetically, English to Spanish
Lista alfabética de cognados, español al inglés
Cognates grouped by part of speech
Here is a printable list of Spanish/English cognates
FALSE cognates with definitions in English
Cognados FALSOS con definiciones en español
Pronunciation Practice for American English
Video tutorials for pronunciation of American English
Producing vowel sounds
Rachel's English American English vowel sounds videos
Short vs. long vowel sounds intro video
Compare vowel sounds (American)
American English vs. British English vowel sounds
Ship or Sheep: Practice vowel sounds with minimal pairs (text only)
Vowel length is affected by ending consonant
Short vowels
Short vowel sounds overview - practice with a mirror
How to produce the short /a/ sound as in bat
How to produce the short /e/ sound as in bed
Compare Short /e/ vs. short /a/ --> bed vs. bat
How to produce the short /i/ sound as in sit
How to produce the short /u/ sound as in push
Long vowels
Long vowel sounds overview - practice with a mirror
Compare long /e/ vs. short /i/ --> seat vs. sit
Compare short /i/ vs. long /e/ --> live vs. leave
Compare short /o/ vs. short /u/ --> shot vs. shut
Producing consonant sounds
Rachel's English How-To videos list
Unvoiced vs. Voiced consonant sounds
How to produce Stop consonants (your mouth stops the flow of air)
Vowel length is affected by ending consonant
B and V
How to produce /f/ and /v/ (use same mouth position)
Minimal Pairs Practice for /b/ and /v/
CH and J
How to produce /ch/ and /jj/ (use same mouth position)
D and T
How to produce /t/ and /d/ (use same mouth position)
F and V
How to pronounce /f/ and /v/ (use same mouth position)
Practice the difference between /f/ and /v/
G and K
How to produce /g/ and /k/ (use the same mouth position)
L and R
How to produce /l/ in the middle of a word
Practice /l/ and /r/
Practice /l/ and /r/ with diagrams of mouth
S and Z
How to produce /s/ and /z/ (use same mouth position)
How to pronounce BECAUSE (final /z/)
V and W
English pronunciation tips V and W sound
Y and J
CH and SH
American pronunciation CH vs SH
Practice Difference between /ch/ and /sh/
Compare S and SH /s/ vs. /sh/
TH: /θ/ (unvoiced/soft) and /ð/ (voiced/hard)
How to pronounce TH after /n/ or /z/
How to pronounce The word SOMETHING
Practice /θ/ Unvoiced (soft) TH
Practice /ð/ Voiced (hard) TH
Suffix -ed
Video 3 ways to pronounce -ed
Video Final –ed Sounds part 1
Video Final –ed Sounds part 2
Video Eva Easton's -ED course
Consonant clusters and blends
Consonant cluster = consonant sounds that are not separated by a vowel sound
How to produce consonant cluster TR as in train
How to produce consonant cluster THR as in three
How to produce consonant cluster BR as in bring
How to produce consonant cluster SHR as in shrimp
How to produce consonant cluster -TL at end of words such as bottle
How to produce consonant cluster -NTH at end of words such as tenth
How to produce consonant clusters -SKS -STS and -SPS at end of words such as desks, tests, wasps
How to pronounce QU /kw/ as in quiet
How to produce /sk/ and /dj/ as in schedule
How to produce /gr/ and /dj/ as in graduate
Especially for Spanish-speakers: Consonant clusters that start with S (not ES!)
Minimal pairs – Practice for all letter sounds
Minimal pair = 2 words that are different by only 1 sound, for example: lot/not, sad/sat, or bad/bed
Audio ManyThings.org
Video 60 Minimal Pairs
Audio ShiporSheep.com
Pitch and intonation
The pitch of a sound = how high or low it is
Intonation = the rise and fall of the sound of your voice when you speak
Questions and intonation: Up or down?
Intonation Practice: How to greet Americans
Imitation exercise: What did you do today?
Imitation exercise: Talk about Thanksgiving
Stress on syllables
Stress = a greater loudness or force you put on a syllable of a word when you say it. Some English words are spelled the same but are stressed differently, for example:
CONtent is a noun (= the things that are contained within something)
conTENT is an adjective (= pleased and satisfied)
English: A stress-timed language
How to stress a syllable: The "shape" of stressed syllable
Stressed syllables within words
Change the stress, change the meaning: 35 words that change meaning
Un-stressing and reducing function words
Changing word stress for clarification
Unstressed vs. reduced syllables
Stress patterns in phrases and sentences - part 1
Stress patterns in phrases and sentences - part 2
Stress patterns in phrases and sentences - part 3
Stress and rhythm in American English pronunciation
Rhythm
Rhythm = a repeated pattern of sounds that happen at times that are equally separated
Stress and rhythm in American English pronunciation
Imitation exercise: What did you do today?
Imitation exercise: Talk about Thanksgiving
Tongue-twisters!
Rachel’s English 3 Tongue Twisters to Improve Your American English
Hank Green Tongue Twisters
Storyteller Donna Washington Peter Piper Tongue-Twister
Storyteller Donna Washington Betty Boughta Tongue-Twister
Storyteller Donna Washington Tongue Twister Challenge
Thistle-Sifter tongue-twister from the movie The King's Speech
Try more yourself! Here is a list of tongue-twisters
References and Research Tools for English Learners
The Britannica Dictionary for English Learners: Includes definitions that are easy to understand and audio to hear pronunciations
Thesaurus: Find synonyms and antonyms of words
Sweet Search: Like Google Search, but all sources have been verified by educators
Carrot2: Search engine that organizes search results into topics
Wikipedia in Simple English: Includes the same information as regular Wikipedia, but written for English Learners
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Updated December 2024
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