Longman

Longman

Longman have arranged their student resources into the following groups:
Young learners
Teens
Adults
Exams
Business english
Within each group there are different type of materials… such as quizzes, reading activities and companions websites for their books

Probably my favourite thing here are the penguin dossiers… these are a collection of non-fiction articles with audio recording and worksheets (some with teaching notes). The topics range from music and sport to technology and the environment. They are at an upper elementary/pre intermediate level and suitable for both teens and adults. There is a new article each month and an archive of about 20 or so articles on the site… well worth checking out

For business English students they have a "Business of the month" feature which provides a reading comprehension activity on a well-known business. Unfortunately they do not provide an archive so I can't tell if this is actually updated monthly.

For exam students there is lots of material to help prepare for the exams including links to the companion websites for the Gold series of coursebooks as well as several practice papers. A feature of the exam area is the discussion boards for exam students. They are free to use but you do need to register.. I had a quick look and they seem pretty active and may be quite useful to students preparing for exams outside a classroom situation.

There are also companion websites for most of the course books that longman publish although I noticed when I visited the website of their most popular business title"Market Leader" they were offering a paid site via a subscription that offered new materials every week. I imagine the goal of most of these sites is to keep the customers when they return to their home countries after completing their studies. Still there is enough free material to make publishers sites very worthwile for English learners

Tomorrow.... Cambridge

ESL Publisher websites

Publishers sites

In an effort to convince you to buy their materials many ESL publishers are developing companion websites for their best sellers. This week I am going to explore the four major publishers and what they have on offer.. On Friday I will round up some of the smaller sites that are still worth a looks.

Major ESL Publishers ( that are active in Australia)
Pearson/Longman - http://www.longman.com/
Cambridge – http://www.cambridge.org/uk/sitemap/sitemap_elt2.htm
Oxford– http://www.oup.com/elt/students/?cc=global
Macmillian - http://www.onestopenglish.com/

All sites offer free materials for teachers to download and use in the classroom and also include many pages worth of activities for students to study alone.

So tomorrow I will look in depth at what's on offer at longman.com. If you know any great publishers or book companion website please comment and let me know.

Paula

On Online list of irregular verbs

Probably the most common request I get in the library is "do you have a list of irregular verbs?"
I discovered this list on a website called "Using English" you can search an alphabetical list or get the random verb of the day. A further search on google found some nice exercises to practice what you have learnt on a site called "Grammar Bytes"

Both these sites are worth exploring....

Paula

Phrasal Verb Demon - Complete guide to phrasal verbs

This is possibly the best phrasal verbs site on the net. It includes a dictionary,collocations and examples from newspapers and other authentic sources. There are lots of different types of exercises including puzzles, hang man, gap fills, songs and more. Check it out soon!

Paula

The Learning Post

The learning post is an online newspaper for English learners that is produced in Canada. Each issue has around 5 articles that provide exercises and audio files. Some exercises are offered at both elementary and intermediate level.

It's hard to tell when this site was made or if it is still being updated but regardless there are about 30 lessons that can be accessed so its worth a look.

Paula

Budget Travellers guide to sleeping in airports

This caught my eye this morning on the library site "librarians guide to the internet"

"Brief stories from thousands of people who have slept in airports
throughout the world. Includes ratings, best and worst lists,
photographs, and an airport survey with opinions about airport
bathrooms, gyms at airports, showers at airports, and more.
Browsable by location. Also includes a discussion forum and
airport sleeping tips. From the founder of the Cheap Like Me
Travel Society.
http://www.sleepinginairports.net

Thankfully i have never had to resort to this! :-)