Our Top Website Recommendations

We asked some of our trainers to name their favourite websites; websites they use either as a teaching tool or websites they would recommend to students for self-study.

Here are their top recommendations:

Julie Saliba

My two top websites for English practice are:

The Economist Magazine – Although the free version is limited, it is excellent for the latest economic, political and financial news. It also has an extensive multimedia collection featuring videos for listening, comprehension and discussion practice.

The Guardian Newspaper  – I regularly use articles from this newspaper as English language learning materials. Not only is it a reliable source of news but also of competent English usage. Categories include the environment, lifestyle, fashion, lifestyle, culture as well as professional topics. Its vast video library is an excellent resource for listening practice.

Douglas Matheson

Google Chrome- I admit this is an unusual choice, but the web browser is only a part of what Google Chrome can do.  If you visit the Chrome apps store you can find some apps that will make your English Language learning and teaching that more interesting and fun.

Here are my favourite apps:

English Langauge practice: Duolingo

Teacher Training Apps:

Create Interactive exercises: Pear Deck
Create Interactive English exercises to motivate your students

Picture Editing: Pixlr Editor
Turn every photo into a masterpiece with creative effects, filters, borders and much more

These applications all run inside of Google Chrome, making them completely cross platform.  There’s probably an app in there for anything. Let us know if you have any favourite apps.

Common Craft – The ready-made videos on this website are fantastic! Their library of ready-made videos is designed to explain elaborate concepts simply. Clear, simple and fun and for ICT trainees it’s an online tool that you can easily use to create videos to incorporate into your lesson plans.

Nikki Stokes

Freerice– I love using Freerice as it’s good fun to play the games, and each time you get a correct answer, 10 grains of rice are donated through, the World Food Programme, to people in developing countries.

As well as practising your English, you can also learn some other subjects including Geography & Mathematics, making this a useful tool to include in your CLIL lessons. Even if you only have a few minutes to spare, it’s possible to play some games and have some fun!

Puzzlemaker– Puzzlemaker is a great website as it can save you so much time in creating puzzles and quizzes for your students. In less than 1 minute, you can create a word search, criss-cross, or one of several other word games to choose from. These can then be printed out or saved as an image to use again and again. It’s a fun way for your students to revise new vocabulary.

Alison Bigden 

National Geographic–  The videos on National Geographic are a great tool to reinforce discussion topics, such as extreme weather, environment. It is also a useful tool for English Fluency self-study.

Peter Hotton

TED talks and BBC news are great sites for authentic English resources. They are also useful sites for self-study and English fluency practice. Remember if you are struggling to understand the videos on TED Talks you can always turn on the subtitles either in your language or English.  You could then challenge yourself further by watching the video again in English with the subtitles switched off.

Breaking News English– I often use Breaking News English in my lessons. I like the fact that all the lessons are available at different levels. Most trainees at any level, invariably, have problems listening, so the excerpts at various speeds are especially useful to improve this skill.

Adrian Webb

Learn English, British Council – It is especially useful for listening practice and has a number of videos, mini soaps and documentaries with interactive activities that are great as a self-study tool.

For reading practice on a variety of topics I would recommend The Guardian, and the Huffington post, the blogs section is good for fluency practice, as the language used tends to be much more neutral and informal than that usually used by online newspapers.

Pierre Naudi

Google Images – There is no better dictionary on the Internet than Google Images.  When working with low-level students there are often issues with understanding and occasionally false translations that are usually clarified by Google Images.

e-flex – I would highly recommend our own e-learning platform, e-flex. We designed the modules to provide you with authentic, interactive, real-life experiences. You can choose between role-plays, communication activities, grammar activities and you can even print out the study sheets. All you need is a wi-fi connection to continue your English and Business Communication skills.

E-flex is free to all of our trainees from time of registration until three months after the end of your ETI course.

A paid service is also available, for more information, please contact us.