Since I started teaching ESL online, I have been scrounging through the internet, searching for ESL websites that I can use in my ESL online classroom. I have come across a number of sites that offer interactive fun, even when there is no interactive pen or whiteboard available.
I will discuss Engoo as one of the ‘can’t-live-without ESL websites.
This website has a vast amount of resources that are absolutely free!
Who is Engoo useful for?
I use Engoo for beginner to advanced students of different ages. The materials are leveled from beginner up to an including Proficient level 10.
What materials do they offer?
Engoo has many categories to choose from. Let’s take a look at five of my favorite categories and what makes them useful:
1. Daily News Articles
New Daily News articles are loaded every day. They focus on current events. The articles are leveled and cover a broad range of topics.
Why I love this section: I love using these articles with my older students who are fairly confident in their language ability. We always discuss the picture first to try to determine what the article is about. We then move onto the vocabulary section and discuss the vocabulary found in the article.
(I often encourage my students to use the new vocabulary words in sentences to test their understanding of the word.)
We then read the article paragraph by paragraph and discuss any uncertainties. In addition, a comprehension and discussion section follows after the article.
These articles offer my students new vocabulary, discussion topics and the opportunity to practice their reading.
2. Conversation
With about 230 conversation topics, this section offers topics for any level student.
Each topic is divided into a vocabulary, dialogue practice, comprehension, role-play and discussion section.
Why I love this section: These topics give students the opportunity to practice dialogues that would be common occurrences in their daily lives. They are given the vocabulary and the sentence structures to use when in different situations.
3. Describing pictures
For the intermediate to advanced students. describing pictures can be a lot of fun (and can lend itself to more creative pictures to describe.
Each lesson has three pictures to describe following a topic. Vocabulary key words are included to assist students in forming sentences to describe the pictures.
Why I love this section: I love using pictures in my class for students to describe. It helps them to think of existing vocabulary and to form sentence correctly.
4. Travel and Culture topics
Many of our students want to learn English for business or travel.
I used this section extensively with a student who planned a trip to the UK. We worked through the lessons. He was exposed to dialogue practice, vocabulary and common situations experienced when traveling.
Why I love this section: This sections helped my student feel more confident on his trip. My student could practice the situations with me prior to his trip. He landed in the UK feeling prepared.
5. English for Kids
This sections offers the very basic English for children. The topics are simple and the language is basic. Students learn the vocabulary and simple sentences in each lesson. There are exercises at the end to practice what they have learnt.
If you are looking for more beginner ESL activities, check out these Alphabet Digital task cards and Mini-office folders that are perfect for teaching basic vocabulary.
Why I love this section: The animations are so cute and I have found children love them. The pictures are sometimes more detailed so we can discuss more, like colors and clothing.
This is truly a useful site that should be on your go-to list of ESL websites for teaching ESL students. I always have it on hand, ready for a new student.
