Better English for everyone - Free ESL EFL Resources for Teachers and Students - interactive worksheets, printables, lesson plans, quizzes, exercises, activities, games

The English language in its different varieties (American English, British English, etc) is the gateway to the world of education, business, technology and inter-people communication. More than a billion people speak the English language, and there are only a few places in the world where English is not understood. (Jump to “Testing your level of English proficiency” or "Special features of this website".)

If you are a teacher or student from grade school up to college, a professional, an entrepreneur, an employee in government or in the private sector, this website can help improve your mastery of the English language. Proficiency in English will help improve your grades and create opportunities for advancement in work and career.

The website is divided into the traditional classification of English grammar of the eight parts of speech, plus sections on idioms, vocabulary, spelling, listening, speaking, pronunciation, and writing. Based on these divisions, we have searched for and selected good discussions and interactive exercises from more than a thousand ESL (English as Second Language) and EFL (English as Foreign Language) websites.

The websites we have chosen are consistently good, fast loading, and generously offer to their users, free of charge, a wide range of resources. Besides the materials listed in this website, these excellent sites offer a tremendous range of valuable resources in learning the English language.

While broadband connection is becoming more accessible and affordable for homes, most of you probably still have online access either through slow dial-up connections or through rental by the hour services of Internet cafes. This website thus uses predominantly text links, with very few graphics.

In answering the interactive exercises, you should follow carefully the prompts and directions. You should read each sentence or part aloud before clicking the answer you think is right. After the correct answer is displayed, think it over as to why it is the correct answer. (Please take note that the correct answer may depend on whether the exercise comes from an American English or a British English website.) After doing so, read the complete sentence again aloud with the correct answer.

To train yourself to think in English, try to recite the sentences with the correct answers from memory and at your full speaking volume. Or you can ask a friend to read out loud the sentences with the correct answers and you repeat them without looking at the computer screen.

[1] The section on "Spoken English Learned Quickly" is a free, complete course in English excellent for self-study or classroom instruction and with enough mp3 and PDF lessons for nine months of study (two hours a day, five days a week). You can easily download the mp3 lessons, the Instructor's Guide and the 450-page Student Workbook in PDF format.

[3] Plain English / Plain Language interactive quizzes and activities with automatic scoring

Before browsing the other sections of this website, it is a good idea to first test your level of mastery of the English language. Listed below are some online diagnostic and assessment tests. Clicking the blue link will take you to the specific page where the diagnostic and assessment test is located, while clicking the website name will bring you to the site's home page

[06] Hundreds of free online, interactive exercises in grammar, vocabulary and phrases (elementary for levels A2 to B1 on the Common European Framework, intermediate for B1 to B2 CEF, advanced for C1 to C2 CEF), useful expressions and Cambridge ESOL exercises with optional time limit for FCE (First Certificate in English), CAE (Certificate of Advanced English), CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English), from International House Bristol

[07] Check Your English, from English Corner (Rod Rodgers); use these 100-question tests to check your knowledge of English grammar; Javascript required

While the primary intended beneficiaries of this website are overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), professionals, teachers and students from the Philippines, everyone (from any country) is welcome to make use of this site. Here in the Philippines, English is the language of government, education, commerce and industry. The Philippines has a population of around 78 million. As of December 2004, there were more than eight million overseas Filipino workers employed in over 180 countries as nurses, engineers, doctors, entertainers, domestic helpers, seamen, business management experts, etc. The term "Filipino diaspora" has been used to describe this scattering of Filipinos all over the world. Foreign employers prefer Filipinos, not only for their industry and technical competence, but for their ability to communicate in English.

There are also thousands of Filipinos pursuing their studies in colleges and universities in English-speaking countries.

Thousands of Filipinos are also employed in the call center companies here in the Philippines. Acceptable fluency in the English language by Filipinos is one big factor for the booming call center industry in our country. (The BPO industry in the Philippines has revenues of about $7 billion a year as of 2009, second only to the $9 billion annual income of BPO operations in India.)

However, Filipinos who can speak, read and write excellent English are the exceptions rather than the rule. Studies have shown that the Filipinos' grasp of the English language is slipping, and other Asians are fast catching up, thanks to their governments' aggressive English language training programs.

According to one media report, only two out of ten applicants in call centers eventually get hired, the rest having failed in the English proficiency tests. Those who do get hired are often required to undergo a rigorous review of English. The same report also stated that many graduates from our top universities have English language skills comparable only to 2nd grade children from Western countries. Another news item reported that out of 100 Filipino nurses who take the English proficiency exams abroad, only 50 percent or less pass.

To address this problem of decreasing competence in English among Filipinos, Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo directed in early 2007 the Department of Education to use English as the medium of instruction in all school levels.

The websites we have linked to teach either American English or British English. Except for three or four websites, the sites we have included here come from American, Australian, British, or European sources. Thus, Filipinos may sometimes find it difficult relating with the situations or the contexts of the discussions and interactive exercises. As soon as we find online English lessons with an Asian context, we will include them here.

Although American English is the standard in the Philippines, we have included websites on British English since the countries Filipinos have gone to as workers or students include those where British English is the standard.

According to scholars (Dr. Teodoro Llamzon,1969; Bro. Andrew Gonzales, FSC of De La Salle University, 1981; and recently, Dr. Ma. Lourdes S. Bautista, Professor Emeritus, DLSU), there is now a brand of English known as “Standard Filipino English” or “Philippine English”. Dr. Llamzon described it as “the type of English that educated Filipinos speak and which is acceptable in educated Filipino circles.”

News updates as of June 19, 2008

“PGMA : The sooner deficiencies of RP education system are fixed, the better” (www.gov.ph)

Filipinos’ proficiency in English up – Social Weather Stations survey, by Shianee R. Mamanglu

Legislators push English as medium of instruction, by Jesus F. Llanto, newsbreak.com.ph

Great and witty video on giving better presentations (uses Hollywood movie posters and discusses among others "The Morgan Freeman Rule" and "The Biggest Loser")

PresenTired: "The Voicemail"
from Scott Schwertly on Vimeo

Public Speaking Tips by Scott Ginsberg, from eHow.com

How to Begin a Public Speech
Public Speaking in a Business Setting
How to Use Your Voice in Public Speaking
Tips for Giving a Memorable Public Speech
How to Use Openers in Public Speaking
How to Use Storytelling in Public Speeches
How to Use Humor in Public Speaking
Tips for Managing Time in Public Speaking
How to Engage an Audience in Public Speaking
How to Make an Audience Feel Comfortable in Public Speaking
How to Prepare a Public Speech
How to Close a Public Speech
How to Pace a Public Speech
Memorizing Vs. Notes in Public Speaking
Public Speaking Rules & Advice
How to Be a Good Public Speaker

Qedoc is a learning object repository, documentation centre and forum for author collaboration. The learning object repository has free, editable, redistributable, interoperable educational resources, based around interactive quizzes, with1,210 articles currently available). Qedoc Quiz Maker - a desktop application for making quizzes and interactive educational materials. Qedoc Quiz Player - a desktop application for playing back quizzes and interactive educational materials. eLearning resources include English, Mathematics, Geography, History, Languages, Science, Medicine, Computing and Business. e-learning resources are available in Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish.

Good News Comprehensive English Course is a free teach yourself English course for absolute beginners both young and old, and based on a modern English version of the most translated bestseller of all times, the Bible. It aims to develop all the language skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing. Lessons in audio and PDF may be downloaded and used offline. Audio lessons are voiced by both British and American speakers. (Real Audio required) Some parts of the course have been translated into the following languages: Albanian, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese - Simplified, Chinese - Traditional, Farsi, French, German, Gujarati, Indonesian, Italian, Khmer, Korean, Nepali, Russian, Spanish, Tamil, Tibetan, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

"The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" from C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia has become a beloved classic the world over. Four children walk through a seemingly ordinary wardrobe into the magical land of Narnia. A fantastic adventure begins to unfold as Aslan the Great Lion is pitted against the evil White Witch. Battles are fought, heroes are made, and one of the children has committed a crime that demands the death penalty... What will happen? Take off on an adventure you never imagined ...

Listen now to The Narnia Story (narration by Ray Comfort and introduction by Kirk Cameron) or download the MP3. If you have trouble extracting a zipped file, you may need to install a free program. Just click this link to download a free copy of ZipReader.

British Council resources:

IELTS - International English Language test
(British Council English exam centres in over 100 countries offer IELTS tests up to 4 times a month)

Take the IELTS test in your country (Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Oceania, The Americas)

Learn English Gateway - Learn English Language and Grammar - British Council (Whatever your level in English, we can help you test and develop your English language skills. There are a variety of English courses in the UK, in your country and online. Explore the exciting learning opportunities the British Council has to offer you to improve your English Language skills)

Teaching English Gateway - Help for English Language Teachers - British Council (Whether you are new to English language teaching, or whether you are taking the next career and development steps as an English teacher, you will find valuable help and opportunities here to assist in achieving your goals)