We’ve put together a list of resources to help you further study vocabulary, grammar, listening, speaking, test preparation, and more. We hope you’ll find these useful and, as always, our teachers are here to help you improve as well.
Vocabulary
A great tool for English learners, especially at the intermediate level and higher, as it doesn’t provide translations. Get definitions of words, phrases and idioms that are used in both American and British English along with the audio pronunciations.
Translate to and from English as well as nearly 20 other languages. Not only does it give you the translation, but you will also see examples of using the word or phrase correctly in a sentence.
Use this site to search for synonyms for any word in English. Great for expanding your vocabulary, but make sure you check the word in context to verify that it will still convey your meaning.
This is a flashcard app which will allow you to practice your new vocabulary words using digital flashcards.
Another useful tool to help you remember vocabulary and other information. From flashcards to games, Quizlet has many ways to help you study.
Grammar
Access the full guide of English grammar rules in Grammarly’s grammar handbook. Search through categories like general grammar, punctuation, mechanics, techniques and style.
This is a dictionary with versions to help you with phrasal verbs, irregular verbs, collocations and more.
Get grammar explanations, examples, and exercises on virtually any grammar topic.
Learn all aspects of written English with this site. They’ll help you with formal and informal communication, with proper grammar usage and an emphasis on English writing.
This is a free resource offering grammar exercises to help you practice, with many English levels to choose from.
This site will give you online grammar lessons to improve speaking and writing. Choose from an extensive library of modules on almost all topics of grammar.
This site offers both grammar and vocabulary practice. Use their library of over 1,000 exercises to learn and practice words and phrases, work on grammar rules, prepare for exams, test your knowledge and play games.
Speaking
A pronunciation dictionary. Search for a word, then find the pronunciation in different accents. It is populated by crowdsourcing, so users can submit their own recordings. This will give you a variety of styles and accents to choose from.
Search for a specific word or phrase. Then, YouGlish will find videos on YouTube that use this word or phrase in context. Search over 50 million videos to get examples of how to use words correctly in English
Jack Askew provides many free tools to help you understand topics like phrasal verbs, idioms, collocations, conversation examples and more.
This is a simple yet helpful site which allows you to type in a word or phrase and get the phonetics for it. See results for IPA, the American Phonetic Alphabet, SAMPA, Shavian and see where the word stress is.
From this site, find a list of conversation lessons including the topics of daily English conversation, common English expressions, and common phrases and sentence patterns.
Listening
TED talks are a great way to improve listening and comprehension skills along with learning about new ideas. With this site, students can search through a large database for a topic that interests them. Each video has activities to complete after watching to check understanding.
This tool will help you improve your English while watching movies and TV shows you enjoy. It provides subtitles based on your settings and allows you to build up a personal vocabulary list from the media you watch.
Listen to songs you like in English and fill in the missing words. It’s a great way to have fun and practice your listening skills in English.
Improve your listening skills by completing different activities from three degrees of difficulty: easy, intermediate, and difficult. Take quizzes, watch videos, listen to lectures and more.
This is a radio program for English learners that airs new content every day. Each broadcast is around 15 minutes long, and includes a transcript and vocabulary words to listen for. There is also a library of past broadcasts to browse through and listen to.
With activities ranging from basic to advanced, this tool allows students to listen to a recording and test their understanding. It provides three steps where students first listen only, then take the quiz, and finally see the dialogue transcript to check comprehension.
Writing
This site uses technology to mark your submitted writing and give you a grade. You’ll receive a score based on the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) and it will give you feedback on how to improve.
A site that’s free to use and doesn’t require registration. Choose the language you are learning, and the language you are fluent in. Then, it will give you words either by themselves or in a sentence. You will spell the word in English, and check to see if you’re right. Great to use throughout your English-learning journey.
This site allows you to paste in writing, or create a piece of writing right on the site. This is a great tool for more advanced writers who want to improve their usage of adverbs, passive voice, and clearly-structured sentences.
Get a score on your writing with this site. It will measure whether the writing will be understood by the reader.
Reading
With real news stories available nearly every day, there are a lot of different topics to choose from. There are also seven different levels of difficulty, although some stories are limited to a few options. Stories come with a ton of great material to check comprehension and study the vocabulary.
There is more than reading to this resource, but they have a helpful library of reading exercises as well. Choose from elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate and advanced exercises. Then, choose from a list of different readings and types of questions to answer to check your understanding.
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English Newspapers:
These are a great way to keep up-to-date about news from around the world, and get exposed to different types of English.
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- New York Times – An American newspaper, featuring world and American news.
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- Wall Street Journal – An American newspaper with a focus on financial news.
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- Washington Post – An American newspaper, featuring world and American news.
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- BBC – A British newspaper, featuring world and British news.
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- The Australian – An Australian newspaper, featuring world and British news.
Test Preparation
Information about the Cambridge Assessments, from the B1 (PET), B2 (FCE), C1 (CAE) and more.
This site has interactive exercises for each Cambridge English exam. Choose the exam your are taking, then the section you want to practice. It will give you feedback on how you did.
Learn about the test, how to register, how to prepare, the scoring system, test locations and dates, and more.
Take a full practice TOEFL exam on this site. Check which sections you want to include, and then go through the exam. Get feedback at the end to see how you did.
This site offers online practice TOEFL tests. Choose the specific section you want to take, or take the whole test. It also offers more information about the exam and how to best prepare.
Get information about what the TOEIC is, how to take it, what the different parts of the exam include, test preparation, and more.
Learn more about the TOEIC exam and prepare for each section. Get an overview of how to do your best in each part, along with sample questions to answer.
Get all of the information you need about the PTE exam on their website. They’ll help you understand what the exam is, what the format will look like, how to prepare for the exam, how to book the exam, and how to understand your score.
This is a comprehensive site providing information about the PTE, along with practice exams, various modes of difficulty, tools to give you feedback, and a timed environment to simulate the actual exam.
Everything you need to know about the IELTS exam format, how the exam is scored, how to book a test, and more.
Learn about the IELTS exam and get practice tests to help you prepare.
This site provides a multitude of IELTS preparation materials to help students get ready for each part of the exam. It also has a quick IELTS challenge every day, like these daily IELTS challenge flashcards below.
A free IELTS preparation website with many useful tips and examples of how to best complete the exam.
This is both a web and mobile app providing test preparation for the TOEFL and IELTS exams, along with other higher education exams like the GRE, GMAT and more. You can also brush up on your general English vocabulary with their handy vocabulary flashcard app where you can compete with other people from around the world to learn new vocabulary.
English Level Tests
Cambridge offers four English level tests: General English, For Schools, Business English, and Young Learners.
The British Council has an online English level test with 25 questions, taking about 10 minutes to complete.
This site has a general English level test. There are also lessons and exercises on grammar, listening, reading, use of English, and writing.
There are two English level tests on this site: Grammar & Vocabulary and Listening. They also provide information and free practice tests for the TOEFL, IELTS Academic and General, TOEIC, Cambridge, and PTE Academic and General exams.
Other English-Learning Platforms
Learn English online using resources like audio, video, test preparation, quizzes and more to quickly improve your English. This website is created for adult learners of English by the British Council, the world’s English teaching experts.
BBC has a large library of helpful grammar guides, videos, courses, business lessons and more to offer English learners. They provide multimedia English language teaching materials to meet learners’ needs.
Books
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Cambridge
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English Grammar in Use
- English Grammar in Use with Answers is the most popular in the series. Written by Raymond Murphy, is for intermediate (B1-B2) learners and covers all the grammar required at this level. It is a self-study book with simple explanations and lots of practice exercises.
- English Grammar in Use app
- Basic Grammar in Use for beginners
- Essential Grammar in Use for elementary-level learners
- Intermediate Grammar in Use
- Advanced Grammar in Use
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English Vocabulary in Use
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Business Vocabulary in Use
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English Collocations in Use
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English Phrasal Verbs in Use
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English Idioms in Use
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English Pronunciation in Use
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Fiction Books
Fiction books are stories consisting of people, places and events that are either partly or entirely imaginary. Here is a list of a few books from different genres and levels of difficulty. Reading books in English can help you further develop your vocabulary and learn about cultures of native English speakers.
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The Harry Potter Series (by J.K. Rowling)
- This book is written for young adults, so the writing is simple in general. That said, there are also many new words the author has created for her imaginary world, so there will be some new vocabulary. It is also written in British English, which will help you learn some British vocabulary as well.
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To Kill a Mockingbird (by Harper Lee)
- An English classic. This book will also help you understand some parts of American history. The writing difficulty is mid-level.
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The Martian (by Andy Weir)
- This book was made into a movie in 2015 starring Matt Damon, however, we recommend reading the book first. This is a science-fiction classic about a man who gets stranded on Mars and has to find his way back home. Since the book is mostly based on one man’s experiences, there is little dialogue, but there are a lot of space words and phrases.
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The Outsiders (by S.E. Hinton)
- This is another book that inspired a movie that came out in 1983. It is a classic young adult fiction book that is short and perfect for newer learners. The sentences are short and the vocabulary is relatively simple. It is about life for two opposing teenage gangs when they take things a little too far.
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The Girl with All the Gifts (by M.R. Carey)
- This is an exciting thriller about a girl with special abilities. Follow her emotional journey as she is researched and tested like a lab experiment, but could turn on everyone at any moment.
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Kite Runner (by Khaled Khosseini)
- This is a New York Times Bestseller that follows the story of friendship and betrayal between two boys who grew up in Kabul. This is a moving book that takes the reader through the rich culture of the Middle East.
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The Old Man and the Sea (by Ernest Hemmingway)
- This novel is a classic, and is one of the main reasons why Ernest Hemmingway received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. It is about an old Cuban fisherman who faces a long, difficult battle with the best fish he ever caught. Although there is a bit of difficult vocabulary, this is a short book and is good for readers who want a little challenge.
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I’ve Got Your Number (by Sophie Kinsella)
- This is a contemporary romance novel about a woman who is about to get married but loses her wedding ring and has her phone stolen. She goes through many hilarious and unexpected events after that. This book has a lot of conversational phrases and is written in first-person, so the reader will get many good examples of how English speakers talk.
Non-Fiction Books
Non-fiction books involve anything that is factual and true. There are many different categories, and it’s hard to choose just a few. We recommend researching areas you’re interested in to find some non-fiction books you might enjoy. Here is a list of a few books we’ve found to be good for English learners.
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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (by Stephen R. Covey)
- This book is a top seller and focuses on helping people solve personal and professional problems by analyzing their habits.
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Outliers (by Malcolm Gladwell)
- In this book, the author talks about successful people and what makes them different. In an entertaining and enlightening tone, the reader will get examples of high achievers from around the world and how they got that way.
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Chicken Soup for the Soul (series by various authors)
- These books are based on a variety of topics: positivity, pets, being a teenager, couples, etc. The books are a collection of real-life stories that are motivational and inspirational for people in various stages of life. The short stories can make these books a bit easier to read.
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The One-Straw Revolution (by Masanobu Fukuoka)
- This is an environmentally-focused book about farming, eating, and human knowledge surrounding the process. It introduces a different kind of system for agriculture and focuses on health and balance. There are a lot of environmental and agricultural vocabulary words presented in this book.
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Rich Dad, Poor Dad (by Robert Kiyosaki)
- This is a very popular self-help book about managing finances and thinking differently about money. It talks about the difference between working for money and having money work for you. The reader will get some vocabulary and phrases about finances and investing in this book.
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The Happiness Project (by Gretchen Rubin)
- This was #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. The author goes on a year-long experiment to find what creates true happiness for people. There are examples from people’s experiences along with scientific terms and classical philosophy throughout this book.
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What Color is Your Parachute? (by Richard Nelson Bolles)
- This is a book to guide people on their career path. There is a lot of advice given along with case studies and perspectives on the current job market situations around the world.
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Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff (by Richard Carlson)
- This is a self-help book that gives the reader perspective to focus on the important things in life. It’s easy to read and has a lot of useful advice people can incorporate into their lives and any stage.
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The Diary of a Young Girl (by Anne Frank)
- Follow the journey of a young girl and her family living in Holland during the time of World War II. It is a diary, so the first-person perspective can make it a bit easier to read.
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How to Win Friends and Influence People (by Dale Carnegie)
- This is one of the most popular personal development books that talks about methods to increase your likability, persuasiveness, and more. It guides the reader through methods to create and improve relationships with others.
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