THE FUN OF LEARNING ENGLISH

The Fun of Learning English! ESL Resources for Students and Teachers

In the United States, it’s estimated that 43 percent of all schools provide ESL programs and 46 percent of all schools have ESL students. The number of ESL students in some states is very high, especially in Arizona, California, and Hawaii where more than 85 percent of the schools have ESL students. For ESL students and teachers, it can be quite challenging to learn and teach English. To get the student interested, teachers have to incorporate fun activities and games into the lesson plans. When the ESL lessons are fun, students will be excited to learn, making it much easier for teachers to teach. Students who learn English through fun activities will retain the lessons in their memory and they may be inspired to learn more about the topics. Fun ESL activities and games can be effective tools for ESL students and teachers. Here are some great ESL resources for students and teachers.

English Grammar Activities

It’s very important for ESL students to master English grammar because it lays the foundation for writing and speaking. Learning all about adverbs, verbs, punctuation, plurals, tenses, and adjectives can be daunting but ESL teachers can use fun activities and games to make the lessons more interesting. Here are some resources on English grammar activities.

• Grammar & Punctuation: A number of games and activities on full stops, capital letters, pronouns, and more.
• Grammar Quizzes: Many quizzes on functions, plurals, prepositions, contradictions, verbs, articles, and so on.
• English Learning Games: Some of the games include “The Grammar of Doom”, “Word Building”, “The Article Wolf”, and “Super Similes”.
• Grammar Blast: Here, you will find many games on nouns, verbs, adjectives, and others.
• Grammar Exercises: A great collection of grammar games by the British Council.
• Grammar Gold: Go for the gold with these fun games for Grades 1 to 5.
• Interactive Exercises: Try these grammar exercises to improve your nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions, and so on.
• Grammar Page: A useful resource page with exercises on grammar stuff, and more.

• Grammar Bytes: The webpage provides a lot of resources for ESL teachers and students.
• Daily Grammar: Online lessons and quizzes designed to improve English grammar skills.

Vocabulary Games

To boost the power of their language, ESL students should spend some time to improve their vocabulary. With knowledge of more words, students will be able to understand more of the language. There are many ways to learn more words but one of the most effective ways is through vocabulary games and activities.

• Vocabulary Games: Some of the popular games include “ESL Homophones”, “Unscramble”, and “Letter Blocks”.
• Vocabulary Word Lists: Complete resource page for ESL teachers with lists, games, quizzes, puzzles, and more.
• Online Quiz: Regardless of your level, here’s a great place to improve your vocabulary.
• Fun Games: A wide directory of English grammar and vocabulary games.
• Classroom Games: ESL teachers can try “Team Spelling”, “The Hot Seat”, “Spin the Coin”, and other fun vocabulary games.
• Crossword Puzzle: Solving crossword puzzles is an excellent way to improve your vocabulary.
• More Crossword Puzzles: Here’s another place to find daily online crossword puzzles.
• Paint by Idioms: Play this game to learn some English idioms.
• Idiom Resources: Many resources on idioms for ESL teachers.
• Similes: Try this exercise to test your knowledge of English similes.

Reading, Writing, & Spelling Games

Reading, writing, and spelling are essential skills for ESL students. It takes time to learn to read, write, and spell, and it may a lifetime to perfect these skills. Nevertheless, it’s good to build a good foundation because it will serve you well in the long run. With reading, writing, and spelling games, you will be surprised to find out how much you can improve.

• Reading: The BBC provides some games to help improve your reading skills.
• Reading & Writing: Here, you will find a number of games and activities on these skills.
• Clifford The Big Red Dog: A collection of interactive storybooks for early readers.
• Castaway: Interesting reading game for intermediate ESL students.
• Writing Exercises: The webpage offers mini writing lessons, and other writing activities.
• Paraphrasing: Try these exercises to learn the art of paraphrasing.
• Photographs: A module on using photographs for writing.
• Spelling Games: The games include “Against the Clock”, “Word Search”, and “Which Witch”.
• Word Wizard: Play this fun game to improve your spelling.
• Spelling Bee: Beginning ESL students will love to play this game.

Speaking, Pronunciation & Listening Activities

A great task for ESL students in the United States is to lose their accent, and adapt to American English. This is true for Asian students from some countries like India, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, and Singapore who learn English as a second language. Their spoken English will sound quite different from American English. In this sense, the ESL students have to work on their speaking, pronunciation, and listening. Here are some activities on these ESL skills.

• ESL Games & Activities: A series of fun classroom activities for ESL students.
• Oral Activities: Great resources for ESL teachers.
• Speaking in Academic Contexts: Some exercises on presentation, pronunciation, and more.
• Sounds of English: A number of pronunciation activities for ESL teachers.
• Phonetics Focus: Many games to help you with pronunciation.
• Pronunciation Exercises: Interactive lessons and activities on pronunciation.
• American English: Interactive module on American English pronunciation.
• Listening Lab: Check out these fun listening exercises.
• Listening & Speaking: The PDF outlines some activities for adult ESL learners.
• Listening: A directory of great resources on listening.