Johanna Stirling's English Language Garden for teachers and learners of English as a foreign language
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Links for Teachers

Oh, where to start and where to finish! I've included some sites that I find really useful and some that have wowed other teachers. There's so much more I could have put in and I'll add some as they come to mind. They're all free, by the way.

Purpose URL Description
General sites

http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/

http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/

http://quickshout.blogspot.com/

 These three blogs, all written by Nik Peachey, are treasure troves of links to amazing WEb 2.0 sites where you and your learners can do amazing things. And he gives lots of examples of how they can be used for teaching English. Check 'em out!
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ Lots of really good quality material here for learners and teachers. In fact the whole of the BBC site is superb.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/central.htm

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/

 The British council also has loads of good activities for learners, and their Teaching English site has great stuff for teachers too.
http://shambles.net/ Shambles is a huge site for schools in South East Asia. It's got masses of links on it to other sites. All sorts of cool tools.
http://www.senteacher.org/Print/ This site is for Special Educational Needs teachers, but I think it's a great timesaver for us all. Ever spent hours drawing clocks, looking for dice, making flashcards, etc? SENteacher can save you hours of preparation.
General sites for teaching children

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/

 

 More from the BBC. This is their schools website, so head here if you teach children - great for CLIL teachers.
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids.htm The children's section of the British Council website.
Puzzles http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/ Puzzlemaker is an old favourite. Create your own wordsearch puzzle or crossword in an instant. Magic! And easy to use.
Make animated films http://www.zimmertwins.ca/ I love this! Children and adults can make animated films so easily and quickly. Have learners make their own or create one yourself to get your point across.
http://www.dfilm.com/live/moviemaker.html Dfilm is a bit more flexible than Zimmertwins (more characters, choose your music etc). Better for teenagers perhaps.

Create comic strips

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ Make comic strips using a range of weird and wonderful characters. Learners create them or you create them and get learners to fill in speech bubbles.
Get visuals http://web.uvic.ca/hcmc/clipart/

 If you can't find the pictures you need at http://images.google.com/ then try here - clipart for language teachers. Great if you want a picture of a preposition like 'next' for example.
http://www.flickr.com/ Flickr is a photo-sharing site. You can use a lot of the pictures free for educational purposes.
http://search.creativecommons.org/ Search for Creative Commons images here (you can use these images, videos, etc, with fewer legal restrictions than normal. For a user-friendly description of the restrictions, see HERE
Make online activities http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/ You can make quizzes really easily at ProProfs and get the results and even a map of where your 'students' come from. See my example here.
http://www.authorplus.com/freecd/ You can get a free (with limitations of course) version of Clarity's Authorplus program. It makes really user-friendly and professional looking online materials. Here's an example:
Voice tools http://voicethread.com/ Now you can give your learners speaking homework! Voicethread is a superb example.
http://www.chinswing.com/ Chinswing is a another great way to get your learners speaking out of class. Check out this great example: http://tinyurl.com/5zzzoe
Speaking http://www.esldiscussions.com/ Looking for discussions questions on a particular topic? There are 12,600 of them here on 630 topics!
Listening www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/directory/ Hard to find good listening material. isn't it? The BBC has some greaat podcasts.
www.breakingnewsenglish.com/index.html News articles read quite slowly and clearly with some great accompanying lesson plans.
http://www.podomatic.com/ Make your own podcasts for or with learners.
Research dictionary.cambridge.org/default.asp?dict=CALD Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary online. And you can switch to other dictionaries too such as their Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
http://simple.wikipedia.org/ We all know (don't we?) wikipedia, but did you know Simple English Wikipedia has articles written in easy English. Thank you, whoever thought of it!
Pronunciation www.oup.com/elt/global/products/englishfile/ Interactive chart of English phonemes. Listen and compare. From New English File coursebook.
www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/index.html Interested in different English accents? This is fun!
Surveys www.surveymonkey.com/ Make your own questionnaires or get your learners to. Great for IELTS prep.
Classroom posters www.abcteach.com/directory/teaching_extras Posters for primary classrooms and lots of other stuff.
Drama www.dramaresource.com/ Lots of great free drama games and activities. Get your learners up and doing.
Graphic organisers http://cmap.ihmc.us/ Free tool you download for making mind maps. There are others but it does want I want. Here is an example about lesson planning that I made.
http://bubbl.us/edit.php I was recently shown this one (thanks, Natan!). It's online and free and I love it!
Blogs https://www.blogger.com/start Make your own blog
http://www.funenglish4kids.motime.com/ Here's an example of how good a blog (for primary learners) can be.
Wikis www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english What's a wiki? And why would you need one? A wiki is an online document that you and your learners can collaborate on. Check out more here.
http://www.wikispaces.com/ Create a wiki here.
Chill out http://www.bemboszoo.com/ Now it's time to relax. Watch and enjoy!!
http://musicovery.com/ Choose music to suit your mood or your task. Listen and enjoy!!