Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Links for self-study

American immigration

• Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.: Check out the link called “The Immigrant Experience.” It has personal histories, timelines and general information about immigration between the late 1880s until the time Ellis Island closed. By the way, Ellis Island is where the Statue of Liberty is.

Biographies

• Biography.com: The place for biographies about any and every famous person. Do you want to do a biography speech about Malcolm X? You can find the information here! Just click on “Biography Search” on the left-hand side of the page.

Books

• ESOL (Levels 5-8) book list: Looking for books to read this summer? Check out this list!
• The Online Books Page: Books online? Yeah, that’s right! See if there’s anything you care to read.

Dictionary

• Dictionary.com: A simple-to-use dictionary and thesaurus.
• Merriam-Webster online dictionary and thesaurus: You can use the collegiate dictionary and thesaurus free. What’s great about this site is that if you have a sound card and speakers, you can hear how words are pronounced. However, the unabridged section of the website costs money.

Grammar

• Articles (A/An): Take this quiz to see how much you know!
• Forming gerunds: After a brief explanation, click “first exercise” at the bottom of the page and you’ll be taken to a series of fill-in-the-blank quizzes. Good spelling practice too!
• Grammar Bytes: Interactive Grammar Review: Problems with comma splices or irregular verbs? This site can help you!
• Interactive quizzes: Quizzes on everything you can imagine, including spelling!
• Using the present perfect tense: After an explanation of this tense, click on “first exercise” to see a series of multiple choice quizzes.
• Verb tense tutorial: A complete verb tense tutorial with exercises.

Holidays and special events

• Multicultural calendar: Explanations of many holidays worldwide.

Listening journals

• NPR: Many instructors have Level 7 and 8 students listen to NPR on the radio. Here’s the website.

Magazines

• Newsweek
• Reader’s Digest
• Time
• Utne Reader

Movies

• Internet Movie Database: Look up reviews, plot summaries, quotes and much more from your favorite movies!

Newspapers

• Newspapers.com: Business publications, college newspapers, newspapers from around the U.S. and the world!
• Today’s Front Pages: Read the front page of newspapers from around the world!

Pronunciation

• Intermediate and upper intermediate pronunciation skills: Try this page for help with IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). There are also some audio files where you can hear the pronunciation of vowels and the pronunciation of numbers.

Reading skills

• Identifying topics, main ideas and supporting details: No exercises on this website, but there’s a lot of information about reading. Check out the links on the left side of the page!

Study and test-taking tips

• How to study: A site that offers free study skills, study strategies, and study tips
• Study guides and strategies: A site that offers information on studying. The information is available in many other languages, too. Cool!!

Time

• World Time Server: Going on a vacation to another country, or just want to know what time is it “back home”? World Time Server provides the most accurate current local times of any world clock on the Internet. No matter what time zone a country or city is located in, this site is your best resource for determining any time, anywhere. Fun!

Vocabulary

• Crossword puzzles for ESL students: Like to do crossword puzzles? Try some of these!
• Vocabulary University: Puzzles that can help you increase your vocabulary!

Word games

• Internet Anagram Server: Did you know that you can make your name or anyone else’s name (or any word, for that matter) into an interesting phrase? Have fun!

Writing

• OWL (Online Writing Lab)