Web Resources for Students
General Sites
Expressions:
Stories & poems by young writers in Hong Kong.
CIA World Factbook:
Lots of useful information about countries - population, health,
geography
Interesting Hotels:
Information about unusual places to travel and stay.
Speeches, movie scenes etc:
You can watch, listen to or read lots of famous American speeches and
scenes from movies.
Learn to touch type:
This link takes you to a download page for a free typing tutor.
It is only about 300kb and installs quickly
.
A guide to learning English:
The site has useful advice and many exercises in grammar and vocabulary
.
How everyday things are made:
The site shows how a number of different things are made such as movies
and diagrams
How to improve your
English:
Are you worried about your English? Do you think your progress is slow?
Have a look at this page. There are many tips and guides to help
you find new ways to learn and keep motivated. You can also find
help with each of the skills and with grammar, vocabulary and
pronunciation.
Learn
English Network: You will find many ways to help you
learn or teach English at this site. It includes materials to improve
skills, structure, pronunciation and interaction. Conversations online
need online registration and some software. You will need to make your
own decisions whether to set-up an account or install software.
English On-line:
This site
links to many other sites. They are organised by themes and the
themes are listed on the left hand side. Select a theme and you
will get a page of links to sites on that theme. Choose carefully
and don't get lost. Remember, you have come here to practice
English.
Some links may not work.
Using English for
Academic Purposes:
This is an extensive site covering most aspects of English for students
preparing for study at University. It includes developing academic
skills such as critical reading, note-taking and referencing. It
is most suitable for UP classes.
IELTS
See the IELTS page
for details
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Listening
Behind
the News: Watch and listen to the BTN news.
Enough
Rope with Andrew Denton: Here, you can watch excerpts from
some of the best ENOUGH ROPE interviews since 2003. Scroll down
to the section watch online.
VILC:
The Virtual ILC is an Australian site with different sections. Go
to 'Realweb' for language learning tasks; 'Easynews' to listen to news
articles and answer questions or 'Listen to this' for listening
about a topic. This
site is only available within Victoria University.
BBC
Learn English: Listen and read the news. Click on Watch &
Listen.
ABC
Radio National:
The site has authentic listening material on
current topics.
ABC
Radio News:
Advanced listening. Listen to the radio news and complete the
cloze activities. This
site is only available within Victoria University.
VOA Special English:
Listen to a 30 minute program news and special feature reports.
They are written and produced daily for learners of English. You
can also listen to many special reports with scripts or do some English
practice activities. (American English)
Randall's
ESL Cyber Lab: Lots of listening activities.
Listen to English podcasts: You can listen to lots of stories
on a wide range of topics or download them to your mp3 player to listen
to later. Sometimes language notes or quizzes are included.
Look at the archive to see the full list of topics. This is an
excellent site.
Adult
Learning Activities: Improve your listening and reading
skills. Stories are organised under topics and there are
activities to practice new English and check comprehension.
ESL
Radio: This Australian site was created by Monash University. The program guide tells you about Monash
University. Click on the Listening Activities to choose a
listening program.
Dr
Karl: On this site Dr Karl talks about Science on ABC Radio.
There are two pages - Homework has shorter conversations and Famous
Moments has longer ones. On both pages, you can listen and read at
the same time.
In
The News:
News stories & downloadable activities. This
site is only available within Victoria University.
English Songs & Lyrics: Listen to the music and read the lyrics of many English
songs from the 1930s- to the 1990's
Breaking News: News stories with vocabulary and comprehension
exercises. Recent stories have audio.
Stories are added
weekly. You can choose stories from the theme (topic) list near the
bottom of the page. Intermediate to Advanced Students.
ELISA: This site is
suitable for EL1 and UP students. Listen to interviews about peoples'
careers There are large word lists and the texts for each
interview and you can use the site's concordancer to study the
vocabulary. These two interviews also have a lot of activities.
English Conversations: There are many different conversations, and
you can listen, read the script and practice interactive listening
activities. Business English topics are include. There are some other
interesting activities to explore.
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Reading
Literacy
Net: This site uses stories from CNN and includes various exercises.
Penguin
Dossiers: Read & listen to articles from Penguin.
There are vocabulary definitions too.
Topics:
This site is an online magazine for learners of English. There are
a range of topics including food & travel pages, culture &
customs and a section on
globalisation.
ABC
Online: Transcripts & stories on a range of
current topics.
English
Daily: Chinese stories & songs in English.
English
Club: Short stories in English. Upper-Intermediate to Advanced
Students.
Adult
Learning Activities: Improve your listening and reading
skills. Stories are organised under topics and there are
activities to practice new English and check comprehension.
Breaking News: News stories
with vocabulary and comprehension exercises. Recent stories have audio.
Stories are added
weekly. You can choose stories from the theme (topic) list near the
bottom of the page. Intermediate to Advanced Students.
English Language
Centre Study Zone:
This site is is divided into levels. It has some grammar
explanations and good activities for elementary (200) to upper
intermediate (570) level. Lower levels include vocabulary; higher
levels include reading with some grammar activities, but they are not
related to specific points.
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Writing
TLS Student Learning: General study skills, academic essay
writing & exam techniques.
TLS Interactive Learning Blogs: Blogs
on many topics important to students
The
Writing Center: This site will help you with writing
introductions & conclusions. Examples are also
provided.
Paradigm
Online Writing Assistant: An interactive online writing tutorial.
The
Purdue University online Writing Lab: Purdue's OWL is useful for
general writing concerns and will also help you with punctuation &
grammar.
Academic
Writing: Writing module created by Victoria University (in New
Zealand). You can practise all aspects of essay writing.
Case
Study Report Writing: The site contains sample reports and exercises to
help you write case studies.
A
Guide to Grammar and Writing: With over 400 references related to
grammar and writing you might find your answer here!
An
Interactive Grammar and Writing Book: Sentence Sense 17
chapters of information and exercises: start at Chapter One for simple
sentence practice.
Go to Chapter 8 for problems with
run-on sentences, sentence fragments and other usage
problems
Blogs
and Wikis
on the Internet: Write your stories and opinions on a blog or a wiki.
This is a type of writing that is available on the Internet for anyone
to read. You must read the warning before you go to a blog or wiki.
Essay Writing: This has a good
guide to writing an essay of 250-600 words. It uses the 5 paragraph
structure and is useful for Elicos 1 – UP2 and IELTS.
To guide you through the steps in
writing an essay, click on the headings below:
Online Writing Support: Another excellent resource for helping you
with academic and general writing is from Towson University. The
site is suitable for UP students and the grammar is also suitable for
EL1.
A
Sample Essay:
This is a useful model essay showing the basic elements of constructing
an academic essay. It is annotated and shows:
- Structure of the
essay – introduction, development point by point, and conclusion
- Use of sources -
information located by research
- Comments on use of
language
Annotated Sample Essay:
This annotated essay is suitable for
UP students and identifies what makes
a good essay.
Using English for
Academic Purposes:
This site from the University of Hertfordshire has a lot of help for
academic writing including functions (e.g. processes and giving
examples), spelling and punctuation. of English. It is most suitable for
UP classes, but the paragraphs and functions sections are useful for
IELTS.
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Grammar
Quizzes
for English Study: Here you find exercises on prepositions, verbs, articles,
sentence structure and conjunctions at different levels. From
the Internet TESOL Journal.
Self-Study
Grammar Quizzes: Lots of self study grammar quizzes.
Aardvark's:
Interactive English language exercises.
Better
English: Lots of interactive grammar exercises. Here you'll
also find conditionals.
ESL
Blues: English grammar, quizzes, tutorials and games.
EFL
Net: Lots of grammar exercises.
A
Guide to Learning English: Practise your grammar here.
Non
Stop English: Lots of grammar and vocabulary lessons grouped
by topics.
Virtual
Language Centre: More than just grammar and vocabulary!
Grammar
Activity: Adjectives ending in -ed and -ing!
General grammar and vocabulary library:
You will find grammar activities at
beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. Click on the
grammar exercises link for quizzes and the
grammar rules link for explanations. Vocabulary includes Weekly
words, Business language and Idioms
Online Writing Support: This site from Towson University has a lot
of grammar explanations, self-study units and exercises. These
links are suitable for UP and
EL1 students.
English Language
Centre Study Zone:
This site is is divided into levels. It has some grammar
explanations and good activities for elementary (200) to upper
intermediate (570) level. Lower levels include vocabulary; higher
levels include reading with some grammar activities, but they are not
related to specific points.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary for learners of English: There are lots of vocabulary
activities available at this site from beginner to advanced. You
can even make your own quizzes.
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Presentation
Skills
Oral
Presentations: This site from
Victoria University provides advice on oral presentations.
Oral
Presentations 2: This site
gives information about presenting a good oral presentation.
It
can only be used with a good internet connection.
Guidance for Oral Presentations: The
links below give you some additional notes and guidance on preparing and
delivering a successful oral presentation. Suitable for UP
students.
Note: Check our Del.icio.us links for more sites.
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Pronunciation
Practice
Sounds
of English: Activities & exercises to help you
practice your pronunciation.
English
Pronunciation Practice: Lots of pronunciation exercises. Uses
American English.
Video
& Sounds:
Pronunciation guide from Iowa University. Click Launch English Library to
see and hear descriptions of how sounds are produced.
English-online Pronunciation course:
You can study a short course in pronunciation. There are seventeen
units for you to practice minimal pairs. Each unit has four parts.
Ship or Sheep: There
are 29 units for pronunciation practice organised by minimal pairs at
this site. It also links through to British vowel pronunciation.
You can listen and repeat what you hear.
Howjsay:
This is a pronunciation dictionary. Type in the word you want to
learn, click 'submit' and use your point to the word and listen and
repeat. British pronunciation is used.
Interactive Pronunciation Exercises:
Exercises to help with -ed endings and stress and intonation patterns.
Style
Guides
Harvard Reference System: Information on the Harvard
referencing system.
APA
Online: Reference examples for electronic materials.
Dictionaries
Dictionary.com:
English & foreign language dictionaries including a translator.
Cambridge
Dictionary:
Macquarie
Dictionary: The concise version.
Internet Picture
Dictionary: Suitable for lower levels.
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News Online
The Age: Online
newspaper.
News.com:
Australian news.
Online News:
Newspapers from around the world.
Herald
Sun: Full text of the day's news.
Breaking News: News stories
with vocabulary and comprehension exercises. Recent stories have audio.
Stories are added
weekly. You can choose stories from the theme (topic) list near the
bottom of the page. Intermediate to Advanced Students.
Test your
Spelling
Catch
the Spelling: Practise your spelling.
Look
Say Cover Write Check: Improve your spelling by playing a
game.
Spelling:
Do you have problems when to use accept/except or affect/effect? Try
this site!
Common
words that sound alike: Many words sound alike but mean
different things when put into writing. This site will help you
distinguish between some of the more common words that sound alike.
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Idioms
Cambridge
Idioms Dictionary
Choose the Dictionary
of Idioms.
Dave
Sperling's Idiom Page: Lists, definitions & examples.
Idioms:
Definition, picture, exercises and games of idioms.
Fun Stuff
Crosswords:
Try these interactive crossword puzzles. They will help you learn
new words.
WordMania:
Find the hidden words and enjoy the game.
Word
Games: There are some great word games here. Suitable for
intermediate to advanced students.
Stripcreator:
Make your own comic strip. Click on 'Make a Comic'. Best
viewed in Internet Explorer.
Word
Based Games for ESL Students: Here there are lots of word games to
help you practise your grammar.
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Info
about Melbourne/Australia
Australia.com:
Find out what to do & where to go.
Indigenous
Australia: This section has information on Indigenous Australia
including Cultural Heritage, Spirituality, Family, Dreamtime, Land and
Social Justice. It also has a Glossary and an Indigenous Australia
Timeline.
Federation
Square: Find out more about Melbourne Federation Square.
City
of Melbourne: Lots of information about Melbourne.
Immigration
Museum: Visit the museum to discover the story of migration to
Australia.
Melbourne
Museum: Opening hours, address & details of exhibitions.
Melbourne
Aquarium: Discover about the creatures of the Southern Ocean.
Melbourne
Zoo: Find out about opening times & how to get there.
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Maps & Guides
World
Atlas:
Maps & geography of the world.
Lonely
Planet:
Search for information about different countries.
Melbourne
Street Maps:
Find places and street maps of Melbourne.
Student Information
ELI Student Information Handbook: Information for students
about studying at ELI - contacts, courses and facilities.
International
Students: Useful information you need to know about Australia
such as jobs, accommodation and education.
Permission to work (online):
Complete this online form to apply for permission to work while you are
a student.
Permission to work (post):
Use this form to apply for permission to work while you are a student. You
need to send this form by post.
List of DIAC forms:
Use this alphabetical list to find other DIAC forms you might need.
Viclink: Find out about tram, train & bus travel on Melbourne's
transport system, plus fares & ticketing information.
Study in Australia:
Find lots of information about studying in Australia in many different
languages.
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English Language Institute
