Online Learning Websites
CET and The University offer a number of free sites that will help improve your English and study skills. We suggest you begin with the two links below CET FREE worksheets and iResearch.
- CET FREE worksheets. Register your details, choose FREE worksheet bundles and enter promo code: CET2013
- iResearch: information skills for life.
Also, below is a list of online learning websites suitable for students. We suggest that you explore some of these websites and bookmark those you find most useful.
We have highlighted some sites that may be more suitable for *INTERMEDIATE level students.
General Sites
News and Public Broadcasting Services
Free Dictionary Sites
Spelling Sites
Academic English Sites
Academic Listening Practice Sites
English Language Test Sites
English Pronunciation Sites
Different Varieties of English Sites
Written to Spoken Voice Recognition Sites
Drama and TV Series Sites
Some Useful Online Strategies
| General Sites | |
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| ESL Blues |
A reasonably broad range of quizzes and lessons on adjectives, articles, tense, common errors, and what have you. A good, small introduction to help you navigate the 3 levels – pre-int, int and high-int – and to do some self-analysis. *INTERMEDIATE |
| ESL Listening Lab |
A large collection of materials especially good for listening comprehension on a wide range of topics. Activities are nicely graded as from ‘easy’ to ‘very difficult’. Often referred to as Randall’s site. *INTERMEDIATE |
| Using English |
A great site with fun quizzes. |
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Interesting Things for ESL Students Grammaer, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Quizzes, Games, Puzzles, etc. This site is part of an outreach of an EFL Journal in the US. It provides access to great listening materials on Youtube. The exercises are pre-grouped into Easy, Medium, Difficult and there are even some bi-lingual tasks!! *INTERMEDIATE |
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| English Test |
Josef Essberger, a writer and English language trainer from Cambridge UK, started this website in 1997, which has grown into one of the most popular on the web. Good links are available to other sites. |
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Another great site with lots of exercises. Excellent for beginner and intermediate students. |
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| Flashcards, worksheets, activities. | |
| All free lessons, activities and games. A popular website since 2002. | |
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Dave’s café. Famous since 1995. *INTERMEDIATE |
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Thousands of free activities. |
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Good for beginners, free flashcards, crossword maker, holiday pictures. |
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An excellent site for students, featuring a whole host of interactive games and tests as well as regular sections on conversational English, dealing with telephone conversations and grammar. The monthly e-mail newsletter takes the idea further, providing a wider range of tips and responding to specific requests from students. |
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Designed by World ORT in conjunction with the National Grid for Learning, this site is designed to offer a free English language course for refugees and immigrants in the UK. The exercises and online tasks are all beautifully designed. |
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A very interesting introduction to Western ideas and culture through Chinese eyes. |
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Lesson plans, worksheets, audio, video and flashcards. |
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A respected Canadian site known as Racoon English. |
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A well designed Australian site. |
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A ‘do good’ site, where you can simultaneously play vocabulary or grammar or general knowledge games, and donate rice to the world’s hungry. The site is owned by the World Food Program (whoever they are? !) |
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| News and Public Broadcasting Services | |
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| Australia Network |
An excellent Australian government sponsored site. Very popular in the Asian region. |
| ABC Home |
This is a portal to a whole world of digital media – radio, music, TV, podcasts, video etc. |
| Radio National |
Advanced learners are encouraged to access Radio National – a radio network for informed people. |
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This should be compulsory viewing for informed Australians and people interested in understanding Australian issues and discourse features. Q & A: is the name of the program. It is on ABC TV 1 Monday nights at 9.35 featuring political debate (transcripts available). |
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| Big Ideas |
Interviews suitable for advanced learners (transcripts available). |
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Aimed at school students. Interesting clips (transcripts available). |
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| One of the most frequently used English language learning sites on the web. | |
| Activities including pronunciation videos and listening activities. | |
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One of America's biggest news websites. |
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Students all over the world rate this as perhaps the most stimulating site on the web. Tremendous talks very suitable for intermediate to advanced learners. Use the subtitles to follow the speeches. You will love this site. |
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This is the US government sponsored site at Voice of America. It features news stories with questions and activities and is suitable for beginner and intermediate level learners. |
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Recent news stories with activities. |
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| Free Dictionary Sites | |
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| Cambridge |
Cambridge University Press publishes a range of dictionaries for learners of English all around the world. |
| Macquarie |
The Macquarie Dictionary is the standard Australian reference. It is excellent to use when checking words with a particular Australian meaning. |
| Dictionary.com |
Dictionary.com is the popular largest and most authoritative free online dictionary and mobile reference resource website. This site provide interactive and reliable source for word meaning and usage. |
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This is a must visit online source for dictionaries that are relevant to various fields such as medicine, legal and finance. It’s called The Free Dictionary by Farlex. Also, the Hutchison Encyclopedia on this website is packed with loads of information and facts from around the world. Simply type in what you’re looking for and you’ll learn about it here. |
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| Collins CoBuild |
The Collins CoBuild free online dictionaries are very user-friendly and very popular based on powerful corpus studies. The Advanced Learners dictionary is used universally. |
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Online talking dictionary of English pronunciation. |
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| Spelling Sites | |
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| Fun Trivia | |
| Teaching Treasures | |
| English Zone | |
| Top Site | |
| Academic English Sites | |
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| Write Site |
An excellent interactive site accessed through Fisher Library at the University of Sydney especially suitable for postgraduate students. |
| English Vocabulary Exercises |
A very practical website based on the academic word list. |
| EAP Vocabulary Exercises |
High-quality gap-fill exercises based on the academic word list. |
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A very comprehensive site covering all the skills needed by international students. This is the umbrella site for the previous entry. |
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| Word Sift |
A dynamic new way to learn new academic vocab by highlighting words. Worth trying. |
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From the Open University in the UK. |
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Quite a sophisticated US site. |
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English skills with a University focus. |
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| Academic Listening Practice Sites | |
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| Authentic BBC series, each has 12 parts, all with transcripts. These are suitable for advanced learners including DEC 15 and DEC 10 students. | |
| Academic Listening – Culture |
12 short lectures on different aspects of culture, particularly inter-cultural communications, and comparative cultural analyses, amongst other topics. |
| Academic Listening – University |
12 short lectures on different aspects of academic experience; seminars, writing tasks, lecture listening, etc. |
| Academic Listening - Insights |
12 short lectures on different social issues; human rights, climate change, product branding amongst other topics. The series looks at the language used to present these issues in public. |
| The Open University - Home |
Highly recommended academic listening for the Open University UK. |
| The Open University - Listening |
Highly recommended academic listening for the Open University UK. |
| English Language Test Sites | |
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| IELTS |
This is an official website with many practice IELTS tests. |
| You Tube |
Search IELTS speaking tests for excellent models of speaking test performance. |
| Pearson |
This is the official website. |
| TOEFL |
This is the official website. |
| English Pronunciation Sites | |
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| Pearson Longman |
Interactive phonemic chart. |
| Cambridge English |
Interactive games to practise phonemes. |
| UIOWA |
A very interactive site based on scientific research. |
| ESL Discussions |
English conversation questions. |
| Macmillan English |
English language games. |
| Teaching English |
New British Council phonemic chart. |
| Different Varieties of English Sites | |
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| National Museum of Australia |
Australia Museum: Varieties of English. |
| British Library |
British Library: Sounds Familiar – varieties of British English. |
| Fonetiks |
Online pronunciation guides to 9 varieties of English. |
| Written to Spoken Voice Recognition Sites | |
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| Sound Gecko |
A wonderful free site that allows you to paste a written text in a box and to have it emailed back to you in as a sound file as spoken text. Try it and you will be amazed. |
| Drama and TV Series Site | |
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| ESL Notes |
ESL Notes: movie plot summaries, vocabulary, questions for class. |
| Friends |
Transcripts to every show of the sitcom ‘Friends’. |
| Simply Scripts |
Movie and TV scripts available online. |
Some useful online strategies and tips to help improve your English
Writing
Listening
Speaking