Language & Linguistics

Through these links you can access sites on various aspects of language: academic writing, language varieties, specialised vocabulary, pronunciation and many more.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

An online writing lab brought to you by Purdue University in the USA. Includes information on academic writing conventions, punctuation, grammar and presentation skills.

http://www.uefap.co.uk/writing/writfram.htm

A nice clear website with lots of useful information on academic writing. There are sections on process, organisation, functions, paragraphs, citations, punctuation, spelling and style. There is also an extremely useful checklist at the end.

http://www.uefap.co.uk/

Academic writing is more than just knowing the constraints of style. There are lots of other areas that need considering, including vocabulary, reading skills and so on. This site has an exhaustive range of activities as well as lots of clear explanations.

http://englishclub.8m.com/ukus1.htm

A comprehensive British/American dictionary. Simply gives the equivalents without giving any definitions or examples. 

http://www.effingpot.com/index.html

Use the menu bar on the left to choose a topic area and then get a clear explanation of the differences between British and American English. You could write up a number of words you’d like your students to look up and find out a) if they are British or American English and b) what the words mean.

http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa041399.htm

This is a website covering business English writing with a set of examples and tips to help your students. Use this site as an introduction to basic business letter writing. There are quite a few areas of writing covered from applying for a job to a letter replying to an enquiry.

http://www.better-english.com/crosswords/test.htm

Seven online crosswords which focus on business vocabulary. These puzzles are easy to use and provide students with an interesting way of practising new vocabulary. Follow the online instructions to complete the puzzles. Students can check if they are correct by clicking on the error button which then highlights any letters that aren’t right.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/news/words/business/index.shtml

‘Business English words in the news’ is an interesting site from the BBC. On a regular basis short news stories from world business news are adapted for use by English Language students. One of the great features is the facility to listen to the stories and individual words.

http://esl.about.com/library/vocabulary/blcollocation_1.htm

http://esl.about.com/library/vocabulary/blcollocation_2.htm

http://esl.about.com/library/vocabulary/blcollocation_3.htm

http://esl.about.com/library/vocabulary/blcollocation_4.htm

http://esl.about.com/library/vocabulary/blcollocation_5.htm

Five pages of exercises that cover collocations with the following verbs: break, catch, come, do, feel, find, get, go, have, keep, make, miss, pay, save and take. Why not get your students to use these pages to practise and revise their knowledge of collocates?

http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/advparta.html

This site focuses on particles and has the snappy title of ‘Watch your particles’. The pages have good example sentences showing common collocations followed by exercises giving students a chance to practise.

http://wwli.com/translation/netglos/glossary/glossary.html

Netglos brings you definitions of many of the words and acronyms used in the world of computers. One of the special features of this site is its online translation giving the equivalents in 8 other major languages.

http://wordwizard.com/

This site contains a great list of ‘slang for the computer’. You will need to start by clicking on ‘slang’ and then ‘using the Internet’ to access an interesting and informative site. A lot of these expressions appear to have made their way into international language and may already be familiar to your students.

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/errors.html

Take a closer look at lots of ‘common’ errors. This site has over 100 common errors including words often easily confused, punctuation and false friends. If your students have problems with a particular area why not look here to see if you can find a nice simple explanation?

http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk3.html

A slightly more complicated set of ‘rules’ but nevertheless quite useful for teachers. A few of the explanations and examples are difficult to find elsewhere and yet are relevant to many students – including over-elaboration and failing to omit unnecessary words.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/

A comprehensive site which aims to take a look not just at the meaning of words but also their origins. You can search words in the conventional alphabetical way or by using the typical www search facility. Two of the more interesting features are a look at words from 2001 and the ‘Surprise me!’ button which can take you anywhere on the site! The site also contains a Q & A section – maybe you or your students have a question?

http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~ling215/NewWords/index.html

New words in English collected by American linguistics students with definitions and brief etymological notes. You’ll find a lot of quite obscure words here as well as a few that your students might already be using without really knowing their meaning or origin.

http://www.wordorigins.org/home.htm

Apart from an alphabetical list of entries with explanations of etymology this site also has a discussion group and a section on irresistible stories – false etymologies which are just too good, or funny, to dismiss out of hand. Browse through the pages here and be entertained as well as educated.

http://www.eslcafe.com/idioms/

Know your idioms inside out by taking a crash course and make learning a piece of cake! Lots of idioms with explanations and examples all easy to find as they are listed alphabetically. Use this site for both revision and expansion purposes.

http://www.comenius.com/idioms/

On this site a new idiom is added every month. It also contains an extensive archive. Not only are examples given but you can listen to short conversations using the idiom – giving your students a clear context.

http://vlc.polyu.edu.hk/scripts/concordance/WWWConcappE.htm

On this site all examples are taken from writing and it is also limited to the fact that you have to choose from a set of selected texts. Start by looking through the ‘Select corpus’ box, enter the word you want in the middle box on the top line and then click on the ‘Search for concordances’ icon.

http://www.webcorp.org.uk/

This site uses the Internet and WWW as its database. It takes a little bit of time for the results to come up as it is searching such a vast bank of material but the results are interesting when you finally see them.

http://eslcafe.com/pv/

Another eslcafe page with lots of useful information for your students. This one takes a look at phrasal verbs – a perennial source of problems for many learners of English. Clear explanations and examples help clarify the meaning of many common phrasal verbs.

http://english-zone.com/phrasals/index.html

This site provides information about what phrasal verbs are, how they are constructed and how they are used. Let your students browse through the pages answering these points before getting them to try out some of the online exercises.

http://www.geocities.com/lsilver5/phrasalvb.htm

An introduction which tries to explain various aspects of phrasal verbs from what they are to how they are constructed. Although your students might be able to use phrasal verbs and might even subconsciously know how they are formed this site gives clear, easy to understand, step-by-step explanations.

http://www.soundsofenglish.org/

This site contains information on pronunciation, word stress, exercises and activities and lots of other bits and pieces. The focus is on American pronunciation and there is an audio section included with many of the exercises.

http://user.gru.net/richardx/pronounce1.html#pb

A fairly detailed site which tends to focus on individual sounds and often contrasts minimal pairs. Contains lots and lots of useful activities and audio demonstrations. All the necessary downloads are available free on the site. Some of the special features are sound discriminators, common errors and pronunciation quizzes.

http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc.htm

Lots and lots of information about the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), which is used in the Macmillan Essential Dictionary. Includes sections on: how to learn English pronunciation; what is good English pronunciation; and sounds and the IPA.

http://www.geocities.com/lsilver5/cont.htm

‘English rules’ is a site that takes a look at vocabulary from a grammatical point. The site has lots of explanations and examples.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/quiz/questions/0,5961,580600,00.html

A short quiz on ‘weird words’ from the Guardian Unlimited site. It’s quite a lot of fun to try and students can then use the dictionary to check out definitions etc. After they have tried the online quiz why not put your students into small groups and, using the Essential, write their own quiz?